Cool Hunting

Tilt and Motion Sensors in Mobiles
Stucon, over at core77, points out that Vodafone's latest handset in Japan will have tilt and acceleration sensors. While the intended application is gaming, there will be support for navigating the phone (with a cursor?!?) and launching applications. Wouldn't it be great if natural gestures could be scripted in to it? Imagine: your phone is on the table and it rings; you don't want...

Mademoiselle In A Tech Menagerie: Digital Life
As many of you have noted, I follow most things from a guy's perspective. For Digital Life, which started yesterday, I asked Carol Chung to check it out and bring back a report for the ladies. Here's her story (details and pictures after the jump): I met up with my friend Matt outside the Javits Center. Today was the first day of the Digital...

Piezoelectric Concept Backpack
Capitalizing on the friction and heat created by walking, running and even just wearing jeans, engineers from Michigan Technological University, Arizona State University and NanoSonic Inc. devised a way to use this type of generated energy in a concept backpack that can charge portable electronic devices, like iPods and mobile phones. Shoulder straps made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a strong, flexible material that feels...

Ovi: Music, GPS and Games
By now, you've most likely heard all the Nokia buzz today—great new phones, the N95 is finally coming stateside and the gaming industry continues to go more mobile. We love the expanded 8G memory in the N81 and N95 which allows us to hold more music, photos, games etc. This brings me to what, in my opinion, is subtly some of the biggest news...

Foléo: The New Mobile Companion from Palm
Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm, unveiled a new mobile device called Foléo today via webcast from the D: All Things Digital Conference. Dubbed as a "mobile companion," the device is to be used as an extension of your smart-phone providing one button email access, a 10" screen, full size keyboard and five hours of use off a single charge. Built on flash memory, which...

Tarati Touchless Phone Concept
A play on the "reach out and touch someone jingle," Tarati is Branko Lukic's new idea for a mobile that dials by passing fingers through keyholes creating a touchless experience. Nevermind multi-touch user interfaces, the former IDEO designer's concept makes dialing "a more magical experience and, hence, more indicative of what's really happening beyond the visible realm." Borrowing a name from the Sanskrit word...