Texting About Razor-Toothed Piranhas (or The World’s Fastest Texting Record)
The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.
That’s the standard text used for professional competition SMS typing. What? They have such a contest? Apparently so. And this year an 18-year old from Utah broke the record.
Ben Cook, 18, of Provo, returned to the top of the cell phone text-messaging heap Friday at a Denver text-off, blazing through a 160-character standardized message in 42.22 seconds.
I don’t know why one would need to text so fast. If it were about a life-or-death situation, I would rather call.
At any rate, I have my T9 dictionary turned on most of the time, to make typing easier. I’m not much of a fan of txt spk (or text speak). And if I were asked to text about the razor-toothed piranhas mentioned above, I would’ve just said:
Dude, check out my cool fish!
Using a Directional Antenna to Improve GSM/UMTS Reception
It’s 2006 but sad to say, thre are still some places where you get dead spots on your mobile phone. It’s either you’re too far away from the cell site, or you’re in an area too densely situated with infrastructure (in other words, a concrete jungle).
Graeme blogs about using a homemade biquad WiFi antenna to boost reception, or more accurately to get a signal where there was none at all.
I realised that there really isn’t much difference in operating frequency between WiFi (around 2.4Ghz) and UMTS (2.1Ghz). And there are loads of different clandestine WiFi antenna ideas floating around the Internet. If I could find an easy-to-build directional WiFi antenna, perhaps I could reverse-engineer its dimensions and adapt it for 2100Mhz use.
So I set about the task. I decided on the biquad antenna type, as it’s fairly compact and easy to build, yet provides decent (10-14dB) gain and is quite directional. My primary sources of information were the many WiFi biquad and double bi-quad antenna tutorials and blog entries, such as: Engadget’s; Trevor Marshall’s tutorials. More can be found on my del.icio.us page for the tag ‘antenna’.
This is an interesting hack, and I’d say it’s a hit-or-miss proposition, especially considering that running a cable from a transceiver (in this case, your mobile) to an antenna does produce some signal loss. But if the gain (increased signal) compensates for the loss, then you’ve hit the sweet spot in modifying your system. Still, this is good for stationary cases, and wouldn’t give you much benefit when in a mobile setup, such as in your car. Directional antennae are very sensitive to movement, precisely because they’re directional, and should be pointed straight to the other signal source, in this case at the cell site.
Great use of Google Earth to estimate distance and positioning, though!
MOTOKRZR K1
A new RAZR? Well, kind of… The Motorola MOTOKRZR K1 is the new evolution of the RAZR, and it’s even thinner. The new ultra-sleek MOTOKRZR K1 is only 16mm x 42mm x 103mm, and weighs 3.6 ounces. You can expect to see a 2MP camera sporting an 8x digital zoom, integrated MP3 player, airplane mode (whatever that is) and Stereo Bluetooth headset support. The camera is not only for pictures, as now you can capture and playback MPEG4 videos of up to 25 minutes. If you want to add more space to the phone, the K1 supports MicroSD.
Some other great features on this new phone include
- Enhanced phonebook with new contact fields: URL, IM, Postal Address, Birthday, and other information
- EDGE for high speed data access (class 12)
- Rich, pre-loaded J2ME games, screen savers
- Downloadable themes, ringer tones, images, animations
- Midi, MP3, AAC, AAC+ enhanced music player for listening to your favorite music on-the-go
- PIM functionality with Picture Caller ID
- Voice memo, enhanced predictive text and enhanced voice recognition for easy, hands-free connectivity
- MotoSync – sync your contacts and calendar at the touch of a button
- Push-To-View for sharing of images real time
- Screen 3 technology for zero-click access to your favorite news, sports, and other premium content
You can expect the MOTOKRZR K1 to be available in the second half of 2006.
Samsung E900 Review
Pocket-lint has a reivew up on the Samsung E900, a small Samsung slider that looks a fair bit like the LG KG800.
Slide the bright crisp 2-inch 240×320 262K Colour TFT screen back and you are presented with a small, but easy to use keypad with no additional buttons - these are on top. Realising that any phone with either a camera or MP3 player must have direct access buttons, Samsung has tucked these out of the way on the side of the handset.
Featuring a 2 megapixel camera, the E900 is keen to promote itself as more than just a phone images can be stored on either the phone’s internal 80MB memory or directly on to an optional micro SD slot.
They give the phone an 8 out of 10 as the E900 is able to capture a positive feeling thanks to its bright screen, touch sensitive panel, and two megapixel digital camera.
13 Tips for Camera Phone Use
The latest in cameraphone technology!
Phone-cams are crappy at taking photos, I agree. But I would have to admit that having a camera on your phone sure is handy, especially for those times you don’t have your real digicam on hand. You never know when you’ll have that perfect photo-worthy moment. So it’s either you bring your digicam everywhere you go (get an ultra-portable one for this purpose) or you use your trusty phone-cam. Digital Photography School gives us 13 tips on how to shoot better with a camera phone. A summary:
- Adequate light
- Get closer
- Keep still
- Post-process images
- Don’t delete “mistakes”
- Don’t use digital zoom (yes, it’s just cropping and zooming after all)
- Experiment with white balance
- Experiment and take lots of shots (in any case, even pro photographers would tell you that the “usable” shots only constitute a fraction of the total shots in a photoshoot)
- Follow the rules of composition (and get to break them, too)
- Keep the lens clean
- Observe cam-phone etiquette
- Rename the images
- Use the highest resolution
In short, it’s all about technique. The most important photography tool after all is having great imagination!
I’ve been using phone-cams even before I got my first real digital camera, and I can say many of the tips are pretty much intuitive, especially for one who understands photography and the technology involved in digital cameras. But these days I try to bring along my digicam almost everywhere–hey, digicams have grown smaller and smaller and I guess there’s no reason not to carry them around anymore. I usually use my phonecam in those instances that call for being discreet while taking snapshots.
Are You Up for Modding Your Cellphone?
TheSmart PDA blog posts about a thread on the SPUG forum where a poster writes on his modifying a PalmOne Treo 650.
This project started because I wanted to built an antenna-less treo or a treo with a shorter antenna. I decided to go for the latter because it will be easier for users to upgrade by just getting an antenna and plug it in. Thus I bought an antenna and started looking at how it was constructed. Thanks to treotricks, I was able to have an idea how the antenna was made. I actually did some rough measurements on the dismantled antenna shown on treotricks website (on the monitor itself!!!) before I gotten the spare antenna and decided there may be a possibility of making it shorter. Finally received the spare antenna in my hands, broke it apart and stared at it for a while ……………………. and I realised how I could make it shorter while still using the same internal components!!
A little sandpaper and black paint did the trick. However, I don’t think the Treo looked any better with the shortened antenna. The mod made the antenna look so stubby. I’d say either keep the longer stub or do away with the external aerial entirely. In the first place, the fact that the Treo’s designers decided to keep the antenna external probably means that you should keep it that way.
At any rate, the mod apparently doesn’t touch the actual antenna elements so signal quality should be the same. If you’re interested in getting yourself one without the hassles and headaches of actually doing the mod, you can still order thru the forum. The stubs are for sale for S$50 each (about US$ 31.50).
Twttr: Social Networking via Cellphone
I thought I’ve seen it all when it comes to social networking, from ugly profile layouts to malware-laden profile pages. Never mind that MySpace is apparently the most popular web app today (number one in terms of sending traffic to Google), and that probably no other site can surpass it in terms of user-base (and notriety). Here’s yet another social networking web app, and this time, it’s trying to penetrate a mobile userbase.
Twttr, from the makers of Odeo, is more of an experiment rather than a full-fledged Web App (or so Jayvee over at Cellphone9 thinks so).
twttr is a text messaging service based on the idea that everyone and everything has a status. Your status right now is “reading about twttr”. twttr keeps you connected to your friends by subscribing to their status. twttr works best from your cell phone when you are out and about in the world, but you can follow along on the web too.
…
To use twttr, dial the short code 40404, after registering your status is set by simply sending a message to the short code. Your friends can choose to follow your updates live (they will get a message when you change status) or only when they want to know what you’re up to. Users can choose to follow all their friends live or pick and choose. There is a list of keywords used to control the service app entirely through SMS.
I think it’s the telcos who would be happiest if something like this flies–more people would be using SMS, and would consequently earn them better revenues. Either that or young people with too much time on their hands would start snapping up unlimited SMS plans en masse.
Motorola i670 Available on Sprint/Nextel
Sprint/Nextel continue its tradition off black, kind of ugly looking phones with the Motorola i670.
It looks like it would not support the latest features, and while its 130 pixel by 130 pixel screen won’t be the most amazing thing you have seen it does have the Push-To-Tak, GPS navigation, Direct Talk off-network walkie talkie and group walkie talkie features making it a feature filled phone for those going out into the deep dark woods.
The i670 is available for $49 with two year agreement, or $249 if you want to buy it flat out.
First Cingular HSPDA Phone Out!
Cingular has announced the launch of its first HSPDA-enabled handsets, which can run on the network’s High Speed Downlink Packet Access.
HSDPA was launched by Cingular late last year, but so far Cingular customers have been able to use it only on notebook PCs with PC Card or built-in modems. The network offers typical downstream speeds of 400 kilobits per second to 700 kbps, with burst speeds as high as 1 megabit per second, according to the carrier.
The mobile is the LG CU500, a thin and lightweight clamshell that is capable of playing/streaming and 15 frames per second of video, a well as record on the same framerate through its 1.3-megapixel camera. The phone’s memory can be expanded via microSD. The CU500 also supports MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ formats for music playback. Users would find external music controls and support for Bluetooth stereo headsets convenient.
The phone is priced at $99.99 (after $50 rebate) with a 2-year Cingular contact.
HTC MTeoR 3G Review
The MTeoR is headlined as the first 3G Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Smatphone, and is one of two new phones from HTC.
Looking a lot like something from Motorola, the MTeoR is a candy bar design that weighs in at 120g. Pocket-lint takes a look at this European phone.
However its thin credentials and name is where the similarities stop. The MTeoR sports a very large 2.2-inch crisp and bright TFT display as well as a 1.3 megapixel camera, however not a second camera for video calling.
However while the screen is perhaps its most impressive element visually, the phone somehow manages packs an entire OS into is shell.
The HTC MTeoR features Windows Mobile 5.0 and that means, Direct Push technology for immediate synchronization of email, calendar and notes plus document viewers for PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
In the end you get a phone that is worth an 8 out of 10 on their rating scale thanks to its 3G functionality, slim shape and its ability to run Windows Mobile 5.
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