The week in gadgets


4 Apr 2011

A look at gadget, game and geek happenings in the week ahead.

Institute of Creative Technologies makes Gmail April Fool’s joke a reality

Last week, Google raised a few laughs with a fake new Gmail feature for April Fool’s Day, claiming it allows users to write and send emails through body movements.

However, Google’s hoax has been made a reality by the Institute of Creative Technologies in the University of Southern California.

The technology is jokingly called “SLOOW” which stands for Software Library Optimising Obligatory Waving.

It utilises the Microsoft Kinect motion controller to allow users to operate Gmail just as it was shown in Google’s April Fool Day joke video.

The institute posted a video showing how the interface works.

HTC Flyer to get Honeycomb in the future

HTC has said its upcoming tablet, the Flyer, will offer Honeycomb “when it’s made available.”

The question on whether or not the HTC Flyer will get Android 3.0, Google’s tablet OS, was posed to the smartphone company via its Twitter account, according to reports.

When the HTC Flyer was first announced, it was said the tablet would not run on Honeycomb as HTC did not have enough time to customise it with its Sense UI.

Amazon considering mobile payments?

Amazon is reportedly looking into a service which would allow users to pay for goods in stores using their mobile phones.

The service would utilise near field communication technology, which would let users transfer data from their mobile phones to another device from the retailer, such as payment information and loyalty points.

This could allow Amazon to spread its online retail knowledge to real-life stores and put itself up against other NFC services in the future.