Hasta La Gadget!

I’ve dropped—and in some cases, fatally damaged—many a cell phone over the years. Eventually, I just accepted that fact that I’m a klutz; scratches and dents add character, right? Well, when it comes to keeping my gadgets off the ground, it turns out there may be hope for me yet.

That’s where the Mobigrip comes in. According to the gizmo’s eponymous manufacturer, the Mobigrip is a “device leash” designed to help butter-fingered geeks keep hold of their portable tech. Intended for use with cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, and the like, it’s essentially a quarter-sized, adhesive-backed disc with an elastic finger loop. The concept is simple: Stick the Mobigrip on the back of any device you’re prone to dropping and save it from future crash-landings by sliding your finger through the loop whenever you pick it up .

The little plastic rounds come in several different colors and are available at mobigrips.com for $10 each. Now you can go get a hold of yourself (and your stuff).

How does this work? Verizon Wireless just announced the LG Versa, which basically looks like an LG Dare with a 3″, 240×480 touch screen and a detachable QWERTY keyboard. When you attach the keyboard, according to Verizon, the home screen “is transformed into a sizzling, animated 3D interface.” There’s an HTML Web browser with Flash and support for three windows at once, an accelerometer, and the ability to sync music with Rhapsody. Text messaging is threaded.

The Versa also has a 2-megapixel camera with 640×480 video recording, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, GPS, visual voice mail, voice dialing, a 2.5-mm headset jack, a speakerphone, and various other goodies. The phone costs $249.99 with a two-year contract, and a $50 rebate brings it down to $199.99.

I’ve got more questions about the Versa than about almost any phone I’ve reviewed recently. How does the QWERTY keyboard detach? What version of Flash is supported in the browser? What is this 3D interface, and how does it relate to LG’s “S-Class” interface announced earlier this month? Fortunately, we’re getting one in for review, so we’ll be able to answer those questions. If this phone is as good as the Dare, LG and Verizon may have another hit on their hands.

The LG Versa is going on sale on March 1. We’ll have a review very soon.

Educators, policymakers and members of the wireless industry gathered last week at the Mobile Learning Conference 2009 in Washington D.C. to discuss how cell phones can help kids learn in the classroom. That’s an idea bound to generate at least some controversy in places like New York City, where cell phones are banned from use in public schools.

“We are at the tipping point for mobile learning,” said Carly Shuler, a fellow of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, during a panel at the conference. “Just as television was a fundamental part of children’s lives when Sesame Street introduced millions of children and their families to its educational potential, mobile devices are part of the fabric of children’s lives today. When Sesame Street started, the question they sought to answer was ‘How can emerging media help children learn?’ This question is just as relevant today as we consider the role of mobile devices in the education of 21st century children.”

The panels discussed such disparate topics as using smartphones to aid in math tutoring, developing cellphone-based curriculums, and making better use of wireless broadband networks in the classroom.

It’s no Canon, but Samsung’s Memoir (http://tinyurl.com/aqdolu) sure pushes all its camera-phone competitors right outta the frame.

Applied Nanodetectors Ltd (AND) has a rather ambitious vision – diagnosing a person’s health just by breathing into a cell phone. At this year’s International Nanotechnology Exhibition & Conference, the UK-based company presented the prototype of a cell phone embedded with their specialized medical chip. Manufactured by Finnish company Nokia, the handset carries AND’s chip and sensors needed to be able to accurately diagnose a disease.

According to source, the sensors are capable of determining the presence of gases such as carbon dioxide, ammonia and nitrogen oxide. After calculating for the density of each of the gases it identifies in the user’s breath, the chip matches the figures to a predetermined range of illnesses before coming up with the prognosis. AND says the process is pretty much like fingerprint matching. Asthma, food poisoning, diabetes and even lung cancer are but some of the conditions AND claims the technology can diagnose. It will be a while before we get to test its accuracy though – launch dates and even marketing schedule of the handset is yet to be determined.