Mobile Technology

OSIM, better known for its advanced massage chairs, has begun selling a US$170 thumb-sized USB massager which uses Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS - the same technology you first witnessed in biology when your teacher made a dead frog's leg twitch using electrical current), to deliver a suite of specialized massage programs from your laptop. It's a pretty good fit of technologies because you can synch the massage to your computer’s music player and massage away stress, and tone up using the tapping, squeezing and kneading of the uPixie on specific muscle groups … while you are working. You can even write and store your own massage routines. Read More

When you hear the word "Walkman" you probably envision an 80s and 90s-era cassette player with AM/FM stereo and headphones. It's a far cry from Sony's Walkman B170 line which features small (only 28g or 1oz) colorful, and sound-rich MP3 players bearing the Walkman logo. Read More

Researchers are investigating a means of virtually projecting images from handheld devices onto computer screens. Beyond simply being a means of screen sharing across devices, the research looks at traditional projection - physically shining a still or moving image onto a flat service - as a metaphor for multi-device interaction. In a video demo, researchers manipulate the "projected" image on the larger screen using iPhone accelerometer controls and gestures. Read More

These days, your average tech enthusiast typically has at their disposal a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, and a digital camera; and that's listing the bare minimum. That's quite a bit of processing power and storage space spread out among different gadgets. What if it were possible to link all those devices together into one convenient package that uses all that computing power at once? That's the idea behind one designer's concept for a Fujitsu Lifebook, which would come with slots for a smartphone, digital camera, and tablet, for them all to all work together as one super device. Read More

Don't want your teenage kids using their mobile phone while they drive? Well, hopefully explaining the dangers to them will do the trick. If it doesn't, however, you could always install Scosche's cellCONTROL in your car. The device is activated whenever the vehicle is in motion, and uses a Bluetooth signal to disable calling functions, text messaging, email, app use and internet access on phones within the car. Read More

While the promised paperless office has yet to eventuate, scanners are still a standard piece of equipment in most workplaces – even if that workplace happens to be the road. With many a road warrior these days packing an iPad in their arsenal, it’s not surprising to see the release of the iConvert Scanner for iPad from Brookstone. After slotting an iPad (1 or 2) into the dock on the top of the device and starting the iConvert app, documents fed into the front feeder slot can be scanned and appear instantly on the iPad’s display to be saved as JPEGs in the device’s photo library. Read More

Since the release of the G-Slate and Optimus Pad last year, tablet offerings from LG have been pretty thin on the ground. Now the company has announced it will be releasing its first LTE-capable tablet in its homeland next week. The Optimus Pad LTE is powered by a Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and comes running Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). It also features the same True HD IPS technology that debuted on LG's Optimus LTE smartphone but with the 1280 x 720 pixel resolution now spread over 8.9-inches worth of display. Read More

Your iPhone won’t last forever. In fact, long before it wears out, chances are that you’ll trade up to a higher model. The designers at Italian companies Med Computer and Biomood apparently figured that if the cover that you’re using on that phone is bound to become obsolete anyway, why should it last forever? The result is the 100-percent biodegradable iNature soft iPhone cover. Read More

What if you could power your phone on a single AA battery? The SpareOne is a mobile phone that can to do just that. Designed as a back-up that you keep in a glovebox or emergency kit rather than a phone you keep in your pocket everyday, the SpareOne claims to deliver you up to 10 hours of talk time on one AA battery and (depending on the shelf-life of the battery you're using) it can hold charge while unused for up to a whopping 15 years. Read More