Archive for: Mobile phone

iPhone Pong Case That Reduces Radiation

Radiation from cell phones is known to cause cancer and other ailments. After the Millennium when the average person walking down the street had a mobile phone the tabloids carried reports of how radiation from mobile phones will be seriously damaging people’s health. As of now, the problem has existed for such a short period of time that it is difficult to precisely say how dangerous it is – one thing’s for sure; new cell phones are producing as much radiation as ever with GPRS and 3G thrown into the mix.

Now, there is a new silicon case for the iPhone that will eliminate much of the radiation coming from the device without diminishing the signal strength. Scott Estro from Dig Communications, the company who make the ‘Pong iPhone Case’ talked to Crenk.

“The Pong iPhone Case is a sleek silicone skin containing a proprietary technology module that redirects cell phone radiation away from the user’s head. The case reduces the specific absorption rate (SAR, a mobile industry standard of measurement) by 60% and reduces intense ‘hotspot’ cell phone radiation (Electric Field Intensity) by 85%.”

As you can see from the screenshot, it doesn’t look bad at all but at almost $60, it may be priced a little high. But then I suppose you cant put a price on your well-being.

See www.pongresearch.com to get a Pong iPhone Case.

Nokia X6: Sexy New Facebook Ready Mobile Phone from Nokia

Nokia has announced at the Nokia World conference in Stuttgart that they will be releasing a new mobile handset called the Nokia X6. The Nokia X6 is sure to turn a lot of heads with its stunningly beautiful design, but it also has a lot of features that could make it the phone of choice for the trendy teen this year.

The Nokia X6 seems to be the successor to the music orientated Nokia 5800, however it also has a 3.2 capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, 32GB of storage, and 35 hours of music playback.

“With direct access to Ovi Store, the Nokia X6 is a hive of activity that brings 20 friends and virtual communities, like Facebook, to your homescreen.”

Nokia has also introduced a new social friendly feature called Lifecasting with Ovi; it lets you publish your location and status updates directly to Facebook from the home screen of the phone:

“Lifecasting goes beyond just publishing your status – it is about building deeper and closer connections between people. It triggers new kinds of communication patterns, such as sending messages or status updates or even navigating to a friend or a place. Lifecasting will premiere on the new Nokia N97 mini, companion to the successful Nokia N97.”

It took them a while, but Nokia has finally caught up to the fact that having a feature-packed phone is only half of the equation. Giving your users access to content and enabling them to connect and share with others is equally important, and their latest lineup delivers the goods. Read the full press release here.

AT&T Finally Tethers the iPhone

Image via CrunchBase

Users of the iPhone have long been looking for ways to utilize their powerful mobile phone as a portal to access internet from their laptops. Most cell phone by the major providers make it it possible to tap into the phone’s network and access it through the user’s laptop. Unfortunately the iPhone was never given such an ability so it fell to the development community to create their own applications.

It was not long that homebrew applications were created to tether the iPhone to a laptop, but Apple heavy handedly shut down the application and refused to support such an application, more because of the contract with AT&T rather then outright unhappiness of what the application did. Still, when the iPhone was “jail broken” tethering became an option and users were frantically trying to share the information with the masses and get them on board in support of jail breaking the iPhone. Apple turned around and said that no Apple store or mail location would support an iPhone out of service due to a botched jail break attempt. Such attempts would be consider a breach of agreement and null and void any support from Apple.

Until now most non-tech savvy users were unawares of jail breaking an iPhone and simply settled for the inability to link up service with their mobile computers. Until now…

The Announcement

On Thursday Nov. 6th, AT&T Mobility Chief, Ralph de la Vega announced that users of the iPhone 3G would be able to tether their phones to their laptops and use them as modems for internet service. The remarkable service will not be available until 2009, but users were left wondering just how it would be implemented, and how much it was going to cost.

Reports state that AT&T was afraid to offer tethering believing that the major influx of users would bring down the network, and thus frustrate customers from purchasing an iPhone. What they failed to realize is that customers were finding work arounds, and even while Apple was shutting applications like NetShare down for providing modem compatibility, AT&T remained deaf to user’s needs.

Information on Apple’s and AT&T’s tethering option became available six days later with costs of $30/month and a 5GB cap on data usage being the key release information. Already users of iPhone with bloated bills are complaining about the cost saying that applications like NetShare are offering their services free of charge. Why would you pay $30 if you know a tried and true app can provide you the same service for free? That seems to be a question AT&T won’t answer for now, but the real question is if tethering is now legitimate, will NetShare be allowed to offer its alternative on Apple’s App Store?

Still, to AT&T’s benefit, after acquiring Wi-Fi provider Wayport, the network is boasting another 20,000 locations to access the network. Could AT&T become successful in having iPhone users pay the monthly fee for the benefit of tethering. With so many access points now added to the already expansive network, only time will tell.

Vuclip Brings Movies to Your Mobile

Trying to view video on a phone can be a pain, and for some of us that are able to get the video, squinting and turning the phone sideways to make heads or tails of what we see drives us into a wild rage. Some phones just weren’t meant to see video…or where they?

Is the World Ready for Android?

Just announced today, the new Android phone is set to release on Monday, October 20th. This much anticipated release is expected to change the face of mobile phones, similar to the expectations prior to the release of the first iPhone.

Expected specs for the phone were released back in August and can been seen on the TechCrunch website here. Currently this full featured phone is set to be released on the T-Mobile network, similar to Apple’s partnership with AT&T. This exclusivity is sure to give T-Mobile a significant boost to their market share, and their profits will be sitting pretty too if this phone delivers all that is expected.

iPhone users are might be sitting pretty right now, but soon Android might be the next “in” phone to have. Is Apple worried? Only time will tell once this phone hits the market. Already tech pundits and gadget fans are preparing their long stay on the streets over that weekend. I’m interested to see just how much more powerful this Android phone will be, with the support of Google, there’s no telling!

iPhone “Epic Fail” in Japan

It’s a known fact that mobile devices in Japan are just better, plain and simple. Doubt me? Mobile devices in Japan have been proven to be years advanced their stateside counterparts. For years now mobile devices, especially cell phones, have been able to receive TV, music, take photos, etc. Just as we attempt to close the gap, the Japanese take their phones to another level of increasing the quality of picture and audio, but also increasing the use of these devices. Phone overseas have been able to scan items for pricing for years already, and they’ve also been used as debit cards and train passes.

So what does Apple and Steve Jobs plan to provide for their customers in the Land of the Rising Sun? Well…nothing. While units were expected to hit sales of 1 million units, when all is said and done they will be lucky to have sold 500,000. Not good. Apple’s offerings with the iPhone just don’t compete with the already existing high end phones that are available to both the consumer and professional market.

Released just over three months ago, the iPhone which saw explosive sales the first few weeks of release has taken a drastic nosedive. Selling out immediately on July 11th, with lines of people ready to purchase is the complete opposite of the sites now, where sellers stock their windows with iPhones, promoting specials, and looking for ways to move the inventory with little to no luck.

Since Apple could not wow them with their song and dance, what will it take for Apple to break into the Japanese market? We saw similar experiences when Microsoft released the first iteration of the X-box, which impressive sales at first, but then falling off the charts. Steve and Co. might need to go back to the drawing board for our eastern friends and think of a plan to counter an already established market.