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Back in December, Google announced an iPhone version of Picasa for viewing pictures on the go. Just yesterday, Google announced a newer release specifically for Windows Mobile 6 touchscreen devices.
The feature that stood out for me was that if you download Google Gears for Mobile to your handheld device, you can access your Picasa albums even when your phone is not connected to the web. Now that is handy.
For all your Windows Mobile 6 touchscreen toting kids out there – go check it out for yourself.
MobileMammoth.com has learned of an odd, but interesting new feature to be included in the upcoming Google mobile phone.
What is it?
In what some are calling a bold yet questionable effort to out-feature the iPhone, Google has partnered with a Minneapolis bio-engineering firm to incorporate a feature to tell if a person’s breasts are real or if they have been artificially augmented. This team of engineers has developed wireless technology to sense if silicone is present or “nearby in a body of matter”.
The technology is not fool-proof, however. The phone must be within 7.5 feet of the breasts in question, and the phone must be held at “chest-level”, according to the engineer’s statement. Based on tests conducted in closed-door labs over the past 4 months, the tests have been “over 87% accurate.”
When will it be available?
While most analysts predict a late-2008 arrival of the gPhone, this silicone detecting feature will only be available for testing purposes on handsets sold in parts of Los Angeles and Miami, before being made available nationwide 3 months later.
I am a firm believer in creating new and interesting applications for the mobile phone, but I must say this one never entered my mind.
What say you?
My question for you is, would this feature sway you to buy the gPhone? Or do you see it as a novelty feature that you could do without?
According to Taiwanese handset maker High Tech Computer (HTC), that’s exactly what it will be.
HTC is one of a few handset makers reportedly developing a phone to run on the Google mobile platform (dubbed “Android”). According to a recent news report, the HTC handset will be called Dream. Here are the other characteristics of the Google Dream phone according to the unnamed source close to the situation:
Just over 5 inches long, 3 inches wide
Large touchscreen
Full QWERTY keypad, which will retract out from under the screen
Web navigation keys just below the screen
Expected to hit the market towards the end of 2008
While the talk of Google’s Android mobile platform continues, OpenMoko has one of it’s own that’s worth a look. Not only does OpenMoko provide a mobile development platform, they’ve also opened up the CAD files of the phone case design, allowing industrial designers to customize the actual hardware. Now that is different.
Now you have no excuse not to go build your bright yellow, tiger-striped phone with GPS and voice recognition software for your kid.
I check my Gmail on my Blackberry 8830 several times a day. Since many of our readers are venturing onto the mobile web for the first time, I thought it would be useful to take a fresh look one of the most common activities — accessing your Gmail account on from your mobile phone.
Before we jump in, you may want to have a look at this Google video explaining how to access Gmail from your mobile device:
Gmail for the Mobile Browser
First, know that there are two ways to access your Gmail account from your mobile phone. The one I use is simply to navigate to the regular Gmail URL, gmail.com. From there, you can quickly scan your inbox, open (most) attachments, delete, star, mark as spam, and use other general functionality.
The only requirement to access the Gmail mobile website is that your mobile browser be XHTML compliant, have cookies enabled, and that the network allow SSL communication. This should not be an issue for the large majority of U.S. users out there, so just give it a shot.
Gmail Mobile App
The other way to access your Gmail account while you are on the go is to download the Gmail Mobile App. It is a Java application, and the main difference here is that it involves significantly less data than accessing Gmail from your mobile browser. For those that often hit their data limit on their wireless plan, it is certainly worth a look.
Read more about it here: http://gmail.com/app. Better yet, go here to get the link sent to your mobile phone.
So do you access Gmail from your mobile? Use an email service that does not provide mobile access yet? Drop us a line in the comments and let us know.
Watching YouTube videos from your mobile browser? Of course you can. Here are the requirements, directly from the Google Mobile page.
Requirements: You must have a compatible web browser on your Mobile phone and access to the Internet. The YouTube application requires a phone that supports Java and streaming video capability. Please see our help center pages for more information. This service is free from YouTube but charges from your wireless service may apply depending on your plan.
In case you have not checked lately, there are a host of mobile sites and services that are making everyday life easier for thousands of people just like us. To highlight just a sample, I compiled the following list of 71 things you can do from your mobile phone.
I wanted to make this interactive, so I temporarily left the links off of a few items. Why? So that we can learn from you and everyone else out there. If you have recommendations for what mobile sites or tools to use to accomplish any of the items below, leave a comment to this post and share your knowledge. After February 9, ten of the highest quality commenters will be sent a free MobileMammoth t-shirt, AND I will add the links to the remaining items in the list.
I hope you are able to find at least a few gems here that make your life a little easier. I worked on this list for a while, so hopefully all the links are still active!
We at MobileMammoth.com have put together our Top 7 Mobile Websites from 2007.
If you surf the web from your phone at all, then you really need to consider bookmarking these in your mobile browser. They are all truly useful, and will save you time all year round. So without further delay, here they are:
Bloglines is one of the most popular RSS readers on the web, and now that they’ve integrated Skweezer’s mobile browsing gateway, mobile users are touting it’s ease of use. If you already use Google Reader to browse your RSS feeds, their mobile version will do you just fine.
You will need to go here and enter your mobile phone number for the link, or type m.yahoo.com into your mobile browser and click on the Mail link.
Google Search
Much like Yahoo!’s directions, you will need to go here and enter your mobile phone number for the link, or type mobile.google.com into your mobile browser.
As noted by one of our readers in our mobile website contest, FlightStats provides a variety of useful tools to make sure you optimize your time on travel days.
This social networking service lets people “check in” through Dodgeball, which in turn alerts your friends of where you are. There’s a lot more to it, so go check it out.
Still the most comprehensive sports destination, and the mobile interface works well. A visit there today showed one small graphic on the mobile home page (to save bandwidth), and the navigation items on the bottom of the screen where they belong on a mobile display.
And because we always like to exceed expectations, here’s one more site for your mobile browsing pleasure…
I much prefer Google Maps over MapQuest for its accuracy and intuitive interface. The same holds true for the mobile web. To visit Google Maps for Mobile, click here and enter your mobile number, or text “MYLOCATION” to 33669.
Enjoy these sites, add some more in the comments to this post, and Happy New Year!
There was some very exciting news about the mobile web from two major companies in the last week. Verizon stated on Tuesday that they are opening up their network for use by mobile application developers, and Google announced they will be bidding on the wireless spectrum that the television networks will no longer be using.
As these game-changing events continue to reshape the mobile industry for the better, mobile phone users will start to enjoy the true promise of the the mobile web. And the revenue pie for the mobile carriers will grow beyond expectations.
Looking for a new mobile site? Take a look at the new Spin Palace mobile casino site, and
download their new gaming apps. There is a huge collection of various different
games including Tomb Raider, Video Poker, Royal Derby virtual horse racing, Major
Millions, Dragons Fortune and Bingo Bonanza, as well as your favourite casino games:
Roulette, Blackjack and Jacks or Better. Receive a lucrative Welcome Bonus worth up
to £1,000 when you register a real money account.
Engadget released 
I wanted to make this interactive, so I temporarily left the links off of a few items. Why? So that we can learn from you and everyone else out there. If you have recommendations for what mobile sites or tools to use to accomplish any of the items below, leave a comment to this post and share your knowledge. After February 9, ten of the highest quality commenters will be sent a free 
