Microsoft and Sprint have announced an alliance in which the companies will develop and deliver a range of mobile search services for Sprint’s business and consumer customers.

The initial offering enables Sprint customers to use Windows Live Search for mobile on their wireless phones to search location-based content from the Internet. The new mobile search service based on Windows Live aims to provide a single access point to relevant online content based on a keyword or phrase. The search will include the Sprint catalog of offerings such ring tones, games, and screen savers as well as nearby stores and restaurants.

Windows Live Search for mobile offers features such as maps and directions but requires users to input their location by entering their ZIP code, address, or city and state. Future versions of the service are planned to enable consumers to give permission to automatically locate them …

Tuesday at the Industrial Physics Forum in San Francisco, Marin Soljačić, assistant professor at MIT, along with colleagues presented an approach to power and/or charge electronic devices wirelessly from a couple of meters away.

The idea is that there would be some type of base station that the devices would need to be in proximity of to receive the transfer of energy through the air. The base station would be plugged into a regular electrical outlet, or “holes” to you old Seinfeld fans. The base station would then emit some low-frequency electromagnetic radiation around the base. The radiation would be at a specific frequency that would need to be matched by some type of circuitry component inside the gadget that would receive the power, and when the base and the component get close to each other resonating at the same frequency, the component could …

GM has released plans to introduce a upgrade to the common key fob for their higher end SUV style vehicles such as the Cadillac Escalade. The new key fob will be the first to offer two way communication between the device and the vehicle, as well as offering a liquid crystal display.

The remote gadget will be able to lock and unlock the doors and set of a panic alarm as most key fobs would, but the difference lies in what it gets back from the vehicle. The key fob will be able to display that status of the vehicles door locks, tire pressure, odometer reading, fuel level, radio settings and more, according to an article in USA Today.

Vehicle makers have been adding more features to the remote access of vehicles, such as unlocking doors when you get close, associating seat and mirror settings, …

MovaMail recently announced that it has released version 2 of its J2ME-based mobile email application. The new build of MovaMail allows consumers to access their WebMail, POP, and IMAP email services from their java-enabled mobile phones.

Building on the success of Version 1.0 which was first released to the public in October 2005, MovaMail V2 adds new features and performance enhancements that maximize the capabilities of today’s MIDP 2.0 mobile phones. New features include:

Phone Address Book Synchronization – complete synch and server backup
Complete Email Synchronization – including email status
Attachment Support – view images, forward attachments
Camera Phone Integration – email pictures from your mobile phone
Multi-lingual support – support for any language in the end users mobile phone
Optional XHTML interface – for users that can not or choose not to access via java client.

MovaMail’s Compression and Optimization engine has been completely reengineered to give users their email nearly …

The glofiish X500 is a great contender for the ultimate mobile business solution device. ETEN boasts that at the time of its production, the glofiish X500 is the thinnest phone running Windows Pocket PC and having communications through Quad-band GSM, WiFi and GPS all in one device. On top of that, the X500 also supports Bluetooth to allow you to use a headset or full keyboard without wires.

A built-in Qwerty keyboard would always be nice, but it would certainly affect the size of the new glofiish mobile phone which will require you to type on the screen or with an external keyboard. The dimensions on this gadget are a mere 113mm x 59.5mm x 15.5mm and it weighs a svelte 146g with the battery installed. The display screen is also a decent sized 2.8″ TFT-LCD with a resolution of 240 x 320 and 65,536 …

At first glance the FMP3 Watch appears to be just another watch that plays MP3s. Upon closer inspection we find that this watch includes a handy FM transmitter which allows you to transmit your MP3′s to FM radio. The FM transmitter will playback music on FM radio frequencies between 88.1MHz, 88.5MHz, and 88.9MHz with an approximate range of 6m-10m.

The FMP3 watch also contains an MP3 Player, Voice Recorder, and Line-in Recording capabilities. With the watch, you can control common operations such as play, stop, next, and back. Transfer your MP3 files to the watch via USB with memory capacities of 512MB and 1GB. Like a secret-service agent the hidden, built-in microphone allows you to discretely record your voice or sound directly to the device, and line-in recording is possible by connecting to an external source. Enjoy a continuous …

I’ve seen a lot of accessories for the Apple iPod, some not so impressive, but I have to say that I do like this one.

This is a karaoke for your iPod, and consists of a microphone, and connection cables to an external stereo. You attach the microphone to your iPod, and the iKaraoke will send the music to your stereo without the vocal track so you can sing along. You can connect to your stereo inline or through your FM tuner.

The device allows for pausing, fast forwarding and rewinding, and you can temporarily turn the vocal track back on for when you get stuck or your audience just can’t take it any more. The karaoke singing gadget even includes technology to help with reverb.

I’m sure Newcastle is going to buy one of these as soon as he sees the …

Vodafone and Yahoo! have formed an alliance which pools their collective expertise to create a new advertising service for mobile devices. The partnership names Yahoo! as Vodafone’s exclusive display advertising partner in the UK.

Yahoo! can leverage its sizeable sales force and technology team to drive the most benefit from Vodafone’s unique mobile advertising opportunities. Yahoo! will use its ample advertising prowess to provide a variety of mobile advertising formats across Vodafone’s varied content services.

The new service is planned to be initiated in the UK in the first half of 2007. Certain plans are structured to give savings on certain Vodafone services to customers who agree to accept carefully targeted display advertisements. This service could extend to other Vodafone mobile assets including the Vodafone live! portal, games, television and picture messaging services.

While no one can accurately predict how the Zune will fare this holiday season, one can guarantee that it will take a piece of the considerable market share now enjoyed by the iPod.

Microsoft is currently in the midst of celebrating the U.S. launch of the Zune digital media player and Zune Marketplace music service. The celebration consists of six free concerts in public parks and plazas in urban centers across the country.

At the inaugural concert in Seattle, Gates outlined the Zune vision of creating new ways for people to connect, discover and share music. Gates demonstrated that through Zune-to-Zune managed wireless sharing, consumers are empowered to promote and sample tracks, thus increasing exposure for artists. The service logs the music that people have shared, making it easier to purchase the songs they like the next time they synch up their player. Consumers …

Intel has made significant jumps over the past year, and on Tuesday they have officially launched their Quad Core Chips which Intel says are more energy efficient, have better utilization and are more reliable and then previous generations of Intel processors as well as the competition. This chip offers the equivalent processing strength of four separate processors in one chip. This is the second major release this year after Intel announced the Core 2 Duo in August and now the Quad Core, doubling the offered processing power twice in a year.

“In one year, we’ve achieved a four-fold increase in performance. That is stunning,” Pat Gelsinger, head of Intel’s Digital Enterprise group, told the Financial Times.

The Xeon 5300 and the Core 2 Extreme are the first two chips being released with the Quad processing power and are intended for …

This picture is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case you don’t make the connection this is a ring that has an opening on one side of it that works as a bottle opener. A little torque while wearing the Ring Thing on your “social” finger and you have solved the problem of always having to look around for an opener or some particularly strong surface area every time you want to open a bottle.

I have to say that this looks a little more sanitary than the bottle opener sandals we posted about in early September, but it may require some strong fingers. Finally some bling that has form and function, adn to top it off it only costs you around 10 bucks. The Ring Thing comes in sized from 9 to 14.

Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff!

Catalog Page [The Lighter Side]

ASUS has announced that they will be offering some new luxury computing options this holiday season with a new model in the leather-bound notebook series and a limited pink edition.

The new W6 Leather Collection has a 13.3-inch widescreen and comes with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The smaller S6 series, originally released in May, sports an 11.1″ screen and is now available in pink leather to match your pink RAZR.

Both notebooks come in Camel or Brown and are certain to make a fashion statement with the luxury computing set.

Press Release [ASUS]

This might be a stretch for a site about technology and gadgets, but I think this is pretty cool anyway. This is the Message Plant, and is basically a plant that you get shipped to you in a can as a seed. You grow it and a message that was somehow stamped onto it will appear.

The plants can be purchased and shipped for about $15, and once you get the plant and add water and some sun, it takes a little over a week and the plant will have grown enough for you to see the message. The message can consist of two lines (one above the other) and up to 10 characters each for a total of a 20 character message. You can even have logos or simple images put on the plant instead of text if you want to call in and …

Cingular and Samsung have finally released the SGH-i607 BlackJack Smartphone in time for the holiday season and to have it in the race along side the Motorola Q and the Dash. The Blackjack fills a void for mobile phone users in the US with a Smartphone that has supports GSM along with EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA. The phone also supports Bluetooth, but unfortunately is without any built in WiFi support.

This phone comes with a slightly awkward looking QWERTY keyboard, a 320×240 screen resolution and a built in 1.3-megapixal camera. The Blackjack weighs in at only 3.5 ounces and is about a half an inch thick. The included battery gives it 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 11 days of standby, which is a nice jab to it’s main competitor the Q, which has some shorter battery life …

Trekstor has a pretty cool gadget here with the i.Beat vision. The vision is an MP3 player at heart, with a number of other cool features.

The i.Beat vision can play multiple formats, including MP3, WMA, OGG, videos in TOM format and is WMA-DRM9-compatible for downloaded music. It also is able to receive and play FM radio with the ability to preset 24 different FM stations.

The i.Beat vision has inline recording, as well. This means that you can record FM radio, your voice from a built in microphone or audio from any line-in input device. It records and converts the data into an MP3 file right on the recorder. You can then keep, organize into folders and browse through the files along with any other files on your i.Beat vision player.

The vision also lets you view JPEG photos and has a slideshow …