Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve covered a few add-on lenses for cellphones, but none as cute, convenient or clever as these two. The wide-angle macro and fisheye lenses from Photojojo come with a little self-adhesive magnetic ring that you stick permanently to your phone, surrounding the crappy lens it already has. The lenses then simply snap onto that.

The wide-angle gives a 0.67x angle of view, and will let you focus as close as 10mm. The fisheye will give a 180º view, and a 0.28x magnification. It also gives the trademark fisheye circular image, vignetting the corners of the photo.

The tiny lenses both come with a tiny strap for hanging in a safe place, and they are also supplied with front and rear caps to protect them. And because of the way they attach, they’ll fit any cellphone you have. Cost? $40 for the pair, or $20 for the wide-angle and $25 for the fisheye.

Fisheye, Macro, and Wide Angle Camera Phone Lenses [Photojojo]

See Also:

• DIY iPhone Macro Lens Carousel
• Phone-O-Matic Puts DSLR Lens on iPhone
• Chunky Case Adds Lens and Mic to iPhone Video Camera
• Clarifi: Your iPhone is Ready for its Close-Up

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

HTC’s Droid Eris phone is getting a second lease on life as a tour guide in a Disney amusement park. Disney has taken the smartphone, added a frame around it to turn it into a device running an app that shows wait times for rides, offers discounts and indicates show times at the park.

The repurposed Eris also gives out tips and tricks and coupons for use in the park.

HTC launched the Droid Eris in November as a $100 smartphone (with a two-year contract) on Verizon Wireless. The Droid Eris had a 3.2-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS capability. It also used HTC’s Sense custom skin for Android. In June, Verizon said it has retired the Droid Eris.

Meanwhile, last year Disney also launched its Mobile Magic app for mostly feature phones and non-Android smartphones. The app gives users detailed information about the different Disney theme parks in the U.S. Now with the Android version of the app running on the Eris, Disney hopes to connect with those users who are already at the park.

Check out the video to see the Mobile Magic app on the Droid Eris

Ultimately, the Eris phone running the app may be offered as a free or “low cost add-on” for visitors on the trip, says the MickeyUpdates site.

See Also:

• Now, a $100 Android Smartphone in the HTC Droid Eris
• Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ Features USB, Wi-Fi Tethering
• Motorola Droid Rules Android
• Bloatware Creeps Into Android Phones

Photo: Mickeyupdates.com

[via Engadget]

Camera+, the iPhone camera app of choice for many people, has snuck a rather handy feature into the latest version, 1.2.1. You’d better grab it while you can, as it uses a hack to add back in a feature that Apple rejected.

The app’s developer, TapTapTap, thought that it might be useful to add a hardware shutter button to the iPhone, a much easier way to snap a picture than tapping on the screen. The developers repurposed the volume switch to trigger the camera. Apple, rightly citing possible user confusion, said no.

So TapTapTap put the feature in anyway, although you need a kinda cheat code to activate it. Just type this URL – camplus://enablevolumesnap – into Mobile Safari and the volume switch shutter release is enabled. To switch it off again, type – camplus://disablevolumesnap.

This has nothing to do with the PDF exploit that allows users jailbreak their phones. Instead it uses the URL to pass an instruction to the app, a standard procedure on the iPhone. It reminds me a little of the “defaults.write” terminal commands which access hidden preferences in Mac OS X.

Who knows if this is enough to trigger an immediate Apple takedown? We’ll see soon enough. In the meantime, grab this app while you can.

Camera+ [iTunes]

Enable The Camera+ Volume Shutter Button via Safari [Uneasy Silence]

See Also:

• Camera+ for iPhone 4 Adds Flash, Exposure Control

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Motorola is set to refresh its original Droid phone with the launch of the Droid 2 later this week. The new Droid 2 phone will sport a better keyboard, the latest Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and a faster 1-GHz processor.

Droid 2 will cost $200 with a two-year contract on Verizon Wireless or $600 without a contract, according to Best Buy.

Motorola hasn’t confirmed a release date for the Droid 2 but widespread rumors suggest the phone will be introduced on Aug. 12.

The original Droid phone is now listed as “out of stock” on Verizon’s website.

The Droid 2 refresh comes nearly ten months after Motorola and Verizon launched the original Droid phone. In October last year, the two companies introduced Droid, then one of the most advanced Android devices in the market. The Droid debuted with a 3.7-inch touchscreen display, a slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera and a 600-MHz processor. Since then, the device has become one of the best-selling Android phones.

In June this year, Motorola announced Droid X, a device that extended the Droid brand. The Droid X, however, didn’t come with a keyboard. With its 4.3-inch touchscreen, the Droid X also sports a bigger display and a faster processor compared to the original Droid.

Droid 2 will now catch up to some of those specs. One of the key criticisms with the original Droid phone was the device’s keyboard. Many users complained that the keys weren’t comfortable to use. Motorola seems to have heard that. In a newspaper ad touting the imminent arrival of the Droid 2, Motorola has highlighted the Droid 2’s “new, advanced keyboard.”

Droid 2 also hopes to be the first phone to ship with Android 2.2 Froyo and support Adobe’s Flash technology for mobile phones — a distinction that shouldn’t matter much now since other devices including HTC Evo and even the original Droid are getting over-the-air upgrades to Froyo.

Another point to consider is that the feature upgrades won’t put the Droid 2 at the front of the pack of Android phones. HTC’s Evo has an 8-megapixel camera, compared to Droid 2’s rumored 5 megapixels. The Evo also has a front-facing camera and HDMI out — two features that will likely be missing in Droid 2.

If that’s the case, it is unlikely Droid 2 can on top of the best-seller charts like its predecessor.

See Also:

• Is This the Motorola Droid 2?
• Motorola Droid Rules Android
• Why I’m Not Getting a Droid Today
• Droid X Debut Leaves Hardcore Android Fans Leery
• Hands On With the Motorola Droid X
• Verizon Denies Tethering, Hot Spot Features to Droid Customers

Photo: Motorola Droid (Gubatron/Flickr)

Less than a week after it officially unveiled its new BlackBerry 6 OS,  Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion has debuted BlackBerry Curve 3G (9300),  a “BlackBerry 6 ready” upgrade to the popular line of smartphones.

In keeping with the Curve’s tradition, this model is aimed squarely at the consumer market.

“The majority of people in the worldwide mobile phone market have yet to buy their first smartphone and the BlackBerry Curve 3G is designed to provide an extremely attractive and accessible choice that will help convince many of them to make the leap,” Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion said in a statement Monday morning.

The feature set of the Curve 9300 is rather modest:  quad-band GSM, Tri-band UMTS, 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, a 2 megapixel camera, and support for microSD up to 32GB in size.  It ships with BlackBerry OS 5, but BlackBerry 6 will be available as an upgrade “in the coming months.”

The Curve 3G will ship worldwide in August.  RIM did not mention carrier partnerships or retail price of the device.

Photo Credit:  Research in Motion