Phones Go Pair Shaped

Phones first looked and felt like bricks. Then they got small then tiny, and now they've got bigger. Next pads and tablets came along and bigger was better. Somewhere along the way the line between phone and tablet started getting a bit blurry and suddenly no-one knows if they're carrying around a giant cellphone or a tiny tablet.

So now it's a laptop, phone and tablet for the average mobile worker. Lugging these gadgets is almost counter-intuitive to the concept of being mobile in the first place.

One potentially very clever solution is a pad with a removable handheld device. It's a pad when you need it and a phone when you don't want to look like a toddler holding a tea tray up to it's head.

Both the ASUS Padfone and the CMIT Transphone have been unveiled recently. Is this the way forward for devices or a fad that'll fade?

Much Ado About Nothing

It’s been a dramatic week for Google, which seems to be how they like it. First they unveil Wallet, a suite of functions that turns your phone into a rewards earning, deal scouting payment portal. Then Pay Pall sue for what boils down to industrial espionage, accusing the employees responsible of using proprietary info obtained while working for them to make it happen.

Meanwhile the man in the street is freaking out about whether their personal info is safe, while programmers and retailers are salivating at the thought of being able to entice spenders through purchase rewards and location based offers. 

Your phone could detect and alert you to offers in your vicinity that, based on your interests and spending history, you might like to take advantage of. It’s like the illegitimate offspring of a grotesque Menage-a-Trois between a social media service, a bank and a GPS tracking service.

The thing is, money’s a concept, not an entity. NFC payment has been around for ages. People probably kicked up as much fuss when merchants started issuing bank notes and yet again when the government used alloys in coins. The hubbub will die down and we’ll continue as per usual, albeit with slightly less to carry around in our pockets.

Mobile is Great for Business

But is it really that great for your personal life? A survey recently completed by mobile services provider iPass indicates that the benefits are not as evenly spread as one might think.
They surveyed over 3700 people from 1000 companies and discovered some truly phenomenal changes in behaviour that are great for businesses in terms of competitive advantage, but maybe not so good for their employees.

More than half surveyed wake up during the night to check their phones, not to mention they work 240 more hours. The article doesn't say what the comparison is made to, but who cares, that's a lot more time working and a lot less doing, well, anything else.

Being available 24/7 was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Business had access to you day and night but your increased productivity meant more time to do the things you wanted to. Increased friction with your significant other, working more hours and losing sleep was not part of the deal.

We're not saying get rid of your device because thats just crazy talk, but if this is any indication of how things are going to be it's clear we need to start imposing some sort of self control or we'll all gonna be single, burned out and very, very tired. Read the full article on Cnet.

Give Your Mobile Device the Finger

The next mobile upgrade you make may not be a phone at all. It could very well be jewellery. A company called Ringbow has a product that is essentially a wearable navigation tool, making touchscreen use more flexible, innovative and intuitive. It essentially is a wearable mouse with an accelerometer component, but so much more than that. It means that to you'll be able to reduce the amount of screen space taken up by things like menus and nav bars and gives another element of manipulation for interface designers of everything from OS systems and applications to game controls and media players.

While we're not holding our breath that this will be on shelves any time soon, it's an interesting approach. It will ultimately depend on whether Ringbow puts them out there and hopes software developers build for the device or go the other way around and partners with another development company.

They might not be the height of fashion from the get go but there's a certain sci-fi quality to them that's appealing, and while the mouse at the top gives them an engagement ring-like look we're betting the second or third generation models will be a lot more low profile. After all, no-one really wants to look like they're betrothed to a cyborg unless it's Alice from Transformers 2 (or Rachael from Blade Runner, if you like the classics).

The Best Earbuds Ever

This is an amazing accessory and one of the most innovative ideas we’ve seen in a while. It’s also one of those things where in hindsight it’s the most obvious invention in the world. A very smart man by the name of Stephen Ambrose and his company Asius Technologies have created inflatable earbuds called the Ambrose Diaphonic Ear Lens.

Not only do they promise to be more comfortable than even the most perfectly fitted earbuds but the technology that keeps them inflated should theoretically allow for clearer sound at lower volumes, a wider range of sound, less damage to your ears and they’re just generally better in every way.

Even better, aside from the complete version they may also develop  an option that will retrofit existing earphone sets.

The same force that keeps them inflated will keep them secured, without having that inner ear-ache so common after a couple hours of use with a phone.

Look out for this technology to most likely be licensed to existing brands in the near future.

Onavo Promises it Can Reduce Your Data Bill

The internet is a problem. More specifically, holding intercontinental board meetings, watching video, liking our friends’ witty comments and telling a bunch of strangers how badly we’d like to have a ham and cheese sandwich right this second via our phones is a problem, because the cost of the bandwidth used can be downright coronary inducing.
While Onavo doesn’t claim to solve the dilemma, they do offer a service (for free) that helps take the edge off. Simply put, they compress your data usage without slowing your connection speed down, reducing use by a significant percentage.
The Israeli startup has been getting a lot of attention over the last few days and there’s plans to expand the service to other devices besides the iPhone, but for now it’s purely for those rocking Apple hardware. We’ll let you know when the Android version (supposedly a few months away) is out. 

In the meantime all you non-iPhone owners can become a fan.