Author: Kat Hannaford

Unveiled as part of Hong Kong retailer JOYCE’s line of fashion designer-created iPhone cases…blah blah blahdy blah. IT’S A ROCK. I hope you enjoy the feeling of a mugger beating you over the head with your “camouflaged” iPhone. [HighSnobiety]

Droid owners have been waiting and waiting for 2.1 to materialize, but fortunately a firmware update has leaked for both handsets. Motorola and Verizon have both promised OTA updates, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when they’ll be out—so this may just be the fastest way to get the latest Android flavor on your pocket-friend. [XDA-Developers via Droid Life via Android and Me]

ASUS has a habit of pricing its products very fairly, and while 3D technology is still in its infancy, I can’t imagine them charging too much for their three monitors shown off this week at CeBIT.

All three of the monitors will use NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision glasses, with the first monitor launching being the 23-inch MG236, which has dual-link DVI connectivity so all that 3D video is played at full 1080p resolution. A 23.6-inch PG246 and 27-inch PG276 will also go on sale, but much later in the year apparently. ASUS hasn’t been forthcoming with the prices on these three monitors, but as I said before, expect them to be loooow. [TechInStyle]

Those press covering the Olympics sure do have a plum life. They bundle off to Vancouver for 16 days of watching ice-skaters embarrassing themselves, and ruthless Russian bobsledders showing their dark sides. Oh, and they get lens-shaped thermoses.

The story goes that a Microsoft employee by the name of Josh Weisberg wandered into the Canon press tent at the Olympic Press Center, and got given a 70-200mm Canon L-series lens. Or so he thought, probably tucking it safely in his backpack before Canon realized they had gifted him a lens instead of a branded pen or hat.

I hope he wasn’t too disappointed when he realized it was a thermos. I’d happily take it off his hands. [PDN Pulse via CrunchGear]

Image Credit: Josh Weisberg

Now that the Apple Vs Google war has eclipsed the Microsoft Vs Google war, Microsoft has felt it safe to quietly slip the Android platform a freebie. Tag is a high capacity color barcode reader also available for iPhone.

It’s been around for some time on other platforms (BlackBerry and Symbian as well as the iPhone), and certainly isn’t the first barcode reader for Android—but Tag is worth checking out as not only is it a free download, it’s also a more advanced way of reading barcodes. [MSDN via SlashGear]

Ovi Maps has been a focal point for Nokia in the last few weeks since they gave it all away for free, so it’s not surprising a hardware company wants to use their turn-by-turn navigation for cars.

If you’ve got an Alpine car system with a dashboard or speakers, then you’ll be able to connect your Nokia handset by either Bluetooth or USB, with navigation displayed by Ovi Maps on the dashboard. Navigation updates and music can come through your car’s speakers rather than the Nokia’s puny little speaker, and even information about the fuel levels and engine health can be integrated into Ovi Maps, so if you’re in need of fuel for example, Ovi Maps will tell you where the next petrol station is.

No products have been shown off just yet, but this Terminal Mode will be available on Nokia phones soon apparently—and with well over 3m downloads of the free Ovi Maps, upgrading your car system could prove very tantalizing for some. [Alpine via Engadget via SlashGear]

Lomo cameras (back in the day) were popular as they were cheap as chips and almost disposable, made from just flimsy plastic. Now, they’re coated in 24-carat gold and in limited edition runs of 130 pieces.

It’ll still produce the same dreamy photos full of saturated colors and vignetted corners, but at $600 a piece it’ll probably be relegated to a dusty shelf than actually be used. Still, I definitely want one—especially now that I can spoil the aesthetic completely with Lomography’s new instant back accessory for the LC-A+. [Lomography via Retro To Go]

After it was pulled in December due to some bugs, Layar is back in the App Store, available for iPhone 3GS users.

Just in case you need a run-through, Layar—which is also available on Android—is an augmented reality app which lets you discover people and places around you, based on different layers you select. It’s only available for the 3GS as it needs a compass to work, and also uses the camera function to display your surroundings on a cool grid. Definitely worth downloading if you haven’t already. [Layar via Mobile-Ent]

Seen through the eye of the YouTube gloryhole is Honda’s eco-friendly trike, which debuted this week at the Geneva Motor Show.

While it’s just a concept, it’s on display at the show where the battery-powered three-wheeler is being ogled by people OTHER THAN US. It makes me slightly teary at the thought. [Electricpig]

Simon Pegg may’ve confirmed they’re never making a sequel to Shaun of the Dead, a TV series, or a radio show based on the zombie-fest, but this zombie shadow cast only costs $15. Tempted? You bet! [MakersMarket via Boing Boing]

UK bookies Paddy Power doesn’t have much faith in the state of console gaming. After the PS3’s spectacular shitstorm of a failure this week, they’re putting odds of 11/8 on it happening again. The Xbox 360 meanwhile has 7/4 odds.

Sweet, innocent little Wii, which never hurts anyone with downtime—just a few broken plasmas when it first came onto the scene—has odds of just 2/1. They’re taking bets now, with the next console to suffer a “global glitch” that gets reported on the UK Sky News paying out bigtime for those in the know. [Paddy Power via MCV]

People have been thinking long and hard for well over a month now whether they’ll buy the Wi-Fi version which is available this month, or wait for next month’s 3G model. AT&T isn’t arguing their case well here.

Chief executive Randall Stephenson said at an investor conference yesterday that the iPad will mostly be a “Wi-Fi driven product,” adding his thoughts on the likelihood of someone wanting a second contract. At least they know the score of the game. [Reuters]

Nokia’s picked the beta version of the Skype app up off the floor, dusted it off, and granted it a shiny new spot in its Ovi Store, for all Symbian^1 phones. Your network can kiss goodbye your money.

It works over Wi-Fi or a data connection on these handset models: Nokia E71, N96, N85, 5320, 6210 Navigator, 6220 classic, N78, N79, E63, E66, N82, E51, N95, N95 8GB, N81, N81 8GB, E90, E72, 5800 XpressMusic, N97, N97 mini, X6, and the 5530.

While it only works on Nokia handsets at the moment, Skype plans on launching the app on other manufacturers’ Symbian phones, with Sony Ericsson next in line to get the free Skype-to-Skype calls, IM ability and sharing files functionality. It’s available now through the Ovi Store, however whenever I click on it it says the item is no longer available. First day nerves, I bet. [Nokia Conversations]

ThinkFlood has just killed the first RedEye product which went on sale in December for $188, with the massively-superseding RedEye Mini. It costs only $49 and plugs into the iPhone’s 3.5mm jack instead of via a clunky plastic dock.

It’s by no means the first universal remote control peripheral for the iPhone, with L5 plugging into the dock connector, and Fastmac and Power A providing the IR transmitter in a case.

The RedEye Mini connects to the jack, and after entering a unique code into your iPhone or iPod it then loads the app, which provides the interface for controlling your TV, stereo, or other home devices. Changing TV channels can be achieved by flicking the iPhone around like it’s a wii-mote, and dragging two fingers down the screen turns the volume down. [ThinkFlood via Engadget]

UPDATE: Apparently, unlike the first RedEye, the RedEye Mini doesn’t support more than one room, and there’s no need to enter a code to download the app either.

If Sony hadn’t slapped a big logo on the side of this headset, I would’ve thought they had come from Bang & Olufsen instead. Designed for gamers, Skypers and music-listeners, the DR-350USB (pictured), DR-320DPV and DR-31DPV headsets drop in March.

The sexiest of the bunch are the USB PC ones above, which have 30mm driver units, and inbuilt microphones with the ability to mute, making them ideal for gaming. They come in black, gold and red.

Seen here in blue, the DR-320DPV is just like the previous model, but without a mute function. It also has a volume control though, which could be handy—and comes in gold, blue, red and black. The pink ones below are the DR-310DPV model, which are also available in white, silver and green—and as you can see from the slender band, are aimed at the laydees. It’s got a separate volume control, with the microphone located in the headphones. [Sony Insider via Uber Gizmo]

The humble To Do list has been updated, with the Dunnit! iPhone app using gaming-style achievement points for every task completed. Sure beats scribbling on the back of an envelope I guess, though it’d be better if they translated into redeemable points.

Having some sort of incentive to tick off every task on the list would definitely make me more pro-active, especially if you could translate them into iTunes gift cards or something. Though at $4.99 a download, the developer Runloop would have to be raking in a lot of downloads for that to make financial sense.

Dunnit! lets you compete against friends who also use the iPhone app, and you can tweet your results to your followers—if you dare. [iTunes via Mobile-Ent]

Champagne corks stopped popping in Rubinstein’s office long ago, but speculation suggesting Palm might be working on a WiMax phone with Sprint could see the CEO buying in a few crates of Veuve.

Palm embarked on a massive bender with Sprint last year, launching its first webOS products with them, so it’s not the craziest rumor we’ve heard. It’d certainly be a big launch for Palm to get behind, though HTC was thought to be working with Sprint on something similar. [Computerworld via BGR]

While resistive touchscreens are being phased out in favor of capacitive screens, Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft are working together on touchscreens for your body, called Skinput.

Sure, you could just get one of those laser keyboards and project it onto your arm, but Skinput actually recognizes which part of your body you’ve tapped, based on the sound that’s made on either the skin, muscle or skeleton. The wearer must strap on an armband containing piezoelectric cantilevers, or sensors that measure pressure, acceleration and force, with a pico projector similar to what’s found in phones beaming the interface onto the skin.

The technology could be used with gaming, or even pair up wirelessly to phones or PCs for a different form of input. I quite like the idea of texting just by dancing my fingers on my forearm, with the message sent by Bluetooth to the phone in my pocket—or taking my shoe off and beaming the keyboard and menu onto the sole, just like Maxwell Smart. [New Scientist]

It may not be the $1m that Tapulous brings in each month for its Tap Tap Revenge series of iPhone apps, but independent developer Edward Kim is understandably pleased with his $13,000/month from the Car Locator Android app.

He’s seen 70,000 downloads of the free app, but 6,950 of the paid-for version. Kim originally priced it at $1.99 per download, but increased it to $3.99—with the number of downloads unaffected by the price hike.

The app is pretty basic, it saves your location wherever you park, and when you return to the carpark it will help you navigate back to the location. Writing on his blog, Kim said:

“it was netting an average of about $80 – $100/day, until it became a featured app on the Marketplace. Since then, sales have been phenomenal, netting an average of $435/day, with a one day record of $772 on Valentine’s Day.”

He’s happy to praise the way Android Marketplace swaps featured apps around, unlike the iPhone’s App Store:

“Some may be quick to point out that a featured Android application is only able to net $400/day, while top iPhone apps make thousands. But the Android market appears to rotate applications in and out of the featured apps list in some psedo-random fashion. Every time I open the Marketplace app, the featured list is different and most of the time, I don’t even see my app on there.”

Back in November, when he had only 23,000 downloads and the paid-for version cost just $1.99, Kim credited the launch of the Droid as being a reason he’d seen such a spike in downloads. [Edward Kim via Mobile-Ent]

Image Credit: AndroLib