Be Smart

If your goal is to fit as large a keyboard, preferably full QWERTY, into as small a form-factor as possible, while still recognising that people like to use their cellphones in portrait orientation for calls and landscape for messaging, you've got yourself a challenge.  It's a challenge HTC's latest patent has taken on, though, using a nifty diagonal slider format and simultaneously contradicting our general perception of sliding handsets: that the top section should, when closed, fully cover the bottom.  Unwired View took the patent illustration (shown after the cut) and knocked up this photoshop of how it would work:



 



At first glance I assumed the keyboard folded somehow, but it's actually one solid piece: the screen only covers the top two-thirds, with the bottom, numeric keypad portion uncovered for using the handset in portrait mode.  Push the screen to the side and it slides, diagonally, so as to be central above the QWERTY keyboard when held in landscape orientation.

Of course, the buttons needn't just be numbers and letters: HTC's patent suggests they could be anything from a "standard keyboard, a video play key, numeric keys, dialing keys, navigation keys, hot keys, speed dialing keys, a Windows key and an ending key".  It might be interesting to see gaming controls, too, with the handset operating as a phone in portrait and as a handheld games console when the screen is flicked across.

Engadget have a managed to score some pre-announcement shots of the enV2 - aka the LG VX9100, which we first saw back on Valentine's day - showing the clamshell messenger in its black and maroon glory.  Exact specs are still unconfirmed, but the handset is sporting a USB socket (in either mini or micro format) which suggests they've moved to generic connections for chargers.



 



The outside has a letterbox-style display that you really wouldn't want to use for anything beyond caller ID and basic dialling, although it's likely that you'll still be able to send SMS messages without cracking open the handset.   Earlier indications suggest a 2-megapixel camera, WAP browser, internal QVGA display and confirm the USB as micro not mini.

Cricket might not be one of the first US carriers to spring to your mind, but that doesn't mean they've forgotten about you.  In fact, if you live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are looking for a tri-band clamshell that is the first CDMA handset to support the 1700MHz band from the 2006 AWS frequency auctions, and aren't a fan of swish external displays, then the UTStarcom CDM-7126 might be just the handset you've been waiting for.



The CDM-7126 also has Bluetooth, voice recognition and 1xRTT data access; apparently it'll be released in Las Vegas and Oklahoma City at some point during this year, whenever the 1700MHz network is available there.

No indication of price, but it looks to be relatively budget.

[via PhoneArena]

Currently ongoing at digital art institution Eyebeam is Feedback, which is a collection of experimental green design. As compact fluorescent light bulbs and solar powered patio lights continue to become more mainstream, Feedback reminds us that there are still boundaries to be pushed in green design. The show explores issues concerning topics such as natural resources, ecology, energy use and climate change. The forms of work run the gambit from visualization of data to working prototypes to theoretical architecture and design.

A highlight of the show (no pun intended) is the piece called "The Revolution Door" by Fluxxlab, which was founded by two Columbia architecture design school graduates, Jennifer Broutin and Carmen Trudell. As you turn the door, this working prototype powers the "Feedback" sign on the main panel explaining the exhibition. (Thanks to Stephanie Pierce who was at the opening and agreed to operate the door while I took the picture.)

Fluxxlab's project demonstrates how our daily activities, such as pushing a door, generate energy that can be converted into something useful, instead of being lost. As good experimental design does, The Revolution Door leads to further questions. In this case, the next logical query is: How can these kinds of designs be implemented on a mass scale?

The Feedback show closes on April 19, 2008, so there is still time to get to it if you're in the New York City area.

This story brings together some of my favourite things: cats, design ingenuity and intelligent young women kicking ass. Plus, it shakes off the stereotype that British people don't care about teeth. (We do, just not our own...)

Seventeen year old British college student Rachel Gilbert has reached the final of a national competition, the Ideas Igloo Roadshow, with her design for feline false teeth.

They look a little ghoulish, but have a noble purpose: "When animals suffer broken or rotten teeth, they have had to be removed," Rachel told her local newspaper, The Sheffield Star. "The gum can become infected and they find it difficult to chew food. We aim to reduce animals' suffering and improve their quality of life." Local vets are already on board with the design, which was created after taking a mold from a cat with damaged teeth. This revolution in animal dentistry could also be extended to dogs and sheep.

Rachel and her team of eight now have two minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of American Inventor-style entrepreneurs for a chance to win £2000 (around $4000) to help launch their business.

The best part of this whole story? Rachel's from my home town. Not that I'm biased, but I hope she wins...

These plant examining glasses bring technology developed by NASA and the Department of Agriculture and brings to your humble backyard. Put these on and you'll be able to see areas of your lawn that may need a little help long before you'd observe the problems with your naked eyes. The lenses block out the green reflected by chlorophyll in the healthy areas of your lawn and garden, causing those areas to show as black or gray. Any unhealthy spots, deficient in chlorophyll, will show up as pink, red or coral colors. It's the plant equivalent of full-body MRIs that detect problems before their symptoms surface. So what if you look like Rick Moranis in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, surveying your backyard in these dorky glasses that look like they came out of a box of kids' cereal? Your verdant backyard will thank you for it.

Available from environmentally friendly online gardening store, Clean Air Gardening, for $49.99.

If it's true that a forced smile on your face will eventually penetrate into your soul, then this new cosmetic device may work miracles for that person in your life who is always unhappy. And how about those people who are happy on the inside but have faces that don't know how to smile properly and could benefit from a little smile training?

While this looks like a little dental torture device, the "Yumi," is a mechanical gadget that you insert into your mouth to "train" your facial muscles to smile (a nice, upward smile, not a downturned smile which may confuse people). According to Tokyo Mango (and I'll have to take their word for it, as I can't read the product maker's website), it comes in three colors and three strengths, normal for men, soft for women (why?), and rehabilitative for "seniors and children" (which would mean even softer?).



So what if the smile trainer makes you look like a monkey 4 times a day for 3 minutes? It's non-invasive and cheap - just $50 at this website. Those of us in the U.S. may have to wait until it comes to Amazon.

Via Tokyo Mango.

Samsung Korea must have a good reason for calling their latest fashion sliders the MiniSkirt Season 2 collection, but perhaps my brain isn't capable of grasping it.  The three new Anycall models - the SCH-C225, SPH-C2005 and SPH-C2255 - are each 10.9mm thick and have GPS, Bluetooth and a 2-megapixel camera.





The camera has "Smile Shot", a smile-recognition function which takes the photo when your subject is grinning (potentially frustrating if you only have glum friends but still want to have pictures to remember their misery by), although in the photo above it appears to have accidentally taken the photo when the sprawling girls looked most like poppies.  Meanwhile, the softkeys are touch-sensitive with vibrating haptic feedback to tell you when you've pressed them.



[via Akihabara]

Perhaps recognising that it's faintly ridiculous to licence a rival's media streaming technology when you have your own sitting back at the lab, Microsoft have finally got around to announcing an availability date for the Windows Mobile version of Silverlight.  From Q2 this year, developers will be able to get their coding hands on Silverlight 1.0 for Mobile, supporting animation, media playback and vector graphics.  The company licenced Silverlight for Symbian earlier this month. 



Silverlight supports WMV, WMA and MP3, as well as H.264, and Microsoft have suggested that video quality is better, using the same bandwidth, as Adobe's rival Flash format.

The company also announced beta availability of Silverlight 2.0 for desktop.

[via TBG]

If you can't make a cellphone eco-friendly, you can still make it green.  Sony Ericsson have sent their W580i Walkman slider off for a lick of new paint, and come back with the

Location-aware social network GyPSii have launched an iPhone-tailored portal, in advance of a native app using the official Apple SDK for the cellphone.  GyPSii is a mixture of traditional profile-based networking and points-of-interest and local search borrowed from sat-nav; touching a particular person or place on-screen brings up all its relevant information such as proximity, details and specific position on a map, all on one continuous screen.  Both people and places can be called directly from the web-app.

"With GyPSii on your iPhone, it becomes your mobile personal digital life recorder.  You can record and share every aspect of your life as it happens with your friends, family and your online community – all via your mobile. GyPSii for iPhone makes social networking dynamic, mobile, and real-time.  We’ve integrated with the deep feature set on the iPhone, with the result being an entirely new way to communicate" Dan Harple, CEO, GyPSii  



Check out a demo video of GyPSii on the iPhone after the cut 

http://corporate.gypsii.com/iphone/iphone.flv

GyPSii is the latest of the social networks to jump onto the iPhone; earlier today it was rumored that MySpace are in the final stages of developing a mobile version for the handset using a pre-release copy of the SDK.

You can access the mobile GyPSii by visiting http://www.gypsii.com/m on your iPhone.

Despite having only been available for less than 12 months, the iPhone's form-factor is already well-cemented; could an Apple handset sporting anything other than a full-face touchscreen be viewed as a true iPhone?  Brand recognition is great, but it can be stifling as well, especially if you want to introduce new form-factors but still preserve the functionality you've built up.  After all, any handset with the iPhone's GUI but with, say, a smaller display would cause a drop in usability.  Staska from Unwired View has been doing some patent digging and come up with what might be Apple's solution to the issue: titled "Dual-Sided Trackpad", it describes a clamshell cellphone with a transparent, flip-down touchpad covering a large display.  When closed it can be used like the original iPhone - touching the screen directly - but when open the reverse side of the trackpad is active.





If you're anything like me, you might be wondering at this point "why would you want that?"; well, the suggestion is that the design would lend itself to an iPod nano-sized device, with the same body size as the Apple PMP but twice the screen.  You could also have both sides of the trackpad active, and use it for 3D gestures or the sort of 'pseudo-transparent' control Microsoft demonstrated last week with LucidTouch, or embed polarised numbers or even LEDs to put controls directly into the flip.

Apple also suggest the transparent technology would make for a good Mac Tablet, with a flip-down trackpad layer that could double as a keyboard-style input device thanks to some of those polarised numbers (which can only be viewed when the panel is opened), or as a window in a traditional laptop form-factor to view a "sub-display" section of the laptop's screen.  The patent suggests the use of an OLED display, different sections of which can be shut off to reduce power drain.



Unwired View have the full patent document available to download, if you're interested in reading the whole thing.  I'm curious, though; would you want a different iPhone form-factor, are you satisfied with the current physical design, or do you think these suggestions are smokescreens covering Apple's true intention for the technology?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The European Commission has attempted to streamline the roll-out of mobile TV by backing the DVB-H standard; however while this might be good news to Nokia, who were petitioning for DVB-H, some operators are accusing the Union of deciding too quickly.  EU member states will now be required to "encourage" the use of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld) in new implementations, based on the standard being the most widely used in Europe.  Sixteen countries either have trial or commercial launches of DVB-H based mobile TV services.

"An official endorsement does carry weight but it's not clear if DVB-H is necessarily the best standard" GSM Association spokesman

However, other formats have been adopted in South Korea, Japan, the United States and China, and broadcasters are more interested in whether subscribers will be willing to pay for the small-screen TV experience.

"How do you design a compelling service that people will want? Even if it's free and financed by advertising, how many ads do people want to see on a small screen?" Ross Biggam, director general of the Association of Commercial Television, Europe

The Commission hopes that backing the standard will be the boost mobile TV needs to flourish in Europe.

[via picturephoning]

Trimble might not be the first port of call for a Windows Mobile handheld, but if you're looking for a ridiculously sturdy, ruggedised PDA with an outdoor-viewable VGA display then their Nomad would make for a distinctive (if not especially pocket friendly) option.  Really, Nomad - like the rest of Trimble's range - is intended for non-consumer use, but the 806MHz CPU, 1GB of storage, GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth add up to something surprisingly appealing.  Now Trimble have announced a USB EV-DO modem accessory, made by Franklin Wireless, and using Sprint's network for messaging, GPS tagging, collecting field-data and even the odd sneaky Facebook session in-between working. 





Of course, since it's Trimble selling you the modem and not Sprint, they're not subsidising it with a contract: that means they'll charge you $349 for the modem (and drivers) on its own.  Probably not too much of an issue for a business, but madly expensive if you're a consumer taken in by the Nomad's MILSTD-810F military standard for drops, vibration, humidity, altitude and extreme temperatures, or its ability to survive immersion in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes.

[via jkontherun]

People lease cars, TVs and furniture - why shouldn't they lease something that gets replaced even more often than those, their cellphone?  That's the concept behind development consultancy Kaleidoscope's LINC cellphone: a handset that not only takes into account the fact that people want to upgrade every 12 months, but makes a feature of its recyclability.  Users pay for the cellphone service and borrow the LINC handset; right now, its feature list is bang up to date - GPS, full internet browser, Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G - but in a year there'll be fresh tech on the market.  That's when your new LINC drops through the mail, automatically switching your account to the new, updated handset and leaving you to send back the old one for reclamation.





The recycling process is perhaps the most bizarre element of all; the way Kaleidoscope tells it, once back in the factory a "directed radiant heat beam" is fired at an internal memory latch, at which point the handset falls open to free up glass, aluminium and more, all without any paints or surface adhesives.  Kaleidoscope predict that some parts would be reused in the next generation of handsets, some would be considered outdated for cellphones and passed on to less spec-intensive applications, and the bare minimum would be disposed of as hazardous waste.



Of course, there are no plans to put this into production; Kaleidoscope are more think-tank than manufacturer.  But as cellphone contracts get longer in order for carriers to get their money back on subsidising giving out expensive handsets, there may come a pivot point when the promise of cellphone reclamation is enough temptation to loan rather than sell the device.

[via BoingBoing Gadgets]

AT&T have been forced to pick up a $10m tab for supposedly-free ringtones, after Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum chose to hold the carrier responsible rather than chase the third-parties who falsely advertise the downloads.  As part of the settlement, AT McCollum claims his office is currently investigating other cellphone companies to check to what extent they are allowing fraudulent billing, and if necessary will impose similar fines.

AT however in the process of the investigation AT font-size: 11px; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;">

Since I prefer text-based forms of communication that don't shame me for not having brushed my hair and still being in my pajamas at 4 in the afternoon, I've never been a fan of the web camera. I tolerate the presence of the ones built into my mobile devices, but I rarely install the corresponding software to get it to work.

Pair that with the fact that this skull web camera ($65.36) from GeekStuff4U terrifies me to the core (the pained expression of that evil skeleton being strangled by the cobra's tail will haunt me tonight), and you'll understand why you won't ever see me online.

And no, it doesn't make a difference that the 1.3-megapixel camera will record my movements at a fluid 30 frames per second. Because you know for a fact that the minute I look into that lens, those skulls will come to life and shoot laser beams from their eyes. And don't even get me started about the centipede/millipede.

Via Shiny Shiny.

I'd heard a lot of hype about KateModern, the first British soap opera to be shown entirely on student social networking site Bebo. I knew I wanted to watch it sometime (can 48 million viewers be wrong?) so my plan today was simple: I'd catch up with a few episodes of seasons one and two (each lasts around three minutes, so it wouldn't take long) then extol its virtues/criticise the production values as appropriate.

But my plan was rocked by some deeply shocking news [spoiler alert!]...

We're all familiar with people who give their kids hippy, happy names like "Moon" and "River," and those at the other extreme who give their unsuspecting offspring first names that are actually weighty surnames like "Montgomery" and "Emerson." In each case, the named person has nothing to say about it, and has to carry the given name, along with its baggage of expectations, upon his psyche for the rest of his life.

So now, what do we make of the new trend in naming babies that comes out of the loose and appalling way we spell words in emails and SMS? According to Thaindian News:

Most parents these days are drawing on the cool SMS and email spellings, by eschewing traditional spellings for versions such as Alex-Zander, Cam’ron, Emma-Lee, Ozkah, Thaillah and Ameleiyah.

Social analyst Mark McCrindle looked at Australian births in 2007 and discovered that the name Jayden was registered spelt in 12 ways, Aidan in nine ways, and Amelia and Tahlia in eight ways.

"Most" parents are doing this? Really? On purpose or just because they can't spell anymore? And doesn't this trend undermine our ability to find people on the Internet?

One needs to take certain things for granted in this life. Call me old-fashioned, but Michael should be spelled "Michael" and Mary should be "Mary."

Via textually.org.

Digital pens that can capture handwritten notes, drawings, and memos, store them electronically, and even turn them into digital text are not exactly a dime a dozen, but they've been around for a while. Here's a new and mind-boggling variation that sounds straight out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Mobile Digital Scribe claims to be the first device that can capture and store handwriting employing only - here's the mind-boggling part - ordinary paper and an ordinary ballpoint pen refill available at your average office-supply center. The company says you don't need a special digital notepad or special digital ink to take electronic notes that you can upload to a computer for display, export in JPEG, or even turn into text.

I'll be fascinated to read the reviews. But if the process is as easy as its promotional material makes it seem, the Mobile Digital Scribe should be heaven for those - medical types, journalists, students - who would rather be wired but must take handwritten notes because they're on the move or in class.

If price has kept you from owning a pair of Shure earphones, you'll be glad to hear that they've broken the $100 barrier, introducing the SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones for $99 bucks. It makes perfect sense for Shure - long known as the pro musicians' audio source - to enter the consumer market at a time when most music lovers are upgrading their default headphones with every music device they buy.

Everday audiophiles will appreciate the Balanced MicroSpeaker system which delivers optimized, balanced audio. Rather than noise cancelling, these are "sound isolating," cutting out approximately 90 percent of ambient noise. A "fit kit" includes sized disposable black foam sleeves (S-L) and ensures a comfortable and sound-enhancing fit. (A good seal is key to optimizing sound isolation and bass response.) Taking them for a spin, I was impressed - the sound is very close to my $250 pair of Shures. If I'd met these first, I would have been delighted.

Available in white or black, you can buy them at Shure and Amazon.

After a disappointing financial report, shares in Virgin Mobile USA fell by a massive 54-percent yesterday amid analyst negativity and poor subscriber figures.  Contrary to expectations, Virgin's subscriber growth for this quarter is being estimated at just 5,000 to 20,000, compared to 210,000 net additions in Q4 2007.  The already significantly weakened share price has fallen further; Virgin commanded a $15 share price back in October during its first public offering, but dropped $1.90 with the news of its stalled performance to a miserable $2.30. 

"With 2 quarters in a row of disappointing guidance we believe that the softening economy and increased competition have eliminated management's ability to forecast its business" Phil Cusick, analyst, Bear Stearns

Sprint, who sells Virgin Mobile the network space and owns an eleven percent share in the MVNO, saw its own shares fall by 3.5-percent to $6 after the news broke.  Bear Sterns analyst Phil Cusick cast doubt on the likelihood of a buy-out of Virgin - "We see no reason any competitor would buy Virgin Mobile's equity" - seemingly suggesting that there's not that much to buy.

Analysts had predicted Q1 2008 growth of 130,000 customers, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $142.8m; Virgin now forecasts an EBITDA of $105m to 130m.

[via Engadget]

If you see holidays such as St Patrick's day as an opportunity to shamelessly cash in with a so-called "special edition", then step forward and take a bow: you're well on your way to being a cellphone marketing expert.  As Valentine's showed us, launching a "new" model need only involve changing the colour and thinking up a slogan; hence Sprint's green

ASUS have unveiled two HSDPA-equipped UMPCs at CeBIT 2008 today, and we were down on the show floor to snap some photos of the Windows Vista powered devices.  The R70, shown here, has a 1.6GHz processor, GPS, 3.5G radio and is rumored to pack a 120GB hard-drive; meanwhile, the R50 (shown after the cut) is a smaller UMPC with Intel's 1.33GHz Silverthorne CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi b/g, HSDPA, GPS and front and rear cameras. 





Unlike Samsung's Q1 Ultra, neither ASUS device has a full QWERTY keyboard; instead they rely on navigation via the touchscreen.  The R70 also has a trackball and dedicated left/right mouse buttons, together with a biometric fingerprint reader and a front-mounted webcam.

No prices nor availability details have been revealed as of yet.

[via SlashGear]

Many will recall Indie musician Jill Sobule from her track "I Kissed a Girl." The song was a cross-over hit, and the video (the one co-starring Fabio) got a lot of MTV airplay in the 1990s. I saw her play a few years ago when she was touring with Lloyd Cole as a member of his band, the Negatives. Years later, Sobule is still touring and recording music. After going through a handful of music labels, both big and small, she is currently creating her own path.

Where Radiohead has now famously asked fans to pay what their latest CD is worth, Sobule has taken a slightly different route. In January, she asked fans on her website, Jill's Next Record, to donate money before the she makes her next album. In telethon-like fashion, she asked fans to help her reach a goal of $75,000, which would cover studio time, producers, additional musicians and post-production. By March, she had reached her goal and raised over $80,000.

Possibly the coolest web concept ever (present company excepted, of course) is Common Craft, a kindhearted company making free videos to explain all manner of tech-type stuff "in Plain English."

When Geekbrief goddess Cali Lewis interviewed Lee LeFever, one of Common Craft's founders, she said his Twitter in Plain English video had instantly converted two non-techie family members to social networking/micro-blogging site Twitter. (And this after months of nagging - Common Craft clearly has near-magical qualities).

By far the site's most popular video - with over 336,000 views so far - is RSS in Plain English. Enjoy:

Researchers in the EU have been developing a self-organising ad-hoc wireless standard, which could create point-to-point and mesh networks and adapt not only to new or out-of-range devices but without intervention from a human operator or from specific interoperability in running applications.  Called Reconfigurable Ubiquitous Networked Embedded Systems (RUNES), the project would use anything from GSM, WiFi and Bluetooth to less common standards such as ZigBee, regardless of OS, and even "robotic routers" that could move into place to bridge a gap in an existing network.

"RUNES set out to create middleware: software that bridges the gap between the operating systems used by the mobile sensor nodes, and high-level applications that make use of data from the sensors. RUNES middleware is modular and flexible, allowing programmers to create applications without having to know much about the detailed working of the network devices supplying the data" Science Daily 

"A lot of people have been looking at embedded systems networking, but so far there has been a reluctance to take the plunge commercially.  RUNES' open-source model is an excellent way to stimulate progress, and it should generate plenty of consultancy work for the academic partners" Dr Lesley Hanna, consultant and dissemination manager, RUNES

Hanna used the example of a tunnel fire, with wired communication channels cut off and fire crews uncertain of where the source of the blaze was located and where survivors were.  Instead, wireless sensors could be rearranged into an ad-hoc network delivering information to the crew, with information on visibility, temperatures, and the locations of vehicles and people.

Although led by Ericsson, much of the research has been carried out by universities and falls into the public domain or open-source.

[via Slashdot]

Could Motorola use CTIA Wireless next month as a springboard back in the limelight?  Probably not, but thanks to a new video on YouTube (which you can see after the cut) we at least have a hint of what they could be foisting on us there.  According to Unwired View's Staska, the manufacturer purposefully toned down their appearance at the Mobile World Congress so as to avoid significant new products getting lost in the scrum (and if that's really the reason, guys, well done: the bland Z6w and ditchwater-dull W181 instead, they'll use CTIA to catch headlines.  The video appears to show not only the rumored 5-megapixel Kodak-collaboration but the MOTOMING 2, what looks to be the replacement for the Q9 (and which some are calling the Q10) and a new, kick-sliding music phone (the ROKR E10, perhaps?)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmr2RT80qNQ

 

No official comment from Motorola, as is to be expected, but the signs are at least vaguely positive for a more interesting showing at CTIA in early April.  With the company looking so shaky at present it really needs to pull a few good handsets out of the bag.

Sierra Wireless

Anybody hoping for native Flash compatibility to be announced at the iPhone RoadMap event tomorrow will likely be disappointed; Steve Jobs has gone on record criticising Adobe's software offering, claiming that the current mobile version of the Flash player isn't good enough for the iPhone, but that the full version runs too slowly with the handset's CPU.

"There's this missing product in the middle" Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple

Adobe are yet to comment on Jobs' statements, but looking at recent blog posts by members of their developer team it doesn't look as though they're leaping to produce that middle product:

"No one aside from

Steve Jobs has any idea if or when it's coming.  Everyone I talk to doesn't know anything" Ryan Stewart, Adobe chief spokesman for internet-based applications

While it seems likely that Flash support will eventually come to the cellphone, it seems unlikely that it will feature at the event this week.

[via BGR]

Could support for HTML email have been removed from the upcoming BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 SP5?  That's the suspicion at the moment; rendering HTML and rich-text messages has become one of the most keenly anticipated features of the update, but the official RIM "What's New" page for SP5 has been edited to remove any mention of the feature.  RIM are yet to announce any alteration of the release, though the shipping date has been pushed back from February 29th to March 11th. 



It's possible that RIM have delayed the functionality for stability reasons, and instead intend to ship it as part of the SP6 release which has been pegged for June 2008.  That update will also include support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

The news of HTML omission was met by disappointment among users; RIM subscriber figures have grown ahead of predictions this quarter, despite a number of issues with network stability.

CitiGroup analysts have revealed plans that Apple is going to introduce 3G capable iPhones in the 2nd quarter of 2008. This is great news for iPhone lovers that feel burdened by the slow speeds offered up by Apple's current EDGE wireless. Expect to see the new 3G iPhone sometime between April and June.



Why the switch now?

Apple originally stated that 3G wireless technologies consumed too much power when the iPhone first launched. Now that big advances in power management have been made in 3G, Apple feels confident that it can put this valuable technology into the iPhone.

When I first heard this news I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, does the US have enough 3G wireless coverage to justify this move?" but this announcement coincides with AT font-size: 11px; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;">

This morning I wasn't particularly inspired by Samsung's new G400 Soul, but having seen these exclusive photos from the CeBIT 2008 show floor I'm freshly impressed.  Remember, that's a 2.22-inch touchscreen on the front, meaning you should hardly ever have to open the G400 up (and be faced with its low-profile keyboard).  Check out the gallery of photos after the cut!





 To recap, the G400 is a triband GSM, 7.2Mbps HSDPA (2100 band) with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0.  It's expected in Europe in June.

Not the most inspiring diagram ever to have worked its way through the intestinal tract of the FCC, but the promise of a new Nokia clamshell handset - product code RM-324 - packing US-spec 3G/HSDPA is enough to get high-speed-starved users at least a little dribbly.  The device showed up in listings yesterday, with little more to show than this basic outline and the fact that they're fitting a 1500mAh battery pack.



The adoption of the 1900MHz band by AT Europe, which has seen a higher take-up of the technology, uses different bands and as such manufacturers have had to create new versions for the US market.

Nokia's US version of the N95 8GB was passed by the FCC back in January this year.

[via The Boy Genius]

The more we get away from traditional camera designs, with sleeker, smaller digital cameras, the more nostalgic I get about old film cameras. This miniature digital camera, the Rolleiflex MiniDigi AF5.0 from Komomura Corp., is modelled after the legendary twin lens Rolleiflex, which were everywhere a few decades ago, and are still sold today. The 5 megapixel retro camera is priced at 43,050 Japanese Yen (about $420).

Via Nikkei Weekly (subscription).

There's no excuse anymore to stick with those crummy default speakers that came with your desktop, not when Creative has the "Inspire T10" speakers for a mere fifty bucks.

I know, you're thinking "How good can they be for $50?" Pretty damned good, actually. Thanks to the dedicated tweeters, the listener can pick up high frequency instruments such as strings and cymbals, and like their more expensive models, the T10 features the unique BasXPort technology which delivers dynamic bass effects (like a great drum solo).

The built-in headphone jack and AUX In connector makes it easy to plug in your headphones for private listening, or to play music from your MP3 player or any other audio device.



At 13.7cm x 9cm x 19.4cm, they're compact enough to fit on your desk, and they come in a glossy black finish augmented by an acoustically slanted front, making them good-looking as well.

The ASUS Eee ultra-portable notebook computers have been popular, not least for the price - in some cases a stunningly low $299 (in blush pink!) Other manufacturers are rushing to bring out competitors, so ASUS is moving its lean machine with the 7-inch screen into the mainstream.

The first models have run Linux and claim to be Windows-compatible, whatever that means. But the company has now formally announced a version with pre-installed Windows XP. It will also come with Microsoft Works and access to Windows Live, an online suite offering mail, messaging, a photo gallery, and kid-protection features.

Reviewers have been enthusiastic about previous versions of the Eee, although they concede its imperfections. The keyboard is cramped, with some keys very tiny. RAM is only 512 MB, also cramped these days when we all want to run several programs at once.