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Above you can see the ‘word cloud’ generated by a neat little web app called Wordle. Using this app, you can paste a selection of words, or an RSS/URL in to the interface, and generate your very own customisable word cloud - I think this warrants the classification ‘uber-neat’

You can make your very own here.

Sure, you could opt for a run-of-the-mill Bluetooth headset to get your chat on without needing to press a handset against your head. Or, if you’re a bit more daring, you can turn a realistic AirSoft pistol in to a working Bluetooth headset of sorts.

We imagine others’ reactions to seeing an otherwise unassuming wireless subscriber putting a real-looking gun to their head and pulling the trigger is reason enough to build our own Bluetooth gun. But, if scaring those around you into thinking you’re suicidal isn’t something you want to deal with whenever you get an incoming phone call, then steer clear of this DIY mod.

You’re going to need an AirSoft pistol and a working Bluetooth headset (that you don’t mind taking apart) in order to fashion your own trigger-activated Bluetooth pistol-headset. Find the instructions here.

[Via: Instructables]

The mobile phone market is rapidly innovating and proliferating throughout the world. Feature-phone (dumbphones) are continually adding new and exciting features to keep users interested and the consuming public buying. And smartphones are now shipping with once rare and high-end features, like 3G data, WiFi, touchscreens, and massive internal storage, throughout the handset spectrum. Even mid-range handsets can surf the wireless web at 3G speeds and some even feature touchscreens.

So, with all this innovation and technology down-shifts going on in the mobile space, has call-quality improved accordingly? According to a recent study from  Ditech Networks, call-quality is seriously lagging behind tech-advancements the world over. In Europe and the US, 23% of wireless calls fail to meet the “industry minimum standard for voice quality.” When we consider wireless calls on a global basis, a full 40% fall below that minimum standard - making it more of an average standard than anything else.

Call-quality issues like “ambient noise,” “acoustic echo” and “voice level mismatch” make voice-calls the least technologically advanced features on mobile phones these days. While we surf the web at high-speed and interact with email, SMS text message, and social networks on the road, it seems carriers have started to forget that voice calls are their primary business.

Still, if carriers like Sprint can pull-off redefining their business as a data-provider (with voice calls routed over a data network), then voice quality may be relegated less and less priority. But, it sure would be nice to have high-quality, reliable voice calls every now and again.

[Via: RawFeed]

What’s this? Am I actually advising iPhone 3G hopefuls against jumping on Apple’s next-generation iPhone bandwagon? Well, yes… kind of.

Here’s the thing. The iPhone 3G is going to be the new hotness, there’s no denying that. But, is the launch-day madness worth the hardware?

iPhone 3G reviews from Walt Mossberg, David Pogue, and Ed Baig are already out (being big-wigs, the “Big Three” can flaunt NDAs with abandon) and they basically sum up the next-generation as a great piece of kit, but much of the improvements to the iPhone lie in the new iPhone 2.0 OS. Enterprise support, AppStore, and other minor changes affect some significant change over the current iPhone and firmware.

Sure, the hardware in the iPhone 3G is a major improvement over the first-generation model. Sure, we’re dying to get our hands on the next-generation handset-kit from Apple. Sure, it’s going to be the hottest thing on your block for the next few months.

But, if you already have an iPhone, and don’t have a religious-like need to get your hands on the iPhone 3G, holding off for a couple days will probably do you some good. If you don’t already have an iPhone, then what’s a couple more days in waiting? You can read up on all the iPhone 3G reviews and get the down-low on the good and the bad before you take the plunge.

If you’re mature enough to keep yourself away for a couple days, then you may want to wait it out. And, all of you avoiding those launch-day lines just means the rest of us that just have to have the latest and greatest immediately will have less of a crowd to deal with - we’re suckers for instant gratification.

If you’re one of the unlucky few to still be rocking unshielded speakers around your work or living space, then you’re probably painfully aware of just how annoying that cell-signal “buzz” can be.

The problem is, speakers that aren’t shielded from electromagnetic (RF) interference will pick up on the radio frequency perturbations associated with incoming or outgoing cellular calls and interpret them as an incredibly annoying “buzz.” So, what do you do if you’re speakers are buzzing whenever you bring your iPhone too close?

Well, if buying shielded speakers isn’t an option, you can just cut out a can of Sugar-Free RedBull and wrap it around your iPhone. The solution is reportedly quite effective (I’d give it a go, but all my speakers are shielded), and doesn’t seem to drastically affect cellular signal reception. The mod requires that you cut the can carefully in to a shape roughly approximately the iPhone and sticking it with some double-sided tape to the iPhone dock.

Docking the iPhone in the newly ghetto-fied dock gives you a much needed respite from iPhone (or any other cellphone) interference.

Oh, and make sure you use Sugar-Free RedBull - complicated quantum physics dictates aspartame trace.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

It’s a slow news day. You gotta love summer.

I came across this video of the BMW GINA concept car. The idea behind this car is that the skin acts more like a malleable cover than a rigid-metallic material that requires all manner of hinges, seams, and joints. You gotta love BMW.

Macenstein mentioned that it would be cool to see this sort of design concept in future MacBook models, and that got me thinking. Would this concept work in the mobile space?

As sleek as handsets like the iPhone and Touch are, the joints and seams inherent to these handsets, nay, all handsets, keep them from attaining a truly clean design. What if handsets were covered in a material similar to what we see in this video. Morphing handsets with LEDs lighting up from beneath the smooth skin - all without any unseemly edges or joints.

Would you buy a handset with virtually no exterior design markings? A sort of blank exterior that can be changed to fit different functions? What if phones adapted to context? I’d buy one.

[Via: Macenstein]

I thought this might be a story about feeding each of the Glastonbury revellers a can of beans and then collecting the resulting methane, but it appears not…..

Orange is apparently going to use a 7 metre wind turbine to power (recharge) mobile phones during Glastonbury this year! Users will be able to connect their device to a charger point inside a locker, for 45 mins at a time to get all buzzed up with power.

This is a great innovation - but I can’t help think a much more fun use of the turbine would be as a giant rotating catapult for Mobiles of people that won’t turn their phones for the performances - last thing you need at a quite lull in a song is an someone’s “cool” ringtone….!

[Via: Techradar]

“A Step in the Right Direction” is apparently the name of a new prototype shoe that could detect WiFi hot-spots where the users are walking.

The shoes have a full tower PC in the platform heel integrated electronics, including a pressure sensor in the sole to start scans, LED indicators in the top, and presumably something connecting it all together.

I sometimes wonder whether we over-engineer solutions to potentially simple problems - surely at points before this you would have got your laptop/PDA/mobile out and done a simple scan? These shoes remind me of those ones that kids have which light up when they run. Actually they remind me of novelty slippers, like these:

Hmmmm.

[Via: Technorati]

Actually this story isn’t very new at all, but I stumbled across it whilst looking at other info on the ever-wonderful Interweb. Cell phones etc wrote up a list of the top 10 places to lose your cellphone - rather than replicate the entire list here (you can read that by clicking the link at the end), I thought I’d pull out a couple of old favourites, along with their respective positions:

8. Roof Of Your Car

We’ve all done it. Especially you wack-o’s who use those gigantic Bluetooth headsets. (Aren’t you worried about growing golf ball sized tumors?)

You’re on the phone, which you’ve left on the roof of your car, and you don’t realize it until the call disconnects when your Treo explodes on the ground after breaking quickly to avoid murdering a squirrel. At least you know for sure you have to buy a new one. Hopefully you had insurance.

Chance of recovery: 0-100% (Depending on where it lands, and if you remember before it falls… and if you have insurance)

6. Airport Security

You’ve stood in line for 30 minutes to check in. You’ve stood in line for 45 minutes to go through security. Then you get the dreaded tap: “Sir, you’ve been randomly selected for a thourough search of your belongings.”
In the process of removing your coat, shoes, belt and explaining why your nipples beap every time the metal detector passes over them, your brand new Amp’d Jet phone disappears. You don’t realize it until you hear your name over the airport loud speaker.

Chance of recovery: 50-100% (Depending on how much time you have before your flight leaves. If you don’t immediately retrieve it from security, it is destroyed)

1. The toilet at a bus station (Or any public place for that matter)

If you go in after it, you will probably catch some horrible disease, turn green and die.
Besides, you can flush a small child down most of those public toilets. Once you flush, it’s gone.

Chance of recovery: 0% (Don’t even think about sticking your hand in there!)

So, IntoMobile readers, do we have any new entries to add to the original list (which you can find here)? If so, I might even go to the trouble of generating a new “IntoMobile Top 10″ - come on, I bet all you guys have lost/smashed/misplaced your Moble somewhere amusing at least once….

[Story via: cell phones etc / Image via: CNET au]

While not related to mobile I feel this relates to a small number of IntoMobile readers, you know who you are, you have your homepage set to Google Reader. You know what RSS is and who invented it. You subscribe to anything on the net you find interesting. You complain that it’s hard to keep up with it all, yet you’re a sick twisted individual and do it anyway. You know who you are.

The AP did a report that basically says young adults these days want to read more indepth pieces, problem is they’re being hit with instant messages, email and more interruptions than they know what do with. There is actually a term for this now: “news fatigue”

Read the 71 page report [PDF] if you can, chances are you’ll make it to page 3 and then start browsing youtube.

[Via: The Inquirer]