Jut in time for summer (June release promised), Sharp has announced arguably the world’s first waterproof and solar-powered cell phone. The claim is that 10 minutes of sunbathing will get you 1 minute of talk time and 2 hours of standby time. We’ll see…
The bloggers of Google’s mobile division has put together a quick entry on some interesting uses of Google Latitude (that they probably didn’t envision).
Perhaps the best one is of a poor guy tracking down his phone after he forget it in a cab. Phone made it to Boston less than half a day later.
Oh yeah, in case you don’t know what Google Latitude is, it essentially lets your friend see where you are (well your phone) from either your phone or PC, and lets you quickly contact them via SMS, phone, or IM.
Sling just announced that SlingPlayer Mobile (SPM) for Blackberry is no longer in beta and is now an official product. SPM for Blackberries is $29.99 and you can trial it for 30 days.
For US customers, SPM is currently supported on the following devices:
* BlackBerry Bold from AT&T
* BlackBerry Curve 8900 from T-Mobile*
* BlackBerry 8820 from AT&T*
* BlackBerry Curve 8320 from AT&T*
* BlackBerry Curve 8320 from T-Mobile*
* BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 from T-Mobile*
* BlackBerry Pearl 8120 from AT&T*
* BlackBerry Curve 8350i from Sprint Nextel*
The ones that are starred are supported by SPM when used with their Wi-Fi connection.
SPM is available as an over-the-air download from http://mobile.slingmedia.com/
Palringo is the ‘ultimate Instant Messaging client for mobile phones and computers’. Imagine an IM service that’s a mixture of all other IMs out there, with a touch of GPS, Facebook and audio added; that’s Palringo. What makes it successful is that it’s essentially lots of very basic services bundled together to make a very useful application.
Available for pretty much any phone under 2 years old (and on any Windows or Mac computers if you so wish), the application allows you to hold multiple conversations with people on the most popular IM services out there, included MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Talk, Jabber and many more. Palringo also allows for multimedia messaging such as being able to send voice messages to other users and, of course, the standard sending of photos and videos. People can be grouped and then one message sent out simultaneously to all of them – perfect for a party announcement!
The best parts? It’s free and available worldwide – all that’s needed is a data package and away you go.
For those online vendors that want to reach out to more potential customers, particularly younger customers with no credit card, but a cell phone, Paymo may be the solution. Paymo has teamed up with a number of cell phone carriers and online vendors to allow a customer to pay for something by punching in their mobile # instead of a credit card.
Customers don’t even need a bank account. Paymo charges vendors between 3 and 5% for each transaction, so essentially, they would be swapping a credit card company for Paymo. Of course, Paymo isn’t the only player in the mobile payment business, so it’ll be interesting to see who wins out or if it just ends up being a divided market.
Sweet. I’ve been enjoying GrandCentral for some time now, but was wondering like everyone else what Google was doing with it for the past 2 years or so. Turns out they’ve been hard at work improving what was there and adding new features.
First a recap –
What’s new in Google Voice: …
GrandCentral becomes Google Voice – unified messaging, the Google WayRead More »
Perhaps a bit like MobileMe is Sync from Google Mobile. This new application for your phone allows you to synchronise your contacts and calendar entries with your Google account. Operating via a ‘cloud’ this interaction takes place wirelessly, also adding sounds and vibration from your calendar alerts to your phone.
Sync synchronises your data with dual interaction, i.e. any changes made to your phone are applied to your Google account and vice versa. Whilst MobileMe is currently only available for Apple products, Sync can be used on a variety of phones wide enough to cover all the major types of up-to-date handsets, including iPhones, Blackberrys, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices.
This video provides a pretty good overview of its uses in just over a minute:
Palm is set to announce their next generation OS, codenamed Nova, at CES in Las Vegas next month. They’re being a little cagey about the announcement, but all signs point to it happening.
This is a welcome update to Palm’s offerings, with Nova most likely going to be a Linux-based mobile OS, with a focus on Internet and Web applications. Naturally.
I don’t understand why so-called experts want Palm out of the OS business. I think their CEO has it right that having the OS and hardware strongly tied leads to a better product. For now. I’m a big fan of standardization; for example, the PC platform that runs Windows, Linux or Solaris (and now, practically MacOS). But we’re not there yet with smartphones. Android is a good first step in that direction, but it’s not here yet. Over time, Palm will probably switch to making Android work well on their hardware.
I welcome “Palm OS 2.0”. I’m a bit saddened that I may not be able to update my existing Treo to this OS, but excited that there will be a refresh of a cool mobile OS.
About time, right? A cell phone that you wear on your wrist, has a 1.3″ color LCD display that you can watch video/movies/photos on. Of course, you can listen to MP3s and take pictures with its 1.3 Megapixel camera.
The TFT screen is a touchscreen, and it has handwriting recognition similar to Palm’s gestures. For connectivity, there’s an integrated mini USB jack, a (1GB) microSD slot and it also has built-in Bluetooth.
Oh yes, lest we forget, it’s also a cell phone! GSM based with SIM cards, with a claimed 8-12 hr talk time. I’d like to see this available in typical retail outlets; currently uou have to call a toll-free # to order. I have to wonder what the quality of the phone calls is like.
You have to admit, the idea of a cell phone that sits on your wrist constantly does have its appeal.
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $249.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Truphone is a free software app for your mobile phone that routes your calls over the Internet. These calls are made using VoIP using your phone’s WiFi connection and even Nokia and Blackberrys can make calls via Truphone’s network without a WiFi conn.
In case you’re wondering what’s in it for Truphone, their business model is to charge lower rates than your mobile provider, particularly for international calls or calls made when you’re roaming abroad.
More info from the manufacturer
Price: Free for software. Call Rates start at $0.06/min.
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
