Mobile

Researchers have developed a system that adapts a Windows-based smartphone to act as an ultrasound scanner. The device could be revolutionary in developing nations and might also have military uses. The system is based on existing portable ... ultrasound wands, which scan using soundwaves to produce an image of the inside of a body. The technique is best known for scanning images of fetuses, but has a wide range of medical uses. The problem with the existing system is that the wands then had to be plugged into an Internet-connected computer via a USB cable in order to share the results instantly ... (view more)

An average of 22 million Americans accessed online information via mobile device each day in January, double the amount for the same period last year. That's good news for advertisers, who say mobile users are much more likely to click on ads. The ... figures, from market research firm Comscore, show 63 million people accessed the web on a mobile device at least once during January, also a steep rise. Oddly, however, the figures showed that 19 million accessed the mobile web once a week, which is lower than the daily figure. These figures may actually be quite conservative. They don't include ... (view more)

It seems automobiles aren't the only consumer item 'going green' these days. At last week's annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, popular electronics manufacturer Samsung unveiled a solar-powered cellphone constructed from recycled plastic ... water bottles, making quite the splash with enviro-techies worldwide. At the Toronto International Auto Show this past week, just about everyone was thinking green. Hydrogen, electric, and hybrid cars dominated center stage throughout the event, just as they had weeks before at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. With automotive ... (view more)

Microsoft is set to release a new application for mobile phones that run Windows Mobile 6.0 and higher. The free application is called Microsoft Recite and, as an added bonus, Microsoft is granting some of their users early access to fiddle around ... with it before the official launch date. Recite allows users to speak into their mobile phones and record any message they wish to retrieve later. All a person has to do is press the "remember" button, record their thoughts and later retrieve their messages by pressing the "search" button and saying just a couple of keywords. (Source: zdnet.com ) ... (view more)

If you are planning a trip to Mexico in the near future and forget your mobile phone at home, try to resist the urge to purchase a replacement (no matter how inexpensive the phone plans are over there!) The Mexican government has agreed to start a ... national register filled with the fingerprints and personal information of every new mobile phone owner in the country. Why start a national register now? A disturbing trend has emerged in which criminals are extorting money via kidnappings and using their mobile phones to text their demands for ransom. In Mexico, hundreds of people are kidnapped ... (view more)

Television stations in 22 major U.S. cities have come together to announce that they will soon broadcast their signals in a format designed for mobile devices like cellphones, mp3 players and GPS units. The 22 stations, which include broadcasts out ... of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, would reach over 35 percent of all U.S. households. In total, 54 commercial network affiliates have committed to launching broadcasts, while another nine PBS affiliates are considering joining the project. (Source: canoe.ca ) The difference between these broadcasts and current mobile television ... (view more)

Everybody was talking about Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday morning, and it showed. According to reports, a number of mobile phone networks faced overload circumstances that day until late afternoon, when the chat sessions finally began to ... dissipate. Having the most trouble that morning appears to have been T-Mobile, with PC World reporting that one customer complained they were unable to make or receive calls throughout the entire morning leading up to Obama's appearance. With cellphones an often necessary lifeline for personal and business purposes, the victim's disgust is certainly ... (view more)

Palm recently unveiled their response to the Apple iPhone: the Pre. Among its many features is a new operating system supporting the device (Palm WebOS) and an iPhone-like touch-screen. The Pre uses a sophisticated interface which self-charges on a ... special platform without the need to attach a cable. The device also boasts 8GB of storage, GPS navigation, WiFi networking and a sliding mini-keyboard. (Source: iht.com ) Despite always being regarded as a major contender in the smartphone industry, Palm has suffered many recent setbacks, including the 2007 cancellation of their much-anticipated ... (view more)

Tired of reaching for that cellphone, only to find that your ensuing conversation is cut off because of a dying battery? Almost everyone knows the sinking feeling that accompanies a suddenly dead cellphone battery; in fact, consumers have been ... demanding a more efficient, longer-lasting device for ages. That might be on its way, thanks to the work of a doctoral student from Canada's national capital. PhD candidate Atif Shamim, an engineering student at Ottawa, Ontario's Carleton University, has reportedly built a technology capable of reducing the overall power consumption of mobile devices ... (view more)

Chip maker Intel wants to bring power to your mobile device. At a press event in San Francisco on December 5, Justin Rattner, the company's chief technical officer, unveiled Intel's vision for sensors that "scavenge" the environment for power ... sources. Called a Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) the technology could continually scan the environment for possible energy sources. The WISP then takes in power through a variety of means, including solar and other light sources, body heat, radiation from cell phone towers, WiFi and television signals -- even the energy ... (view more)