What’s the world coming to when a prisoner can’t even call his drug dealer? What’s a prostitute to do when she can’t call her pimp for a little advise? Sometimes you just need to call a friend on the outside and ask about the best way to make a shiv. Oh well.

California’s Public Safety Committee has approved a new bill that aims to crack down on the smuggling of mobile phones into prisons. The new law would have tough penalties for both the smugglers and inmates. If this bill passes, anyone who possesses a cell phone with the intent to deliver, or delivers a cellphone to an inmate, would be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 per device.

We have seen a phone from Bellperre before back in November of 2009 that was made from wood. The company is back with a new phone that can be customized with different types of leather, gold, and other materials.

The phone offers 125 different leather colors and the buttons can be made from brushed steel, silver, or rose/yellow gold. The leather options include odd things like pink crocodile and red shark.

If you’ve always wanted to make your own applications to use on your Android phone but have never had the time or interest to learn all of that programming syntax, this just might be your chance. Google has announced the beta of the App Inventor for Android, a visual programming tool for creating mobile phone applications on Android devices.

Google says that no programming knowledge is necessary and you can begin building apps within minutes of getting started with the software. App Inventor uses a block-editing tool developed at MIT and tested at educational institutions around the country for the past year.

When it comes to smartphones most of us want them to be large enough that we can get a big screen for viewing content. But small enough that they are lightweight and fit easily in a pocket. This new concept phone called the Gravity Phone is a bit strange.

It looks good, but the device appears to be a bit bulky. The designer says it would have a 1080p resolution HD screen and HDMI output. Those would be nice features.

I recall seeing the Modu mobile phone at CES a few years back and thinking it was a cool idea. The device is a tiny cellular phone module that you can slip into various different cases to completely changes the device and its interface.

A new Modu phone has surfaced and it is called the T-Phone. The device has a touchscreen and looks like a slick little interface as well. The handset is the first from Modu to have 3G connectivity.

Just as expected, AT&T has made the Motorola Backflip available today marking the first Android iPhone competitor available through the carrier with more to follow. The Backflip is available for $100 with a 2-year contract or $350 straight up. So, who’s in? Or are you going to wait to see what the other four AT&T Android phones are bringing?

AT&T

[Thanks JamesBond]

Otterbox has released a couple of new protective cases for your HTC Droid Eris phone, adding to their Commuter and Impact series of cases.

OtterBox’s Commuter series case (on the right in the above photo) for the HTC Droid Eris provides 3 layers of protection with a screen protector, silicone mid-layer and a polycarbonate shell. The Impact series, like it sounds, is a little more padded to provide protection from impacts to the device and has a couple layers including a screen protector and molded shell.

The N97 that Nokia unveiled way last December is hitting stores tomorrow afternoon. Well, at least hitting the Nokia flagship stores in New York and Chicago. If you’re not already in line at one of these two places you might have some luck online as Amazon appears to have some in stock and we would imagine (or at least hope for the sake of all you that pre-ordered) that they will start shipping today or tomorrow as well.

This release from Nokia comes right on the heals of the new and improved iPhone 3Gs announcement and adds some healthy competition to Apple’s reigning smartphone champion. The N97 sports not only a wide touchscreen display but also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to add some ease and speed to your mobile …

Samsung and T-Mobile officially let slip yesterday word of an upcoming 8-megapixel digital camera mobile. It is the new Memoir (SGH-t929) and there’s no official word yet on pricing or availability.

The Samsung Memoir, said the two companies, is designed to look and feel like a regular digital camera. It has a built-in flash, 16x digital zoom and five shooting modes. It is also said to be easy to share photos taken on it with others via direct postings to popular online photo sharing Web sites.

There’s nothing worse then a driver who is too busy running their mouth on a cellphone and not paying attention to the road. Or the other cars. Teenage drivers in particular love to get distracted by their mobile phones. Well, University of Utah engineers have designed a wireless car key device that stops users from talking on their cell phone or sending text messages while behind the wheel.

Each driver of a car will have a separate key device. When the key is extended from the device, it emits a signal that puts the teenagers phone in “Driving Mode,” so that they can’t use it and kill you. In driving mode the phone will display a stop sign and hopefully the death loving teen will get in the habit of leaving the phone alone while driving.

According to some recently discovered fine print in the Android Market terms of service, it appears Apple is not the only one implementing a remote kill switch for applications on their phone. In this case however Google has openly stated that they may “discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement”, and in such cases they reserve the right to “…remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion”.

This all comes after somewhat of an uproar when a developer happened upon a feature that allows Apple to remotely remove applications from the iPhone. This type of remote kill feature is meant to help with security and privacy in the event that some malicious application finds its way onto your mobile device, but many find it a little intrusive since it certainly does not give you free reign to run whatever applications you would like on your Google phone with Android.

Verizon Wireless, besides announcing the Samsung Sway, also unveiled this week two new Motorola handsets and a Bluetooth headset. These new devices are the the Motorola Rapture VU30 and the MOTO VU204 as well as the MOTOPURE H15 Universal Bluetooth Headset. Pricing for these devices is around $130, $30 and $100, respectively.

The Rapture VU30 is the more advanced of the two new mobiles. It comes in a clamshell design Verizon says has a touch-sensitive external display. It does the usual Verizon music services and can also capture digital pictures, offering a dedicated shutter button for the 2.0 megapixel camera. Memory is expandable up to 8GB and you can get turn-by-turn audible driving directions.

Boost Mobile unveiled today it latest mobile phone from Motorola. It is the old school looking i776, which you’ll find pricing around $100.

The Motorola i776 is Boost’s smallest flip phone with a digital camera (VGA). It comes compatible with Boost’s walkie-talkie service and is also GPS enabled.

Verizon Wireless today unveiled a new slim slider phone designed for them by Samsung. It is called the Samsung Sway and you’ll find it pricing around $70 after rebate and contract.

The Samsung Sway offers your typical array of media and lifestyle features to make it more than just a mobile. It includes being a MP3 player which can be loaded with music via a USB cable, a 2.0-megapixel digital camera with video recording and digital zoom and Bluetooth support.

One of a slew of new mobile phones announced by Sprint this week is the very hip looking LG Lotus. It will be available in October for around $150 with a two-year contract.

The LG Lotus is described as being a full QWERTY flip phone with a squarish shape and two color options – purple or black. It is one of the first Sprint phones to support the mobile carrier’s new One Click feature. One Click allows you to personalize the home screen of the Lotus “by selecting and organizing features and content such as text messaging, Google search, Sprint Navigation, email, favorite Web sites, music, and call log” so they can be included in the display. One sees all of this information through a customizable carousel-style menu.