LG will soon be releasing their latest model, the Viewty. Combining state of the art design with state of the art technology the Viewty has everything. The design itself is stunning, keeping up with the LG tradition in this department. The whole phone is encased in aluminum with the back looking like a perfectly proportioned, slick digital camera and front a super stylish PDA. I’m a huge fan of way this phone looks.

So what impressed me initially? The high speed video capture technology is stand out. At present the only phone with this technology, it means you can capture anything or anyone at 120 frames per second. This gives you DVD quality playback and you can even watch videos in vivid slow motion. I’ve seen it in action and its extremely impressive. Using it for speeding cars and action shots is high on my agenda. This of course is nothing without the 5.0 megapixel Schneider Kreuznach lens for the camera which includes technology allowing you instant uploads to You Tube. Packed with all sorts of video and picture editing tools, the Viewty, much to my delight has four separate text messaging modes, including handwriting recognition software - using the touch screen - down to the standard alpha-numeric keys. What this phone can do is beginning to reveal itself.

Industrial Facility. Their products are understated and refined, belying the uncompromising approach they take to reinventing accepted standards in the things we use in our daily lives. Clearly not afraid of anything, they’ve designed all sorts of things, including projectors, knife sharpeners and a camera that has no viewfinder. Instead they’ve used a mirror system. They to tend focus on what the product needs to do in it’s simplest form and then turn the design on it’s head, often producing a very measured but also radically different solution. So, the projector looks like it might be at home next to any modern lamp or table, and you might mistake the for an exquisite futuristic briefcase.

Their most recent project, The Little Disk Program, a collection of portable hard disks for LaCie fuses a lot of technology into a 1.8″ space with a simple stripped down elegance and looks more like a Zippo lighter than a data storage device. Really pleasing and tactile you want to hold it, not something you’d normally do with a hard disk, you can also imagine it disappearing into the background on its own when not needed. It certainly beats the collection of hard drives we’ve got lying around the office.

What if your phone had everything you need and nothing it didn’t? Without doubt my favourite is the Second Telephone, a project for Muji which takes the home phone a removes all non essential items. Designed for one thing only - basic communication - the Second Telephone perfectly reflects this. There are no flashing lights, menu buttons or screens. It doesn’t require a base station or even need electricity. By having the receiver button built into the phone all you have to do is pick it up, off any surface, and it answers. Genius really.

Designed to blend into your surroundings with its extreme simplicity it’s no surprise that the designers consider ‘landscape’ a key starting place in their projects. They say their “work is shaped by the questions we ask.” And I can’t but wonder what those questions are. Is there a simple answer? Seems a good place to start.

Techdigest asks whether the Leon Roswell is “the most purdy calculator yet“. I rarely use a proper calculator these days (not least because Google Calculator is just so useful, especially converting units) but this one does have its charms. It certainly has got craft going for it - the body is made out of just a single piece of aluminium with some laser cleverness, which is admirable. It also does currency conversions (although it doesn’t say how it updates the exchange rates - presumably you have to tell it what they are)

To answer the questions, yes it is purdy, but overall it left me feeling a little cold - perfect for an ultra-minimal office with big skylights and brushed metal finishes - but no-one I know in the real world ever keeps their office or desk that tidy for more than a nanosecond. Technology should be more welcoming and realistic - a battered ten-year-old Casio has a lot more charm and appeal - this calculator, you fear, would be the type to insist you perform only complicated and intellectually stimulating calculations rather than just 2+2.

Sometimes, it’s good to be whimsical with new technology. Sure - anything that can make the world a better place is welcome, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have our toys at the same time. So I’d like to show my appreciation of Vicky Wei’s Memory Infinite concept (via) - where you can daisy-chain USB thumb drives together to form ever-expanding drives (like on the right).

It’s only a concept - and it’s probably not feasible to have thumb drives with capacities over 32GB (at least, none I’ve seen) but I applaud both the designer’s idea (a modern take on those stackable tape drives) as well as her sense of fun - making something normally so stiff and dull into something funky and flexible.

What’s so great is that it transforms the thumb drive from something anonymously hanging off the end of your keyring into something that can be worn & adapted to whatever you’re wearing - have a couple as a bracelet, or looped onto a belt. There are already thumb drives for the fashion-conscious but none actually have the thumb drive itself as the focus rather than considering it as an accessory. That’s what all the best technology is about, making it a part of your life rather than being treated as a mere trinket.

New Horizons for Mobile Phone Features, Functionality - Viewty, new professional-level camera phone

On 7 September 2007 LG introduced its new Viewty, LG-KU990 mobile phone with advanced digital camera features and the ability to record video at up to 120 frames per second at IFA 2007 in Berlin (www.ifa-berlin.de).

LG, which led design innovation in the mobile handset arena last year, is once again driving new mobile phone trends by expanding into the high-tech functionality space. The LG Viewty, a professional-level camera phone, is the first example of this new direction. Equipped with advanced digital camera features, the handset allows mobile users to enjoy their viewing experience to the fullest.

“The LG Viewty is a camera phone with unparalleled digital camera functions. This handset provides quality exceeding that of conventional digital camera phones,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “With some of our earlier handsets, LG emphasized on great style. Now we are focused on functionality and features to go along with our good looks.”

Using LG Viewty’s manual focus function, which no other camera phone provides, users can take more control over their pictures. In addition, the built-in image stabilizer with direct key helps consumers record clearer images. Users can personalize their photos by with the digital “handwriting” function using the full LCD touch screen and attached stylus; they can also use the stylus and screen for working with the LG Viewty’s user-friendly, built-in digital editing software. And, when they’re done, picture and video can be easily uploaded to the Internet.

Borrowing from the high-end digital camera industry, ISO 800 and SmartLight™ technology help users create bright pictures, even indoors and at night. Users are able to enjoy a wider and much more vivid display than with most phones on the market through the LG Viewty’s large full-colour touch screen and Mobile XD™ engine. The handset can even recognize handwritten text input via the stylus.

The phone also records video at up to 120 frames per second, the highest frame speed ever for a handset camera. This allows users to seamlessly watch DVD-like content, even in slow motion. It also features a quick search-enabled jog wheel, which helps users quickly raise or lower volume during calls as well as easily zoom in or out when taking photos or video.

The sleek black surface is a full LCD touch screen on the front, with a 5.1-megapixel camera and jog wheel on the back. And the intuitive user interface makes it easy to use right out of the box, with many controls similar to digital cameras.

The LG Viewty’s highly advanced features even include the ability for users to create and edit their own video files right on the phone and then upload them directly to YouTube.com. The phone also is Google-friendly, with a fully equipped package from the ubiquitous web portal for mobile Internet users. Additionally, users can still enjoy terrific voice quality and high speed HSDPA connectivity at 3.6Mbps.

Features include:
• Manual focus & auto focus, Face Tracking
• Image Stabilizer with direct key/ISO 800/SmartLight™
• Full-Touchscreen on 3.0” Wide Flat LCD /Mobile XD Engine/landscape view
• Handwriting Recognition/Handwriting Editing
• High speed video capture at 120 frames per second
• Jog wheel for resizing pages in web browser/zooming in and out when taking photos/raising and lower volume during calls
• Direct uploading to YouTube.com/Google Package
• Schneider-KREUZNACH certified lens; 5.1 Mega pixel AF/MF Camera with Xenon Flash
• DivX mobile profile for video playback, TV out, Document viewer

Specifications:
• Radio Bands: HSDPA (3.6Mbps), WCDMA, Tri-band (GSM/EDGE)
• Display: 240 x 400 (WQVGA), 3.0”, 262K TFT-LCD
• Dimensions: 103.5mm x 54.4mm x 14.8mm