Hi-tech Frontier

Stylish Nokia E97 Envelope Concept Cell Phone Nokia E97 is a concept design by Fabien Nauroy, shows an incredible thought and a stylish phone. This concept phone has a complete keyboard in an AZERTY layout and there is a small LCD display above the keyboard. This envelop like design aims to set a limit between professional and personal life. The included leather case contains a second pocket to hold an additional screen. The parcel post like packaging of this phone has made it even more attractive and the best part of this concept phone is the futuristic pull-out LED display that can be used as a storage device and can create and share files or pictures.

RoboCup Ball Return Works On Actual Putting Greens You can only improve your game so much by putting into a coffee cup or one of those fancy ball return machines in your office. So the RoboCup is designed to fit inside the hole on an actual putting green, allowing you to practice on the real thing all day long, without ever having to walk over and retrieve your balls. On a set of 4xAA batteries the RoboCup will return over 15,000 putts up to a distance of 14 feet, though that varies depending on the green speed, and there’s even a Caddy Cord accessory for directing missed putts into the hole. Price: $49.95

Twitter On Your Nintendo DS I haven’t been following the DS homebrew scene for a while now, which is a shame, because there were some great applications that made the DS far more than just a handheld gaming device. For example, you can now download a copy of DSTwitter 1.5 from a website called Acdrtux that allows you to stay in touch with your followers in between sessions of Chinatown Wars and Rhythm Heaven. As usual you’ll need a DS homebrew flash cart in order to install and run DSTwitter, as well as an available wifi hotspot, but both of those are pretty easy to come by these days.

Scosche reviveLITE iPod/iPhone Charger This folding charging dock from Scosche Industries is nowhere near as compact as the charging adapter currently shipping with the iPhone 3G, so why would you use this one instead? Well that’s simple. For some reason Apple never thought to include an LED night light on their charger, and I don’t know about you, but I sure can’t see in the dark. I guess the other advantage is that you don’t have to worry about losing your sync cable, but keep in mind this thing will only work as designed when plugged into a wall outlet, not a powerbar sitting on the floor. Price: $39.99.

Kenwood SP0001 speakers look crazy? Kenwood's about to unleash some really crazy speakers upon the world... if you live in Japan anyway. The bad-looking dudes have 10-watt, 2 channel speakers with 6-centimeter woofers and 2.5-centimeter tweeters, which isn't exactly super powerful, granted -- but they are transparent. Oh, and they have some awesome LED effects, as well. We're not sure exactly when they'll be available, but they're going to run you ¥100,000 (about $1,000) when they are.

Viliv S5 MID pre-order details It's been a long and winding road filled with unboxings, impressions, and comparisons, but it looks like the last few details surrounding the U.S. release of Viliv's Atom-powered S5 MID have now finally been firmed up. According to retailer Dynamism, the device will be available for pre-order on April 27th (at 1PM Eastern) for just $599, or $50 less than previously expected, with the first orders expected to ship on May 8th. Better still, those that pre-order the S5 will also get a free spare battery, a car kit, and a leather pouch, which Dynamism says is a $135 value. No word on the number of units available in that initial batch but, if the Hong Kong and Korean releases are any indication, they could sell out pretty quickly.

Velocity Micro's Atom N270-packing NoteMagix M10 coming this month for $380 Largely under the radar since its CES debut -- and even then there wasn't much to say, frankly -- Velocity Micro's 10.2-inch NoteMagix M10 is on sale with an April 30 estimated ship date. Base price is $380, and color notwithstanding (it comes in red, blue, and black), the only customization option really is a DVD writer for $70. What you do get, however, is the usual spec list that comes along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, along with the pleasant surprise of a 6-cell battery. The big question now is if there's really enough here to divert attention from any of the other, more dominant brands in this hyper-saturated netbook market.

HP Firebird 802 gaming rig gets $500 price drop Well, it's only been available for a few short months but HP has already seen fit to give its flagship Firebird 802 gaming desktop a fairly sizable price drop -- $500, to be specific. That includes a $150 cut to the $1,799 base price and a $350 instant rebate that brings the price down to a pretty darn reasonable $1,299, questionable keyboards aside. For those that haven't been pricing gaming rigs lately, that'll get you a Core 2 Quad 9400 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards (with 512MB of DDR3 memory on each card). Of course, any price drop of this size also invariably bring of the question "why?" and, in the case, the reasons are still a bit hazy. While HP discontinuing the line outright seems to almost certainly be out of the question, a slight revision does seem at least possible, if not necessarily imminent -- although, any way you shake it, $500 off is $500 of...

Samsung's 10.1-inch N120 netbook now on sale Samsung's long-awaited (okay, so we made that part up) N120 netbook has finally transitioned from "might ship someday, maybe" to "oh, I'm definitely shipping." Consumers interested in the 10.1-inch, 2.8 pound netbook can surf over now to Amazon and order one up in black or white for the not-totally-tantalizing price of $465.99. If you've forgotten what all that buys you, here's a rundown, and feel free to say it with us in unison: 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP Home, a 1,024 x 600 resolution panel, 6-cell battery, a 3-in-1 multicard reader, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and an Ethernet jack for good measure. Oh, and there's a "2.1-channel" sound system, for whatever that's worth.

Braille e-reader concept can't be far from reality The technology's already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers -- Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park -- have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface's shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it's definitely a start that needs to happen.

RAmos RM990 iOne2 PMP looks surprisingly desirable RAmos definitely isn't the most respected name in PMPs here in the US, but as of late, it's done a commendable job of staying relevant... at least on the design front, anyway. The firm's latest concoction, which goes by RM990 iOne2, is a touchscreen-heavy media player that's clearly not anorexic. Specs wise, we're told that it features a 3-inch WQVGA touch panel, haptic feedback, a built-in accelerometer, 4GB of internal storage and support for a whole gaggle of file formats. Not bad for the low, low asking price of just 399 yuan (around $58), but it's hardly worth a trip to Shanghai.

Filco's SmartTrack Neo multi-touch trackpad gives PCs the 2-fingered salute It sure took awhile but you're looking at one of, if not the first external USB trackpads with multi-touch gesture support. The $50 (¥4,980) SmartTrack Neo model FTP500UB rocks USB 1.1 and XP / Vista drivers to bring your legacy laptop up to fighting specs with fancy modern rigs. A two-handed mouse the size of a brick -- really, how can you resist?

LitPhone projector phone Outside of Samsung's W7900 Show and a few nondescript prototypes, the projector phone sector has been largely stagnant. Thankfully, it seems at least one no-name company is looking to make a name for itself by developing yet another entrant. The LitPhone, designed and showcased by China's own SCT Optronics, is a GSM handset that sports CMMB TV tuning, a touchscreen and a built-in projector with an undisclosed native resolution. Furthermore, the company also demonstrated its USB-powered PCLit mobile projector at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, which debuted alongside Join Technology's JP77 and WE3 Technology's WE8626. Have a glance at the whole bundle down in the read link -- just don't get those hopes too high about a US release date anytime soon.

LG KF750 Secret Geez, we'd almost forgotten about this rumor, but yeah -- now that we think about it, we'd heard all sorts of stuff about the LG Secret showing up on AT&T a while back. What happened to that? We can't say for sure, but it definitely wasn't a lack of FCC approval; this thing actually earned its shiny gold seal way back in October of last year, but we're just now getting confidentiality lifted on the good stuff like user manuals and external photos. Sure enough, that manual is rife with AT&T references like the notorious Video Share service, so we can still say with some confidence that it'll be heading that way eventually. Given the slim shell, touchscreen, and 5 megapixel cam, we'd like to be able to say that'll be happening soon -- but given how long they've gone so far, it's anyone's guess when we'll actually see it show up. Need any help with testing, guys?

LG GC900 Viewty Smart, now more official than ever before Okay, now it's official. After a misstep late last week, LG's ready to pull the trigger for reals on the Viewty Smart, the follow-on to one of its more successful high-end feature phones in recent memory. Pretty much every major feature has been improved or revamped over the original Viewty, including bumps to WVGA display resolution, an 8 megapixel camera with claimed ISO 1600 sensitivity (we'll see about that), DVD-quality video recording, LG's recently-introduced S-Class user interface concept, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, integrated WiFi, AGPS, and 1.5GB onboard with microSD expansion theoretically to 32GB. What's more, LG has somehow smushed this all into a package just 12.4mm thick, which makes this just about the most desirable non-smartphone on the planet -- on paper, anyhow. Look for it to start hitting European carriers next month, with availability elsewhere to be announced later on.

Sharp releases world's first waterproof solar cellphone In continuation of a recent trend of major manufacturers announcing a new-found interest in making a buck off developing nations solar-powered cellphones, AU (KDDI) and Sharp have announced the June launch of this unnamed solar handset. Besides being the world's first waterproof solar handset, it charges to a minute of talk or 2-hours of standby after just 10 minutes in the sun. No other specs were announced though we seriously doubt it'll be a power-sucking feature- or smart-phone. Naturally, it'll still be a boon to people where electricity is scarce but what about the industrious guy who owns the village car battery?

Fujifilm intros E-Series P2 memory cards With NAB kicking off today in Las Vegas, it's no shock to see Panasonic's P2 format gracing the headlines early on. Today, Fujifilm has announced that it will introduce the E-Series P2 memory cards for the Panasonic P2 professional video system, and said lineup will include 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB options. We're told that the trio can hit a maximum transfer rate of 1.2Gbps when used with compatible hardware, and the cards' lifespans are rated for five years of use when recorded once daily at full capacity and up to ten years when used at half capacity. Check 'em later this summer (save for the 64GB model, which ships this autumn) for $440, $640 and $1,000 from least capacious to most.