Gadget Blog

(Credit:
GSM Arena)

CTIA 2012 may be just a memory but that hasn’t stopped the smartphone news. Apparently an entry-level handset called the HTC Desire C popped up in a Vodafone Portugal catalog.

Reported by both Engadget and GSM Arena, the Desire C won’t be an ultra-advanced device like the company’s current One line of handsets. In fact, the Desire C is powered by decidedly pedestrian specs including a 600MHz CPU (single-core no doubt), and uses a small 3.5-inch (480 x 320-pixel) low-resolution screen.

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You do reportedly get 4GB of internal memory but compared with the 16GB and even 32GB many modern smartphones come with, it’s a paltry offering. The Desire C’s 5 Megapixel camera likely won’t impress either and cha… [Read more]

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Samsung may have gotten a head start with their Galaxy S III launch, but this past week brought plenty of action to the Android handset scene at CTIA. There’s an impressive lineup of upcoming Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices, as well as more LTE handsets than you can shake a stick at. CTIA has been a hotbed of gadgets for the mobile maven, including a new collection from LG, a smart TV from Lenovo and the latest Xperia devices from Sony.

(Credit:
Kaleidoscope Kreative)

File this one under extreme fanboyism. A Newfield, N.J., man performed his own surgery to put magnets under his skin to hold his iPod Nano in place like a watch. Evidently nobody told him they make straps that do the same job.

The bloke in question is Dave Hurban, a tattoo artist working in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Kreative, an advertising and Web design and development company. His background in all things pointy, ink-filled, and painful means he’s at least used to foreign objects invading his person, but this project, called “iDermal,” really seems a step too far.

In the video you can see Dave going through the painstaking (pain being the key word here) process of measuring the Nano, marking out the spots on his wrist, and then setting about drilling into his own flesh to insert the four magnets. It’s frankly rather grim, so if you’re squeamish and prone to fainting at the slightest sight of blood then we suggest you watch it while lying on some cushions.

Read more of “Bonkers man puts magnets under his skin to hold iPod Nano,” and see the video, at Crave UK.
[Read more]

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Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg (left) and Anders Stenkvist, manager of the company's mobile access platform, showing off the Connected Me concept at CES in January.

(Credit:
Ericsson)

NEW ORLEANS–When Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg used his Consumer Electronics Show keynote to demonstrate the company’s Connected Me concept, which turns the human body into a bridge between gadgets, he was met with lackluster applause.

Part of the problem was the audience didn’t fully grasp what Vestberg was trying to show. He was on stage holding a smartphone in one hand and the sensor for an audio system in the other. The data signal shot through his body, playing an MP3 from the phone on the speaker system. In effect, he became a replacement for a USB cord or Bluetooth connection.

People watching the presentation, however, were underwhelmed. The company showed it off at its giant booth at Mobile World Congress, and again this week at the CTIA Wireless show, where it largely went unnoticed.

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When The Atlantic Wire took a look at shows we thought portrayed 21st Century tech in a very 21st Century manner, we explained the phenomenon in terms of literary value and practicality, but there’s another factor at play here: Advertising. It’s not all about setting the scene, symbolism or commentary, as Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows and Andy Fixmer point out. There’s money at stake here — technology often comes in the form of a product, which means a company might have paid for that gadget to appear on TV. …