Wireless Week: Skype, Nokia, iPhone and (of Course) Google Make News

Maybe it’s the fact that we’re itching for spring, and the weather still hasn’t tipped past 50 up here in the Northeast. Or maybe it’s the fact that we’re tired of lugging around our same old smartphones.

 

Either way, news of new phones and apps hitting the market made our ears perk up this week.

 

First, Skype and Nokia jointly announced the release of Skype for Symbian (News - Alert), a Skype client for Nokia smartphones based on the Symbian platform, TMCnet reported.

 

Skype for Symbian will allow Nokia smartphone users worldwide to use Skype over either a WiFi (News - Alert) or mobile data connection. It is now downloadable for free from the Ovi Store, Nokia’s shop for mobile content, company officials said. Nokia sources said that Symbian enables the Japan-based company to bring smartphones to more people and “ensures scale for our solutions and compelling services,” such as Skype.

 

Then, we heard about an emerging technology that essentially uses a skin-based interface to turn the human body into a touchscreen.

 

The method, called Skinput, lets the skin be used as a finger input system, using non-invasive, wearable bio-acoustic sensor. It marries two technologies: the detection of ultralow-frequency sound produced by tapping the skin with a finger and microchip-sized ‘pico’ projectors available in some cellphones, according to news reports.

 

And perhaps the coolest announcement yet from the folks at Google was a new Android (News - Alert) app that let us, literally, draw our search terms out on a touchscreen interface.

 

Available as a free download since this morning, the “Gesture Search” app helps users of devices running Android 2.0 or above in the United States quickly find a contact, an installed application, a bookmark or a music track from hundreds or thousands of items -- by simply drawing alphabet gestures on the touchscreen.

 

Speaking of Google (News - Alert), the Internet computing giant is offering a supportive word to device manufacturer HTC, which is being sued by Apple for infringing on 20 of its patents.

 

Of course, HTC (News - Alert) manufacturers Google’s Nexus One smartphone.

 

Isn’t there a saying that imitation is a form of flattery? I guess the answer is “no” when it comes to technology.