The Geek Church

Researchers and businesses continue to develop new concepts in lighter, more portable technology for the general consumer. Some examples include the smartphone, iPad and iPod, which tend to be less bulky than older cellphones, netbooks and mp3 players. Now Chinavasion presents their latest product as the smallest mobile phone in existence and it fits on your wrist.

They call their new mobile creation the Penthouse watch phone. It features quad band GSM support, two SIM card slots and Bluetooth capability. Although this watch phone does have a 1.5 touch screen display, it also has a key pad and a four-way directional controller surprisingly enough. Apparently, Chinavasion thought older control set options were necessary to include on their new phone as a backup to the touch screen.

Furthermore, the Penthouse watch phone isn’t a strong contender in the smartphone market since its multimedia options are quite limited. You can only capture pictures at 640×480 and the device’s memory is 506kb, requiring the use of a 1GB micro SD card, which is included. Video capability is also lacking with a maximum of 176×144 AVI files, having a 5fps frame rate. Sadly, this phone’s greatest selling point may be the fact that it was made to wear on your wrist as a smaller mobile set. If you’re interested, it’s available for $113.

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In this society, the creation of the touch screen has revolutionized the technology we use today. In recent years, we’ve seen this innovation become a standard for electronic devices and machines we regularly use, which include ATM terminals, laptops, digital cameras and smartphones. Now touch screen technology could be the means to create another technological breakthrough. Some designers from India have recently used the touch screen to develop a new form of personal computer that you can actually wear on your wrist.

They call their concept the HOLO 2.0. This design concept is intended to become a new standard for mainstream computers. The HOLO 2.0 is designed to be worn comfortably on your wrist and its power source would be the actual movements of your arm. This wrist PC would also be equipped with a holographic display and have compatibility for connection to a home or office network. Then another feature on the HOLO 2.0 would give the user access to a much bigger holographic display.

The Indian design team hopes to release this new personal computer to the general consumer in 2015. Well, such a concept definitely seems to be inspired by technology of science fiction. If this design actually becomes a working product in the real world, we’ll be wearing our computers on our wrists in the next five years. However, that might not be such a good thing. These devices could be used by governments, other group entities and certain individuals to track our activities and gain access to our personal information. Decide for yourself, dear readers. Is it an exciting thought or a scary thought that technology has an increasingly dominant grip on our lives in human society?

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This past Sunday, President Obama made time in his busy schedule to serve as a key-note speaker at a graduation ceremony for Hampton University. Of course, he gave a speech to congratulate the college graduates on their accomplishment, encourage them about their potential and inspire them to embrace their future with passion and vision. However, his commencement address to the students took a very bizarre turn when he chose to identify certain game consoles and mobile tech products as detriments of our society.

In his speech, Obama specifically mentioned the X-Box, Playstation, iPod and iPad and described them as devices that devalue and weaken the power of information. According to the U.S. President, information is supposed to be a tool of empowerment for people in our society, especially the nation’s youth. Furthermore, his argument is that personal electronic devices of entertainment only turn knowledge into a distraction or diversion. Apparently, Obama believes that the impact of these game consoles and mobile tech products is a threat to the future of this generation’s youth, our country’s future and even our system of democracy. You might be interested to know that the President previously bashed the X-Box last year during a speech to the NAACP as well. In that speech, he argued that parents have to be involved in their children’s education and must remove the game console as a distraction.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that Obama also admitted his own lack of knowledge and experience with these devices since he has never used them. Personally, I find it amusing that the U.S. President is openly criticizing products of entertainment, communication and internet access even though he’s never tried them before. This argument in his speech about the devaluing of information in society seems to be a basic ploy to score public relation points with parents and graduating students who shun these devices. Politicians are certainly known for targeting popular products in our culture for open contempt to gain public favor during their speeches. Sadly, this commonly leads to poorly-conceived arguments and statements that only come back to hurt the reputation of these politicians after public and media reactions have fully set in. Indeed, this may also apply to Obama’s attack on game consoles and mobile tech products as well.

At least his recent statement didn’t include the Wii. Nintendo, you can still breathe easy for now but watch your back.

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In this age of mobile, wireless technology, we find ourselves regularly dependent on batteries to keep our personal, electronic devices working. The problem with batteries is that most brands mainly offer disposable batteries, which have to be replaced eventually and rechargeable batteries tend to be more expensive than regular ones. So, if what a special battery charger was developed that could even restore the charge for regular, non-rechargeable batteries. Well, an Australian company named Digital Works has come forward to turn this “what if” scenario into a reality.

They call this special battery charger the ReZap Battery Engineer. This device is designed to restore the charge for both rechargeable and regular batteries and the regular kind can be recharged up to ten times. It can also recharge four cells of varying sizes at the same time. The ReZap Battery Engineer works by utilizing intelligent microprocessors and software to regulate the charging process for batteries and it is also designed to be environmentally safe for use. The device has a battery tester, which indicates the current charge level of any battery as well. Battery types such as AA, AAA, AAAA, C, D and 9 Volt are all compatible with the ReZap. This charger is quite unique since it is designed to to use the correct charging algorithm to handle the custom recharge of each individual battery type. Furthermore, the ReZap doesn’t require any settings to be made for buttons or switches, thus solving the problem of charging errors.

PC Treasures, a leading provider of award-winning OEM software bundles for computers has partnered with Digital Works to distribute the ReZap Battery Engineer on the North American market. PC Treasures has been active since 1998 and is based in Oxford, Michigan, working with computer system builders and resellers throughout North America. This provider is now focused on offering digital entertainment products, PC and netbook accessory items to general consumers as well. They have collaborated with Digital Works for a May 2010 release of the ReZap to North American stores and the suggested retail price is currently $59.95.

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When it comes to new technological developments on their product lines, companies tend to be secretive and protective of their latest stuff. Businesses often limit or restrict information about their newest products to have a competitive edge over their rivals and carefully plan out the release of their latest developments to make the biggest profit possible from them. Thus, information leaks and misplaced product prototypes are normally quite frowned upon in regards to their newest stuff. Apparently, an employee of Apple forgot these important facts about the proper handling of new merchandise when he brought a next-generation iPhone to a bar in Redwood City, California last month and accidentally left it behind.

This employee works for Apple as a software engineer who is responsible for the iPhone Baseband Software, the program that allows the phone to make calls. On the fateful night of March the 18th, this software engineer decided to spend his evening enjoying imported ales at Gourmet Haus Staud since this day just happened to be his 27th birthday. His reason for taking the new iPhone from outside the premises of Apple was to give it a field test. Of course, he prepared for this field test by disguising the new phone as a 3G iPhone and even discussed the test run briefly on his Facebook profile. Then he forgot about the new phone during his night at Gourmet Haus Stud and left it there before returning home.

Later on, this iPhone 4G was found by another man at the bar, who took it home and realized the significance of the find after he removed the phone’s fake 3G jacket. Afterward, the next-generation iPhone found its way into the hands of Gizmodo, who bought it for five thousand dollars weeks later. Of course, the tech blog also took the opportunity to post their own story about the iPhone 4G discovery this past Monday as well. Then, a letter signed by Apple General Counsel and Senior VP Bruce Sewell was issued to Gizmodo, formally requesting the safe return of the new iPhone prototype. So, Gizmodo Editorial Director Brian Lam sent a friendly reply to Apple, promising to give them the phone back after the opportunistic tech blog posted Apple’s letter on their website. At this time, it is unclear whether or not Gizmodo is facing legal repercussions for being in possession of the next-generation iPhone. Well, this whole situation was certainly more than a simple information leak. Personally, I wonder how it could affect the future of Apple’s smartphone product line and if that software engineer is facing certain disciplinary action for his mistake last March.

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The advance of touch screen technology continues to be a rising trend in today’s culture. We see it now on laptops, cell phones, ATM terminals and devices like the iPad. Furthermore, transparent display screens are also becoming popular. We’ve seen them portrayed along with the touch screen in movies such as Minority Report and Avatar. So, touch sensitive transparent screens are starting to appear on some of the newest mobile devices in development. Now the Korean company, NeoView Kolon is poised to enter this new trend with their latest creation.

They call it this new technology, T-OLED (transparent OLED). NeoView Kolon currently plans to use this technology in motor vehicles, providing motorists with a convenient way to view relevant information like traffic updates without being hindered by distractions while on the road. The company also intends to apply T-OLED to mobile and home devices as well.

NeoView Kolon recently appeared at the FilmTech conference in Japan and presented a 2.4 inch transparent AMOLED for head-mounted displays. However, there is no information about availability of this technology to the consumer yet. Nevertheless, transparent display and touch screen technology could become a standard for electronic devices in the near future.

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Of course, the practice of using dogs for search and rescue is nothing new. They’re still used in law enforcement, fire departments and other organizations dedicated to protecting the safety of human life. Now, it seems that even man’s best friend is not immune to the involvement of technology to make them more effective at their job.

A student named Laura Boffi from Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design and some of her colleagues have developed a special collar for dogs who are used in search and rescue. The collar is a piece of technology that allows dogs to tag the location of survivors in a life-threatening situation and send back messages from the survivors to family, friends and other people of interest. According to Boffi, survivors feel fear and displacement in the first hours of being in-danger and their desire is to notify the people close to them about their safety and present status. The dogs used to test the high-tech collar have been called “messenger dogs” and they wear a special uniform that is equipped with a recording device to take messages and also collect data about geolocation and the time in which the message was recorded.

To simplify use of this device, the selected dogs only need to be trained to sit in front of the people they’re supposed to find. Then a accelerometer located in the collar is used to activate the device, causing it to read when the dog is sitting and a located survivor is free to record a video or type out a message in text. This concept of the messenger dog could definitely see practical application and success in the future as long as the training of the dog and the technology itself are proven to be effective.

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With the iPad and iPhone O S 4.0 recently announced by Apple, Microsoft is now poised to present their latest developments to stay competitive in the ever-changing market of mobile technology for communication and internet access. These products by Microsoft come in the form of two handsets called the Kin One and the Kin Two and they are being marketed as Windows phones. Here’s a rundown of these brand new handsets.

The Kin One and Kin Two are based on the Windows Phone 7 but they have some unique differences. The Kin series has its own custom-made user interface which is very focused on social media and also has a custom browser. The screen displays are multi-touch capable and you can even pinch and zoom with the browser. However, there is no support for third party applications, in-browser Flash or Silverlight.

The Kin One is also known as the “Turtle”. It’s a curved square sliding phone equipped with a QVGA display, 4GB of internal storage, a five megapixel camera with LED and a full QWERTY keyboard. Meanwhile, Kin Two is nicknamed “Pure”. It’s a more conventional QWERTY sliding phone with a HVGA display, an eight megapixel camera and 8GB of internal storage. Beyond that, it’s the same as the Kin One.

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Since the world is still reeling from last weekend’s release of the iPad, Apple is attempting to wow consumers further with their newest development, the iPhone OS 4.0. So far, fifty million iPhones have been sold, along with 450,000 iPads and OS 4.0 is scheduled to be applied to phones this summer. Then the iPad will get this upgrade in the fall. Obviously, people are wondering what the OS 4.0 can do. Well, here’s a rundown of its features and capabilities.

First of all, it offers multi-tasking. You can run applications with a double tap of the home button, pause games at any time and there’s a tray available for switching between applications. This tray pushes up the other home icons and has a metallic background. However, you will be facing limitations in using active applications even though you have the ability to switch between them easily. Furthermore, multi-tasking will not be available for iPhone 3G or the second generation iPod touch and there is no task manager to do the app. organization for you, either.

Second, seven background services are available for use. For background audio, you can play Pandora and manage it with pop-up controls. For background VoIP, Skype calls are still compatible, you can switch applications, a “return to call” button is available and you will be able to receive Skype calls on a locked phone. Push and local notifications are still available but local ones are for in-phone applications, pop-up alarms, etc. Fast app. switching is now possible. This feature allows you to store one app. in its present state as you switch to another one and then back to the previous one. The final background service is task completion, which allows for an upload if you close an app.

Next, folders are available for storing lists of usable applications. Up to 2160 applications can be stored for future use. There are also homescreen wallpapers, enhanced mail and unified mail to combine web mail, Mobile Me and multiple exchange accounts. A thread organization is provided as a more powerful inbox and attachments are now possible for third party email. Of course, iBooks are possible, similar to how they work on the iPad and you can sync bookmarks and between devices. There is also better email encryption and SSL VPN support for non-bold text. Then, gaming features include being able to challenge friends, compare high scores on leaderboards and do matchmaking and achievements. The OS 4.0 also supports Bluetooth keyboards. Lastly, ads will be appear in HTML 5, they are fully interactive and they now have access to APIs, which includes location and accelerometer as well.

However, there is no confirmation that it supports cameras with flash, and how easily you can download applications is another unanswered question.

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