BLOG

Turn Your Camera Phone Into A Telescope

A lot of camera phones are basically useless—the image looks fine in the viewer, but when you snap the picture, it turns into a dull, blurry whisper. Hoping to enhance the experience, Japanese electronics maker Green House has created the 8X Telescope, a lens designed to fit directly onto your cell phone’s built-in camera. The 18mm, F1.1 8x optical lenses can capture close-ups from far away and sharpen all your images. Each lens (which retails for about $90) comes with a tripod and an adapter that fit most conventional cell phones. See more pictures after the jump.

Speed Dial With The Ferrari Phone

Casually laying your BMW keychain down on the bar is an easy way to convince impressionable gold diggers that you push a beamer without actually dropping that hundred grand. So before you go spend $400,000 on a Ferrari, consider copping the car-shaped F1 Phone instead. It looks like an official ’Rari phone, even if it is made by some questionable Chinese company who seems to be unfamiliar with these copyright laws we’re so crazy about. But the phone itself actually isn’t bad, with a 2.2-inch touch-sensitive LCD display, USB connectivity, MP3 support and a photo and video camera. You can cop it here for around $190. See the back of the phone and more photos after the jump.

The Greatest Cell Phone Watch Since Dick Tracy

Rocking a phone on your wrist has never quite taken off, because let’s face it, them joints are usually clunky, hideous nerd-cessories that value function over style. But the Van Der Led WM2 seems to be taking a step in the right direction with this sleek, understated joint that has Bluetooth and a tiny touch screen. For $471 you can buy it here starting on Monday. After the jump, check out some detail shots.

Korea’s Touchy-Feely iPhone Killer

From the LG Prada to the HTC Touch, fancy touch screen-based cells have been trying to rain on Apple’s iPhone parade since it dropped last year. Today, Samsung released the Anycall Haptic, a thinner iPhone competitor, to their South Korean market. The twist? It has 22 kinds of vibrations built in, which allows the phone to simulate the feel of various actions. For example, when you change the volume, it releases a sound and vibration that mimics an old school radio. No plans to release this phone in the U.S. market have been announced yet, but it’s retailing in Korea for around $700-$800.

Watch the commercial for the Haptic (featuring Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun) after the jump…

Eliot Spitzer Could Have Learned A lot From Drug Dealers

Although it’s true that it was his bank and later the IRS that first raised the red flags that initiated the FBI investigation of hooker-loving ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer, all the text messages and phone calls certainly didn’t help his case any. Considering he was the Attorney General of New York and busted up a few hooker and drug rings in his day—giving him intimate knowledge of evidence gathering and building a case—makes him even stupider for getting busted with any cell phone records whatsoever (read some of the texts here). Client-9 should have applied some covert common sense and bought himself a bunch of pre-paid throwaways like most responsible drug retailers do, shit even an episode in season three of The Wire covered disposable phones. Plus he could have went a step further and only texted, further reducing any identifying trace, since his voice wouldn’t have been captured like a fingerprint. Every major carrier offers pre-paids, so we took a look at some of the sleek ones—with dude spending $4300 an hour on prosties as hot as this, there’s no reason for him to get a chump phone—that could have helped keep Spitzer’s hot dog out of boiling water.

Slim-Fit

As our denim gets tighter, we’re getting a little self-conscious of busting from our seams. Hey, there just ain’t enough room in our pockets to fit a wad of dollar bills from a night of making it rain at the local gentlemen’s club, much less room for our cell phones. Thankfully, T-Mobile knows what’s up by going razor thin with the new Samsung Trace phone. Attendance at this week’s launch party at NYC’s Y Apartment guaranteed us the free slimly designed phone and one less uncomfortable bulge. That is, until Nina Sky made a guest appearance. Just peep the photos while we hang our heads in shame.

The Nina Sky appearance gave us more than we bargained for.

The last of the backpack rap dynasty, Pharoahe Monch delivers for nostalgic fans later this year with his highly-anticipated sophomore album, Desire.

Fabolous keeps it gangsta with some Samsung execs.

Photography by Soul Brother

Hands Free

About every six months we look to switch up our cell phones, and there are always a ton to choose from. Free is often an X factor, a few cool features to satisfy our ADD are essential, too. At the bottom of that list is Bluetooth. The innovative technology that allows you to use your phone remotely through the use of an earpiece is certainly convenient, but it’s just another accessory we can do without. We get enough weird stares from the all-over print hoodies, so looking like we’re talking to ourselves would be a little over the top.

Either way, Plantronics, the communications company that owns Altec/Lansing (arguably the best speakers on the market) gave us some samples of their new Bluetooth products—headsets that weigh as much as a nickel bag, and wireless headphones that stream songs from your mp3-capable cell phone. First off, we have iPods. Second, we just spent a grip on our latest phone, so we’re gonna show it off like it’s our girl. If these Plantronics pieces don’t make the giveaway rounds in our office, our stockbroker uncle will get a few early Christmas gifts.

The lightest and most expensive of the batch. Probably the coolest and least annoying, that’s if you don’t mind looking like Captain Kirk.

Our earbuds break all the time. Hopefully we’ll have better luck with these wireless ones.

Moto-Now

We checked out the latest Motorola Design Showcase, and walked away with a pretty good look at what’s coming for fall. The black RAZR is going to be gone, so grab one and put it on ice. The RAZRs are getting new colorways like mauve, navy, and a deep red, while the SLVR goes to pastel blue. We also came across these half-sized PEBL-looking things—they didn’t open up, and we’re guessing that they’re a prototype of some sort. Hmm, more stuff to drop your money on…

Prototype Motorola 1/2 PEBL

Motorola SLVR

Motorola SLVR