Gadgets

Images purporting to be leaked photos of the next iPhone are making rounds on the web.

MacRumors and iPodObserver both claim receiving images capturing a new 16GB black iPhone.

In the images, the black iPhone case appears to ditch the smooth, plastic surface of the iPhone 3G in favor of a matte finish.

We can’t vouch for the validity of the images, but they do appear believable. Developers and analysts are predicting the next iPhone will sport very similar dimensions and resolution to its predecessors, so as not to require applications in the App Store to undergo major rewrites.

Otherwise, not much is known about what Apple has in store for the third-generation iPhone. However, there is strong, well-supported speculation that the next iPhone will be souped-up for gaming.

Additional images below the jump.

Rejoice, fans of the Gadget Lab Video Podcast (iTunes link): You can now get the podcast’s punchy electronic audio intro as an iPhone ringtone, a plain-vanilla AAC file, or if you prefer as a nice fat AIFF file.

I’ve already set my phone to use this ringtone whenever any member of the Gadget Lab crew calls. That way I will know to press the button and send them straight to my voicemail.

The music was written by videogame music composer Drew Campbell of Adeline Studios, who was nice enough to give us permission to post it here. Thanks, Drew! Now, geek out!

Those of you waiting for Apple to fix Mobile Me, forget it — Google has stepped up to fill the gap.

Apple’s "cloud computing" service got off to a bad start last year and never really recovered. IPhone users who hoped the service would push contact, calendar and email updates to their device found that switching on Mobile Me did little more than drain their battery quickly.

An upcoming iPhone app strives to facilitate harmony between Mars and Venus.

PMS Buddy, coming soon to the iPhone’s App Store, is an application that keeps track of a woman’s menstrual cycles. The app is based on the PMS Buddy web site, whose slogan reads, "Saving relationships, one month at a time!"

Yes, the idea is to give you a reminder of when that time of the month is coming, so as to avoid misunderstandings, which could lead to heated arguments and "dinner plates being hurled across the room," PMS Buddy’s web site says.

What’s better than a Blackberry with a clicky touch screen? A Blackberry with 23 clicky touch screens, of course. And like most smart ideas, this one is, upon seeing it, completely obvious.

Over at the Mozphone blog, Billy May mocked up this mashup between the Blackberry 7130 and the Optimus Maximus keyboard. The result is a real keyboard that can be instantly and infinitely reconfigured, offering all the advantages of a regular "hard" keypad with many of the benefits of a touch screen.

Since Acer sent an invite to its smartphones launch at the GSMA Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona later this month, there has been much chatter on what an Acer phone would look like.

Chances are it would be more of what we have already seen. The first Acer handset is likely to be a reworked Glofiish DX900 phone launched by a Taiwanese smartphone company last year.

Glofiish what? That’s exactly the reaction Acer is counting on as reports suggest the company intends to repurpose the phone.

Over the last year, Acer has emerged as one of the major players in the netbook industry. But the company has been keen to expand its wings.

In March 2008, Acer said it will acquire Taiwanese handset maker E-Ten. E-Ten had launched the Glofiish in Europe and Asia but the phone never became widely popular with users.

The Glofiish comes with dual-SIM support, which means users can have two numbers on the same phone. It also has a 3-megapixel camera, FM radio, GPS and a 2.8-inch touchscreen with a Windows Mobile OS.

If you’ve wanted to scan thousands of family picture prints at a time but never had the time to go through with it, a couple of services are available to do the job on your behalf. ScanDigital and ScanMyPhotos.com both take pictures that you send through snail mail and get back to you in digital versions that you can store in the cloud, safely.   

ScanDigital’s service scans your photos at 48 cents per print (at 300 dpi) or for 68 cents (at 600 dpi) to an online server where you can download or share them with others.

The One Laptop Per Child project has taken a beating in the last few months with problems around scale of production, price and staff cuts.

The first laptop from the project, the XO-1, has mostly been sold through the ‘Give One, Get One‘ program. Now a second generation version is on its way.

The XO-2 will be a $75 dual-screen device that can be held up vertically to resemble a book and turned around to use as a notebook.

Luminus Devices’ new LED chipset is promising to improve the brightness and overall quality of new small projectors, starting with Acer’s upcoming K10 hand-sized gadget.

The just-announced PhlatLight LED PT39 chipset (with RGB LEDs) will combine with Texas Instrument’s DLP technology to push out improved images to microdisplays ranging from 0.4" to 0.55." The LEDs will light up to 100 ANSI Lumens in the light-output range (where predictably, the brighter the projector, the higher the ANSI rating will be.)

Brightness levels for projectors are important because they’re in the mix that determines the quality of an image, but maybe even more important, they help users determine the room environment that’s better suited for a projection.

Even the landline phone is set to go touchscreen. Verizon Wireless has launched Hub, a new touchscreen based Voice-over-IP based home phone system. 

The Verizon Hub will have a 7-inch touchscreen and visual voicemail among other things. Though a Verizon product it will work with any broadband connection.

Verizon cellphone users can expect additional features such as text message calendar alerts and turn-by-turn directions delivered to their phones from the Hub.