With a name like HiPhone, it has to be good, right? Totally. The outfit famous for knocking off RIM’s BlackBerry Storm in impressive fashion is back, this time with a psychedelic mishmash that could make even the most hardened soul chuckle once or twice. The F320 is — as you can so clearly see above — a terribly funny combination of iPod nano and rotary phone, and while we wouldn’t trust the specifications for a minute, we’re told that it’s a dual-band GSM handset with a built-in multimedia player, FM tuner, camera, 2.6-inch touchscreen and Bluetooth. There’s no mention of a price (unless you’re willing to commit to buying a few hundred), but trust us, it’s better that way.
source: engadgetmobile.com
Certain user interface elements of the sundry Windows Mobile 7 mockups we’ve seen floating around over the years have remained more or less constant — a general gravitation toward better touchscreen usability and some positively bizarre bottom-aligned signal and battery meters, most notably. WMExperts is showing off a newly-acquired document of some sort comparing screens in 6.5 and what was apparently supposed to be 6.5.1 — the finger-friendly tweak of 6.5 that would precede 7 — but those mockups on the bottom there have apparently been pushed forward and are now being repurposed as guidance for 7’s visuals. For what it’s worth, the mockups look so drastically different from 6.5 (and so similar to what we’ve seen prior 7 leaks) that we’re inclined to believe this stuff was destined for 7 all along — and it actually looks pretty snazzy, save for those dang meters down below — but whatever, Microsoft, let’s just get this moved to RTM already.
Update: pocketnow.com has some additional mockups posted, possibly from the same batch; it looks like they were playing with the appearance of elements, because the meters have a distinctly different appearance (though they’re all still at the bottom). Can you tell we hate the fact that they’re at the bottom?
source: engadgetmobile.com
Android, Android everywhere. Android, Android in my hair. In my Nook and in my car in my netbook and in my… wait, Afghanistan? It seems defense contractor Raytheon, creators of the famous “pain ray”, have launched a device called RATS: the Raytheon Android Tactical System. It allows soldiers to mark other soldiers and even UAVs as “buddies,” then track their position in real time on a map, even picking up streaming video coming from above — sort of like Latitude but putting a whole new spin on stalking. No word on how soldiers like their new devices so far, but once a Twitter app is added we’re sure they won’t shut up about it.
source: engadgetmobile.com
