"Triple-Screen" Phone Challenges Conventional Design

    An innovative “triple-screen” clamshell design is challenging the notions of how a smartphone should look and act, taking handsets beyond the traditional rectangular design.

Designed by Kristian Ulrich Larsen, through industrial design lab Yanko Design, the "flip" phone consists of three flexible touch screens that are linked with hinges of steel mesh, allowing it to fold into a number of novel configurations.

The device folds flat like a conventional smartphone for easy carrying. It can expand into a triangular formation that would make a good alarm clock or free-standing screen for watching videos, and content wraps around the screens when the phone is handled. It can morph into a mini-laptop shape with a backlit hardware keyboard exposed, or fold flat to be perfect for e-book reading or simply showing a ton of screen real estate.

"People no longer only use their phone as a comunication device. It's more and more used for the things, we usually use our laptops for, but with the limited screen real estate on phones, there are still boundaries for what you can do," Larsen said. "With the ability to expand your content onto multiple screens or having multiple apps running on separate screens, it's possible for the user to do a lot more productive, and creative things."

The theoretical device is depicted running Android, with some special tricks up its sleeve. Bringing two devices close to each other enables sharing by simply sliding an object on screen towards the destination handset, evoking a super-polished version of bump technologies popular apps.

Rather than a single notification LED, which some contemporary phones have sadly dropped altogether, the concept has eye-catching color-changing illuminated edges. Although flashy, it's not as original as the nokia concept phone shown last year that actually stood up on a desk to signal incoming calls and messages.

There are no plans to commercialize the flip concept anytime soon, but the tri-fold concept takes the smartphone beyond the standardized "glossy slab" model. Advances in materials science like ultra durable glass and flexible screens should free designers from constraints that have held them back for years -- all that remains is to imagine new directions to explore.

Bump Technologies Raises $16 Million

 Bump Technologies, which makes an app that allows people to share contact details, photos and money by touching their phones together, recently raised $16.5 million in venture capital to fund its ongoing expansion and port its technology beyond social-networking applications.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's app was conceived to simplify exchanging contact information, but has proven even more popular as a way to share photos and music. Each day, users now share about 40,000 contacts and nearly a million photos. People can also friend each other on Facebook, compare contact lists to find mutual friends, and schedule appointments on one another's calendars.

The app works by sensing a "bump" with the phone's accelerometers and comparing the location and timing of the bump to determine which two users are trying to connect. The phones then exchange content through Bump's servers.

IPhone owners make up the bulk of Bump's 7 million active users, but an Android app is also available with a reduced feature set. The company intends to bring it to parity with the Apple version soon.

"It's a proximity-based social network, for people and things you're actually physically interacting with," said David Lieb, co-founder of the company.

Despite the cash infusion, Bump remains focused on building its user base rather than finding profits. But going forward, the company could make money by licensing its technology -- PayPal uses it for a person-to-person payment app -- or from merchants interested in giving users location-relevant information or coupons. Bump's founders have said they've been approached by music labels and bands who want to use the service to communicate with fans at concerts.

With a wider range of development made possible by its recent cash influx, Bump's technology could be coming to more mobile devices in unexpected ways.