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Samsung NB30 netbook gains touchscreen, inflated price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Mobile may lack the elegance of more modern operating systems, but some phones based on Microsoft’s mobile OS are finding new life as Android handsets.

A few intrepid smartphone users have hacked their Windows Mobile phones to run the Android operating system, creating Frankenstein-ish monsters with the body of one phone and the transplanted brain of another.

“The biggest reason I switched was because Windows Mobile was so sluggish — it would hang and take forever when you dialed a number,” says Connor Roberts, a a software engineer who, two months ago, posted a step-by-step tutorial to running Android OS on the HTC Touch. “Android is a lot faster and I get GPS navigation on my phone now for free.” The Touch, introduced in June 2007, is a pixie-sized phone with a 2.8-inch touchscreen and a 2-megapixel camera that comes with Windows Mobile 6 OS.

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile held a strong share of the smartphone market for years, particularly among business users who valued its connections with such corporate services as Microsoft Exchange. But the OS hasn’t kept up with the advances found in Android and the iPhone OS, and sales of Windows Mobile phones have been sagging. Microsoft’s next-generation phone software, Windows Phone 7, isn’t yet available.

For many users, Android on an original Windows phone opens up the ability to switch to a new OS without spending the money to buy a new device. It also offers access to new features — and to applications in the Android Market.

Sounds crazy? Not really, says Thomas Hewton-Waters, an engineering student at the University of Calgary who tried it out.

“It’s ridiculously easy to get Android running on the Touch,” he says. “You simply unlock your phone and flash the Android OS to it. If you have a good guide to go off of, you could have Android up and running in probably half an hour.”

In just under two months, Roberts’ tutorial on the message board has garnered more than 17,900 views and 213 replies. And there are now hacks available to transform most Windows Mobile smartphones into Android clones.

Handset makers and wireless carriers decide which operating system can run on a phone and customers usually have no choice in the matter. But smartphone owners who willing to get their hands dirty can play with the read-only memory, or ROM, on their cellphones, which holds the firmware. Software hackers have created custom ROMs that can be loaded on a phone to unlock certain features in a process known as “flashing.”  That means phones that are not the latest in terms of hardware specs can still offer software features that would make a Nexus One or a Droid blush.

For the last few years, Roberts says he has been tinkering with the ROM on his phone to see how he can extend the functionality of the device. For instance, by changing the ROM he can increase the amount of memory available or add maps from service providers such as TomTom and Garmin on the phone.

“Custom ROMs can allow you to do anything you want with your phone,” he says. “Otherwise, the carriers try to restrict you to just talking and texting on the phone.”

Switching the operating system on a phone may not take much time, but it’s a tricky procedure that could leave your phone a nonfunctioning brick. You must make careful backups and download an avalanche of files. While there are online forums and guides to help users through the process, it can be a lot of work, says Roberts. That’s why he decided to collect all the information in a single message and post it on the XDA Developers forum, he says.

Roberts’ tutorial will work with most HTC Windows Mobile phones on almost all carriers. The only requirement is that the phone has a display with a minimum resolution of 320 x 240 pixels.

Saving money has been the biggest reason to hack his phone, says Roberts. Buying a new Android phone can cost up to $200 and carriers force customers to buy a data plan with their smartphone.

“The phone I had (the HTC Touch) didn’t require a data plan,” he says. “And I didn’t want to add a $30-a-month data package to my bill when I can get everything I need through Wi-Fi.”

Hewton-Waters agrees cost is a motivating factor, but says it’s not the only one. There’s also an element of DIY thrill to it, he says.

“I just really enjoy technology and love figuring things out for myself,” says Hewton-Waters. “Sure, it’d be easier to go buy one that’s already set up and working, but it wouldn’t be as fun. Plus, it makes my friends jealous.”

So far, Hewton-Waters says he’s delighted with how his phone works. “It runs faster, has better battery life, is more intuitive and everything is integrated with Google,” he says.

Wireless carriers such as Verizon are less thrilled. “Modifying a device is in violation of our customer agreement,” says Brenda Raney, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless. That means Verizon can suspend or even end service to modified phones.

Roberts says phone users who have tinkered with their devices can fly under the radar if they don’t call Verizon for tech support.

“It voids your support warranty so you can’t call Verizon and ask them to fix your hacked Android phone,” he says, “but it’s not illegal.”

A Windows Mobile phone transformed into an Android device isn’t always perfect. Roberts says he can’t get the video capability working on his hacked HTC Touch. And moving contacts over to the “new” phone can be difficult.

Other users have complained that Bluetooth has been disabled on their phones as a result of the hack or occasionally the screen will show some weird lines of code.

“For me, it’s been worth the glitches,” says Roberts. “And it’s so easy to do, almost brain-dead. Why would anyone not want to try it?”

See Also:

• Android Devices Crave Google’s Attention
• Sprint, HTC Unveil First 4G Android Phone
• Indie Coder Proves Android Apps Can Make Money, Too
• New Phones Still Sold With Old Versions of Android

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

[UPDATE: It’s official, although it’s not clear whether the screen is touch-enabled. See the Sony video embedded below]

The folks at Geeky Gadgets have got ahold of some screenshots from Sony’s upcoming mirrorless Alpha camera. It appears that the innovation isn’t all on the outside: this camera will have a touch screen and a smart new interface to go with it.

Mirrorless cameras are becoming popular because they put big sensors in small bodies with interchangeable lenses, and Sony’s concept added typical Sony Style. But looks are nothing without a good product, and these screen shots show that Sony has decided to abstract the interface, forgetting about apertures and shutter speeds and instead focussing on their effects.

For instance, we know that opening up the lens shortens depth-of-field and throws the background out of focus, making the subject pop. Sony lets you control this by touching a button and sliding an on-screen control for “Bkground Defocus”. The menu screens are big and colorful, too, instead of the cryptic text lists we’re used to.

In fact, going by these leaked shots it looks as if there won’t be many buttons at all on this camera. Even the mode setting dial is a big on-screen graphic (shaped just like a dial!)

We love where the camera market is going, with relative newcomers forgetting about the old film ways of doing things and instead concentrating on taking better pictures more easily. More shots below, or click over to Geeky Gadgets to see them all.

Sony Ultra Compact DSLR Camera Concept Menu And LCD Screenshots [Geeky Gadgets]

Skinput uses a bio-acoustic sensing array coupled with a wrist-mounted pico-projector to turn your skin into a touch-screen. Confused? Don’t be. It’s amazingly simple.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, along with Microsoft’s research lab, have come up with a way to use the skin of your arm (or any other part of your body) to act as a display and an input device, without actually implanting anything weird into you. It consists of two parts. A tiny projector beams the image onto your skin. Tapping the “buttons” causes ripples to run through your skin and bones.

These waves change depending on where you tap, as they run through bone, soft tissues and the like. Special software analyzes these waves, and uses the information to work out exactly where you touched, just as if you were tapping an iPhone screen. Specific locations can be mapped to certain functions: in the video you see somebody playing Tetris by tapping their fingers.

Both sensor and projector can be put into the same armband, but the display is unnecessary: Another use is to tap the tips of the fingers to control an MP3 player, a task simple enough to rely on the user’s memory.

Various tap-based interfaces are possible, and the thing that impresses us about all of them is the simplicity for the user. We worry a little though. We already mistake people muttering into their Bluetooth headsets for crazy people who talk to themselves. Now we have to distinguish joggers skipping tracks on their iPods from drug-fried nut-jobs who twitch and scratch at imaginary insects crawling over their flesh. Thanks, researchers.

Body acoustics can turn your arm into a touchscreen [New Scientist via Mashable]

Apple might have finally released the iPad, but the rumor mill is already on to prognosticating about the next rev — and as usual, Apple’s patents and patent applications are everyone’s favorite place to start. (And for good reason, really — that very first design patent we inititally noticed way back in 2004 is exactly what the iPad looks like, down to the bezel and Dock connector.) The latest tidbit is a patent granted earlier this week on an intelligent touch-sensitive bezel, which would essentially extend the touchpanel beyoned the edges of the screen to create an entire border of context-specific soft buttons — the iPod app might have playback controls at the bottom, while Safari could put the navigation bar down there and Pages could do formatting stuff at the top. It’s sort of interesting — Palm similarly extends the touch area beyond the screen on the Pre and the Pixi, but not quite like this — but we can’t see how touching the bezel next to an on-screen label is much better than just pressing the screen. Of course, there’s no guaranteeing Apple’s actually going to use any of this in any future products whatsoever, but we’re sure that won’t stop some analyst from waving their magic analyst wand and saying their “supply checks” have indicated a major ODM is already producing these. It’s nice that the world is so predictable sometimes, isn’t it?

Apple gets a patent on smart screen bezels originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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