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Mobile phones have become increasingly slim throughout 2005. Not so the rest of us, though, with obesity the lifestyle choice of millions, and the vast majority of us gorging ourselves senseless over the festive period.  Fortunately, help is at hand from your humble mobile phone. Not content with slimming down itself, it now wants you to slim down too, using the new Nutracheck Mobile diet program.

 

With Nutracheck, the user completes a personal profile and sets their weight loss goal via the interactive program, and Nutracheck Mobile recommends a daily calorie allowance. The food diary then allows the user to accurately record exactly what they are eating and drinking on a daily basis. An extensive food database contains the fat and calorie content of up to 30,000 products including alcoholic drinks, fast food outlets as well as major brands and supermarket own labels. This means users can easily check the calories in a Prêt sandwich or Starbuck’s latte whilst in the queue, and change their mind to a lower calorie option before ordering. Or, more likely, stare in disbelief at the number of calories in their favourite burger, tut disapprovingly while gorging themselves to bursting point, then buy another one to stop themselves feeling so bad for eating so unhealthily!

 

Happy New Year!

 

[Source: NutraCheck]

 

I mentioned the Nokia 3220 RFID-enabled phone recently, and gave a few examples of applications of the device.  But it seems the Finns had beaten me to it – not just thinking about what to use it for, but actually using it in a variety of situations. 

This, for example, is Buscom’s concept: the Nokia RFID Bus Pass.  The idea is you use your RFID-enabled Nokia 3220 phone to pay for travel on the bus. You simply charge your mobile phone with travel credit beforehand, then swipe it across the RFID reader on the bus, and you’re away.

 

Read more about the RFID Nokia bus pass after the jump

 

[Source: RFID journal]

 

 

Bluetooth always did seem like a technology with so much potential, but which somehow stalled along the way.  One thing it has offered the world, though, is the Bluetooth ear-lug, that natty piece of tech that’s tried every imaginable shape to be cool, but singularly failed in all respects. But still,at least the Bluetooth ear-lug was good function wrapped up in poor form. It could have been worse: it could have been like this, the LED Earlight, which is poor function in poor form!

 

It’s a Bluetooth Ear-lug with the added feature of a torch, but without, er Bluetooth! Making it just a torch that you stick on your ear! Er….Why?!

 

[Source: Gizmodo]

 

 

If Motorola’s recent Oakley sunglasses mash up was too cool for you, Orange France has found a new way for you to geek out with your mobile phone. Or rather with your mobile phone’s video glasses attachment!

 

Whereas the Motorola/Oakley RAZRWIRE was simply a pair of sunglasses with a Bluetooth-enabled headphone attached to it, Orange’s latest geekware hooks up to a Samsung D600E mobile phone and projects whatever’s on the screen directly onto your retina for a true heads up display! Naturally the video glasses also come with earphones as well so you can listen to whoever’s calling you. No word yet though on whether you can see the real world while your eyes are being fragged with your D600’s wallpaper.

 

Nice to see Orange continuing with its innovations.  Barmy, uber-geeky and way too silly, but nice nonetheless :)

 

[Source: TheRegister, Orange France]

 

 

 

Gigabyte have announced a new mobile phone featuring a 7 megapixel digital camera.  The Gigabyte G-Cam is destined initially for the Taiwanese market, and features a touch screen, Sony Ericsson P900-style form factor, and 262k 2 inch color screen. The camera on the phone is, in reality, only 5 megapixels, with an extra two added through image interpolation.

 

A highly featured, well specified phone, but my god, it’s ugly!

 

Click to read more on the new Gigabyte G-cam 7 megapixel mobile phone.

 

[Source: PhoneMag]

 

Samsung have announced three new Mobile TV-enabled (DMB) mobile phonesthe SCH-B300, SCH-B330, and SCH-B360.  The new Korean phones offer a huge variety of features, including a 3 Megapixel camera, MP3 and TV-out, all packaged in a seriously cool form factor.

 

Read more about the new Samsung Mobile TV phones after the jump.

 

[Source: SamsungHQ, Cetizen]

 

 

Details of a new Nokia phone have emerged with built-in read/write RFID capability.  The prototype Nokia 3220 NFC contains an RFID reader and writer on the base of the mobile phone. 

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a kind of super-barcode for the 21st century.  An RFID tag is a tiny object that can be attached to anything, and which contains information that can be read by an RFID reader.  Unlike a barcode, however, the information encoded into the tag can also be written to.  The new Nokia 3220 enables the user to do just that: both read the information contained within an RFID tag, and write to it too.

 

 

 

WiMAX, the forthcoming high-speed long range wireless network standard, could be scuppered by 3G, says a report over at VNUnet.  WiMAX, or IEEE 802.16d to give it its official name, was approved last week, but interoperability and certification won’t begin until 2007.  In the meantime, apparently, 3G services and WiFi will be in popular use, so there’ll be no need to upgrade to WiMAX.

 

According to Luke Thomas, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“It will be 2008 to 2010 before WiMax handsets appear. But why will you need a WiMax handset when you are targeting the same market that already has 3G and everything else coming through?” Thomas said.

That’s easy. No-one uses 3G because of the cost of data transfer, and the fact that the 3G network is so tightly controlled by the mobile operators.  WiFi and WiMAX, however, are fundamentally different.  A home WiMAX network connection is no different than a current WiFi connection, only faster and operable over larger distances. With  Intel integrating WiMax chipsets into notebook PCs next year, and handheld PC and mobile phone makers expecting to follow suit, people will simply upgrade to WiMAX very easily.  In addition, unless the mobile operators drastically reduce the cost of 3G, WiMAX will blow it out of the water.

My personal opinion is that WiMAX (or some equivalent, such as Korea’s WiBro)  will become the main carrier of large data files, with 3G only being used when the user is outside of a WiMAX hotspot.

[Source: VNUnet]

 

Motorola and Burton have announced that the long-anticipated Bluetoothed Burton outerwear will be released tomorow, December 10th.   Called “Audex”, the  jacket line is a combination of Bluetooth Wireless technology from Motorola and Burton snowboarding gear.

 

At the center of the Audex jacket is a control panel located on the left-hand sleeve, allowing for simple and easy access to your incoming and outgoing calls, and music selections.

 

 

 

Connect a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to the panel wirelessly, while hooking up your iPod player via hidden, unobtrusive wires within the jacket. Speakers and a microphone are located in the hood for taking and making calls as well as listening to music.

Ned Flanders finally has a jacket he can feel cool in! Really, am I getting old, or is this the least cool thing in the world? I do remember thinking how cool it would be to have electronics built into my James Bond spy-suit…back when I was 10!

 

More products are due from the Audex line, including  the Audex Protective Gear, which includes the Audex Helmet and Audex Padded Hat, both equipped with Bluetooth stereo headphones, featuring easy-to-use control buttons for convenient and wireless on-the-go talking or music-listening. Now that’s a better idea – hide all the gizmos away. Gadgets are good, gadgets are cool, but not when sewn into your sleeve!