Cell Phone Accessories

A company called M2E Power is developing technology that will harness the kinetic movement of the human body to charge electronic devices, including cellular phones. The charging station would be a small device worn on the body. Whenever the ...
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Crashing problems aside, I am loving the App Store. I have no problem spending money on an app, but there are definitely a surprising number of quality freebies out there. With that in mind, I am kind of curious to know how much money iPhone owners have been willing to drop on apps given all of the free choices.

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Earlier today Google released the Android 0.9 SDK r1 Beta, boasting of a pile of API updates and a visual refresh that moves it one solid step closer to actually, you know, showing up on a phone. A long changelog and a few screenshots are great, but we've fired up the SDK's emulator for a guided tour of Android's salient features.

0:02: Main menu is contained in a drawer that slides from the bottom of the screen
0:08: Multiple home screens can be flipped with touch gestures, a la the iPhone
0:20: Icons can be dragged from the main menu to build customized home screens. Dragging to the menu drawer trashes the home screen shortcut
0:38: Dialer screen, followed by the call behavior. Calls can continue in the background, and all functions that don't require data transfer can work concurrently (This is currently a software regulation, as 3g networks should theoretically allow for simultaneous voice and data usage).
0:53: Ongoing calls and other notifications can be accessed by dragging the taskbar down.
1:20: Browser displays Gizmodo. Rendering is quite good, page navigation is a fairly intuitive rehash of current touch-control schemes. It's not terrible good at guessing column widths during double-tap zooming, but seems very usable. Preview magnification feature is useful for smaller screens or text-heavy pages.
2:22: "Tabbed" browsing feature lays out a grid of pages, with previews
2:45: Google Maps app. As you can see, this is among the more polished apps, and will feel familiar to anyone who has used Google Maps on the desktop or mobile devices.
3:30: Google Maps Street View.
4:00: Home screen include widgets (Google Search, a clock and a picture frame are the only ones for now) that can be dragged around the home screen(s).
4:23: The music apps relies on a panel of icons (a recurring theme in Android)
4:30: Message composition is unremarkable, but there is no sign of an on-screen keyboard at the moment. This could be a customization catered the the first round of Android phones, at least one of which will have a slide-out keyboard.
5:12: The camera naturally doesn't work in the emulator, but there are currently very few options in its menus.
5:50: Wallpaper switching. This is one of the few areas where Android excels aesthetically. Wallpaper scrolls as home screens are switched, but at a slower rate that the icons. This creates a convincing illusion of depth.
6:11: The home screen can also be modified via the system menu, where you can choose to add applications, widgets and shortcuts, as well as change the wallpaper.

It's hard to pass judgment on Android in the condition it's in. What's there is impressive, but there are so many glaring omissions, at least from a consumer standpoint. There is a fantastic system for managing ongoing calls and system messages (via the pull-down taskbar) but no apps to take advantage of it. Email and IM would suit such a configuration beautifully, but neither is included in this release. And seriously, where is the calendar? The organizer? A video app? Youtube support?

Sure, these things could be left to the developer community, but Google already has messaging, email, video and calendar services, so it's reasonable to expect that they be included by default in Android. Before a public release, Android should at least possess a feature set comparable to your average candy bar phone, courtesy of Google, so that the eager open-source development community can devote their effort to creating new, innovative apps and modifications for the OS.

Objections aside, the progress is promising. In terms of usability, Android is much easier to navigate and customize than virtually all other mobile solutions. With a few more apps, Android will be a clear choice over Windows Mobile, skinned or not. You can download the SDK and play with the emulator yourself, if you want. Just a word of warning, though — explaining to your family or significant other that you're testing an emulated prerelease of an upcoming mobile OS is about as hard as it sounds. [Google Android, Android on Giz]

Qualcomm's MediaFLO unit has added the MSNBC, CNBC and FOX News channels to its lineup of content available to mobile TV subscribers at AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sony Ericsson and T-Mobile have teamed up for the first time in four years to offer the 3G-equipped TM506. Was it worth the wait?
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This video demos what an Instructables team call a "quick down and dirty hack" that uses a Bluetooth headset to prank callers to your cellphone with an infinite hold pattern. It involves nothing more sophisticated than a cheapo Bluetooth headset, a few components, a modicum of soldering, and some amusing tunes and message creation. Your callers will then be treated to a "you are in a XX minute queue" message and your choice of irritating music. Now this wouldn't amuse me: It would piss me off, as I've listened to enough hold muzak for real... but your mileage may vary. Check out the Instructable if you want to DIY. [Instructables]

According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, Verizon Wireless and Google are in the process of finalizing a large-scale deal. If it goes through, Google would be come the default search provider for Verizon Wireless's phones. In ...
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This isn't the first time we have seen a cellphone charger that is powered by kinetic energy, but the difference is that M2E is working on a charger that can produce 300 to 700% more juice than current technologies. They hope this will translate into a full-on replacement for cellphone batteries somewhere down the line. According to earth2tech, M2E's short term goal is to develop a charger that will produce an hour of talk time for around six hours of normal movement. Currently, M2E is in talks with major accessories manufacturers about bringing a device to market as early as 2009. [earth2tech via Inhabitat]

Users of the HTC Tilt can now update the system software to Windows Mobile version 6.1. The update enables some new features, including Video Share and threaded SMS. The update is free.

The Android 0.9 SDK r1 Beta represents the first formal release on the path to Android 1.0 and it is available now for download. Outside of the normal bug fixes, users will notice some major UI updates—including a new widget-enhanced home screen, a tab to pull up apps, a camera and a media player. There are also a whole slew of API upgrades that should significantly enhance usability. Any further changes between this version and the final release version are expected to be small, but keep in mind that apps created with this version may not be compatible with 1.0. UPDATE: Check out our extensive video tour of the OS. Screenshots of the new UI added.

[SDK Download and Release Notes Thanks Jeff!]