DivX Goes Mobile

If you thought the highly compressed DivX multimedia format was only for PCs and DVD players then you might be interested to know that it has now made its way onto mobile phones and one of the first outings is on the new shiny, slidy LG Secret. Video on titchy screens tends to be a bit jerky and blurry and quite frankly a pain to watch for more than 30 seconds but on this very neat and well-featured 3G phone it is truly immaculate. The picture is clean and crisp with vibrant coilours and fluid movement. The Secret has a neat iPhone-like trick and when you turn it on its side the image automatically rotates, so you get the full benefit of the phones’ 640 x 480 widescreen display. Getting video onto the Secret is pretty straightforward too. DivX files can be uploaded by a USB cable from a PC or copied to a Micro SD card, (conversion software is included with the phone) or there’s the DIY method as the Secret has a built-in encoder, and you can shoot DivX videos on the phone’s camera. Read More »

Wi-Fi Internet Solution from Google

Google, along with its partners, is supporting an initiative that is supposed to bring wireless high-speed Internet to every home, for an affordable price. The method is somewhat unusual, although the search giant has been promoting it for five months now, and it consists of allowing Internet providers to use the white spaces between the frequencies that are already employed by TV and satellite microphone providers.

“Our nation typically uses only about five percent of one of our most precious resources. Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow. The airwaves can provide huge economic and social gains if used more efficiently, as seen today with the relatively tiny slices utilized by mobile phones and WiFi services.” said the company in a plan filed to the Federal Communications Commission. Read More »

Watch and Pen Gadgets

If you’re a gadget fan and have nothing better to do for a few minutes head over to the Chinavision website, where you’ll find some of the coolest-looking, and cheapest electronic gizmos on the planet. Actually this is a wholesale website, offering some of the best (and worst) of what China’s electronics industries have to offer, and if you want the best prices you have to buy in bulk (and don’t forget the import duty) but it looks like they’ll sell one-offs if you’re willing to take a punt. Read More »

Sony Ericsson W350i

The new Sony Ericsson W350i is a mid-level ranged mobile phone that adds to the Walkman series portfolio. As it has been a long time since a famous handset manufacturer launched a flip phone, W350i brings back the Sony Ericsson’s T series feeling. Revamped and improved, W350i’s design has that special retro look that will certainly make it as an ‘eye-catcher’ device. The public targeted is definitely going to love it, while those that are looking for a camera-phone or business-oriented device will probably hate it. In the end, it’s all about personal preferences.

Announced in January 2008, Sony Ericsson W350i was launched on the market in May 2008. The flip phone is available in four different color versions: Graphic white, Ice blue, Electric black and Hypnotic black. Those interested in a good-looking mid-level handset can acquire it for around $230 USD. Read More »

Build Your Own Android

If you’ve been following the goings-on in the mobile phone industry you will know that the Next Big Thing is likely to be Google and its Android operating system. Android is Open Source software and Google gunning hard for the big boys, namely Microsoft, Nokia and Apple, and actively encouraging users to contribute to its development, hence the Android Software Developer’s Kit (SDK), which you can now download and try for yourself.

Of course, it’s mostly aimed at programmers and developers, but there’s something for everyone and it contains a full Android Emulator, which basically means you can simulate the workings of an Android phone on your Windows Mac or Linux PC. Read More »

Sharper Fuel Cells

Sharp, in collaboration with MIT have announced an improved fuel cell technology that’s claimed to have the highest power density to date. Fuel cells have been around for yonks and basically convert chemical energy into electrical energy. It’s a sort of reverse electrolysis process (where water can be turned into hydrogen and oxygen by passing a current through it), using exotic materials that act as catalysts. In this case methanol is the fuel source. It’s a lot safer, cheaper and easier to transport than Hydrogen, which has been a popular choice with fuel cell developers in the past.

Sharp’s Direct to Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) prototypes are small enough to be used inside most gadgets, from mobile phones and GPS receivers to personal stereos and cameras and they say they’ll last around as long as lithium ion rechargeable batteries (3 – 5 years). Read More »

N96 Here

Mobile World Congress 2008, Barcelona, Spain/Espoo, Finland - Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N96, a multimedia computer truly optimized for video and TV. With a large 2.8″ screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and support for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats, the dual-slide Nokia N96 represents an exciting new chapter in mobile media. The Nokia N96 multimedia computer is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated sales price of approximately 550 euros, before subsidies or taxes. Read More »

Tosh’s Dinky Dongle

Actually it’s a mobile phone with some clever extras. The G450 is officially known as a Four-In-One Mobile Device, the four elements being the aforesaid mobile phone, a high-speed mobile modem, MP3 player, and USB Pen Drive, which it most closely resembles in terms of size and shape.

Just pop in a SIM card and you have a small but still quite useable mobile phone. The tiny OLED display is limited to just phone numbers and a line of text but what more do you need? Plug it into the USB socket on your laptop and you have a mobile modem connecting through 3G/HSDPA networks giving broadband like connection speeds. Read More »

Listen to XM Radio on your Windows Mobile Phone

Apparently, XM Radio allows you to listen to their content without actually using an XM Radio receiver. Sure it makes sense most of the time, but if you don’t feel like carrying around a receiver all the time or maybe you’re indoors and out of line-of-sight… and you’ve got your Windows Mobile phone with you, why not tune it through a Windows Media stream on your cellular network? Read More »

Accessorize Zune 2.0

While claiming that the move from Zune 1.0 to Zune 2.0 was exclusively the natural evolution of the device, and not a response catalyzed by Apple releasing its new lineup of iPods in early September, Microsoft proved that it was gearing up for the long haul on the digital media player market. The face-off between the Redmond and the Cupertino companies does by no means end with the comparison between Windows and Mac OS X, but has also transitioned between digital media players since Zune hit the shelves at the end of 2006, positioned as an iPod killer.

Over one year after the launch of Zune, Microsoft’s digital media player has failed to kill the iPod in any manner, and with Apple evolving its devices a month earlier than Microsoft, the general impression is that the Cupertino-based hardware company is firmly in the lead, with competitors trailing it at a distance in terms of both market share and innovation. Read More »