cellphones

The Grouse

iPhone 2.0: The Song Remains the Same

The Grouse offers his two cents on why you should be prepared for a letdown with the next iPhone release

It’s the time of year when a boy’s fancy turns to speculating about the new iPhone, or what I’ll call JesusPhone 2: The Resurrection. Though Apple is of course tight-lipped about when it’s due to hit streets, or if it even exists for that matter, anecdotal reports are trickling in from sources both solid and shady about chipsets, design, features, and so-on. General consensus is it’ll grace planet Earth sometime in June, on or around the Apple developer’s conference. In preparation for that momentous event, I’ll guide you on a tour of hopes, dreams and predictions for JP2. And then—you guessed it—I’m going to poop all over them.

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Plant to Farmer: “Water me!”

A new monitoring system allows plants to text farmers when thirsty

Just in time for this year’s growing season, farmers have new equipment to help keep tabs on their crops while away. With SmartCrop, a system developed by Accent Engineering, farmers get text messages when their plants need water. The system uses infrared thermometers to measure leaf temperature and data is then transferred to a computerized base station. A cellphone modem hooked up to the base station allows farmers to receive SMS alerts when their plants are too hot. Research has shown that each plant species has a range of temperatures that is best for its growth.

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PPX: The PopSci Predictions Exchange

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  • Android Phone By Fall

    Will the first cellphone equipped with Google's new open-source operating system, Android, go on sale by summer's end?

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  • Life on Mars

    Will the Phoenix lander find verifiable signs of life on the surface of Mars by January 1, 2009?

  • Fewer Honeybee Colonies Die Off in 2008

    Will fewer honeybee colonies die off in 2008 than in 2007, showing the bee crisis to be a natural phase and not a portent of a larger, longer problem?

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