The Red Ferret Journal

This iPhone C6 is an 8GB, WiFi and GPS enabled clone handset which contains a 3.5 inch screen, 256MB ROM, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a Samsung 450 MHz processor and free turn by turn GPS voice navigation. Oh, did we mention it runs Windows Mobile 6.1? No? Tsk. Yours for a measly $239.00. Good luck with the warranty from Shenzhen, dude. [Thanks Kev]

The Mobile Phone Watch may not have a fancy name, but it sure screams features. The 1.3 inch screen probably hates your thumb, so use the stylus instead dufus. And don’t be thinking any of them 3G thoughts, Cyrus, ‘cos this puppy lives for GSM only. But if you’re in the market for a watch which is also a phone like Mr Bond never wears, this is probably as good a bet as any. Now hand over the £219.99 and get lost.

For the past few months I’ve been living with a selection of Android handsets, different makes, models and network owners. The HTC Hero, The T-Mobile Pulse, the HTC Magic and from my experience of this new computing platform I’m going to predict that Android is destined to be the biggest thing to hit computing since Windows hit the PC. Yes it’s that big.

It’s not that these early products exhibit anything spectacular in the way of features, applications or style, in fact quite the opposite. Apart from the occasional stand-out such as the free turn-by-turn GPS navigation included with Android 2.0, the releases have to date been fairly ordinary, workable and fun, but not mind-blowing. Much of what we’re seeing is just catch up to the iPhone, which is hardly world shaking stuff (Motorola’s Droid included!).

No, it’s not the current situation that is so exciting, it’s the promise of the platform that is starting to grab people’s attention. The main thing is the Google of course. Attach the name of the hottest tech company in the universe to a raw hamburger and you could IPO the company for a billion tomorrow, so the fact that Google is so publicly supporting, guiding and driving development of this platform has literally set the tech arena alight.

If you want a comparison, just look how hard it’s been for good old Palm, another great name from yesteryear, to drive the sales of the Pre phone to date. Or look at how fast Android has eclipsed the stalwart but extremely stodgy Symbian and Windows Mobile phone systems and it’s clear that there are more forces at work here than just technical ability. One of the keys to this rapid take-up of course is Google’s focus on open systems. Compare and contrast this with the traditional closed wall attitude of Apple and the rest of the mobile phone industry and suddenly the possibilities are endless.

Sure, it’s not completely open. Android may be based on Linux and Java roots, but the crucial Dalvik virtual machine interface is definitely not completely open source, yet. But the whole platform is still a heck of a lot more open than anything else out there right now. And crucially, oh so crucially, Google gets the Web. Better than just about anyone around, and like it or not, the world is moving to a web-centric milieu, where networked technology serves as the backbone for every day functionality. Web applications like Google Docs, Internet communications like Skype and Google Voice, location aware services like Google Maps. Can we spot a trend here?

And to top it all off, Google loves engineers. They respect developers, nurture them, speak to them, encourage them (mostly!). Watch out as the 10,000 applications for the platform literally explodes over the next year, to catch and surpass all but the Windows PC platform. The reason for this is the fact that Google don’t hold all the strings to this development effort. Open Source drives its own agenda, and once developers get wind of a potential gold mine, they’ll jump on in force, and then we’ll see how open vs closed works in realtime.

The driving force for all this action of course will be the massive increase of devices using the Android system which we can expect to see arrive over the coming 12 months. And so here’s a list of the 75 devices now available or which will arrive very shortly.

The Android Phone List [source] (bold = available now!)

1. Acer Liquid – A1 – November 28th
2. Compulab Exeda
3. Dell Ophone mini3i – Benzine
4. Geek Phone One – December
5. General Mobile DSTL1
6. Haier H7
7. HKC Pearl
8. HighScreen PP5420
9. HTC Click – Fiesta – Tattoo
10. HTC Desire 6200 – Verizon Droid Eris
11. HTC Dragon – Zoom 2 – Passion
12. HTC Dream – T-Mobile G1
13. HTC Hero – G2 Touch
14. HTC Lancaster
15. HTC Magic – Sapphire – T-Mobile myTouch 3G – Google Ion – Dopod A6188
16. HTC Predator
17. Huawei U8220 – T-Mobile Pulse
18. Huawei U8230
19. Innocomm Skate
20. Kogan Agora
21. Koolu Freerunner – Openmoko GTA02
22. Lenovo O1 Ophone
23. LG Etna
24. LG GW620 Eve
25. LG GW880
26. Motorola Calgary
27. Motorola Devour
28. Motorola Droid – Sholes – Tao – Milestone
29. Motorola Heron
30. Motorola MB200
31. Motorola MB300
32. Motorola Morrison – Cliq – DEXT
33. Motorola Motus – 2010
34. Motorola Sholes Tablet – 2010
35. Motorola Zeppelin – 2010
36. Philips V808
37. Qigi i6
38. Saygus VPhone V1 – 2010
39. Samsung Behold 2 T939 – November 18th
40. Samsung Bigfoot
41. Samsung Galaxy i7500
42. Samsung Galaxy Lite i5700 – Spica – November
43. Samsung Houdini
44. Samsung m850 Q
45. Samsung Moment – InstinctQ m900
46. Samsung Saturn i6500 – 2010
47. Sciphone N12
48. Sciphone N16
49. Sciphone N17
50. Sciphone N19
51. Sciphone N21
52. Sony Ericsson Sunny
53. Sony Ericsson XPERIA x10 – Rachael – Infinity – January 2010
54. Sunno S880
55. Tiger G3
56. ZTE Android

Non-Phone Devices

1. Alex Android eReader
2. Archos 5 Internet Tablet
3. Barnes & Noble Nook
4. Cloud Telecomputers Glass
5. Creative Zii Egg
6. Dell Streak
7. ENT ET-M4301
8. enTourage eDGe – February 2010
9. eviGroup Wallet MID
10. GiiNii Movit Maxx
11. GiiNii Movit Mini
12. Hard Kernel ORDROID
13. Mio MiBuddy
14. RAmos T11
15. Shenzhen Eston HD ENT N97
16. Spring Alex
17. Skytone Alpha 680
18. SMiT Android MID-560
19. Touch Revolution NIMble

If we remember that the very first device was introduced a mere 13 months ago, the speed and scale of the adoption starts to become apparent. And note that it’s not just mobile phones we’re seeing here, but also a growing range of other devices such as digital picture frames, media players, set top boxes and beyond. We may be on the verge of witnessing the start of the infamous ubiquitous computing platform era that has been promised since the start of the micro-computer revolution.

I’ll leave you with anecdotal evidence of how things are going to change over the next few years. Just about everyone I’ve shown Android too have said 2 things in quick succession –

a) “Ooh, that’s nice, looks just like an iPhone”.

b) “Oooh, I want one”.

And this from people who are not trend setters, fashion conscious or interested in keeping up with the crowd. They are just impressed by the feature set and ease of use of the device itself. We owe a huge – huge! – debt of gratitude to Mr Jobs and Apple for showing the world how to make mobile phones which could be ‘smarter’ and still have bags of style and fondle appeal, but maybe the baton is about to be passed to a more open platform where the promise of mobile computing can ripen properly as it should? Time will tell!

The newest YoGen Hand Powered Gadget Charger is a leap forward in draw-and-release charging.The latest release by Easy Energy this YoGen will charge any mobile gadget you’ve got.

Just pull and release the string. This drives the internal generator, charging anything from an MP3 player, camera, cell phone, PDA’s, Bluetooth headsets, even GPS units. The LED indicator shows when it’s charging via its mini-USB port. With no batteries needed, it’s great for camping, hunting, fishing, travel and emergencies. A must-have, this lightweight compact device retails for $39.95 and will be available November 15th.

Power is generated with the first pull / Charges devices with only a few minutes of pull/release time / Yogens� patented technology charges most mobile devices / Yogens� charge/time ratio is similar to standard AC wall chargers.

Tags: gadget, charger, yogen, gadget+charger

The Voyager Pro UC from Plantronics is a nifty looking headset, designed to be used with a PC as well as a mobile phone. It works via Bluetooth and allows you to easily switch between phone calls on the PC to your mobile phone, presumably without having to reconnect. Comes supplied with a Bluetooth dongle for your PC and works up to 10 metres away. US$199.99 and available soon.

Designed for mobile professionals in the office or on-the-go, this single headset lets you seamlessly switch between calls received on your PC and those received on your mobile phone.

Tags: gadget, bluetooth, plantronics, plantronics+voyager+pro+uc

Those little 2.5″ portable hard drives are so cheap and useful they’re showing up everywhere. They’re not really built for lugging around in backpacks though. Speck have got you covered, with a range of portable hard drive cases, including this TechStyle gadget wallet. It’s a semi-rigid case that fits the WD Passport/Studio drives, there’s a Velcro strap to tuck it all in and oversized zippers. Looks good too, and that’s important right? US$19.99 from Speck.

Perfectly molded for both your device and crazy life, TechStyle provides ideal cool, lightweight protection for your WD portable hard drive or similar-sized portable gadgets! This molded semi-hard case provides sturdy protection for your device, which stays tethered securely inside with a velcro strap. Fit cords and other small accessories along with it, and zip closed for a safe and secure travel experience.

Tags: gadget, usb, techstyle, speck+hard+drive+case, hard+drive+case

Those very enterprising – and persistent! – Goldstriker people are now offering to gold plate any iPhone for a sleek shiny £99.00 plus tax and shipping. Not only that, but you can choose from ‘dazzling 24ct’ or ‘beautiful 18ct rose’ gold finishes. Send the handset over and they’ll do the deal and return it via DHL within 24 hours. It says here. Gosh.

The Allerta InPulse is a wrist worn mobile phone accessory that will display alerts and messages as they arrive to your phone without you needing to take the handset out of your pocket or bag. Right now it’s all very vapourware, with vague promises and specifications flickering across the Web. The inventor, Eric Migicovsky (pictured below) came up with the idea while at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and has been working on commercialising the thing since the tail end of last year.

Original images of the product look a lot clunkier than the latest from Crackberry.com, but the good news is the fact that the product should work with Blackberry, Nokia and Android handsets via BlueTooth, which will be useful indeed if it works as advertised.

Or:

• Recycled Credit Card No. 1
• Recycled Credit Card No. 2

This Philips Wake Up Light Dock gets our 10 points this week for cramming as much coolness as possible into a single product. Harmonious increasing intensity light alarm clock? Check. Integrated iPhone and iPod dock? Check. Recharge point and integrated iPod sound enhancer? Check. Energy saving lamp? OK already…where do we sign? $199.99.

(photo)

Martin Sauter’s recent post on the upgrade of the HSDPA spec (3G + to you and me) made me stop and blink. So mobile phones are now on their way to achieving data download speeds of up to 84 Mbit/s with existing hardware? Really?

In fact, a quick trawl of the Wikipedia site reveals that there are now 250 HSDPA networks in 109 countries, with a few supporting speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s and 28 Mbit/s peak data rates. And the first 42 Mbit/s network is scheduled to come online later this year.

I don’t know about you, but that just staggered my brain.

Of course it’s all based on ‘perfect conditions’, so with increased contention and distance from the mast these speeds will plummet significantly, but even if we see a 50% or 60% drop under full load this will still be incredible. The idea that we can connect at high speed data rates anywhere there’s a cell phone signal is going to fundamentally change the way we do so many things. Big time!

And don’t forget that the faster speeds also translate to greater capacity (the faster I download my chunk of stuff, the faster I get off and leave the ‘line’ free for someone else). Amazing stuff.

TXTBlocker is a software and online service combo which locks off a registered mobile phone from making or receiving text messages or calls while in a car. It uses cell and GPS data to determine location and speed and decide whether the phone is actually in a car, and once it thinks it is, boom, the service is automatically limited.

It doesn’t jam the phone in the traditional sense, so the subscriber can use the online dashboard to set up a whitelist of emergency numbers to keep open, which is reassuring. There’s also a passenger mode, for when the phone carrier is not driving, but again it’s subscriber allowable, so if the parents don’t trust you, you’re SMS toast in any vehicle. Which leads to one possible problem. What happens if you’re on a train or bus?

Oh and it can also be set up to block any calls or SMS in classrooms. Hah, gotcha, ya little tykes.

It’s currently compatible with Blackberry and Windows mobile phone platforms, with more on the way. Priced from $9.99 a month plus a $24.99 set up fee.