Sadly, some Palm apps are now free

Knowing that I still use a Palm Treo 650 (yes, people who review phones don't necessarily have fancy ones), a colleague alerted me to the fact that PDAmill Game Studios has made all its Palm OS games free. The company stopped making games for this platform since February 2007, but still has a reasonable stable of applications for Windows Mobile. Some of these games are quite good and may be worth a download for those still on a Palm OS device.

TreoCentral reported on this and also noted a few other developers giving away their previously for-sale software. These include games from Ellams Software and SkinUI from PalmPowerups.

It just goes to show how far Palm OS has fallen. The third-party software community for this platform used to be one of the most vibrant, but thanks to lack of improvement in the OS and its devices, most current mobile applications now run on Windows Mobile or regular mobile phones. For those still on Palm OS, get these free apps while they are still being hosted by their developers.

Transmit data through your skin with Firmo

Science just got weirder. And we're not talking about that mid-1980s flick Weird Science where two teenaged boys use a computer to design the perfect woman; not surprisingly a Frankensteinish sex kitten (Kelly LeBrock in the skin). The buzzword here is "skin" since this one's rooted to your derma. Grown right out of a Japanese petri dish, Firmo is NTT's idea of a device that transforms the human body into its own truly personal area network (PAN), allowing users to communicate with devices just by touching them. The Japanese telco giant, however, prefers to call this HAN or human area network.

The gadget in question is a card-sized transmitter that cloaks the body with a weak AC field so that when this comes into contact with a compatible receiver, it is translated into signals that can be read by the device. The potential applications are far-reaching, from making payments (putting paid to contactless payments?) to activating your music player with a single touch. Frankly, the idea of being constantly charged up raises goose bumps on what this might do to our organs in the long run.

For the cutting-edge snobs, Firmo is not cheap. A set of five transmitters and one receiver goes for 800,000 yen (US$7,620). So much like the placards you see on retail shelves showcasing breakables, it's see but no touch, at least for now.

Via RBB Today | Photo credit: NTT

Sorapot makes pouring tea an art

Sora what? It's a blardy teapot, all right?

I'm not a big fan of tea, though I do pretend to enjoy it once in a while. A senior once said to me: "It doesn't matter if you can't run fast, just look good." I can apply the same thinking here: I can't brew a nice pot of tea, but I can surely make the process look like it's an art.

The Sorapot's stainless steel backbone is made using the same method as jet turbine blades and space shutter components. At this point of time, when you mention space, it's mandatory that everyone goes wow. And it doesn't end here. According to the designer, the uncoated metal will develop a sheen when you hold it and become more matte in other areas, so you get a pot that you can truly call your own.

Not bad at all for a pot that costs US$179. Now, who wants to pour me tea?

Multi-Layer Display LCD TV to ship soon

Minority Report's holographic images made 3D cool again. Even more impressive was 6th Day's highly interactive virtual girlfriend who could unzip your pants. But until that day arrives, PureDepth's upcoming MLD a.k.a Multi-Layer Display technology collaboration with Samsung looks like a start. Rumored to launch soon, this joint effort will roll out a 46-inch MLD LCD display that consists of two or more layers of LCD panels sandwiched within a frame and sharing a common backlight. The result is an onscreen image that appears to have 3D-ish depth. Better yet, there's no need to don any annoying 3D goggles to view this.

We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this showcase at CES 2008, at January's Showstopper preview in Las Vegas, though the crowd milling around the booth was forming its own 3D mass that we had to hoe our way through.

At 46 inches, this claims to be the "world's largest" MLD LCD TV, which is enough to make us wonder what the sticker shock would be like. Still, anything that moves us out of the static 2D zone is much welcomed, and if successfully mainstream, may see more collaborations that will put MLD into mobile phones, GPS units and gaming solutions. Now all that's needed is for Microsoft to hop in with its interactive Surface, and we're halfway home to that hubba-hubba interactive 3D babe/hunk.

Via New Launches | Photo credit: PureDepth

New iPhone firmware features Chinese handwriting recognition

A day really doesn't go by these days without news of the iPhone. The latest piece of news, coming from a Chinese blog site wretch.cc, shows screenshots of a Chinese handwriting recognition function in the iPhone. According to the site, this function is included in the new iPhone 2.0 beta firmware and this has also been verified by another site MacRumors.

Based on the Web site's description, the handwriting recognition allows users to draw characters on the screen with their fingers. Suggestions for the character will appear on the right of the panel where users can then pick the right one.

With so many rumors and claims that the iPhone (or possibly the much-awaited 3G iPhone) is set to officially debut in Asia this year, this latest news certainly reinforces market speculation that Apple will soon bring its elusive handset to our part of the world.

Via MacRumors and wretch.cc

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