Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bioserie iPhone 4 case is environmentally friendly

Green is the trend these days, and what could be greener than an iPhone 4 case made entirely from renewable, organic resources? Hong Kong-based Bioserie has released a new iPhone 4 case made of bioplastic—an organic material that contains no toxic ingredients and is easier on the environment during production.

Bioserie’s new iPhone 4 case is built using cutting edge bioplastics technology—a manufacturing method that uses biological material from living or recently living organisms such as wood, vegetable oil, and microbiota. The process produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions during production and prevents the case from contributing to toxic environmental pollution when it’s eventually discarded.
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Weighing just 12 grams, Bioserie’s case offers lightweight protection for the entire body of your iPhone. Screen protection feet on the front of the case allow your iPhone to be safely placed face down on flat surfaces.

The case, which costs $35, is available in black, white, orange, two shades of green, and red. Bioserie also offers bioplastic cases for iPhone 3G and 3GS, as well as the iPod touch and nano.
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Play iPhone and iPad Games on Your TV With Griffin's PartyDock

The non-stop product leak service kindly provided by the FCC has delivered another gem today, with Griffin's iPhone and iPad "PartyDock" popping up for certification. If you can't get enough of plastic gaming accessories, your luck's in.

The PartyDock comes with four wireless controllers, which allow up to four gamers to play (Griffin-brand only) games on iPhone and iPad. If you think four people huddling around an iPhone screen is a bit of a crazy idea you're quite right—PartyDock logically also includes support for sending its video out to a TV through composite and component connections.

The FCC's PDF of the manual also revealed a URL for the games—but that's currently password protected, pending the official announcement. PartyDock apparently comes with three free ones pre-loaded for your rough approximation of fun—Midway Motors, Fishing Frenzy and Flippin' Frogs. [via]
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

iPhone, BlackBerry killing mid-range phone market

Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry line are effectively strangling the market for mid-range phones, analysts at Deutsche Bank found in a new report. The parties now represent 2 thirds of all phone revenue but combined only catch up with about 10 percent of the market, leaving very little room for all the world but very low-end, high-volume devices. Korean companies are abiding the most as their focus on feature-laden but "dumb" phones that are nah longer selling as well.
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"We think the change that Apple has constrained on the industry continues to play out," the bank said. "Those mid-range characteristic phones used to be Samsung’s and LG’s bread and butter intersections upon which they built their operations. Those kinds of phones are vanishing from the shelves in the US, increasingly replaced by high-end smartphones subsidized down to mainstream prices."
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LG, Samsung and companies that had antecedently thrived in the mid-range, such as Motorola and Sony Ericsson, have lately found themselves accepting to switch to smartphones to stay profitable. Nokia is currently the market loss leader in sheer units, but its dependence on low-end phones has broke its profits and handed market share to Apple and RIM even in once secure commercialises, such as Europe.

Many of the better-selling phones in the US now cost between $100 and $200 with smartphone plans even on contract. Almost staple phones, meanwhile, are frequently selling for $50 or less and are sometimes free.