The Week That Was: Hamster Power and Microsoft Stores

by Dean Evans at Friday 20th February, 2009 at 12:09 pm [0 comments]

The mobile phones of the future were on display this week at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Not only was this get-together a showcase for some new hardware but Microsoft chose MWC to announce its new phone OS – Windows Mobile 6.5.

HTC followed up its G1 Android phone with a new ‘Magic’ handset; while Sony Ericsson impressed with its ‘Idou’ featuring a 12.1 Megapixel camera. Samsung and LG hinted at a greener future for mobiles by showing phones with integrated solar panels.

Both Nokia and Microsoft revealed Apple-inspired App Store clones, pointing to an imminent explosion in downloadable mobile applications. While LG debuted an innovative S-Class UI on its KM900 Arena phone that maps menu options onto a rotatable 3D cube.

Microsoft Stores

In gaming, Nintendo finalised a launch date for the new Nintendo DSi. The third version of Nintendo’s dual-screen handheld is 12% thinner, has a bigger screen, a built-in digital camera and audio player. The Nintendo DSi launches on April 3rd.

Sony is gearing up for the launch of nailed-on PS3 sales-booster Killzone 2. While Microsoft is planning to open its own chain of ‘Microsoft Stores’ a la Apple.

Staying in the US, 36% of TV stations switched off their analogue broadcasts and made the switchover to digital. The UK’s own digital migration has already started in the Border TV area and rolls into the West Country starting April 2009.

Hamster power

After Amazon launched its Kindle 2 ebook reader last week, crime novelist James Patterson is poised to release a very different Internet book. AirBorne is an attempt to tap into the ‘wisdom of crowds’ and has been collaboratively written by Patterson and 28 other writers.

Finally, technologists the world over are pursuing cheaper and more efficient ways to generate power. Toronto-based Morgan Solar has invented a solar concentrator that could make solar energy more affordable by focusing the sun’s rays onto smaller arrays of solar cells. While in the US, scientists are harnessing the power of hamsters to generate electricity. Yes, really.

On Digibode this week:

The Road To Digital Content Delivery
6 Amazing HDTVs That Won’t Break The Bank
Shedding A Tear For Pioneer
Taking Blu-ray On The Road

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