smartphone

Ever since the Palm Pilot was introduced a decade ago, its maker has had some devoted fans. Today it looks set to gain some more. Palm just announced the Pre, a smartphone that has an iPhone-like touchscreen and a full keyboard, plus a new interface that looks easier to navigate on a small screen than desktop-style windows.

Nokia jumped into the crowding, iPhone-inspired geniusphone market today with the N97, which they gave the New York press a peek at last night. The 3G phone sports a full-body touchscreen (alas, resistive, not multi-touch capacitive) that when in landscape mode slides up, Sony Xperia-style, to expose a full QWERTY keyboard. (It offers virtual keypads and keyboards on the touchscreen, too.)

As part of a new design exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York city, Nokia and the University of Cambridge revealed a potential phone of the future, called Morph. Why "Morph"? The gadgets flexible materials would enable you to twist it into different shapes, you could even wear it as a bracelet.

Here, we present a compilation of PopSci coverage of the season´s hottest tech- 60 pages of lust-worthy items, from a luxury amplifier that will please the most discerning audiophile to cutting-edge smartphones to household gizmos that will make everyday tasks easier. Get ready to drool.

Launch the photo gallery.

If it´s a smartphone,
you bet. In 2004, virus writers released Cabir, the first proof-of-concept virus that could infect smartphones through
an open Bluetooth connection.
So far, Cabir and the 175 other smartphone viruses in the wild haven´t done enough damage to warrant headlines. But it´s only a matter of time before there´s enough financial upside for criminal hackers to begin seriously attacking smartphones. And then, watch out.

If you travel frequently, you’re probably lugging around a clunky array of backup batteries for all your wireless gizmos. Soon you’ll be able to lighten your load with Medis Technologies´s new nine-ounce disposable Power Pack. When your iPod dies mid-flight, you can plug it in for a full on-the-spot recharge. The 1.3-watt device will do this five times. It will also deliver five full charges for your digital camera or 20 hours of talk time for your cellphone before it’s spent.

All four of the current smartphone operating systems support the core promise of the device: quick access to calendar, contacts, e-mail and the Web, as well as the ability to handle third-party apps. That said, each appeals to a slightly different user.The Corporate Exec Windows Mobile for PocketPCs This workhorse of an OS invariably arrives on a large PDA-centric device that´s perfect for editing documents and browsing the Web. With Virtual Private Network software, it´s the most likely to let you fetch your work e-mail.