Smartphones are all about screens, and the screen on this thing is tiny. The watch will be able to show info about incoming calls, calendar events, new emails, status updates from social networks, and more on its tiny non-color screen. I don’t know, this sort of thing seems useless to me, especially if you can just take out your cell phone quickly. Still, this watch will allow some people to live their secret agent fantasies.

For now, this watch is still being tested and it will take several months before we see it for sale. It’s expected to sell for $200 (USD).

[via Geek Alerts]

If you thought the Dell Mini 5 (5-inch screen) was big for a phone, you haven’t seen the Huawei SmaKit S7 (7-inch screen)! In all due fairness, the device is considered a MID with 3G voice capabilities, and with Bluetooth you’ll probably be using a headset to talk more often than not. Either way, it looks like another winning announcement from Huawei.

Here is what the company had to say about the device:
The SmaKit S7 has a 7-inch wide screen with a resolution of 800 x 480. It supports information-sharing across screens to present the same content simultaneously on computers, mobile phones and TV screens. The SmaKit S7 tablet allows users to easily access local information, visit social networking websites and shop from online application stores. To provide end-users with an integrated home solution, Smakit S7 can be connected to home gateway, TV or Android handsets.

I’m loving the look and feel of the SmaKit although that sounds a bit perverted when taking the device’s name into consideration (Smack It?). Oh come on… lighten up!

The SmaKit S7 has 720p video and HDMI Out after placing it into a docking station. The dock also includes 2 USB ports as a nice added touch. Our friend Charbax snagged a video demo:

My favorite part of the video – by FAR – is at about 2 minutes 30 seconds in when he asks about 3G and the rep, trying to hold back a smile, says, “If you don’t mind it’s too big you can make calls like that,” as he puts the huge device up to his ear. Priceless.

The SmaKit S7 itself may seem priceless but how much would you be willing to pay for it?

via phandroid

The Samsung Wave is the first phone to rock Samsung’s new mobile operating system, Bada, which aims to make feature phones more app-friendly. We first heard the rumbles of the approaching tsunami after Samsung flaunted the Wave on a billboard outside Mobile World Congress on Friday.

The Wave’s frothy crest is a 84mm (3.3-inch) touchscreen that Samsung is calling ‘Super AMOLED’ — and Samsung knows what it’s talking about. Its AMOLED already brings all the boys to the yard on phones like the Samsung i8910 HD and the Samsung Galaxy.

Samsung says that Super AMOLED is brighter, clearer, and less reflective than boring old normal AMOLED, with anti-smudge technology that keeps our kebab-soaked fingers from sullying its beauty. Of course, we’ll let you know if it’s more than hype when we see the phone in person.

The Wave has a 1GHz processor and a refreshed version of the TouchWiz user interface, which includes an integrated inbox for email, text messages and social networking updates.

The Wave washes over you with Wi-Fi that supports the latest 809.11n standard and Bluetooth 3.0. You’ll also get access to the Samsung Apps application store to beef up the phone with plenty more fun and games.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with an LED photo light and heaps of image editing features. Your choice of 2GB or 8GB of on-board memory can be topped off with up to 32GB more in the microSD card slot.

Expect to catch the wave in April of this year.

via cnet

By creating the S-Class UI 3D Widget, LG has expanded customers’ usual notion of “mobile user interface” into something much more fundamental: “user experience around YOU”. The widget not only allows users to experience LG’s ambitious S-Class UI even while away from their mobile phones but also presents non-LG-phone-owners to pre-experience and try out the UI. Flicking, cube, 3D-ness, and vertical scrolling. All will be imprinted by all the widget users and remembered as THE brand for LG mobile.

S-Class UI 3D Widget is the first attempt to replicate the mobile experience into a desktop one; there have been many other attempts in the opposite direction. Each module in the widget has a corresponding category in the mobile S-Class UI. For example, the first category corresponds to the menu on the phone while the last category has the exactly same name in “multimedia.” Basically the widget is a desktop replica of the mobile UI, only filled with rich content and features of desktop and the Internet.

Openminded-ness

The widget embodies the very motto of Web 2.0 era: “are you open?” The S-Class UI 3D Widget is probably the very first attempt by any major mobile manufacturer which has fully embraced the power of Open API. It provides extremely fun content to users through Heyzap, Youtube, Photobucket, Smugmug, and other podcast channels FOR FREE. A perfect fit for users because the widget is really about “user experience” of the UI and users truly get to enjoy the best content from around the world inside the interface. Users will love the application because it’s fun; and LG did it for free thanks to the fact that it’s open.

Typically what large corporate entities try to do first when creating an application like this is building partnerships with many other content providers at high cost. Not quite so with open APIs. What’s awesome about this kind of open approach is that you get to build a co-existing environment where it benefits both the Open API providers and the API users. For example, by showing Youtube clips on the widget, LG was able to create mega effects which make both Google and LG’s brands shine together. That is how we should excel in the world we’re currently living in. LG has opened up the door as the front runner in this. Does that mean we can expect more? We’ll see.

Creative! Creative! Creative!

The S-Class UI 3D Widget marketing campaign by LG blows past competitors’ campaigns in that the S-Class UI 3D Widget is the very first campaign that combines desktop software in order to raise brand awareness through user experience. Far more than simple display ads which only allow passive marketing effects through message pushing on the users’ side, the campaign actually allows users to actively participate in brand experience.

What could be a more powerful brand experience than having the users actually experience the brand? A point to remember is this: the S-Class UI 3D Widget maximizes user engagement in experiencing the brand. Users will greatly enjoy the widget because it’s simply useful and fun. Whether they know it or not, every moment they have fun, they are experiencing the UI at a deeper level. Isn’t this what every single brand marketer hopes to achieve? Indeed, very creative. Very creative.

As the cell phones continue getting sleeker, smarter, and more versatile, it is increasingly the installed software the enables us to distinguish on another. LG’s latest touchscreen Arena KM9000 with an extra-whizzy user interface in the form of a three dimensional cube. You can call up your contacts and access widgets and create a customizable home screen.

It also has a 5MP camera, onboard wi-fi and haptic feedback that responds to your taps ont he screen, but media functions are its real forte. There is a handy built-in FM transmitter for listening to its output to any nearby radio, and a TV out if you want to render those stored photos or videos on a bigger screen. The 3.5 audio jack will helpfully allow you to plug in any headphones of your own choosing, and while its internal storage of 2GB might not be all that much, this can be supplemented by an SDHC card up to 32GB in size. There is also assisted GPS and a web browser.

It appears to be the same device as the E-Ten Glofiish DX900 — same features, same look, just a different brand name — which makes sense since Acer bought E-Ten last year. It’s being offered for £454, SIM-free.

Acer plans a high-profile introduction of several handsets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in less than two weeks. Specs-wise, the DX900 is a fairly run-of-the-mill smartphone, which leaves room for something far more impressive to be revealed on 16 February.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Boy Genius Report blog posted what it claims to be a leaked photo of another Acer smartphone with a swivel keyboard.

Times are tough, so why not consider the uber cheap Nokia 2700? Image: Nokia.

With much of current mobile phone focus centred on highly desirable smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry line, you’d think other manufacturers would bow to the pressures of the economic downturn and hold back more ‘conventional’ products. Evidently Nokia has other plans.

Specifically, the world’s leading mobile phone maker has this week whipped the covers off a trio of new handsets which, while unlikely to attract the smartphone demographic, could well find purchase with pennywise tech buyers as they strive to tighten their belts without compromising too heavily on the things they want.

Nokia 6700.

First up are the Nokia 6700 classic and Nokia 6303 classic handsets, which arrive sporting refined ‘classic’ lines and a modest selection of appealing features in return for a contract-free 235 Euros and 135 Euros respectively.

Heading the bunch, the 6700 is described as providing, “a new benchmark for mid-range devices,” and comes complete with a 5.0 mega pixel camera, A-GPS with Nokia Maps, High-Speed Packet Access (10Mbps download/2Mbps upload) via 3G, and a full-metallic keypad.

“The beautifully premium design and expert functionality of the 6700 [which is the successor to Nokia’s popular 6300] makes us confident this will be one of out best-selling devices in 2009,” enthused Nokia UK managing director Mark Loughran.

Nokia 6303.

The somewhat cheaper 6303 classic offers up a 3.2 mega pixel camera, Nokia Maps, a 2.2-inch display screen, a MicroSD memory card slot, and a standard 3.5mm audio jack – but no HSPA connectivity or on-board GPS.

If times are so tight that the 6700 and 6303 fall outside of your pricing comfort zone, then perhaps the functional Nokia 2700 classic and its meagre 65 Euro price tag will help cover the basics thanks to a 2.0 mega pixel camera, up to 2GBs of memory expansion via an onboard slot, and a built-in music player.

All of Nokia’s new classic variants are expected to slip (probably unnoticed) down the retail chain in the second quarter of 2009.