Tech & Gadget Stream

DataWind has unveiled its third-generation PocketSurfer - where it will come in PocketSurfer3 and PocketSurfer3 Lite versions. Each of them come with 30 hours of Internet access each month for those living in the UK, where it features a new touchpad to make navigation a snap alongside an improved LCD display. The PocketSurfer3 will rely on its embedded SIM card for mobile data access, relying on a GPRS connection. Too bad streaming video is not supported, leaving you with just static webpages on its 5" LCD display at 640 x 240 resolution.

Virgin Mobile jumps aboard the Valentine's Day bandwagon by offering a pink version of the clamshell LG Flare, and as usual, apart from the external difference in its paint job, everything else inside remains the same including Bluetooth connectivity and speakerphone function. The LG Flare is meant to be an extremely basic handset, so don't expect to do wonders with this apart from keeping in touch via SMS and phone calls. Of course, each purchase of this pink LG Flare from Virgin Mobile will see $5 being donated to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. Might as well surprise your mom or girlfriend this Valentine's Day if they have yet to own a phone and do a good deed at the same time! $29.99 is all Virgin Mobile is asking for.

Verzio of Singapore has launched the Duplii cellphone - touted to be the first dual-SIM phone with tri-band 3G in the world. Very little is known about how its dual-SIM functionality actually works, but Verzio has mentioned that it supports "simultaneous dual mode standby" and is "switch-capable between two incoming calls." Features include a 2-megapixel camera, a 2.2" QVGA TFT display, an expandable memory card slot, and an integrated audio and video player. Too bad the Duplii will be released only in the Philippines at this point in time, and will be launched globally sometime in Q1 2008 with a recommended retail price of $350 - not too shabby, I say. The design could be worked upon further though.

One of the current trends in cellphones that I particularly hate is the lack of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. (And I know I’m not alone.) Almost every phone on the market now has some degree of music playback capabilities yet for the most part to use your own headphones (as opposed to the crappy bundled ones) you also need to use some inconvenient adapter. Even my iPhone which is supposed to be the pinnacle of an MP3-capable phone requires a short adapter to deal with the sunken 3.5mm jack. So enough of my rant and onto a possible solution. These mobile phone plug adapters connect to a phone’s data port and provide a standard 3.5mm jack for plugging in any pair of headphones. And when not in use the adapters can be used as colorful phone charms ensuring they’re always with your phone whenever you want to use them. Unfortunately though I can’t figure out if the adapters are available in multiple versions for different types of phones/data ports or if they simply connect to any mini-U...

Sophia Mobile has recently unveiled the NANI PDA phone that runs on Windows CE 6.0 in Japan. This Japan-only communications device not only comes with a 4.3" widescreen WVGA display, it also features WiFi connectivity and accepts a W-SIM wireless card for a true mobile office. The display is huge enough to enjoy your favorite movies on-the-go as the NANI supports a wide variety of multimedia formats such as MPEG, DivX, XviD, WAV, WMA, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis. Other features include an Office Viewer, GPS navigation, a microSD memory card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a miniUSB port. Sounds pretty complete to me - I wonder what the battery life is like.

First we had desktops that we played games on. When they couldn’t keep up with the demanding needs of the current games we put in dedicated GPUs. Then the same happened with laptops, we wanted to take our gaming on the go, so we put dedicated graphics cards in our laptops too. Now Toshiba wants to put a dedicated graphics chip inside of cell phones. The new chip is made up of the separate processors, one is the 3D GPU, another is Toshiba’s Media Embedded Processor for sound and the third is a WVGA LCD controller for the nice big mobile phone displays. It is promised to bring more realistic graphics that previously possible to the mobile phone platform. We’ll start seeing the first of these produced in October of this year. They won’t, however, be mass-produced until sometime in Q2 of 2008.