Words About Things

Back, due to not demand whatsoever, it’s the return of the critically uncelebrated Wednesday Links post!

1. Like Pop, snakes will occasional try to eat themselves. Unlike Pop they normally end up having to have their jaws dislocated.

2. Up to 10,000 mobile phones are left in Taxi cabs in London every month. At least 4 of them are returned to their owners (on a good month).

3.  Make do and Mend: Sugru can be used to fix, hack and bodge your stuff back to full working order. It is a flexible silicone material that ‘cures’ in 24 hours.

4. The 8th most popular search term in Google.co.uk this year? Google. (What is the world coming to?)

5.  Daisy Lowe, Lily Cole and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley feature in the 2010 Pirelli Calendar which was shot by controversial snapper Terry Richardson.

Sony Ericcson, Vodafone and now Samsung look set to launch high end mobile phones running on Android. The Mobile Device Platform developed by Google was first launched on the T Mobile G1 phone which was released in October. It has been called a “flexible, upgradeable system” and includes a web browser. This , combined with a 3G connection provides an internet connection much faster than than via WAP. It still has some way to go before it is a quick as a broadband connection via a standard landline however.

Sony Ericcson, Vodaphone and Samsung have recently joined the Open Handset Alliance which was set up to develop open standards for mobile devices. They are expected to include software created by the Alliance (Android being the only release so far) on their next generation devices.

Sony’s Xperia 1 is due for release in summer 2009 and features a (surprising low quality) 3.2MP camera, a 800 x 480 touchscreen, and an optical joystick. The first release is due to run on Windows Mobile but a second release running on Android is expected.

Sony Ericcson are also expected to release the C905 which will be a 3G model with an 8 megapixel camera and GPS. There are unconfirmed reports that this will run on Android.

Samsung are rumoured to be creating a touchscreen phone called the Memoir. It should feature a camera with optical zoom which would be a big step forward in the evolution of on-phone cameras. A photo of a Memoir prototype can be seen below.