GadgetReview

This video is apparently from 2007 so I feel a bit remiss posting in now, but hey, here goes.  NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese telecom had plans to introduce a phone that could help middle aged businessmen and young women lose weight.  It included a pedometer and software to keep you on track.  But that’s not even the cool stuff.  Muck like the KissMe breath analyzer, this phone also features a sensor that can tell you how bad your breath is.  So thinking about it more, I’d say the phone is all about getting you some tail – stay in shape and have good breath – yeah, definitely about getting you a date.

Video after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: A Cell Phone That Measures Bad Breath (video)

In an interesting move, now retailer Orange is getting into the cash for old gadgets game with its Recycle and Reward program. While they don’t have the awesome automated kiosks of other vendors, Orange will give you a quote and a check within a week when you take whatever it is you’d like to get rid of–old mobile phones, laptops, and music players (bigger stuff that the automated kiosks can’t handle) and offers up cash for them.

It IS somewhat limited–no bringing in your old furnace, water heater or what have you; it’s pretty much exclusively a consumer electronics setup–but hey, free cash for stuff you weren’t using anyway?  That’s no small treat.

Also, Orange is also launching its Copy and Keep program, where they’ll charge you a whopping twelve bucks or so to transfer all your media, addresses and contacts from your old mobile phone to your new one.  Pretty useful if you’ve forgotten how or just plain old can’t be bothered.

So if you’re needing a new phone, and want to get rid of the old one, then it’s a great time to think Orange.

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‘Stacks’ have long existed in Apple’s Mac OS, but what about the iPhone?  They are now thanks to ‘Stacks’, a piece of software that you can add to your iPhone, that is assuming it’s Jailbroken (aka hacked).

Much like Mac’s OS you can add multiple applications (in Mac OS X you can view multiple files in a folder, at a glance, from your dock) to your iPhone or iPod Touch’s dock instead of just four.  Tap on a ’stack’ and a playing card like display of applications are laid out before you.  If you’ve added too many applications to the ’stack’ it transforms the window to a grid like layout similar to your iPhone’s default screen.

Wired notes that there are a few draw backs to the current interation, such as the lack of icon badges (unread email), visual notifications and a few other minor hiccups.  Problems aside, I think it’s a great idea, though it might defeat the purpose of having four dedicated buttons to choose from.

If you’ve got a Jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch you can grab ‘Stacks’ now, you’ll just need to make a $1 donation to the developer.

Video after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Stacks Software Adds Mac OS X Stacks To The iPhone

Based on a patent filing, it looks like Apple is ready to enhance and elaborate on their wireless syncing system, MobileMe.

While it’s still not clear to which devices this would apply to – the application references everything from an Apple TV to an Apple computer – it’s relatively evident that Apple is looking to get us away from syncing our iPhones (and perhaps soon to be other wireless products) via USB cord.

Ultimately, this would make our lives more simple as we’d be able to have access to all our work files as well as our music and videos without performing the arduous syncing process.  The service would probably be a subscription based program and connect all our Mac products to the ‘cloud’, negating the need for not only syncing but at home storage, such as Apple’s Timemachine.

One huge probable caveat, though, would be the inability to hack said wireless products, such as we’ve seen with Jailbroken iPhones, since it’s probably fair to assume that Apple could just push an update to the device.  Then again, you could just opt to not subscribe to the service.

Then again, this system could be much more locally based – after all the name is ‘Grab & Go’ – such as an at home wireless network, but that seems so unlike Apple, given their desire for grandeur and all.

[via Appleinsider]

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Ahhh….Techie new parents are going to love this one.  A new iPhone application entitled The Cry Translator is on its way that will effectively tell you what your gurgling baby is crying about.

The app will listen to a whining child and determine through pitch, volume, tone, and inflection, what the deal is.  Ten seconds later that app will tell you whether the child is hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed, bored, or has to let go of a mean steamy (omit that).  From there the app offers advice as to what to do with the translation in order to appease your baby.

Developed by Biloop Technologic, they claim that through clinical testing these translations  are 96% accurate, and the age of the child does not waver the results.  On sale for $10 on November 11th.

But will it work with sputtering brain dead alcoholics?

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AT&T is set to launch their new services this Sunday, including Voicemail To Text, AT&T Nation with Canada, and new Mobile TV channels/pricing. These are actually pretty cool new services so you might want to check…

To continue reading “AT&T Set To Launch New Services, Includes Voicemail To Text And More” head to PhoneDig

Sony Ericsson announced the Xperia X10, their first phone based on the Android OS and running on the powerful 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The phone looks to contain a slew of snazzy features and some hefty hardware. And that’s a good thing especially if you’re trying to compete with the likes of the ubiquitous and all-knowing DROID. Check out these features:

• Quad-band GSM and EDGE
• 4.0 inches, 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA), scratch-resistant capacitive screen

To continue reading “Sony Ericsson Launches The Xperia X10, Their First Android Handset” head to PhoneDig

Lose your car much?  iPhone applications that use the handset’s built-in GPS to mark a starting location are nothing new, but the Car Finder app not only stores your starting location, but uses the iPhone 3GS’ camera and compass to show you an ‘augmented reality’ of where your car is located.   Note that this app is only fully operational with the iPhone 3GS – it needs the compass.  You can grab it now for $0.99.

[via Cultofmac]

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Okay, admittedly, sometimes you really want just the right skin for your iPhone or iPod.  Your skin says a lot about who you are, how you feel about stuff, and junk.  And of course, you definitely want the coolest one you can find.  And maybe you can’t find a skin with your favorite supermodel on it, or with a sharp enough resolution image of the Klingon Empire’s sigil.

Now, you can make your own.  Thanks to the iaPeel (like eye appeal, only Apple style) you can print off gadget skins for your Apple portables in whatever format you want.

The iaPeel kit will set you back a mere $21, and comes with some basic design software and five skins that’ll work with your inkjet printer of choice.  Plus, you can make your Apple gear into total clotheshorses and make multiple skins, for different occasions or even days of the week.  Imagine the fun you’ll have with your friends when you whip out your iPhone and say, “This is my Thursday skin.”

Of course, if you actually do try that, you may not have friends much longer….

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So a strange development took place on Sunday–a Dutch hacker is currently holding what amounts to several jailbreaked Apple iPhones.

Just in case you’re wondering about the terminology here, a jailbroken phone is basically a hacked iPhone that allows you to install software from other sources besides Apple’s App Store.  The need for jailbreaking has fallen off somewhat in recent days, but there are still plenty of phones out there already that have been jailbroken.

But when you jailbreak an Apple iPhone, you force the resetting of a password that controls remote access to the general password coded in at the factory level.  Now, if you’re smart, you’ll quickly change that password to something you know well.  But a lot of people either got lazy or busy or just plain forgot, because they left their iPhones in the ORIGINAL PASSWORD SETTING.

And that’s where the Dutch hacker swung in.  He changed the passwords, effectively locking people out of their own phones until they pay him a ransom of five euros via PayPal.  Meanwhile, Apple considers jailbroken phones to have voided their warranties, so it’s pretty much either pay off the hacker or lose your phone until he’s arrested and forced to confess.

So if you’ve got a jailbroken Apple, you may want to switch that password around before the Dutch hacker gets you…if he hasn’t already.

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