geekosystem

Hey, remember buttons? They're back! As you may have heard, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was unveiled yesterday, and you're either rolling your eyes or anxiously awaiting the chance to purchase one, because hey, new smartphone. But the Korean multinational hopes to snag a few more customers by appealing to the video game demographic with a bonus prototype they've showed off along with the S4 itself. It's a cradle/game controller that clamps onto the phone, connects wirelessly -- even though it's right there touching it -- and looks more than a little an Xbox 360 controller. All you need are some triple-A batteries.

Japanese toilets are famously ridiculous, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It's a lot like if someone made a version of Pimp My Ride, but for toilets. They have features like heated seats, sound effects, and power lids. One company has just taken the toilet game to the next level. Manufacturer Lilix is launching three new toilet models that can be controlled using an Android smartphone. Now you don't have to just use your phone on the toilet. You can use your phone to control your toilet.

The Nokia Lumia 920, unveiled just yesterday, looks like a pretty sweet smartphone. With talking points like PureView imaging technology, and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), Nokia almost appears to be building more of a camera than a phone. The benefits of the physical OIS present in the Lumia 920 are showcased in a promotional video Nokia released. Unfortunately, the video doesn't actually use footage from the Lumia 920.

Have you ever reached a place where you questioned the merits of having a smartphone? Having access to so much information at all times can, every so often, get in the way of living in the moment, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying a quiet moment, or, you know, not walking into people on the street. In the United Kingdom, one company has decided to take the idea of the "dumbphone" to its logical conclusion. Feast your eyes on the OwnFone. A tiny, custom-made phone that can only communicate with a small set of preset numbers.

Trevor Prideaux, born without a left arm, used to have trouble using cell phones. It didn't use to be so bad until the smartphone revolution happened and he found himself having to balance the phone on his prosthetic arm for use. Then, he had an idea that's practically only if you have a prosthetic arm: Why not just put the phone right in there? And that's what he had done. His Nokia C7 sits just right inside the arm, freeing up his other hand to use it.

Now that's pretty cool, but there's a little more to the story, the Nokia C7 was actually Prideaux's second choice. The idea actually came to him while he was trying out the iPhone and balancing it precariously on his arm. Struck by the idea, he contacted Apple to see if he could get an empty casing, for measurement and testing purposes, but Apple wasn't too keen on the idea. The folks at Nokia, on the other hand, were more than happy to work hand in hand with the technicians at the Exeter Mobility Centre, where Prideaux gets all his limbs.

If the affection of humans or animals is for whatever reason inaccessible to you, OLogic has the solution with their Oddwerx smartphone dock. Instead of charging your phone, syncing your files, or playing your music, Oddwerx gives your phone the gift of mobility. As in, it can roam around like a strange, robotic 3G-enabled creature. Priced at around $50-60, the Oddwerx hopes to be an amusing distraction in the lower-end gadget range. In addition to the mobile chassis, the company has some pretty cute working versions of digital pets running on demo phones that can identify humans using a front facing camera and interact with them in a variety of ways. In addition to their own software, the company plans on releasing an open source API to let other developers take advantage of a truly mobile device. Assuming you're not too freaked out about your phone running away from you, or possibly plotting against you, read on below for a video of the Oddwerx in action.

Keylogging has always been something you want to avoid, considering it can give hackers direct, complete unencrypted passwords and login data. It's pretty easy to keylog a laptop or desktop since a keyboard is just a series of buttons, each devoted to a single letter. On a smartphone, however, that's not the case. Think that'll protect you from keylogging? It won't. Researchers Hao Chen and Lian Cai at University of California Davis, have found a way to keylog a smartphone not from physical key strokes, but from accelerometer movements. As it turns out, each key press has its own distinct pitch, roll and yaw, meaning that if you can identify what those are on a specific phone with a specific layout, you can pull keystroke data from accelerometer history. That's what Hao and Lian are coming up on, but they haven't quite made it yet.

The first Verizon iPhone TV spot is out and it cleverly plays off the anticipation that has surrounded the iPhone since it was first introduced as an AT&T exclusive device. While it is satisfying to see the desires of so many people directly played to in an ad, being thanked for our patience is a bit odd since it really boils down to saying, "we're so happy you waited this long for us to sell you something." But let's just bask in the glory of the Verizon iPhone, rumored for years and oft thought impossible, is finally upon us. We can even look forward to the day when we can chat on our Verizon iPhones while playing Duke Nukem Forever. At the rate the impossible is being overturned, Elvis might even be there to hang out. As the semi-ominous tagline of the ad says, "it begins." (via CNN Money)

As much as we might wish we lived on an ethereal plane with our beloved gadgets, we don't (yet), and their physicality can be a burden. While annoying design flaws like the iPhone 4's antenna problems regularly hammer this point home to us, there are potentially graver security implications. A recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Computer and Information Science points out one major flaw that should give touchscreen smartphone users some pause: The smudges our fingers leave on the screens can be used to guess our passwords. By taking photos of several Android smartphones and upping the contrast, researchers were able to figure out the phones' password 92% of the time.

This past weekend, Google announced on the Nexus One Android phone blog that the company's flagship device has been discontinued, only half a year later. Once the last shipment has been sold, U.S. consumers will no longer be able to purchase the once-hyped smartphone from Google. The doomsday announcement for the Nexus One had been expected ever since disappointing sales in its first month, and the subsequent closure of the web store in May. Created in partnership with Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC to display advanced possibilities of the Android operating software, Google's Nexus One smartphone was a unique handset in that it could be sold unlocked (not restricted to a single network provider). Perhaps the feature didn't gel with the average consumer, or the steep price of a $529 unlocked handset was offputting.

According to two nameless sources "familiar with the plans," Verizon Wireless users will be able to switch to the Apple iPhone starting next year, finally ending AT&T's exclusive reign over the mobile product in the U.S. market, reports Bloomberg. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam previously said they were building a high-speed fourth-generation network, and would reveal devices that employ the new technology at the Consumer Electronics Show this January. Assumedly, this is when the official announcement would be made.

A German-language ad for the Motorola Milestone -- that's the European counterpart to the stateside Droid -- depicts a depressed rival cellphone watching an advertisement touting the Motorola Milestone. Depressed by the Milestone's superior features, the rival cellphone -- we're not sure what kind, but it looks like it has a 1.5:1 aspect ratio -- begins to shake, flashes a yellow sad face on a red background followed by a yellow caution sign on a red background -- and proceeds to commit suicide by jumping out a window. A cat looks on.

Linux inventor and tech pioneer Linus Torvalds has taken a side in the smartphone wars: specifically, the Google Nexus One's side. Writing on his personal blog, he says that while he "generally hates" phones, he sees the Nexus One as "a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget":