MyOrigo moves with the times
Coming in the autumn is a new type of smartphone that harnesses the motion in a person's hands to control many of its features. Users of MyDevice, from Finnish company MyOrigo, will be able to scroll down web pages or documents by tilting or rotating the phone. The handset, which has been signed up by one of the big UK networks, also has a large screen that can be used vertically or horizontally.
Another innovative feature is motion feedback (a kind of a jolt) to confirm each time the user has made a keystroke. MyDevice's roll call of features includes internet access, email, MP3 playback and multimedia messaging via its integrated VGA standard digital camera. The device is powered by the Tao Group's Intent operating system.
MyOrigo is also offering the motion control feature to other handset manufacturers, and is considering launching a version of its handset targeted at games' fans.
Raven shield
Talented European developer Game Loft has just released its latest Tom Clancy conversion, bringing the PC and console shooter Raven Shield to Nokia's series 30 and 40 phones.
In it, terrorists have rigged a Venezuelan oil refinery with explosives, and are threatening to detonate it. You lead the anti-terrorist unit out to stop them. The top-down 2D graphics hark back to mid-1980s arcade classics such as Ikari Warriors and Commando, but there's also a Metal Gear Solid stealth element. Players can engage a scout mode, where the direction pad is used to scroll around the screen to look for enemy guards.
Game Loft's previous Clancy effort, Splinter Cell (free with T-Mobile's Nokia 3510i) has proved very popular, and this neat little shooter should impress gamers looking for a similarly tactical blast. If you have a Nokia 3510i, 7210, 6610, 7250 or 6100 you can download the game now from www.gameloft.com, or from Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 portals within the month. The price of each game starts at around £4.50.
Block again
Denki Blocks!, the cute and insanely addictive block-shifting puzzler from Dundee outfit Denki is getting a sequel. The original won best handheld game and game of the show at E3 2001, and is one of the most widely available and successful Java games.
The sequel offers dozens of fiendish new puzzles based around the simple premise of manoeuvring coloured blocks around the screen until they all connect. It's much more difficult and engaging than it sounds.
Set for release by publisher Digital Bridges this month, Denki Blocks! 2 should be available for pretty much all Java-enabled phones. Go to www.denki.co.uk for more information.
DJ phone
The roll-out of Siemens' new mobiles continues this month, with a handset aimed at the youth market. A small-ish phone available in several colours, the triple band M55 is also the first handset with Cubasis DJ software. This is a basic four-track recording system that lets the user create and mix tracks that can then be used as ringtones.
The phone also features MMS and is compatible with Siemens Quick Pic snap-on camera accessory. Rounding off its specification is a selection of games including Cliff Diving and Mountain Biking. Users can also download new games via GPRS. The phone goes on sale early next month with T-Mobile at a retail price with contract of around £200.
Life savers
Researchers at Toshiba's UK Labs in Bristol have developed a mobile phone system designed to help emergency services rescue people trapped in avalanches or earthquakes.
Survivors of the disaster dial an emergency number from their mobiles, which then transmit an alert message to all other mobiles in the area. The phones then ring with an audible alarm tone. Anyone who is safe switches their phone off, leaving the victims' phones ringing, thereby enabling rescue services to locate them. The phones also emit a radio signal to further help guide rescue crews. Although it is purely a prototype system at the moment, Toshiba hopes the technology will be incorporated into phones and networks soon.
www.toshiba-europe.com/research/trl
Treo lives on
If you thought Palm's buy out of rival Handspring would sound the death knell for the latter's Treo range of smart phones, think again. Handspring confirmed this week that it will ship the compact smartphone it paraded several weeks ago at a US exhibition to the UK this autumn.
Just like its predecessors, the Treo 600 pairs personal organiser facilities run via Palm's 0S 5 system with GPRS-powered email and web browsing. Innovations for this Treo include a new keyboard with dome-shaped keys, which Handspring claims is faster and easier to use than keypads from rivals, and an integrated digital camera supported by messaging facilities. There's no set price yet, but expect it to retail for around £350. An agreement between the two companies means it is almost certain to be available first via the Orange network.
New Nokias
Mobile phone giant Nokia last week unveiled the new handsets and accessories due in shops later in the year.
Scheduled for a late summer launch is the 3100, a tiny upright model with a glow-in-the-dark cover that flashes when the phone rings. Expected to retail for around £100 with contract, the handset also features Java games and multimedia messaging.
Nokia is also targeting corporate users with a heavily specified, yet compact, triple band smartphone - the 6600. It features a large screen, email and web-browsing facilities, an integrated VGA camera, a video recorder and Real One player and Bluetooth connectivity. The 6600 is slated to retail for around £250 with contract when it launches in October.
The company also showed its Fun Camera, a stand-alone snapper that can transfer images to several Nokia handsets (including the 3100), which can then send them as multimedia messages, a clip-on FM radio and a wireless head set. All will launch in late summer.
Announced several months ago, but due to be arrive in the next couple of weeks, is the 3300, an oval-shaped phone that pairs multimedia messaging features (though no integrated camera) with an MP3/AAC music player and FM stereo radio. It is expected to retail for under £100 with contract. Completing Nokia's range for 2003 is the N-Gage personal game console /phone hybrid, which will launch in the autumn.
www.nokia.co.uk
