The concept phone below, entitled Edge, designed by Chris Owens, which seems to be aimed at the fashion-conscious consumer. The keypad is made of glass, and draws back in, when the handset is idle. The screen is touch-sensitive – this is becoming quite popular it would seem, plus it occupies nearly the entire real estate of the front fascia. The handset has a very glossy look to it, which isn't to everyone's taste. Obviously, as with most phones these days, there's a camera on the back.

There is another leakage of “live” pics with a cellphone probably upcoming from Sony Ericsson. We’ve got almost no info on its specs – looking at the picture we see a slider phone dressed in metallic housing, which is compact, but not too slim. According to the source, this is a low-end handset with a 1.3-megapixel camera. Probably, we’ll hear other details at the official announcement or from the next info leakage.

EMOBILE, a young 3G operator in Japan, has launched preorders (effective from March 1) for the S11HT communicators with a threatening name “EMONSTER”. Other regions know this device under the name of HTC TyTN II. The operator timed the sales of the communicator to the launch of voice services in its networks. EMOBILE was positioned as the carrier of HSDPA data transfer services and thus lacked voice ones.

Reportedly, the S11HT runs on a Japanese version of Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition and is the first smartphone in Japan with GPS onboard.

The short technical specs of the S11HT (EMONSTER):

• Operating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition (Japanese version)
• Display: 2.8” touchscreen TFT, 240x320 pixels
• Slide-out QWERTY-keyboard
• Wireless: HSDPA / W-CDMA (1700 MHz), up to 3.6 Mbps downstream/ max. 384 Kbps upstream WLAN (IEEE802.11b/g) Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• Main camera: 3-megapixel auto focus (CMOS)
• Camera for video calls: VGA (CMOS)
• microSD 2.0 slot
• miniUSB jack (USB2.0 Full Speed, charging and audio connector in one)
• Dimensions: 112x59x19 mm
• Weight: 190 g

Nokia's Morph nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Centre, and England's University of Cambridge, has been put on display, at The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, USA.

Morph is basically a concept, showing how mobile phones could be in the future – stretching, and flexing the phone into different shapes. But, ultimately, the technology inside the morph concept shows off transparent electronics, and, self-cleaning surfaces.

Hopefully, elements of the Morph concept should be available in handsets, within the next seven years, obviously, in high-end devices, to begin with. The nanotechnology will hopefully allow for integrating complex functionality at a low price. Learn more about what the Morph can do here.

Samsung is working on a new version of the i550 smartphone. The i550W will differ from the original version in an integrated Wi-Fi module. Let it alone, we have the very smartphone powered by Symbian S60 3rd Edition. This is a candy bar with the numeric keypad featuring 2 and 3G networks, 3.2-megapixel auto focus camera with flash, 2.6” QVGA display, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP) and FM-radio. Samsung i550W will start from the Asian market and probably come to Europe in the second half of 2008.

General Mobile has unveiled its DSTW1 communicator, which supports two SIM-cards – the first one designed for quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and the second one – for tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz). The DSTW1 is running on Windows Mobile 6 Professional. It will come out in several European countries in March 08, however we’ve got no word on pricing.

The specs of General Mobile DSTW1:

• OS - Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Networks - GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (SIM 1) and GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz (SIM 2), GPRS/EDGE
• Display – 2.8” 240x320 pixels, 65K colors
• 2-megapixel camera
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 256 MB of onboard memory
• microSD-slot
• Talk time – up to 4 hours
• Standby time – up to 6.25 days
• Dimensions – 117x61x18 mm
• Weight - 144 g

General Mobile has announced its DST33 phone supporting 2 SIM cards. The device is packed in a classical candy bar glossy black shell with the numeric keypad. This is quite a simple handset given its specs. General Mobile DST33 will come out in several countries of Europe in March.

The specs of General Mobile DST33:

• Networks - GSM/GPRS 900/1800 MHz
• Display – 2” 262K colors
• 1.3-megapixel camera
• Bluetooth 1.2
• microSD-slot
• Talk time – up to 4 hours
• Standby time – up to 6.6 days
• Dimensions – 110x46x16.6 mm
• Weight - 95 g

Socket Mobile has reported it will soon release its SoMo650 handheld built with an antibacterial plastic. The original SoMo 650 was released last spring. Designed for business users this semi-rugged Pocket PC can stand a fall from one meter’s height to concrete. It features Intel PXA270 (624 MHz) processor, Windows Mobile 5.0, 3.5” QVGA display, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM.

The updated SoMo 650 with antibacterial coating is targeted toward healthcare and labs that involve hygiene-sensitive environments. The company believes that the antibacterial product will provide an additional layer of protection against the multiplication and spread of potentially harmful bacteria and microbes. The new handheld will hit the stores early in 3Q 08.

Source: mobile-review.com

O2 operator has confirmed the info that it will become Apple’s partner and get exclusive right to sell the iPhone in Ireland. The phone arrives to Ireland on March 14 and will be available through O2 sale networks and Carphone Warehouse, like it is now in the UK. The iPhone 8GB will be priced at €399 (some $600) and the 16GB version - €499 (about $750).

The iPhone in Ireland will be offered with 3 service plans at €45 per month, all of them including some talk minutes, text messages and 1GB of data package. I’d remind you that Apple has teamed up with the following operators to sell the iPhone – AT& T in the US, O2 in the UK, T-Mobile in Germany and Orange in France.

Source: mobile-review.com