Vodaphone 135

Nr21 Design have created this nice sleek looking handset dubbed the Vodafone 135, something I'm not too keen on already. Although the design is very slick and has some enormous buttons for thumbs of all sizes - spot the tiny little screen included - oh dear! Not only that, I think I spotted a propriety port of some sort on the side.




Great effort on the sleek and curvaceous design and generous large buttons, but the tiny screen and propriety port has got to go, with maybe also the Vodafone brand. This maybe be designed for the emerging markets, but a two line black and white display is slightly presumptuous and discriminating I think. Just because it's an emerging market doesn't necessarily mean they should start in the stone age.

via [Yanko Design]

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G1 RC9 Update - Loses Latitude In The Process

The RC9 update for the HTC G1 is now available, whilst this may not be quite Cupcake but an update is and update is and update - except when it loses some functionality and isn't as much of an update. GeekYouUp has installed the RC9 update and has found that Google Latitude is gone; his conundrum - he can't obtain it from Google themselves as according to them he already has the latest version. Is this intentional or is it just a slight error on someone's part?

Whilst the lack of Latitude is alarming and quite ironic there are also some other improvements and additions:

• Market - notifies when updates are available
• Sim Toolkit - an additional Operator feature (which won't enhance your life in anyway IMO)

Whilst GeekYouUp searches for a way to sort out the Latitude situation you can head on over to his blog to find out how to do the update yourself and keep up to date with the hunt for Latitude.

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Multi-Touch on The Nokia 5800 - Experimental

Jamie Fuller shows us the potential option of having multi-touch on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. As he points out, most devices still have single touch with the exception of the iPhone and Palm Pre (with the latter expected to be sued by Apple). So legally it looks like Apple has the patent for a certain type of multi touch technology, as we have seen with the G1 also - multi touch is capable but not included, so it seems manufacturers are holding back for a reason.

Jamie takes us through a demo on Youtube which showcases the shortcomings and how he has implemented the multi-touch into the 5800 via a DDR based game - note this isn't done via an OS hack.

The game idea was a simple derivative of guitar hero or DDR whereby you press a button or buttons along with the music.

The two major problems with this idea on this specific platform are:

1) Button layout, the buttons need to be in an easy to reach location , but also that will not require the phone to be shifted around to reach other keys. also when pressing the buttons its important that the main game play area is not obscured by the players hands.

2) most touchscreen devices are still only single touch capable. this severely reduces the number of button presses available. unlike a traditional keypad which allows for combos.

For more information and to contact Jamie, you could head over to his personal blog where he will also keep us updated on the current situation.

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