It seems like our portable devices run out of energy just when we need a last little boost the most, hence this award-winning design to provide a jolt in dire situations.

Lightweight, mobile and recyclable, the Mini Power battery comes in three different sizes corresponding to the estimated extra life held within each: 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours.

Developed by Tsung Chih-Hsien, the idea is to provide people with something easy to carry but likewise simple to purchase on the go from corner stores and ultimately disposable for ease of (re)use. The concept earned its creator a Red Dot Design award but remains a conceptual prototype for now.

The post Emergency Power: Paper Micro-Batteries for Mobile Phones first appeared on Gajitz.

So many smartphones, so few fingers – but being big fans of Android it was impossible to pass up an early review copy of the Samsung Galaxy S. And, sure enough, turn it on and the best of Google is arrayed right in front of you on an easy-to-edit, stylish-looking homepage screen (including search-by-voice functionality and video call capability).

This device, while very sleek, slim, sturdy and solid, brings me back in time to the early days of dedicated, one-game, hand-held gaming devices – its slightly-larger size makes it fit perfect in a two-handed grip when flipped sideways. As promised, the Galaxy S does a much better job than most on the market of being the basis for a truly-integrated social experience, including conversation-style text messaging that looks and feels more like a computer-side experience. The GPS is fast, accurate and likewise well-integrated into the core experience of the phone. A bright and relatively less-reflective screen makes it easy to see what you are doing at an angle, or show a friend something on the phone. Keep in mind, too, that the version shown here is the European one – various others were created by individual companies in the United States, and from the sound of it the Spring model is by far the best (partly for including a full slide-out keyboard!).

And what ab out the details? The camera (who even bothers to count mega-pixels anymore?) lets you focus on anything in the view screen, which can create tilt-shift ‘special effects’ but is also infinitely handy in a world of sometimes-too-automated smartphone cameras. Typing is a breeze, as one would expect, in landscape format … though the portrait mode makes it more difficult than one might want. This is a little annoying simply because some functions don’t allow for long-view typing, though not a deal-breaker per se. The back button being in the lower right might throw some folks, being slightly counter-intuitive – and the menu button on the lower left is easy to bump, at least for those new to the phone. That said, it might be a matter of time and adaptation. In short: there may be a slightly steep learning curve on this rather complex phone, but in exchange for that there are a great many more possibilities as well built right in or available to add. Oh, and it looks and feels awesome, did we mention that? For more detailed and numeric specs see their site.

The post Samsung Galaxy S: Simple Smartphone or Out of this World? first appeared on Gajitz.

If you’re just teeming with passive aggression and want to get back at all of those annoying public cell-phone talkers, you may have just found the best thing ever. The Portable Phone Jammer is capable of jamming phone signals within a 30-foot radius, and it’s small enough to carry around in your pocket. This gadget, and others that scramble cell phone signals and make the phones useless while activated, are illegal in the US, but still not hard to find online.

Responsibly, the site selling these gadgets does make it a point to say that it’s not cool to use them in public because of that pesky emergency-services thing. The uses they suggest? Libraries, court rooms, meetings, classrooms and anywhere else attendees need to stay off of their phones but might not need to make an emergency phone call.

Cell phone jammers have been available forever, but they are usually veyr large and expensive, making them difficult for regular people to obtain and use. This particular cell phone jammer, however, is about the size of a small cell phone and less expensive than some phones at $166. It weighs in at a tiny 70 grams and shuts down GSM 850-, 900-, 1,800- and 1,900-MHz cell phone calls within its 30-foot range.

The post Can You Hear Me Now? Handheld Gadget Kills Cell Signals first appeared on Gajitz.