The Symbian Foundation released this video showing a hypothetical phone UI, which basically looks like a mashup of MotoBlur and Palm Synergy with a dash of augmented reality and Google maps navigation for good measure. This isn’t an actual future UI, but how fast would you line up for a Symbian phone if it were?

Via Brighthand

photo credit: Joseph Robertson

If last week’s news is any indication, we’re all about to see an army of Droids to be released and hit the mobile scene — in a very big way. Even if you didn’t already pre-order through Best Buy, Big Red hopes you’ll be stopping by their stores this Friday to see what all the fuss is about.   Some good hardware from Motorola and a faster, much improved Android 2.0 should please quite a few Verizon customers by providing what could be argued as the carrier’s first eagerly anticipated smartphone.   But will it pose any real threat to the iPhone?

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Larry is on duty today but that doesn’t mean he isn’t keeping his eye on things. He just emailed me with great news… Google Voice now has its own mashup that allows you to use thew service without having to give everyone a new number. It is an awesome new mashup, and I for one am thrilled.

Let me explain…

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A 10 year $30 million study of portable cell phone use by The World Health Organization apparently determined that portable cell phone use might cause cancer. The study was carried out in 13 countries and interviewed 12,800 people. Their formal conclusion is expected by year end. It’s worth noting that a representative of the Mobile Operators Association says that more than 30 other scientific surveys found no adverse health effects from cell phone use. In the interim it’s recommended that users take advantage of Bluetooth devices – at least until they study whether Bluetooth causes cancer which at that point tin can and string use might be their recommendation.

Information Week

I’ve carried smartphones for years, starting with the Palm Treo 650. While it has never been for business, nor has it been a dealbreaker if I couldn’t use one, I’ve always liked the convenience of having what amounts to a small computer in my pocket. Yesterday, I discovered just how helpful having one can be when plans change on the fly. Continue Reading

One of the items frequently included on iPhone owners’ wishlists is the ability to test an application and then upgrade to a full version if they like it.  This is relatively common on other platforms, but iPhone owners have been relegated to using “lite” apps, if the developer even chooses to make a lite version.  The problem with lite versions, though, is that if you upgrade to a full version, there generally isn’t any way to transfer any data you’ve entered into the lite version.

As of yesterday, however, the problem may have been solved.  Apple informed developers that it will now allow in-app purchases for free apps.   This opens the door for developers to allow in-app upgrades to full versions of their programs.  Apple has allowed in-app purchases for paid apps for a while now (allowing the user to buy other services or products through the app), but had not extended this ability to free versions.  For more information and a quick Q&A, check out TUAW’s article at the link below.

[via TUAW and 9to5 Mac]

“…or should that be “Walk your environmental talk”??

Who knows. One thing is for sure– It is one thing to talk about caring for the environment and quite another to actually do something about it. Samsung wants to let people enjoy all of of life’s modern conveniences, such as cell phones, while still acting with environmental sensitivity.

That’s where their new Blue Earth cellphone comes in. It combines many of today’s best features- a 3.2 MP camera, a touch screen, music and video players, an FM radio, Bluetooth, a microSDHC slot and even 3G with some neat tricks that would make the huggiest tree-hugger smile.

First off there is the material. The phone is made from recycled water bottles and packaged in paper printed with soy ink (beats eating Tofu!).

Then there is the power-source for the phone. The charger sips just 0.03 Watts when the phone is in standby AND it sports a big solar-panel on the back.

Now if it just didn’t LOOK like the Prius of cellphones…

Full release…

via Wired.com

The BlackBerry Storm is a touch screen device that users either love or hate. It seems the love/hate line is often drawn between those who’ve never used a BlackBerry before (love) and those that have spent time with the BlackBerry devices that include keyboards (hate). The big deals with BlackBerry Storm 2? Updated BlackBerry OS 5.0, WiFI, ability to press two keys at once on the keyboard (increases typing speed) and a different method to using the touch screen which no longer requires as much physical pressure to move the screen up and down as you type. Read the full review below to find out all the new features added to the Storm2. And, no, there’s still no official Verizon release date though the Storm2 is now live on their site here.

BlackBerry Storm 2 Reviewed

The Motorola CLIQ is being looked upon by some as Motorola’s comeback phone. After releasing a few zillion iterations of the popular Razr phone the company is zeroing in on the open sourced Android platform as their savior. Earlier this month Motorola announced their intention sit out Windows Mobile 6.5 in lieu of Windows Mobile 7 slated for late 2010. Last night the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg rolled with his review of the Android powered Motorola CLIQ. Several other reviews have followed including this one from Engadget. What’d they like? More memory. What wasn’t so good? Well for one the phone is busy with a lot of social media icons that may confuse users, the keyboard is challenged and the “special sauce” that Motorola is adding, MOTOBLUR, which aggregates all of your social contacts (think Twitter, Facebook, etc) appears to be destined to remain a closed Motorola controlled service.

Engadget

Larry reviewed GelaSkins last month and there were literally hundreds of designs.  Now there are an infinite number, as you can design your own artwork to put on your iPhone, Laptop, iPod or any other device that GelaSkins supports.  Prices range from $14.95 to $29.95 on GelaSkins.com.

Image courtesy of TMZ.com

Looks like Maria Shriver, the wife of actor and current Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger is in a little hot water.

It seems Shriver was photographed by the paparazzi on two different occasions yesterday talking on her cell phone while driving without using a hands free device.  The problem is that’s against the law, and to make things worse the law was passed by Shriver’s own husband.

Arnold alerted his Twitter followers that there would be “swift action” which probably means he’ll just tell her not to do it again.  But later that same day the press caught Shriver doing it again, and this time she tried to cover it up by dropping the phone into her lap when she saw the cameras rolling.

“Schwarzenegger has previously praised the regulation and said he warned his then-16-year-old daughter that if she ever violated the law, “she’ll be taking the bus.”  Will the same thing apply to his wife?

Via TMZ.com

T-Mobile has at least temporarily halted sales of their popular Sidekick phone. This action is in light of a likely data loss for their customers caused by events apparently connected to a recent server outage. The Sidekick is one of the few phones that is highly dependent on a remote server for storage and updating of data such as contacts and calendars. The phone is very popular with teens and also has a very large user base of hearing impaired users whose Sidekicks act as a replacement for more traditional TTY. The outage and data loss is raising eyebrows because Danger is owned by Microsoft who is therefore tasked with securing this data. A loss of user data for a pay service would be a significant black eye for the company as it looks to ramp up services to battle competitors like Google in the cloud computing market.

CNET

Just this week I was catching up on some DVRed television.  One of the shows I was watching featured a flash-forward, where the characters lives were examined in the future.  One of the technological advances highlighted in the episode was cell phone chips that were implanted in to people’s inner ear.  I found it somewhat amusing, but I am now wondering if it might not be too far off.

At CITA last week, Kempler and Strauss featured a watch cell phone which almost looks functional.  I’ve seen a few watch phones and while they seem cool they just don’t seem all that functional.  The K&S version features a video and still camera, text messaging, an Mp3 player,  a phone and more.  It’s “sweat” proof not water proof, which means you can’t swim with it.  The device uses a external Bluetooth to make calling easier as well.

The watch, which operates on the GSM network is available for $199 here.

Check out the video demo.

Via Mashable.

Need cash? If you have an unused cell phone and if it’s relatively current and in good condition you may be able to exchange it for cash at this special cell phone recycling ATM. Of course it helps if you were in Omaha Nebraska where this special electronics recycling machine is setup. The EcoATM accepts used phones and sensors in the machine inspect them for damage and assigns them real-time value. If the device is of acceptable quality it then issues in-store payment. The first test kiosk went up September 21 at the Nebraska Furniture Mart.

EcoATM via Register Hardware

Geohot, the iPhone hacker responsible for the jailbreaking tool Purplera1n, has done it again.  Blackra1n is described as a 30 second jailbreak took which works on ALL devices running the newest iPhone OS 3.1.2.  The iPhone Dev. Team recently released its jailbreak tool for iPhone OS 3.1 but so far it’s not compatible with the new 3.1.2 upgrade.

The jailbreak solution was released early this morning for Windows computers only.

If your phone is unlocked, and you want to keep it that way you’ll want to stay away from this tool as it doesn’t preserve the unlock.

Check it all out on Geohot’s blog and get the download here.

As allows please remember do this at your own risk.

UPDATE:  the tool is now available for Mac as well.