Cell phone timeline. From 1997 to 2012.
Mobile technology addiction. I has it.
It is so bad that I could fill in the gaps in the above evolutionary chain with phones I’ve actually owned. I’ve had a bag phone, brick phone, StarTacs, Rzrs, Slider phones, Sidekicks, an N-Gage, iPhones, and now an android. I’ve paid a bill to pretty much every carrier with service in the US.
NOT to mention my pager and PDA phase. One line display, alphanumeric, 2-ways, Newtons, Sharp, Casio, you name it!
I believe I’ve given enough to this industry. I’ve slowed down quite a bit over the past 5 years. I used to get a new phone every year, while over the past 5 years, I’ve had two units. So the hybrid units are definitely better. I used to carry a PDA, a phone and a pager. Now that we all have everything in one, I definitely appreciate the lighter load. But looking back, I have spent a LOT of money on mobile tech. Wow.
Sony Xperia U ‘Kumquat’ pics leak, gets sized up ahead of MWC, from Engadget http://engt.co/wTu1Ao
Funny how the trend was to make gadgets ‘smaller’ just a short time ago.
Android (mid class) from Phillips. Phillips W920 comes with Android Froyo, 512MB RAM, and more…
nice design.
Give them some time
ARM’s CEO Warren East:
…when Android phones were introduced, there was a lot of hype. And then, actually, they didn’t take off in the sort of way that reflected that hype. Then a few years later – two years later – half a million units a day, 700,000 units a day. Android phones now are really… a very successful product. I think we should give Android tablets a little bit more time.
It’s easy to forget that Android phones also came off to a rough start. Personally, I don’t want to be the end-consumer taking chances on somewhat rough products, but I believe there are enough early adopters out there in order to get that Android snowball rolling a second time.
Source: Cnet
Dave Veloz’s Mac Mini Mod, Monitor, & Keyboard | The Steampunk Workshop
…what more can I say. If they looked like this out of the box, I’d own two already.
This super slick Phone Size tool that compares the hottest smartphones against one another in as close to “meatspace” size as possible. You just plug in a few phones that you would like to compare, set the size and ratio of your screen and you’re off. (via A Slick Web Tool to Compare Real-Life Sizes of Smartphones)
I put this up before my lunch, there were already 4 tags gone in an hour 😊 (Taken with Instagram at Apple - Caffe Macs)
great idea!
Phones and tablets to identify users by sight and touch
Trawling through possible password combinations could become a distant memory in the future as new smartphones and tablets will allow access to users at the sight of their owners face or a single touch.
Google and Apple are introducing phones that identify users through sight and touch recognition.
Last week, Apple applied to the US patent office to register facial recognition software, so instead of sliding to unlock the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, one could simply point it at one’s face.
The patent entitled ‘Low Threshold Face Recognition’, was picked up by Apple Insider blog, who said that “using a forward-facing camera to recognise an individual user, future iPhones and iPads from Apple could automatically customise applications, settings and features to a user”s personal preferences once they pick up the device.”
The website explained that Apple’s application stated rather than analysing a user’s entire face which can drain the battery, Apple’s concept would rely on a “high information portion’ of a human face.
It is understood that their system will scale the distance between a users eyes and mouth and once it has measured that against the image originally captured, it will be able to confirm that it is the same person and unlock.
The patent also details that each user could customize their personal profile with unique wallpaper, applications and settings, and that profile would be immediately accessed once the iPad recognizes a user’s face.
New phones using Google’s Android platform already have a face recognition tool that uses the inbuilt camera.
However, this new technology may not yet be effective to completely eradicate passwords in favour of facial recognition.
Within days of the Google Android facial recognition tool being launched, there were reports online claiming that it could be fooled by holding a photograph of the owners face up to the device.
Some of the best features of the iPad aren’t listed anywhere. Luckily, our secret instruction manual will help you make the most of your tablet without a trip to the Genius Bar.
The nice thing about the very imperfect Fire, which will hopefully be improved over the next few months, let alone the next few years, is that it begins to sketch out the place in between iPads and phones, just like iPads sketched out a place between phones and laptops. This isn’t an iPad killer; that’s like asking whether a Holiday Inn is a Four Seasons killer and putting it down if it isn’t. It’s a new piece of real estate entirely. (Monkey See : NPR)
Robotic ball to roll out next month.
The Sphero robotic ball is set to go on sale next month for US$130, with the makers claiming it “is like nothing you’ve seen before”.
The ball is controlled by touch via an iOS/Android App, or by tilting or swinging your phone/tablet. It claims to deliver a ‘mixed-reality’ experience, with games such as virtual golf for one or more players.
The bluetooth ball claims a 50 foot range, 3 feet per second speed, multi coloured LED lighting system, and an internal gyro/accelerometer/compass system for navigation. It is also charged via induction, meaning no annoying cables, with a one hour drive time from the included battery.
While it might be difficult to get too excited by a robotic ball - especially as only 6 apps or games are available initially - where this could get interesting is if the open source community gets behind it to create new and interesting uses for the device, as has been seen with Kinect.
(Source: gosphero.com, via 8bitfuture)
Apple has made some very subtle updates to the visual design for iOS 5.
via Design Archive
