Revolutionary or ridiculous? You decide…
Noko Shop is a paint program for Nokia S60 3rd edition phones. Fair enough, you might think, but there isn’t exactly a shortage of those, is there?
True, but Noko Shop has one Unique Selling Point - it can use the Accelerometer present in most new Nokia’s to allow you to ‘draw’ freehand using the handset itself.
It’s a nice idea and while it might be a little tricky to use on a small screen - lilke trying to draw by moving the paper against a fixed pencil - if you were to hook up the phone to an external video output this could really come into its own.
The developer has put this video up on YouTube demonstrating the basic features - check it out and see what you think.
T-Mobile have announced that later this year they will start shipping their first handsets running Google’s open Android operating system.
Speaking at the Wireless Innovati0n 2008, T-Mobile USA VP Joe Sims said that they would be releasing a series of Android devices this yeat, but didn’t have any details about who would be manufacturing the handset.
The smart money is on the HTC Dream (pictured, in a probably fake concept version), widely rumoured to be the first retail Android device.
Anthony, over at the FRESH PLASTIC blog, has spotted that 3 are selling Vuzix Video Glasses on their accessories site.
Vuzix glasses are the kind of gadget that lets you walk the fine line between cool and ridiculous - you might even say they are ‘polarising opinion’. Ho ho. Thank you, I’m here all week. Tip your waitress.
A thin pair of sunglasses with integrated LCD display and headphones, they will let you watch video from any compatible device with only a slight risk that someone will see you and mutter something derisive about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I tried a pair of these a few months ago on a video iPod and the picture quality is great - the ’screen’ appears to float in front of you and you can just about see around/through it to avoid walking in to things.
What is interesting about this from a Pocket Picks point of view is that, although they will work with any AV-out capable device, 3 are pushing them for use with mobile phones like the N95.
While these definitely make watching films easier, I’m not sure if they will take off in a big way due to the embarrassment factor. Who knows, though? A common complaint about mobile video is the titchy screen, so perhaps train carriages will soon be stuffed with silent, shade-wearing movie fans.
There are rumours buzzing round today that the iPhone 8GB has gone ‘end of life’ at retail. To be honest we can’t see this staying rumour for very long however, as the ever reliable Engadget claims to have intercepted an internal O2 memo stating that “Due to the highly successful sales of the Apple 8GB iPhone, supply chain have today run out of stock & will not be replenishing stock of this product as it has now gone to end of life.”.
The 8GB iPhone is also listed as ‘no longer available’ on the O2 site, which suggests to us that the device, which coincidentally has enjoyed rocketing sales in the wake of a £100 price cut, is no more. If this isn’t a clear signal that Apple and its partners are clearing inventory for the introduction of a 3G iPhone, then we don’t know what is.
And while we are on the topic, we might as well do some wild, unsubstantiated speculating. It seems that the 16 GB version of the iPhone is not being cleared in the same way as the 8GB version which suggests that either, it will remain the flagship iPhone device at the same price with the 3G version taking up residence as the secondary option with less storage space and the possibility of some other feature cuts. Or, as is much more likely in our opinion, the new 3G iPhone will go in as the top rung device with 16 GB or more storage (and maybe GPS too if we are really lucky), knocking the current 16 GB model into a lower price bracket.
Exciting times people, and not long until all becomes clear either…
Seminal filmmaker, Spike Lee, is going to partner with Nokia for a movie cut entirely from footage shot on mobile phones by everyday people reports Reuters. Spike Lee is calling the project ‘the democratization of film’.
Helmed by Nokia Productions the project will be comprised of three acts, each of which will be set as an “assignment” announced online. After each act assignment has been set, anyone who wants to participate will have four weeks to get their submission in.
The final pieces will be edited and spliced by Lee who has attained major acclaim for films such as Do the Right Thing in 1990, 4 Little Girls and more recently, The 25th Hour.
The film’s theme will be about the way music tells the story of humanity. Though being able to submit footage for the film is already pretty progressive, the truly democratic element will come from the community participation, where Nokia will choose 25 submissions which people will be able to vote for online. Spike Lee will then build the final film out of the three winning submissions for each act.
The final film will premiere later this year in Los Angeles though we are pretty sure it will turn up on the intertubes pretty soon after that too.
Sony Ericsson has announced the new G502 and Z780, HSDPA handsets with landscape-mode web browsing, RSS feeds, picture blogging and e-mail access using web mail and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.
It seems that with both devices Sony Ericsson is going for affordable highly connected web focussed devices. Indeed, the G502 is Sony Ericsson’s cheapest HSDPA phone yet whereas the Z780 clamshell is an aGPS enabled sister handset to the Z770.
Continue reading ‘Sony Ericsson announces the G502 and Z780 - arriving imminently’
Stuart wrote last night about Skype’s launch of a native Series 60 mobile application, and how it calls a local-rate number to initiate calls. But now the company has announced full details of its plans, and how to get the beta application for your phone.
The beta client works on around 50 handsets from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola, and it includes chat, group chat, presence, and the ability to receive Skype and SkypeIn calls. In eight countries (including the UK), making Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls is also included.
It’s very much experimental: “These are still the early days for making Skype calls on mobile phones,” says Gareth O’Loughlin, general manager of mobile and hardware devices at Skype.
Continue reading ‘Skype beta includes SkypeIn and SkypeOut - here’s how to get it’
Clever S60 programming nerd over at the Symbian Freak forums have cooked up an app called ROMPatcher which is able to modify the ROM containing the operating system itslef - allowing fundamental changes and interesting tweaks to be made in the way your phone works.
The app uses a technique where a cpy of the ROM is made in the phone’s memory, then modified (’Patched’). The phone then uses the modified version of the ROM - leaving the original untouched and nice and safe, so you can roll back to the pre-patched ROM the next time you restart your phone.
Already, there are a number of patches available including one that enables several hidden menu options on the S60 interface and another that bypasses the Symbian app security - allowing users to run unsigned apps.
It should go without saying that this kind of hack is strictly for advanced users and please, PLEASE take a backup of your data before you go and play around.
If you give this a try, why not let us know how you get on? Are we entering a bold new era of S60 tweakage, or just bricking a load of perfectly good phones?
At long last, Skype has launched a native S60 version of it’s VoIP and IM app.
Oddly, the VoIP bit isn’t quite as you might expect. Unlike the purely Internet-based communication of the desktop Skype client, the S60 client calls a local rate number to initiate the call.
So, er, not VoIP at all then?
Quite why this is the case is a bit of a mystery - Fring has been offering native S60 Skype access via the internet for some time now and you have to wonder who is going to plump for the much less featureful official effort when there is a much more mature alternative on offer.
The last time we heard about this phone, it didn’t even have a name and though we knew it was skinny we had no idea it was packing this sort of heat under the hood. The LG-KF750 will be joining the KF700 in the Black label line and like it’s sibling, will have a touchscreen and another interface method, namely a slide out keypad. The device will support Tri-band GSM, UMTS 2100, EDGE, 3.6 Mbps and HSDPA connectivity. Good start.
Joining the party will be an accelerometer for Auto Screen Rotation, 5 megapixel camera, media player with DivX support, FM radio, integrated Mobile Office Viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), integrated Mobile Google Apps (Gmail, Google Maps,YouTube) and a video editor and FM tuner.
Pretty much a dream spec sheet by all accounts especially considering this thing is only 11.8mm thick. In keeping with it’s sleek easy to conceal stature, the LG-KF750 has been given the much snappier name, Secret. So it’s the LG-KF750 fashion phone, a member of the Black Label line and it’s the Secret - plenty names to remember it by then.
The Secret (which has its very own site here) will cost 549 Euros or about £440 for us Brits when it releases here in Europe, which apparently, will be soon.
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