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Although there is no conclusive proof that mobile phones cause cancer, a Maine legislator wants to require all mobile phones sold in the state to carry warnings that say mobile phones may do so.

State Rep. Andrea Boland, a Democrat, told the Associated Press that "numerous studies point to the cancer risk." She has worked her proposal into the upcoming schedule for the 2010 session in Maine's legislature. Boland said that she uses a speaker, so she can keep her mobile phone away from her head. She also keeps it off unless she knows someone will call her.

If Boland's bill makes it through the state legislature, vendors would be forced to place labels on all mobile phones and packaging that tell customers they could get brain cancer from using the device. Those warnings would also recommend those people keep phones as far away from their bodies as possible.

Boland is apparently acting in what she believes is her constituents' best interest. But the debate over whether or not mobile phones really cause brain cancer rages on. So far, there is no conclusive evidence on either side of the debate for legislators to summarily require all mobile phones within the state to carry a cancer warning.

Boost Mobile added unlimited calls to Canada (except Northern Territories) and landlines in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey as part of its International Connect plan today. Launched earlier this year, the International Connect plan costs $10 a month and includes unlimited text messaging and push-to-talk with Canada, Baja California, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Chile for a flat fee.

To sweeten the deal even further, Boost Mobile has also lowered its handset prices to $99.99 for the Motorola Clutch i465 and $149.99 for the Motorola Debut i856.

Bonnie Cha, senior editor for cell phones, joins the show today to fill in for Justin Yu. It's one of the few days Wilson and Jeff aren't worried about losing their jobs for something they shouldn't have said. And no, she is NOT Nicole Lee. What better day to have Ms. Cha on the show than following the weekend that the actual Google phone leaks!

Google Nexus One

(Credit: Cory O'Brien)

The Google phone has been rumored for the last three or four years, and since the release of Google's Android operating system, the hoopla has died down considerably for an actual Google-branded phone. In typical Google fare, the company has decided on screwing its partners like Verizon and Motorola over by releasing an unsubsidized GSM phone called the Nexus One. No word yet on how much the unit will cost, but we do know that HTC designed the device. And that Google employees got the units over the weekend. Word on the street is that the device runs Android OS 2.1.

The mobile space is where all the spice is these days, and today is no different. News comes out that the venerable institution that is Playboy is jumping into the iPhone app fray with its own app. Because of Steve Jobs' no-porn rule, however, the app won't come with any outright nude pics. It will come with some scantily clad ladies and their interests. Per usual, it's all about the articles, not the pics.

(Credit: Playboy)

In videogaming news, the Pentagon is buying up 2,200 PlayStation 3s. No, they aren't using it to train soldiers with "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", while it may be a lot of fun. The military wants to use the gaming consoles to run simulations because the $299 machines can calculate 150 GFLOPS. At The 404, we really have no idea what that means, but it sounds impressive.

Finally, Green Day comes to Rock Band. The Beatles have come already, and while we're generally excited to have one of the best modern bands, we're not really excited to have every dude singing "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" at every single graduation party. This could be a very, very bad thing.

As promised, T-Mobile last night began rolling out a new billing option for Google Android users.

Customers of the nation's largest Android carrier now have an option to charge Android Market purchases directly to their monthly bills and bypass their credit cards and Google Checkout accounts. T-Mobile is the first carrier to offer a billing alternative, though Sprint has also committed to making a similar move.

As the update is considered "invisible," T-Mobile customers will not receive any notifications of a pending software update. Rather, you can access the new billing option by logging into the Android Market and making a purchase.

This update will roll out over the course of the next few weeks and should hit all handsets by the end of the year. Similar to Google Checkout, applications uninstalled within the first 24 hours after purchase will not show up on your T-Mobile bill.

For now, the only paid apps that can be applied to your monthly bill must be in U.S. currency. Titles priced in other currencies must be purchased using a credit card. According to the official T-Mobile Forum, they are working in conjunction with Google on a solution to convert these apps to U.S. dollars.

(Credit: Skyfire)

The Skyfire mobile browser has gone through some dramatic design changes in the last year. The most recent version released on Wednesday continues to adjust Skyfire's visual composition--as well as its guts and performance--on Windows Mobile touch-screen and standard phones.

The changes to the navigation menu was the first thing we noticed when we booted up Skyfire 1.5 on an HTC Touch Diamond 2. Skyfire has replaced the Menu key and back button navigation with gray, balloon-like buttons that strike us as a hybrid of Opera Mobile browser and Internet Explorer Mobile. The back arrow, Home screen button, zoom control, favorites tab, and Options icons are more finger-friendly for sure, and take a cue in both looks and content from Skyfire's two strongest rivals. We also spotted two unfamiliar tabs at the top to show your recent searches and popular queries overall.

Also like Opera Mobile browser, Skyfire 1.5 gets a welcome Full Screen mode--for touch-screen users only--that you can access from the Options icon on the navigation bar. Tap it to enter full-screen mode, which hides the nav bar so you can see more screen. Tapping the screen again shows the single Options icon, from which you can exit full-screen mode.

Skyfire has not been idle behind the scenes, either. Version 1.5 has updated to Flash 10 and Silverlight 1.5, the latest stable versions of Adobe and Microsoft software for delivering rich media, like videos. Skyfire also introduces full native support for VGA and wVGA resolutions on Windows phones, smooth scrolling, and new behavior for the text field that keeps it visible on touch-screen phones when the virtual keyboard is engaged. Skyfire also boasts faster speeds, thanks to improvements to its server.

You can download Skyfire for free by pointing the mobile browser to get.skyfire.com, or can download Skyfire for touch-screen and non-touch phones via your desktop.

Google and Microsoft have joined a group devoted to creating a way that cell phone buyers can easily comprehend the quality of their camera phones.

The International Imaging Industry Association said the tech titans signed up to help with the third phase of the Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative, in which a variety of companies try to create measurements to capture various test results.

Mobile phones that can take photos are ubiquitous today, but with tiny image sensors and lenses and severe budget constraints, they vary widely in their ability to take good photos. Mostly all that buyers have to go on is a megapixel count, which isn't terribly meaningful when it comes to such small sensors. The International Imaging Industry Association, a consortium whose mission is to make imaging better for consumers, is trying to come up with a better way.

The mobile phone camera tests include resolution, color uniformity, lens distortion, and lens chromatic aberration, but the group also plans to factor in sharpness and noise reduction. A variety of other possibilities ranging from dynamic range, white balance, and resistance to glare also could be added into the mix as well.

The group is trying boil all this down into an official star rating consumers can trust.

Other companies working on the standard include Aptina Imaging, CDM Optics, DxO Labs, Eastman Kodak, Fujifilm, Motorola, Nokia, OmniVision Technologies, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, STMicroelectronics, ST Ericsson, and VistaPoint Technologies.

Epson PictureMate Show

(Credit: Epson)

Families around the world are sure to take tons of digital snapshots of loved ones for the holiday season, but how to get the photos off the camera? Epson's new PictureMate Show compact photo printer brings images to life with a dual purpose: you can also use it as a digital photo frame.

The Show works as both a digital photo frame and a compact photo printer thanks to its small size and 7-inch WVGA tilt screen that beautifully displays hi-res photos. Transferring pictures to the viewer is made easy using the 270MB of internal memory, but there's also a media card reader and a USB port on the side for downloading images from any digital camera.

Once you have the photos loaded, you can perform simple edits like cropping or resizing, but you can also set the device to automatically correct your photos before printing.

Unlike other portable dye-sublimation printers, the Epson PictureMate Show uses the company's own proprietary "Advanced MicroPiezo" technology, optimized for photo printing. Epson tells us the product produces vibrantly colored 4x6-inch photos in 37 seconds, but we'll need to put it to the test before we give our official review.

The Epson PictureMate Show is available now for $300. More pics after the jump.

A look at one of Square's receipts for Sightglass Coffee, a San Francisco establishment in which founder Jack Dorsey has invested.

(Credit: Square)

Small business is front and center for Square, the new mobile-payments company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Previously in a quasi-stealth mode (OK, more like San Francisco's worst-kept secret), Square has now launched in beta, is accepting e-mail requests for preliminary accounts, and has put up a basic Web site to explain the company's premise.

The Square hardware is a small, inexpensive card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a compatible device, including a mobile phone (it's starting with the iPhone and currently has job postings up for BlackBerry and Android engineers). It processes credit card payments, geotags their locations on a map, and e-mails a receipt to the buyer.

"Even though a majority of payments has moved to plastic cards, accepting payments from cards is still difficult, requiring long applications, expensive hardware, and an overly complex experience," the Square Web site explains, talking about how the company premise was hatched when now-executives heard about an artist whose sales were hindered by the fact that he was unable to accept credit card payments.

What hadn't been reported before is that loyalty programs and microdonations are built in as well. Square can track a history of your purchases at a given establishment for discounts and promotions, effectively replacing the buy-10, get-one-free card at coffee shops. Additionally, Square donates a cent of each transaction to a nonprofit organization that the merchant chooses.

CNET first reported the company's name (it had been code-named "Squirrel") as well as some of the details about its business model: low production costs, possibly to the point where the devices can be distributed for free, and profits from transaction fees. (It's not clear whether they actually will make them free.)

Square has set up offices in San Francisco, New York, and St. Louis, with a team of 11 employees announced on the Web site. It's backed by Khosla Ventures and some angel investors.