Mobile Technology

Free Wi-Fi is on its way to some Japanese vending machines. Working much like a mobile hotspot at your local coffee shop, people located near the machines would be able to connect to the internet for 30 minutes at a time and surf the web. The vending machines are for the drink company Asahi. Connecting to the web using a machine can be done without any kind of log-in, and if your initial 30-minute connection to the network expires, you can connect again and keep on surfing. The service is available to anyone, to use with any smartphone, tablet, or computer and does not require the purchase of a drink from the machine. Read More

The Amazon Kindle Touch is quite a remarkable little machine. In many ways, it can be seen as a halfway point between the Fourth Generation Kindle e-Reader and the Kindle Fire Tablet. However, it's not simply a glorified reader, nor is it a stripped down tablet. Rather, it is another way in which Amazon is building on its lead in the e-Reader market by optimizing the reader interface and user controls. With the Kindle Touch sure to find its way under many a tree this holiday season we put the device through its paces with a hands-on review. Read More

Although owners of the iPod Shuffle might have something to say about it, Singapore’s Bluetree Electronics has announced the launch of what it claims is “the smallest touch MP3 player in the world,” theKube2. The diminutive device has an aluminum body, runs for six hours on a one-hour charge of its lithium-polymer battery, and can store approximately 1,000 songs on its included 4GB microSD card. You can also buy replaceable skins for it, should shiny silver not be your thing. Read More

In terms of display size, smartphone manufacturers are faced with striking a balance between a size that is big enough to be comfortable to view and type on and one that is still small enough to fit inside a jacket packet. Advances in imaging technology have enabled miniature projectors that provide extra screen size in a compact form factor. This has led to a flood of such devices appearing at CES in recent years, such as the SHOWWX laser pico projector. CES 2012 doesn't look like being any different with QP Optoelectronics announcing it will debut its LightPad that adds a keyboard and bigger display to a smartphone at the world's biggest consumer electronics show this coming January. Read More

Sure you've seen Siri work her voice recognition magic on an iPhone 4S, but how about on an older rotary telephone? Davis Remmel took a Bluetooth headset and retro-fitted a rotary telephone to have Siri work as an operator of sorts, catering to your questions and placing phone calls by dialing 1 on the phone. Read More

Who says you need to now how to write code in order to create and sell your own iOS game? iStencyl is a program designed to allow you to create your web and iOS games without having any coding experience. The system lets you develop entire games using its block builder rather than code, however, it does support Objective-C for those who are code-savvy. Read More

The iPhone has a fantastic GPS system, can pump out your favorite tunes, and can call a friends when you're late meeting him or her for lunch. All that functionality is great, but can be hard to use when you're doing something like say, riding a bike. The QuadLock iPhone case is an iPhone case that can be used to lock your phone into place on your bicycle, car dash, or pretty much anywhere else you can think of. The case itself is made from tough polycarbonate plastic, and can be mounted in both portrait and landscape mode depending on your personal needs. Read More

Ever since Sony introduced me to portable music with its iconic Walkman series, my enormous collection of tunes has never been far from reach. I've been through tape cassette players, mini-Disc and CD players, and MP3/OGG/FLAC digital players but have stopped short of carrying my music around on my smartphone - preferring uninterrupted listening rather than risk being bothered by incoming calls and messages. My current digital music player has been giving me serious battery life issues of late, though, which shouldn't be an issue with Cowon's C2 MP3 player with its whopping 55 hours of claimed audio playback. So is there still room for the dedicated digital music player in a world dominated by media-playing mobile phones? I've been spending some quality time with the C2 and I think there is. Here's why... Read More

Fashionistas can have their phone and use it too. The third phone to come out of the partnership between PRADA and LG 3.0 was unveiled this week in London. The slim and stylish handset runs Android's Gingerbread OS. A distinct PRADA influence is evident on the phone's design. The handset exhibits clean and sharp lines with the design house's signature Saffiano pattern, typically etched into its leather goods, adorning the back of the phone. Read More