American Airlines Getting In On That Cell Phone Boarding Pass Fad
[Via Mobilitysite]
Posts with tag cellphone
[Via Mobilitysite]
Cell Phone Inventor Says iPhone Is Too Complicated
The inventor of the cellphone says the iPhone's ubiquitous, do-everything, jack-of-all-trades approach to applications, music and – oh yeah – phone calls, makes the Apple Computer superstar mobile device less impressive, not more.Martin Cooper, who while working at Motorola made the first cell-phone call in 1973 with a device weighing two pounds and with only 20 minutes of battery life, says that cell phones today, especially the iPhone, are too complex. Speaking at a conference in Boston, Cooper said wireless companies and cell phone makers have the wrong ideas when it comes to making products people really need. Instead, he advocates cell phones with fewer features and functions, not more. He also says cell phone reception problems and dropped calls are a major problem for the industry and could be avoided with some better technology. (Cooper serves as chairman of a company called ArrayComm, which develops software to help antenna arrays more finely pinpoint cell phone location.)
Cooper's main push is for simpler, specialized phones, such as the one his wife designed called Jitterbug, a cell phone with large buttons and extra large characters on the LCD screen for use by the elderly.
"A phone that's an Internet appliance, an MP3 player, a camera and a whole bunch of other functions doesn't make a lot of sense," he said. "You try to build a universal device that does all things for all people, and guess what? It doesn't do anything very well."
Before you start thinking Cooper may be a curmudgeon who just doesn't like the fast pace of tech advancements, though, you should take a look at this: His personal fact sheet from ArrayComm (PDF link) points out that he is always trying out the newest cell phones (on average, a new one every four to six months) and he's driven to find the "smallest and lightest handset." A gadget hound, just like us!) [From: Forbes.com]
Icono Phone Lets Your Fingers Do the Talking, Literally
Update: Oops, reader Michael just revealed a little uncredited design inspiration from IDEO circa 2001. Now how does that expression go... something about great artists steal? [Via Textually and Core77]
Toshiba Powers Cell Phone With Methanol Fuel Cell
Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year's CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that's been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won't reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone "might" be available "as early as next year." In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with "DMFC" clearly visible on the display.
Cellphone, USB Drive Gets Modeled With Meat
[Via textually]
City Revokes Employee Texting Plans
Most cell phone carriers have plans that allow for unlimited e-mail and instant messaging, but text messages typically still cost users on a per message basis. This charge has caught up with the city employees of Troy, N.Y., in a big way, with costs peaking at more than $1,000 in recent months.
The result? Troy city officials have revoked the text messaging privileges of employees.
Deputy mayor Dan Crawley announced that those employees who need immediate contact capability for the jobs, namely code enforcement officers, community police, emergency personnel, and top-level employees, who already have e-mail-enabled BlackBerry devices, will have to rely on the communications options that come with unlimited use under the city plan (no word on which carrier the city uses). Unlimited text messaging is typically an added feature which costs an additional fee.
"If you can e-mail, you have no reason to text," said Crawley. "Every time an employee sent a text message, it cost the city money, but by removing the ability we've taken that the temptation to use that form of communication away."
Cell phones and wireless plans are, in theory, much cheaper than providing each employee with a walkie-talkie, which could cost as much as $800 per unit. But with the ability to send a text message, that cost savings was being negated. [Source: Textually.org.]
Motorola Announces 5-Megapixel, Wi-Fi-Enabled Camera Phone
Otherwise, you get Wi-Fi (score), Motorola's so-called "ModeShift" technology for morphing the keypad depending on device mode (a la the E8), and a run-of-the-mill quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. China's the first country to get the hookup starting next month, but Moto expects to take the ZN5 on a world tour over the course of the remainder of the year.
Use Your Cell Phone Pics to Search for Information on the Web
We've learned now how cell phones can display bar codes or other symbols in lieu of airline, concert or ballgame tickets. If you happen to be a Sprint subscriber, though, your cell phone could soon be used as a scanner itself – but this new service goes well beyond bar codes.
A new visual search service from Thrrum claims it can scan just about anything that contains text and return relevant information to the user's phone. Think book covers, product labels, even train schedules. Essentially, as the company puts it, any text that you see around you becomes a hyperlink that can be "clicked" upon with your camera phone.
The user takes a snapshot of the product, sends it to m@thrrum.com for the Thrrum MMS Search, and the service responds with extended information on what it finds.
Thrrum also is offering a Visual Browser that users can download to their phones so they don't have to send a message.
For now the service, which is in beta testing, is free to any Sprint subscriber (although the Visual Browser does cost $5.99 for 12 months access). Standard text messaging and data rates will apply, of course. [Source: BetaNews.]
German Companies Developing Scented Text Messages
by Nilay Patel, posted May 5th 2008 at 1:05PM
Virtually every smell-based tech that's come through the pipe has fizzled out in one way or another, but that checkered past isn't stopping Germany's ConVisual from partnering with the Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing to develop scent-delivery chips for cell phones. The partnership has been running for eight years and just received a patent on the tech, and the goal now is to start building the chips into phones within the next two years. Initially, the chip is supposed to have 100 different smells on it, and ConVisual says bad smells are a possibility as users will be able to reject certain messages. That's certainly interesting, but we've got to say, we're not all that keen on the idea of people having even more ways to emit odors -- we'll stick with the non-smelly cellys, thanks much. [Source: The Local via EE TImes]
Vodafone Recommends "More Discreet" Communication Methods in Public
Not surprisingly, the company recommends that individuals utilize more discreet methods of communicating in public, suggesting texting and emailing in particular. Of course, it's a good bit more difficult to tell a story through those two methods, but it's a lot better than having your most promising client snatched out from under you, yeah?
[Source: Search By Headlines via textually, image courtesy of Miloh]
