With the exception of a few iPhone accelerometer controlled games (My favorite being this one ) the vast majority of cell phone games are make shift projects that serve merely as in between Dentist appointment entertainment.  The biggest contributor to this mediocreness is the lack of suitable control schemes on a phone to play the game with .

Until now that is …

We’ve all dabbled with Nintendo’s Wii and loved it’s intuitive controller, it’s just brilliant !
Technical Warning : Since the Wii’s controller talks to the console via a sans-fil standard bluetooth connection this implies, theoretically at least, that any device that can do bluetooth can communicate with the Wii’s controller

(Light Bulb Appears)

Yes you evil genius, that’s exactly what has been done! A bunch of bright lads managed to write a nifty little program allowing use of your beloved Wii-mote as a controller of your favorite cell phone game !

Granted i won’t be packing my Wii-mote while visiting the dentist (wait a tick.. isn’t such a bad idea?)  non the less,  cell phones are already starting to pack 3D acceleration hardware and openGL API as part of  their SDK and letting Murphy’s law do it’s thing , slap on some decent TV output ports and we might have mobile entertainment units of the future ! Muahahaha ..

In the meantime some tiny SSX3 on a Sony Ericsson P1i  will do :

Love it !

The beginning of it all was the sub par digital light capture sensor protected with a “made in China” plastic shield absurdly labeled lens, packaged all together and marketed as Phone-with a-Camera.
With time, the marriage between phone and camera was nothing like most of that of it’s human counterparts; It blossomed, grew more intricate and interdependent , finally giving birth to their love child the term Camera-Phone

We now find 5 Mega Pixel camera phones,  with lenses from heavy weights like Carl Zeiss boasting optical zoom and advance compact flash systems.
Even the controlling software is now capable of on the fly image stabilization, Impressive color balance calculations and ever more focusing on refining video capture capabilities.
In fact some upcoming cell phone prototypes are really gunning after Video capture, boasting realistic frame rates , good pixel density and in some cases, EDTV output .

On the other front, we have the current renaissance in the mobile internet market.
Make no mistake we are in the Henry Ford days of mobile internet connectivity . People more than ever are demanding their data  like their food: On the go and all experienced on-the-go food makers know, the faster you serve it, the more they’ll gobble up !

It’s only a matter of time before destiny throws camera and phone’s love child, camera-phone , into the path of WAP’s latest descendants, 3 and 4G, spawning an incredible array of cutting edge offspring’s with great derivatives .

Imagine sharing breath taking views seen from Italy’s Capri in real time HDTV quality with your loved ones back home.
Picture herds of enthusiasts streaming video from a across the globe to single web server for the masses to view creating a decentralized, truly democratic and sponsor free news network:  Wikipedia on steroids.

Mentioning only two obvious possibilities we connect the dots and come to see with little effort the fruits created by the fast mobile Internet revolution and quality mobile video’s evolution will not only be cutting edge and very useful in their application but most importantly very humanistic in our social sense , enabling all of us to come even closer than ever in an ever more globalizing world.

Get ready for the new Generation of Mobile Broadcast Units.

In an effort to raise awareness about it’s latest mobile platform ,Android , Google launched a 1 Million dollar developer challenge: Hit us with your best !

Results of round one are out, the judges have filtered through the submissions and the top 50 Android applications have been published. I must say , the stuff people came out with is nothing short of amazing !

From the Top 50 Applications our favorites include:

1. Phonebook2.0
   Here’s a thought, take Facebook + flickr + your phone book , mash’em’up = Phonebook 2.0 : Get  the lowdown on John before dialing that number .
   John’s status says what now ? Ok maybe i should call later. Brilliant !
2. PiggyBack
   See who’s going where and see if you can share a ride .
3. AndroidScan
   Finds pricing and reviews for anything with a bar code. Android scan automatically recognizes bar codes and searches high and low for where you can get it and details. I can see pushy sales man go “Merde !“
4. Beetaun
   Social networking based on Geographical content.
5. BioWallet
   Biometric authentication : Identify your self using your eye’s Iris, finger print etc.. Madness !
6. BreadCrumbz
   In a past article we told you of free GPS maps for your cell phone, Breadcrumz takes it to a new level by creating picture based navigation.
7. Commandro
   Find where your friends are and what are they doing at the moment. Picture this :
   Clever Cindy: Where were you honey bun schnooks ?
   Wise John:  Having a beer with the boys.
   Clever Cindy: That’s not what your phone says !
   Not-so-Wise John: I love you.
8. Eco2Go
   Go green by tracking your C02 Footprint ! Al Gore’s got nothing on me !
9. gWalk
   Get your custom created tour when traveling
10. MyCloset
    Build your closet inventory in the phone then plan your look for the night in true high tech diva style !

A PDF with the full list of Android’s Top 50 Applications can be downloaded here.

GPS (Global Positioning System) is really going main stream . Previously limited to military and governmental use, GPS chips can now be found in an endless array of devices ranging from dedicated GPS-talking-tablet type gadgets, to your laptop and If big brother has his way: Your arm.

While GPS chip’s usually output Latitude and Longitude coordinates, this in it’s RAW format proves to be of very little help to us average Joe’s . Instead the true power of GPS lies in extrapolating the data and producing useful , usually visual, information from the above data.
One of the most compelling and widely used Application of GPS data is mapping software, where your location is super imposed on a map . This allows you to see where you are relative to your location, search for objects of interest and even get real time (sometimes spoken) driving directions.

While commercial mapping software for cell phones does exist and does a great job at all the above, believe it or not you can get free GPS mapping software on your cell phone that is nowadays as reliable and robust as any other paid for commercial solution.

Since the best things in life are free, staying true to Sinatra’s mantra, we list the top 3 free GPS mapping solutions below, additions to the list are more than welcome:

Free GPS compatible Maps Software List:

1. Google Maps Mobile
   Advantages: Global , Up-to-date, Huge index of points of interests , Cross platform compatible, Multiple views of area (Terrain, Map or Hybrid)
   Disadvantages: Data is not locally saved, Data intensive internet connection always required, No speech guided directions.
2. Smart-2-Go
   Advantages: Maps saved locally, Internet connection not needed, Speech guided directions.
   Disadvantage: Not as comprehensive as Google maps, Maps can be rather large to download initially.
3. Map Quest Mobile
   Advantages: Same as Smart-2-Go + Cross platform compatibility
   Disadvantages: Not as comprehensive as other methods.
4. Leaf
   Advantages: Free, Smart Search, 2D-3D Views
   Disadvantages: Windows Mobile Only

More to be added as discovered …

Virgin Mobile USA has designed an application, that  allows Virgin Mobile USA’s customers to get their friends on Facebook to  pay for their wireless minutes !

The “Fund My Phone” application can be installed just like any other Facebook application and placed on the user’s profile.

Now there’s way to separate your real friends from acquaintances …

I’m personally a big fan of widget applications (Widgets are light weight applications). Be them Vista, Mac or Web widgets, sometimes a widget does it best.

Plusmo is a new service that brings widgets to mobile phones. With over 20,000 cross platform widgets, now you can get a cool calculator, the latest teams scores, news, stock quotes and tons of more stuff, all in a nicely formated widget .