Pogo iPhone Stylus from Ten One Design

Pogo Stylus

Some people are neat and tidy. Some people have large fingers. Some people have large tidy fingers.

The former don’t like to get fingerprints on their iPhone’s touch screens, and the latter hit too many keys on their screens.

Enter the Pogo Stylus from Ten One Design.

This light aluminum stylus has an anodized finish and laser-etched graphics.   It soft tip won’t mar the display surface of your iPhone or your iPod Touch; and it provides greater accuracy, preventing time-consuming typos common to those with large digits.

Stylus and iPhone

In Ten One’s own words:

“Eliminating fingers has the added benefit of keeping the screen free of smudges and grease. Designed to firmly hug the contours of the iPhone 3G, the Pogo Stylus travel clip will keep your stylus close at hand. A second clip is included for the original iPhone and iPod touch.

Why not use a pen or other stylus?

The iPhone screen isn’t a standard pressure sensitive screen, but was designed with finger use in mind. A standard stylus’s point is too small to make an impact or to be sensed accurately by the iPhone or the iPod Touch. A tool with a larger surface area is needed.

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Hello from the Grand Canyon’s rim

Grand Canyon

Hello, friends, followers, and readers!  Though I’m on vacation this week (and will be returning very soon) I’ve got blogging on my mind.  Sounds like a song, “Blogging is my business, and I’ve got business on my mind.”

So what could I possibly write about, technology-wise, while sitting beside one of the seven natural wonders of the world?

Well, it’s sitting right next to me, my Netgear SPH200D Internet phone with Skype.

The Netgear SPH200D

What a wonderful device Netgear has made!  I’ve had it for almost a year now. It’s a cellphone-sized unit, plus a box about the size of a small paperback, and two power adapters. It’s so portable I’m able to fit it all into a shaving case sized bag.

The phone system can be plugged into any high-speed Internet connection allowing me to make and receive call just as if I were home. Much like a cellphone, the phone number goes wherever I go.

So What?

Netgear

… You might say, “I can take my cell phone anywhere, too, and I don’t have to plug into anything except a wall outlet from time to time.”

That’s true, but how much are you paying for that convenience?  $50 per month?

My Netgear phone with Skype is costing me $50 a year! Yes, a year!

I admit, it’s not a replacement for a cell phone, but I have been able to reduce my cell phone usage significantly, by using the Internet phone instead when possible.

Like now, from the edge of the Grand Canyon with my hotel’s free Internet service. Or tomorrow, when I get to my sister’s home, I’ll connect it to her home network’s router.

My cellphone usage has dropped far below my provider’s lowest level service plan. I’m half tempted to get rid of it entirely, or switch to a pay as you go plan. I used to pay $1,200 a year for cellular service. That dropped to $600 a year shortly after getting the Internet phone, and I may very well be on my way to getting it as low as $240 per year if I play my cards right.

I’d get tired of all that setting up

Again, I agree, and Netgear has a solution for that, too. They have a unit that operates without the box. It’s just a single cellphone sized device that works with any wireless Internet service you may be near. So I could use it with the hotel’s wireless internet service, or the airport’s wireless serice, or my sister’s wireless router, or the wireless internet at the local Starbucks’ or Borders bookstore.

Sounds better, doesn’t it? You bet.  That’s why I’m getting ready to pick up one of those, too.

Enough, how much does the Netgear phone cost?

The SPH200D I have goes for $149, and can be purchased at your local Best Buy, or from Skype. The wireless capable unit goes for $199, and can be picked up at the same locations.

It uses rechargeable AAA batteries that you can buy anywhere, and it comes with a recharger base.  You can also purchase two more handsets, and use them with the box base.

Skype?

I’ll talk more about Skype (www.skype.com) later. They have plans that run from FREE to $20 to $60 per year. That’s yearly, not monthly. The free service enables you to connect with other Skype users, while the pay plans enable you to make and receive calls with anyone else. They even have software which can be installed on your computer.

Talk to you soon!

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Google demos Android Dream Phone

Android demo at Google Developer Day (London)

Yesterday at the Google Developer Day Training Event in London, Mike Jennings, a Google advocate gave a surprise demonstration of Google’s upcoming Android mobile phone operating system (OS). (I recently discussed the Android ‘OS’ in relationship to the new browser, Chrome, from Google).

The Android OS is still in development, but Mike Jennings pulled a mobile phone covered in masking tape (to hide the phone brand) from his pocket. Speculation has it that a phone referred to as “Dream” manufactured by HTC Corp in Taiwan will be the first phone to use the new OS when its released, possibly late this year. Jeremy Kirk, of the IDG News Service reported “the device looked similar to HTC’s Dream”.

Jennings used the Android SDK (software development kit) to create an extremely simple application: a blue dot that bounced within the phone’s ample screen space and moved as the phone was tilted, showing the device has an accelerometer, also a feature in Apple’s iPhone.

Sampling of phones manufactured by HTC

An accelerometer is a device which detects motion, so if the phone is tilted one way, objects on the screen will move in that direction as if they were rolling downhill. Other phones have used accelerometers to allow simple hand gestures to activate features. For example, turning the phone face-up when it rings can answer a call, while turning the phone face down can end a call, and shaking the phone can swap calls on call waiting or activate a speakerphone. (See demo video below.) Famously, the Nintendo Wii uses an accelerometer in its game controllers to allow players to swing the controller as they might a tennis racket or paddle when playing video games instead of using joysticks or toggles.

Those wondering “What’s new about Android?” that the iPhone or other phone’s haven’t done? The big news is that companies, other than Google, developing software for the new operating system will have access to the code. Other OS providers such as Microsoft and Apple haven’t provided outside companies that much access to their code, which has resulted in some “buggy” applications.  The Android system is part of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA):

…a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together we have developed Android^TM, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.

We are committed to commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Platform in the second half of 2008. An early look at the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available.

Included among the OHA members are HTC, Sprint NexTel, LG, Motorola, Samsung, T-Mobile, eBay, Google, Broadcom, Intel, nVidia, Qualcomm, Marvell, Synaptics, and Texas Instruments, Inc.  Apple and Microsoft are not members of the alliance.

Here’s a video of Mike Jennings demo yesterday at Google Developer Day in London.

Here’s a demo video featuring one of Google’s founders and President, Sergey Brin, and Steve Horowitz, Google’s Engineering Director.

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