Research Center Cambridge Showcases Stretchable Electronic Skin Technology (Video)

20/02/2011 19:45 par slaytane

While Nokia fails to deliver hot smartphones, at least they’re evolving on the prototype and concept side. What you see below is a stretchable electronic skin, a technology developed by Nokia Research Center Cambridge. This flexible piece of bioelectronics is the basis for the future foldable devices, like watches or phones.

Compliant and stretchable materials will make theoretically unbreakable devices and it’ll also provide new means of interaction. More info can be found in the following video and in case you’re not familiar with the Nokia Morph concept phone, go check it out and see how this technology can be put to good use:

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U Concept: The Public Has Chosen the “Design by Community” Smartphone Design

20/02/2011 19:42 par slaytane

Remember the Nokia initiative entitled “Design by Community” that involved the public’s selection of specs and design features for a future Nokia smartphone? Well, it came down to these three sketches last time we heard about it and the finalized result of the challenge is the Nokia U device, pictured below.

This Nokia concept phone is the result of over 18,000 votes that chose a sketch of the phone in order for the handset maker’s design team to turn into a render. This is the render we’ve been waiting for, complete with the specs listed below:

Display: 4 inch, capacitive. 16:9
Size/shape: monoblock, 60 x 110 x 6-10mm
OS: Open source OS with unlimited multitasking, based on touch input
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 3.0, HDMI
Camera: 8 megapixel, 4X optical zoom, dual LED and Xenon Flash, HD video capture
Materials: aluminium, soft touch finish
Others: multiple OS, surround sound speakers, Flash memory, kinetic energy power

More details concerning the project can be found on Nokia’s official site.

Legend 2 is a Big “Entertainer”

20/02/2011 19:36 par slaytane

The creator of the HTC Legend 2 concept claims that this device is a “big entertainer”, meaning that it’s a great multimedia playing device. Its specifications are pretty impressive, too: dual core 800 MHz CPU and an 8 megapixel camera. This is actually better than some phones shown at Mobile World Congress 2011 recently.

How much time do you suppose it will take to make dual core a feature for low end phones? Two years? Three?

Dual OS Concept is Actually Real

20/02/2011 19:26 par slaytane

While the design of this HTC phone is a concept, it is actually possible to have a smartphone with a dual OS. For example, if you own a HTC HD2, you can already run WP7 on it (it was ported) and Android on an SD card. Back to the device below, this phone was created by Michal Bonikowski & Rafal Pilat.

Let’s just hope that the speakers on the handset are better than those of HTC HD7, that went seriously wrong. As far as the specs of the concept are concerned, we can only speculate, so here they are: 4 inch display, 8/16GB of internal memory, 512MB/1GB RAM and a 1GHz CPU.

Forest, New Android Phone Design

20/02/2011 19:24 par slaytane

Long-Nong Huang is at it again, creating the HTC Forest, a 4.1 inch SLCD display phone that uses a 1.2GHz CPU. The device runs a flavor of Android and seems to use an aluminum unibody case, plus a couple of capacitive touch buttons under the screen. Other than that the design language reminds us a bit of the Thunderbolt model, only less wide and with an extra trackball.

Effect LTE Phone Looks Like a Desire and Legend Mashup

20/02/2011 19:10 par slaytane

Imagine mixing the HTC Legend with the Desire and removing the first handset’s chin. The result could be something like the HTC Effect, a concept created by Long-Nong Huang. This handset supports LTE connectivity and uses a 1.2GHz CPU.

Also on its specs list we find 768MB of RAM, an 8MP camera and a 4 inch Super AMOLED Display. The usual accessories are also pictured, while the image below is a “live” shot of the smartphone. Would you buy such a product? If we had to guess, that would be an unibody aluminum case.

Desire 2 Brethren? Could be… We Give You: HTC Magic 2

20/02/2011 19:05 par slaytane

Since HTC Desire 2 has been recently spotted online, we think that we’re not far off is we showcase you a relative of this handset: HTC Magic 2. Its specs are pretty appealing, as they include a 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM and a 3.7 inch touchscreen display (AMOLED).

This HTC design belongs to Long-Nong Huang, who also included a 5MP camera on the concept. Of course, this is an Android phone, but we expect Desire 2 to be much better specced than this Magic follow-up. It should at least run Gingerbread, it not Android 2.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Blackshaddow, a Very Original and Interesting Approach to the HTC Tablet

20/02/2011 18:11 par slaytane

Although designer Long-Nong Huang didn’t provide too much info on the HTC Blackshaddow tablet (not quite the HTC Scribe or HTC Flyer, right?), this device is very original. We’ll explain immediately why, after stating that this concept (and some more that will come soon) is the work of Silverstreet, as the designer mentioned.

Well, for starters this isn’t your average landscape slate, so the HTC tablet in question is a portrait device, that’s basically a bigger smartphone. We guess that crossing the 5 inch limit automatically makes your device a tablet these days, then so be it! Let’s embrace the HTC Blackshaddow as the 5 inch smartphone, or a smartbook or the tiny tablet that challenged the Dell Streak to a duel.

Would you like to have a wider than usual smartphone in your pocket? What do you think about this HTC tablet design?

Tube Dual-Core Smartphone Upgrades Features With Cartridges

20/02/2011 18:07 par slaytane

We consider the Antoine Brieux latest design, HTC Tube, a brilliant idea, one that would get some kudos even from Modu: a smartphone based on cartridges to enhance its features. HTC Tube is available in a Starter, Smart and Ultimate Edition, with the first running Android 2.2 on a 800MHz and the Ultimate using a 1.5GHz Dual core CPU coupled with WP7/Android 2.2 via dual boot.

Features can change depending on the cartridge you use and we learn that the external case of the handset is made of a magnesium alloy and incorporates a 4.65 inch S-Amoled multitouch capacitive display with a 16:9 ratio. The internal cartridge provides the most important features, like the GPS, WiFi, 3G, camera (up to 12MP) with dual LED flash, 1800mAh battery and more.

1GB of RAM should also be present on the HTC Tube ultimate Edition, while the Smart Edition will only feature Windows Phone7 with HTC Sense, 576MB RAM and a 5MP camera. This NAK Design phone can evolve endlessly, as cartridges keep getting made, so this idea is once again, brilliant! Is anyone in Taiwan reading this?!

Future Smartphone by Hazo Design

20/02/2011 18:01 par slaytane

We received the following HTC concept from Hazo Design, without any mentions of specifications or design traits, so we’ll speculate on this device. This is possibly the longest HTC model I’ve seen and the Android logo on the side points towards a Froyo/Gingerbread/Honeycomb smartphone, with a tiny camera on the front upper side (unless that’s the Home button on the lower side and HTC is spelled the wrong way).

If I would be daydreaming about this handset, I’d say it features a transparent screen, that allows the user to enter a new type of augmented reality and take photos easily. Am I assuming too much?