Viruses have been making the rounds on cellphones for quitea while now, but it looks like China has now been hit by a particularly troublesome one. According to Shanghai Daily, a so-called zombie virus disguised as an anti-virus app has infected more than one million cellphone users in the country, and it’s left users’ phones vulnerable to the malicious hackers that created the virus. They’ve naturally taken advantage of that access to not only spread the virus further, but cash in by spamming the phones with money-making links and other general annoyances — all of which has also added up to about $300,000 a day in added text message charges for the users affected. What’s more, while authorities have apparently tracked down the company that created the anti-virus application, it apparently insists that it had nothing to do with the virus, and that it’s actually a victim of it as well.
So, you may or may not have noticed that this morning, Apple updated its own Apple Store app for the very first time, and version 1.1 has a little surprise. That’s right, in the ‘Reserve Products’ screen, the much delayed white iPhone 4 shows up as an option. Now, before you lose control of yourself, keep in mind that you can’t actually reserve one… yet. Of course, this could just be some sort of cruel glitch in the system, or it could be a tiny bit of evidence that the white iPhone is actually, finally on its way. At the very least, we know that Apple’s still thinking of it… just like us.
Update: Apple’s now removed the white iPhone 4 references, but don’t worry: we’ll always have that screen grab.
If you believe the good readers of Droid Life (and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t), Google has started sneaking out its Instant search option to Android phones in the USA. So far, reports include the original Motorola Droid, the Droid X, and HTC’s Droid Incredible. Lest you’ve been enjoying a lengthy holiday in the tropics, Google Instant throws up search results as you type your query, delivering either much faster results or a much more annoying search experience, depending on how you look at it. Reported operation so far aligns with our early hands-on, with Instant taking a bit of time to get its bearings, but the software is still at the beta stage, after all. Why not jump into your browser this morning and tell us if your Android’s answering your questions before you even hit the Enter key?
The one thing the brick-sized cellphones of the 90’s had going for them was that they could easily survive a fall from a 100-storey building and inflict more damage on the sidewalk than they received. For some reason though, today certain manufacturers think that it’s wiser to cover the front and back of certain phones with glass… have we learned nothing from our past?
And this is where the Grip-Ez enters the picture. It looks like a pair of completely ineffective brass knuckles made out of plastic, but it’s actually designed to ‘3M’ to the back of your phone making it easier to grip, and harder to drop. The Grip-Ez folds down when not in use so your phone is still pocket-friendly, and they’re thankfully just $10 making them the next thing you’ll probably see cluttering up checkout counters.
If your kids have been jonesing for a cellphone, but you’re not quite ready to deal with yet another monthly bill, these Electronic Text Messengers from Scholastic are kind of like walkie talkies for texting.
They have a wireless range of up to 600 feet and even work through walls so they’re not line-of-sight IR, and you can create a network of up to 24 of the handsets, though I’m not entirely sure if you can send a message to only a single device specifically. In the great tradition of Twitter, though taking things to a new extreme, the messengers can only send texts up to 40 characters in length, guaranteeing your kids will have to learn ‘text speak’ in order to squeeze as many ‘OMGs’ in there as they can.
A set of 2 is available from Amazon for just $16.99, no contract necessary.
We’ve already established that if you’re filthy rich, you probably don’t want the same cell phone as common folk. No, if you’re looking for something higher end, you’ll probably end up talking to Stuart Hughes, who customizes electronics by plating them in gold and diamonds. We’ve already seen his work on a $20,000 iPhone 4, but his latest achievement is downright ridiculous. Called the “world’s most expensive phone” (we’ll see how long that lasts), Hughes made two identical models for an Australian client. Each handset includes over 500 diamonds and totals over 100 karats, and comes in its own special granite box. Its total cost is £5 million — nearly 8 million dollars. Just don’t bother crying when you leave it on the seat of a cab.
Today is just full of brilliant ideas for the iPhone. Though technically, this one works on many phones (they just chose the iPhone to demonstrate how even a good-looking phone can be made hideous), not just Apple’s powerhouse. This blight on your eyes is called the Earos, which apparently makes your phone more comfortable to hold against your ear.
I don’t know about you, but it takes an awful lot of talking on my phone to actually make my ear start to hurt. Which leads me to believe there is a cheaper alternative that will provide you with an even more comfortable experience. I like to call it “don’t talk on the phone so damn much.” Seriously, if you talk on the phone for so many hours each day that you’re thinking of adding a giant toilet seat-shaped accessory to your (now non-)mobile phone, I think you might want to re-think what you’re doing with your life. If you do actually want one of these things, you’ll have to wait until it gets out of the concept stage.
Sony has unveiled a pair of back-illuminated CMOS camera modules intended for cellphones, the largest of which promises 16.41-megapixel resolution. The 16.41MP Sony Exmor R IMX081PQ and the 8.13MP Sony Exmor R IMX105PQ are each the smallest in their size classes, with the higher-resolution sensor getting a new photo diode layout to accommodate the tiny 1.12?m pixel size without color mixing.
Thanks to the back-illumination technology, there’s increased sensitivity and lower noise in the final shots, and the sensors are capable of shooting Full HD video (1080p 30fps or 720p 60fps) as well. Each CMOS has a matching lens assembly, the IU081F and IU105F2, with F.26 and F2.4 respectively and each having an equivalent focal length of 28mm.
Both Sony sensors and their lenses will ship in 2011, with the exact timescales in the gallery below. Sony expects the 16.41-megapixel CMOS to be a roughly $30 component, while the 8.13-megapixel CMOS will be roughly $18.
I’m not particularly worried about cellphone radiation given how many amazing superpowers have been attributed to being exposed, but based on how many studies about mobile phones and radiation get funded, I assume some users are. But even if I was worried, I would probably just suck it up if this was the only alternative. The details are lacking to say the least, but the Zip Earzee is essentially a Bluetooth earpiece you wear as a wristband.
Presumably it’s got a built-in mic you speak into, but in order to hear an incoming call you have to pull out a small tethered speaker and hold it up to your ear, kind of like those old-timey wall-mounted phones of yesteryear. Why this is a better alternative to just popping in a small Bluetooth earpiece as needed is beyond me, though I guess it does keep those evil Bluetooth rays away from your brain.
It’s kind of like swatting a mosquito with a brick, but if you’re sick and tired of reception issues with AT&T you might want to look into their new TerreStar Genus satellite smartphone. On the plus side you’ll have coverage literally anywhere in the United States with a direct view of the sky, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and surrounding waters, but that big advantage is kind of overshadowed by a long list of cons. For starters you’ll have to give up your iPhone or other smartphone of choice for a ‘plump’ $799 Windows Mobile 6.5 device, and if that price tag wasn’t enough of a sticker shock, the service plans will be.
The TerreStar Genus doesn’t require a contract surprisingly, but according to SkunkPost.com it does require a regular AT&T voice and data plan, plus an extra $25/month to have access to the satellite service. And then whenever you do make a satellite call you’ll be charged an additional 65cents/minute. But the satellite service offers data too so you don’t necessarily have to ever make a call, just don’t think you’re cheating the system since data costs a whopping $5 per megabyte! I mean the phone might save your life one day if you’re ever lost in the wilderness, but who wants to come home to that cellphone bill?
Viruses have been making the rounds on cellphones for quite a while now, but it looks like China has now been hit by a particularly troublesome one. According to Shanghai Daily, a so-called zombie virus disguised as an anti-virus app has infected more than one million cellphone users in the country, and it’s left users’ phones vulnerable to the malicious hackers that created the virus. They’ve naturally taken advantage of that access to not only spread the virus further, but cash in by spamming the phones with money-making links and other general annoyances — all of which has also added up to about $300,000 a day in added text message charges for the users affected. What’s more, while authorities have apparently tracked down the company that created the anti-virus application, it apparently insists that it had nothing to do with the virus, and that it’s actually a victim of it as well.
By Andrew Liszewski
Sony 
