Apple Designs Solar-Powered iPhones & iPods

Apple may be planning to develop solar-powered iPhones, suggested in patent filings that describe putting solar cells on portable devices and on iPods.

This isn't the first attempt to bring solar power to iPhones. As you may remember, in May, Dexim brought us the DCA19 P-Flip, a solar-powered battery and dock for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The most recent patent filed by Apple was on Touch Sensor Integrated Solar Panels on media players.

While the next couple of iPhones may not incorporate solar cells, given the recent patent applications by Apple, it's intuitive to realize that the company is looking to put more and more devices on solar power and eventually include iPhones. According to the patent application for solar cells on portable devices, Apple would completely cover the device in a thin film layer of solar cells, even the display.

According to Gizmodo, Motorola has considered fusing solar cells with LCDs. This would make your device even more efficient, because no matter which way you had it oriented in the sun, it would always be harnessing the power of the sun.

If Apple can cover your iPod or other devices completely in solar panels, then surely they can make a highly efficient solar powered phone. If not, you could always get a solar charging case.

[Patently Apple via Gizmodo]

Apple Designs Solar-Powered iPhones & iPods

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Top 7 Cell Phones

1. HTC Droid Incredible

The Droid Incredible by HTC is the future of computing in the palm of your hand. The super-sleek phone is less than half an inch thick, and yet it packs powerful components such as a 1 GHz processor, 8-megapixel camera, and a large high-resolution screen. Featuring the Android OS with Google, the Droid Incredible gives you access to all your social networks, websites, and thousands of applications, including Google Navigation with turn-by-turn directions.


2. HTC EVO 4G

The speedy HTC EVO 4G packs in some powerful specs and a variety of multimedia features into a stylish, minimalist design, but not everybody will get to enjoy one of its best features--4G connectivity.

3. Google Nexus One

Representing the next stage in smartphone development, the unlocked Google Nexus One phone from HTC offers supercharged power with one of the fastest processors currently available in a smartphone, a 3.7-inch AMOLED touch display, and access to all your contacts and most important data from a variety of Google tools via the Android 2.1 operating system.

4. Motorola Droid

The first Android-powered phone for Verizon Wireless, the 3G-enabled Motorola DROID smartphone offers a full package of powerful mobile connectivity--from easy access to all your social networks and viewing of full Web sites to spoken turn-by-turn directions thanks to the new Google Maps with Navigation Beta app. One of the thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available, the Motorola DROID also features a high-resolution 3.7-inch touchscreen display and a virtual onscreen keyboard that auto-rotates depending on the phone's orientation. And you'll be able to capture high-resolution images and DVD-quality videos on the go with its 5-megapixel camera with flash.

5. Apple 32GB iPhone 3GS

Performance enhancements distinguish the otherwise evolutionary step-up iPhone 3GS from its previous iterations.

6. Motorola Cliq

The CLIQ 3G-enabled touchscreen phone for T-Mobile, is Motorola's first Android-powered device, and the first to feature the innovative MOTOBLUR overlay to the Android OS, which manages and integrates e-mail and social networking activity including Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. In addition to a brightly colorful 3.5-inch touchscreen, the Motorola CLIQ also offers a side sliding full QWERTY keyboard for quick typing of tweets, status updates, and e-mail.

7. BlackBerry Bold 9700

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone has a large, hi-resolution screen that displays over 65,000 colors; creating a vivid viewing experience for all your photos, videos, files and websites. Access what's important with trackpad navigation based on how laptops are designed. Glide your finger over the trackpad to scroll through menus and icons. A slight press and click lets you select an item to navigate where you want to go. Enjoy music, videos, photos and documents in great color and sound. Easily sync data and audio files from your desktop to the BlackBerry Bold 9700, and get up to 35 hours of music playback time.

Top 7 Cell Phones

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Customized Xbox 360 Controller Brings Gaming to the Disabled

Steve Spohn is wheelchair-bound, on a ventilator and can barely move because of muscular dystrophy, but he's still able to play video games. He participated in last week's Games for Health conference in Boston, where the AbleGamers Foundation hosted the Hardware Hackers Challenge, a contest to build a handicap-accessible game controller in under two hours.

The result was a very rough, but functioning prototype of an Xbox 360 controller that had buttons and joysticks that could be moved around and assigned functions.

"I think the controller itself is important because when you're disabled, sometimes you're bed-bound ... and really, video games are your escape and controllers allow you to get to them," said Spohn.

The prototype, built from Xbox 360 controller parts, duct tape, Velcro and a bag of rice, was designed with Spohn's limited range of motion in mind.

"The real benefit is that all these buttons are actually considered blank, so you can assign any function you want to them," said Adam Coe, president of Evil Controllers, an Arizona-based company that modifies existing controllers to bring more functionally and flexibility to gaming. "You can make them all the 'A' button, you can make them all the 'B' button, you can do whatever you want."

Coe helped build the controller along with Ben Heckendorn and Suzanne Papajohn.

The controller also included a T-shirt that had buttons in the shoulders so that when a user shrugs, buttons are activated.

Mark Barlet, CEO of AbleGamers, a public charity that advocates for disabled people to take advantage of digital entertainment, said that the shoulder-activated buttons weren't very reliable, but that it was "a step in the right direction."

The homemade controller is far from commercialization, but Spohn hopes it one day could come to market. "I hope it's the beginning of a well-polished product," he said.

"It's important for people like me to have access to the outside world," Spohn said. "And for some of us, that's through games."

Spohn can move his fingers, shrug his shoulders, speak and flex his calf. Barlet said Spohn is resistant to using sip-puff controllers, or mice you can control with your mouth, because "he feels like that's giving up."

[via Yahoo! News]

Customized Xbox 360 Controller Brings Gaming to the Disabled

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Viruses Planted in Windows Smartphone Games

Hackers have planted viruses in video games for smartphones running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, according to a firm that specializes in securing mobile devices.

The games — 3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art — are available on sites that provide legitimate software for mobile devices, according to John Hering, CEO of San Francisco-based security firm Lookout.

Those games are bundled with malicious software that automatically dials premium-rate telephone services in Somalia, Italy and other countries, sometimes ringing up hundreds of dollars in charges in a single month.

Those services are run by the programmers who built the tainted software, Hering said Friday.

Victims generally do not realize they have been infected until they get their phone bill and see hundreds of dollars of unexpected charges for those premium-rate services, he said.

Hackers are increasingly targeting smartphone users as sales of the sophisticated mobile devices have soared with the success of Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android operating system.

Officials with Microsoft could not immediately be reached for comment.

[via Reuters]

Viruses Planted in Windows Smartphone Games

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