The features on the device are actually pretty reasonable, and we'd imagine it to sell for a reasonable attractive price-point at release. The Motorola Opus One will run Android 1.5 with iDEN service enhancements, make use of a "Zeus" CPU, and will feature a 3 megapixel autofocus camera.

• 3.1″ hVGA 320×480 capacitative touchscreen display
• 3 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
• Accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth
• microSD card slot
• 2.5mm headset jack
• Home, Menu, Back, Speaker buttons are capacitive buttons with haptic feedback
• iDEN PTT & PTX
• Android LBS which is integrated into the iDEN GPS engine
• "Enterprise email"
• Plastic-molded housing with some rubberized texture finishes
• 58mm in width, 118mm in length
• 100g weight
• 512MB Flash / 256MB of RAM
• 64k and 128k iDEN SIM card support
• A-GPS
• Motorola dual-mic technology noise-canceling for noisy enviroments
• Flash Lite v3.1.x
• Some of the preloaded apps include: corporate email client with ActiveSync support, MOTONAV navigation app, barcode scanner, and document viewer.

That's what we have for you on the Motorola Opus One at this time. Not the most mind-blowing Android device, but with it being an iDEN device and all, we'lll cut it some slack and even say that it could do reasonably well at launch.

BGR features the latest tech news, mobile-related content and of course, exclusive scoops.

The bit came during SNL last night, and like all good jokes, was funny because it's true.

As an iPhone user, I definitely chuckled a bit, before I returned to weeping silently in a corner as my phone tried to make an outgoing call from the greater Boston area without success. Must be the storm. Must be. [YouTube via Engadget]

To help satisfy our curiosity (and maybe your own), head over to the poll corresponding to the continent you spend most of your time on and tell us which phone you use:

• Africa
• Antarctica
• Asia
• Australia
• Europe
• South America
• North America

Photo by James Nash (aka Cirrus)

It sounds like the couple sought support from their parents before handing their child to a stranger for 2,500 yuan (roughly $366), but it's unclear if that was what pushed their decision. No matter why they did what they did, in the end the pair regretted their decision, and are now attempting to get the child back.

Apparently they may actually even stand a chance of getting the child back because the fellow who purchased him raised some sort of authorities' suspicions and the toddler ended up safe and sound in the care of a welfare center. Other than a truly happy ending, all that's left missing now is word on whether the lovers are returning the cellphone they bought with the proceeds from the child-sale. [Global Times]

Note: The picture above was taken by Micah Sittig, and the cutie in it is not the child from the story.

Google Offering to Snail Mail a Holiday Card for Free

Google's getting into the spirit of the season and offering a neat freebie: To mail out a old-fashioned holiday postcard for you. All you have to do is fill out the recipient's info, add a message, and select a card. Basically that's about 44 cents for the stamp and maybe about a buck for the card in savings in exchange for the pleasure of handwriting a nice note. [Google via Neatorama]

About Three or So People Rejoice as Twitter Updates Its Mobile Website

Does anyone actually use Twitter's mobile website instead of an app anymore? It's always been accessible at mobile.twitter.com, but now it actually looks nicer and has nearly all of the features of the regular page. That's lovely and all, but I doubt most will ever see it. [TUAW]

One Pain-Inducing Cellphone Strap

I'm fine with the fact that some people like to put silly charms on their cellphones, but I just can't figure out how they'd avoid injury with one like this. [Deal Extreme via Nerd Approved via Dvice]

One-Touch Toothpaste Dispenser for Lazy Squeezers

Squeezing toothpaste tubes is so tough that I don't know how people do it. I'm just thankful that there's a six dollar gadget out there to do the work for me. [Giz Fever via ShinyShiny via Uber Gizmo]

Just don't send me one. I already know that my cellphone manners are lacking. [Murray the Nut]

The Arena Max has just passed through the Wi-Fi certification tract, and while LG still hasn't officially introduced the world to its latest flagship Arena model, it's likely to happen soon. In addition to the rumored 12-megapixel camera, the Arena Max LU9400, to give it its full name, also apparently contains a 5-inch screen and super-fast download speeds.

And if LG defaults on any of the above, then this handset just isn't worthy of the "Max" accolade. LG Arena Mediocre, maybe. [CellPassion via TechRadar via Top10]

It's just a concept for now, thanks to Russian designer Mikhail Stawsky, who has also created a crank-ended handset. Twist the end until you've got enough juice to place a call on the glossy touchscreen phone, and develop a new OCD habit whilst at it. [Mikhail Stawsky via Yanko Design]

At least, that seems to be the safest route, if some amazing test results from a study into teen driving and accident prevention are any indication.

The test involved an in-vehicle data recorder (IVDR) system that monitors unsafe driving events, such as sharp turns, heavy acceleration and abrupt braking. Originally developed by GreenRoad, a San Francisco firm that specializes in trucker safety, the system takes this information and "grades" the driver. Red, yellow and green lights inform drivers how well they are driving at any given time.

The system sounds pretty simplistic, but the data suggests something remarkable. In those cars with the system, dangerous driving events were cut in half.

Impressive, but we imagine angsty teens will still find some way to complain about "the man" and mom and dad's snooping. Fortunately, there's an app for that. The system is accelerometer-based, and the software could easily make the jump over to smartphones, said Swedish engineer Per-Olof Svnesk in an article at New Scientist. You're already secretly looking at your kid's cellphone anyway, parents, so why not install a safety app in there while you're at it? They may even think it's cool, so no snooping necessary. [New Scientist]

Apparently, midway through pre-briefing reporters and handing out review units, there was a disagreement between Verizon Wireless and RIM over the readiness of the phone (which Verizon just "announced"). We can't discuss details, but the communication breakdown—which involved a few days of unanswered emails—had nothing to do with dissing you readers. The phone, Matt Buchanan says, is far better than the Storm 1, which makes me think its still worth a review despite it being very late, but you get the final say. What do you think?

The Pixi is generally thought of as a hardware downgrade from it's older brother, because that's basically what it is: With a smaller screen, no Wi-Fi and a gimpier two-megapixel camera, it's more or less a neo-Centro. Sure, the keyboard's a bit easier to type on, and the device is slimmer, but Sprint (and Palm) really should've shaved another $50 of off this thing: It's a drop in the bucket next to what Sprint will make from each Pixi's two-year service contract, and would go a long way toward making the Pixi, which has to compete with not just the Pre, but a decent spread of $50-$100 entry-level smartphones, a decent buy.

And seriously, still with this rebate stuff? The Pixi's technical price is $250 dollars, yanked down to earth by a $50 instant rebate and a $100 mail-in card. But Best Buy, Radio Shack and Walmart credit the MIRs instantly, so what's the point?

In any case, the Pre didn't sell for full price for more than a few months—in fact, as John Paczkowski notes, Amazon has it on sale for $100 right now—so with any luck we could see a Pixi deal in time for the holidays. And even without any luck, within a few months after that. [Sprint via BusinessInsider]

Ira Hyman, Jr., a researcher at Western Washington University sent a student unicycling around campus wearing a clown costume and then asked people who'd walked past if they'd "noticed anything unusual." The cellphone users were less than half as likely to have noticed, but Hyman speculates that it may not be the technology itself which distracts them, but instead the concentration required to maintain a conversation over that particular medium. Whatever the case, kudos to him for managing to find an excuse to run a study involving a clown. [Live Science]

Obviously T-mobile is attempting to expand their customer base through Project Dark, and part of the approach is to entice customers who would normally be forced to prepay monthly dues as well as full retail for a device:

"Even More Plus" will give those who would otherwise qualify for FlexPay the option to finance a phone. [...] Our sources tell us that the phones will not be subsidized and so there won't be contracts for the devices, which means you pay the full retail price over the course of a set amount of time (up to 20 months is what we're told). Not bad - for a $500 device over that time is just $25/month, as an example.

The next step is offering the "Most Affordable Unlimited Rate Plans" in three flavors:

[U]nlimited voice, unlimited voice and text, and unlimited voice/text/data all priced at $40, $50 and $60, respectively.

All unconfirmed rumors, of course, but moves like this could definitely help T-mobile leap up from fourth place in the Great Battle of the Carriers.

Update: The folks at Boy Genius now have some screenshots showing the tiered unlimited plan and the FlexPay options.

[Boy Genius Report and Boy Genius Report]

According to the NY Daily News, a recent internal memo instructed NYPD officers to commit such acts of battery-removing, IMEI-jotting kindness. The idea behind it is to assemble a database which would allow them to match phones used by a suspect to past, present, and future crimes. It's almost romantic how you'll gain a lifelong relationship with the NYPD through this process, but, like many other newfangled relationships, this one is being called into question. Some are arguing that it circumvents warrant requirements and infringes on the rights of a suspect. I argue that I won't carry a cellphone if I go on a crime spree in New York. [NY Daily News]

Photo by mskogly

I'm slow as hell with my iPhone's keyboard, and tend to only check emails, or send quick responses. I should probably just suck it up and get faster, but I'm curious if the $30 gizmo would help. Having to slide the holster on and off between emails (to use the screen again) could be a pain in the ass, though. Overall, a little less skeptical than I was, what about you? [itwinge]

I have a hard time believing this unique shot of a meteor striking through the Earth atmosphere was taken with a cellphone camera, but looking at the image through Photoshop, it seems it is indeed a real photo. Or maybe it's not a meteor but a sundog, like some people in the comments pointed out.

The photographer—31-yo Matthew Pinless from Cheltenham, England—claims that the object raced through the sky. If it was indeed a meteor, he must have been really fast to take out his cellphone, and shoot quickly enough to snap two pictures of it. Whatever it was, it's good shot. [Daily Mail]

Yes. That definitely goes beyond the general area of stupidity straight into the I'm a Bloody Moron, Please Shoot Me Dimension. It had to be a dumb Spaniard, of course, for this Euro-African country—alongside Italy and France—produces the biggest driving—and regular—dumbasses in the planet (I know because I was born there).

The 18-year-old driver—identified as J.C.R—was caught by the Spanish police while racing through the streets of the Northwest city of Vigo. The police noticed the speeding car at 2:50am. According to them, the guy was fishtailing, and running red lights while taking photos of himself using a cellphone.

When the police tried to stop him, the moron accelerated and tried to escape, only to be intercepted in another street. Then he tried to escape running and, when he realized he couldn't make it, he returned to his car, and crashed against one of the police vehicles that was chasing him.

Adding to this list of idiotic things, when the police tested his alcohol levels, he was off of the scale. In Spanish law, that means that you will get your driver's license automatically revoked. But then again—as the police discovered later—this guy doesn't even have a driver's license, so it's not that he's going to care about that. Not that he will need one in jail, anyway. [Yahoo! Noticias (in Spanish)—Thanks Mariló]

It can charge two iPod/iPhones simultaneously while also charging a Blackberry and a bluetooth headset for instance. In fact, using the two iPod connectors and two of your own iPod cords, you could even charge four iPod/iPhones at the same time.

It's good to see they've thrown in Micro USB, too. That's a nice bit of future-proofing given that most cell phone makers (in Europe at least) will soon be using it universally. You can pick one up in white, black or pink for $90. That isn't exactly cheap, but the Refresh definitely looks like a pretty slick piece of kit. [Bluelounge via Yanko Design]

Pogue's mainly concerned with the silly fees levied on consumers for certain actions despite said actions not costing carriers hardly any money at all (text messaging, we're looking at you). One that we didn't even realize is the sneaky tactic of keeping users on the line for extra time to hear inane instructions like "When you're done recording your message, you may hang up." If you're out of minutes, your carrier is actually going to charge you to listen to those! That's worthy of a good fist-shake, or better yet, some Congressional intervention. [New York Times]

It's hard to go through all of the new features of course (especially since MMS, tethering and turn-by-turn directions are not quite there yet), but what do you think about the update overall?

Samsung's Galaxy is a 11.9 millimeter-slim handset that features a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera, and also comes equipped with GPS, Wi-Fi and and WCDMA support. Even more, the phone calls attention to the haptic feedback on its virtual keyboard, which is a first for a major touchscreen smartphone.

Because the AMOLED screen reportedly draws less power than the iPhone's TFT-LCD screens do, the Galaxy apparently has a longer battery life, making this—coupled with the haptic feedback—more mainstream-consumer friendly for those who have yet to purchase a smartphone. Although pricing and release dates are not finalized, the Galaxy will supposedly be available in Europe by the end of this month, and the rest of the world in the second half of 2009. [PC World via Talk Android]

[Image via Tethering Blackberry]

Speed
The "S" stands for "SPEED!" And according to Apple, it is faster launching applications or rendering Web pages.

• The iPhone 3GS has a new processor built-in. Apple claims that it is up to two times faster than the previous generation: Launching messages is 2.1 faster, load the NY Times in Safari: 2.9 times faster. It also consumes less, which has an impact on the improved battery life.

Camera
This is one of the strong points of the iPhone 3GS, according to Apple. They increased the resolution to 3 megapixels, which—judging from the shots they showed-seems much better quality under all conditions.

• 3 Megapixels sensor.
• New camera, with auto focus, auto exposure, and auto white balance.
• You can also tap to focus, changing white balance in the process. That is really neat, if you ask me.
• Special macro and low light modes.
• The camera also supports photo and video geotagging.
• Any application can access all the camera functions now.

• It supports video, 30 frames per second VGA with auto focus, auto white balance, and auto exposure.
• You can trim the video shot just using your finger, then share it via MMS, email, MobileMe and YouTube.

Connectivity
The other part of the "S" is the support for the faster 7.2 Mbps 3G standard, which in theory will deliver data faster to your iPhone.

• Three band UMTS/HSDPA.
• Four band GSM/EDGE.
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g.
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Graphics
• The new iPhone 3GS includes new 3D graphics support in hardware. This means faster and more complicated 3D games.
• Same 3.5-inch widescreen multitouch display, but this time it has a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. I wonder if it will withstand a full frontal Shake Shack burger attack.

Design

• Same design as before, including the glossy finish of the back (so much for all the rumors about the matte back.)
• Same size as the old iPhone 3G: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.48 inches.
• The weight increases a bit: One ounce to 4.8 ounces (135 grams vs 133 grams).
• Greener materials: Arsenic-free glass, BDF-free, Mercury-free LCD.

New special features
The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.• It has a magnetometer, which works with a Compass application, third parties, and it is integrated into the new Google maps app, showing your orientation with a small semitransparent cone.
• Voice control. You can now talk with your iPhone, Enterprise-style. You can instruct it to play similar songs to the one you are playing, or call people.
• Nike + support built in.
• Supports accessibility features, like zooming on text, inverting video, and voice over when you touch whatever text is on screen.

Battery life
• One of the more important new features is the increased battery life.
• According to Apple, you will get up to 12 hours of talk time on 2G and 5 on 3G, with a up to 300 hour standby time.
• On 3G, it will deliver 5 hours of internet use.
• On Wi-Fi, Internet goes up to 9 hours.
• Video playback is 10 hours vs 30 hours for audio.

Price and availability
• $199 for 16GB version.
• $299 for 32GB version.
• Available on June 19th.

If you are "a valued AT&T customer," AT&T offers an "early iPhone upgrade with a new 2-yr commitment and an $18 upgrade fee." The price? $399.00 for the 16GB iPhone 3G S and $499.00 for the 32GB iPhone 3G S. It gets worse: For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB).

Insane. Way to go AT&T.

Cellphones aren't allowed behind bars be they could easily be used to make drug deals, order hits and carry out other illegal/gang-related activity. Although the official punishment for habitual offenders for this crime is 25 to 99 years, sometimes even life in prison, perpetrators usually end up getting 2 to 10 years instead.

In Ross's case, prosecutor Allyson Mitchell explained that tacking on 60 extra years to Ross's existing sentence is mostly to send a message to other inmates, visitors and unethical officers that not only is having a cell phone in prison a serious offense, but also that they are not afraid to spend 60 more years of the taxpayers' money just to teach people a lesson. [Palestine Herald via Switched]

One of the Loomis & Fargo guards servicing the public ATM threatened to tackle Becker if he tried to leave the store—apparently snapping a photo of the inside of one of these machines constitutes a security threat (although detailed images and data can be found easily online). In fact, one of the arresting officers even pulled the 9/11 card:

Officer Debra Pelich (#5976)
Remember 9/11? I saw pictures of those buildings. One time when I was in Florida I was wandering around taking pictures. A security team came up and told me it was a high security restricted area. I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures there. I explained that I didn't know that, was a police officer, showed them my ID and complied with them. We cleared it up and I left.

Me (totally baffled)

Since you managed to pull the 9/11 card somehow, does that mean that everyone that took a picture of those buildings-

After spending around 30 minutes handcuffed in a cell and being unsuccessfully grilled about why he snapped the photo, Becker signed a REI trespassing form that instructed him not to come back to the store for a year. In the end, the authorities never asked to see the photo, much less for Becker to delete it from his iPhone. Naturally, this raises questions about the real motivation behind the incident. Was it just a power trip? Either way, with camera phones being so common these days, incidents of harassment like this one are bound to escalate. [iamshane via Crunchgear]

You have ridiculous cases like the Trolley driver rear ending another train because he was texting his girlfriend, and train conductors causing a 25-fatality crash because he was texting teenage boys telling them that they're "gonna run the locomotive."

There's two commonalities to these accidents. First is that texting while you're supposed to be paying attention and in charge of other people's lives is a bad idea. Second, guys seem to be intent on texting people, no matter how inappropriate the time, if it's going to get them laid.

But there's nothing better than an anecdotal account of how bad texting while driving is, courtesy of reader Trevor, who has been rear ended three times this year by people texting on their phones.

Anyways, I live in Idaho. And everyone who lives in this state FUCKING SUCKS at driving. The last thing we need is people using their cell phones simultaneously, but of course I see everyone from the 15 year old girls to 50 year old guys typing out emails on their Blackberries. It sucks ass to have to deal with these fucking morons on a daily basis.

Anyways, on to the first incidence of getting hit:
I was driving through stop and go traffic outside of a high school moment after they got out of school, and I am completely stopped when I see a brand new Hummer H2 coming up on my ass at ferocious speed. I knew I was going to get hit, and right before he made contact, I was able to discern a fucking cell phone in his hands through my rear view mirror. The officer on the scene estimated he hit me going roughly 30mph, and had not even applied the brakes before hitting me. Completely totaled my beloved Toyota Tacoma, and gave me a wicked case of whiplash. By the way it was a roughly 17 year old guy driving his parents Hummer to school. Spoiled prick...

Second time was just 6 months later in the winter. It was a touch icy on the roads and I was stopped to make a left turn onto a side street and I look in my rear view mirror (after the Hummer incident I have been made paranoid about being hit), and see a little Dodge Neon moving way too fast towards me and start sliding sideways right into the back of my new truck. I jumped out and asked if she was ok, and the first thing she says to me is "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I was texting and didn't even see you there until it was too late." This time the damage wasn't too bad, but I ended up being without my vehicle for 2 weeks, during which I had a shitty little rental car, so it still was quite the inconvenience.

Third time was about 3 weeks ago and I'm still feeling sore from it. I was sitting at a stop light and a big Ford F-350 with a huge trailer full of lawn mowing equipment plowed into me at about 25mph, once again totalling my vehicle, and absolutely wrecking my back. I felt like I got hit my a freight train this time. I had my foot on the brake, and he made my car skid forward so hard that I pushed the car in front of me into the car in front of him. An eyewitness to the accident said that the man in the truck was using a phone when he hit me, and it was just verified to me the other day that his phone record shows that he sent a text message seconds before the accident occured. At least this guy was able to apply a little bit of brakes before making contact, but still, I got hit really hard. I'm going to have to see a chiropractor, and I now am searching for another vehicle.

So yeah. That's my record for getting hit. It really sucks. I can't quite say I would mind the banning of texting while driving after all of this as I'm 100% sure at least somebody has lost their life in an accident caused by texting while driving. Hell, I used to do it before I got the iPhone which is fucking impossible to do without looking, but after seeing how poorly most others handle it, I can definitely understand why people are wanting this kind of a ban.

I don't know what we need to do about this, and encoding restrictions on devices themselves to not allow texting while moving is not the solution. I don't know what is.

Thanks Trevor!

Sure it's not perfect and it lacks the finesse of Apple's designs—and I shiver thinking about the software this thing packs—but look at it. There are MacBooks in there. And iPod nanos and even part of the old iPod shuffle in that internal ring—not the one Heather tried to swallow.

HiPhone Nano N3+
2.8" TouchScreen Tri-band Flip Phone w/ Dual Standby, Shake Control, Camera - HiPhone Nano N3+

• Clamshell iPod Nano design
• 2.8-inch (3.0-inch) touchscreen QVGA + stylus
• Triband GSM, GPRS
• Dual SIM with dual stand-by
• TouchWiz control
• Shake control
• Magical Voice
• Bluetooth
• Video and music support
• FM tuner
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• TF card slot (1GB TF comes with the phone)
• 2800mAh battery

This clone of hardware from an alternative Earth can be yours for $190. [China Grabber via PMP Today]

Of course, if it uses the same operating system as previous Motorola cellphones, the good looks and its 2.8-inch touchscreen won't amount to a hill of beans in the land of iPhone OS, Android, Web OS, and software applications. The Evoque QA4 also has a sliding 12-key pad for some clickity-clack calling action.

The Motorola Evoque QA4 will be shown at CTIA. [Mobilecrunch]

• Dual sim card
• NES GAMES
• E-book reader
• Dual Screen
• 2.4-inch 16:9 WQVGA LCM, 260k QVGA ; PX: 240*400
• TV receiver
• FM radio
• Bluetooth
• MP3/MP4
• T-Flash Card. 1GB included, 8GB max
• 0.3 Megapixel camera for photos and video (640 x 480 pixel)

The design of the On Time Head Set System—a touch-enabled, bracelet cellphone that vibrates and lets you pick up the phone by placing its integrated headset on your ear—is simple and pretty, although I'm not sure about how realistic or practical it could be with current technology. Maybe in the future, when batteries get better. [Yanko Design]

Check it out in portrait mode.

I don't know what it really is: A cellphone that is a GPS or a GPS that is a cellphone. Of course, the cellphone has everything you can expect from a such a device these days, including a 3-megapixel camera (with a real shutter button, like it should be) and a music player, everything tied to the GPS. This seems to be the main point of the Garmin G60: Everything revolves around geo-location.

Physically, the Garmin G60 has a good size: A good feeling on your hand, thicker than you-know-who, but light and comfortable. The thing is made to be integrated on your car dashboard—it comes with a cradle with a suction cup—but it works in your hand as a smartphone just fine.

The first thing I noticed was the complete lack of buttons, except for volume and camera shutter on the right side. On the front, there are no physical buttons whatsoever, just a nice, colorful 3.5-inch touchscreen.

As you can see in the video, the Linux-based operating system is quite agile and appeared solid, although the full HTML browser stalled forever trying to load a page-which is probably a fault of the 3G connection rather than the G60 itself, even while it is still a beta prototype.

The interface seems polished, it feels fast and responsive, very bright and clean, with colorful icons. It's centered around three main icons, which I'm sure are the ones Garmin wants to emphasize: Call, Search, and View Map. Call and View Map are quite straightforward, with Search giving you several options, from consulting the six million points of interests—already pre-loaded with the North America or European maps built-in the G60—to the on-the-fly Google local search application. This section feels very much like one of their previous GPS, giving you access to Favorites, Contact, or Recently Found addresses, and allowing to visit or calling any place on one click.

On the side (or bottom, if you are in landscape mode-the Garmin G60 has an accelerator to know this, although it didn't feel very sensitive while I was trying it) you can see a scrolling list of icons, which gives you access to the other features of the G60, from the camera to the web browser to the Ciao! geolocation based social service to widgets like weather. While the main three buttons can't be changed for the ones in the side list, the whole user interface is well organized and easy to use.

My impression from the hands-on is that Garmin has made what they know to do best—a GPS—and they combined it with a 3G smartphone is a smooth way. The result is a nicely balanced unit that has the advantage of having everything you expect in a GPS and all the features you expect in a modern smartphone, all under an easy to use interface.

We will give you a more extensive verdict once we get a final unit, which is supposed to arrive in the first half of 2009.

It seems that the Garmin Nuviphone M20 we tried—which still doesn't have a release date—is an early prototype. As a result, we couldn't try the customized GPS-based search and maps programs: Every time we tried, it kept giving a location services initialization problem. We were told look very similar to the G60, but you just can't see it in the video. The rest of the phone-developed by Asus-seems OK after our brief hands-on. Garmin has created special skins to mask the furrible Windows Mobile interface.

Physically, the cellphone feels light and compact on your hand, with a nice, colorful finish. The fact that it requires a stylus—even while you can actually use your finger or nail, if you are Ming of Mongo—made it quite awkward to me, although that may just be my personal preference after hours of iPhone fingering.

We will have to wait for a more mature unit to give you our full impressions.

In this way, Microsoft is able to have their cake and eat it too. They build the bar high through a concept, then they pit manufacturers against one another to polish and mass manufacture the idea. Are you confused? That's only because it is confusing. Foley summarizes the point better:

There will be Zune phones. There will be other kinds of Zune-enabled mobile devices. But they won't be crafted - beyond the reference chassis - by Microsoft.

Even the original Zune was made by Toshiba, technically. [ZDNet]