cell phones Archive

  • Morpho Smart Select: New image software selects best shots automatically

    Morpho Smart Select: New image software selects best shots automatically

    Posted on June 11, 2010 | No Comments
    Japan-based Morpho announced [JP, PDF] "Morpho Smart Select" today, a piece of software that makes it possible to pick the best shot out of a set of pictures taken with a digital camera. Morpho Smart Select makes the decision based on a number of different factors, including color contrast, position of the object or person in the image, the smile of a person and focus.

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  • Murata develops world’s first waterproof, ultra-thin piezoelectric speakers

    Murata develops world’s first waterproof, ultra-thin piezoelectric speakers

    Posted on June 11, 2010 | No Comments
    Kyoto-based Murata has developed the world's first piezoelectric speaker that not only is waterproof but also ultra-thin (0.9mm). The devices are meant to be mainly used with mobile phones, which makes sense, given that almost 25% of the 50 latest cell phones released (on the Japanese market, at least) are actually waterproof.

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  • DeLorme announces Earthmate PN-60w, a satellite messaging GPS unit

    DeLorme announces Earthmate PN-60w, a satellite messaging GPS unit

    Posted on June 2, 2010 | No Comments
    So you’re trapped in the high mountains of Tibet with only your wits and a slice of beef jerky between you and certain death. What do you do? Why not text your friends “WIZARD NEED FUD BADLY LOL!” on the DeLorme Earthmate PN-60w. This device is a portable GPS unit with a built-in keyboard. It supports [...]

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  • Video: Toshiba’s amazing, tactile feedback-based UI solution for touchpanels

    Video: Toshiba’s amazing, tactile feedback-based UI solution for touchpanels

    Posted on May 21, 2010 | No Comments
    Many hardware makers, especially in the mobile device area, are betting high on touchscreens to let users interact with their products. Toshiba subsidiary Toshiba Information Systems has now developed the "New Sensation UI Solution", which is supposed to make user interaction via touchscreens more intuitive through tactile feedback. While this approach isn't new in itself, Toshiba's technology is different from other solutions as it doesn't actually "move" hardware through actuators. Instead, the system is based on a special film that's affixed to the touchpanel. That film, made by a Finnish company called Senseg, gives tactile feedback to the user when he or she touches the screen, charging the film.

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  • Photo gallery: Japan’s SoftBank shows 13 Twitter-powered cell phones

    Photo gallery: Japan’s SoftBank shows 13 Twitter-powered cell phones

    Posted on May 18, 2010 | No Comments
    We've shown you the summer cell phone lineup from KDDI (Japan's No. 2 carrier) yesterday. Today, Japan's third largest carrier, SoftBank Mobile, showed its own summer lineup during a special press conference, and all of their 13 new models have one thing in common: they all come with Twitter pre-installed. The buyers of these cell phones will be able to access Twitter either via a pre-installed app or through a pre-installed widget on the homescreen. The background is that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son himself is a huge Twitter fan (he has almost 300,000 followers) and believes Japan is set to become Twitter country. And in fact, by some measures it's already No. 2. Photo gallery of all the 13 new Twitter-powered cell phones over at MobileCrunch.

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  • Land lines becoming extinct? 25% of Americans think so

    Land lines becoming extinct? 25% of Americans think so

    Posted on May 12, 2010 | No Comments
    File this one under "well, duh!". Researchers working for the NCHS "discovered" something that has been covered for years: more and more people are canceling their land lines, and just using cell phones.

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  • Sharp unveils world’s first 3D HD camera module for mobile devices

    Sharp unveils world’s first 3D HD camera module for mobile devices

    Posted on May 12, 2010 | No Comments
    Sharp really believes in 3D, it seems. In the past weeks the company presented a new 3D touchscreen for mobile devices, then the world's first four-primary 3D display, followed by a 3D e-book reader. And today Sharp in Japan unveiled [press release in English] the world's first 3D camera module that can be used in mobile devices such as cell phones, cameras or portable gaming systems.

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  • Thanko releases “Wristband Battery” for portable gadgets

    Thanko releases “Wristband Battery” for portable gadgets

    Posted on May 7, 2010 | No Comments
    Tokyo-based gadget maker Thanko is at it again. This time, the USB specialists are giving us the Wristband Battery [JP], which is what it sounds like and supposed to make life easier for fans of portable gadgets.

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  • Survey says: most teens don’t have a data plan, almost all send texts

    Survey says: most teens don’t have a data plan, almost all send texts

    Posted on May 5, 2010 | No Comments
    Microsoft and Verizon might think all the kids want to do with their new Kin phones is pay absurd data rates for a half-baked Twitter experience, but it turns out Generation Upload is still actually just Generation Text Message. That's at least the word according to a Pew Internet Research survey published on April 20th and neatly summed up by a new Flowlogic infographic published today -- only 23 percent of American teenagers with cellphones use social networks with their phones, while 72 percent of all teens use text messaging. You might argue that Kin seeks to flip that balance, but Pew found that 63 percent of teens with cell phones don't have data plans and the vast majority of teen cellphone plans are part of a larger family plan, so the Kin's $30 / month data rate might be a hard sell to Mom and Dad.

    We also thought voice calling on the Kin seemed like an afterthought to texting and social networking, but it turns out more and more older kids simply turn to the phone: 77 percent of 17 year olds text each other, but 60 percent of them call each other's cell phones -- and only 33 percent of them connect over social networking sites. Perhaps most damningly, Pew says nearly half -- 46% -- of teens play games on their phones, but Kin has no games at all. The report is actually full of other interesting tidbits like this and the infographic is quite nice, so hit the read links to check 'em out -- perhaps Microsoft and Verizon should do the same.

    Survey says: most teens don't have a data plan, almost all send texts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Surprise! The HTC Legend preps for landing on AT&T by way of the FCC

    Surprise! The HTC Legend preps for landing on AT&T by way of the FCC

    Posted on May 4, 2010 | No Comments
    The Legends are coming! The Legends are coming! I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the HTC Legend. Sure, it's not the most powerful piece of kit in HTC's armory - but it's made of friggin' metal. You could give this phone to a bear for a few hours and have it come back mostly functioning. Can you imagine a world where bears have cell phones of their very own? That's a world I'd want to live in. Though I don't believe they'll sell to bears, it looks like AT&T might be selling the Legend before too long.

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  • Citizen Japan to release new i:Virt M Bluetooth watch for cell phone control

    Citizen Japan to release new i:Virt M Bluetooth watch for cell phone control

    Posted on April 29, 2010 | No Comments
    Citizen in Japan has two new models in its oddly named i:Virt M series of Bluetooth-enabled wristwatches ready [JP], the TM84-0351V (108g, leather band) and the TM84-0352V (178g, stainless steel band). The last update i:Virt M happened about a year ago. Owners can use the watches to interact with their (Japanese) cell phones, i.e. by noting incoming calls, controlling the phone camera (the shutter button, to be more exact) or displaying emails.

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  • New cell phone study to follow 250,000 users for 30 years

    New cell phone study to follow 250,000 users for 30 years

    Posted on April 23, 2010 | No Comments
    And here we go again. Every few months (it seems) there's another study telling us that either cell phones are safe, or they are evil. It just goes to show, there's a study to prove anything. This particular study however is going to take a bit more time then the other ones have. Plus, it'll involve quite a few more people.

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  • Japan’s DoCoMo announces new mobile projector for cell phones

    Japan’s DoCoMo announces new mobile projector for cell phones

    Posted on April 22, 2010 | No Comments
    It's not that there's a shortage of mobile projectors, but when DoCoMo (Japan's biggest cell phone carrier) announces [JP] a model for its 55 million customers, it deserves a mention. DoCoMo specifically suggests using the F01 with Fujitsu's uber-cool "Separate Keitai", a cell phone that breaks into two parts (and that's currently available on the Japanese market only).

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  • Pew Internet report reveals what everyone already knows: Teens like to text

    Pew Internet report reveals what everyone already knows: Teens like to text

    Posted on April 20, 2010 | No Comments
    If you've seen a teenager in the last two years, then you've seen a teenager texting. Seriously, I can't think of a situation in the last couple of years where I saw a teenager without a cell phone. The teenagers in my extended family send text messages seemingly all day long, every day. Now the Pew Internet and American Life project has released a pretty comprehensive analysis of teen texting behavior.

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  • Vertu to sell 4 golden cell phones in Japan (price: $215,000 each)

    Vertu to sell 4 golden cell phones in Japan (price: $215,000 each)

    Posted on March 26, 2010 | No Comments
    Nokia pulled out of Japan, one of the world's biggest mobile markets, as early as November 2008. But because this country is quite wealthy, the Finnish company decided to conquer Japan with their luxury brand Vertu [JP], starting operations in September 2009. Initially the plan was to market handsets priced between $16,000 and $50,000. But today Vertu Japan announced a "golden" handset with a price tag of 20 million yen (it's made-in-Japan gold lacquerwork, to be more exact). That's $215,000, with the price including free domestic calls. Buyers will be able to choose between four equally priced models: Kinko (pictured above), Kikusui, Nanten and Daigo (pictured below). The different designs stand for the different seasons of the year.

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