PPD Helix

Giving the French the stiff upper lip, the neighborly Brits were spotted at the recent 3GSM World Congress in Cannes unveiling the Helix phone. Still in concept mode, the Helix aspires to raise the bar on clamshell mobiles by being a total multimedia appliance. It will pack at least 20GB of storage space, an OLED display and a 5-megapixel camera. Of course, the Koreans in the next booth must be sniggering since Samsung already has a working 5-megapixel camera-phone out on streets, not to mention being first to market with a hard drive-based mobile. The Helix does, however, feature a unique screen design which swivels on a 180-degree vertical axis when open--something yet to be seen on any phone--though we won't be too surprised if the Koreans steal the thunder again.

See a graphic representation of how the screen swivels

Price: N.A.
Availability: End 2006 or early 2007, under PPD
Device: Camera-phone
Basic specs: N.A.

Motorola-Oakley RAZRWire

Motorola has been keeping strange bedfellows of late. First it was sporting goods manufacturer Burton for Bluetooth-enabled jackets, helmets and beanies. Now the US company has jumped into bed with Oakley. The impending result: Bluetooth-ready sunnies fancily named RAZRWire, though looking far less sleek than its RAZR V3 namesake and not as fashionably integrated as Oakley's music-jiving Thump. Still, four-eyed Asians who fancy true handsfree operation, particularly while engaging in outdoor sports, can check out the RAZRWire when this hits shelves in the later half of the year.

Click to see side profile

Price: N.A.
Availability: Second half of 2005
Device: Bluetooth-enabled sunglasses
Basic specs: Lightweight frame made of O-Luminum, XYZ Optics for razor-sharp clarity, choice of three frame colors

PENCK

Remember the kinetic Infobar phones from the KDDI au folks? Well, this time multitalented graphic designer Makoto Saito is taking a turn with an au project that looks more like designer ware posing as a mobile. Except this seamless metallic blob actually opens up to reveal a camera-phone chockablock with the latest handset features, including miniSD card slot and a 2.2-inch QVGA LCD screen. There's, of course, no need to mention by now that this one's not seeing light of day outside of Japan.

Click to see the inside of the phone

Price: N.A.
Availability: This month in Japan, an au project
Device: Camera-phone
Basic specs: CDMA 1x WIN, 1,240,000-pixel CCD sensor, built-in antenna, stereo speaker, 2.2-inch QVGA LCD, miniSD memory slot, talktime of 210 mins, standby of 250 hours, 57 x 98 × 28mm, 134g,choice of three colors (metal, milk, bitter)

Vest-Pocket Beamer

Achtung, baby. The Germans may yet beat the Japanese and Koreans in the tech miniaturization game, with the Vest-Pocket Beamer expected to become a reality soon. Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT have created a prototype pocket projector using a tilting micro mirror that builds up the picture line by line. Expect future versions to be as tiny as a sugar cube. Just don't mistake it for one.

Price: N.A.
Availability: Still in concept, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Device: Pocket projector
Basic specs: 320 x 240-pixel resolution, tilting mirror of 1.5 millimeters in diameter

Happy People Reversible Glasses

Designer Karim Rashid's Happy People collection is aptly named. Take the Paolo, whose upper bowl functions as a port wine stem. Flip over and its base becomes a champagne stem. To keep imbibers even happier, Rashid has designed 11 reversible glasses for different drinks, all made of mouth-blown crystal and individually a sculptural art piece that should make for great conversation starters. If money's no object, you can buy the whole shebang, host a cocktail party, and get totally and happily sloshed.

Price: From US$85 to US$150
Availability: Via Popgadget.net, glasses can be bought at Retromodern
Device: Wine glasses
Basic specs: N.A.

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