You Can Now Charge Your Cell Phone By Dancing

A company called Orange announced today that they have made a mobile phone charger prototype that is powered by dance energy. The ultimate in go green strategies has arrived. I do admire what they've done. In this day and age when gasoline and oil prices are just soaring. Alternative power sources are truly a dire need.

The Dance Charge prototype weighs only 180grams and measures 4¼” x 2½”, approximately the same size as a pack of cards and the same weight as a mobile phone. The Dance Charge unit comes encased in an elasticated, black, neoprene strap with Velcro attachments which is attached over the wearer’s bicep in a similar fashion to a runner’s arm-mounted mp3 player according to the press release

As users move their arms along with the music, a specially designed system of weights and magnets creates an electrical current that gets stored as charge in a reserve battery. That energy can then be used to recharge a mobile phone. Reportedly, Orange tested the Dance Charge out at Glasto by employing a "Dance Charging Man" at the festival who was on duty to dance (for free) with those in need of some recharging.

MOTOZINE ZN5 - Motorola's First Kodak 5-megapixel Camera Phone

In partnership with Kodak, Motorola just unveiled its first 5-megapixel camera phone, the MOTOZINE ZN5.

The camera auto-focuses faster than other camera phones. Special algorithms reduce noise, and Kodak's "Perfect Touch" software fixes exposure problems. A special playback button on the keypad lights up in camera mode, giving you one-touch access to reviewing your images. You can also upload them to the Net with one button press, or play them on a TV through the TV-out jack.

Here are some of the Motozine ZN5 feature:

• dimensions are 4.7" x 2" x 0.63"
• 4 ounces
• music and video players
• 3.5-mm headset jack
• FM radio
• Bluetooth stereo audio

Here are some qualities of the camera phone. Of course being partners with Kodak does have its advantages:

• panorama mode that automatically takes shots and stitches them together as you move the camera sideways with your hand
• 320x240 movie-recording mode
• 350MB of onboard memory, or on a MicroSD card up to 4GB in size
• no optical zoom because the optics involved are too fragile and expensive for this initial product

Nokia Launches Nokia 6205 "The Dark Knight" Edition

Nokia just issued a press release of the Nokia 6205 "The Dark Knight" edition has a generous set of features designed to enhance the mobile lifestyle. Touch sensitive external music keys make it simple to access tracks purchased from Verizon Wireless' V CAST Music service, while the crisp two-inch display that supports up to 262,000 colors, makes watching news, sports and entertainment content from V CAST Video entertaining. In addition, the Nokia 6205 The Dark Knight edition includes:

• 1.3 megapixel camera with flash and 4x digital zoom
• 58 MB internal memory expandable up to an additional 4 GB with an optional microSD memory card
• Support for text, picture and video messaging
• Get It Now® capable for downloading games, ringtones, wallpapers and other mobile content
• VZ NavigatorSM-compatible for audible turn-by-turn directions and location information
• Mobile Web for access to the latest news, sports, weather and more
• Voice dialing and voice commands for touch free phone operation
• Built-in speakerphone
• Bluetooth-enabled for Wireless Headset Support

The Nokia 6205 The Dark Knight edition will be available online for $69.99 after a $50 online instant rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Following the premiere release of The Dark Knight edition, the standard edition of the Nokia 6205 phone - containing all of the same features and a striking metallic blue and silver color scheme - will be available both online and at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores next month.

Boom Blox! Steven Speilberg's Genius Plus Electronic Arts Equals One Gret Game!

Last Tuesday, Boom Blox was officially launched in a partnership with Steven Spielberg. Boom Blox can be played on Nintendo's Wii and on major carriers' mobile phones.Boom Blox will task players with navigating nearly 400 levels of "strategic destruction."

In addition, players will be able to use the game's editor to craft their own levels. The best part of this sounds like it will be the way the editor lets players take existing levels and elements from the game--props, characters, blocks, etc.--and incorporate them into all-new levels.

Essentially, Boom Blox is a strategy game that confronts players with no end of puzzles and challenges, all of which they can solve in single-player or multiplayer modes.

The game will cost $50.

BlackBerry's New Click To Call Feature

Via PCworld.com, Research in Motion(RIM) relayed one of its new capabilities to be added to the already famous BlackBerry unit, and that's merging voice with instant messaging. Users who run IBM Lotus Sametime or Microsoft Live Communications Server will be able to click on an instant-messaging (IM) contact on the BlackBerry phone in order to call them, or convert an ongoing IM session into a voice call. They will also be able to check whether their colleagues are going to be available before they send out meeting requests. Now that is just cool, combining the features of internet connectivity with the convenience of the telephone.

Many have said that online communication (email, and instant messaging) are missing the personalized touch of traditional means of communication like the phone or the snail mail. However, RIM seeks to introduce unified communications by putting together technologies advantages to provide people with more ways to communicate and interact.

Research in Motion pioneered enterprise handheld connectivity with the BlackBerry's push e-mail system and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). Competitors have since muscled in on this territory, while RIM has invested in software and devices to expand its appeal to the consumer market. With the new features, the company is looking toward a future in which almost all communication capabilities on the desktop are available on the road through a set of capabilities often called unified communications.

(image from ITreviews.co.uk)