Mobile Choice Blog

Speak Japanese like a native, with the help of your mobile

This only works if your mobile is an NEC, however, which doesn't apply to many of us Brits. Still, NEC's new application is still interesting, being a text-to-voice translation system with a vocabulary of more than 50,000 Japanese words.

Users speak them into their phone, and then see them converted to English text in a couple of seconds. The idea is to focus on the most commonly used travel phrases, such as 'Where is the nearest station?', 'How do I get to Buckingham Palace?' and 'Why is everyone on the tube so grumpy?'

Japanese tourists love visiting London, so there's a decent-sized market for NEC's application when it is officially released. We'd love to see one go the other way, to help us go to Tokyo and not look like idiots, but maybe that's next on NEC's 'To Do' list.

(via Engadget Mobile)

Is it a mobile phone or an Oyster card? It's both!

Barclaycard has announced plans to run a trial in London of mobile phones containing the same contactless payment system as seen in the Oyster travelcards that you use to pay for public transport in the UK capital.

The trial is the follow-up to Barclaycard's OnePulse card, which launched earlier this year and combined traditional credit card facilities with Oyster card features. The bank says 1,000 retailers in London already have OnePulse terminals to let customers pay for stuff, which should benefit the mobile trials.

So which handsets will support the new trial? Nokia is going to be supplying the phones, and if the trial is successful, the idea could roll out to other parts of the UK. Mobile payments are already common in Japan, but hopefully the combination of Barclaycard and Nokia could get us Brits up to speed too, in the nearish future.

(via Guardian Unlimited)

Zumobi offers a new interface for Windows Mobile phones

News that a Microsoft spin-off called ZenZui has changed its name to Zumobi and announced a public beta programme might not sound too exciting, but trust us, the product it's offering is.

Zumobi is a new kind of user interface for Windows Mobile handsets, based on a series of on-screen 'tiles' providing access to different information, services and applications. And it's all customisable, so you can mix and match the tiles you want according to your interests. Advertising is also involved, as well as advanced cacheing technology to reduce the lag between selecting an option, and accessing the information or service.

It all sounds very interesting, so keen Windows Mobile users would be advised to sign up for the public beta programme when it begins on 14th December. Details will be revealed on the company's website.

Zumobi website

Cre8txt SMS-inspired keyboard plugs into your PC

We wouldn't be surprised to hear that kids nowadays can text on a mobile phone as fast as they can type on a traditional keyboard. Perhaps anticipating such a trend, someone's designed a USB keyboard for PCs that's structured like a mobile keypad, to give free rein to all those nimble-fingered young pups.

It's called the Cr8txt keyboard, which works with PCs, Macs and Xbox 360 consoles, and comes with a dictionary and SMS slang translator, which will help us old fuddie-duddies get to grips with 21st century text-speak.

It's available to buy now, and costs £49.99. You might not think it's worth that much money, but if you have a teenager, chances are it'll (possibly) double their essay-writing speed.

Cr8txt keyboard website (via MobHappy)

Get set for multi-layer LCD mobile screens

Multi what? Multi-Layer Display, that's what. MLD if you're being informal. It's a technology developed by a company called PureDepth, which involves layering multiple LCD screens on top of each other in a mobile phone or PDA. You might have guessed that from the name.

PureDepth has just signed a 'Prototype and Evaluation agreement' with Samsung, with the two companies planning to see exactly what benefits MLDs could bring to phones. According to PureDepth, its big benefit is that it lets people view two separate data fields on one screen. Or, as the slightly confusing story on Cellular News puts it:

"By overlaying two more separate image planes within a single monitor, PureDepth technology provides true depth of vision that significantly enhances the visual experience with faster response to time-critical data and better assimilation and comprehension of data of any kind."

We're still a bit confused, to be honest. But the explanatory diagram (above) has a big dinosaur in it, so we're quite excited.

(via Cellular News)

Is it a pen or a mobile phone? It's both!

We've seen watches that double as mobile phones, but never pens. Check this concept product out, which is so hush-hush, it's not even finished yet. The image was sent to gadget blog Gizmodo by a mystery mole working for the (equally) mystery company producing it.

So, it's a pen that you write with as normal, but has an LED screen on one side, which displays the date, time and number of incoming calls. Everything appears to be controlled by a dial at the top of the pen, and there's even a Micro SD memory card slot squeezed in.

It'll connect wirelessly to a Bluetooth headset, or for people who don't mind looking ridiculous, you'll be able to hold it up to your face and talk into one end, with a speaker at the other. Crazy or genius? We think crazy genius, so we'll keep you posted on any news of it actually going on sale.

(via Gizmodo)

Sorry folks, no Google Gphone... Not yet, anyway

For the last few months, there's been rampant speculation that Google was about to announce its own mobile handset: the Gphone. However, yesterday Google set those rumours to rest (sort of) by announcing instead a new mobile platform codenamed Android, which it says will make it easier for developers to create mobile applications that run across a range of handsets.

Alongside this, there's a new organisation called the Open Handset Alliance, which will produce phones and services based on Android. Members include Google (obviously), as well as HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and T-Mobile, with 34 members in all. Notable absentees include Apple, Nokia, Palm, Vodafone, Yahoo and Microsoft.

The first handsets based on Android should go on sale next year. So does this mean the end of the Gphone rumours? Not quite. It's still possible that Google may launch its own mobile phone based on Android, alongside all the others coming out of the Open Handset Alliance members. So watch this space.

Open Handset Alliance website
 

Yikes! Mobile phones are becoming surveillance cameras

Things are getting a bit Big Brother in the mobile world (and we DON'T mean the TV show). Scientists at the Institute for Pervasive Computing in Zurich have been working on a system that turns Nokia 6630 handsets into surveillance cameras capable of communicating with each other to track a passer-by.

Admittedly, they're all mounted on the ceiling of a corridor, which you'd probably notice if you walked down it (unless you're used to seeing phones looking at you from the ceiling). They run an application called Facet, which uses Bluetooth to transmit data between the phones, enabling them to track a pedestrian.

But why do this with phones, when there are perfectly good security camera systems out there? It might be cheaper, perhaps, for companies who can't afford them but still want to pretend they're running a high-security compound. Perhaps.

(via Reiter's Camera Phone Report)

Second Life goes mobile in Japan

If you're a techy type, you might already be aware (or even using) Second Life. It's a 3D virtual world that's been much in the news this year - you can move in, create an avatar, and wander around chatting to people and buying virtual goods. It's the future, apparently. Well, so some people say.

Anyway, you need a pretty powerful computer to run Second Life, yet in Japan, moves are afoot to make it work on mobile phones. Operator NTT DoCoMo is preparing to launch the application, and is currently recruiting 100 beta testers.

It's set to offer many of the features of the full PC version, allowing people to log into Second Life when out and about. Purists may argue that the experience can't possibly be as good, but if you need your virtual fix while enmeshed in pesky real-world activities (like going out and meeting people), it could be just the thing.

(via Wireless Watch Japan)

Touchscreens bad, E-Ink screens good?

There's a lot of fuss and excitement around touchscreen mobiles this year, with devices like Apple's iPhone, LG's Prada handset, and the HTC Touch. But an alternative technology is E-Ink, which allows the keys on a phone to change dynamically, but is less battery-sapping than a touchscreen.

One prototype is being shown off this week at the CEATEC exhibition, although we have to say, it looks distinctly old-fashioned. If E-Ink is to become a viable alternative to touchscreens, it'll have to be in more stylish handsets, that's for sure.

(via Xumdeo)