Mobile Technology News

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Though you might come to Betanews expecting an article with either performance testing and graphs or inflammatory diatribes, we’re not above a good unboxing; especially when it’s a brand new piece of hardware that we intend to thoroughly test (or just very seriously play with.)

Today, we’re fortunate enough to have received a new TiVo Premiere, the first TiVo DVR with an HD interface designed especially to unite content from multiple sources under a single experience. They call it “The One Box.”

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Since well before Motorola released even its first Android device, a render of a seafoam green and silver slider phone called “Calgary” was floating around the Android blogs. It wasn’t until today that Motorola officially announced this phone. Now known as Devour, the new Android device will be available on Verizon Wireless in March.

Though wireless technology has made our daily lives so much simpler, isn’t it about time that it spread out of the confines of our homes and into life-critical environments such as hospitals? Apparently, it has. As a result of which, we might get to experience (hopefully not) devices such as the Sensium Digital Plaster – a wireless monitoring patch that can be stuck to a patient’s body like a Band-Aid strip, to monitor his/her vital signs.

Sharp has cleverly walked into the as-yet-unnoticed space between two electronic giants – the smartphone and the netbook – by introducing NetWalker PC-Z1, a mini netbook with a 5-inch WSVGA touchscreen interface, developed for the Japanese market.

Remember all the gushing we did about Mintpad – the cute touchscreen PMP from Mintpass? Then allow us a bit more, thrilled as we are that the little one has come several degrees closer from where it first debuted, albeit a little inconspicuously for the world to take notice of the great potential. Mintpad is now on sale in the UK, in a 4GB avatar that leaves little to be desired.

Sadly, style and functionality rarely go hand in hand.

The iPhone’s interface, for example, might look fantastic, but few would argue the touch-screen keyboard is easier to use than one with physical keys.

Billy May (a designer/editor) has been working with Mozilla Labs to come up with ideas for a Mozilla Phone. His first concept, based on a Blackberry 7130, certainly caught our eyes, and anyone who’s drooled over the Optimus Maximus keyboard will recognise those OLED keys.