Mobile Phone News:

This is one of those stories that, when you first hear it, you go, “What the f….” and then, when you actually read more about it, and think about it, you go, “Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oh, that’s cool!” (Well, I did)

First up. What on earth is a ’shoogle’? Well, apparently, according to the Encarta dictionary, it means “to rock back and forth with small rapid movements, or cause something to do this”.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s what I call jiggly controls, then, like the Sony Ericsson Walkman phones of late have had? Well, not exactly…

As it says on Engadget, Shoogle uses the vibration of the phone, along with internal sensors and accelerometers (like you find in the iPhone, or a Wii controller) to simulate, erm, things banging about inside the phone.

Ok, what’s the use of that, you may ask. How about “eyes-free message overview”? It can represent unread messages you get as, for examples, balls within the phone, with each ball representing an unread message. Shake the phone and these virtual balls will clang about inside (caused by the accelerometer detecting the motion and speed), and the internal speakers and vibration simulating things rattling about.

Even better than that is how you tell how much battery you have left. Imagine your phone is full of water, but the amount of water relates to how much battery you’ve got left. So, less water=less battery. So, basically, if you shake the device and hear less water sloshing about inside, it means your battery’s low, and it needs a drink… erm, needs charging…

Tell you what, this video of them testing out the theory and execution of Shoogle on an IPAQ will explain it much better than me:

That’s just too cool for words. It’s technology gone mad.

WANT ONE. NOW!