It’s just around the corner ladies and gents. Thankfully, technology has gotten closer to lifestyle than it was many years ago. Here are some tech-inspired costumes that can make any geek batty.

WIRED Magazine has a fun read for the weekend. As “future phones” are now a dime a dozen, well we present you with more of these phones from the future starting with the Chameleon Phone which honestly defeats the whole purpose of making carrying one convenient. This phone is designed to blend into the background and mimic the texture of whatever surrounding it is placed on.

Other phones would include the Wrist Phone and the F Circle which is a really hot concept for a pseudo retro user interface.
[photos c/o WIRED]

Yesterday I came from an event with Globe Telecommunications, a local telco here in the Philippines. They launched a rebranded version of their “Tattoo” product line which essentially had two things to take away — a new community building facility and the ImmortalTXT feature which does not let your prepaid load expire.

Globe Tattoo gives you the new IMMORTALTXT, the first and only text offer with NO EXPIRY. For just P10, enjoy 50 texts to Globe/TM and 10 texts to other networks that will never expire*.
To register, simply text IMMORTAL10 to 8888. Also available to Globe Prepaid subscribers.
*Subject to …read more

Today, Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership to bring mobile MS Office to all Nokia phones. I had a press invite to partake in the web conference but unfortunately, due to some technical glitch, I was not able to attend the whole briefing, so I’m basing my reports from what is to be seen from the Internet, this in particular.

The Nokia-Microsoft partnership isn’t to have either company cross-develop hardware and operating systems. So the odds that we’ll be seeing Windows Mobile inside a Nokia phone is nil. According to the reports, the takeaway includes more than just software development for …read more

So what’s better? Touch screen input or good ‘ol hardware buttons? The argument goes on in the geekosphere both sides bringing in their advantages. Touch screens typically have the advantage of gesture control if executed well, and hardware buttons are there for tactile feedback.

But what happens when you can merge the two technologies together? No I don’t mean something like the LG Chocolate or other devices that run a combination of buttons and touch-sensitive panels. We’re talking about a touch screen that has actual protrusions, backlit to serve multiple functions depending on what you want to do.
This is a beautiful …read more

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There’s a philosophy behind the design of every Nokia technology and now they’re showing us what’s up with gesture controls. When I was sent to Nokia Connection ‘09 the only semblance of gesture control was the turning over ringing phone to turn it to silent mode. Newer phone models allow you to put your palm over the screen to automatically silence it. An additional “palm to face” on the phone sends an SMS saying “sorry I’m in a meeting — call you later.”

The video above shows how Nokia is studying gestures. Different localities have different ways of expressing feelings and …read more

Threadless has a small repository of designs that didn’t quite make it. These belong to the critique section and I’ve lifted them out for all to see — they didn’t get very high marks and some of them have been out since forever. Here are some of them:

Original design here.

Original design here.
And here’s one more, which among the three I find the best in the lot.

Apparently, my mobile phone (a Nokia E71) is infested with more germs compared to a friend’s toilet. Yep, and this comes as no surprise, ladies and gentlemen. Dr. Gerba — the world famous microbiologist who scanned Tyra Banks’ underwear — came over to a friend’s house to do some germ swiping. The good doctor had a special machine called an ATP Luminometer that read swatches to determine how much germs resided in a specific area.
Lo and behold, my Nokia E71 had more germs than my friend’s bathroom sink and toilet! But wait ladies and gentlemen, before you think that I …read more

There’s excitement abounding the Symbian community as Symbian Foundation launches its beta testing program. I guess it’s one good way to support the current efforts of the Nokia Conversations blog as well as the Ambassador Program.

During the beta trial phase several thousand friends and members of the Symbian community are being invited to test and give feedback on the foundation’s developer website. The site contains a rich developer offering including platform release information, council charters, wikis, forums, as well as access to the Software Development Kit (SDK), Mercurial Source Configuration Management (SCM), Bugzilla defect reporting and issue tracking tool, …read more

With ACER announcing its initial barrage of phones, Toshiba is not far behind. Both behemoths are making use of Windows Mobile with their own proprietary technologies built in. ACER uses the Spb Shell application while Toshiba has some sort of Window pane flip UI. The TG-01 brings a huge 4 inch screen to the table making that the main selling point apart from the usual bells and whistles — HSDPA, camera, WiFi and anything you’d opt to find in a Windows Mobile phone.