Google Allows Desktop Ads To Appear On Mobile Phones

Google announced a new feature for its AdWords service today, which will enable ads that were once formatted and restricted to the desktop computer to also appear on mobile phones. Historically, it didn’t make sense to deliver desktop ads to the phone because if a consumer clicked on it, they wouldn’t be able to view the page correctly. But now that some phones have full Internet browsers, this is less of a concern.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Review

Introduction:

Windows Mobile has always been a powerful but clunky OS, but recently we’ve seen manufacturer efforts to clean it up and make it more user-friendly. Sony Ericsson has thus far stayed out of the WinMo realm, but with the Xperia X1 they are making a splash on both fronts. They have developed a new panel interface to match the X1’s svelte design. It has the rich feature set you’d expect from a high-end device, with many connectivity options and a 480x800 high resolution display. The question is, can it live up to the bar HTC has set with their Touch series?

Included in the box you’ll find:

• Li-poly battery
• AC Adapter
• USB Cable
• 4GB microSDHC card
• Stereo headphones
• Extra stylus

Design:

The X1 is a very well designed device, with a large WVGA display and full QWERTY keyboard. It is constructed of brushed metal which leads to a very hefty weight of 5.1oz. It comes in both silver and black, our review unit was silver but we prefer the black finish personally. It is strikingly narrow, especially when compared to a similar device like the Touch Pro.

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Nokia N97 Unveiled, The First High-End N-Series Touch Phone

It's been a long time coming, but after dabbling with touch on the midrange 5800, Nokia has finally brought a touchscreen to an S60 "N-Series" smartphone, the N97. Take a look at our hands-on impressions and the complete rundown on Nokia's new flagship.

But it's not quite a full dive into touch—there's still a horizontal QWERTY keyboard hidden below the 3.5" 640x360 resistive touchscreen and accesable via a smooth 30° flip mechanism. The N97 will run an even further touch-enhanced Symbian OS, S60 v5, which features the 5800's quick contacts bar and adds an assortment of customizable desktop widgets that can pipe in your Facebook info, RSS feeds and the like, much like those found on Nokia's internet tablet OS. The widgets will be open to third party developers and available via the traditional "Downloads" Symbian app "for now" says Nokia—so not quite the App Store equivalent fans would hope for, but customization via software add-ons is definitely the route being pursued here.

But alas, the downsides. Characteristically for Nokia, the N97 is aimed at Europe and Asia first. So big ballers in Moscow and Macau can expect to be toting an N97 sometime in the "first half of 2009," with a U.S. release (with the appropriate 3G bands) to follow "soon after." In Europe it'll run a hefty €550 ($695) unsubsidized.

The model we briefly handled tonight in NYC was, of course, the Euro version, with no U.S. 3G (and, sadly, no Wi-Fi network availabile). Its handlers were keeping it close to the vest, and with no connectivity there wasn't much testing to be done, but we can say that the hardware is indeed pretty—befitting a $700 Nokia piece. The desktop Symbian widgets look nice, but the drawbacks of a resistive touchscreen (there, as always, to ensure character recognition via a stylus for Nokia's Asian market) were immediately noticeable when dragging widgets around the desktop. A resistive touchscreen relies on pressing two layers of screen together with a fingernail or stylus to register a signal, so it is not as responsive as a capacitive screen which is driven by the natural electricity in your fingers.

Rounding out the gaudy specs are 32GB of on-board memory (with 16GB more available via microSD), A-GPS with Nokia's refreshed Maps 3.0 app and a compass, accelerometer for landscape/portrait screen switching, 5MP camera with Zeiss lens and LED flash, 3.5mm headphone jack, and N-Gage support.

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List of Most Downloaded iPhone Apps is Full of Frivolous Crap

With Apple hitting the 10,000 app milestone, they've just released the stats for the most downloaded apps in a number of categories. And boy, they sure do prove that you people like frivolous, stupid crap on your iPhones. Seriously, Koi Pond is the top paid app overall? No wonder we're in a recession, all that money spent on Koi Pond could have bailed out one of the big three automakers. And why isn't Bloom in the top music apps? Get on board with Bloom, people.

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Nokia could give Linux a spin in high-end mobiles

To anyone even remotely familiar with Nokia's history, this tidbit won't come as a surprise at all. In fact, we've been hearing "Linux" and "Nokia" in the same sentence for years. At Nokia World in Barcelona -- the same place where the almighty N97 (pictured) was unveiled -- Ukko Lappalainen, vice president at Nokia's markets unit, informed Reuters that "in the longer perspective, Linux will become a serious alternative for our high-end phones." Potentially more interesting was his followup line: "I don't see anything in Android which would make it better than Linux maemo."

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Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone

Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video.

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QIGI i6-Goal Looks to Be the First 'Next' Android Phone to Actually Come Out

Compared to the ZzzPhone a modern marvel of engineering and/or MSPaint—the i6-Goal is sort of boring: it's got no QWERTY, 3G, two-week battery, male enhancement powers, etc. It does, however, appear to be real.

Announced by TechFaith Wireless and QIGI, two Chinese companies that very much seem to exist, the i6-Goal is a reassuringly modest accomplishment. The touchscreen phone is a relatively normal quad-band GSM phone, featuring a 2MP camera, GPS and an SD slot. The hardware actually looks quite similar to that of the HTC Touch, which perhaps not coincidentally can hackishly run Android.

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