Magic Wand Mobile Phones

In an intriguing story sent over to me by our very own Matthew (you know, he of the HTC Touch HD, who I’m currently embroiled in a friendly argument with, over whether my X1 Xperia’s better). An article’s popped up via The Scotsman, about what we can expect from our mobile phones in 2009. In short, we can expect what are being nicknamed ‘magic wand mobile phones’.

At which point, I’d probably better explain what that actually means before everyone starts wearing glasses and shouting “Expelliamus!”

Essentially, Scottish scientists have devised a way for mobile phones to bring useful information instantly to their users, all by the users simply waving their phone at whatever they want info about. Presumably it’s going to be a bit more esoteric than taking a picture of what you want to know about, although that in itself is pretty cool. No, what’s being proposed here is, apparently, more akin to the way you’d use a Wii remote, simply pointing the phone at what you want, and it grabbing info for you. Like the history of a building, or pointing at a bus stop to see if the bus is on time, that kind of thing.

Which is probably why they called it magic wand, since doing that with your mobile phone is some kind of sorcery! They also promise to let you use social networking sites on your mobile phones to find your friends in the real world… although… if you have to use a social networking site to find where your friend is in the real world, when you’re pointing your mobile phone straight at them, you really shouldn’t be using a mobile phone. Or anything with sharp edges…

Yes, I know that’s probably not how that bit works, but let me savour that image, it’s the new year, after all!

So, magic wand phones is what we can expect by the end of the year. If they pull it off, that could be rather interesting to see, although please remember, when vigorously shaking mobile phones at buildings like a Wii remote, remember not to let go, because they tend not to like a brick wall in the face.