The problem with owning an iPhone is The Fear. Specifically, The Fear That It Might Get Scratched When You’re Out And About. And while that skimpy felt case that comes in the box might keep it free from pocket-dust, it’s hardly going to protect your precious handset from other dangers (i.e. keys). Hence the market for iPhone cases. iSkin is hoping its new iSkin Fuze can ride to the rescue for paranoid iPhone owners. It’s got a shock-absorbing inne layer, and a tough polycarbonate exterior to keep your handset safe and snug, while giving you free access to the screen, sensor, ports and headphone socket. In fact, iSkin says the Fuze is the only iPhone case that properly protects its docking port. The Fuze is black with a silver trim (this is described as ‘Titan’, obviously), and will cost you £20. It’s available now from iSkin’s own website, although judging by the ‘Available Now. Coming soon for iPhone 3G’ text on the homepage, you might want to hold off for a few weeks if you’re planning an upgrade.
Author Archive for Stuart Dredge Page 2 of 84
I’m thinking of getting a Motorola 4800x mobile. That’s it on the right there - cool, eh? I reckon it’ll make me stand out when using it in public, certainly more so than using a Razr or iPhone would. What’s that? It looks a bit… big? Well, yes. That’s because it was actually sold in the 1970s.How to buy one now? There’s this company called Retrobrick, based here in the UK, selling them. In fact, they’ve got a big stash of vintage handsets, taking in models like the Nokia Cityman 1320, Motorola StarTAC, and the Ericsson T28. Admittedly, the ones that are analogue handsets can’t be used any more - we switched that network off in 2001 - but still, they’ll turn you into a retro fashion icon. Possibly.With the pace at which new handsets emerge quickening all the time, it’s nice that someone’s making a go of flogging the classic models that built this industry. Heaven knows how much that 4800x costs - you have to contact them for the price, which is always a sign it’s probably more than I can afford - but someone’s sure to pick it up.(via Beyond The Beyond)
Nokia has been scooping up a bunch of interesting companies in recent months, in areas such as mapping and media-sharing. Now it’s bought someone else: location-based social networking firm Plazes. It’s a pretty neat service - the idea is that you create events to let your friends know where you’ll be, at what time, and what you fancy doing. And then post content around that. It’s both a website and a mobile service. Anyway, the deal is expected to be finalised by the end of summer. What does it mean for Nokia though? Well, you can imagine Plazes fitting in neatly to the company’s mapping applications, not to mention working on GPS-enabled handsets - ‘Where are my friends right now, which of them are near me, and what are they doing?’ However, it’s likely that any such integration will take some time, possibly even not appearing until early next year.
Sony Ericsson has had a connection with the tennis world for some time, for the sensible reason that thinking of attractive women in white dresses grunting automatically makes you want to upgrade your mobile phone. Probably.Anyway, the latest development is a deal with Maria Sharapova to act as Sony Ericsson’s ‘global brand ambassador’ for the next four years, which includes designing an exclusive collection of mobile accessories. They include the IDC-31 Courtside Case, the IDC-32 Exercise Case, the IDC-33 Party Bag (pictured), and the IDC-34 Travel Wallet.If you ask me, that Party Bag is just a purse going under a fancy name. I’ll have three!
If I owned a 1975 VW Beetle, the first thing I’d want to do to it is customise it to look like a giant red telephone. You’re the same too, right? Oh. Actually, I’m going off the idea… But that doesn’t matter, since Datel Communications boss Howard Davis has done it for us. He’s a lunatic, sure, but still worth celebrating. Not least because the phone ‘rings’ when you toot the car’s horn. God knows what the DVLA would make of it here in the UK.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? And by the way, if you can throw in a 3G iPhone as well, that’d be just dandy… Well, at least they’d integrate properly. Mercedes-Benz has unveiled its new iPhone cradle, which charges the handset while letting you control it via your Merc’s own multimedia system (they don’t call them car radios these days). You can also expect better reception, since the iPhone is hooked into the car’s own antenna. So far, it’s available in Germany, but will presumably be coming to Blighty soon. And expect other car manufacturers to follow suit, as they twig that iPhone integration can seize them some headlines, and attract a bunch of early adopters with money to burn.
Having just got my first BlackBerry (I know, I know), I’m swiftly discovering just how addictive its dedicated Facebook application is. Forget push-email, it’s pokes and status updates that have got me firing the little fella up throughout the day.
Anyway, Palm is hoping that people with its Centro and Treo handsets will be able to get in on the action now, with the release of Facebook for Palm. It basically does the same stuff as the BlackBerry version, so you can check your inbox, post status updates and see what your friends have been up to, and post photos and videos taken with your phone. Among other things.
It sounds excellent. Whether it’s enough to tempt people away from their BlackBerry devices is another question, of course.
Qik has announced that it’s bringing its live video streaming app to the iPhone, allowing people to broadcast live video from their handset to billions of potential viewers (oh, alright, their wife or husband, and their dog). What’s that? The iPhone doesn’t DO video? Well, it does now. Qik isn’t the only company figuring out how to get video out of the iPhone’s camera, either.
Anyway, Qik is one of those up-and-coming Mobile 2.0 services, so it’s good to see it getting ported to the iPhone too. Whether it’ll catch on is something we’ll see in the coming months. Click here to watch a video demo of the service in action.
Apple is keen to big up the emerging iPhone application market, in advance of its launch of the iPhone App Store next month. So this week, at its WWDC show (tsk, it didn’t end with the keynote on Monday), it held its Apple Design Awards, which included several categories for iPhone applications.
Best iPhone Game was Enigmo 1.0 from Pangea Software (read all about that on Pocket Gamer). Meanwhile, Best Social Networking App went to Twiterrific 1.0 from The Iconfactory, and Best Entertainment App went to AOL Radio 1.0, which is made by AOL. The former offers location-based social networking, while the latter lets you stream 350 radio channels to your iPhone.
Best Healthcare & Fitness App went to something called MIMVista, which lets doctors look at doctory stuff on their iPhones, while Best Productivity App went to OmniFocus, a task management application with location features. Finally, Best Web App went to Remember The Milk 1.0, another task manager. And there’s plenty more innovative ideas where all those came from…
Firefox has been steadily increasing its market share of the web browser market on PCs and Macs, at the expense of Internet Explorer (on the former, at least). It’s been known for some time that it’s going mobile too, but Mozilla Labs’ Aza Raskin has just given us a sneak peek at how Firefox Mobile might work, in a video demo. It’s a working prototype, so may well change before us punters get our hands on it. But the browser is designed for touchscreen handsets, and has iPhone-esque scrolling and zooming, as well as the tabbed browsing approach you’d expect from Firefox. In short, it looks really, really nice. Check the demo out by clicking here. Whatever they do with it, Firefox Mobile will face stiff competition from rivals such as Opera Mini, which is also coming out with a touchscreen-enhanced edition.
Recent Comments