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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AT&T Says iPad 3G Shortage Won't Bar Getting Unlimited Data Plan

Since AT&T announced this week that it would eliminate its unlimited monthly data plans beginning Monday, June 7, some customers have been scrambling to get an iPad 3G with the hopes of signing up for the unlimited plan, which would be grandfathered in.

But the iPad 3G is still in short supply. When asked about this problem on Thursday, an AT&T press representative said, "We are looking into this situation and how we can accommodate these customers."

According to an executive at the company, who would not be identified because the company’s efforts were still being discussed internally, AT&T was exploring allowing customers who pay for an iPad before June 7, but don’t get the device in hand, to still sign up for an unlimited data account. And on Friday, a company spokesman said the decision had been made. "AT&T will honor the $29.99 unlimited data pricing for customers who order iPad by June 7," he said.

So now consumers have until 11:59 p.m. on June 6, just three days from now, to order an iPad with 3G capability and sign up for the unlimited plan when they receive it.

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AT&T Says iPad 3G Shortage Won't Bar Getting Unlimited Data Plan

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Is Verizon Testing iPads?

Verizon does not currently offer service for any Apple devices, but a new report suggests it might be at least testing one out.

The Boy Genius Report quoted Wednesday that according to one of its "highly placed sources," Verizon is testing the iPad on its network.

"We have been told that the model they are testing is a CDMA-compatible device, and while our source mentioned LTE in some capacity (possibly another model), we haven't been able to independently confirm that part of it," the BGR report says.

A Verizon spokesman said the company had no comment on the report.

Verizon is one of a few wireless networks that uses CDMA. AT&T is currently the only wireless operator in the U.S. that offers 3G service for the iPad, and it employs GSM technology. LTE (which stands for Long-Term Evolution), which several carriers including Verizon and AT&T are adopting, is a 4G technology that promises peak download speeds of at least 50Mbps.

It's important to remember that companies test devices all the time, and Verizon looking at how any device operates on its network does not necessarily mean it will offer it.

The timing of the source's tip to BGR is interesting, however: it comes the same day that AT&T announced it is changing its mobile-data plans, including the plan for the iPad. Instead of the original choice of $15 for 250MB per month and $30 for unlimited mobile-broadband use, AT&T now says iPad users can pay $15 for 200MB of data per month, or $25 for 2GB each month, with no unlimited-use option.

[via CNET]

Is Verizon Testing iPads?

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Android Tablets on Show by Foxconn and Hardkernel

Two 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet designs that run Google's mobile Android software are on display at the Computex electronics show in Taipei, one from Foxconn Technology and the other by Hardkernel.

The tablet from Foxconn is a reference design made to show vendors what kind of tablets could be put into production quickly, and uses Nvidia's Tegra chipset inside. Few details about the reference design were available. Foxconn is the trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic devices.

The other tablet is a product from South Korea's Hardkernel named the Odroid-T, and uses a Samsung Electronics' S5PC110 1GHz chipset. The devices includes external GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, a Micro-SD slot, standard SHCH slot and more. The company's Web site says it will be available in June, but does not list a price.

Both devices used Android version 2.1 and the Hardkernel model ran more smoothly. The company appears to have tweaked the Android software to run better on tablets. Android was designed by Google for smartphones.

The chipsets on both devices were both designed for high definition and 3D video, which companies believe will be important for the tablet market because people will watch a lot of video on the devices.

Over a dozen tablets designed to compete with Apple's iPad are on display at Computex this week, mainly with Android or Windows 7 software.

[via PCWorld]

Android Tablets on Show by Foxconn and Hardkernel

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Motorola Announces Android Flipout Smartphone

Today, Motorola has announced the released of the Flipout, a compact Android 2.1-based, square-shaped smartphone that in its form factor is a departure from other mobile phones.

"The Flipout, has a pivot design that opens to reveal a five-row QWERTY keypad with a separate row for numeric keys," said Chris Hazelton, an analyst with the 451 Group likens the Flipout to AT&T's Backflip from Motorola, which he says both have non-conventional form factors that won't resonate with everybody.

"It definitely is different; it mirrors the Nokia Twist, a square phone that twists up with the traditional form factor with the keyboard below the screen," said Hazelton, adding that this is the first time Motorola has offered a square-shaped phone. The difference, he said, is that the Twist is more of a feature phone and "not as capable as the Flipout, which can also access the Android marketplace for apps."

But like Motorola's other Android-based phones, the Flipout will take market share from feature phones, Hazelton said. Both Motorola and HTC have put software on top of the Android, which differentiates their phones and makes them useful for their target audience, which is commonly the social networker.

"It's interesting that no U.S. carriers picked up the phone," Hazelton noted, an indication that they may want to keep the Android for higher-end devices, while the Flipout is a mid-market device. He predicted Android phones will move into the midmarket in the next year.

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Motorola Announces Android Flipout Smartphone

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No More Unlimited Data Plans for New AT&T Wireless Customers

Just in time for the release of a new iPhone, AT&T will stop letting new customers sign up for its unlimited Internet data plan for smart phones and iPad's and charge more for users who hog the most bandwidth.

AT&T hopes to ease congestion on its network, which has drawn complaints, particularly in big cities. But the approach could confuse customers unfamiliar with how much data it takes to watch a YouTube video or fire up a favorite app.

Current subscribers will be able to keep their $30-per-month unlimited plans, even if they renew their contracts. But starting Monday, new customers will have to choose one of two new data plans for all smart phones, including iPhone's and BlackBerry's.

Subscribers who use little data — like those who may get dozens of e-mails a day but don't watch much video — will pay slightly less every month than they do now, while heavy users will be dinged with higher bills.

The move takes effect in time for the expected unveiling of Apple's new iPhone next week. Analysts said they expect other phone companies to follow. With no caps on consumption, data use could swamp wireless networks while revenue for the operators remains flat.

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No More Unlimited Data Plans for New AT&T Wireless Customers

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