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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Native Union Is Perfect For Cranky CEOs, Moms Who Want A Wireless House Phone

Remember those wireless house phones? Me neither. Native Union thinks you’ll want to take calls with the familiar shape and feel of a household handset through the power of bluetooth. Coming out of the 90s, we might fondly remember the angry clack of the phone as your mother hung up on your step-dad, or the times we spent talking to the girl down the street until the batteries went dead. Well you can relive those moments and charge your iPhone at the same time, and possibly power some wicked desktop speakers thanks to the 3.5mm output jack. Even more badass is your color choice of black or white, but unfortunately for Native Union, that white model might not sell until a matching white iPhone makes an appearance. This plastic block is $150, which I think is way overpriced for what you get. I’m calling it: “dead on arrival.”

[via Engadget]

To The Future! Apple Granted Liquid Metal Patent For Fuel Cell Casing→

To The Future! Apple Granted Liquid Metal Patent For Fuel Cell Casing

Apple’s new patent describes “amorphous alloy” collector plates for fuel cells, an electrochemical battery that uses hydrogen to generate electricity. Although the patent doesn’t reference the Liquidmetal trademark, the material is an amorphous alloy or “ metallic glass.”

Last year, Apple signed an exclusive agreement to use the Liquidmetal Technologies’ IP in consumer electronic products. But of course, the ever-secretive company hasn’t hinted at its plans for the material. The possibilites are endless. Liquidmetal is a super lightweight, high-strength, scratch-proof metal that NASA says is “poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.”

I don’t think we’ll see anything like this our next iPhone, but the prospect of having a fuel cell iPhone is intriguing. If you thought battery life was excellent now, just imagine not having to charge your iPhone for an entire month. The collector plates enable the chemical reaction that generates power - liquid metal is preferred because of it’s strong qualities as being durable and anti-corrosive.

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Roots Rock Boombox Is For The Bob Marley Fan In You

At first glance I couldn’t quite figure out what the Roots Rock Boombox was supposed to be. Sold under the House of Marley, this boombox appears to be part cargo pant - part cargo bag - and part smoke machine all in one. This iPhone boombox is clearly designed to bring a little of Bob Marley’s heart and soul to life in over-the-top fashion, and I could see myself having this on my tailgate at party or something - just please don’t get caught in the cargo straps. Proceeds go to the 1Love charitable foundation, so if you’re thinking about a killer post-Christmas gift, you might be able to make up for your belated gift giving by purchasing this or another of the House of Marley’s products through their website.

[House of Marley via Gizmodo]

The Japanese Government Wants Apple To Add Filters To The iPhone

The iPhone is becoming one of Japan’s best selling smartphones – something quite strange for a country that’s not usually huge on products coming from the States, or Europe – and now the Japanese government is asking Apple and Softbank, the iPhone carrier in the land of the Rising Sun, to add content filters on the iPhone by default. To prevent teenagers from accessing “harmful” web content (can we have a guess? porn) and, generally, stuff they shouldn’t be able to see on a smartphone, the National Police Agency requires handsets markers to ship devices with this kind of filtering.

As you can imagine, this isn’t going to be easy for the Japanese government and Softbank, who’s just the middle man between Cupertino and the Japanese folks lining up to buy iPhones every day. Softbank can’t install proprietary code on the iPhone – they should open an iPhone first and find a way to give it to customers with some filtering software enabled. But we know iOS doesn’t allow for these kinds of software to be installed. So it’s all on Apple now, which has to evaluate whether or not they should follow the Japanese government’s request.

The way I see it, Japan will have to wait for filters to come on their iPhones for a long time. [via TUAW]

iPhone 4 Becomes A Skateboard

On iOS, a device becomes the app it’s currently running. Are you using a calculator app? The iPhone looks like a digital calculator then. A GPS map? A TV remote? Full-screen apps can turn an iOS device into, well, anything. What about hardware accessories, though? Can a rather simple accessory like a case turn an iPhone into something else?

The Skateboard Series for iPhone 4 is a new case available on Etsy made out of laser-cut grip tape and actual wood. It looks like a mini-skateboard, only it’s an iPhone and it doesn’t have wheels. Build quality looks impressive, too.

When combined with a wood grain vinyl edge wrap this design actually gives your iPhone 4 the illusion of being a skateboard, all you need now are the wheels. The only advice we can give you is not to slide this phone against your grandma’s table because this material is very rough.

Whether or not you think the grip tape on the back of the device could make it a little harder to get it out of your pockets, this mod can be yours for only $20. Available now on Etsy. [via Reddit]

Eye Scope Adds 8x Optical Zoom To Your iPhone

If you’ve ever wished you could spy on your neighbor’s house or simply take better photos of distant objects with your iPhone (yes, we’re going to pretend your never thought of spying on people using an Apple device), you might want to consider the Eye Scope, a $45 (£29) accessory that can add 8x optical zoom to the iPhone’s lens.

Available for iPhone 3G / 3GS / 4 owners,the Eye Scope is basically a case with an attached optical lens that promises to cover 246 meters ahead of you and your iPhone. Not bad, huh? In the package, you’ll also get a tripod mount and a lens cloth to keep everything clean and well focused.

If you want to go ahead and buy it, the Eye Scope for iPhone is available on online retailer Firebox. [via Ubergizmo]

Merriam-Webster Dictionary App Adds Dragon Voice Recognition

Merriam-Webster launched a free, ad-supported iPhone dictionary app in mid-December. The dictionary app can pronounce words by pressing the speaker icon in the red button but did you know that you can speak a word for it to search for too? A few weeks ago, they updated it with voice search, first for a free iPhone dictionary app. Just press the microphone in the blue button next to the search text box and it activates the new voice search.

The built-in voice search is powered by Nuance Communications’ very popular Dragon voice recognition technology and it’s very accurate but you would expect nothing less from Dragon. Simply look up a word by speaking it directly into your iPhone. You don’t need a connection to the internet, so it’s very iPod Touch friendly. The UI is polished and the ads don’t distract you too badly; Reader Mode is very cool - it shows you a definition in full screen, landscape or portrait, hiding both the header and the footer.

Voice search is an example of the kind of innovation that Merriam-Webster has been bringing to the dictionary business for more than 150 years,” says President and Publisher John M. Morse. “And with the mobile platform being the fastest growing part of our business, we’re pleased to bring our content to wherever our audience happens to be.

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