Mobiele Telefonie

Lip-reading Electrodes

Everyone’s annoyed by the idiotic phone calls of others, whose irrelevance is only exceeded their volume, but German scientists have decided to do something about it. Professor Tanja Schultz of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has designed a system that does more than read your lips – it reads your whole face. Electromyography reads the electrical signals sent to facial muscles when you move them, like when you’re talking. By translating this movement into the matching text, users can send silent speech through their phone without ever making a noise. It’ll be replayed in an artificial voice at the other end. It sounds great, but to say this approach has a few problems is like saying a car made of darts might have problems cornering. For one, you completely lose any intonations or emotion, and it’s extremely unlikely that the sort of shouter who needs this system will be prepared to make that sacrifice for the sake of others. Everyone needs to know exactly HOW annoyed they were, oh my god, by that stupid cop when they were hardly speeding at all!  There’s also the fact that the electromyographic rig needs to tape nine electrodes to your face to work – which Professor Schultz admits isn’t ready for mass market use, but says could be improved for future phone use. How? Because unless they’re planning to have Apple brand an iFaceWeb there’s no way people will make themselves look that stupid. And there’s no way this’ll work without sticking suckers to your face: any technology which could do away with that – advanced visual scanning and lip-reading (a la HAL9000), forcefield reading of distant motion, reading your mind – would never be used for it because it’d be too busy revolutionizing the entire world. But there is one way we can silence the most annoyingly audible users right now.  Instead of sensitive sticky pads, use the old-style electrodes: great big needles you jam into your face. Use them to poke great big holes and top them with huge metal balls, sell them from Hot Topic, and watch as teenagers who turn their skulls into scrap-metal storage locations finally put them to good, quiet, use. And if someone uses their phone in the cinema? They get one whether they want it or not and everyone else in the theatre gets a turn hammering in the spikes.

COMPETITION TIME!!

Samsung is set to release some pretty impressive handsets over the next few months. Both the Samsung Monte and Samsung Wave will land at Dialaphone next month, the Monte flaunts the new Touchwiz 2.0 Plus user interface, while the Wave will debut Samsungs very own operating system, Bada. Unfortunately, release dates are still a long way away, so to keep you going until these beauties are launched, we’ve got a Samsung 19” LCD monitor to give away. To get your hands on this all you need to do is head on over to our Samsung Monte review and let us know what you think about the handset.  The competition will run throughout March, remember to leave your name and real email address when you comment on the Samsung Monte Review, as we will be emailing the winner in April! Good Luck! ***CLICK HERE TO ENTER – LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE SAMSUNG MONTE REVIEW*** If you want to know a little more about the prize check out the specs below to see what one little comment could get you: Product Description: Samsung SyncMaster 931BW – LCD Display – TFT – 19” Device Type: LCD Display / TFT active matrix Colour: Black Dimensions: 44.8cm x 20.2cm x 36.4cm Weight: 4.2kg Diagonal Size: 19” Widescreen Terms & Conditions Apply.

• The draw will take place on April 1st 2010
• The winner will be contacted by email
• If we do not hear confirmation from the winner within one week that they accept the prize, the draw will be redrawn
• By submitting your email address, you are allowing Dialaphone to contact you via your email address given.  You may opt out of this at any time
• No purchase necessary.  Only one entry per household.
• Employee’s of Dialaphone and their relatives are ineligible to enter the prize draw as are all persons under 18 years and anyone residing outside the UK mainland
• No cash alternatives
• We reserve the right to offer an alternative prize of the same value or higher

Samsung Monte – Robot in Disguise?

There are a number of mid-range touchscreens entering the market. In the past, a smaller budget meant a less impressive spec list and unresponsive screen. This is definitely not the case with the Samsung Monte. Take a quick glance at the spec sheet and you will soon see that this sleek entry-level handset packs a load of high-end features. The most impressive of these is the Monte’s connectivity collection. Boasting quadband GSM, dual band 3G with 3.6Mbps HSDPA and a range of local connectivity options WiFi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB, and a MicroSD card that can handle anything up to 16GB. Regardless of whether you log onto the net via WiFi or through a carriers web connection, the browser is impressive. The Dolfin Web browser is the same that we have seen previously on the Samsung Jet. Based on the well-known Webkit design the Monte’s browser is extremely responsive with finger-friendly features, such as one-finger and double tap zoom, kinetic scrolling, and effortless panning. There is also full Flash support onboard, something that is still considered a rarity, even on high-end Smartphones. Coming in at 108.8 x 53.7 x 12.4mm the Samsung Monte shares similar dimensions with most of its competitors and weighing just 92g, it’s very pocket friendly. Despite being average size and weight for the mid-range class, the exterior is by no means ordinary. The bold paintwork is a definite eye-catcher, and bears an uncanny resemblance to the well-favoured transformer BumbleBee, or at least we think so. Unfortunately, the Monte is no friendly autobot, but it does have a torrent of hidden weaponry. The Monte sports Samsung’s Touchwiz user interface. Touchwiz 2.0 Plus, various improvements have been made to the system recently, hence the additional word. The jump from Touchwiz 2.0 to 2.0 Plus sees a big emphasis on visual features, the new interface is moving closer to the look and feel of Samsungs new Operating System Bada, which will debut next month on the Samsung Wave. The interface looks fresh and is easy to navigate; the homescreen is made up of three different panels, each with ample space for widgets. Because of its capacitive screen, a simple finger swipe is all that is needed to switch between the three. The widget tray has moved from the left hand side of the screen to the bottom, and is brought up using the gear mechanism at the top of the page. Many will be happy to know that Smart unlock has also been included in the Monte package. Onto entertainment facilities and the Samsung Monte again exceeds expectations. The music player has all the features to which we have become accustom, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroSD card, Fm Radio with RDS, Playlist function, and decent speakers. The standard audio presets are all available, with dynamic and surround sound options too. DNSe technology provides more options to improve sound quality, externalisation, music clarity, bass enhancement, and megabass. There’s even an option that lets you record radio broadcasts. The camera set is a mixed bag, while 3megapixels is at the lower end of the snapper scale, the added features work to improve picture quality. Smile detection’s onboard as are a number of different shot options including panoramic view. The Monte has a great photo editor packed in, providing quick photo alterations and uploads to the web. Geotagging sets the Monte apart from the rest of the mid-touch crowd, allowing users to add geographical data to their images. There are a number of preinstalled applications to suit a variety of needs, Office Document Viewer 2007 allows users to open Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents straight from their phone, while Palringo opens up communication options to instant messaging from GTalk, ICQ, AIM and MSN. Naturally the Social Networking sites all feature, Facebook and Myspace have their own dedicated apps, while Twitter and Bebo can be accessed using widgets. There’s also Emoze, an app that provides push email for Gmail, Outlook and Facebook emails.

The HTC Desire – Satisfy Your Lust!

Once upon a time, when you wanted to buy a mobile phone you did just that – it was a phone you could carry around and nothing else. Then, as technology moved on, we got the choice of flip phones, sliders and candybars, before being tempted by phones with QWERTY keyboards and smartphones, which could do almost everything your laptop could do. Now, since the launch of the Google Nexus One, we have a new category to consider, the superphone. Does they leap tall buildings in a single bound? Or accelerate to 60mph in under 4 seconds? No, but in the world of mobile phones, they do the equivalent. Here, we’re talking about the HTC Desire, the second official superphone on the market, after the aforementioned Nexus One. As you may know, the Nexus One was also built by HTC and the Desire is essentially their version of the phone without the Google branding. Initially known as the Bravo and the Passion, the HTC Desire was launched at Mobile World Congress and instantly become one of the hits of the show. If you’re one of the many who are excited about this new phone, then enjoy out in-depth overview, which should keep you going until its release! Understanding Why the HTC Desire is Super. Power. Hidden deep inside the case is the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The QSD8250 is also found inside the Nexus One and incorporates a 1GHz processor, a 3G radio and GPS radio on the same platform, which results in a low-power, small size chipset ideal for the latest, and most powerful mobile phones. There is 512MB ROM and 576MB of RAM to keep everything super-smooth too. The Desire’s operating system is Google Android and is the latest v2.1 build. This revision brings new features such as live wallpapers, Bluetooth v2.1, the latest version of Google Maps, changes to the user interface, Microsoft Exchange support and several other hardware specific tweaks to Android. Style. For such a powerful device, the HTC Desire is surprisingly compact at 119mm long, 60mm wide and just 11.9mm deep. The size of the chassis has enabled the fitment of a stunning AMOLED touchscreen measuring 3.7″. This capacitive screen has a WVGA resolution, or 480×800 pixels and is ready for multi-touch use, so you can use your thumb and forefinger to pinch the screen to zoom in. It’s not a lightweight though, at 135 grams. We’ve already told you that it’s Android keeping the Desire up and running, but as this is an HTC phone, we have HTC Sense making it just that little more usable and a lot more attractive! Also unveiled alongside the Desire at MWC, this latest version has several performance upgrades along with some great new features, including Friend Stream, an program which collects all your social networking updates into one handy stream, and Leap, which offers an expanded overview of all your homescreens. Leap makes use of the pinch-to-zoom function for your screen selection. Along the bottom of the front panel, there is a collection of hardware buttons, where the Nexus One has touch-sensitive keys, for Home, Menu, Back, Search and a central optical trackpad. What Else Can it Do?

• 5 Megapixel Camera. While HTCs of old had disappointing cameras without any features, this has changed with recent models, and the Desire is no exception. The widescreen 5 megapixel lens is accompanied by autofocus and a flash, plus software for face detection and geo-tagging. Finally, the camera can shoot video at 30fps and a resolution of 720×480.
• GPS. To enable the geo-tagging via the camera, the Desire must come with GPS. Of course, this being an Android phone, Google Maps comes pre-installed and there is a digital compass to further enhance navigation and enable use of downloadable augmented reality apps. HTC Footprints is also installed, which is like an enhanced version of geo-tagging where you can add audio and text notes to be stored alongside a photo.
• Connectivity. The HTC Desire is a 3G mobile phone with support for both HSDPA, to 7.2Mbps, and HSUPA to 2Mbps. If 3G isn’t an option there is also GPRS and EDGE, plus of course, the Desire has Wi-Fi, A2DP Bluetooth v2.1 and USB tethering too.
• Social Networking. Again, as the Desire is an Android phone, you’ll find widgets for Picasa and YouTube, plus Facebook, Flickr and several others. For Twitter users, the HTC Peep application makes an appearance and all the above are organised into one place thanks to Friend Stream, part of the latest version of HTC Sense.
• Other Widgets. There are a variety of standard widgets with which you can fill up to seven homescreens. These include a photo frame, a Twitter feed, a weather app, a clock, your Friend Stream, SMS and the latest news.
• Sensors. The Desire is complimented by a G-sensor, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. These enable helpful features such as the phone decreasing its ring volume when you pick it up, adjusting the backlight to compensate for natural light conditions and muting an incoming call when you turn the handset face-down. An accelerometer handles auto-rotation of the screen.
• MicroSD Card. A MicroSD card slot can be found behind the battery cover and can accept cards up to 32GB in size.
• Multimedia. You may as well make use of that massive screen! Supported video files include WMV, 3GP and MP4, while the audio side is happy with MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG and several others. The Desire has an FM radio and Dolby Mobile too.
• Internet Browsing and Email. The standard browser is very fast and has clever text-resizing software when you zoom into a webpage, so as much of the text is kept readable on the screen. Flash is installed too. With Android 2.1, Exchange support is added to the Gmail and POP3 email account system.
• Application Store. Using an Android phone gives you access to Android Market, where there is a massive range of free and paid-for applications for you to download on your phone.

Any Downsides?

• Size. Is the HTC Desire pocket friendly? We’re not sure, but it does depend on the size of your pockets we suppose!
• No Dual-Mics. The Google Nexus One has dual microphones for noise cancellation, but this has been dropped from the Desire. While it’s not a deal-breaker, the system does tend to work really well.
• AMOLED. It’s utterly gorgeous indoors or out of direct sunlight, but on a very bright day, you may struggle to make out the screen as well as you may want.

Summary. So is the HTC Desire a superphone? Well, as the term ’superphone’ hasn’t really been defined it’s difficult to say. However, if we take it to mean is the phone on the cutting edge, packed with the fastest processor available, every top-end gadget including 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, a compass, a massive AMOLED screen and super stylish looks, then yes, we think the Desire fully qualifies as a superphone!