On either side of the device is an "air holder," where batteries can be recharged, and there's also a USB port for charging other gadgets, like your iPhone, and the AC input for charging the actual device. While it's shown up on king of the concepts site Yanko Design, it's actually going on sale in Japan and Taiwan in the first half of 2010, and then the US after that. [Nobil via Yanko Design]

Crispin Porter Co-Chairman Alex Bogusky (profiled here) posted the shot to demonstrate CP's massive real-time job management system, which clearly lists two ad campaigns, on January 4th and 8th, for "Windows Phone," first as "Windows Phone Q3 Media Refresh" and second as "09 Windows Phone Banners." So who knows what the actual timing for these ads will be, but its a safe bet that ads will be previewed at CES in some way. (Crispin Porter, by the way, was responsible for the Seinfeld Ad campaign).

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]

And by "Google Phone" we don't simply mean another Android handset. We're talking about Google-branded hardware running a version of Android we haven't yet seen.

Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They'll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android—either Flan or the version of Android beyond it—which our source spotted running on Google's handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn't Chrome OS, we were assured.)

But maybe the most intriguing bit is what someone said to our source offhandedly, that the current Android, the we all know and love, is not the "real" Android. So what makes for a "real" version of Android?

Our best guess is an Android OS with Google Voice at its heart.

We've heard rumors like this before, but this time there are a few distinct elements that seem credible, maybe even enough to make us rethink our previous position. We're basing this all on Michael Arrington's sources—his article is a bit vague, but points to an outsider-made but Google-dictated device, sort of like how Microsoft's first Zune was actually made by Toshiba—and in the case of the Google Phone, there are a couple options for the possible manufacturer. The obvious choice is HTC, who's been the major hardware manufacturer of Android devices, but TechCrunch hears that the source of the hardware will be Korean, not Taiwanese, which likely points to either Samsung or LG.

Samsung has a long-standing relationship with Apple, supplying tons of parts for the iPhone, so maybe LG would step up to the plate and develop this phantom device. LG's no stranger to Android, but has been a minor player up to this point—maybe they've been working on this mysterious Google Phone in the meantime, which is supposedly aiming for an early 2010 release.

Right now, we don't know much of anything, so we're reaching out to you guys—if you've heard anything about a possible Google Phone, please shoot us an email. [TechCrunch]

The RX-5 is packing a 5MP Carl Zeiss camera, a full QWERTY in the style of the N97 or Sony's XPERIA series, and a bunch of other interesting features:

* Screen resolution of 800 by 480 pixels.

* Support for both chambers. * Support for both Chambers. The most advanced auto could count, flash, and a resolution of 2608 by 1966 pixels, about 5 megapixels The most advanced auto could count, flash, and a resolution of 2608 by 1966 pixels, about 5 megapixels

* FM transmitter and receiver * FM transmitter and receiver

* Accelerometer * Accelerometer

* WiFi b and g standards under * WiFi b and g standards under

* Internal Memory 128 megabytes DDR manufactured by Samsung * Internal Memory 128 megabytes DDR manufactured by Samsung

* Keyboard is similar to the N810, with a few extra keys * Keyboard is similar to the N810, with a few extra keys

* Chipset OMAP3 ARM Texas Instruments, with support for frequency scaling * Chipset OMAP3 ARM Texas Instruments, with support for frequency scaling

* Linux Operating System based on Maema 5 * Linux Operating System based on Maema 5

Looks interesting, but we're not sure it'll help drag Nokia out of their design rut. Frankly, we'd be a lot more excited about a revamped Symbian than another new slider, but we'll take what we can get. [Kaskus Forums via Engadget]

After what seems like years of 'will they? won't they?' speculation, this pic has appeared on the Chinese site PDAFans and is at the least a vaguely Pre-looking device baring a Dell logo. It is rumored to be released by the end of the year and assuming this is real it looks like it will be running Android. [PDAFans via engadget]

AdWeek says the three ad firms, McCann Erickson, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and JWT, are vying for the ad run. The first firm has worked with Microsoft before and the second is in charge of the I'm a PC and laptop hunter ads.

There's no target for when the ads will hit, but Microsoft will choose a winner by the end of May. [AdWeek via CNET]

The first model in a new series of entertainment phones from Sony Ericsson, the Idou is being marketed as a device capable of providing "unlimited entertainment." On the bill are music, video, photo, games, social network functionality.

Aside from the sweet camera offering, however, most of the other features seem pretty run of the mill. Sony Ericsson will have to pull up their britches and get working, because it all sounds like stuff we've seen before. No word yet on a stateside appearance. [Mobil via Slashgear]

She knew she didn't send any email, so she opened the attachment, which was a self-portrait her attacker emailed to himself. She forwarded the picture to police, who quickly matched it to a mug shot of Dacquan Mathis.

Fukuda made the not so bright move of emailing Mathis directly, telling him the cops were onto him. He cheerfully replied to her, "I will kill you! I know where you live, I know where you work. I'll send people."

But we all know how this ends—the cops busted him, and he confessed to jacking the iPhone as well as another mugging involving an iPod.

Moral of the story: Whenever you steal a piece of technology, make sure you know how it works, or you'll get made fun of on a bunch of blogs. Oh yeah, and go to jail and stuff. [NY Post via Gothamist - Thanks Ace!]

First off, yeah, we're aware that the main point of being cordless is that you can take the phone with you around the house. That's one point in its "positive" column. Here are the negatives, in no particular order.

• Security. The president needs to make sure some bozo out on the lawn can't eavesdrop on his phone call with a baby monitor.
• Interference. "Hold on Putin, the kids are microwaving some popcorn."
• Sound quality. Being able to actually hear inflections in people's voices is kinda important when dealing with international crises.
• You have to charge it. Aides can probably do it for him, but it's a pain.
• It's easy to lose
• It requires power. If the White House ever completely loses power (including whatever generators they might have), he wouldn't be able to make any calls from his desk.
• Corded phones have more features. The most gadgety reason is that his current phone, which is probably by Cisco or Avaya or someone similar, has tons and tons of features. There's probably even an Optimus Prime voice changer on that thing. No way will a cordless phone be able to match that.

To be honest, I had to check my calendar when writing this post, since this whole topic of cordless vs. corded feels like I'm back in 1993. You kids and your beepers! And your V-Chips! And your closed captionings! [NYT]

Update: Someone who used to work for the DoD says that the phone might be an STU-III. Thanks tipster!

Update 2: Someone else says it's probably the STE, not the STU-III, since it's the current technology.

Once you've set up an account with kwiry and linked your TiVo account you'll be able to text a short command to kwiry's short code # 59479 (k-w-i-r-y). By texting something like "TiVo The City" it will instruct your kwiry account to schedule the next available recording of The City on your broadband connected TiVo.

For those times when you forget to record something being able to quickly instruct your TiVo via text message seems like a pretty simple alternative to finding a computer or using a slow web-phone connection. So next time you're out eating last minute pho and you realize one of your guilty pleasure shows is on in 20-minutes and you never set up a season pass because you don't want people to know you watch stupid teen girl shows, don't panic kwiry and TiVo have your back.

kwiry Makes Your Life Even Simpler; Adds New Text Message Shortcuts and Facebook Connect Integration

Free Mobile and Online Service Adds more text messaging services: TiVo Scheduling, Yelp results, and more; Integrates with Facebook Connect to let users simply import their social graph.

San Francisco, Calif., January 14, 2009 — kwiry, the company that helps you text it before you forget it, today further enhanced its free service that turns text messages into helpful online reminders. kwiry’s latest additions to its recently launched Shortcuts platform include the ability to schedule a TV show recording on a TiVo® DVR. kwiry launched its Shortcuts service in August with Netflix and Amazon integrations.

As an example, if a co-worker raves about the latest episode of a TV show, simply text “TiVo” followed by the TV program title (e.g. “TiVo the office” to kwiry’s Text Messaging shortcode, 59479 (k-w-i-r-y). kwiry automatically schedules the next episode of the show to be recorded on your TiVo DVR. No need to rush home or remember to schedule it on your computer. The service complements other ways for TiVo subscribers to schedule their TiVo box while on the go including the TiVo Mobile web site. kwiry’s service extends TiVo scheduling to all cell phones with text messaging capabilities with no need for a browser or a data plan. With a one-time account link, all TiVo Series2™ and Series3™ DVR users can have the capability to instantly schedule a recording whenever and wherever they want.

“kwiry Shortcuts like Netflix have been very popular with new and existing users – we’ve had many requests for new Shortcuts and are excited about the new integrations with popular services like TiVo and Yelp,” said kwiry Co-founder and CEO Ron Feldman.

kwiry’s has recently added the following new Shortcuts to its free service:

TiVo (beta): Text “tivo the office” to schedule a recording of the next episode to your TiVo DVR.
Yelp: Text “yelp Grimaldis Pizza” and get contact info, reviews and more from Yelp sent to your e-mail inbox.
Contact Info: Text “contact johndoe@gmail.com” to email contact info and vCard attachment while on the go.
Status Updates: Text “status headed to the gym” and kwiry will update your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts.

kwiry has now also integrated with Facebook Connect, allowing people to sign-in to kwiry.com with their Facebook accounts, instantly adding their Facebook profile info to kwiry and allowing connections to their Facebook Friends.

“The integration with Facebook Connect simplifies the kwiry sign-up process and allows users to integrate the social aspects of Facebook into the kwiry website as well as the kwiry experience into Facebook,” Feldman continued.