This latest rumor comes byu way of Near Field Communications World. A “highly reliable source” is saying that he’s seen iPhone prototypes with an embedded RFID reader and he’s even seen it in action. This usage of near-field communication could be the next major innovation for mainstream mobile phones.

What sort of applications can we expect from this? Based on the demo video below, you can tap your iPhone next to a variety of RFID-equipped toys to get related content. Just as we weren’t sure where the App Store would go, we can’t be sure what will become of RFID implementation.

What we do know with some certainty is that if Apple does indeed go through with an RFID-reading iPhone, you can fully expect the rest of the cell phone industry to follow suit shortly afterward.

On a side note, how do you guys say RFID when you talk about it in real life? I’ve always just said the individual letters (arr-eff-eye-dee), but I’ve been hearing more than more people say it as if it were a word (arr-fidd). Isn’t that like saying HSPA as hiss-pah?

Source: Intomobile

It’s not available quite yet, but the Nokia 2720 Fold has made its first official appearance on the Fido website. You won’t find it in the official stable just yet, but it is being promoted on the front page as a phone that is “coming soon.”

The Nokia 2720 Fold is meant to be a stylish and simple flip phone for people who just want a phone. You get some basic features though, including a 1.3 megapixel camera (with video), FM radio with RDS, Bluetooth, and an MP3 player.

Expect the Nokia 2720 Fold to sell for $125 outright. If you prefer to take on a new two-year contract, Fido will hook you up with the 2720 for free.

Source: MobileSyrup

Dr. Cooper was the lead engineer of the Motorola team that went on to develop the world’s first cell phone. It was a technological marvel at the time, to say the least, and it ushered in the everything from the Zack Morris to the RAZR. However, he finds that modern phones have gotten far too complicated and complex.

The now 80-year-old Cooper doesn’t like the inclusion of digital cameras, accelerometers, and MP3 players. He doesn’t like the complexity of the iPhone’s touchscreen or App Store. He’d much prefer a dedicated device just for phone calls.

He said during a conference in Madrid that “whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well. OUr future I think is a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives.”

While I think we all appreciate Dr. Cooper’s contribution to our now ubiquitous digital lifestyles, I think we all agree that he’s behind the times. Specialist devices? Sorry, we’re all for convergence now, right?

Source: Gizmodo

You can probably figure out the catch. In order to get your hands on teh touchscreen-only HTC Magic, you’ll need to latch onto a new three-year service agreement with Rogers Wireless and you probably need a data plan to qualify for that price too.

In case you didn’t catch it the first few times around, the HTC Magic smartphone gets a 528MHz processor, a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, microSD expansion, 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS with Google Maps, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and integrated WiFi.

Yes, I know it’s not the Motorola Droid. It’s not the HTC Hero either, but the HTC Magic still seems like a pretty solid offering. Interestingly enough, I only see the $0 price point in the flyer. Looking at the product page itself, the phone is still listed at $79.99 with contract.

The Quirky Beamer iPhone Case serves as a protective case for your iPhone, sure, but it also has an integrated light that can serve as the flash for your iPhone’s camera. This way, you can still take pictures when you’re indoors or waltzing around town in the evening.

The light can also serve as a flashlight, illuminating your world so you can read your book in peace or whenever else you need some extra light. There is a silicone button on the case for turning the LED light on and off.

And for power? Interestingly, it doesn’t draw from the iPhone at all. Instead, it uses its own replaceable lithium coin cell battery for an estimated life of about 10 hours. That’s not bad, but it means you have another battery to worry about.

The Beamer is currently available for pre-order at $32.

Source: Quirky

This can be a very frustrating experience, especially when one end of the parking lot is far away enough from the other end that the mall should probably implement a shuttle bus service of some kind. If you have a hard time remembering where you park, you might want to get the Car Finder app for your iPhone.

The application takes advantage of just about everything the iPhone can do, employing all of these features to find your wheels. When you park your car, you mark its location and take its picture in the app. When it comes time to go home, you can boot up the app and it’ll use the GPS, compass, and camera to point you in the right direction.

Even though it is called the Car Finder app for the iPhone, you could very easily use it to find all sorts of other things that you might lose along the way. Now if only they’d develop an iPhone finder for when you lose your phone while looking for your car.

Source: Intomobile

Originally, we would only see an airbag deployed out of the steering wheel to protect the driver. Then, we started to see airbags being implemented to protect the passenger in the front seat. And then they started adding side curtain airbags. The thing with all of these is that the person in the car goes flying into these bags of air.

With the upcoming Ford Explorer, the blue oval is taking a different approach. For the back seat, instead of having an airbag come down and fill the space between the back of the front seat and the rear seat passenger, the seatbelt itself will inflate.

This seatbelt-mounted airbag is not there to absorb the impact of an accident, softening the blow of a head cracking up against the back of a seat. Instead, it’s there to multiply the surface area of the belt (by five times) and thus make for a more comfortable experience. Ford says this will reduce head, neck, and chest injuries.

The biggest problem with this “innovation” is not its design, but the very fact that only 61% of Americans wear seatbelts while in the back seat. You gotta wear it for it to work, right?

Source: Gizmodo

Set to hit store shelves on November 20, this newest addition to the smartphone family does away with the trackball that we’ve come to know and love from RIM, placing an optical trackpad in its place. It works in much the same way, but you don’t have to worry as much about getting random debris stuck in there. It also makes for a sleeker overall appearance.

Running our way through the spec sheet on the BlackBerry Curve 8530, we find the usual full QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, GPS, multimedia keys, 3.5mm headphone jack, 528MHz processor, EVDO, and Wi-Fi. Yes, a Verizon phone with Wi-Fi. Imagine that!

If you choose to go to big red for the Curve 8530, expect the Verizon reps to ask for $99.99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. From what I hear, Sprint will be launching its take on this phone around the same time for around the same price as well.

Source: BGR

Of course, not all 100,000 of these applications are perfectly useful and some are going to be a complete waste of your money. However, there are still a lot of very useful and very fun apps in the bunch that can help you stay connected, stay organized, or just put a smile on your face.

It really is amazing how this platform has really exploded in popularity, not only for consumers, but also for developers. Peering over to alternatives like the Nokia Ovi Store and Android Market, you don’t find anywhere near as many applications as what you get with the Apple App Store.

Apple senior vice-president of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller is quite proud of their achievements too. “The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating.”

Source: iPhoneInCanada

If you’re rocking a Windows Mobile smartphone and you feel like you’ve been missing out on the fun, get ready to plug your noses and light a few matches. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile has now been updated to include MyFart. It is everything you think it is.

This is the first “gaseous joke application” for the platform and it comes in with the familiar bargain price of 99 cents. MyFart functions in much the same way as iFart for the iPhone, giving you a virtual library of odoriferous emanations.

From what I hear, you get about a dozen different sound effects at your disposal. Should you feel that you need to let a few more fly, you can also consider Jack The Ripper for over 40 more farts.

Source: WMExperts