Author: Simon Chester

3D is pretty hot right now. There’s the movies, the TVs, the games, the handhelds, and, well, why not the mobile phones?

Photos of a rumoured 3D phone by Motorola surfaced today, and while the screen on the device looks 2D on my monitor, there is reason to believe that the screen is, in fact, a 3D thingo.

At first glance, the flip-up screen on the device seems nothing more than a silly screen protector, but a recent patent application from Motorola for a 3D screen that relies on a secondary overlay gives a much more interesting purpose to this unusual form factor.

With devices like this hitting the market, I guess this is just a taste of things to come: 3D-mania will certainly be hanging around for some time, it seems.

For more photos of, and info on, this mystery device, head on over to Android and Me.

Straight from the horses mouth, comes the news that the latest incarnation of every suit-totin’, email-checkin’, business-type’s favourite phone OS (that is, BlackBerry OS 6.0) will be released this Summer.

During an analyst talk today, RIM co-chief Mike Lazaridis showed off the first official teasers of the new OS.

New features will include the previously mentioned WebKit browser — which will now play a central role in the OS, and the OS will support both trackpad and touchscreen devices, but the juiciest bombshell was the news that older BlackBerries will be able to upgrade, though it wasn’t stated how many models will be given the option.

That’s nice of RIM, isn’t it?

[via Phone Arena]

Are you hankerin’ for some hot 4G action, but a little worried that the new tech could add a premium on top of the handset price? Well, lucky for you I have some good news: The new hotness — the Sprint EVO 4G — is rumoured to cost only $199 on contract from Best Buy.

Darrin Morton from OZCarGuide got the info from a Best Buy employee, but sadly has no photos or other evidence to back the claim up, so it will remain on the “rumour” pile for now.

But, while it’s not a revolutionary price, it is in line with current (non-4G) models, so it seems a logical (if not pleasant, given the whole “next-gen” thing) price point.

This is, of course, without word of how much the monthly plan will cost, so you kids better keep on saving your pocket money, just in case.

Activate the cone of silence.
Don your tinfoil hat.
Pull the bedsheets up.

Now that you’ve taken the necessary precautions, I have to tell you some bad news: two researchers have found a way to exploit the mobile phone system in order to locate pretty much anyone they want. That means you, Carmen. All those years of hiding have been for naught. They’ll be here any moment now. This is the end: they’ve found you.

The exploit enables anybody with the right equipment and know-how to find out a person’s private mobile phone number, and track their location (via celltowers, not GPS). Using another exploit, it is possible to listen to their voicemail messages.

Interestingly, these exploits are within the bounds of the law. Thankfully (I suppose), they can’t monitor phone calls or read text messages, but this is clearly still a cause for concern.

The hacks are done through exploiting a series of weak-points across various telephony systems in the world. The details of the techniques are outlined over at CNET, and are worth a read.

A talk on the exploit (entitled “We Found Carmen San Diego”) was given at the Source Boston security conference on Wednesday.

The worst part of all this is that it seems that nothing is being done to fix it, and, in fact, it may not even be universally fixable.

I think now is the time time to pull those bedsheets up a little higher.

Hey kids! Do you have a Palm Pre or Pre Plus? Do you long for a little extra oomph? Some extra glide in it stride, spring in its step, and dip in its hip? Are you aware that overclocking hacks exist, but are fearful of how difficult they are to implement? Are you still listening? Good, because I have some fantastic news!

Some of Pre Central’s finest have created what they call the Super PreKernel App, which is a dead-simple way to bump the speed of your Pre or Pre Plus up to Superman speeds, or down to snail’s pace, as you see fit.

They’ve even gone and created a video detailing the whole process, illustrated with the very metaphors you just read, and complemented by a classic soundtrack to boot. I’ve embedded it below for your enjoyment.

The overclocking process is now dead-simple, so you might as well read the disclaimer and get going.

Details and instructions are available here.

[via Engadget]

Image adapted from:

Airports are wonderful places, aren’t they? Everyone is friendly, the seats are comfortable, the prices reasonable, and the food delicious. I love hanging around airports. I relish the time between connecting flights, and I have been known to pack my bags and drive to the nearest international airport just to hang out and pretend I’m waiting for a flight.

However, I realise that these feelings aren’t universal; there are some people out there who don’t enjoy airports. While I would be happy to relish in the extra few days of airport merriment that the recent flight cancellations have caused, Skype seem to think I’m in the minority, and have taken it upon themselves to give free internet access at more than 100,000 WiFi hotspots worldwide.

Skype Access, the service that lets you pay for WiFi access using Skype credit, will be free until 23:59GMT on Friday 23rd April 2010. This means you can check your email, surf the web, and — most importantly — call your parents, for free.

While I view paying $20 an hour for an internet connection whilst sipping $5 worth of aged, extra-bitter coffee, as “all part of the experience” some people may not enjoy it. If you are one of those people, and want to take advantage of the free WiFi on offer, all you need is a nearby compatible WiFi access point, and the latest version of Skype.

[via Pocket Lint]

Despite the Droid Incredible’s release date still being a long week away, some unnaturally lucky types received have their new toys early.

There seems to have been a glitch in the Matrix that caused the phones to travel back in time 9 days. By “Matrix” I mean “Verizon’s phone ordering system” and by “travel back in time 9 days” I mean “get sent out immediately after the pre-order was placed”.

Now, now, before you get too excited and run off to pre-order your Incredible in the hopes it will be sent out early, I have some bad news for you: the glitch has been fixed.
Oh well. At least you can live vicariously through the video posted by one of the lucky pre-order guys over at the Android Forums.

[via Engadget]

Following hot on the sexy heels of the BlackBerry OS 6.0 leak, comes word of some interesting BlackBerry firsts. The first first (so to speak) is that BlackBerry 6.0 has now been spotted running on a device. The second first (*ahem*) is that said device is also the (almost) first clamshell blackberry device! It shall be known, affectionately, as the 9670.

Boy Genius Report tell us that the CDMA device will sport a QWERTY keypad, a 5 megapixel camera (Lo! Another BlackBerry first!), a 360×480 display on the inside, and a big (but apparently unmeasured) display on the outside.

It will also have the now near-standard additions of WiFi, Bluetooth, MicroSD support, and a microUSB port. Of course, it will also have all the goodies associated with OS 6.0, including the new WebKit-based, tabbed browser, and the updated multimedia player.

No doubt other new and exciting devices are planned for release with BlackBerry OS 6.0, and you can bet your best cow that we’ll be postin’ all the info we know as soon as it arises.

I’m sure by now that you’ve all heard the arguments both for and against the new Terms of Service that accompany iPhone v4.0 SDK, so I won’t get into those arguments here.

However, I will let you know of the announcement today that Adobe have now dropped future support for iPhones as a development target for Flash CS5. While users will still be able to set the iPhone as a target in CS5, Adobe will invest nothing more into the feature. It is also likely that Apple will be removing the 100+ Flash CS5 developed applications from the App Store.

It is interesting — though unsurprising — that Adobe have done this.

It’s unsurprising because applications developed for the iPhone using Flash will have a strong chance of being rejected during the App Store screening process. Few developers would want to invest time and money on such a high-risk project, so there is no real business incentive for Adobe to offer the feature anymore.

It is interesting because it may signal a trend fpr developers to move toward open platforms. Mike Chambers, the Principal Product Manager for developer relations for the Flash Platform at Adobe, stated today on his blog:
“Personally, I am going to shift all of my mobile focus from iPhone to Android based devices (I am particularly interested in the Android based tablets coming out this year) and not focus on the iPhone stuff as much anymore.”

The real juice, though, came when he added:
“This includes both Flash based, and Objective-C based iPhone development. While I actually enjoy working in Objective-C, I don’t have any current plans to update and / or maintain my existing native iPhone applications.”

This move isn’t because of a preference for developing in Flash (which is welcomed on the Android platform), but rather because Chambers is taking a stand against Apple’s “closed, locked down platform”.

Clearly there would be a bit of bias from an employee of the company that was on the receiving end of the hurt stick, but Chambers is not the first major player to leave the iPhone space because of Apple’s draconian rules: in November last year, Joe Hewitt — the man behind the immensely popular Facebook app for iPhone — left the team developing the application because of Apple’s policies.

Is this a taste of things to come? Who else in the future will defect to the open side?

[image courtesy of Before It’s News]

Sprint’s so-hot-it-burns EVO 4G is coming of age, and has decided to invite its besties out for a little party in New York City on May 12.

Just like it’s jealous WinMo-powered older brother, HD2, EVO 4G has decided to go with a movie theme for its party: the peeps are invited to come watch the fun-loving Prince of Persia play in the Sands of Time ahead of the Prince’s Memorial Day release.

EVO 4G’s proud uncle, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, will also be there. A fun time for the whole family.

Sadly, there is still no word on when EVO 4G will be allowed out to play with the kids on the street, but you can sure as heck bet that as soon as we know, we’ll pass the message over to you toot-sweet.

[via Android Central]

We alluded yesterday that the higher resolution screen on the Phantom iPhone of Redwood City would more-than-likely have double the horizontal and vertical pixels of the current iPhone screen (therefore quadrupling the pixel count), and now the ever-reliable John Gruber has weighed in on the likelihood of a new-and-improved double-PPI resolution.

The main take-away here is that while the current iPhone screen is gorgeous, Apple are trying to make the screen on the next iPhone look as clear as the print found in expensive glossy magazines. The new screens would have a pixels per inch (PPI) resolution of around 325. To put this in context, all previous iPhones have about 162 PPI, and the current line of MacBooks have about 133 PPI. Put simply, this new screen will blow your mind, and probably your eyeballs.

From a technical perspective, the new pixel count makes sense, as (presumably) all existing iPhone apps will easily, simply — and most importantly — laglessly scale up to fit the new screen. While these lower resolution apps may look a little donky on the large iPad screen, the re-scale will be undetectable on the smaller iPhone screen.

You can read John Gruber’s full analysis over at Daring Fireball.

Amid the flurry of news surrounding the next-gen iPhone revelations, another little tidbit of information about iPhone OS 4.0 has made it’s way out: it seems that Facebook contact and event integration may be a new system feature.

While this may not be a new concept for the Android and WebOS devout among us, it is one that the iPhone could really benefit from.

Having contacts linked to Facebook means that your phonebook is automatically updated whenever your contacts update any of their numbers. As long as your contact keeps their Facebook details up-to-date, you never have to worry about losing that number again, Rikki. Or Milli, for that matter.

Calendar Integration with Facebook events will also be a boon for the socialites, as Facebook Events are becoming an ever more popular way to organise, promote, and prepare for keg parties.

Apple Insider last week noted the existence of a “linked contacts” feature in iPhone OS 4.0, which ties in nicely with the newly discovered Facebook integration, but it seems that it was a nail gun safety blog entitled Gunning For Safety that broke the news of the system-level integration with Facebook. They have the evidence and reasoning behind it on their website, as well as some statistics on nail gun related injuries. So, whaddaya waiting for?

[via Engadget]

The specs for the upcoming T-mobile exclusive, lower-end Android device — the myTouch 3G Slide — have been revealed by a source with the device in their possession.
No spec sheets accompany the device, but the source was able to confirm the following:

• A 600 MHz ARM processor,
• 512MB RAM,
• 512MB on-board storage,
• A 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash.
• An 8GB MicroSD card included in the box,
• Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI and multi-touch support, and

Live wallpapers, as seen on the Nexus One, Droid Incredible, and other Android 2.1 phones, will not make an appearance on this device due to the lower-spec CPU.

Interestingly, the phone will come pre-installed with Swype as the default keyboard, but — as with all Android devices — this can be changed if desired. The popular (and really quite fun) Android game, Abduction, will also come installed, along with a heap of T-mobile apps, including a music streaming service similar to Pandora.

The device is expected to launch in May.

[via Electronista]

Over the weekend — as is the tradition with upcoming iPhone models — photos were leaked that purport to be of the next-gen (G4) iPhone.

Engadget originally released them, then thought they were fake, but now claim that they are, in fact, genuine. It seems quite likely that they are genuine, especially as Gizmodo has just released a hands-on video of that very same leaked device, and claim to have had it in their posession for a week.

A few interesting features have come to light due to these leaks:

• A radical change in design, including a semi-transparent, ceramic backing/battery cover,
• a higher resolution, but slightly smaller, screen,
• a front-facing camera,
• a larger camera lens and flash for the rear camera,
• an 80GB (!) capacity,
• a higher capacity battery, and
• a micro-sim slot.

Gizmodo back the device’s authenticity, and deliver a convincing argument to say as much. I agree with them: this is likely the real deal. Some design features may change before launch, but this is a very polished device, so I can’t imagine that much will.

But don’t take just my word for it, you can go see the video and read Gizmodo’s evidence for yourself here.

And the original Engadget post is here.

Sony Ericsson today posted their Q1 results for 2010, and the results are… good!
Despite most analysts predicting a net loss (a recent Reuters poll of analysts showed an average estimated loss of €157m), Sony Ericsson have gone and surprised everyone by turning a €18m profit.

This time last year they posted a €370m loss, and have posted losses for the last 7 quarters. Needless to say, this is a great turn-around for the company.

Staff cutbacks and a shift of focus to higher-margin smartphones are to thank, with this profit coming despite selling about 28% less handsets than they did in Q1 2009. Their new strategy has meant their average price of handset has now increased from €120 to €134, and their margins have shot up from 8% to 30%.

With this strategy proving a success, expect Sony Ericsson to continue to release high-end handsets like the Xperia X10 and Vivaz/Pro in the future.

[via The Register]

This is a heads up for anyone running Windows Mobile 6.5:
A little over a month ago, an xda-developers member reported that his phone was waking up on its own and attempting to dial out international numbers. Soon after, other users started reporting the same thing, and after some investigation, it turned out that a virus was to blame. The virus is particularly alarming because it has the potential to cost the phone owner a lot of money.

The virus comes in the form of the game “3D Anti-Terrorist”. DO NOT INSTALL THIS GAME.

If you have installed the game, or if you have noticed any funky international numbers appearing in your call history, there are instructions to remove the virus available here.

The original thread containing all the investigative work that lead to the discovery, can be found here.

[Image by xda member emcn84 and via xda-developers]

HTC are considering equipping phones with their own OS, an interview with HTC’s chief financial officer, Cheng Hui-ming, revealed today.
It’s very early days yet, with HTC only going so far as to say that they “continue to assess” having their own OS, but that there are “a few conditions to justify” before anything will come of it.

This news comes amidst rumours of HTC being a potential buyer of Palm, and one can’t help but see the idea of having their own OS tying in nicely with the purchase of a company that already has their own OS up-and-running.
[via Bloomberg]

This is about as firm a leak as you can get: the HTC Incredible has been revealed on a Verizon staging site.

Sadly, no further specs or pricing was revealed, but the April 29th launch date that we talked about earlier is mentioned, as is the new branding for the device: The “Droid Incredible”. Not the greatest of names, no, but I’ll give the marketers extra points for consistency.

The site (found here) was revealed by AndroidForums member Zulucap, and since the initial discovery, the site has changed to reveal the updated device name and release date, so who knows what else may spring up on the site in the future?

Update: They’ve locked the page down! Looks like that definitely wasn’t supposed to be found yet.

We’ve received word that Vodafone announced today that it will be the exclusive carrier for the iPad in Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, with price plans for all models offered from the end of May.

There are no dollar figures to go with the announcement, either for the plans or the iPad itself, but you can be sure we’ll keep you in the loop as information comes to light.

This comes just after Apple announced that strong delay in the US has pushed the international iPad launch back one month until the end of May.

Update: Looks like it’s not so exclusive after all. O2 will also be offering iPad plans in the UK come May.

Sprint tried rolling out a website upgrade/overhaul on the weekend, but have suffered outages since Sunday because of it. The main site appears to be up and running again, but the “My Sprint”, “Support”, and “Community” sections still appear to be broken.

Sprint have said that they are allowing some traffic through, and monitoring stability for those that are allowed in.
In the mean time, if you need to access their account services, Sprint suggest either dialling (for free)

• *4 to get account balance information
• *3 to make an automated payment
• *2 to call customer care

Or, for account information, try using their Facebook or iGoogle widgets.

You can get updates about the site availability from their Twitter account.