photo credit: BlackBerry Torch 2

BlackBerry should be renamed LeakBerry. Photos, videos and technical specifications have been “leaked” over and over in the past few weeks. Rumors are flying. There are now stories of four new RIM Smartphones (BlackBerry Bold Touch, Torch 2, Orlando, and Touch), all of which have new capacitive touch screens. Mostly they seem to be “re-made” versions of the Curve and Torch, although there is a touch only phone as well.

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photo credit: Cell Tower Fits in Your Hand

Mobile data usage grows almost exponentially. With more and more Smartphone usage, Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile technology in general, how to handle growing mobile data usage is the focus of wireless companies. Wireless companies are spending billions each year to maximize capacity. As their research and development costs grow, so do our cell phones bills. Costly cell phone towers being built at alarming numbers not only push our wireless bills up, but are unsightly as well. A tiny little device the size of a Rubik’s cube is being developed by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) that may be the answer to both cost and more cell phone towers.

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photo credit: Green Cell Phone Manufacturers

RIM BlackBerry scored the worst in GoodGuide’s list of green cell phone manufacturers. According to an article by Wendy Koch, USA Today, BlackBerry only earned a 3.3 rating, mostly for the company’s environmental record. Nokia took top honors, with Samsung coming in second. Apple’s iPhone also scored in the lower half of the manufacturers, again not because the material in the iPhone is toxic, but because Apple itself has problems with its “ethical policies and performance.” Nokia scored as the top green manufacturer. 26 of 30 of the top cell phones scored were made by Nokia, each scoring 7.7 or 7.6 out of a possible 10 points. Nokia C6 scored best overall. This is pretty impressive.

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photo credit: Touch Wood Cell Phone

A new wooden-cased cell phone is being advertised by NTT Docomo in Japan. What is unique about this commercial is not so much that the cell phone’s case is made from wood, but the commercial itself. In an age of high tech, neon-lighted, rock music, this commercial is refreshingly free of all that hype. The commercial is set in the woods of Japan and features a hand built giant wooden xylophone playing Bach’s Cantata 147, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”A little wooden ball drops down hitting each wooden key and actually plays the song, ending next to the new cell phone. It is simplistic and inspiring.

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photo credit: Carbon Nanotubes

A team of scientists at the University of Illinois has possibly discovered a way to make cell phone batteries that don’t need charging for months at a time. The team believes their method will enable mobile phone and laptop batteries to last up to 100 times longer. According to Stephen Adams, The Telegraph, it focuses on changing the way a device’s digital memory works, as this consumes much of the charge. Feng Xiong, a graduate student on the team who was lead author on a paper, to be published in the journal Science, explained: “The energy consumption is essentially scaled with the volume of the memory bit. By using nanoscale contacts, we are able to achieve much smaller power consumption.”

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photo credit: ReadySet Changes Africa

There are over 500 million cell phone users worldwide. This is according to research by the GSMA, the international association of mobile operators. The problem with all those cell phones isn’t access to a network. The problem is that most of the users in 3rd world countries live off the grid and can’t charge the darn things. ReadySet, manufactured by Fenix International, San Francisco, California, may be the solution.

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photo credit: Solar Charging Screens

Solar powered cell phones are not new. UMEOX Mobile, a Chinese manufacturer, featured their solar charged “Apollo” Smartphone at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona earlier this year. Samsung has 3 models of solar-powered cell phones. There are a variety of solar-powered cell phone chargers on the market. But the newest innovation is the thin, transparent film that turns your phone’s screen into a solar charger.

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photo credit: New Fast Charge Batteries

A new technology may change the battery industry. According to article published by John Timmer, Ars Technica, this new technology uses a whole new approach and can work with both lithium- and nickel-based batteries. Imagine being able to charge your cell phone 90% capacity within 2 minutes. Charging a NiMH battery to 90% takes only 20 seconds.

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photo credit: iPhone 5

The new iPhone from Apple is due out sometime this summer. Rumors are flying about just what the new iPhone will include. First of all, will it be called the iPhone 5? For simplicity, that’s what I will call it. Notable sites like PC World Report, iPhonereleasedate.org, and the UK’s The Independent are reporting “reliable rumors” (if there are such things.) Speculation about what will and won’t be included in the new iPhone differs, but most agree there will be a new case design. The back will be made from aluminum rather than glass, and the phone itself will be thinner. It is rumored that the screen will be shatterproof and scratch resistant. Other rumors include an HD audio system and a better “all the time” GPS mode.

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photo credit: Verizon iPhone vs. AT&T iPhone

Which iPhone is faster—Verizon or AT&T? According to an article by Peter Svensson, (AP Technology) posted on TechBits, “the Verizon iPhone loads Web pages just as fast as AT&T’s version of the phone, even though Verizon’s network has lower data speeds, phone testing firm, Metrico Wireless reported.” However, Metrico Wireless said that data downloads on the Verizon iPhone turned out to be half as fast as those on AT&T’s network, but unless you are downloading data, most users didn’t notice much difference in web browsing. Metrico tested the Verizon iPhone’s performance with 4,000 calls and 10,000 Web page downloads in New York, Seattle, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Dallas, Rich McNally, Metrico Wireless’ VP of Information Products said.

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