Nokia adds French flair to its 7900 Crystal Prism

We aren't sure why Nokia's product announcements are coming in drips and drabs these days. Here's another one that's more drab than drib. The 7900 Crystal Prism doesn't have a lot to offer and the only reason anyone would get this instead of the earlier 7900 Prism is the sapphire crystal center key. Although the back cover and wallpapers are said to be designed by avant-garde artist Frédérique Daubal, it still doesn't take away the oddity of the triangular-shaped keys.

While we applaud Nokia for pushing the design envelope, there's such a thing as finding a balance between form and function. However, if you are a diehard Nokia fan, you'll probably dismiss what we've just written as baloney. So for those of you, the phone will be available in Asia this quarter. Pricing to be determined.

Nokia rolls out another two phones for emerging markets

We're not keen on sharing our phones with other people, but Nokia is making a big deal out of it for the emerging markets. Its recent survey wants us to believe that more than 50 percent of the respondents in India, Pakistan and close to 30 percent in Vietnam are sharing, or would share, their handsets with family or friends.

One of the two handsets announced today--the Nokia 1209--comes with a multiple phonebook feature for that exact purpose. It allows up to five people to store their personal contact lists on a single phone. The other features are absolutely pedestrian, so we won't go into the specifics. The second phone is the 2600 classic. It comes with a marginally better feature set that includes an FM radio, VGA camera and swappable Xpress-on covers.

Both handsets are expected to be available in Singapore in February, with the rest of Asia looking at Q1 for the 2600 classic (65 euros before taxes) and Q2 for the 1209 (35 euros before taxes).

Phone with rollout display rolls out

If we were editors for a thesaurus, "brag" would become a synonym for "concept". Companies tease consumers all the time with digital renders of products that never make the light of day. This is why it came as quite a surprise that Polymer Vision, a spinoff from Dutch company Philips, has committed to bringing its Readius mobile phone with a rollout display to market.

This mobile phone is not much bigger than your regular candy-bar device. Even then, it manages to have a 5-inch display which can be folded out to one side. The screen is a monochrome one, but still, its size makes it great for reading e-books and other text documents. An earlier press release on the Polymer Vision site said it should have shipped by the end of 2007. We have contacted the company for a confirmation of that and whether it will be available in Asia Pacific. For now, check out some images of this not-just-a-concept-anymore handset.



Via NOTCOT

New phones from Toshiba surface

The Toshiba Portege series of mobile phones started out with two devices in Europe. It would be fitting then for the next two to be announced there, too, this time in Italy. The Japanese company has unveiled the G710 and G910, two Windows Mobile 6-based products which succeed the G500 and G900.

The G710 uses the WM6 Smartphone OS, which means it has no touchscreen. It comes with a keyboard that looks very similar to the one found on the Samsung SGH-i600. GPS is built-in but the specs don't say if it has 3G or HSDPA.
Read more »

Follow the virtual line

A company with the unwieldy name of Making Virtual Solid has developed a new way for drivers to follow GPS directions, a virtual line projected onto a car's windshield. The technology, called Virtual Cable, uses existing heads-up-display components and standard GPS navigation systems, but would have to be factory-installed.

From videos on the company's site, the system looks very usable, and a big improvement over current route guidance systems. The beauty of Virtual Cable is that it shows route guidance over real streets, as opposed to navigation screens, which show arrows on a map that the driver then has to mentally translate to the view out the windshield.

Making Virtual Solid hasn't announced any deals with automakers or OEMs at this date, so it will be at least a few years before we see Virtual Cable projected onto the screen of any production cars.

Via Crave CNET

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