150 Ampere

Just last month, LG added a couple of new colors to the Shine line. Well, pink and gold, make room for wood! Not real wood, of course, but stainless steel etched in a wood grain pattern. LG’s latest addition to the Shine line is sporting wood, but it’s all Shine underneath! The LG LB2005H slider features DMB-TV capabilities, a 2 megapixel camera with optics from Schneider Kreuznach and a 2X digital zoom, the obligatory MP3 player and Bluetooth v 1.2 capabilities. You can stream your music to a Bluetooth headset and the Shine also offers a USB port and will take a micro SD card up to 2 Gb if you happen to have one laying around.

The Shine’s screen is a 2.2-inch TFT LCD - 240 x 320 and does 262K colors. And yes, it comes with all of the standard document readers.

All in all, the Shine looks like it will show you a pretty good time. The LB2005H isn’t available yet, but feel free to check out reviews of Woody’s mirrored brethren at Test Freaks.

Samsung has introduced the NV20 12.1 megapixel digital camera, featuring a 3x optical zoom from Schneider-Kreuznach. The lens has a focal range of 34mm - 102 mm and a super small minimum focusing distance of just 1.6 inches.

The NV20 has a 2.5-inch LCD screen for image viewing and comes with 20 Mbonboard memory. The camera will also take SD/MMC/SDHC/MMC Plus cards. The SDHC cards will provide up to 8Gb storage space. Everything else maxes out at 2 Gb. The NV20 also supports NTSC and PAL video capture, and provides a USB 2.0 computer connector.

The camera comes with a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery and the Samsung Master software package.

This camera is loaded with features, including voice tagging of images, a built-in self timer and all of the features you’d expect: red-eye fixing, steadiness compensation, ISO equivalencies from 80 to 3,200, and a slew of effects, including black and white, sepia, red, green, blue, negative custom compositing, photo framing, and GIF animation. The camera can also compensate for various lighting situations including daylight, overcast lighting, fluorescent lighting, tungsten and custom lighting setups.

You can find the NV20 for about £180, and while you’re looking, check out the Test Freaks writeups.

If you’re heavy into Xbox 360 gaming, you might want to know that the GCHQ is looking for you. The GCHQ is looking to recruit new spooks and not just anyone will do. The agency is looking for technically savvy individuals, and gamers may fit the bill.

GCHQ downplays the notion that gaming is important. Instead, they’re trying get young geeks to put down their controllers for a bit and look at the job opportunities available in the always-exciting world of intelligence. In honor, I’ve come up with a few reasons why you should leave the Xbox 360 behind and come in from the cold.

1. The Red Ring of Death is going to get you sooner or later.
2. The GCHQ offers the potential for much more exciting game play.
3. You might meet some very interesting girls.
4. Halo 3 isn’t as exciting as you thought it would be and you’re tired of Mass Effect.
5. You’re beginning to suspect that you should have bought a Wii instead.
6. You’re worried that Microsoft will follow Sony’s lead and develop a first-person shooter for Westminster Abbey.

Here’s the link. Oh, go ahead. You know you want to take a look.

British retailer DSG has publicly complained about its sales of Microsoft Vista, which the company claims has cost it £20 million in profits since the product’s release. DSG ordered tens of thousands of laptops in anticipation of high consumer demand and has gotten stuck with the extra gear. I’ve decided to come up with a few suggestions for how DSG can make lemonade with its Vista bricks.

1. Swap some out for the second edition Microsoft Zune. DSG outlets, which include Currys, Dixons and PC World could become the Zune’s exclusive UK retailer.

2. Donate the bricks to the XO project - one laptop per child.

3. Put them in a shipping container and set it adrift off the coast of Devon.

4. Wipe the drives and start over with Ubuntu.

5. Put a diamond on the case and sell them to tourists as a Diamond Anniversary edition royal souvenir in the month of November. Offer them at a 60% discount for good measure.

6. Reload them with Windows XP. Hold them for sale until June 2008 when XP goes off market and sell them at auction on eBay.

7. Sell them as full-featured MP3 players.

According to Brazil’s telecom regulatory agency Anatel, Brazilian mobile carriers Telemig Celular and Telecom Americas (Claro) will not launch 3G services early due to a directive that seemingly prohibits frequencies other than the 1.9 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands from being used for 3G services. The two companies have developed 3G networks using the 3 GHz and 850 MHz bands and are pressuring Anatel to amend the 2000 regulation to permit 3G services over any frequency.

France was unable to find a qualified bidder for a 3G license it had put up for sale, and received only one bid from a company that did not meet the government’s financial requirements. If the auction had been successful, it would have opened the door to a fourth 3G carrier in that country.

3G services have also been delayed in Zimbabwe due to regulatory concerns.

China, meanwhile, is planning to submit a 4G specification to the ITU which would reportedly allow users to Web surf and transfer files at a much higher data rate than that offered by 3G carriers. China’s 3G efforts have also run aground, mired in standards disputes between carriers and the government. The ITU will begin accepting proposals for a 4G standard next year, with anticipated deployment in 2010.

So, all of this 3G gloom-and-doom begs the question, should we be looking at 3G at all? The convenience advantages of 3G are not in dispute, but the technology does have its drawbacks. Aside from the regulatory issues it has stirred up, 3G services really diminish the battery life of a phone. Until battery life issues can be addressed, even faster data rates and services promised by 4G standards will be of limited value.

I think that 3G will be around a bit longer than 2010, and I don’t think there will be a major move off of 3G once a 4G standard is issued. It doesn’t make sense to have the carriers rebuild their networks every few years. 3G’s best chance lies with mobile manufacturers’ ability to extend battery life. Look for better, more efficient displays and better use of power-saving technologies, like e-ink and e-paper in mobile phones.

Personally, I’m not content to sit back and wait for the regulators to sort things out. I’ll continue my 3G journey as planned.

I want to take a break from my quest for the perfect 3G phone to talk about a new patent that’s been issued for smart phones that has the potential to change the handheld game forever.

The European Patent Office has issued a patent for Innoventions, Inc’s RotoView “tilt-and-scroll” smartphone display navigation technology. The RotoView technology can also be used by portable navigation devices and other such gadgets. The company already possesses a US patent for the technology.

With the technology, a user can simply tilt the mobile electronic device to the left, right, up or down to scroll to information not contained on the screen. For example, if you’re using your handheld to navigate via a map, you can tilt your phone in the appropriate direction to scroll the map to a location of interest. You can also zoom in or out using the RotoView technology.

Innoventions isn’t the first company to combine accelerometers and navigation displays, but in most cases, the accelerometers are used to rotate a display a fixed 90 degrees. With this application, users can scroll the display in any direction or any number of degrees.

Sadly, Innoventions is not in the business of making smartphones, but is looking to market the technology to manufacturers that do. Anybody?

Last week, AT&T introduced a 3G entry for the US market. The device, called the Tilt, is interesting for the number of devices and capabilities it combines. AT&T haven’t given any indication of when or whether the Tilt will make it across the pond, but it’s worth a look anyway.

The Tilt’s candy-bar package takes a deceptively unique approach to the display. It features a spring-loaded tilt-up 2.8-inch touch screen display with a slide-out keyboard, making it look something like a tiny desktop computer when the whole thing is unfolded. It weighs slightly less than 200 grams, so it’s no lightweight, and it provides nearly 4.4 hours of talk time and up to 350 hours of stand-by.

The EDGE-based Tilt runs Windows Mobile 6, and is the first AT&T product to do so. The phone supports Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi and has 3G cellular radios that provide push-to-talk capabilities and broadband download speeds. The Tilt can make up to six simultaneous Bluetooth connections. The GSM phone operates in the 850/900/1800/1900 bands and is served in the US through Cingular and T-Mobile.

The phone features two cameras - a 3.0 megapixel camera, which is somewhat higher quality than the smartphones we’ve been looking at lately, and a VGA camera for video sharing. It has all of the standard applications - document readers for Office products, a Web browser, PDF reader and so on. It also has a slot for a memory card, which can add up to 2 GB of onboard storage.

The Tilt, which is manufactured by HTC, combines a built-in satellite navigator with the expected turn-by-turn, on-screen and walking directions, plus 3-D TeleAtlas maps and real-time traffic alerts.

The Tilt has an MSRP of USD$700, but AT&T is selling it for USD$500. Looks like AT&T may be getting serious about smartphones.

Still in search of the perfect 3G phone? Check out the Sony Ericcson W660i, which will be a good choice if music is important to you. The W660i is a bar-type phone with a Walkman music player built-in. The Walkman player allows users to create playlists, and sort music on the phone. The phone offers a standard numeric keypad, three navigation buttons and a 176×220 pixel colour-TFT screen. The music player reads AAC, ACC+, eACC+ and WMP files, offers TrackID and displays the album cover artwork while the song is playing. The W660i also features MegaBass to enhance the bass frequencies of music. The phone supports Bluetooth stereo A2DP, which allows music from the phone to be played on a wireless headset.

The W660i weighs 93 grams and comes with GSM 900, 1800, 1900 and UMTS 2100 network support. The W660i offers Bluetooth networking support, a GSM modem, USB mass storage and device support.

The W660i features a 2.0 megapixel digital camera with a 2.5x zoom and supports video calling and real-time video streaming. The phone also has speakerphone capabilities.

The W660i has the standard applications you’d expect: email, web browsing, RSS feed support, MMS and SMS messaging, predictive text input and a sound recorder. It also offers an alarm clock, calculator, calendar, phone book, stopwatch, task manager, and a timer.

The W660i comes in black and rose red, and retails for about £220.

If you’re looking for a slim, sporty 3G phone and don’t want to wait for the iPhone (or just plain don’t want the iPhone) take a look at the LG Prada. At 98.8 x 54 x 12-mm, the Prada has a smaller profile than the iPhone and features a 3.0-inch display. The design is similar to the iPhone and offers a modern full surface touch screen look.

The LG Prada is no design slouch, having won the Red Dot design award for 2007. It is truly an elegant and attractive phone. The case is black and shiny, which could mean a general smudginess about it. LG includes a black polishing cloth to keep your phone looking smart.

The Prada comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera, which seems sort of light, in comparison to some of its competitors, but the camera features a flash and a Schneider-Kreuznach lens. If you use the camera phone a lot, storage might be a bit problematic. The Prada offers microSD storage but doesn’t have much in the way of internal storage capacity.

The keypad for the phone is all touch screen, baby! The Prada features a few side buttons for volume control, navigation, and call management but most phone tasks are executed via the touch screen. Text messaging on the Prada isn’t all that grand, though. Touch screen typing isn’t all that fast. If you’re a hard core text messager, the Prada’s probably not going to be your first choice. You’ll run into similar problems if you’ve got large fingers. The display is small enough that you’ll run into difficulty with choosing the correct screen icons if you’re not careful.

The Prada is equipped for video conferencing and offers built-in support for H.263, along with MPEG-4 and H.264. Applications include the standard office document readers for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; as well as a .pdf reader and a plain text handler. The audio player supports MP3, ACC, ACC+, WMA and RA music formats. It retails for about €600.