The Estonian Parliament has passed a law that will allow the country to vote by cell phone in the next parliamentary election in 2011.

This law is a step up from last year when citizens could send their votes over the Internet. The cell phones will each have a free, authorized chip for their phone which will verify their identity.

Many people have been worrying about the security associated with voting from a cell phone, but according to an audit done by a security firm the voting is very secure. Also last year when they used the Internet voting there were many worries over voter fraud and manipulation, but the system worked seamlessly.

Estonia is the first country to have cell phone voting, but supposedly Finland and Sweden also have the capability to hold one.

Voting by cell seems like a very convenient way to encourage the younger populations to vote since it is so easy. If the US ever adopted a system like this, voting from your computer or your cell phone from within the comfort of home, I think we would see a massive spike in “voter turnout.” But first let’s wait and see how everything works out in Estonia.

Via AP

People break their gadgets all the time right? Heck I’ve dropped so many things in my time that all my electronic gadgets should have died a year ago. Even though most of these things (iPods and such) survive, you always think to yourself whether the result will be the same next time. Here’s one cell phone that you will almost never have to worry about breaking. Introducing the Casio G’zOne Boulder.

The G’zOne is a line of cell phones made by Casio exclusively for Verizon. Their main feature is their durability, these things boast military specs that allow them to survive just about anything short of nuclear blasts (well not really). For those of you out there though that have broken their cell phones by dropping them, or getting some salt in the at the beach, or just by spilling some coffee on it, here is a phone that will last through all that. The G’zOne has been developed to withstand drops up to one and a half meters (I’ve dropped it from heights higher than that, but I wouldn’t go experimenting too much), it can stay underwater with all ports closed for 30 minutes at a maximum depth of 1 meter, and it has even more specs that prove how rugged it really is. All of the specs can be found at the bottom of this article.

I pre-ordered this phone before it even came out as I had been looking at the preview model, the Type-S, but just when I was about to order that one they announced work on the Boulder. I knew I should wait since there would be many new improvements off of the already successful Type-S. The Type-S was notoriously clunky and the appeal of the phone definitely did not come from its looks. These phones really are designed for the people that need rugged phones that they can depend on. This is almost a middle region between a regular consumer cell phone and a rugged high-tech satellite phone. But just for running around the trails, biking, or whatever outdoor activity you do, this phone will work out great.

Some features that I really liked in the phone were the digital compass, Push to Talk service (a walkie-talkie type mode from Verizon that requires an extra subscription), and the EV-DO Rev. A which really speeds up data transfer such as in music/videos. The phone is also pretty good looking, the form factor is bigger than most others but it feels like a solid piece of equipment in your hands which is better than those phones with absolutely no weight or substance to them. There are additional useful features which include a flashlight, camera, and the option to enable GPS as well.

There were just a few things that bugged me about the phone. The first would have to be the call quality, for some reason this phone sounds horrible at the highest volume. The day I got it I turned it down to medium and the sounds was a thousand times better. So I suggest you do this first, and try the phone at the store just to make sure that you can understand the people you call (sort of important). This phone wasn’t made for the texting addict either. The keys are well laid out, but if you want a great texting phone look at one with a full QWERTY keyboard, with this phone you’re stuck with T9 word. Another big thing is that the phone is only available through Verizon so if you really hate them, or there isn’t any service in your area you can forget about this phone.

The verdict on this product is that I really enjoy it. It fits into my outdoor lifestyle very well and I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about it suddenly breaking. It’s also pretty cool to show off to friends and have them drop it and be in awe when its perfectly fine. Definitely try it out at your local Verizon store and make sure to get the orange version, it’s so much better.

I hope you liked this review. If anything needs revision or if you just have some opinions on this phone please leave a comment below.

Specs:

• Rugged design that meets military specifications – 810F standards for water, shock and dust resistance; immersion; vibration, salt fog; humidity; solar radiation; altitude; and low and high temperature storage
• Flashlight
• Electronic compass
• VZ Navigator-capable – audible maps, turn-by-turn directions and location information to more than 14 million points of interest that customers can share with others
• Field Force Manager-capable – a resource management tool that provides businesses with the ability to locate, monitor and communicate with their mobile field workers
• 1.3 megapixel camera to conveniently capture an afternoon hike or a night on the town
• V CAST Music with Rhapsody-capable – download music directly to the phone from a library of more than 5 million songs and get the master copy of the song on a PC free of digital rights management software that restricts how and where music can be played. Customers can also sync favorite tracks, albums and playlists from a PC.
• Music player for .mp3, .wma, unprotected .aac and unprotected .aac+ formats
• Create and manage playlists and sync music from a PC to the G’zOne Boulder
• Carry music on an optional microSD™ card up to 8 GB (microSD card sold separately)
• Supports the following Bluetooth® profiles – headset, hands-free (car kits), dial-up networking, advanced audio distribution profile (stereo), audio/visual remote control profile, object push profile for vCard, object exchange profiles for phonebook access profiles, generic audio/video distribution profile, audio/visual distribution protocol, and audio/visual control transport protocol
• Advanced speech recognition with dedicated voice dial key
• Alarm clock, calculator, calendar, stop watch, countdown, timer, world clock, electronic compass
• Voice commands
• Speakerphone with dedicated speakerphone key
• Bilingual interface – English and Spanish language
• Phonebook with up to 500 entries with multiple contacts
• TTY compatible
• Hearing aid compatibility = M4/T4
• Display:
  • Main: 2.0” 240 x 320 TFT display with up to 65K colors
  • External: 1.2” 96 x 96 Mono STN display
• Dimensions: 3.9” x 2.0” x 0.9”
• Weight: 4.9 ounces
• SAR:
  • Head: 1.04 W/kg
  • Body: 0.489 W/kg
• Usage time: up to 214 minutes or
• Standby time: up to 63 hours