Mobile

WildCharge has introduced a new addition to its line-up of wireless charging accessories - the PowerDisc. Small enough to allow several devices to be used at the same time on one WildCharger pad, the contact module is embedded in the disc which comes supplied with seven adapters compatible with hundreds of portable gadgets from the likes of Nokia, Blackberry, HTC, LG and Samsung.  Read More

Fully-featured mobile multimedia is finally moving beyond the automobile with Clarion's addition of a watertight multimedia head-unit to its range of custom marine products. The Clarion CMV1 features a 3.5-inch TFT color display, offers DVD-video, DivX, iPod Video playback and, with rear panel AV inputs and outputs, it is capable of driving additional display screens. It cleverly has a one-year back-up memory so radio presets are not lost if your boat is in seasonal storage. The unit delivers a comprehensive on-board entertainment experience that was previously reserved for in-car and can now be fully appreciated in the unique and relaxing environment offered by watercraft.  Read More

Devastating wildfires are burning around the Mediterranean this summer and down south, Australia is still recovering from its worst wildfire season in history in which more than 150 lives and 1800 homes were lost on ‘Black Saturday’. Telecommunications are paramount to helping save lives and direct fire-fighting efforts in wildfires but unfortunately, infrastructure such as mobile and fixed line phones and Internet services are often early casualties in fire ravaged areas. The country’s major telco, Telstra, has launched a portable solution to this issue with the unveiling of a AUD$200,000 Mobile Exchange on Wheels (MEOW) which can be quickly deployed to provide temporary fixed-line communications including broadband.  Read More

Light Blue Optics (LBO) has received an injection of funds to further its development of, among other things, a holographic laser projection technology. The big news is that this technology can be touch-enabled, meaning any flat surface, such as a table, can be instantly transformed into a touch-sensitive display, eliminating the need for a touch screen and allowing users to directly interact with multimedia content.  Read More

Desalination is a popular source of potable water in Middle Eastern countries, where large energy reserves and the relative scarcity of water suitable for drinking led to desalination in the region accounting for close to 75% of total world capacity in 2007. If that figure hasn’t already dropped it almost certainly will as access to clean water becomes an issue for many places around the globe. And the shortage isn’t just limited to developing countries, with places like California and parts of Australia facing their worst droughts in recorded history. A new mini-mobile-modular (M3) “smart” water desalination and filtration system could help determine the feasibility of desalination in areas that may be considering it for the first time.  Read More

The ever-decreasing size of mobile devices might be a godsend for the pocket, but it poses problems for keyboard input. There have been a variety of solutions looking to solve the problem, from the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard to the Virtual Keyboard (VKB) that projects a keyboard onto any flat surface. One of the problems with these kinds of keyboards, however, is the lack of tactile feedback afforded by pressing actual buttons. Shrinking the keyboard down to fit on a mobile device of course presents its own problems and manufacturers must weigh size against usability by the chubby fingered. Samsung may have a solution with a folding wing design that would allow a reasonably sized keyboard to fold out from the rear of a mobile device.  Read More

The first Android-powered phone to market, the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream), was an awkward device with its main appeal derived from the fact it was Android-powered. The HTC Magic is the second Android device to reach consumers, and in terms of hardware, it’s largely the same as its predecessor. The key difference is the move from a slide out, physical QWERTY keyboard to an iPhone-style on-screen keyboard. If you have your doubts as to whether this is enough to make the Magic an attractive device in an iPhone-crazed world, you might be surprised after reading Tim Hanlon's review of the HTC Magic over at The Mobiler.  Read More

Are your cupboards full of old phone chargers? They seem to accumulate with every new mobile, and are rarely useful again. Hoping to change this wasteful scenario, the European Union have proposed – and ten leading manufacturers agreed to – a new standard that will see micro-USB charging devices used for all data-enabled mobile phones. The hope is that, within three to four years, mobiles and chargers will be sold separately in Europe, and they’ll all be compatible.  Read More

With the ever-increasing number of games available for the iPhone and iPod Touch through the App Store it seems many users find the Apple devices an acceptable gaming platform. One of the major downsides for gamers though is the lack of any real physical buttons. 22Moo is looking to provide mobile gamers with a solution in the form of the GameBone Pro, an OS 3.0 compatible, 8-way D-pad, 6 button game controller that connects to an iPhone or iPod Touch via Bluetooth or Apple’s 30-pin dock connector.  Read More