German researchers are working on mobile phone technology that would convert silent mouth movements into speech. It’s an ingenious way to have a noiseless conversation, but if they don’t get it right there could be some unfortunate mix-ups.

The tech—developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology—involved uses electromyography, and measures the electrical potentials generated by muscle activity in the face to translate mouth movements into speech. You’d be able to speak silently, but the person on the other end of the line would hear what you were saying loud and clear.

Of course, lip-reading is an inexact science—even more so, I would imagine, when implemented by a machine. So while you’ll be able to share PIN numbers without sharing it with the whole room, you’ll want to proceed with caution on more intimate conversations. [Cellular News via Dvice]

John Herlihy, Google Europe’s big chief, says that desktops will be irrelevant in three years. Which is precisely why Apple and Google are trying to kill each other, fiercely fighting for the domination of the mobile device world.

Both companies know that mobile computing is where the action is now and where it will be forever. At its presentation, Steve Jobs was adamant that the iPad was the continuation of the battle that started with the iPhone, and repeatedly said that Apple was a “mobile devices company.” Google’s agreed, which is why Herlihy echoed Schmidt’s words at Barcelona’s GSM 2010: Everything that Google is doing and planning is centered on the mobile, the cloud, and ubiquitous connectivity.

They are both right: Your desktop computer will disappear, no matter how much the geekdom cries, unless you are an engineer or someone who requires a big screen to work on—and, even then, the idea of the desktop as we know it will change too. The mice will go extinct, and every John and Jane will do their work and their pleasure using mobile devices like phones and tablets. As it should be, because computing has to become invisible, not complicated and cumbersome, like it is today. In a few years, the computing world will be like Star Trek: The Next Generation, but without the Enterprise. [Silicon Republic]

Apple’s patent theft accusations against HTC got a lot of press this week, as they should! But it’s just the most recent case in a gun-slinging mobile landscape riddled with patent lawsuits. This’ll end about as well as Reservoir Dogs.

The NY Times breaks it down today with this handy chart of who’s suing whom. Nokia has been particularly active, along with Kodak. The biggest target? Apple.

Companies sue each other over intellectual property all the time, of course. But this volume of mobile technology patents is unusually high. According to the Times:

Although patent litigation is not new in the technology world, these suits, specifically around mobile, point to the drastically changing mobile landscape. Lawyers I spoke with explained that mobile technology is still in its infancy and these large computing companies are trying to stake their claim to the future of computing.

Basically, it’s a land grab. Companies that know they’re being left in the dust (Nokia, Kodak) are scrambling to assert any claims that they can, while market leaders (Apple) become fat targets.

Where does that leave the us? For now, nowhere. Business as usual. But if things keep escalating, the consequences could range from companies passing legal fees onto the consumer to ITC-imposed product bans. In these kinds of gun fights, it’s rare that anyone wins. [NY Times]

In today’s Remainders: laughs. The Onion riffs on Google’s privacy issues; Virgin America’s triumphant claim of going Flash-free is sort of a joke; a clever Chatroulette user pranks people into looking at themselves, and more.

Grounded
Yesterday Virgin America announced that they were actively ditching Flash for an all HTML website, explaining that it would make the site more accessible for mobile users. The media made it out to be a pretty big deal—which it might have been, had it been completely true. We visited Virgin’s brand new site yesterday and what did we find? Flash! So that’s strike one. Strike two is that Virgin doesn’t really have much of a mobile site to speak of, so, you know, maybe it would’ve been more useful to focus on that than to grab some spotlight from the big Apple / Flash scrum. Strike three is just us being aggravated by the combination of strikes one and two. We like you, Virgin, don’t get us wrong. But your new Flash free site isn’t all that you made it out to be.
[The Register]

Sorry, You
Google wants to apologize to you, personally, for their recent privacy missteps. They know it’s hard being 29 and living in your parents’ basement. They realize that someone who spends 6 hours a day playing Everquest and another 3 trolling related message boards probably holds their privacy dear. They understand it doesn’t help that you just broke up with your girlfriend, and they can tell that you’re not taking it very well from all those desperate late night e-mails you’ve been sending her. Anyway, they just wanted to say that they’re sorry and they’re working on it. [The Onion]

iPad Ping Pong
On Monday, an analyst was carrying on about how a production issue at Foxconn was going to result in less iPads being available at launch. Peter Misek, the analyst in question, put that number somewhere around 300,000, at most half as many units as had been previously expected. Unsurprisingly, Foxconn has volleyed back saying that the manufacturing is moving along just fine and that they will surely meet the expected output of 600,000 – 700,000 iPads. So which is it? Who knows. Analysts make all sorts of silly claims—it’s their job, after all—but if there is indeed a problem, Foxconn would be expected to deny, deny, deny. [Electronista]

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MirrorRoulette
At this point, I think, people are starting to get used to Chatroulette, insomuch as anyone can get used to a random video chat website that connects people with strangers and their penises the world over. Now, we’ve moved onto the second phase of this whole business, in which people tweak the largely untweakable system in any way they can to take ChatRouletting to the next level. This four minute videos shows the condensed reactions of hours of ChatRoulette partners who had their video feed flipped back on them. It’s pretty fun to see how people still mug for the camera, even when they’re ostensibly just video chatting with themselves. Put this on a loop and hang it in a gallery; Metaroulette is realized. [LaughingSquid]

Two days after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake displaced them from their homes and separated them from dear ones, people gathered at a fire-station in Concepcion, Chile to charge their cellphones—their comfort objects during this disaster.

Chile was becoming a trending topic on Twitter before even the fastest newscasters got a chance to talk about Saturday’s earthquake, thanks to many hastily posted Tweets—most of which likely came from mobile devices. Tweets, text messages, emails, calls, voicemails—everything flew across the networks, draining phones and granting people some comfort and peace. Just hearing a familiar voice or reading words of assurance—knowing that your mobile device links you to the world, to family, and to much needed aid—makes one heck of a difference.

We need food. We need medication. We need a hand to pull us out of the rubble. But we also need a little gadget that lets us cry out to the world so that everyone else has a chance to tell us that it’ll be ok. [Boston]

Picture by EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

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The mobile OS running on this old Toshiba TG01 looks like Windows Phone 7 and it mostly acts like Windows Phone 7. But in reality it’s a clever user interface skin covering up Windows Mobile 6.5.

Put together by a fellow named LeSScro, this interface tweak can make older WinMo phones pretend that they can handle Windows Phone 7 and will hopefully be made available soon. [Pocket Now via Mobile Crunch]

Once upon a time, buying cellphones was easy. You’d go for the cheaper deal and leave it at that. But what about when you’re faced with the choice of paying more now or more over time? Which do you chose?

The NY Times has an interesting example of this dilemma:

Let’s say that you buy a MyTouch 3G, one of T-Mobile’s most popular smartphones, for $400, and sign up for its unlimited voice, text and data plan for $60 a month. The total cost of the phone over two years would be $1,840.

If, instead, you buy the phone subsidized by T-Mobile for $150, that same unlimited plan will cost $80 monthly – which is still the best deal among the major carriers, by the way – bringing your two-year total to $2,070.

So what would you choose?

Do You Prefer to Pay More For Your Cellphone Now Or Later?survey

Picture of Cellphone Matryoshka Doll