As for the phones themselves, they're all pretty out there. Each one uses unique manufacturing techniques, textures, form factors and designs that won't make it to market in its current shape. It's more like the automotive industry, where designs are tested out and integrated into the somewhat mundane products that actually make it to market. – Jason Chen

If only I had a matching G.I. Joe-sized LL Cool J action figure.–Brian Lam

Boombox [Lifepop]

• HTC Shift & HTC Advantage
• Helio Ocean Gallery and Video: Every Friggin Detail, Right here
• Sony Ericsson's W580 is All Glowy and Beautiful
• Samsung Upstage and Even More Details
• Kyocera M1000 Folds Out for Some QWERTY Hotness and Kyocera's Booth is Badass
• Hans-On With the Smallest Flip-Phone Ever

Seriously, guys, what's a fine girl like this doing with a chubby 8xxx series Blackberry. Helio Ocean gonna steal your woman.

Note: Large bounty paid for anyone who can secure me a Blackberry suit before Halloween.–Brian Lam

CTIA 07 [Gizmodo]

Ultra-thin MoGo Headset [Cool Hunting]

That said, the C3b still is the smallest flip-phone in the US—now Bluetoothed—and the other models are pretty, if a bit short on high end features. Have a look at what your parents will be choosing from when they demand their free (or nearly free) phone on signing with AT&T in Q2 2007. – Jason Chen

This comes just weeks after the Korean giant signed a similar deal with Yahoo! And then you've got Larry and Sergei's kiss-up with Samsung. The other Korean giant and Google got into bed together at the beginning of the year. How long before one of the cuckolded parties pulls out of their deal with the immortal words, "There were four of us in this relationship"?

Google Maps, Gmail, and Blogger will all be preloaded onto 10 LG handsets, and Google search will be available just by clicking an icon on the cell's application menu. What looks almost certain is that the phones, which will be available in the next quarter, will be marketed as LG-Google handsets. In completely unrelated news, Laura Ocaña is still not returning Larry and Sergei's calls. – Ad Dugdale

LG Phones To Bundle Google Apps [GigaOM]

Alongside the food, there are tables that vendors set up to demo their gear. I didn't find much that we hadn't seen already at the show, unfortunately. I'd think that Showstopper should have an easy time filling the small room with cellphones and cool stuff, like that we saw at the Pepcom event the night before. But it's hard to follow up a similar event with the same devices. But let's be positive: The shrimp cocktail was second to none. –Brian Lam

CTIA [Gizmodo]

Motorola is addressing both issues with the H680, a new Bluetooth headset they claim lasts for eight continuous hours and eight days of standby. Style-wise, I like the subtle look, though I think the Jawbone beats it in the design department. However, if they price it right and the battery lasts as long as they claim, it'll be worth a gander. It's expected to debut in Q3 of 07. – Louis Ramirez

Press Release

Nice looking, but a 1.3 MP camera? Exactly.

Kyocera E5000
This elegant, slim handset features an iconic, patent-pending sculpted "S" hinge design made of stainless steel that is certain to stand out amongst a crowd. With a superior entertainment experience that includes high-speed 1xEV-DO for music and video on demand* (MOD/VOD) and a 1.3 megapixel camera with video recorder, Kyocera's E5000 is that "must have" device for pop culture junkies and fashionistas alike. Audiophiles will love the dedicated, touch-sensitive external controls for the integrated music player and stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) capability. To ensure space for a large collection of media files, the E5000 includes a microSD™ memory expansion slot for storing up to 2GB of extra music, pictures or movies.

While E5000's technical capabilities impress, the "S" factor and sheer beauty of this handset set it apart. Extensively tested for durability and strength, the innovative "S" hinge strikes the perfect balance between style and usability. Leaving no detail unchecked, the hinge also influences other design elements of the phone including the number pad and rounded edges of the handset.

"When I tell people what I do, I constantly get asked what the next revolutionary design element is going to be for mobile phones," said Tyneski. "With E5000, I truly believe that we have conceived an iconic, revolutionary look that will be immediately recognizable and instantly equated with high fashion and style."

A dual-band digital handset with a 2-inch QCIF+ internal TFT display, Kyocera E5000 will be available from global CDMA carriers in Fall 2007.

Release? We're thinking May.–Brian Lam

Video of the slides after the jump. (Give YouTube a few minutes to catch up, though.)

Helio Ocean [Gizmodo]

LG Announces New Clamshell Music Phones [Digital Trends]

Is it a HiFI? No it's just a cellphone [Gearfuse]

Texting freaks should love this phone, but for anyone else it may be worth a pass. It is a pretty average or even low-end phone. It does support EV-DO, which is a plus, especially for lightening-fast IMing or text messaging. I'll see if I can con our intrepid reporters on-site at CTIA to go give the M1000 a little grope. Until then, jump for a picture of the device closed.

–Travis Hudson

Kyocera's M1000 QWERTY Messenger Launches [Mobileburn]

Sanyo SCP-7050 [CNET]

• It's cheap: Only $149 with contract. That's way low for a music phone with this kind of featureset.

• Unfortunately, the Upstage won't play any other form of DRM (the songs from Sprint aren't DRMEd, actually, which is nice). So your iTunes, Zune, Napster, and other form of DRMed music won't be able to be played on this.

• It comes with 64MB built-in memory, but will accept 1 and 2GB flash cards.

Jump for some more bullets, and a shocker!

• The Upstage will not be able to use music you've downloaded from their 1.4 million track repository for MP3 ringtones. In fact, from what Sprint said, you can't use MP3 ringtones at all. Ouch. We blame the RIAA for this inability to use music as a ringtone in a music phone.

• You can download tracks both over the air (OTA) or on your PC, and the service will remember which tracks you've downloaded.

• The OTA versions are more compressed than the ones from the PC—which has standard MP3 compression—so if you wanted to, you could download a higher quality version of the song later for free (see above bullet).

• You can use the phone in USB Disk mode along with their own proprietary music manager service.

• Head to sprint.com/upstage to sign up for their 4/1 launch.

And finally, when we asked Sprint how this compares to the upcoming iPhone (since they are both music-centric phones), Sprint gave us four ways in which they're different. Here they are, in bullet point form.

• It's much cheaper. $149 vs. $499

• It's smaller.

• It has OTA music downloads.

• The touchscreen feature on the iPhone will be hard to use for the majority of users.

– Jason Chen

Upstage [Sprint]

Then, who but FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, got a grope...and bystanders said his eyes grew wide, and he started hissing "precious" into the piano-glossed mike. Or something like that.

Maybe Steve J. has more influence than he thinks as far as getting the FCC to stop leaking us gadget news so regularly. Then we could go back to the tradition of announcement and launch of Apple gear on a single day, instead of this long drawn out process we've been going through lately. By the way, contrary to popular mainstream press, no one is talking about iPhone at this show. There are no clones, and none of the phone makers seem depressed...except Palm...and Motorola. Hey, look...aren't those the two companies that might combine forces? Yes, Palm's outdated OS meets Motorola's oversold design from 2002 or whatever. Can't wait for the synergy to synergize! –Brian Lam

CTIA 2007 [Gizmodo]
iPhone at CTIA [Yahoo News]

Or in other words: "OMFG! We must do something about that iPhone-thang! Pronto!"

ZenZui's Zooming User Interface organizes Web and user content in 36 tiles arranged in a virtual desktop grid. The desktop can be panned and zoomed in or out using the cellphone's touchscreen or numeric keypad. Then, when you activate one of the tiles, it will show you a small interface, which appears to follow the same directional pad control for user interaction. The interface looks rather sleek and zoomtastic, I have to say, but you'll be the judge after you see the video demonstration, right after the jump.

The idea was originally patented at Microsoft Research labs, although to me it looks inspired by Don Hopkins' pie menus and the Nintendo Wii Channels. The system will require the participation of carriers and content providers, but beyond Kayak.com, OTOlabs, Avenue A | Razorfish, and Traffic.com, there's not much more detail.

The press release babbles on about social connections and digital content sharing, but I don't know if this is just marketing drone speech or if ZenZui will offer the users the possibility to share their bookmarks and content using a centralized server or some kind of peer-to-peer messaging. You can clearly see a "Rate tile" button on the screenshots in the gallery, so there may really be some kind of social bookmarking/recommendation system in place.

We will know more from CTIA, when Brian and Jason get their sticky paws all over it. – Jesus Diaz

We actually got to play with this last week, and definitely think that it's something to watch out for. The touchscreen works well, the keyboard is small but usable, and the sliding mechanism is solid and functional. There's also a mouse touch-pad on the right, as well as a front camera and connectivity up the wazoo. Seriously, it's the UMPC (they're not calling it a UMPC) for people unfamiliar with the platform. – Jason Chen

HTC Shift [Gizmodo]