Mobile Digest

Philips SHB6102/05 Bluetooth stereo headset

Let's be honest, we can probably do without the wires connecting headphones to player - and with some you can, as indeed you can with the right mobile phone. Well, if yours isn't one of them, you can make it so with the Philips SHB6102/05 Bluetooth stereo headset.

There's no need to worry about you player having Bluetooth support, because these headphones come complete with a Bluetooth transmitter that plugs into your 3.5mm headphone socket, creating A2DP compatibility.

It offers a range of up to 33ft for your music playback. And it can pair up to your mobile too, intervening when a call comes in. It's all powered by a rechargeable battery, which should offer around 12 hours of music from a single charge.

No price as yet.

Product page

T-Mobile launches web'n'walk USB modem

T-Mobile has just launched the web'n'walk USB modem, which is compatible with both PC and Mac, offering broadband speeds of up to 1.8Mbps.

And according to T-Mobile, it's significantly cheaper than the similar device from Vodafone. On comparable 12-month price plans with unlimited usage on a HSDPA connection, T-Mobile's USB modem costs £29.99 to purchase the device plus a monthly fee of £29 on the web'n'walk Plus price plan, where as Vodafone's USB modem costs £49 to buy, plus a monthly fee of £52.86 on the Data Unlimited price plan.

It's aimed at people who might not have landlines or the internet at home - or people who work out and about. For example, if you need to get a photo or article to your head office quickly, you could go online wherever you are and click 'send'.

The web’n’walk USB modem is in T-Mobile stores now and available online

T-Mobile website

Video: Jabra limited edition JX10 Cara headset

When you’ve gone to the trouble of getting a flashy phone the last thing you want is a naff Star Trek headset making you look like a crack dealer. This is probably why Jabra have come up with Cara, a limited edition of the JX10 headset. Charlotte from Jabra talks us through the concept behind the headsets. See after the jump for pictures.

Cara, as it’s called, still has the ergonomic waisted design but is in luxurious 24 carat gold or stainless steel. It comes with a bewildering array of accessories, including a nifty desktop charger, optional earhook and a lanyard so you can keep it safe. For its size it has an impressive 6 hours talk time and great digital sound processing.

Jabra launches limited edition JX10 Cara Bluetooth headsets for the affluent

There's no stopping some people when it comes to buying and wearing gold jewellery - so there should be a ready-made market for the limited edition JX10 Cara Bluetooth headset from Jabra, which is available in 24 carat gold.

If that sounds a bit too flash, there's also a more subtle stainless steel version. Both are designed by Jacob Jensen, familiar for his designs for Bang & Olufsen and weigh in at 14g. They feature Digital Sound Processing technology for improved clarity, with settings (including volume) controlled by the earpiece and set-up/pairing is one-touch.

Functions include voice dial, call hold/call wait, last number re-dial, answer/end calls and reject calls, with six hours of talk time possible, along with 200 hours of standby.

The Jabra JX10 in 24 carat gold sells for £149.99, with the stainless steel version at £99.99

Jabra website

Dr Who flashing phone charm

The new series of Dr Who is on TV and the merchandising bandwagon is rolling - including these Dr Who flashing phone charms.

Sticking wisely to the traditional Dr Who icons (the Tardis and a Dalek) and compatible with most phone networks (with the exception of three), they spin and flash every time you get a call. That's certainly big on novelty, but if you're in a noisy environment (like a pub) or your phone is on silent, it can be very practical too.

Battery-powered (these are included), you can pick them up for £4.95 each.

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Sandisk launches 4GB M2 card for Sony Ericsson handsets

A bit short of space for photos and music on your Sony Ericsson handset? It might be worth investing in the Sandisk M2 card for Sony Ericsson phones, with 4GB of capacity.

M2 is a format jointly developed by Sandisk and Sony and in real terms, 4GB is around 1,000 MP3 tracks - giving many standalone MP3 players a run for their money. Alternatively, it's also enough for 2,000 high-resolution images or 20 hours of MPEG-4 video. The card is compatible with Sony's latest multimedia handsets, including the recent Cyber-shot and Walkman phones.

According to Norm Frentz, director of marketing for SanDisk’s mobile consumer solutions division. “This is the threshold at which mobile phones provide enough capacity to become the user’s all-in-one portable music player, camcorder, photo album and video player.”

The 4GB M2 card will ship in May, price to be confirmed,

Sandisk website

Proporta launches accessory range for Nokia N95 handset

You know a product has some legs when companies start retailing accessories specifically for it. So Nokia must be be feeling good about the N95, with add-ons already available for their do-it-all handset. Quick off the mark is Proporta, which has a range of extras for the N95 already available to buy.

In the main, they're add-ons to keep your shiny new phone in one piece. The Alu-Leather Book Case, which offers case and screen protection, room for a credit card module and SD cards, along with a magnetic docking system for use in the car. The Alu-Leather Flip Case offers the same functionality, but in a different shape.

The Crystal Case is made from the type of durable and scratch resistant polycarbonate plastic that's used to make protective eyewear and again will magnetically dock in your car if you want to use the N95 for GPS. And the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger, whilst not being N95 specific, does work with the handset, offering a boost in power from a pocket-sized device when you need it. And when that runs out of power, recharge via USB.

Prices start from around $20.

More details from the Proporta website

Bluetrek Mini - more fashion for heads Bluetooth

Bluetrek has been pushing Bluetooth headsets as "Fashion for Heads" for some months now. But still they keep coming - the latest of which is the Bluetrek Mini.

The Mini is described as "an innovative ear jewel" that can be worn in the traditional way or as a pendant. It has a chrome-like finish and a minimalist design that doesn't need an ear hook for use, fitting directly into the ear using the Ergobud adjustable ear fitting.

In terms of specification, it offers up to six hours of talk time, six days of standby and features low battery alert, call waiting, volume adjustment and number memorisation. It should be in stores from May, priced between £29.90 to £32.90.

Bluetrek website

Millets' eco-friendly wind-up phone charger

Millets has a range of eco-friendly gadgets instore, including this wind-up mobile phone charger, part of the One Earth range by Peter Storm.

It's not just the winding that's good for the environment, it's also about the construction. The whole of the range is made from recycled and organic materials where possible - or sing sustainable resources and innovative methods of dying. The wind-up phone charger is part of a gadget range that also includes a wind-up head torch, standard torch, solar radio and lantern.

The wind-up phone charger itself is compatible with most mobiles and ideal for outdoor pursuits - where you might need a phone, but are unlikely to encounter a mains or USB socket. Available in blue, green or black, it retails for £12.99.

Milletts website

Samsung launches Bang & Olufsen-designed WEP 420 Bluetooth headset

Samsung has teamed up with high-end Danish designers Bang & Olufsen to produce the WEP 420 Bluetooth headset, which even comes with a charger that doubles as cool home decor.

Typically for Bang & Olufsen, it's all about minimalism, with all the buttons hidden behind a sliding cover. In addition, the sliding cover blocks static to improve overall sound.

And that's not all. "To enhance its value" (according to Samsung), the WEP 420 comes packaged with a designer charger cradle that doubles up as a decorative home item. Not sure I can see that myself, but I'm sure it appeals to someone out there.

The Samsung WEP 420 is available later this month, no price confirmed as yet.

Samsung website

Plantronics launches Discovery 665 Bluetooth headset with noise reduction

Plantronics has a new Bluetooth headset on the market - the Discovery 665 - which claims to reduce background noise by up to 50 per cent.

In terms of sound quality, the Discovery 665 features AudioIQ - the first headset DSP (digital signal processing) sound technology that automatically optimises audio quality for both caller and listener. In practice, that means more clarity for both caller and listener, with the sound constantly adapting to the change in external noise.

There's also QuickPair technology for ease of set-up, an in-car charging system, visual call and low battery indicator and a lightweight design with customisable eartips for a comfy fit. it's available now for £69.99.

Plantronics website

Sandisk launches mobile phone-specific range of microSD cards

Sandisk has a new range of microSD cards on the market - this time designed specifically for mobile phone downloads and known as Premier microSD cards.

Why so good for mobiles? Well, according to the company, they provide a faster transfer of content to and from their mobile phones as well as offering a sizeable amount of storage for all the things we now carry on our handsets - videos, music, ring tones, digital images and work-related documents. The Premier cards also feature SanDisk’s TrustedFlash technology, which allows network operators to sell premium content directly to mobile phones, stored on the cards and played on other TrustedFlash-enabled devices authorised by the network provider. Not sure I like the sound of that, but that's probably because I'm a consumer.

The company will offer 1GB and 2GB cards, each with adaptors that to fit standard SD card slots. They retail initially in the US for $44.99 and $69.99 respectively.

Sandisk website

BluPhones - wireless Bluetooth headphones for music and calls

If you've got an A2DP-friendly phone, you might as well take advantage of it - which is where BluPhones come in.

Essentially, it's a lightweight (26g) Bluetooth headset, so you can use it with a Bluetooth-friendly music player or phone, but if you have a gadget that does both, all the better. You can take calls on the BluPhones and if music is playing, it will be paused for the duration of the call. On-ear controls allow you to easily answer and end calls - and if you d

Then there's the music, wirelessly streaming the tunes from your player or phone, with on-ear control for volume and skipping tracks. There's five hours' talk time, 60 hours of standby and a range of 10m.

You can order one now for £49.99.

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Moixa develops phone battery charging from any USB port

Last year we featured the USBCell, a new kind of battery that could be charged from a standard USB port. Well, developers Moixa plan to bring this new technology to your mobile phones.

It's not a bad way to go. With so many new functions added to our mobiles - and especially with video gaining prominence - there's definitely a need to add flexibility to mobile charging. And by going down the USB line, it opens up all manner of sources for adding power to your handset.

It also means the end of having to carry round a bulky mains charger too. No news of a shelf date as yet, or indeed compatibility for handsets, but we'll let you know more as soon as we have it.

Moixa website

Is it a lamp? Is it a mobile phone? IT'S BOTH!

Meet the GSM Table Lamp. It's a nice-looking lamp, which has a GSM receiver and microphone built in, allowing you to call it, and listen to your cats plotting. Well, as long as they plot next to the lamp. And can talk. But other than that, it's foolproof.

The lamp has a range of 15 to 20 feet, but has a whopping price tag of almost £1,000. Couldn't you hire a private detective for that kind of money if you're worried your Nanny's up to no good?

(via Sci Fi Tech)

Sony MEX-BT2500 in-car Bluetooth CD tuner aids safer communication on the road

With the new UK regulations on using a mobile phone whilst driving now in full force, Sony are but one company appealing to you to use their product to enable you to make safe phone calls whilst driving, as well as being able to enjoy your CDs and streamed MP3 music on the go.

The MEX-BT2500 connects automatically to your mobile phone via Bluetooth, and has a super-sensitive built-in microphone, which means there's no need to use a headset or install a hands-free kit.

The MEX-BT2500 conforms to the Bluetooth A2DP specification, which means you can stream music to the device, and it happily pairs up with a Sony Walkman or other Bluetooth MP3 device. Non-Bluetooth MP3 players can be connected by using Sony's TMR-BT10 accessory that plugs directly into the headphone socket.

The MEX-BT2500 features advanced shock damper technology that ensures skip-free CD tracking, and also boasts 'zero visibility' operation (no wires, cradles or mouting suckers) for increased security.

Available from March, price to be confirmed.

New mobile driving legislation - your boss could end up in court

It's all over the media - a £60 fine and three points on your licence if you get caught using a mobile in your vehicle without a hands-free kit. But did you know your boss could also be dragged before the courts too?

According to a survey undertaken by YouGov in association with hands-free specialists Jabra, 68% of employers are aware of harsher penalties introduced today for mobile phone use in the car, but nearly one in four could be liable for prosecution if their employees use a mobile phone for work-related calls while driving.

Why? Well under Department of Transport guidelines, employers are liable if they require employees to use a hand-held phone while driving or if they fail to forbid employees to use such phones on company business. Around 78% of businesses have introduced a mobile phone policy for in-car use, but a number of smaller businesses (around a third) have no policy in place.

“Our survey highlights confusion amongst employers regarding their responsibility under legislation governing in-car mobile phone use for work-related calls. Given the high awareness of employer liability under existing mobile phone laws, it is worrying that only 78% of companies actually have a policy in place to ensure the safety of their staff and reduce the risk of prosecution, especially when providing a solution can cost less than £20 per employee,” commented Andrew Doyle, UK Country Manager, Jabra.

Jabra website

Review: Motorola S805 "DJ Style" Stereo Bluetooth Headset

The propaganda

Stereo Bluetooth looks set to become incredibly popular throughout 2007. If CES is anything to go by, and that after all is what CES is for, then it looks like we’re going to be bombarded with all manner of devices offering A2DP connectivity, ranging from phones to car stereos, MP3 players to headphones. Apart from the blissful absence of wires, lure enough in itself for anyone who is fed up with constantly trying to untangle their mobile and iPod from a perpetually knotted headphone cable, A2DP often comes in conjunction with AVRCP which allows you to control music sources wirelessly as well.

Although there aren’t a huge number of A2DP standard wireless headsets available in the UK at the moment, Motorola has always been at the forefront of this particular technology and it’s no surprise then that it has been first to market with what I consider to be a decent sized pair of headphones. I personally can’t stand earphones and think they are bloody uncomfortable, so a full sized pair of cans is always my personal preference. And they always sound so much better.

The S805s have an integrated mic with echo and noise reduction for making and receiving calls and they offer play/pause, skip and volume controls accessed by buttons on either side and jog-wheels built into both ear pieces. You charge them via the mains, which takes about 3 hours, and if you want to listen to a non-Bluetooth source, they even come with a 3.5mm

The good

For a device with only two buttons, general operation, setup and pairing is remarkably straight forward. You simply hold the call button to switch the S805s off or on, or hold it longer to begin pairing. When tested with an A2DP compatible phone, I found the response speed for the playback controls was generally very fast and only occasionally lagged out.

Battery life is also very good. You get about 17 hours of playback from a single charge and the sound quality remains stable throughout, only beginning to tail off right as the battery is on its very last legs.

Comfort – always an essential factor in big headphones – is great too. These cans aren’t too heavy at less than four ounces and there is plenty of flex in the construction which means they fit round your head very nicely. If I had to complain, it would be to say that they don’t hang round your neck as well as my battered old pair of Sennheisers used too, but that’s not huge problem.

The bad

Take the ‘DJ’ part of the name with a heavy dose of salt. The sound quality isn’t stunning and certainly not up to the standards that any self respecting audiophile would appreciate. Bass tends to twang rather than thumps and rapidly tops out with a horrible jarring sound and the range of mid-end doesn’t fully compliment the lower end sounds. Treble is a bit better though and is crisper and clearer but with an understated feel similar to the bass. A2DP also yields a fair bit of background hiss too.

In fact you can do wonders for the sound quality by keeping the source volume about as low as humanly possible and turning up the S805s up to full. This implies that the more serious sound quality issues are not so much to do with the headphones themselves but the limitations of A2DP. It is fortunate then that the S805s do turn up very loud, but that is counter balanced by the fact you have to keep the source volume so low so that in the end you may struggle to hear properly in noisy conditions such as a busy street.

Geek Sheet

A2DP stereo Bluetooth

17 hours battery life

3 hours charge time

Control playback and answer calls

Streaming: up to 30ft

In the box: charger, case, 3.5mm cable

Integrated echo- and noise-reduction microphone

Overview

Clearly A2DP still has some way to go before it will ever come close to straying on to the level of quality that a wired solution can offer. Likewise, the Motorola S805 headphones have some creases to iron out and getting the best possible sound out of them is fiddly at best, hit and miss at worst. That said though, now that I have them sussed I am pretty keen on them. The fact that I can pause and skip tracks without reaching for my pocket, then answer a call without missing a beat, still never fails to raise a smile…

Related stories: Motorola DJ-style S805 stereo Bluetooth headset | 3GSM: Motorola's ergonomic RIZR Z8| Review: Parrot Wireless Speakers | More Gadgets...

Related sites: Motorola

LG Prada Bluetooth headset - for your LG Prada phone

Spotted over at Shiny Shiny is the first accessory for the recently-announced LG Prada phone - the LG Prada Bluetooth headset.

However, unlike the very stylish handset, this first add-on doesn't look like it offers much more than any other on the market, with the exception of the Prada logo and the knowledge that it matches your mobile.

But if it gets your pulse racing and you want to know more, head over to Shiny Shiny now.

Sagem H4 - smallest-ever Bluetooth headset?

Here we go again, another "smallest ever...", this time from Sagem, which claims its H4 headset is the smallest on the market.

Is it? Well, if you know of an earpiece that's smaller than 35 x 18 x 12.5mm, let them know. If not, we'll presume the company is right. The H4 weighs in at 8g, is available in a glossy black, and has the ability to store and call two of your favourite numbers from a dedicated button, as well as handsfree voice dialling if you phone supports it.

Talktime is 5 hours, with 100 hours of standby. There's also a light indicator if the battery is low. Available now, it retails for £53.

Sagem website

Plantronics Discovery 655 Bluetooth headset with noise reduction

With government legislation on mobile use in cars getting some teeth at the end of February, there's a rush to market for new Bluetooth headsets, including the Plantronics Discovery 655 Bluetooth headset.

The Plantronics Discovery 655 is a lightweight headset (just 9g) featuring Digital Signal Processing (DSP) - technology that reduces noise levels for enhanced sound and clearer conversations.

The headset also features 10 hours of talk time and a vibrate ring indicator. it retails for £59.99.

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Who wants a Wi-Fi digital camera when you've got a mobile phone?

Stuart Dredge writes...

This post started life as a rant about how cool Wi-Fi digital cameras are, spurred by news that Nikon is launching two new models, the Coolpix S50 and S50c.

After all, it's about time there were more Wi-Fi cams available for those of us who've been longing for the next generation to follow up Kodak's EasyShare-One, Canon's PowerShot SD430 and Nikon's own Coolpix P1 and P2.

Yet the more I wrote about the potential uses for a connected digital camera, the more I realised that mobile phones are already doing pretty much all of it, and what's more are more likely to soon include technologies like GPS that'll take wireless photo-sharing to the next level.

At a basic level, the benefits of a Wi-Fi-enabled digital camera are clear, if a little prosaic. You take a bunch of shots, then when you get home, you don't need a USB cable to transfer them to your computer – or even print them if you've got a Wi-Fi printer sitting around. This is useful stuff, even if reducing my USB cable count by one still means there's about 74 lying about the house.

But the coolest stuff that could be done with a Wi-Fi cam - or so I thought - was the sharing aspects while out on the go. Check Nikon's press release for the new S50 and S50c: "Users can share pictures with friends and family from just about anywhere by emailing images directly from the camera through open-access wireless hotspots".

Okay, so the lack of open-access hotspots is a bit of a barrier, but I'm sure that's surmountable if the camera manufacturers can do similar deals with Wi-Fi hotspot networks as that done by Nintendo for the DS.

In theory, Wi-Fi cams could cross the chasm between shooting and sharing. Imagine: you're out and about taking photos, and whenever you're in range of a friendly Wi-Fi network, the camera automatically uploads them to whatever photo-sharing service you're using (ideally you'd get a choice, although I'm guessing the camera firms would prefer to restrict you to their own proprietary online services).

Point, click, and share without even thinking about it. It'd be great. More Wi-Fi cameras, I say! But hang on a minute. My mobile phone already does this, having downloaded the nifty ShoZu application (pictured) a few months ago. Whenever I take a photo, it asks me if I want to send it to Flickr. Say yes, and off it goes.

The quality of mobile phone cameras is improving all the time. Once we reach five megapixels in mass-market handsets, that'll be enough for most people's needs – and certainly enough for online sharing. There are obstacles - such as crazy data charges from your operator if you upload too many images - but if you're yearning for a world where you can share your daily snaps without even thinking about it, it's doable right now if you're on a suitable tariff.

There are some great professional uses for Wi-Fi digital cameras (think news and sports photographers, for example), but when it comes to consumer uses, phones will surely trump them – not least because for the near future, you're far more likely to be in reach of a 3G network than a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Even once we have city-wide WiMAX networks and suchlike, there's no reason phones won't be able to use those too. In fact, it seems logical to assume that mobiles will also steal some of the useful ideas from Wi-Fi cameras, such as automatic photo synching when in range of your home network.

Plus there's that GPS. I for one can't wait until my phone can automatically associate geotagging data with my snaps, which can then be plotted against a Google Map or whatever once uploaded to the Web. If I allow it to be, of course. There's probably some privacy issues I should think more about before sharing location-enabled pics willy-nilly. But anyway, GPS will be in more phones sooner than it'll be in digital cameras.

The upshot of all this. If we're talking about connected photography devices, surely it's got to be phones if you're not a pro snapper? Wi-Fi cameras excite the gadgety geek inside me, but when it comes to thinking about what I'd actually get more use out of, the mobile wins every time.

3rdi - CCTV-like security using your mobile phone

Not the first time we've featured mobile-based home security, but the 3rdi mobile security system seems fairly straightforward to use and indeed affordable.

The system uses a small camera that can be positioned anywhere to watch over anything that you value around the home, the office or even in the car. Once the camera is in position, you can view live footage of your possessions whenever and from wherever you want via your mobile phone.

The system also works when you are not watching the camera. Using infrared and motion sensors, the camera detects when an intruder has entered your home, with the 3rd-i control centre immediately sending a text message alert to your mobile phone. You can then access a recording of the event that set the camera off or view the location in real-time. Images are stored at the 3rd-i control centre for up to 30 days, so if the mobile phone is switched off when the alert is sent, footage of the event is still available.

The 3rdi camera retails for around £200, check the company's website for pricing for its monitoring services.

3rdi website

Lexar introduces 4GB miniSDHC and 2GB microSD storage cards

Lexar is adding some new storage cards to its range - 4GB miniSDHC and 2GB microSD storage cards.

Lexar’s new 4GB miniSDHC card will allow you to store more than 100 hours of video in MPEG4 (3GP2) format, over 1,000 songs (4-minute song in MP3 format), or over 4,000 photos (using a 3 megapixel cameraphone). The new 2GB microSD card can hold up to 50 hours of video in MPEG4 (3GP2) format, over 500 songs in MP3 format, or over 2,000 photos using a 3 megapixel cameraphone.

As yet, there's no prices, but they will be shipping worldwide from April 2007.

Find out more

30 things we learned at 3GSM 2007

Phew. As ever, 3GSM was tiring both physically and mentally, with a barrage of new products and companies, plus an enormous venue to walk around. Honestly, if we believed in wearing pedometers, they'd have exploded by Tuesday.

So now the Shiny team is back in Blighty, what did we learn from this year's 3GSM? It's a chance to spot the hottest new mobile phones and technology, as well as suss out the most important mobile trends for the next 12 months. Here's our main thoughts.

1. There was no big theme this year

3GSM 2006 saw immense hype around mobile TV, with companies queuing up to proclaim it the Next Big Thing in mobile entertainment. The fact that it's since disappointed means that the lack of a single big hype this year isn't necessarily a bad thing. There was lots of buzz, but spread around a bunch of subjects, which is a healthier state of affairs.

2. Mobile social networking is a hot topic

There were lots of companies - many of them startups - promising to create MySpace-like communities for mobile. Meanwhile, the big players - the actual MySpaces, Bebos and so on - were undoubtedly at 3GSM, even if they weren't talking about their plans.

From our chats with companies like Cerkle, FunkySexyCool, Clicmobile and others, it's clear how new an area this is. People aren't sure if mobile-only social networks will succeed, for example, or whether mobile is just an add-on to existing web communities. 2007 should give some clues.

3. LG's Prada phone is better than you'd think

Don't take this the wrong way. We weren't expecting the Prada phone (right) to be awful. Just a bit gimmicky. Yet as Susi's video verdict makes clear, it looks and feels like Prada's been involved from the start. And that touch-screen is mighty purdy.

4. Mobile music is a bit rubbish

It seems us mobile users aren't as keen on downloading full tracks to our phones as the music industry would like us to be. Warner Music head honcho Edgar Bronfman Jr told 3GSM attendees that "it's expensive, it's complicated and it's slow", saying the iPhone will hopefully force operators and manufacturers to up their game.

Meanwhile, mobile firm Omnifone was trying to do just that, unveiling what it reckons is a truly mobile iTunes-beater, which it'll be running for operators around the world.

Meanwhile, the music industry continues to rumble about whether it should scrap copyright protection for digital music - if it does, it would certainly have a positive impact on the number of people downloading tunes directly to their phones.

5. Cool new handset designs

Motorola's new Z8 phone has a 'kick slider' design, which is the first handset type to sound like it should be a trick in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. We're looking forward to Nokia launching a triple-back-kick olley grinder phone at 3GSM 2008...

6. Bring on the five-megapixel camera phones

By and large, we tried to steer clear of the really techy companies at 3GSM. After all, the chips and servers they make are only interesting to the likes of us once they're actually in products we can buy.

But a firm called OmniVision announced a five-megapixel auto-focus camera module, which it'll be flogging to handset manufacturers, and which it says is affordable enough to be put into mass-market mobile phones. We can't wait.

7. Don't hold your breath for a roll-up mobile display that can play video

Philips spin-off Polymer Vision got plenty of deserved buzz at 3GSM for its Readius roll-up display for reading e-books and RSS feeds (left). Both Susi (video) and I (interview) were impressed, although the company's goal of putting one in every mobile phone seems ambitious, given they're not expecting the screens to be capable of video for a good five years.

8. We should start getting a bit worried about mobile viruses

Worried you'll look like a n00b if your phone gets hax0red? You should be. Bubbling under the surface at 3GSM was growing concern about the possible impact of viruses in the mobile space - even if some of it was fuelled by the companies looking to flog technology to protect against them.

McAfee claimed at the show that there are now around 350 mobile viruses, worms or other malware, and also said that 83% of mobile operators have been hit by mobile infections.

9. Next-generation phone interfaces will look amazing

We swung by the NVIDIA stand to check out some of the demos running on the company's new mobile chipsets, which will be making their way into millions of handsets in the next couple of years.

One demo featured a user interface for phones that included multi-tasking windows, a 3D interface with snazzy transition effects, and 'fully accelerated translucent window compositing'. Want to know what that is? Watch our video.

10. The operators need to sort out their data-tariffs

If we're all going to be downloading music, video and games onto our phones from sources other than the operator's own portals, we don't want to be paying through the nose in data charges. Yet although T-Mobile and 3 have launched 'flat-rate' tariffs in the shape of Web'n'Walk and X-Series, the other operators are dragging their heels a bit.

Who wants to download a music track if it's going to cost you an extra £3 in data charges? Or, as Yospace CTO David Springall pointed out to us, who's going to upload their cool cameraphone video to YouTube if it costs them £12 to do it? Even Nokia and Sony Ericsson united to criticise the operators' complex tariffs at 3GSM this year.

11. Transformers RAWK!

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift might be the best mobile game of 2006, according to 3GSM's Global Mobile Awards judges, but I'm more excited about the chance to play as Optimus Prime in the upcoming Transformers mobile game. Even if it is a bit unwise to turn into a truck midway through a platform game.

Mobile games were a bit quiet at 3GSM, with only a few publishers booking their own stands to show off new stuff. However, there's a quiet momentum building behind smartphone games - for example with a new Symbian version of Project Gotham Racing.

12. We still can't tell the difference between all the mobile VoIP companies

There are loads of startups aiming to be the mobile Skype. And speaking as a consumer, it's hard to a.) tell them apart, and b.) figure out why we shouldn't just wait for Skype to roll out a mobile application that provides ALL the features you get on the desktop version.

Rest assured, Tech Digest is going to be looking at this whole area very soon, to figure out who's who and what it's all about. For now, we remain confused. Which is why we haven't raced to sign up to any service.

13. Mobile TV is still underwhelming

Research firm M:Metrics surveyed 22,000 European mobile users before the show, and found that former mobile TV viewers now outnumber current mobile TV users. 45% of the people who've turned off say pricing issues were a factor, while 24% cite concerns over service quality and reliability.

From the technical demos we saw at 3GSM, mobile TV will be great. One day. But for now, it's provoking a lot of people who are interested in watching programmes on their phones to switch off.

14. Mobile blogging is growing, with photos and videos the focus

The problem with moblogging was always the assumption that people would type posts on their mobile keypad to upload. However ninja your texting skills are, it's not very appealing.

However, talking to a couple of blogging tech providers at 3GSM (including Motorola), people have twigged that moblogging is more about instant posting of photos and videos as (or just after) you capture them. Which when you think about it, makes way more sense.

That said, the Shiny massive are also converts to SpinVox's Spin-my-Blog technology, which converts your voice blatherings into proper text posts. So wordy moblogging could make a comeback soon.

15. If you want a phone with a full keyboard, you're spoilt for choice

All the manufacturers had the QWERTY bug at this year's 3GSM, including the usual suspecs (HTC), but also the likes of Nokia, Motorola and Toshiba. We blame the rise of mobile email.

16. It's quite seedy to hang around a stand leching on Russian booth babes

Although, yes, it's probably even worse to film them. Sorry about that.

17. YouTube and MySpace have work to do on mobile

The two biggest Web 2.0 brands clearly see mobile as an important part of their future, but mobile types aren't convinced they've got their strategy right just yet. YouTube has signed deals with Nokia and Vodafone, but mobile video-sharing site Yospace reckons it still sees mobile as simply a case of shoving its web vids onto phones.

Meanwhile, social networking firm Clicmobile warned MySpace that it needs to get mobile right, or it could die! The fact that these two companies' are in some form rivals to MySpace and YouTube doesn't mean their views should be written off, either. Figuring out what will make a great MySpace or YouTube mobile service will be one of the biggest challenges in 2007. We're sure it's possible.

18. Don't spunk all your new product announcements the week before 3GSM.

It might mean Susi can shoot videos on your stand without being jostled by 717 men in suits, but it doesn't give her much to talk about...

19. Thin is in

The fashion industry may be (reluctantly) booting underweight models off the catwalk, but Size Zero phones go from strength to strength. Top dog at 3GSM in the 'looks really cool even though you have a nagging suspicion you might end up accidentally snapping it in your back pocket' stakes was Samsung's U100 (left).

20. Us Brits like a night at the movies

And we use our phones to do it too. M-Spatial chose 3GSM to release its latest research on what local services UK mobile users search for using their phones. Cinema was the most popular category, followed by Fast Food, Drinking and Taxi. No, Museums, Opera and Bowling Greens didn't make the Top 10...

21. Mobile GPS navigation is buzzing

Also in evidence at the show was mobile navigation technology, whether applications for phones from the likes of Telmap, TeleNav and ALK Technologies, or GPS-enabled devices from Garmin, BlackBerry and Nokia.

Right now, it's mainly about providing the sort of turn-by-turn driving directions that you'd get in a regular satnav device, but the real potential is in using your mobile's data connection to provide live traffic info and updates, or at some point in the future, tying into mobile social networks (companies like Clicmobile and CityNeo are already looking to do this).

22. Techy mobile companies have a keen sense of irony

At least, I hope that's the case. How they come up with stand slogans like 'Shattering Tomorrow's Boundaries of Mobile Antenna Specification Solutions, Today!' if they're not having a laugh is beyond me.

23. Windows Mobile is gearing up for another big push

Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 6.0 at 3GSM, with all manner of on-stand demos showing off its new features, which we'll be looking at in more detail in the weeks ahead.

But equally importantly, Microsoft has signed up the likes of LG, Toshiba and HP to make Windows Mobile phones, with the first handsets using the new OS set to appear in the second half of this year, including some from previous licensors like HTC.

24. Creating your own mobile TV channel is more fun than watching what the operators are serving up

If mobile is such a personal device, why do I have to just watch simulcasts of terrestrial or digital channels, hmm? Some companies are exploring DIY TV, where you create a channel of video content to watch on your phone. One example is Vpod.tv, who'll have an interview going up on Tech Digest early next week.

Meanwhile, Dutch firm TNO unveiled a new tech called Farcast which works the other way around, taking video from your phone and turning it into a web-based TV channel.

25. DVB-H mobile TV is still frustratingly far away in the UK

We want it. We want it now. But despite the announcement of cool DVB-H handsets like Nokia's N77, don't expect to see them on sale here unless the powers-that-be in the UK broadcasting and mobile industries figure out how and when to roll the technology out here. Bah.

26. You can finally get Flash Lite content on your phone

You know Flash - it's ubiquitous on the Web. Adobe has had the Flash Lite tool for mobile phones for some time, which can be used for rich games and applications. Trouble was, nobody was really selling them, so you had to frequent developer forums to find stuff to actually put on your phone.

That's changing. At 3GSM, Adobe signed a deal with website Handango, which will be one of the first to sell Flash Lite content to mobile users. Hopefully more will follow.

27. Short films on your phone are cool

At 3GSM, the people behind the Sundance Film Festival unveiled five short films shot especially for mobile, which were immediately made available for download to mobile users.

You can have a gander by texting FILM to 07624 807 811, to get sent a link to their WAP site. Better still, you can freely share them with friends via Bluetooth. The idea of sitting down for three hours to watch King Kong on a phone is horrendous, but short, arty movies like this should find a healthy audience.

28. We quite fancy a simple mobile phone

All these cutting-edge whizzy multimedia handsets can get a bit much at times. Remember the old days, when your phone could make voice calls, send texts and.. well, that was it. Those days don't have to be in the past.

The mobile industry is putting lots of effort into low-cost handsets too, albeit mainly for countries such as India and China, which are expected to provide explosive mobile growth in the coming years. Motorola's F3 won an award at the show for being the 'Best Ultra Low Cost Handset', for example.

If you're thinking of going retro, Tech Digest's recommendation is the newly-announced Nokia 3110 Classic, which is a replacement for the classic 6310i. Ashley liked the big buttons. "If your dad wants a phone..."

29. Touch-screen phones are easy to use

Not sure about how you'd get on without a keypad? Soon you'll have the opportunity to find out. Besides the LG Prada phone, and of course Apple's iPhone, 3GSM also saw the debut of Samsung's F700, which admittedly also has a slide-out keyboard for messaging. But it's the screen that caught Ashley's attention, even from behind a glass screen.

Touch-screen phones aren't just about slinkiness. As mobiles try to be all things to all people - music player, TV, web surfing device etc - the traditional keypad interface is struggling to keep up. Touch-screens mean more flexible user interfaces able to adapt to whatever you're doing on the phone at the time.

30. Everyone thinks mobile advertising will be big. Nobody knows quite how it'll work

The advertising industry loves the thought of putting ads on phones. Not least because the young cool hipsters it likes to target aren't as susceptible to TV and print ads. Along with online advertising, mobile is the new buzz area. Trouble is, nobody's quite sure what kind of mobile advertising will work well, and what us users will put up with.

The mobile phone's a personal device, so any unwanted ads will feel doubly intrusive. Yet at the same time, the mobile industry sees adverts as a way to make mobile entertainment cheaper - or even free - to make more of us use it. Which would certainly solve those worries over mobile TV pricing (see earlier).

At 3GSM, there was lots of talk about mobile ads, but not that much action yet. 2007 will see a big growth in the sector though, whether it's free mobile games with ads on the loading screens, banner ads on your operator portal, or the Crazy Frog bursting into your voice calls every three minutes singing his latest ringtone. Okay, not that last one. Well, I hope not...

Review: Parrot Conference

The propaganda

Conference calling and mobile phones are two technologies that have seldom crossed paths, but it does make a kind of sense. Most offices won’t have a fixed-line conference phone system fitted to every meeting room and although there are cordless conference phones, DECT still isn’t quite as free roaming as a mobile phone and Bluetooth device.

The Parrot Conference is pretty much exactly like any ordinary conference phone in most other regards. It has three integrated microphones for a 360 degree voice pickup and a 5W internal speaker so you can hear the person on the other end. To ensure that you can do things completely wirelessly, it includes three rechargeable Li-Ion batteries that offer up to ten hours of continuous talk-time. The unit will also store 50 different phones in its memory and up to 6,000 contacts which, rather than programming in yourself, you can upload directly using any Bluetooth enabled device.

The good

The Parrot Conference does a good job in two key areas: setup and call quality. Assuming your handset already has Bluetooth switched on and is visible, you can be connected up and dialling in under twenty seconds, most of which time you will probably only spend waiting for the Bluetooth to connect. What’s more, you can connect your phone either straight from the handset or from the Conference itself –you get a choice and that makes things a bit more straight forward. The buttons are large and generally well marked, the two big mute buttons double up as the ‘synchronisation’ button when pressed together.

Call quality is generally pretty decent and its greatest strength is in ensuring that there is no echo at all on the other end. Background noise is also cut down really well so you shouldn’t have much trouble being heard even in a noisy office.

Of course, there’s a possibility that you might not see a mobile phone as the most cost effective solution for making long, often international, phone calls. Luckily Parrot has you covered there as well. The Conference comes with a CD containing software that will let you connect to a Bluetooth enabled PC with Skype. That means you can enjoy all the same functionality, but a heck of a lot cheaper thanks to VoIP.

The bad

Although it is pretty easy to get your most basic call settings up to speed, there are a few areas where things get more complicated. When connecting a handset, you can either choose ‘default’ Bluetooth settings or you can select your model/service from a long list of different handset types and actions. It’s all well and good if your handset is on the list, but at the time of testing I was using a Samsung X820 which was not on the list. Using default settings I could easily connect to the device, make and receive calls – no problem. However, when it sat idle for a few minutes it had a tendency to lose connection. I was also unable to transfer contacts from the phone to the unit.

I then tried using different settings to see if that helped. Sure enough I solved the contacts problem and the handset stayed connected as it was supposed to, but then I could no longer dial out from the main unit. Doh.

Obviously the problem is going to be limited only to those handsets that don’t fully support the Parrot Conference’s Bluetooth systems and even then, an unsupported one like the X820 can still function properly with a bit of tweaking.

Geek Sheet

Speaker: 5 watts

DSP: advanced echo cancellation

3 microphones high sensitivity -47dB

Colour LCD display 262,144 colors

Pairing: up to 50 phones

Number of contacts: up to 6,000 in total

Bluetooth profiles: HSP 1.1, HFP 1.0 & 1.5, OPP, SYNC, PBAP

Supports Skype VoIP software

Dimensions: 265 x 240 x 45 mm, Weight: 640 gr 

Power supply: rechargeable Li-Ion batteries

Warranty: one year from date of purchase

Overview

I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on conference phones, but after a quick trawl on the web, I’m thinking that the £148 price tag on the Parrot Conference is a pretty good deal compared to a normal standalone kit. Although the Bluetooth synchronisation system is good and straightforward to setup for the most basic and important functions, you may find it more of struggle to get the full range of features working on every single phone.

Related stories: CES 2007: Parrot Bluetooth Photo Viewer | Parrot Conference Bluetooth speakerphone| Review: Parrot Wireless Speakers | More Gadgets...

Related sites: Parrot

M300 wristwatch phone ready for launch

Convergence could move a step forward next month with the launch of M300 tri-band wristwatch phone in Australia by SMS Technology.

How it works in practice, we'll have to wait and see. But it features a 1-inch screen, 64MB of on-board memory, Bluetooth 2.0 an MP3 and MP4 player, along with 3.33 hours' talk time and 80 hours standby. It will retail for the equivalent of £261, with a European launched slated for 25th April. More on that when we have it.

There's also an M501 in the works - made from gold and titanium, it should be available from, June. And an M700, which will be pitched at businessmen and features Outlook and Office synchronisation. That I have to see.

SMS Technology

Via The Register

Stay legal in the car with Parrot’s CK3000 Evolution

Drive down the road and chances are you'll see a van driver clutching a mobile to their ear whilst negotiating a tricky turn. It's illegal, but no-one seems bothered. However, as of 27th February, the law gets teeth - £60 fine plus three points on your licence. So it might be as well to go hands free.

Parrot's CK3000 Evolution is universally compatible with all Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and using your car stereo speakers, it lets you take the calls with a clear sound (well, as clear as your stereo). You can stay in touch with up to 150 friends, family or business contacts at the touch of a button with the voice recognition functionality and it's easy to transfer between cars.

You can pick one up from Halfords, priced at £99.99 with free installation.

Parrot website

Bluetrek ST1 Bluetooth headset

Any phone worth its salt has Bluetooth these days, with most of the high-profile launches at the 3GSM offering A2DP streaming too. So a good time for Bluetrek to launch its ST1 Bluetooth headset.

The headset offers A2DP streaming from a mobile phone or from a PC, allowing you to listen to your tunes without being tied to the wires. And if a phone call comes in, the ST1 pauses the music so you can chat away without a soundtrack.

Battery life is nine hours of music playback between charges (which can be done via USB) or 19 hours of chat and 11 days of standby. You can buy them now, priced at £60.

Bluetrek website

Kingston launches microSD Dual Adapter Pack - add some flexibility to your storage card

Not all devices takes the same size of storage card - meaning you could have one that fits your PDA, but isn't much use in your digital camera or MP3 player. One solution to the dilemma is Kingston Technology’s new microSD Dual Adapter Pack - designed to make Mobile Flash cards more flexible.

The set consists of a 1GB microSD card, a microSD to miniSD card adapter and a microSD to full size SD card adapter. The kit costs £10.60 plus VAT and is backed by a lifetime warranty for the 1GB microSD card.

According to Jim Selby, Product Marketing Manager at Kingston: "With microSD cards being used in many multifunctional handsets, Kingston saw an opportunity to create a very practical product - costing considerably less than buying three different memory card formats of the same capacity. Now consumers can use the miniSD or standard SD card adapter with a microSD card to enjoy music, pictures and videos or easily transport files from a mobile phone to an MP3 player, digital camera, PC or printer."

Kingston Technology website

Turn your fingers into a mobile phone

Another winning entry to this year's iF Concept Product Awards (albeit in a different category to the baby car seat featured earlier today) is 'Finger Touching', which is a wearable mobile device that turns your hand into a phone. No, really.

Designed by Sunman Kwon at Hong-ik University in South Korea, it slips onto your hand, and then projects a 3x4 mobile-style keypad onto your fingers, with each joint making up a button. You can see how it works from the picture.

Who knows if it'll be turned into an actual product. But imagine the looks you'd get if you whipped one out on the train and began texting by rapping your knuckles. Marvellous.

iF Design Awards – Consumer Electronics / Telecommunications category

Sony Ericsson debuts HBH-PV702 and HBH-PV710 Bluetooth headsets plus HPM-75 stereo portable handsfree unit

As well as the new handsets, Sony Ericsson also has a batch of new accessories on the market - the HBH-PV702 and HBH-PV710 Bluetooth headsets plus HPM-75 stereo portable handsfree unit.

The HBH-PV702 Bluetooth headset is available with a black or white cover, weighs 14g and offers up to 8 hours talk time, with around 200 hours of standby and can be used with any compatible Bluetooth handset, Sony Ericsson or not. The HBH-PV710 boosts talk and standby times to up to 12 and 300 hours respectively and comes in a more bold colour range - red and brown are included in the starter kit. Between calls it can hang on a supplied neck strap, slipping onto the ear when needed.

The HPM-75 stereo portable handsfree unit is an upgrade to the HPM-70. It comes with spare ear buds of different sizes, which can be swapped over for a perfect fit to block out external noise. A microphone and call answer button are on the cord for accessing calls.

The PV702 is available from mid 2007, the PV710 is available in the coming weeks and the HPM-75 is available later this year.

Sony Ericsson website

Motorola DJ-style S805 stereo Bluetooth headset

Call me old-fashioned, but when I go for a pair of headphones, I like the big chunky ones, not a million miles away from the pair I use when I pretend to be a superstar DJ. Which is why I'm drawn to Motorola's DJ-style S805 stereo Bluetooth headset.

Granted they aren't as subtle as some on the market, but you just know they're going to be so much more comfortable on the ears. The headset is fully Bluetooth 2.0 compliant, streaming up to 30ft away from the source. They also feature noise cancellation, volume and skip functions, a microphone for calls, a play time of up to 17 hours and despite the size, the S805 weighs less than four ounces.

The headphones come with cable, case, and charger, retailing for £79.99.

Find out more at the Motorola Shop

Seagate unveils Digital Audio Video Experience (DAVE) wireless mobile storage

Seagate has unveiled what it sees as the next-generation of mobile storage - Digital Audio Video Experience, or DAVE for short.

DAVE is a technology that can deliver 10-20GB of wireless storage for your mobile device via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi anywhere up to 30ft (9.1m) - not unlike the recently-unveiled BluOnyx server. And the accessory is small - about the size of a centimetre-thick credit card. It's a technology with one eye on the future, as our downloads and the necessary capacity needed to store them continues to grow. According to Frost & Sullivan, the number of mobile video download subscribers will jump to nearly 5 million in 2010, as compared with roughly 250,000 mobile video download subscribers in 2006.

DAVE will allow you to store all these downloads on one device - a 10GB device should mean around 2,500 songs or 21 hours of video available to you all the time. And if you change your mobile handset, you don't need to swap over the data - just pair it with the new phone or device.

Seagate are planning to sell the device to mobile phone manufacturers later this year - so expect it for sale late 2007.

Seagate website

Parrot Conference Bluetooth speakerphone

Parrot is introducing some new technology to the boardroom with the Bluetooth-friendly Conference wireless speakerphone, with Skype capability. 

The Conference speakerphone can store up to 6,000 contacts, which can be loaded wirelessly via Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, PDAs, and laptops. And once loaded, you can access them and all the other menus and settings through a large, bright active-matrix TFT colour display. It works with Parrot’s proprietary advanced digital signal processing technology with full duplexing for clear, echo-free conversations in rooms of any size. Three highly sensitive microphones provide a complete 360-degree voice pickup and a 5W speaker means all participants should be heard clearly.

It's powered by three rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries, so can be easily moved from office to conference room whenever the need arises. The batteries provide 10 hours of continuous talk-time, and fully recharge in five hours. It can also be paired with up to 50 phones at any one time and has an integrated Skype interface, so is ready to use with the service out of the box.

The Conference will retail from £148.

Parrot website

OtterBox launches rugged BlackBerry cases

You've not seen true despair until you've seen a high-flying business-person with a broken BlackBerry - especially if the cause was their own butterfingers. OtterBox's new 1930 and 1931 rugged BlackBerry cases might prevent their woe, mind.

The cases have water-resistant polycarbonate/ABS shells, plus rubber moulding making them easier to grip. There's also a rigid screen cover to protect the display from scratches.

OtterBox reckons soldiers are especially keen on the cases – all the better to ensure safe transmission of those illicit snaps of Iraqi prisoners, presumably.

Anyway, the 1930 fits the BlackBerry 8700 series, and the 1931 fits the 7200 series, and both come in black with grey rubber. They're on sale from the OtterBox website now, for $129.95.

OtterBox 1930 and 1931

BluOnyx Mobile Content Server - Wi-Fi storage for your mobile phone or media player

Agere Systems has introduced the BluOnyx Mobile Content Server, a storage solution for your mobile phone or media player when card capacity just isn't enough.

The BluOnyx is the size of a credit card and thinner than a Blackberry. It can transfer or stream music, video, pictures, business files to or from mobile phones, digital cameras, digital camcorders, PCs or to and from any site on the internet (such as YouTube or MySpace), accessing the web via Wi-Fi connection.

It has its own rechargeable battery, which lasts up to 12 hours and is available with strage levels from 1GB to 40GB. There's no screen - all control is via your mobile phone, PC or screen. Any media file can be hosted, even DRM files, as long as the playback device has the decoding capability. And as it's Wi-Fi-enabled, the BluOnyx offers net access for mobiles and PDAs that aren't broadband-enabled.

The retail price of the BluOnyx is expected to range from £50 to £130 depending on memory capacity. 

Find out more

More for your mobile

Skullcandy Link Hydration Pack with speakers

Possibly not the ideal accessory every day, but if you happen to be heading off for some winter sports or even a bit of adventure back home, you might like to take your technology with you, using the Skullcandy Link Hydration Pack with speakers.

Skullcandy Link Hydration Pack is a backpack with a difference. Yes, it can hold everything you need in the great outdoors, including the biggest coat you can carry, but it also features a battery-powered amplifier, firing sound out of the 60mm speakers embedded in the straps. The speakers are weather-impervious, carbon-fibre woven custom jobs designed to be used in rain, snow or shine.

Add to that a mobile microphone embedded in the strap, which allows you to make calls handsfree. And in the mid-strap, there's also a soft-touch panel for controlling power, volume and your mobile phone. Secure pockets will hold your phone and music player in place.

Available now in a choice of colours, you can pick one up for £106.99

Find out more at iWorld

Review: Orange Bluetooth Loudspeaker System

The propaganda

While I was cleaning out the attic the other day I found a neat little stereo. It has all the usual play/pause, volumes controls and stuff, but the weird part is that it only takes these funny looking shiny circular thingies – there wasn’t an iPod connector in sight. That’s just weird.

But you know, plugging your player into a stereo is soooo last year – Bluetooth is what 2007 is all about. In fact, Orange revealed it special Bluetooth Stereo Loudspeaker System back in October, but it should come its own this year as more and more handsets start to offer the latest stereo Bluetooth standard, called A2DP, which has been designed specifically to stream high quality audio wirelessly.

The speakers fit together as a single unit, or you can separate each speaker from the main unit, with a little under 1m worth of speaker cable to play with on each. The controls are pretty basic and consist of a single volume dial, which acts as the power switch as well, and the essential Bluetooth button. There is also a 3.5mm line in.

The good

Acoustic Energy is the company which actually makes Orange’s speaker set. It has a good reputation for making decent speakers and that really shows here. The sound has a pleasingly warm feel to it with a good balance of bass power and definition. You can really pick out a lot of the subtleties in what you’re listening to and you can crank the volume up to full and never experience any kind of distortion.

Pairing with a Bluetooth handset is very straight forward as you would expect – you just hold the Bluetooth button for a few seconds to start the pairing process. Testament to the simplicity of the design is the fact that all of the instructions are on one side of an A4 sized instruction leaflet.

The bad

The flipside to that very basic design is that the looks are a bit unexciting and it lacks any kind of playback controls. In its defence, the AVRCP standard necessary for remote control of playback functions isn’t particularly widespread yet, but you will need to bear in mind that you’ll have to turn to your phone handset (or whatever you’re using) to control the tracks. But that’s not a particular hardship and the range is pretty good.

I’m also not much of a fan of how it looks when the speakers are separated from the main unit. What you can’t tell from the picture is that there are two hooks pointing out of each side to keep the speakers firmly attached. It ends up looking like someone has driven four giant nails into the central section, which is a bit naff. And there doesn’t seem to be any way to remove them, other than perhaps going at them with a pair of pliers – something I wasn’t willing to try.

Geek Sheet

Dimensions: 373 x 133 x 156mm approx.

A2DP Bluetooth

3.5mm line in

Detachable speakers

Overview

If you have been using the A2DP Bluetooth standard to listen to music through compatible headphones, Orange’s speakers might well prove a very neat way of upgrading your sound to something more powerful. While they fall slightly short in the style and functionality departments, there is little to fault in the sound quality. The price tag of £90 isn’t too bad either and given that there aren’t currently all that many alternatives to them, it seems all the more worthwhile.

Related stories: Jabra BT8010 Bluetooth headset - and headphones | Review: Parrot Wireless Speakers| Is the end nigh for DAB? | More Mobile Phones...

Related sites: Orange

Tag Heuer preparing to launch mobile watch?

Cards on the table: does anyone seriously want a watch they can make calls on? Really? It's one of those gadgets that sounds way cool in theory, but falls down when you realise how much of a twonk you'll look using it on the train.

Still, Tag Heuer might sway your opinion. Some photos have leaked out which appear to show a new watch from the company that can make calls and play MP3s, alongside its regular timekeeping duties. Presumably, this involves wireless connection to a Bluetooth headset, which would solve the embarrassment problem (well, partly). It's claimed that Paris design firm ModeLabs is working with Tag Heuer on the device.

(via Mad4MobilePhones)

Samsung SCH-W559 gets tactile control with VibeTonz technology

Not yet available in the UK, Samsung's SCH-W559 features Immersion's VibeTonz technology, which provides "tactile control" for the touchscreen handset.

The SCH-W559 is the first touchscreen-based handset to use the technology. It uses a large 260,000-color QVGA LCD touchscreen display to replace the traditional keypad (not unlike the recently-announced iPhone), with users confirming tactile cues when they press graphical onscreen controls, which can be customised by selecting one of five feedback profiles for these cues.

It allows touchscreen-displayed buttons to feel more like mechanical keys, with the tactile feedback boosting usability in situations where controls are obscured or washed out by glare. The new phone is being sold by China Unicom currently and also includes handwriting recognition, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, and audio and video playback.

We'll let you know if it is heading to the UK.

VibeTonz website

Nokia introduces USB chargers for its mobile phones

Nokia has come up with a solution to allow you to charge your Nokia mobile phone from the USB port on your laptop or PC. The Nokia CA-100 is compatible with the 2.0mm charger connector, whilst the CA-70 works with 3.5mm connectors.

In fairness, it's not particularly revolutionary. I've been able to charge my iPod and my Palm PDA via USB for ages. One thing that does interest me, though, is whether a mobile phone can be fully charged in this way, as I know some devices can't be completely charged unless connected to a mains adapter.

Here's the product page for the CA-100 though there's no word on pricing.

Anycom FIPO turns audio iPod docks into Bluetooth receivers

You couldn't fling a cat at last week's CES show without hitting 17 home entertainment devices with iPod docks. Not that I tried, mind. They wouldn't give my cat a show badge. Anyway, buying a spiffing new hi-fi with an iPod dock isn't much use if you don't have an iPod.

Except Anycom has unveiled a nifty new widget called FIPO, which plugs into any connector designed for an iPod, and functions as a Bluetooth receiver, receiving audio from any Bluetooth device – mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players or whatever. And there'll be an increasing number of Bluetooth MP3 players in the months ahead, I promise you.

FIPO will cost $99 in the US, with mass production beginning in February – Europe included. It certainly sounds neat, although the cynic in me wonders a.) how many people really want to stream tunes from their mobile phone to their hi-fi anyway, and b.) how many MP3-player owners would opt for FIPO, rather than a much cheaper cable to connect their player to the Line-In jack on their hi-fi.

Anycom FIPO website

Qstik EVOQ Bluetooth DSP headset – wireless mobile calls, VoIP and music streaming

Qstik has launched what it claims is "the world’s most advanced Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Bluetooth headset" with the EVOQ.

Using technology originally developed for the telecoms industry and the military, the circular EVOQ unit features bi-directional noise cancellation, echo cancellation, auto-volume control and speech enhancement for mobile calling. And for music streaming, it has a dedicated ear-bud headset for true stereo, along with Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and Audio Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) support. There's also an A2DP-compliant USB dongle available.

And there's wireless VoIP access, courtesy of the Bluetooth dongle, which allows you to switch between calls and music easily.

The Qstik EVOQ DSP Bluetooth headset is available now for £59.99, with the Bluetooth USB dongle available for an additional £17.99.

Find out more

You've seen the Apple iPhone... now buy the T-shirt!

Okay, so us Brits can't get our clammy hands on an iPhone until the end of the year (if we're lucky), but we can kit ourselves out with some suitably iPhony merchandise. Bayraider's sniffed out two very-much unofficial iPhone t-shirt auctions on eBay.

One simply offers a choice of two iPhone images on a black or white background, while the other offers the more Americanised slogan of ''If I don't get my iPhone I'm gonna bust a freakin nut!!'. Quite.

(via Bayraider)

Jabra BT8010 Bluetooth headset - and headphones

Spotted over at Shiny Shiny is Jabra's latest attempt to get us to go Bluetooth - the Jabra BT8010 - which doubles up as a pair of headphones.

Doubling up is probably a good idea - after all, most phones these days have a media player, so why not use it? And it saves you carrying around two different add-ons. The actual Bluetooth unit features a personalised phonebook, caller ID and up to 10 hours talk time. And if no-one is calling, slip in the other earpiece and listen to some tunes.

Price still to be confirmed.

Jabra website

More from Shiny Shiny

CES 2007: Koss takes away the wires with two new sets of headphones

Koss has unveiled a pair of rather swish pair of Bluetooth headphones called Cobalt. They have a unique white and gold finish and a behind the head design that looks similar to the Motorola HT820s. They don't specifically state A2DP but we're assuming that's what they use.

The internal Li-Ion battery give and approximate battery life of eight hours and it is designed to give an extended frequency response. Koss also supplies a Bluetooth transmitter that will fit your computer/MP3 player/whatever with it.

Check out the Koss Tugos on the turn.

As a slightly lower tech solution to the whole Bluetooth thing, the Koss TUGO incorporates an MP3 player into the ear piece (if Mohammed won't come to Mohammed...) with the play/pause, skip and volume controls located on the side.

It is powered by a Li-ion battery - no indication of how long it will last, but it should charge in about three hours. You can hook it up to your PC using a mini USB input. Inside, titanium coated diaphragms increase the rigidity of the element. They also fold up flat for easier storage.

Unfortunately there's no indication of the price of UK availability just yet.

Tech Digest CES coverage

CES 2007: Plantronics Discovery 665 headset with an IQ

Designed for those situations when you're taking a call and the noise of a passing bus, tannoy annoucements or loud music completely obscures the most relevant part of what you're being told - the Plantronics Voyager 665 Bluetooth headset comes with new Audio IQ technology that is designed to intelligently adjust sound volumes when the background noise picks up. The idea is to stop you having to fiddle with the volume button too much while you chat.

Alongside that technology comes an impressive array of accessories too. The stylish headset fits into a compact holder with a pen clip. If you receive a call while it's in there, it will even give you a vibration alert. You also get an extra attachment that takes AAA batteries and will give you a few hours extra juice if you run out. And you get a car charger in the box too.

Other features include QuickPair technology for faster, easier pairing with Bluetooth devices and a lightweight construction (just 9g) for extra comfort. Unfortunately, I don't know the exact price yet, nor when it will be hitting the UK.

Tech Digest CES coverage

Sony Ericsson's MBR-100 Bluetooth music receiver

Sony Ericsson continue to push the joys of music from your mobile, this time with the MBR-100 Bluetooth music receiver, which wirelessly transmits your Bluetooth phone-based tracks to a hi-fi or car stereo.

The MBR-100 comes with 2 different cables, an RCA cable and a 3.5 mm input cable so it can fit almost any audio device at home or in the car. Once your phone is paired to the MBR-100, you just have to walk into its range to accept an automatic invitation on your phone screen to play your music as loud as you want. As the music plays through the speakers you can use your phone as a remote control, with the ability to play, pause and skip to next track.

The MBR-100 has a rechargeable battery and a glossy black finish. Expect to see it in stores sometime in early 2007.

Sony Ericsson website

More mobile phone accessories

Sony Ericsson HBH-PV705 Style Edition Bluetooth headset

Sony Ericsson has a new Bluetooth headset on the market for "when looking good is important" - the HBH-PV705 Style Edition.

Strangely, the company is selling the merits of wearing your headset as jewellery - hung round your neck for example, courtesy of the included "silver finish" chain. You can - but you might look a little bit silly, no matter which of the three exchangeable panels you select (black, floral or purple).

So let's concentrate on the technology. It weighs 14g and offers 12 hours talk time, along with 300 hours in standby. The unit rests on your ear with a soft ear hook and as it doesn't cover your ear canal, you can hear the outside world when wearing it.

Available in the first part of this year, a price is yet to be confirmed.

Sony Ericsson website

More for your mobile phone

CES 2007: Like a rhinestone... mobile?

We're in Vegas, so it's about time we wrote a story involving gadgets and glitz. Korean company Kosam Corporation has a stand at CES promoting its rhinestone art, which can be used to decorate all manner of gadgets, from mobile phones and MP3 players through to laptops.

Check the CD player on the left and the mobile phone below for examples. I have to be honest, and say I'm not sure if my trusty Nokia N70 would benefit from a 'Princess Jewel' makeover (that's the pack they gave me to take away). But if you like your bling, you'll love this stuff.

Kosam website

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: LG HBS-200 bluetooth stereo headphones

With their press conference taking place tomorrow, LG have been keeping most new launches safely under wraps. The solitary new product on show today was the HBS-200 bluetooth headset, which will launch in the USA this month. The sister product - the HBS-110 (an earbud design) - won two CES 2007 innovations awards (Wireless Communication and Wireless Peripherals) and these neckband alternatives up the ante even more with a longer talk / play time (up to 8 hours) than their counterparts. You also get a standby time of 250 hours, voice activated dialing, call waiting and last number redial as well as a full set of music controls. Now you just need to explain to that stranger on the bus that you actually are listening to music even though there are no wires...

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: Logitech X-240 speakers

PC speakers are getting more clever, judging by Logitech's newly-unveiled X-240 speaker system, which has dedicated audio controls for your PC or Mac, as well as acting as a charging cradle for your iPod, MP3 player, PDA or mobile phone.

The speakers include special trays for the iPod and Microsoft Zune, which provide a snug fit and keep their charging cables out of sight. There's also some nattily-titled audio features like ported down-firing subwoofer and real-time bass equalisation on board.

The X-240 speakers will be on sale in April in the US, and in May in Europe, and will cost $49.99 (around £26).

Logitech website

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

Review: Exspect Recharge4

The propaganda

There’s few things more frustrating than having your Mobile/MP3 player/Handheld console run out of juice when you’re on the move – especially when you’re in an airport several hours from home, surrounded by electric lights, X-ray machines and tannoys, but with not one single plug socket available for your use. And given the sheer number of batteries that need charging in your ordinary everyday gadgets, this is going to be an increasing problem.

Unless you have an Exspect Recharge4, that is. It is so named because it will recharge one of your gadgets four times from just one of its own charges. The most obvious use for this is the iPod but it has also branched out to support mobile phones, handheld consoles and pretty much anything else that uses a mini USB charger. The review kit I have is the iPod version, but it actually comes with both an iPod plug and a selection of mobile phone adaptors and a mini USB plug and a standard USB plug, which is pretty generous.

The good

The Recharge4 has dimensions of 84 x 41 x 23mm, roughly the same size as a ten pack of cigarettes, and weighs in at around 360g; it isn’t exactly going to be a problem to carry about. It only has one button, labelled C-Check/Start, which unsurprisingly starts up the charging and/or lets you know how much juice there is left. This is indicated by eight green lights on the front. You can probably tell it isn’t exactly a complicated tool.

In my tests it performed exactly as promised, even when I mixed and matched by charging my mobile, my iPod, a GPS device and a PSP. Further more I actually squeezed a fair bit more than four charges out of it.

The bad

There is little to find that is bad about the device itself, or its performance. But if I had to complain about something it is that it is very easy to lose the various adaptors you need for your different gadgets. If there could be a single attachment that held a few of these at the same time that would certainly help, but it’s not really a big deal.

Geek Sheet

Available in three versions: Mobile Phone, MP3 Player and Portable Gaming

Recharges four times from one charge

Extra adapters available seperately

Overview

The Recharge4 costs £40 (although you can pick one up for £30 if you shop around) which is maybe pushing towards the pricey side, but if you do frequently find yourself cut off from access to mains power, it could prove to be completely indispensable. It is well made and worth the outlay, and, unless you’re prepared to put in a lot of elbow grease there’s little in the way of alternatives.

Related stories: USBCell - standard batteries that recharge via USB | Review: Solio power charger| Review: Eurohike Wind up phone charger | More Gadgets...

Related sites: Recharge4

Review: Eurohike Wind up phone charger

The propaganda

Picture the scene – you’ve just emerged from your tent in the Scottish highlands/Lake District/Welsh mountains/festival campsite [delete as appropriate] faced with gale force winds and freezing rain for the third day on the trot. All you want to do is blackmail one of your mates into picking you up so you can ward off the trench foot and hypothermia with a nice brew. Only problem is that your phone’s battery just died leaving you with a long trudge back to civilisation where you can find a wall socket.

That is unless you have a Eurohike Wind up phone charger, which lets you convert some elbow grease into power for your mobile. Plug the accompanying cable into your handset and wind like crazy for a few minutes, and that should give you enough juice to get a message out. Furthermore it has a built-in LED torch in case it gets dark while you wait.

The good

It is quite satisfying to watch your battery bar increase as your hard work is transformed into precious electricity. That said, it does take a fair amount of effort to build up charge – about three minutes of winding translates into just a few minutes of talk time. I naively considered testing how long it would take to charge a battery to full, but I think the effort might have cost me the use of my arm. However, in an emergency, a few minutes of effort will undoubtedly be well spent. Keeps you warm too.

The built-in torch is actually surprisingly handy – it charges very quickly, retains its charge for a fair few minutes and, more importantly, is reassuringly bright. You even have a choice of brightness settings - using 2, 4 or 5 LEDs.

The unit itself is roughly comparable in size to a pack of cards, although it is a little narrower and fatter. The outer edge feels slightly rubberised which helps you to maintain a grip while you wind.

The bad

The device comes with a selection adaptors to suit different makes of phones including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung and Siemens. It is by no means an exhaustive list but that is in part to do with the mobile manufacturers insisting on changing their charger design for no good reason after a few years. I’m especially looking at you Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Grrr.

The device might still have been improved by a wider range of charge adaptors. Not necessarily for phones though – I’m particularly thinking of something compatible with handheld GPS units. A mobile phone is all well and good, but if the worst happens and your GPS gives up the ghost you could be better off knowing where you are when you call for help.

Geek Sheet

Wind up phone charger

Contains four adaptors

Built-in LED torch

Overview

The Wind up charger could be a really handy tool, especially if you’re keeping it as a back up for emergencies, although just using it as a torch does save you lugging around a load of spare batteries.

I expect these will be filling a few stockings this year. You can pick one up for a tenner from Millets - they are available in black, pink or blue.

Related stories: Wind up Radio, Torch and Phone Charger | Roberts unveils the Wanderer radio| Solar powered battery charger | More Gadgets...

Related sites: Millets

i-Kids GPS child safety device launched in the UK

Mobiles2Go have announced the availability of their i-Kids GPS gadget designed as a child safety device that will keep track of a child and give parents peace of mind.

i-Kids has a one-touch emergency button that will immediately put the child in touch with a parent by speed-dialling four pre-programmed numbers in sequence until the alert is answered. If none of the numbers are answered, the call is diverted to the i-Kids service desk where a trained operator can offer assistance.

The latest GPS functionality ensures that the device can be pinpointed to within 10-20 metres. This works even when the device is switched off, and can alert the parent by text message if a child moves out of pre-defined safety zones.

Children can be sent text and voice messages from the parent, but cannot send texts or make calls, nor receive texts from unauthorised people.

Commenting on the launch, Mark Gullickson, CEO of mobiles2go said: "Everyday we read about the increasing number of threats to child safety and this is fuelling the already prevalent fears of parents everywhere. There is a fine balance between keeping your child safe while gradually introducing the freedom and responsibility they need to enjoy a healthy and happy childhood. i Kids has already proven a very popular solution to this parental predicament in Australia, Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and Korea, by giving children the ability to communicate safely, with security features that give parents peace of mind.”"

The durable device is priced £99.99, with a monthly tariff of £15.75 on an 18-month contract.

Mobiles2Go
i-Kids

Related stories: Hannspree.z - child-friendly, zoo-themed TVs | Track your kids by mobile phone | Loc8tor tagging stops you losing keys, children, teeth..., | Parents need their techie kids' help

O2 launches blue Bluetooth headset with hot dialling

O2 has a new Bluetooth headset on the market under the name O2 blue, which offers fast access to important numbers and a lengthy battery life.

The O2 blue features "hot dialling", which offers instant access to three previously-selected numbers with the press of a button. It also comes with a USB charger, so you can power up if you're near a PC or laptop. A single charge should give you around 15.5 hours of talktime and a standby time of up to 22 days.

And just to add confusion, there's a white version of the blue, limited edition and only available in O2 stores. That version comes with that essential Bluetooth add-on, a free stuffed polar bear.

The headset retails for £50.

O2 website

Bluetrek G2 Limited Pink edition - more fashion-friendly Bluetooth headwear

From the people that brought you the Bluetrek Skin range (also known as 'fashion for heads') and the M2 headset ('changes with your moods') comes another fashionable piece of headwear - the Bluetrek G2 Limited Pink Edition, a limited edition version of Bluetrek's bestselling G2 headset in pink.

Available only until December 31st, this female-friendly headset only has a cosmetic addition, the technical side is just as it was. That means 13 hours talk time and up to 21 days standby time, a reversible/adjustable ear hook for a better fit and an operation range of up to 10m.

It weighs just 12g, has a dual colour LED to indicate charge, low battery, stand-by and communication and retails for £29.99. You can pick it up from 3, T-Mobile and John Lewis stores.

Bluetrek website

Iqua's stylish CPW-603 Bluetooth wireless headset

We covered the Iqua Bluetooth car kit earlier this week, but if you're on the look out for something a bit more personal, the Finnish firm has a solution for that too - the CPW-603 Bluetooth wireless headset.

The emphasis here is style - aimed at the fashion-conscious, the CPW-603 is available in pearl white, charcoal and pink, each with the same minimalist styling. It's also lightweight, fits in either ear and promises crystal-clear sound from any brand of Bluetooth phone.

It's also straightforward to use - one button allows you to switch a call between phone and headset, redial or end the call. And there's voice activated dialling, along with support for VoIP calls when used with your PC.

The CPW-603 costs £29.99 exclusively from Carphone Warehouse.

Carphone Warehouse website

Iqua miniUFO - the saucer-shaped handsfree kit for the car

Still using your mobile phone on the road? Well, you obviously know it's illegal, so if you want to keep your licence clean and yourself fine-free, you should look at something like the Iqua miniUFO - a Bluetooth device for accessing your calls handsfree on the road.

Mount the miniUFO on the sun visor or dash-board of your car and you get up to up to 10 hours talk time and 450 hours standby time. Sound quality is good, thanks to "cutting-edge" noise suppression and echo cancellation techniques. Four simple buttons cover the main functions (if you're not on the move) or you can activate by voice if your phone supports it.

Other functions include mute, call waiting, conference, the ability to switch easily between phone and handsfree, and LEDs to indicate your Bluetooth is active, your call status and if your battery is low.

It's available now, priced around £40.

Find out more

Iqua offers CPW-603 Bluetooth headset exclusively through Carphone Warehouse

Iqua is to launch its CPW-603 Bluetooth Wireless Headset in the UK exclusively through the Carphone Warehouse, and it will come either on its own or bundled with the LG KG800 "Chocolate" phone.

The headset allows users to answer and end calls, redial, use voice dial and switch between phone and headset with a single button. It can operate up to 10 metres from the phone, and is compatible with VoIP Internet calls.

The battery will give 9 hours talktime and 200 hours standby, achieving a full charge in 2 hours.

It comes in pearl white, charcoal or pink colouring to suit your fashion and that of the LG phone.

It measures 48 x 25 x 10 mm and weighs 12g, and looks as if it will be available to purchase on its own for £29.99.

Carphone Warehouse

Sony unveils Pink Memory Stick Micro (the pop act not the colour)

Sony has unveiled a limited edition Pink Memory Stick Micro (M2) - that's the American pop act, not the colour, which is still black. Think they've missed a trick there. Anyway, if you're a fan of Pink (or P!NK as she's referred to by Sony), you can pick up this 512MB Memory Stick Micro pre-loaded with exclusive content - an extract of the Stupid Girls single (about half of it) and a video interview with the singer. And it's copyright free - so you can pass it on to your mates (if they want a short interview and half an MP3 track). The card is obviously only compatible with Sony Ericsson mobile phones equipped with an M2 card slot and should be available from early November. No price given - but it's unlikely to be more than a standard 512MB card. Sony website

Bluetrek Skin Bluetooth earpiece - fashion for heads

Bluetrek has a new Bluetooth earpiece on the market - knowns as Skin - the first in its 'Fashion for Heads' range, apparently aimed at those who want to make a fashion statement with their technology.

The idea, it would seem, is to treat your Bluetooth headset as an accessory, matching it up the way you might match up earrings, a watch or a bag. The Bluetrek Skin is lightweight, slimline and with a layer of black synthetic fabric that gives it a 'velvet effect' look. But enough about its looks - we buy these things for a practical use, no matter what the company says. This one offers 12 hours talk time, 17 days standby, a range of 10 metres and has an LED to indicate power levels.

Available at the end of November for around £60.

Company website

ThinkGeek's budget retro handset with Bluetooth

With Hulger's vintage-styled Bluetooth handset retailing for around £100, there's an obvious gap in the market for a cheaper version - after all, these things are never going to be more than a novelty. ThinkGeek has taken up the challenge - offering this retro Bluetooth handset for $40, which is around £21.

For your money you get a quirky, vintage handset that wirelessly connects to your phone using Bluetooth 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. Its range is around 30ft and you can make or receive calls for as long as the phone is charged. Unfortunately, they don't make clear how long this is.

If you're after one of these handsets, but don't see yourself using it much past that amusing first night in the pub, it doesn't seem a bad price to pay.

ThinkGeek website

Via Gizmodo

Acoustic Energy and Orange launch Orange-branded Bluetooth speaker system

So, you've got a Bluetooth-enabled phone full of tunes and you want to listen to them in the living room. What do you do? Well, Orange hope you'll go out and buy their stereo Bluetooth loudspeaker system.

The Orange-branded (and Acoustic Energy-made) stereo Bluetooth speaker system uses Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) technology for wireless wide bandwidth stereo over distances of up to 10m, which can then be played back through the 20w amplifier. It's plug and play - as long as you have a compatible phone, PDA, PC or MP3 player. Just select a track or playlist, press play and the Bluetooth loudspeaker system blast out your tune. For improved stereo, the stereo mini-monitor loudspeakers can be detached from the Bluetooth receiver/amplifier unit and separated by up to 2m. And if you haven't got Bluetooth, you can plug your device into the speaker system.

The Orange Bluetooth wireless loudspeaker system will go on sale this month at selected Orange shops at around £89.99.

Orange website

Asono Freebit H1 Bluetooth headset

The pulse races ever so slightly when I see a new product from Norwegian firm Asono - previous efforts, such as the DAB1, have an interesting design not often seen in the mainstream. Alas, the Asono Freebit H1 Bluetooth headset seems to lack any such quirkiness.

The stand-out feature is the ergonomic design, which allows the Freebit H1 to fit comfortably within the ear muscle without clamping the ear or blocking the passage between the ear canal and your surroundings. This, according to Asono, means comfort and improved sound. It's also got a number of patent-protected improvements for functionality, but it's not clear what these actually are - what is clear is that it offers 9 hours use between charges, 200 hours standby time and a working range of 33ft.

The Asono Freebit-H1 will be available before Christmas, priced at around £56.

Find out more

Sony Ericsson launches MBW-100 Bluetooth watch

Sony Ericsson, in assocation with Fossil has introduced the MBW-100 Bluetooth watch, a mobile accessory/fashion item that allows you to keep in touch with your phones functionality as easily as checking the time.

As an analogue watch, it's certainly a looker, crafted from high quality (and scratch-resistant) stainless steel with a silver facia. It's also water-resistant up to 30m. But it's the Bluetooth functionality that's the big selling point.  An OLED display beneath the watch face displays who is calling when a call is incoming. A simple key press on the watch can reject the call. You can also control your music from the watch (play, pause and skip tracks), get notification of text messages and there's out-of-range notification when you are separated from your phone.

There's also a battery level indicator, with Bluetooth functionality good for seven days between charges, with the time going for a further seven days after that. The watch will auto-pair with the following Sony Ericsson phones -  K610, K610i, K618, K790, K800, V630, W710, W850, Z610, Z710.

Available in time for Christmas, it should retail for around 300 Euros (around £203).

Sony Ericsson website

Nokia's new range of accessories for music mobiles

Possibly with an eye on new music mobiles heading our way soon, Nokia has launched a new range of music accessories for its phones.

First up are two sets of headphones that are actually for use with any audio device. The HS-81 stereo headset (pictured) is a joint effort with Sennheiser (which should gibe you an idea about sound quality) and features a strong neckband for support and comfortable earpads. In addition, the HS-62 Advanced Music Headphones feature 40mm stereo speakers and fold away for easy storage.

Nokia has also launched the MD-4 Mini Speakers. Weighing just 130g, they feature a v-shaped design that folds flat to slip into your pocket. And unlike similar products, they a built-in FM antenna. There's also the MD-3 Portable Speakers, a more obvious speaker unit that promises excellent bass and sound. And finally, Nokia has three new Bluetooth headsets - the BH-801 (pictured), BH-302, and BH-207. The BH-801 is the top-end model and offers six hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby. The BH-302 offers 10 hours of talk time and features an adjustable earloop and multifunction button. The BH-207 has 7.5 hours talk time and also features the multifunction button.

Due in the shops in the coming weeks, prices are still to be confirmed.

Nokia website

Mobcharger - the disposable mobile phone charger

Whether you're out shopping, stuck in a festival field or away on holday - there's always a point where your mobile starts to fade away and you've nowhere to charge it up. Here's one solution - Mobcharger - the instant, disposable mobile phone charger.

The credit card sized battery should slip into your pocket or bag. When your phone's power level is looking low, plug in Mobcharger and get it powered up. Mobcharger provides 90 minutes talk time and 480 minutes standby. The zinc-carbon battery will not leak or corrode and lasts for up to five years.  When empty, bin it with your normal household rubbish. You can currently buy a Mobcharger for Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung phones. A mini USB is also available which is compatible with all new mini USB phone connectors such as the Motorola RAZR.

They're available now for around £5.

Mobcharger website

Brando Mini Bluetooth Keyboard

Somewhat smaller than my cigarette case, the Brando Mini Bluetooth Keyboard is a petite 80 grams (ie, smaller than some American chocolate bars), comes in stylish metallic silver (as opposed to the unstylish rusted iron colour of an abandoned horseshoe) and - but seriously, the good part is that it folds up tiny enough to fit in your pocket or even possibly your wallet.  And at around £30, it won't injure your wallet much either.   [GT]

Brando Mini Bluetooth Keyboard [via Gizmodo]

Related stories: On the go: Roll-up Fabric Bluetooth Keyboard | Swedx wooden computer keyboard and mouse | Dasher, A Flasher Way To Write

Vertu Aerius mobile headset with Bluetooth

If you must have one of these things attached to your ear, it might as well be ultra-light, sleek, stylish, pair with the push of one button and answer just as simply.  The Vertu Aerius Bluetooth Headset has the usual features: noise reduction, ear hook, calling system, leather pouch.  It also rather unsurprisingly looks a lot like the Jabra JX10, since both were designed by Jacob Jensen (which will undoubtedly raise the price before it's announced).  [GT]

Vertu Aerius Bluetooth Headset [via Sybarites]

Related stories: iTech World Cup bluetooth headsets in your team colours | On the go: Roll-up Fabric Bluetooth Keyboard | Jabra BT320s Bluetooth earphones

Sarian launches HR4110 - the world's first fully integrated HSDPA Router

Sarian has launched the world's first router compatible with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA or super 3G). The Sarian HR4110 HSDPA router is designed to support what they describe as "mission-critical communications" within businesses, as well as being a back up unit for companies with fixed broadband connections.

As well as offering HSDPA coverage, the HR4110 will automatically search for 3G or other mobile networks in areas without HSDPA to keep you online. There's also dual SIM card slots for switching to a back up network in the event of the primary connection becomign unavailable. And in terms of security, it's built on Sarian's own operating system, SAR/OS - which the manufacturer claims has no known exploits.

According to Andy Hood, managing director of Sarian Systems: "The speed and reliability of HSDPA make it ideal for mobile business applications such as live video surveillance, VoIP and telemetry, or even as a back-up for the company broadband. The HR4110 is designed to help businesses harness these features and keep key business applications running smoothly in environments where network failures or coverage issues are unacceptable."

The HR4110 is available to order now direct from Sarian. Contact the company for price and further details.

Sarian website

More HSDPA:
T-Mobile launches MDA Vario II with HSDPA connectivity
Orange announces SPV M3100 with HSDPA connectivity

Anycom Bluetooth headphones for the iPod

Making the iPod smaller might mean it fits into your pocket easier, but there'll always be the earphone cable to contend with. Unless you invest in a Bluetooth set-up like this Anycom headphone bundle for the iPod.

It can be used with all iPods (except the shuffle), allowing you to listen to music and control important functions, as well as working with your Bluetooth mobile phone. The headset has four buttons to control all important functions (volume up/down, call answer/end, redial/mute, next/previous title, pause/start) and can be used with a range up to 10m metres away.

One charge offers 12 hours of listening (with 200 hours standby), with charging via USB or AC power supply. It's avaialble now for around £120.

Find out more

More Bluetooth headphones:
Saitek Audio Bluetooth headphones
i.Tech BlueBAND headphones

Review: Scala Rider Bluetooth Helmet Headset

The Propaganda

You don't realise til you get a motorbike how much stuff you need to buy to make it work. There's all the clothing to minimise scraping off the road situations, there's the bags, boxes and the like to make it usable day-to-day, and then there's the fact that you can't take any phone calls whilst you're on your bike. Unless you've got a bluetooth headset specially adapted for use under helmets - such as the Scala Rider headset from Cardo. It's a speaker that sits inside your helmet with a boom mike that you position inside the front mask. The idea is that it's simple enough to use on the road, without having to stop your bike to chat.

The Good

Securing the headset is easy, as you clamp the battery pack to the outside of your helmet using the clamp they supply. It's weather resistant, so there are no worries about the conditions you're biking in. It also doesn't leave a mark on the helmet, which given how much you've just shelled out on the helmet (definitely a piece of equipment you don't want to skimp on) you'll be thrilled about. 

You then position the boom mike by your mouth, and the speaker by your ear, which is fixed on with velcro. It's a speaker, rather than an in-ear piece, presumably to ensure that it doesn't fall out if you're on a particularly bumpy ride.

To make calls, you set up your phone with speech recognition. Alternatively, you can answer calls and dial your last number using the buttons on the battery pack.  Once I was on a call, I was amazed by how clear the sound was - the speaker really does make it easy to hear people. The speaker also adjusts the levels according to your speed levels, so it doesn't become deafening when you're at a standstill.  I've also been on the other end, and can vouch for the fact that when someone is using this, it really is impossible to tell that they're on a bike even up to speeds of 70 mph (apart for the "hang on a sec, just overtaking.." type comments).

The Bad

Whilst the sound quality is great on a closed helmet, the microphone does suffer when you're using an open helmet. Despite the manufacturers saying that it's wind-resistant, if you don't have your visor down, you do know about it.

Whilst they've made the buttons as big as they can, it can still be tricky to adjust, particularly when you're wearing gloves. There is a large answer button, as well as a separate re-dial button, but it's the volume buttons that are really tricky to get to. If you do have to adjust the volume, you might find that it's altogether safer to pull over.

There are also certain additional features that it would benefit from. For instance, there is a sudden crop of bluetooth headsets designed to work in tandem with your MP3 player. This would be perfect for the Scala Rider, as listening to music is something you miss on a bike  - what could be better than cruising along listening to Bat Out of Hell, or some equivalent biker type music, and knowing that you're not going to miss any calls. It's also impossible to get it to pair with a GPS device, which again, would be a great application of the technology.

In our opinion

It's a great piece of kit, and it's really surprising to hear exactly how clearly people can hear you. For anyone that travels regularly on their bike, £75 will be a small price to pay for the assurance that they're not missing calls. As for whether it's the safest thing in the world? Probably not.

Bluevoice - combined watch and Bluetooth headset

When gadgets converge, it can be beautiful thing, resulting in less weight in your pocket/bag and more functionality at your fingertips. But sometimes, it does go slightly wrong, resulting in something like the Bluevoice - the combined watch and Bluetooth headset.

Actually, rather than wrong, I'd probably say pointless. After all, don't most of us already own a watch? But if you like the idea of a watch round your ear, you'll be pleased to know that the Bluevoice will be officially unveiled later this year, with the big commercial push early next year. The marketing claims it to be an alterative to the "cyborg look" of many Bluetooth headsets - instead, you get a functional watch that transforms into a Bluetooth headset when a phone call comes in. It is actually worn as a watch, but when you receive a phone call, you can detach it and use it as a Bluetooth headset. When the call ends, you reattach to the strap. Maybe I'm missing something here - but wouldn't it be easier to wear a watch and answer your phone?

Anyway, if you're more convinced than me, you can look forward to paying $127.95 for the analogue version of the Bluevoice or $119.95 for the digital version, both in an assortment of colours and both due available in the first half of next year.                                 

Find out more

Via Blue Tomorrow

More Bluetooth:
Jabra BT320s Bluetooth earphones
Seiko bluetooth watch

One Minute Video Review: Pulsar Bluetooth headphones

Gemma looks at the Pulsar Bluetooth headphones in the first of these headphone reviews. The Pulsar headphones are available for £70 here.  For a more detailed review you can read the full article here.

Jabra BT320s Bluetooth earphones

With so many mobiles offering Bluetooth and indeed a decent music player, Bluetooth headphones/earphones are becoming an ever more useful purchase. And the latest to market are the BT320s earphones from Jabra.

When you connect the Jabra BT320s to your music phone, you can listen to your favourite tunes without missing a call - the music automatically pauses when a call comes in. The remote control interface lets you control your music, as well as controlling the main call functions - answer/end, voice dial and last number redial. The headphones are exhangeable, while the main unit is splash proof and offers up to 6 hours of listening/talk time and 160 hours standby time. There's also an LED indicator for battery strength and charging.

If you fancy picking up the BT320s, it should cost around £70. We're still awaiting confirmation of a release date.

Find out more

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One minute review: Oakley O-ROKR shades

Susi looks at the latest collaboration from Motorola and Oakley -the O-ROKR shades, which stream music to you from any Bluetooth enabled device.  Feel free to laugh uncontrollably.

Sagem announces new range of Bluetooth accessories

Sagem has unveiled a new line in Bluetooth accessories with the Sagem CK1 hands free kit, the H2 Bluetooth headset and the SH1 Bluetooth stereo headset.

The CKI hands free kit is a slimline accessory that can be used in a car or on a desktop. As it's small, it fits onto the dashboard of your car or clipped to the sunvisor. The speaker offers good quality sound, with side keys to change volume, take a call (or sign off) do a last number redial or manage call queuing. Battery life is 15 hours talk time and 10-25 days on standby.

The H2 Bluetooth headset in a silver and black design weighs just 18g and fits to either side of your head - whichever ear you prefer. Its compatible with any Bluetooth 1.2 gadget and has a long battery life - 12.5 days on standby and 10 hours talk time. The SH1 Bluetooth stereo headset claims to offer "home stereo sound" on the move. It fits snugly onto your head (fitting behind the neck rather than across the head) and features two keys for volume and a third toggle for switching between talk and music - so there's no excuse for missing a call. Battery life is 7 hours talk time and 150 hours of standby.

No confirmation of prices or shelf dates, we'll let you know as soon as we find out.

Sagem website

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Motorola's H601 and H800 Bluetooth headsets

  Along with the the slimline MOTOKRZR and the MOTORIZR slider handset, Motorola also launched two Bluetooth headsets to compliment the new phones - the H601 and H800 headsets.

Both units reflect the new handsets look and feel - the headsets also apparently bring advancements in talk time and sound clarity - the H800 offers 6 hours of talk time and 8 days of standby, while the H601 can provide 8 hours of talk time and 8 hours of standby. Both work up to a range of 10 metres, indicator lights for incoming calls and an elevated speaker, which rests closer to the ear delivering louder audio.

Both units also feature upgraded finishes and laser-etched graphics. Like the new handsets, both of these headsets should be available in the second hald of this year.

Motorola website

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iLane - send and receive email safely whilst driving

With our increasing reliance on data services, such as email, while we're on the move, it was only going to be a matter of time before manufacturers jumped in with a way of dealing with email hands-free in the car. And here it is - iLane - the world’s first hand-and-eyes free email solution for in-vehicle use.

iLane is a small device that interacts directly with existing Bluetooth-enabled handheld devices, allowing drivers to fully access their email in transit. iLane notifies the driver of incoming emails and other important information by reading a brief summary in a "natural sounding voice". The driver can then listen to the entire email message; forward or compose a response using verbal instructions. Phone calls, SMS messages, and a number of email attachment types can also be managed. In addition, filters can also be set to prioritise mail, so you don't get hassled with that latest sales pitch from an online store.

All sounds promising for the busy executive - but you'll have to wait a little longer to take advantage. As yet, we're still awaiting a confirmed UK launch date and price - we'll let you know as soon as we hear more.

Find out more

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Review: Plantronics Pulsar 590 Bluetooth headset

The Propaganda

Plantronics have got their foot firmly in the door of every call centre from here to India, but they do have one product that ticks all the sleek/stylish/superb buttons. The Pulsar 590 is a Bluetooth headset that is designed to work seamlessly between your phone and media player.

The Good

Out of the box you stick the headset and Bluetooth adapter on to charge. Whilst you can do this straight from A/C to headset, the base also acts as a charger when connected.  From there it's simple to connect both the headset to the adapter (which comes with a standard audio jack) and the phone of your choice.

As far as working seamlessly between devices, I can't tell you anything to dispute this (once you've paired it - read on). If you're listening to music and a phone call comes in, a tone is played over the music and from here, you can accept, mute, change the volume and end the call all from the controls on the earphone. After the call, the music automatically cuts back in.  Time wise, you get 12 hours talk time and 10 hours audio. There is also an external battery level indicator, which is in the form of several flashes when you first turn on the headset or adapter.

The Bad 

If I was the kind of person to nit pick, which I guess is the purpose of reviews, I'd say not all phones are easy. Whilst my Sony Ericsson paired perfectly first time, the LG phone did no such thing. Whilst it looked paired, acted paired and smelled paired, it was impossible to actually pick up calls on it.

Other things that need work: it took a couple of times of turning the headsets each time to invoke the red/blue flash that meant it was ready to pair. Text messages also mean that the music is turned off for no apparent reason for a few seconds, but after it happens once you'll be expecting it. Finally, there was a scary moment when I was on the phone and noticed that the volume display on my iPod was going mental - it was picking up the levels from my phone call. Still, none of these things actually stop it from working or really hinder the experience (unless you've got an LG).  One thing that was a pain was the fact that you can't skip tracks from the headset when you're using the universal adapter. This is exclusively available to those phones with AVRCP. Grrrr.

In our opinion

Put simply, these won't be returning to their rightful home. They're mine now. Despite the few problems encountered, when they work, they work beautifully. Whilst there are certainly smaller Bluetooth headsets available for phones, for those of us that miss calls because we're engrossed in Coldplay, these are great. And for £75, worth rewarding your long-suffering, little rewarded ears with. 

Sandisk introduces 4GB SDHC cards

Sandisk has introduced a 4GB SD High Capacity (SDHC) card. It's rated Class 2 for speed and performance and can store around than 2,000 high-resolution images, more than 1,000 digital music tracks or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video.

The new cards are designed for the next generation of portable devices that will demand higher storage for our ever-increasing need to carry round our entire media collection. Next generation is the key here - although they look like existing SD cards, the SDHC cards, which could eventually be available with capacities up to 32GB, will only work with devices that are SDHC compatible - which are currently very thin in the ground.

If you want one, they're avaialble now, priced around $200 (around £110).

Sandisk website

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Pioneer DEH-P75BT Bluetooth car stereo system

With the expected introduction (in the UK) of points on your licence for driving with a phone in your hand, it might be worth considering an alternative if you need to stay in contact on the road - like the Pioneer DEH-P75BT Bluetooth car stereo.

The Pioneer DEH-P75BT combines a Bluetooth headset and fully-featured stereo system for handsfree calling through your car's music system. It supports both hands-free and audio profiles from your mobile phone, with voice playback of the caller through stereo and front speakers - there is, of course, auto-muting when a call comes through. Your complete address book can also be transferred into the stereo's internal memory.

Music-wise, there's CD/MP3/WMA playback, MP3 streaming from a Bluetooth phone to the stereo, fully-featured radio playback, an MOSFET 50W x 4 amplifier, 5-mode preset equaliser, a motorised detachable front panel and a remote control. And for iPod owners, an adaptor gives you access to your entire song collection on the move.

You can pick up the Pioneer DEH-P75BT now, priced around £275.

Find out more

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Skull Candy Proletariat NC 635 noise cancelling headphones

Want to cut out the outside world - except maybe your mobile phone? It might be worth giving the Skull Candy Proletariat NC 635 noise cancelling headphones a look, especially with a sub-£100 price tag.

These gold headphones cancel out background noise, so you can enjoy the music, rather than haveing to deal with a one-sided mobile phone conversation about the length of a train delay. However, you can still use your own mobile - the NC 635 headphones incorporate Skullcandy Link technology, which allows you to take mobile phone calls into the headphones.

The headphones fold up when not in use and run off 2 x AAA batteries. You can pick them up now, priced at £99.99.

Find out more

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Mobile integratation for your Mercedes motor

As the owner of a laughably poor motor, a Mercedes is very much a car of my dreams. But I'm sure our more affluent readers might be in the market for one - and if you are, you should check out the optional in-car mobile phone system, which automatically conencts to your mobile, transferring the content of your phone's memory and sim via Bluetooth for handsfree use.

What does all this mean? Well, it means you can stay within the law, never having to touch your phone whilst driving. Just push the single button in the car and the unit grabs all your phone's information - contacts, call history, previous text messages - and as you drive, caller id and message will display on the unit's screen.

You can make handsfree calls, as wel las searchign the call register and phone book from controls on the steering wheel assembly. Incoming calls are played through the car's sound system. There is one downside - the system uses Bluetooth's SIM Access Protocol (SAP), which is currently supported only by a small number of handsets, specifically the Nokia 6230, 6230i and 8800, and Siemens' S65, SK65, S75 and SL75. More will be added as the technology extends.

Two versions of the system are available - one with an in-car cable-connected passive handset for €406 and a cheaper, handset-free version for €373. These are German prices - check with your Merc dealer for a UK price.

Mercedes website

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IRIS mobile phone-controlled security camera

You might have an alarm on your house or flat, but what if you want to keep a close eye on the place - or the items contained within it? The IRIS security camera can keep a close eye on your things and if there's a problem, can stream video footage to your phone.

The IRIS camera is claimed to be the world’s first network-independent wireless stand alone camera that sends live video to your mobile phone. Set-up is straighforward, so no need for any technical knowledge - you just need an EDGE or 3G phone. The camera features a standard sim card integrated within it, so connecting is as easy as a phone call and it can also be set up for use for a number of users to dial in and use simultaneously.

In alarm mode, the IRIS camera continually monitors for movement - if any is detected, the camera will automatically upload video of the event to a secure server, notifying the user via SMS, who can view the recording on their mobile phone - and call the police if necessary.

Sounds great - as long as you make sure you the cat isn't in the house when it's on.

Find out more

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Tomb Raider slot machine for your mobile

Well, the cartoon action heroine certainly shifted plenty of games in her time, so why shouldn't she do the same for mobile gambling? Yes, Lara Croft has been licensed to tempt you to play the slots on your phone.

Tomb Raider is Wild Jack Mobile Casino's first branded 'video style' slot machine for mobile phones. But don't expect any console action, the character just highlights the slot jackpot - five Lara Crofts in a row wins the cash. There's also mysterious golden idols and exotic tigers, which, if found on a win line, will transport the player to a Tomb bonus screen for free spins and win multipliers.

Can't say it will tempt me to gamble on my mobile - but then again, I didn't rate the games all that much either!

For information on how you can play, visit www.spin3.com.

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Plantronics Voyager 510 USB Bluetooth VoIP headset

Plantronics has launched the Voyager 510 USB Bluetooth VoIP headset, aimed at busy business people who want a Bluetooth headset for their mobiles, but also something that will allow them to connect to VoIP services.

To use it, just plug the Bluetooth adaptor into your computer ( or the USB port of your laptop) and you’ll be able to take your VOIP calls without having to play around with an additional headset. When you're done, a push of a button will switch to incoming calls on your Bluetooth mobile phone.

The Voyager 510 headset features include a noise-cancelling microphone and Plantronics WindSmart technology. VoIP services (including Skype) are supported through a software application called PerSonoCall and the headset offers up to 6 hours talk time and up to 100 hours standby time

Expect to pay around £100 for the Voyager 510 headset.

Plantronics website

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Sony Ericsson unveils new headsets for music mobiles

Sony Ericsson has announced some new headsets for mixing your music listening with call handling on your mobile phone.

The Walkman-branded HPM-82 features a typical in-ear design, with different sized silicone ear buds provided to ensure a good fit and a clearer sound. You can leave your music phone in your pocket and use the black remote control to handle calls, direct your play list, play and pause, choose the next or previous song and adjust the volume.

If you want something a bigger in both size and sound, it might be worth looking at the HPM-85 headset instead. It features high-energy neodymium magnet speakers, along with 30mm diameter driver units, which are positioned for a deep bass sound and lower distortion to your ears. It's also built for comfort, with a molded headband and ear cushions, which are reversible for single ear monitoring. The remote control lets you keep your phone in your pocket when handling calls and using the music functions.

Both headsets are available later this year, no price as yet.

Sony website

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D-Link’s wireless 3G router

Here’s an idea that could rack up a phone bill large enough to cripple a small nation quicker than you can say ‘data fee’. D-Link has come up with a way to let users share a 3G wireless internet connection through an ordinary 802.11g wireless connection using a special router.

The D-Link Wireless 3G Mobile Router comes with a built in Cardbus slot into which you insert your 3G notebook adaptor and away you go. The router also has four 10/100 Ethernet ports and two USB ports so that you can rig up an ordinary mobile phone to act as the modem instead.

Obviously this router is aimed squarely at the more serious users of wireless broadband services. It would also be very nice if someone saw fit to rig a few of these up on public transport. However, unless 3G connectivity spreads itself a little wider, this albeit clever idea is probably only going to have limited potential at the moment because it seems quite unlikely you’ll find many places with no access to ordinary broadband and somehow yet covered by 3G.

This innovative gadget doesn’t have a price or release date yet but is currently on show at The Wireless Event currently taking place in London’s Olympia.

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T-Mobile reveals Impactica ShowMate for BlackBerry

It’s always nice to see an accessory which isn’t for an iPod – this one is for the increasingly popular BlackBerry phones which, if somehow you haven’t heard of them yet, made their way into our hearts by offering an up-to-the-minute email forwarding service called Push email.

Because BlackBerrys are now part of the business professional’s very life blood, T-Mobile has partnered with Impactica to release a plug and play device for projecting PowerPoint presentations directly from your BlackBerry via Bluetooth without the need for a laptop. If that doesn't make your pitch look slick nothing will.

It uses Bluetooth to connect to the BlackBerry wirelessly and plugs straight into the back of the projector. The ShowMate itself is fairly small, weighing in at 255g and has easily pocketable dimensions. One potential drawback is that with the cheapest (£129.95) option you’ll need to convert the presentations specifically for the device using desktop software, this does however retain all rich text, images, charts, graphs, animations and slide transition effects.

If you want an on-the-fly conversion tool you’ll need to go for the business version which is actually better suited to groups of 20 users and costs a hefty £699.

Sennheiser announces BW900 Bluetooth headset

To my knowledge, Sennheiser hasn’t been involved specifically in the Bluetooth headset market much before, but it is certainly no stranger to headsets and wireless audio. After three years of development, the BW900 is attempting to one up its rivals with a wealth of neat features and an all business visual design.

The BW900 uses ‘adaptive intelligence’, a form of noise cancellation, which adapts to the surrounding noise levels to optimise sound comfort and speech intelligibility. It can also memorise your preferred settings and adjust accordingly whenever the sound environment changes.

The headphones have a quite ridiculously long range of 100 meters from a desktop telephone but that drops to 10m when you’re using a Bluetooth mobile. To switch between sources is apparently as simple as a touch of a button and makes it pretty clear that this headset is going to be aimed at the rigorous business users market.

Also pioneered in this headset is a concept called ‘infinite talk time’. Sadly Sennheiser has not managed to create an infinite energy source but rather a ‘hot swap’ function that simply means you can change the batteries in your headset without losing that all-important call.

The BW900 is due out now in the UK

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Kowon personal TV glasses - 32-inch LCD viewing on the move

With widely-available TV on your mobile rapidly approaching, you could soon be watching the news instead of listening to the radio on the daily commute. But what if that person next to you keeps sneaking a peek? They can't if you plug in a pair of these Kowon personal LCD TV glasses.

Yes, nosey neighbours are apparently a big problem in South Korea, where TV on mobiles has really taken off. This head-mounted display should solve the problem. It features a 4.8 x 4.2mm, 320 x 240 LCD panel in front of each eye. According to the manufacturer, the glasses make you feel like you're watching a 32-inch TV from a distance of two metres. Each pair has its own rechargeable battery that provides eight hours' viewing.

The TV glasses go on sale next week in Korea for the equivalent of £116. Kowon is in talks with suppliers in Europe about bringing the glasses over if they're successful in their home country.

Via The Register

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Body Glove XT all terrain bluetooth headset

With the British weather as changeable as ever (sunshine to storms in a matter of hours), it's perhaps as well to have a bluetooth headset that can withstand most of the elements, like this Body Glove XT bluetooth headset.

Made from durable rubberised material the headset is designed to withstand the outdoor elements of rain, snow, dust and sand without getting damaged. All the conditions you'd expect over a week in Blackpool. There are two sport loop wearing options which "fit like a glove" around the ear, so you can stay active whilst in conversation.

The headset has an operating range of 10 metres and weighs around 15 grams, with support for bluetooth version 1.2.  It offers 14 hours talk time, a standby time of up to 500 hours and is compatible with most mobile devices.

You can pick it up now for around £50 from the Carphone Warehouse.

Find out more

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Video eyewear for your mobile phone

We've featured video glasses before and we've talked at length about the possiblities for mobile TV. So we were very intrigued to see the CP230 and CP920 Video Eyewear from the Icuiti Corporation, unveiled at the CTIA Wireless Show.

Icuiti's Video Eyewear offers big screen viewing to the mobile phone, bypassing the problems of a phone's small screen. It provides a private virtual 42-inch digital quality screen as if the viewer was 7-feet away complete with integrated headphones. The CP920 features two VGA LCD panels each having 640 x 480 resolution and a 26 degree field of view. The CP230 has two QVGA panels with 320 x 240 resolution and a 24 degree field of view. The eyewear just plugs into the mobile phone's AV port.

Icuiti's eyewear has analog PAL, NTSC, and custom digital video interface options, with wholesale orders now being taken for summer delivery. The retail price will be around $299 (£170).

Icuiti website

Image and story via 3g.co.uk

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Parrot Bluetooth Photo Viewer

Are you one of those people who quite happily snaps away with your camera phone, taking pictures of your mates, live bands or even the odd celeb in the street? It's easy enough to take them - but what about showing them off? If you want to display them quickly on the web, it's worth checking out ShoZu. if you want them on display at home, there's now the Parrot Bluetooth Photo Viewer.

The Photo Viewer, available in either leather or bleached oak, features a high-resolution TFT LCD colour screen, which can display up to 100 photos that can be uploaded from a Bluetooth-enabled phone in a couple of simple steps. You can decide which of the photos you keep on display or you can show as a slideshow at selected intervals. Software in the frame will automatically resize your photo to the frame size and re-adjust the image to portrait or landscape depending on whether the Photo Viewer is in a portrait or landscape position.

Sounds interesting, but at £156.99, it's probably the most expensive photo frame you'll ever buy. And in terms of image quality, I'd guess that it's only worth considering if the camera on your phone is a fairly high specification.

Parrot website

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A Bluetooth Snake for the car

It's illegal, but people are still at it. Yes, talking on your mobile is still rife, but it might change when getting caught means points on your licence. Why not make an effort to change your ways with one of the numerous hands-free devices on the market - like the newly-unveiled Snake.

The Snake from Finnish firm Iqua, features a built-in microphone and speaker and is easy to use and install. It can be attached to the headrest of the car seat, with the Snake adjusting to fit your height perfectly and to improve the quality of your audio. It offers up to 10 hours talk time and 300 hours standby between charges.

And being in black leather and and brushed metal, it will fit in with the interior of most cars. It should be available in the UK in the very near future. As yet we haven't got a confirmed price.

More about the Snake

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Phlash to boost your camera phone

If ever there was a nice idea that was a little ill thought out, then Phlash, a turbo-charged phone flash unit, is it.

Phlash is designed to boost the light when you take a snap on a camera phone. Photos on phones can suffer if your mobile has a small lens, poor built-in flash or you just happen to be out somewhere with very poor light. It all can mean a memory card full of grainy, poorly-defined images.

Phlash uses a bright LED to light up your subject or area - attach the unit to your camera and get a boost of brightness for your picture - 12 times brighter than most phone flashes. But here's the problem. Phlash just sticks to your phone, it doesn't interact with it. So you have to press it momentarily for a quick flash or hold it for sustained period of light. It all seems a little clumsy and seems to require considerable finger dexterity to use.

Still - if you need some extra light, it's cheap enough at just under $20 to try out.

Find out more

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i.Tech Clip M

Following on from the Blueband headphones, i.Tech has introduced another handy Bluetooth accessory to use with your music player and phone - the Clip M.

The Clip M can be paired with your mobile to act as a standard Bluetooth headset, so that when your phone rings, the Clip M will interrupt your music with a beep and let you answer your mobile phone through your MP3 headphones. Just insert your own headphones to the Clip M, then attach it to your MP3 player with an audio cable. Pair it up with a Bluetooth mobile phone and never miss a call. It has up to 10 hours talk time, up to seven hours music playing time and up to 200 hours standby time.

It's available now for around £30.

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Sony MEX-BT5000 car audio head unit

Sony has entered the in-car handsfree market with the MEX-BT5000 car audio head unit - the first Sony head unit with Bluetooth, automatically linking to any Bluetooth mobile to deliver handsfree calls when you're out on the open road, plus a little bit more.

In addition to basic call functions, phone book data from the handset also appears on the BT5000’s high-visibility screen, so you can make and receive calls during a journey without even taking your phone out of your pocket. Support for the Bluetooth OPP (Object Push Protocol) also allows the wireless transfer of up to fifty phone book contacts to the head unit itself. In addition, show it a compatible mobile phone (like the Sony Ericsson W950) or music player that supports Bluetooth and it will retrieve and play music too. The head unit offers basic playback control over the remote source, so you can just call up your favourite tune.

No price or release date available as yet.

Find out more

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CeBIT 2006: Jabra reveals new products for music lovers

Presumably after years of trying to convince us Brits that it’s ok to wander around talking to yourself using a Bluetooth headset, Jabra has decided to change tack slightly and reveal some products for music lovers. This seems pretty sensible given the increasing number of MP3 players and music phones out there, many of which come with sub-standard packaged headphones.

Amongst its new line-up are the new BT325s: a pair of ordinary earphones but with an integrated Bluetooth headset. This means that you plug the 3.5mm jack straight into your player to listen to your tunes but, when your phone rings, your music will cut out so you can take the call. The BT325s will run for about 8 hours between charges and have helpfully been weather-proofed against the elements.

The BT620s are designed for the latest A2DP enabled phones, such as the greatly improved Motorola ROKR E2. These wireless headphones let you stream music straight from your phone and, when a call comes in, the music is paused automatically. A single charge gives a whopping 14 hours of play time and 16 hours of talk time. Either that or 240 hours of standby time. These will set you back £70.

If you already own a Bluetooth headset, neither of the above are much good to you, so Jabra has helpfully revealed a couple of gadgets that add Bluetooth functionality to your music devices. The A120s Bluetooth adapter plugs into anything with a 3.5mm socket, such as an MP3 player, and streams straight to you headset. The A125s is specifically designed for the iPod, including mini, nano and photo versions.

Read more here. 

Nokia AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway

Not content with dominating the mobile market, the big phone firms now want to control your home audio too. Sony's MP001 dock offered "room-filling" sound from your phone, now Nokia has introduced the AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway, a bluetooth device which streams to your  home stereo.

The Nokia Wireless Audio Gateway AD-42W allows you to listen to music stored in compatible mobile devices (or a compatible PC) wirelessly on your home stereo. You can also listen via a bluetooth headset. The AD-42W connects to your stereo via RCA cables (included), with set-up claimed to be very simple.

Please note though, the AD-42W is only compatible with devices that have the Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP) -profile. This is currently just the Nokia 8800/8801 phones (software version 3.94 or newer), but Nokia claims that several devices supporting A2DP -profile are in the pipeline for later this year.

No price as yet, but expect it in the second quarter of 2006.

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World Cup sim card

Heading to the World Cup? Taking your mobile? It should work without any problems if you have roaming set up, but the bill to text and call your mates (not to mention receiving both) in Germany might come as a nasty shock when you get back.

One enterprising firm has a way of getting round that - use a pre-paid German sim card. The card, from Gosim, means you'll not pay to receive calls or texts and you'll pay less to keep in touch with your mates abroad - the company claims you'll make a saving of up to 72%.

Gosim's World Cup sim package costs £24.99, which includes a German pre-paid  SIM card, 10 Euros of calls plus a free ringtone and ‘Three Lions’ screensaver. Personally, I could do without the screensaver and ringtone and it isn't going to work on all phones, but possibly worth a look if you're heading over this summer.

Find out more

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Sony Ericsson MP001 phone dock

If Sony Ericsson's MDS-60 music phone stand doesn't give you the power you require, it might be worth checking out their MP001 music dock, which turns your phone into as home stereo.

Just place your Walkman handset in the cradle mount at the front and you get instant access to all the music stored on the phone. The MP001 contains stereo speakers and a hidden sub-woofer capable of delivering a room-filling 25W (RMS) of music power. Sound quality is good too, thanks to the 32-bit Sony S-Master Digital amplifier at the core of the system and clarity of the S-Master sound is complemented by sophisticated digital signal processing (DSP). In addition, there's also an integrated phone FM tuner, a remote control and the MP001 charges the phone while it plays.

The MP001 phone dock is due to go on sale in the UK around June. No price available as yet.

Via New Launches

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Sony Ericsson MDS-60 music phone stand

Mobiles are starting to rival portable players now as devices to house your favourite tunes on the move. But sooner or later you'll stop moving - maybe arriving at work, at a friends house or just back home. If you want to play your phone's music without the earphones, it might be worth looking at Sony's neat little solution - the MDS-60 music phone stand.

Tailor-made for the Sony Walkman phone range, just pop your music mobile in the cradle and crank up the noise. It looks good, so ideal to stick on your desk in the office to show off, plus it folds up - so you can take it with you to stop it going walkabout from said desk. It operates from batteries or mains and has speakers covers available in different colours if you want to customise.

The MDS-60 should be in UK stores very soon, price and exact date still to be confirmed.

Via Uncrate

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Sony launches Memory Stick Micro (M2) for mobiles
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950

Bluetrek water-resistant Bluetooth headset

You know how it is, you're by the pool, fancy a swim and forget you've got your Bluetooth headset on. Or more practically, you get caught in the rain. Either way, it's not a good idea to go near water with electrics. However, Bluetrek claim their water-resistant X2 headset takes away that worry.

Weighing just 15g and based on Bluetooth 1.2 technology, the X2 offers up to 14 hours of talk time and 500 hours of standby time, with an operating range of up to 10m. It is water resistant and shock resistant thanks to its use of highly durable, lightweight, splashproof materials. A customisable system of loops and hooks made out of a smooth, silicone rubber guarantees adaptability to various ear shapes and sizes, as well as an ergonomically designed fit for continuous wear.

It should be in the shops in early March, priced around £59.

Find out more

More Bluetooth:
Design your own Bluetooth
Saitek Audio Bluetooth headphones

Sony launches Memory Stick Micro (M2) for mobiles

No more the simple phone, the average mobile is now more of a multimedia tool - with users demanding increased capacity for downloading and storing their music, video and images. So it seems only logical that companies will introduce more flexible means of boosting storage. Sony's answer is the Memory Stick Micro (M2), with capacities of 256MB, 512MB and 1GB. 

M2 media is designed as an externally removable media with a controlled eject function to prevent loss of data. It's also dual-voiltage, so it will work with both phones and existing Memory Stick PRO compatible products.

The newly-launched Sony Ericsson M600i (pictured) is the first mobile phone compatible with the M2.  Users of the UMTS phone can store various types of content, such as contacts and email attachments as well as multimedia files including music, pictures, video clips and documents.  As the M2 is an external storage media, it allows users to exchange this content between the mobile phone and a PC with a Memory Stick PRO slot, using the supplied M2 adaptor.

Sony plans to ship the 256MB and 512MB versions of the M2 media from March, and the 1GB model from May 2006. Prices are still to be confirmed.

More Sony:
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson K610

Charge your phone with a windmill

Wind power - it's the future, or so a number of environmentalists argue. So why not harness the power of the wind to keep your mobile on the move?

The Micro Windmill mobile charger has been developed by NV Satyanarayana, a science graduate based in India. His device is basically a small fan with blades of 10cm diameter connected to a generator with an output wire which connects to a mobile phone. The components are weather proof so you can use it in any weather conditions and being lightweight it can be carried about easily. It can also even charge batteries of of laptops. handhelds and MP3 players. Though this might take a little time!

The Micro Windmill mobile charger is currently still in the development stage - no release date has been set as yet.

Via New Launches

More environmentally-friendly charging:
Solar-powered PSP charger
Wind-up charger

3GSM 2006: More Nokia web tablets coming

Nokia’s first foray in to the web tablet market, the 770, has apparently gone down so well that the company is already working on follow up models. The staff at 3GSM obviously aren't giving too much away but did promise similar devices for later in the year possibly integrating a full QWERTY keyboard. The company re-affirmed that the tablet's potential killer app – VoIP which will use a Google system is coming in the summer.

3GSM 2006: Orange's video glasses

Over the past couple of years we have seen enough video glasses to make us go square-eyed, and frankly most of them have been awful too. However it is interesting to note though that they are now being championed by mobile phone networks.

Over in France Orange launched this pair of mobile goggles in November. The network says they are great for viewers who want to draw attention to themselves in public watch mobile TV or surf the web while on the move. They apparently retail for around 300 Euros and work in conjunction with a Samsung D600e phone – though I suspect they will work with other mobiles too. Orange is hinting that they will be on sale in the UK probably in the second half of next year.

Blueye music and mobile integration

It's not new, see our recent coverage of myTalker, but the idea of integrating your phone and music player to avoid missing a call is gaining popularity with manufacturers. The latest pitch is from Mavizen, who have introduced Blueye.

Small and lightweight, Blueye plugs into any music player (or your PSP) and connects wirelessly to bluetooth-enabled mobiles. Accept calls with Blueye’s control panel, listen to calls through the music player's headphones and answer through the Blueye microphone. Volume is automatically muted when the phone rings and there's support for Interactive Voice Control, so calls can be answered with voice only.

Available in three colours and with a battery life offering 10 hours talk time, you can pick it up for around £69.

Find out more

More Bluetooth:
Saitek Audio bluetooth headphones
Go Bluetooth with music headphones

Design your own Bluetooth

Fancy livening up your Bluetooth headeset? Well, the Jabra BT160 Bluetooth headset could be for you. The headset comes with 33 interchangeable design covers to suit your mood, some that even Bet Lynch would struggle to carry off.

The BT160, weighing just 16 grams and with support for Bluetooth 1.2, provides up to six hours of talk time and up to 110 hours of standby time. It also features a standard answer/end call button, voice activated dialling and volume control, both located on the headset. 

But the big selling point here is design. Select one that matches your mood or style from the 33 included, including striking designs such as  Zebra, Leopard, Ladybug, White Orchid, or Red Velvet. In addition, you can create your own design at www.jabra.com. I'd recommend one the colour of an ear.

The Jabra BT160 is available now for around £40.

Find out more

More Bluetooth:
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Saitek Audio Bluetooth headphones

CES 2006: ThunderEyes MP3 shades

Top tip for next year, absolutely everyone will be touting shades with built in techy features. And I’ll bet a lot will look like the ThunderEyes. The vanilla version of the shades, which features a built in MP3 player has been on sale for a few months now. At CES though the company unveiled the latest update which also includes Bluetooth for hooking up to your phone. We couldn't find out where it offers wireless streaming of music from a mobile, but for the moment we are presuming it doesn’t. The shades sports between 128Mb and One Gigabyte of flash memory, features an integrated mic and voice recorder and apparently deliver up to eight hours of playing time. No indication of price yet.

CES 2006: Elesken foldable display

British smart fabric firm Eleksen are an interesting company (and not just because they gave us a free bag with built in iPod controls for visiting their stand at CES in Las Vegas, one of the better freebies at the show). Eagle-eyed readers may remember they produced the controls for the O'Neill solar bag which we featured on sister site Hippy Shopper recently. Now they've come up with a foldable Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard which you can use with your smart phone/PDA.

Weighing just 2.4oz, the ElekTex fabric keyboard is light enough and compact enough to fit inside your pocket though you do have to bash the keys in order to get the text up on your mobile phone. Costing $149 (UK prices to be decided) the fabric keyboard is compatible with all smart phone operating systems including Symbian and Windows Mobile. Also shown at CES was a $60 G-Tech smart bag from Good Hope which featured iPod controls built into the fabric and an iPod jacket from Kyono - more details to follow.
Eleksen

CES 2006: Skullcandy's music helmet and headphones

A contender for the coolest named company at CES is Skull Candy, which as you have probably already surmised makes all manner of headgear. We were particularly taken with its headphones – especially the pink pair (very Shiny Shiny) and the music and mobile phone ready snowboarding/skiing helmet, the Giro which is pictured below. (We were also quite taken with the girl modelling them but that's another story). The helmet is obviously ultra tough and rugged and laughs off sleet and snow, but its key feature is that it comes with wired connections for a mobile and a music player.

The adapter works with all 3.5mm jacks, but if you want to use your mobile you need to specify which make it is when you order. The helmets start at $129 and go all the way up to $179. We haven’t seen any European distribution, but there’s no reason why they won’t work on this side of the pond. The headphones are the Ti DJ. They come in all kinds of groovy colours and retail for $39.95.

CES 2006: Cool speaker system/recharger for smartphones

So you’re a manufacturer and you’ve churned out speaker system/rechargers for the iPod and the PSP, where do you go next? Well it has to be the music phone. Among the companies quick off the mark in this area are Qool which has unveiled a pair of Xensaxion series devices that combine speakers with recharging facilities.

They aren’t just good for mobiles though. The pair of systems can also be connected to any sound source via a mini jack audio input. The downside though is that the speakers system are limited to certain types of mobiles, in this instance Windows Mobile handset like the various versions of the XDA and MDA and Orange’s SPV series. Both systems are available in the Far East but there are no detail yet on a UK or even a US launch. Particularly impressive is the Xensaxion X10 which not only looks great but should really help to turn your music phone into a serious bit of hi-fi. More details on Qool's innovative products can be found here.

CES 2006: Parrot's car stereo with Bluetooth

Hybrid gadgets are all the rage - so Parrot's Rhythm n' Blue, the world's first car stereo with hands-free calling for Bluetooth-enabled phones should come as no surprise.

The Rhythm n' Blue is a top-end AM/FM/CD/MP3 stereo receiver with a powerful a powerful 4 x 45 watt internal amplifier that works in conjunction with most Bluetooth mobile phones on the market, allowing the driver to make calls, take calls and access a mobile address book hands-free via Parrot’s  voice-recognition technology. When a call comes in, a quick glance at your receiver shows Caller ID, your music source is automatically muted and the phone audio is routed through the vehicle’s speakers - all with no hands.

Other features include a detachable faceplate for security, an integrated telephone keypad and address book and  synchronisation with a mobile to access contact details.

The Rhythm n' Blue made its debut at this year's CES. No price or date for the UK market is currently available.

CES 2006: Nokia's trio of Bluetooth headsets

Nokia has released details of three new Bluetooth headsets at the CES.

The tiny BH-800 has a minimalist design and is available in two colors - coffee black and silver white, with optional ear loop and offering up to 6 hours of talk time. it is Nokia's first Bluetooth 2.0 EDR spec headset. It should sell for around 115 Euro, excluding VAT.

The new BH-900 headset is a larger device, with up to 8 hours of talk time, and an ear hook that can be configured for both right and left ear use. it also has a noise and echo reduction system. The selling price will probably be 85 Euros, excluding VAT.

Finally, the BH-200 is an entry-level device. Weighing in at 14g, it offers up to five and a half hours of talk time and should sell for a competitive 45 Euros, excluding VAT.

CES 2006: Motorola's tiny Bluetooth headset

The PR on the Motorola stand has been making jokes about how the company is working on Bluetooth ear-rings. Well they may be some way off, but Moto has just delivered a contender for the tiniest Bluetooth headset so far. The H5 Minblue really is minute. It sits in your ear and is so discreet that it is unlikely that people will realise you are wearing it. The downside is that even our ear-ring obsessed PR couldn't keep it in her ears and it kept popping out. Nevertheless it certainly looks the part. Available in the UK in the spring.

CES 2006: Better mobile phone reception in your home

If you have rubbish mobile phone coverage in your home - and let's face it anyone with a 3G mobi will know all about wavering signal strength bars on their handset – help is at hand. New company Spotwave has developed a system called the Zen that apparently works intelligently to ensure you get crystal clear reception throughout your home.

It consist of two units, one sited where the signal is strongest in the home usually on an inside wall. The other unit is then placed where the signal is at its weakest. All in all Spotwave claims to ensure that even in home with weak signals the user will get reception quality of five bars. The first unit, which gone on sale in the US inthe summer for $400 is designed specifically for GSM phones, but the company says it hopes to have a dedicated 3G model available for Europe in the second half of 2006.

CES 2006: Motorola's O ROKR music shades

Remember the Motorola Oakley Razrwire Bluetooth sunglasses? Well the two companies have teamed up again to offer an enhanced version of the Razrwire called the O ROKR. The basics are the same in that the system features a Bluetooth adaptor that clips on to the Oakley shades that then connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to a mobile phone.

The key difference with the O ROKR is that as well as enabling the user to make voice calls they can also listen to music from their mobile in stereo. The only downers are that the phone must support the A2DP version of Bluetooth - which kind of limits it as there are only handful of these mobiles available. Also battery life isn't great at just six hours. The design of the shades is also different from the Razrwire too. The O ROKR is expected in the first half of 2006 and will retail for around £200.

Best of 2005: Rok

ROK is building for its US launch at CES next week. So far it has a great track record in its home UK market by being first with TV programmes/movies on memory cards for mobiles and handhelds and rolling out a TV services for GPRS phones. A company to watch.

3's Pupillo surveillance camera

While you are out of the home your living room is a real hive of activity. Clocks tick, your DVD player's LED display flickers, spiders crawl across the floor and the toys stashed away in your cupboard stage their own mini Olympics on your rug. Well if you are a 3 customer you can now capture teddy versus Roboraptor in the all age pole vault as the network has unveiled the Pupillo, a surveillance camera for your home. Basically it lets you make video calls so you get to see exactly what is happening in your room. As it is battery powered you can site it anywhere too and it is Night Vision equipped as well so you can capture images in the dark. Yours for £150

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Camcorder clock

Dead wood media: The Phone Book

Over the last few days we haven’t been able to go anywhere, not even to the bathroom, without taking Henrietta Thompson's fabulous new tome The Phone Book with us. Billed as a handy guide to the world’s favourite invention it is in fact soft porn for mobile phone junkies with pics and descriptions of all those mobiles you loved and lost (invariably on the 73 bus) yet wished you still had.

It’ll take you back to the days when phones weighed more than briefcases and indeed you needed to  carry round a briefcase of notes to actually pay the tariff. The brilliantly researched book also picks up on lots of really cool far eastern handsets, fast forwards into the future and predicts the rise of the phone as the uber-gagdet and has some interesting case studies on recent handsets like the Chav's nation's fave the Motorola RAZR. If you enjoyed Gordon Laing's amazing Digital Retro and you love your mobi this has to be top of your Xmas shopping list.

Bark home

So Fido is getting a little too frisky with the bitches in another postcode and is missing out on his din-dins. So what do you do? Well last year a US company called Pet Mobility came up with the genius idea of a GPS collar for dogs, so you could see on your PC exactly where the mutt had wandered.

In March the same company will go one better and debut the first mobile phone for our canine chums. The PetCell is a bone shaped device that hangs off the hound’s collar. It has its own number and after dialling the owner can speak to their dog via its two way speakers. The dog can of course bark back too.

The PetCell also has an option called GeoFence that will alert owners whenever their dog wanders beyond preset parameters, and built-in temperature sensors to indicate if the dog is too hot or cold. Owners can even attach a camera to the collar and get a wireless feed of exactly what their dog is looking at. Given that this is often like to be the rear end of another hound it is perhaps not too enticing a prospect. It’ll sell for around $400 in the US, though there’s no news yet on a European launch.

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Jabra JX10 Bluetooth headset

Even though Jabra has been striving to turn Bluetooth headsets into fashion accessories for some time now, I can’t say I particularly agree with its description as “the ultimate in headset design and beauty”.  But whether you think it’s possible for any earpiece to even be truly stylish or not, you have to give the JX10 credit for being very compact and discreet. It is only 4cm long and won’t be much of a burden on your ear, weighing in at 10g. Audio quality is enhanced by using Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and the battery life is an impressive 6 hours talk time or 200 hours standby. Needless to say that kind of combination of quality features is going to cost you; the JX10 costs a weight £99 and is now available in the UK.

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Hulger phones go Bluetooth

The girls at Shiny Shiny have a real thing for these retrotastic Hulger phones. We can't quite fathom out why especially as they are always wibbling on about tiny mobiles. It just seems really odd then to go and connect them up to the huge Hulger handsets. Anyhow it is good to see that Hulger is moving with the times a little and embracing new technology of sorts. Its two latest handsets, the PIP and the Penelope, both sport Bluetooth, so you now longer have to wrap that sixties style cord around your neck each time you answer the phone. The PIP is an 80s style model while the Penelope is thirties art deco-ish. Both sell for £50 for the wired versions and £90 for the Bluetooth jobbies.

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Hulger's P phone
The original Pokia

Motorola's Skype headset

Now that Skype had done the big deal with eBay expect to see plenty of other big name companies starting to back it. Like Motorola which today announced the first Skype-certified Bluetooth headset solution, the Motorola Wireless Internet Calling Kit. The system, which comprises a Motorola HS815 Bluetooth Headset and PC850 PC Adapter, enables users to make Skype calls, which as you probably know are free to other Skype users.

It also comes with 30 SkypeOut minutes so the owner can chat away to people on landlines or mobiles for free for half an hour. The system has six hours of battery talk time and can be used up to 30 metres away from the PC. It is in the stores today. Incidentally Skype now boasts more than 66 million registered worldwide users, which is quite astonishing growth by anyone's standards.

More Skype:
Skype phone reviewed
Skype and DECT in one

LG helps prevent drink-driving

LG has unveiled plans to integrate a breath analyser into a phone handset. This will come in pretty handy if you think you may have had a couple too many wine spritzers somewhere outside the UK, but I think under this country’s somewhat tighter legislation it might be worth using if you’ve been standing too close to a bar maid. The LG-SD410, LG-KP4100 and LG-LP4100 handset are set to come with this unique feature out in Japan and I think the odds are pretty good of something similar reaching these shores eventually. It would also be especially useful if it could speed dial a taxi company in the event of an unacceptable level. Then maybe order you a kebab and work out where the hell you left your house keys.

via Akihabara News

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Text message powered kettle

You know the story. It’s cold wet and you are gasping for a cuppa, yet as you enter your front door you know it’ll take a couple of minutes for the kettle to boil and that’s without taking into account the time it’ll take for the tea to brew. Nightmare! Well it appears Orange has heard your pleas for, in collaboration with Great British tea maker PG Tips, it is to launch a new service called ReadyWhenUR. It is based around a regular silver teapot that’s cleverly been kitted out with  a radio receiver, As soon as it gets the word ‘switch on’ via text it does just that ensuring that by the time you reach your abode the water is piping hot and ready for that tea bag. It goes on sale in January and costs £100.

Waterproof housing for camera phones

When we heard about a waterproof casing for a mobiles we got all excited and imagined making voice calls while poring over sunken wrecks or checking (or maybe that should be surfing) the web while taking a break from lengths at the local pool. Alas the WaveCase water proof casing or mobiles doesn’t let you do either of those things, instead it is designed to house camera phones - it can accommodate about 95% of them – enabling their owners to snap away at creatures under the sea. The casing, which is impervious to a depth of around 20 metres, also comes with a strap that hangs around your neck. The case works with any phone that is no larger than 110 mm long, 55 mm long and 22mm wide. It is available now for 49.90 Euros from here.

Jazz up your Treo 650

These guys don't waste any time. No sooner do we put up a story about the new Treo 650 coming to the UK then we get a press release about some new cases for it from Innova Cases.

They're available in several different colours, including pink, green, orange and red-ish and they look OK - if you're the sort of person who feels the need to accessorise your smart phone. But with prices starting at around £50 they're not exactly cheap. Here are the features:

* Semi-rigid flip cover
* SD cards slot
* Charge and sync cutout
* Optional ultra clip
* Headphone access
* Easy re-set access

Compare PalmOne Treo prices
Innova Cases
Vaja

Moto's Oakley Sunglasses

As if the excitement of all those skinny little phones wasn't enough, Motorola has also been making plans with Oakley - creators of the award winning Oakley Thump MP3 Sunglasses. The two companies have unveiled a new line of Bluetooth sunglasses. The RAZRWire high-tech specs are designed to allow wearers to take and place calls with the touch of a button. The Bluetooth glasses are available in three colours and have been designed for outdoors types - cyclists, skaters, rock climbers and golfers. And men who like to customise their car stereos.

Motorola

Fairly funky Bluetooth car kit

We seem to have become so paranoid about getting three bonus points on our licence for chatting on the mobile while driving that all Carphone Warehouse seems to sell these days is Bluetooth kits for the car. Although it has bog-standard features we kind of like the look of the Bluetooth Car Kit LCD HS-8200 from Dutch maker Trust.

Essentially the pack features a semi-circular, well, blob, with a blue LED screen that flashes the number up of the person who calls you. It also has two fairly hefty looking speakers on the side an integrated mic and a volume control. Like most of its rivals it is powered via the motor’s cigarette charger. It goes on sale at the end of January for £80.

BatMax: Extend your battery life

A sticker that extend your mobile's battery life? It may sound unlikely, but that's what BatMax claims to have come up with. The sticker is compatible with all mobiles and can extend your battery's life to up to twice as long, we're told. It's based on IonXR "nanoceramic material" whatever that may be. This slows down the rate at which batteries lose their juice-storing capacity, extends power from each charge and also speeds up the charging time. It will work on pretty much any type of battery and can be used on older batteries to rejuvinate them. It elimates battery "memory" effect and regulates the current supplied from power sources to protect against variations. It costs $12.95.

BatMax

Mobile Saver battery pack

Here's a more environmentally friendly version of the Cellboost disposable battery pack for mobiles. The Mobile Saver from STC Global is a rechargeable power source that you can carrry with you as a back up should your mobile battery run down. The Mobile Saver MSC-1000 can apparently recharge a mobile 3-4 times before it needs recharging itself. Eight LED lights give you a more accurate idea of how much power is left. The power pack itself takes 6-7 hours to recharge (although it's safe to leave overnight with no risk of overcharging, we're told). It's obviously not as fast at recharging your mobile as the usual wall socket, but at 2-3 hours for a full charge, it's a good solution for those times when you're away from a power source. There's also the Mobile Saver MSD-2000 for digital cameras. Prices aren't cheap, however, starting at $59.99.

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