Author Archive: Gareth

Woman finds phone in bag of chips, completely overreacts

In the US, there is a chain of stores known as Aldi. Aldi specializes in selling off brand food in large packages at very cheap prices. Recently a woman in Wisconsin  bought a bag of chips (crisps for our English readers) at an Aldi, and got a surprise. In the bag she found an old used cell phone, for the record it was a Nokia, but it doesn’t really matter. Her reaction is probably the most interesting thing about the situation. This poor lady over completely overreacted, instead of tossing out the offending bag, or returning it to the store, she filed a complaint with the FDA.

Now I know that finding anything inside a bag of chips, besides the chips themselves, can be unappetizing, but it isn’t like she found a severed finger or a mouse carcass in there. I really don’t think wayward electronics in food is that big a problem in the United States. In fact out of the hundreds of millions of pounds of food consumed in the US every week, and this is the first time I have ever heard of an incident like this happening.

Memphis Police Department embraces Celio Redfly and the future

For years, police departments have been installing laptop computers in their patrol cars to give officers in the field access to critical information. The police in  Memphis Tennessee have been using smartphones for a while now to supplement their in car laptops, but there was a problem, the officers were having a hard time with data input on the small devices. Enter the Celio Redfly, which is a laptop shaped machine that tethers to a smartphone and allows the police to use the smartphones in conjunction with a larger screen and keyboard. This allows the police to continue taking advantage of the flexibility and portability of a smartphone when out of the patrol car, but the more ergonomic advantages of a laptop while in the car. The Memphis Police Department have deployed 1200 of the Redflys, and I’m sure this will be a big help to the officers on patrol.

HTC Maple caught on camera

The successor to the hugely popular HTC Excalibur or T-Mobile Dash has been a long time coming since the Cavalier never really came about and Engadgetmobile have spotted a picture of it which originates from Cnet. Looking at the picture the QWERTY keyboard looks a dream to use with nice big well spaced keys. Also we can see a trackball type interface and a the device will apparently feature a cool new feature HTC is calling "Inner Circle," which seems to aggregate communication with people you care about depending on the time of day and day of week whatever that means. The screen looks like the standard 320 x 240 QVGA landscape resolution running Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard. That’s all we know so far, but its sure to be a 3G phone at the very least.

via Engadgetmobile

Windows Mobile 6.5 honeycomb menu, brilliant by design

Lots of blogs and media sources were quick to cast doubt over the recently announced Windows Mobile 6.5 update especially the rather strange honeycomb layout of the new start menu. Well the guys at istartedsomething have analysed the structure of the honeycomb and come up with some interesting facts. The truth is, the honeycomb from a usability perspective is superior than traditional square grids for a touch interface. Here’s why.

Windows Mobile 6.5 video on a Diamond2

We had a brief glimpse of Windows Mobile 6.5 during MWC a couple of weeks back, now the guys at Areamobile have managed to get hold of an HTC Diamond2 running 6.5. The video is in German however you can still enjoy the demo as they show you the home screen, honeycomb launcher, the new contact application, web browser and the unlock screen. Take a look at the video after the break.

Mobile browsing market share

In the mobile browsing arena, Net Applications reported that it had taken its first detailed look at market share and pronounced Apple’s iPhone as having a "commanding lead" with 66.61 percent of the market. But, Net Applications noted, "Android and BlackBerry are rapidly gaining market share. This does not mean that iPhone web browsing is shrinking, because the overall market is growing rapidly." Android, which Google released in October 2008, came in fourth with 6.15 percent, following No. 2 Java ME’s 9.06 percent and No. 3 Windows Mobile’s 6.91 percent. Interesting point to note, the leading smartphone OS, Symbian makes up 6.15% of the mobile browsing figure which is really low if you consider the amount of Symbian handsets throughout the world and just proves the point that most users of Symbian maybe don’t use all the features available to them.

via Cnet

Asus P835 video tour

The folks over at pda.pl have got hold of the recently announced Asus P835, you know the one with the 3.5” touchscreen that runs at WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution, has the Asus Glide overlay and a trackball similar to what you find on the Blackberry devices. We have the video after the break and it looks like a lovely device. Take a look for yourself .

O2 sell their 1 millionth iPhone in the UK

O2 has announced that it managed to shift its millionth iPhone onto the UK public last quarter, helping it achieve positive year-on-year revenue growth. In its quarterly results, the network showed a 5.9 per cent growth in revenue, which was squarely in the middle of what was expected.

BlackBerry devices have also fared well for the network, which has twice seen queues around the block for a new device when it launched both iterations of the iPhone in the UK.

While the company is also a relative minnow in the broadband market, it has seen some strong growth in that area too, with a four-fold increase in the customer base.

via Techradar

Nokia netbook to be made in partnership with Taiwanese companies?

Rumours of Nokia entering into the mobile computer biz has been one of the hot topics on the internet lately, and according to Digitimes, Nokia is actually in talks already with several Taiwan netbook makers and EMS companies for possible tie-ups in their latest venture. As opposed to their traditional handset-making practice wherein only the manufacturing is outsourced, Nokia is mulling the idea of a joint design manufacturing (JDM) process this time around for netbooks. An Intel Atom and Qualcomm Snapdragon are the candidates for its processor while other possible partners include Compal and Foxconn. Safe to say, this will definitely be more than just a successor to the yet-to-be-released Nokia N97. No exact date when their first model will be released, but nonetheless, this does give us something new to look forward to from Nokia apart from their usual handsets.

[digitimes via PMPtoday]

Nokia upsets networks with Skype plans

A alleged rift has emerged between Nokia and operators over its plans to incorporate Skype onto its Nseries handsets. O2 and Orange responded furiously to Nokia’s declaration that it will equip its upcoming flagship Nseries device, the N97, with Skype.
If the row is not resolved the two operators may refuse to stock the N97 – or any future Nseries handsets containing Skype – unless Nokia strips out the Skype client. The two operators are understood to have vented their anger in high-level discussions, which involved group level executives from Nokia.
The row centres around  ownership of the customer, as well as potential lost revenue from calls from Skype’s internet call service.

A spokeswoman for O2 said: ‘We are currently working with Nokia to understand their Skype service and the business model around it. We continually evaluate new applications and mobile services for our customer base.’
Vodafone and Orange declined to comment.

via Mobiletoday