MEMS gyroscopes rumored to hit array of phones in 2009
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 12th 2008 2:59PM
posted Dec 12th 2008 2:59PM
Details on this one are freakishly scarce, but DigiTimes has it that a number of recognizable handset makers are looking to incorporate MEMS gyroscopes into their 2009 smartphones. It's anticipated that such devices would be used to sense motion in one form or another, with brands like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Apple (we know you're thinking, so stop) expected to welcome the tech with open arms. So, why the sudden interest in G-sensors? Falling prices, of course -- and the natural expectation of consumers for their future phones to be entirely more sensitive to their feelings than the one they're using currently.[Via Pocket-lint]
Doesn't the Apple iPhone (first gen. and 3G for that matter) already have a G-Sensor? Isn't that what an accelerometer is?
accelerometers and gyroscopes both sense acceleration. the difference is that accelerometers typically sense linear acceleration (like freefall when your laptop falls to the floor, or rapid deceleration like when your car hits a wall at 60mph), while gyroscopes can measure angular rotation/acceleration, such as spinning or tilting (yaw/pitch/roll in an aircraft, for example).
i *think* apple used linear accelerometers in the iphone, but placed them near the edges so that when you rotate the phone about it's center of gravity, the accelerometer at the edge feels the linear, tangential acceleration and the software interprets that as rotation.
What *is* the device in the picture - I've seen it claimed in a number of places that it's the next Palm device (running their new OS). However, running around the internet, it seems that it comes from a korean blog post about failed UMPC devices.
Anyone able to provide any more information?
Gotta be the next-gen Palm! Who else could take years and gazillion$ to develop such a fucked-up device, Dieter? FUBARCentral.com, anyone? ;)