Iron Man gets his own phone

It seems as if the hype over Iron Man has been going on forever, so we're surprised that it's taken this long for someone to release a phone dedicated to the movie. (Side note: Are we the only ones who think Robert Downey Jr. is totally miscast?)

Like other promotional movie phones, including Homer Simpson's cellie, this customized LG Shine will bear the colors of its hero and include exclusive footage from the film. The main difference is that this handset is finished in 18k gold (not iron) and will be given away in an online drawing, according to Pocket-lint, which spotted it on display at the CTIA trade show in Vegas.

As for us, we're holding out for the next Superman movie to see if they issue phones made of kryptonite.

Via Crave CNET

"Super lens" for phone photographers?

Any kind of photographic quality claims attributed to phone cameras and other combo devices should be taken with a pound of salt, but the trend probably won't be going away anytime soon. But little did we know that people would go to great lengths, literally, to give their phone cams more lens power.

The latest example is a kit from Japan-based Green-House, which includes a super lens that it claims has an 8x zoom along with a handset clamp and tripod, according to Gadgetell. Yet if this kind of unwieldy appendage really becomes popular, we wonder if it just makes more sense to design a camera that adds a phone and other functions, rather than the other way around.

Via Crave CNET

Nokia's Prism gets new angle: A clamshell

It's been several months since we first saw Nokia's geometrically influenced Prism mobile phones, and we're still not sure how we feel about those odd triangular and diamond-shaped buttons. And just to make matters more confounding, the handset maker has come out with a clamshell model that looks even weirder.

The 7070 Prism is a more affordable version of its high-end siblings, which even acquired some French artistry earlier this year. MobileWhack says the US$80 clamshell isn't all that different either--other than the folding form, of course--including such features as a built-in speaker, voice recorder, and support for MP3 ringtones.

Pricing aside, the next iteration seems obvious: An entire handset shaped like a triangle.

Via Crave CNET

SMS2.0: Texting in technicolor

Pretty soon, users will be sending SMS messages that go beyond grayscale. With easy controls from an attractive UI, users with a penchant for visual enhancements will be able to change the foreground and background color of text messages to suit their whim. They'll also be texting emoticons and animations, reading RSS feeds, and searching the Web from a variety of search engines. A Facebook app is on the horizon to add friends' status updates to the RSS ticker.

One can only presume that Affle, the UK company behind the muscled-up texting app, has grown tired of custom-making them for manufacturers, because it plans to release a consumer version, called SMS2.0, in the near future.

Like so many other social offerings here at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas, SMS2.0 will be free, but supported by tiny ads that run fairly unobtrusively through the ticker.

It's interesting to see the type of treatment you would expect from an instant messenger tailored to texting. Though it wouldn't replace an IM client, SMS2.0 has all appearances of being a useful, better-looking method for blasting short messages to offline contacts and getting a bit more out of the interface while you're at it.

Via CNET.com

Cell phone signal-blocking (do-not-disturb) leather case

I've never understood why a cell phone signal-blocking handset case is retailing when all one has to do is simply switch the darn phone off. But if you really must have one, just to show your geek mates you've something they don't (for good reason), check out this US$6.38 option. It's available at the irresistible DealExtreme--an online retailer that blog site Boing Boing sums up spot-on as a seller of "cheap Chinese crap you were never sure you needed", with free worldwide shipping thrown in.

However, the "leather" in the casing looks dodgily faux. And if you do stupidly use the signal-blocking case, take heed that your cell phone will be working doubly hard to get a signal, and naturally draining the power cell doubly fast. Which means that when you pull your handset out to use, it might be deader than a dodo. Alternatively, you can save yourself the US$6 and invest in some low-tech tin foil which similarly deflects those signals.

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