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Imagine doing a search using a picture taken from your camera enabled cell phone. Does it sound too good to be true? Hatmut Neven doesn’t think so. He is currently working on a way to make this happen. Image-recognition software is already being tested for used in various tasks. Using that technology he hopes to make it happen. The following is a quote of what this service could do for you:
”You take a picture of something, send it to our servers, and we either provide you with more information or link you to the place that will. Let’s say you’re standing in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. You take a snapshot with your camera phone and instantly receive an audio-visual narrative about the painting. Then you step out of the Louvre and see a cafe. Should you go in? Take a shot from the other side of the street and a restaurant guide will appear on your phone. You sit down inside, but perhaps your French is a little rusty. You take a picture of the menu and a dictionary comes up to translate.”
Read More 
| TheFeature.com
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Nokia has announced that the Nokia 7710 widescreen multimedia smartphone with pen input is now officially available in the US. The 7710 has a widscreen display of 640 x 320 pixels. The phone has 128 MB internal memory (80-90 MB available to the user) and 128 MB external memory on the included multimedia card (MMC). The N7710 includes an Internet browser, integrated MP3 music player with stereo audio, a set of video features, 1 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom, presentation viewers, word processor and sheet converters, FM radio and a touch screen. Also, keeping up with the times, there is integrated Bluetooth as well.
Read More | TechTree
If listening to people talk on their cell phones in public hasn’t driven you over the brink just yet, Samsung brings you something that just might finish the job. Today they announced the SCH-S310 phone. Now, Samsung announces new phones all the time - so what’s the big deal here? These are the first phones ever made that will recognize human actions. So check it out - your train is running late and you need to get in contact with the boss. Instead of pressing “3” to use the auto dial feature, instead you wave the phone in the air drawing an invisible number 3. The SCH-S310 then dials the number programmed into the third auto dial slot. Great, now everyone will be doing cell phone Tai Chi - but that’s not all! You will also be able to use the phone for karaoke, because when you shake the phone really fast, it will make tamborine noises. This just might be the first time that I want to see a cell phone not make it to the States.
Read More | Donga
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Verizon announced “VCast,” a new high-speed wireless multimedia and video service, at CES on Friday. The company says that its EV-DO network will support speeds of between 300 and 500kbps; roughly as fast as a low-grade DSL connection. Verizon said that VCast will go live on February 1st in 32 of the company’s largest markets that already support the EV-DO network. Customers will be able to access over 300 videos optimized for the company’s new CDMA EV-DO network for about $15.00 per month.
Read More | BetaNews
If you happen to have a high end mobile phone running on Symbian software, you may be at risk for a new trojan that infects your phone and flashes a skull and crossbones on the screen. The new trojan is a variant of existing trojans, and usually infects your phone by disguising itself as a good program for your phone - usually downloaded illegally. The existence of viruses for smart phones and the anti-virus companies that hope to market software to prevent them, according to the article, seems a little fishy. Read on for more details.
Read More | E-Commerce Times
Motorola Gets Jiggy with iTunes
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Portable Audio / Video,
Motorlola has unveiled the first of many devices that will support the iTunes Music Store. The phone is capable of downloading and playing music from the iTunes store, as well as syncing with your PC or Mac. It includes an interface similar to the Apple iPod for navigating and playing music. There is no mention of cost - but if the price is right, you can bet this is another gadget I will own.
Read More | eWeek
CES 2005 Opens This Week
Posted by Hector Martinez Categories: Cameras, Smartphones, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Portable Audio / Video, Software, Video Games, Wireless / WiFi,
Pretty soon, we’re going to be flooded with lots of news on all the new gear products coming out later this year and beyond. It’s because the annual Consumer Electronics Show opens up this week in Las Vegas. The show runs January 6-9, and features a messload of exhibits showcasing the latest in everything from BlueTooth technology to home theatre to WiFi. Some of the major products that debuted in past CES shows include plasma TV’s, HDTV, CD’s and DVD’s. It’s just huge, with some 129,000 attendees. Special events to look out for this year include a pre-show keynote speech by Bill Gates, and a show-floor gaming competition. Speaking of games, PSXExtreme reports that details on the Sony PSP’s US launch, pricing, and titles will all be revealed at the show.
26 companies, including Cingular, NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Siemens, and Vodafone have begun working on a unified data standard for the next generation of cell phones. The new technology dubbed “Super 3G”, is said to be capable of almost instantaneously transmitting high-resolution video.
Read More | EE Times
It takes a lot to be able to hang with the big boys. After the ATT-Cingular merger, Sprint and Nextel weren’t just going to sit around. While some analysts believe that the cultures of these two companies won’t mesh well together, execs are talking consumer-market dual-mode phones that will likely come out of the deal. Time will tell what effect this may have on Verizon’s current lead.
Read More 
| CNN
Nokia to Introduce Hologram Labels for Cell Phone Batteries
Posted by Hector Martinez Categories: Smartphones,
It turns out that Nokia is blaming counterfeit battery manufacturers for a series of incidents where their cell phones have either heated up or exploded. To help minimize this, customers can now look for a hologram label on their new Nokia batteries. It will hide a 20-digit authentication code that appears when a portion of the label is scratched. In addition, users can verify the code either online or via SMS. This reminds me of some old Transformers toys, which would hide their allegiance (Autobot / Decepticon) until you rubbed their darkened insignias. Don’t think any of those ever exploded, though.
Read More | Cnet
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