Like a page torn right out of the government's top secret files on Nikola Tesla, a Nokia research team is working on a wireless energy harvesting mechanism, which sucks up all that cancer-giving RF floating through the air and turns it into electrical current. Their goal is about to capture about 50 milliwatts of power for "ambient charging" -- which would at least be enough to top off the battery while the phone is off. Unfortunately, right now their current prototypes are only pulling down 3 to 5 milliwatts, and many in the industry are convinced it can't be done (don't worry, Nokia, that's just The Man, keeping you down). To be honest, we're not totally sure were comfortable with the thought that there's enough RF floating around to make this even theoretically possible, but as we slowly come to grips with our own mortality, we imagine we'd gladly pay an extra $70 or so for the privilege of never having to charge our phone again. Nokia itself isn't over promising: they plan on supplementing this juice with solar power, and thinks it'll be three or four years until it makes its way into a handset -- probably around the time your existing iPhone contract dries up.

[Thanks, CanisMinor]

While we wouldn't mind a bit if the iPhone had an easy-to-replace battery like most mobiles these days, it seems that Exradia feels that such an oversight was nothing short of (potentially) harmful. As you very well know, we've seen so much conflicting data regarding the true danger of "cellphone radiation" that we've basically given up on trying to make sense of it all, but the aforementioned replacement battery outfit -- which just so happens to integrate a mystical RF-blocking circuit into each cell -- is reportedly "surprised [that] Apple has chosen to ignore this potential health issue" by not giving users the option to spend a bit of coin with Exradia. David Schick, the firm's chief executive, went on to state that there was "no scientific evidence that clearly demonstrates mobile devices are safe," but he unsurprisingly failed to mention that the flipside of that statement is also true. Whatever the case, we wouldn't worry too much about this shameless grub for money -- considering just how many mobile users are yapping it up right now, we'll all go down together should these fears prove true.

[Via TGDaily]

Handover technologies are nothing new, but Agito Networks is hoping to offer up scalable systems that can "hand voice calls over quickly and accurately between company WiFi and cellular networks." More specifically, the startup system utilizes RF to tell when an individual is approaching "predefined points at the limit of the company's WiFi coverage," after which a mobile-based client cooperates with a RoamAnywhere router (which integrates with the company's IP PBXs) in order to hand the call over. Reportedly, the actual transfer "takes less than one second," and administrators can even set up RoutePoints and instruct calls to be sent directly to voicemail when users are off duty. Granted, it seems Agito is aiming its products at medium-to-large businesses looking to save on cellphone bills, and if all goes well, models ranging from $9,995 to $24,995 should hit the US by the year's end.

It's still largely unclear just what the heck cellphone-sized doses of radiation do to the human body -- but whatever happens, you've gotta figure those effects are multiplied many times for folks spending their days standing in front of carriers' antenna arrays. An Alaskan equipment installer working for AT&T filed a disability claim against his employer for unspecified health problems caused by ongoing exposure to RF levels above FCC recommendations; eventually, the claim ended up on the docket of the state's Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the employee. We imagine the decision will likely get tied up in further appeals, but if the law ultimately sides with the afflicted worker, this could all spell trouble for carriers whose installers spend much of their time blasted with all manner of airwaves. In the interest of health (or not getting sued, as the case may be), are we looking at more blackouts down the road as transceivers get turned off for maintenance?