Filed under: Cellphones

Japan is drenched in arcades with female-only purikura (photo booth for you gaijin) corners in which aflutter girls take pictures, bless them with sparkly decorations, and print them to book cover friendly stickers for all to see, for better or worse, to the horror of their moms, to the delight of their potential boyfriends. Let’s say Sharp was to take the purikura phenomenon and fuse it with to the teenage girl’s number one obsession: the cell phone (keitai for our Japanese readers). That’s exactly what it did with this concept phone and software, complete with a shared art space that can be collectively decorated over wireless networks. Scary? Perhaps. Cool enough to snap some video in awesome disbelief? Most definitely.

Continue reading Sharp’s tegakichat concept phone brings the purikaru booth to girls’ pockets

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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger

Filed under: Cellphones

Japan is drenched in arcades with female-only purikura (photo booth for you gaijin) corners in which aflutter girls take pictures, bless them with sparkly decorations, and print them to book cover friendly stickers for all to see, for better or worse, to the horror of their moms, to the delight of their potential boyfriends. Let’s say Sharp was to take the purikura phenomenon and fuse it with to the teenage girl’s number one obsession: the cell phone (keitai for our Japanese readers). That’s exactly what it did with this concept phone and software, complete with a shared art space that can be collectively decorated over wireless networks. Scary? Perhaps. Cool enough to snap some video in awesome disbelief? Most definitely.

Continue reading Sharp’s tegakichat concept phone brings the purikura booth to girls’ pockets

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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger

Filed under: Gaming

We still don’t really believe it, but the Pandora pre-order page is now live and accepting orders for the open-source gaming handheld. Only 3,000 units are being delivered this time around, so you’d better act fast — $329 is all it takes to be a part of history, kids.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Software, Nokia, Symbian

The good news is that Nokia seems to be proactively addressing problems and taking care of new N96 owners, issuing a firmware update just days after the first units hit shelves around Europe. The bad news, though, is that this first update might actually be making things worse. You know what they say about vocal minorities, but there seems to be a groundswell of complaints brewing over the upgrade to v11.018 issued last week, particularly regarding earpiece volume. An N96 you can’t hear isn’t much more than an HSDPA-equipped paperweight — and a particularly expensive one, may we add — so if there’s a real issue here, let’s hope Nokia keeps pumping out that code to get it closed.

[Via All About Symbian]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wearables

Bad / good news, folks: Nintendo is / isn’t working on a pedometer peripheral that will / won’t integrate with its Wii / DS console. The company has famously stated that it doesn’t plan to release “a whole lot more” accessories for the Wii, which means we’ve got at least one or two to look forward to, and this could be one of ‘em. The images surfaced on a European trademark registry site with very little supplemental info, but we do know it’s a pedometer of sorts. If we’re lucky, this is something that’ll integrate into the existing Wii Fit setup, perhaps alongside a software update to manage more info about our unhealthiness than just how far we can jump on a pair of imaginary skis, but it’s probably just as likely that we’re looking at a Wii Fit sequel, or perhaps a DS version (a handy companion to that new DS?) designed to lure us out of the house. No telling, really, but the peripheral does appear to be wireless… and wholly evil.

[Via Joystiq]

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wearables

Bad / good news, folks: Nintendo is / isn’t working on a pedometer peripheral that will / won’t integrate with its Wii / DS console. The company has famously stated that it doesn’t plan to release “a whole lot more” accessories for the Wii, which means we’ve got at least one or two to look forward to, and this could be one of ‘em. The images surfaced on a European trademark registry site with very little supplemental info, but we do know it’s a pedometer of sorts. If we’re lucky, this is something that’ll integrate into the existing Wii Fit setup, perhaps alongside a software update to manage more info about our unhealthiness than just how far we can jump on a pair of imaginary skis, but it’s probably just as likely that we’re looking at a Wii Fit sequel, or perhaps a DS version (a handy companion to that new DS?) designed to lure us out of the house. No telling, really, but the peripheral does appear to be wireless… and wholly evil.

[Via Joystiq]

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE

That Q11 can’t be far off now that Moto’s starting to send it through labs for regulatory approval, and ClubeCelular seems to have gotten the inside line on the latest Q as it happened through Brazil’s hurdles. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the rumored specs (and a few glances at the unglamorous shots Moto sent with the phone’s labwork) leave us scratching our heads as to why anyone would want this over a Q9: quadband EDGE, stereo Bluetooth, WiFi, miniSD expansion, a 2.5mm (yes, 2.5mm) headphone jack, and a 3-megapixel camera with flash. Besides the cam, we’re not seeing what the draw is — and we’re particularly bewildered as to why Moto would think it was cool to leave 3G out these days, so we’re hoping that particular spec magically materializes by the time the phone floats north (and no, Motorola, just because RIM thinks it can get away with leaving out 3G doesn’t mean you should, too).

[Thanks, eloy]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Handsets, LG

Got touchscreen envy but don’t have the pair of Benjamins required to get yourself into a celly without a keypad? LG has a solution: the KP500, a nearly button-less and stylus-bearing handset that sounds rather like another recent cheap smartphone. LG’s not giving many details about this one beyond its 3-inch display, a 3 megapixel camera, motion sensor, and availability in black, brown, silver, or gold (though based on the pic above we’d stay away from that last one). There’s a short video of the TouchFLO-like UI to whet your appetite just below, but that’s all we have to share until this phone hits Europe in a month, with a worldwide release to come afterward.

[Via Unwired View]

Continue reading LG introduces “attractively-priced” KP500, doesn’t say how attractive

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Original post by Tim Stevens