360 DEGREES Weblog

SpareOne has unveiled a new phone this week at CES which is equipped with a massive 15 year battery life. The SpareOne has been designed to provide emergency backup and uses a single AA battery to provide power for a 15 year shelf life.

The new SpareOne design looks like any other mobile phone, expect where the LCD should be there is a battery compartment.SpareOne says the phone will work with any AA battery, but an Energizer battery is recommended. But remember the mother company of SpareOne also owns Energizer.

We’ll go ahead and let you try it first, but the folks behind Liquipel ($59) claim their clear coating “protects every feature of your device with a revolutionary waterproof shield.” The Liquipel permanently bonds on the molecular level to your device, both inside and out, and is said to keep your phone working even if you drop it in water (creek, bath tub, Kool-Aid, etc.). Certain iPhone, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola devices can take the Liquipel treatment and their subsequent plunges now.

What would you get if you took a Motorola RAZR (the original), a BlackBerry and a mid-1980s Bang and Olufsen stereo, tossed them in a blender and poured the results to set in a shallow cake tin? You’d get the Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone you see above.

Specs-wise, the phone doesn’t do anything special. It simply checks the boxes required of a modern mobile telephone: 1.2GHz processor, 720p video camera, 8GB storage, 5MP stills camera and a microSD card slot for expansion. It’s relatively small 2.8-inch, 640 × 480 287dpi screen can be explained away by the backlit hardware QWERTY keyboard.

But design-wise, it’s a rather hot-looking slab of glass and stainless steel (no silvered plastic here), and even has a leather-coved back panel. It probably won’t help BlackBerry pull out of its terrible death spiral, but it will at least make e-mail addicted businessmen look a little less dorky. Rumors go that the price will be around $2000.

Late last year,  Jabra introduced a revolutionary Bluetooth headset called the STONE2, earning the acclaim of the industry, including a prestigious CES Best of Innovation award for the best wireless handset accessory of 2011. The stylish, hi-tech, one-of-a-kind Bluetooth headset is now available for purchase at $ 129,99

In case you’re not familiar with the STONE2, it is a wireless Bluetooth headset that can do more than just answer your phone calls. It is fully controllable by voice, letting you answer and make calls using spoken commands. The Jabra STONE2 even works with specially designed apps that add a lot of new capabilities to the phone. Want to update your Twitter or Facebook status using your voice alone? How about replying your emails or text messages while driving? It’s all possible using apps from the Jabra World of Apps portal.

Tag Heuer have launched their second phone, this time a smartphone using Google’s Android operating system. The Tag Heuer Link comes with either a steel, titanium or eighteen karat rose gold case with rubber; calfskin, alligator, lizard or carbon fiber backs. The phone is designed to be rugged and has a crown like their watches which when unscrewed gives access to the sim card holder. The phone comes with eight gigabytes of memory which can be expanded through a memory card slot and applications can be downloaded from the Android Store.

We’re already living in the future, so why is it we still need silly things like cash and credit cards? Google Wallet (Free) is aiming to get rid of those relics from a bygone era by connecting your credit card — Citi MasterCards or Google Prepaid cards only, to start — with your NFC-capable Android phone to let you pay at any PayPass-capable terminal, and also letting you take advantage of exclusive Google Offers to help you save money at the same time. Next up?

The latest in the TAG Heuer Meridist phone series is the Gulf Meridist,, inspired by Steve McQueen’s character in the 1971 film “Le Mans”, Michael Delaney. As you by now will know, anything from the men of cool is favored at 360Degrees. The luxury mobile phone bears Gulf Oil’s signature light blue and orange color scheme. The phone features black body finishes, with PVD surface treatment for a scratch less silhouette. The rear battery cover is black rubber, lined with two stripes each in the signature Gulf colors of orange and light blue. The phone features the Gulf logo above the rear camera shutter, while the TAG Heuer logo, features below the front crystal sapphire screen. The limited edition mobile handset series of only 400 pieces.

Phones with dual displays are still something new – although the world of portable gaming consoles have already taken that route with the Nintendo DS a few years ago. Well, why not step into the future with this 360 concept handset from design school student Baek Kil Hyun, as it will rely on a pair of smaller displays as “shutters” which will close over the phone’s main screen – in essence, giving you three different displays simultaneously. Sounds outrageous, yes, and we do look forward to the day where we have this kind of battery technology that will be able to catch up with all the zany ideas we’ve seen to date – after all, displays are notorious for sucking up plenty of juice from today’s batteries, no matter how efficient they are.

If you are looking for a mobile phone to takes on extreme and take all the punishment you can throw at it then the new rugged Sonim XP3300 might well be worth a look.
Its been designed to be able to withstand 2 meters drops onto concrete and is fitted with a 1.5 mm thick Corning Gorilla®Glass lens for the highest scratch and shock resistance you can get. Encased in fiberglass case which is against salt, fog, humidity, transport shock, and thermal shock and operates in temperatures ranging from -20˚C to +55˚C. Surpassing the military specifications for ruggedness.

Aliph has just announced the Jawbone Era, the first ever Bluetooth headset to have a built-in accelerometer. Combined with multi-processor technology, serial flash, and a larger dynamic wideband speaker, the Jawbone Era is emblematic of how advanced even the smallest piece of gadgetry can be these days.
The aforementioned built-in accelerometer is coupled with MotionX, a motion technology licensed by Aliph from a company called FullPower. This allows the headset to perform certain actions by deliberately shaking or tapping the headset. For example, if you shake the headset twice when you’re not wearing it, you’ll be able to answer, end, or switch calls. Tapping the headset twice when it’s on your ear will also answer or end calls. Aliph calls these actions “ShakeShake” and “TapTap” respectively. A “Double ShakeShake” is to shake it four times, which activates pairing mode. Don’t be concerned with accidentally activating these features either; Aliph claims that the sensors are smart enough to recognize if a movement is intentional or not.
According to Aliph, this is just the initial use for the accelerometer and motion sensing software. The company hopes to expand on this further in future updates, adding more functionality along the way.

$129,99