Dick Tracy had one and when I was a kid I would have swapped my entire collection of 2000AD comics for one, but users down under in Oz will soon be able to start talking into their wrist watches and not face arrest on psychiatric charges.
Designed by SMS Developments Ltd in Australia, the m300 is claimed to be the world’s first “truly mobile GSM watch phone” with their Flash-tastic website confirming a release date of Dec 1st 2006 (excuse us while we decline to hold our breath on that one).
Just like a R’n’B star talking about his music, the makers are promising to take mobile communications “to a whole new level,” with the watch offering 70 hours standby time, full SMS functionality, Bluetooth compatibility and USB connectivity for software/ringtone uploads.
There’s also a 99 number memory storage, 40 embedded real tones and what they’re describing as a “sleek sophisticated design” (we beg to differ here – it looks more like the kind of cheapo watch you might win from those annoying funfair ‘grab’ machines – you know, the ones that always drop your prize in the last bleedin’ second).
Anyway, back to the M300, the specs say that it offers GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHZ connectivity, Bluetooth (with bluetooth headset for voice call only), a teensy-weensy 65K OLED (0.9″) display and “Speaker Phone Text base UI,” whatever that is.
In fairness, compared to some of the arm-dragging slabs of metal that have been served up as ‘watch-sized’ in the past, this actually is more or less the right size, albeit a slightly chunky affair at 43 x 56 x 14.8 mm.
The phone should work in the USA, Europe and Asia although whether it actually makes it out of Australia is anyone’s guess.
I guess the bit that the designers forgot about is that talking into a watch is going to make you look distinctly odd and that watch sales have been steadily declining as users are preferring to use the time displays on their phones, PDAs and MP3 players…
Oh, and as for the ‘world’s first’ claim, The Inquirer has already pointed out that Samsung announced such a phone at the CeBIT show, Hanover, some years ago.
In the general rush of all mobile phone companies desperately try not to get sidelined, Vodafone Italy have just announced a tie-up with Italian broadband provider, FastWeb. 
FastWeb bill themselves as “Italy’s leading alternative broadband provider,” and with under a million customers (874,300), they’ll benefit from having Vodafone selling their services from Vodafone shops around Italy as well as to their current 24m cellular customers. 
Palm have revealed details about their eagerly awaited Treo 750v, which will be made available on the Vodafone network in the UK. 
In line with Palm’s weird aversion to all things Wi-Fi in their Treos, hotspot lovers will have to invest in a separate Wi-Fi SDIO card. 
Memory has been boosted to 128MB plus 60MB user flash memory, with the device sharing the same 1.3 megapixel digital camera and the excellent full QWERTY keyboard with 5-way navigator of its predecessors. 
Hyundai Telematic Korea have announced their way-posh Roadbank HTMS 18800 DMB navigator, an ultra slim, in-car navigation system with a hefty 7 inch touch screen. 
As well as offering navigation tools, the Roadbank comes stuffed with multimedia widgets, doubling up as a high end media console with support for movie playback formats like WMV9, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, Xvi and H.264. It can also display digital photos too. 
The Roadbank HTMS 18800 DMB runs on Windows CE 5.0 and comes with 64 MB of Nand Flash with a SD card slot providing memory expansion options. 
News Corp has reportedly shelled out $187.5m to buy 51% in Jamba (Jamster in the US), the mobile phone ringtone company who came to prominence with the Crazy Frog ringtone. 
The WSJ is 
The mobile TV audience soared 45 percent to 3.7 million subscribers in Q2 2006, according to a new report by telecom and new media researchers, Telephia. 
“News and information is the killer app for mobile television. With just a quick flip of their phone it gives consumers instant gratification,” added Gaffney. 
Although there’s no shortage of gadgets like smartphones, PDAs, iPod and PSPs that are capable of playing back video, getting footage on to the fellas can be a bit of a pain. 
Users can connect the V-Mate to the AV output of their video recorder, set-top box, Freeview, DVR, DVD player, TV or other device and use the V-Mate’s remote control to configure the device, plus record and access content via a TV-based interface. 
Although we’re not alone in thinking that the Palm Treo is the best smartphone around, the device suffers from one tragic omission; Wi-Fi. 
This design has obvious advantages and disadvantages; the advantage is that the sled offers its own power supply, giving users a considerably enhanced battery life compared to handheld-powered Wi-Fi cards; the disadvantage is that the thing adds bulk to the phone. 
The unit must be charged for two hours before use, with a small amber LED blinking while charging. This turns to solid green when the Treo is connected to a Wi-Fi network. 
The first few times we tried this, it took so much effort to pull the phone in and out of the sled we began to fear we’d end up breaking the thing. 
If – like us – you’ve been using digital cameras and electronics gizmos for years on end you might now be the proud owner of a huge pile of memory cards in a host of different formats, with a ton of cables scattered around the office. 
The USB 2.0 reader also conveniently doubles up as a Bluetooth hub, allowing you to wirelessly transfer data between Bluetooth devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. 
Compatible with Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP, the 63x63x15mm reader weighs in at 76g and is powered by the host computer’s USB slot. 
If you’ve ever suffered a flakey mobile phone that keeps on freezing, dropping calls or generally screwing up you may have felt a near-uncontrollable urge to lob the thing as far as you can throw it. 
The rules
Contestants were allowed to pick an old phone of their choice for the competition, with Finland’s Lassi Etelätalo managing to clinch the title with an impressive 89m throw,