Check it out! 

Sony Ericsson's recently announced and much anticipated lineup of handsets was on display at CTIA in San Francisco - mainly at the Ericsson booth.  I got my paws all over the new Walkman and Cybershot phones and here's what I thought:

The K850 is the handset I'm most eager to spend some time with.  While it's not officially a Walkman phone, it has a more than capable media player to go along with that 5MP CyberShot camera.  The N95 comparisons are inevitable, and while the N95 has a larger screen and a few more goodies, the K850 is svelter and easier to use.  SE's user interface is really second to none unless you want to talk iPhone.  Speaking of which, the K850 has a built-in accelerometer for auto-rotating media content.  And there's all kinds of 3G goodness.  Look for this one soon, maybe even on AT&T.

Walkman-wise, the W960 is the new king of the hill.  This is perhaps a more direct competitor to iPhone, given its QVGA touch screen, advanced Walkman interface, WiFi connectivity, and 8GB of onboard storage.  The W960 was actually at Symbian's booth, as it runs the UIQ 3 UI on top of Symbian OS - it's a new revision of UIQ 3 that's been tweaked for touch screens.  The W960 also features a 3.2mp camera on the back and a secondary camera on front for video calling, and support for UTMS 2100 MHz 3G data (which won't help you much in the US).  And the touch screen is flush mounted with the front of the handset, a la iPhone, HTC Touch, and virtually all of the new touch screen phones.

The W910 was also on display next to a new black version of the W580.  The 910 really looks like the 580's big brother, with the same basic slider design but a larger display, and heavier, more luxurious feel.  The 910 comes in red and black and features HSDPA support (but not in the US) and a 2 MP shooter.  I recently reviewed the W580i and liked it quite a bit - the W910 is like the executive version, and should make a nice option for folks put off by the W880's smallish display.

And not to be overlooked was the Z750, which has been around for awhile but is also rumored for an AT&T release any day now.  The Z750 will pack US-spec HSDPA along with quad-band GSM/EDGE, making it equally at home in the States or abroad.  Flip phones are rare for SE these days, and the Z750 looks somewhat like the new MOTO U9 with it's rounded edges, mirrored exterior, and front-mounted OLED display.  The Z750 also packs a 2 megapixel cam along with an FM radio.

I should have a K850 and a Z750 for review real, real soon ... are you listening SE?  We're ready for 'em!

While the Fall CTIA Show is, as the "Wireless IT & Entertainment" moniker would suggest, more about business-to-business services than new phones for consumers, I did get to play with some cool handsets yesterday.  I also got some interesting insight into the state of the cellular world from folks as diverse as Nokia Execs, the head of Telecom for Deloitte & Touche, and some of my fellow bloggers.

The general consensus is that the line between phones and smartphones is getting blurrier by the minute here in the states.  Folks from Nokia pointed out that the working definition of "smartphone" is different in Europe - where people use advanced handsets more for entertainment purposes than in the US where "smartphone" equals "productivity."  That may be changing somewhat this holiday season, however, with a bunch of new entertainment and productivity-rich models hitting the stores.

LG showed off the Venus and Voyager, new handsets that should be in Verizon Wireless stores by the end of November.  Both models are VCast Music and Video compatible, and the Voyager also works with VCast Mobile Television offerings.  And both phones are hot - you can see them in action in the video I posted earlier today.

Something of a successor to the enV, Voyager features horizontal clamshell design - there's a 3" touchscreen display on the outside and a smaller display and full QWERTY keyboard on the inside.  A two-megapixel camera and dual stereo speakers make this phone an entertainment monster as much as it is a messaging maven.

Venus, on the other hand, is a slim slider with a large display split into standard and touch-sensitive sections.  What's cool about Venus' design is that there's a standard keypad for dialing and texting, but the touchscreen area can be programmed for different application-specific controls.  It's an interesting way to raise the tech/feature level without sacrificing much in the way of style or bulk.

LG was also showing the Sprint Rumor, a messaging phone that looks kind of likeLG's F9200 for AT&T.  Rumor is interesting - it's a sleek, nice-looking device that marries a small screen to a slide-out QWERTY board, packs a decent feature-set, but doesn't do 3G data speeds.  Instead of buzzing along on Sprint's EV-DO network, it's relegated to the slower 1xRTT data path.  Rumor will be inexpensive, though - $79 with contract, so it could turn out to be a good choice for messaging addicts on a budget.  I tapped a few sentences out on it and generally liked it - I'm looking forward to getting a review model to play with awhile.

Speaking of Sprint, I got a Palm Centro in my paw for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised.  Currently available for under $100 with contract, Centro is a total 180 from the old days of big, bulky, PDA phones that screamed "Geek!"  Centro is stylish in that "functional" way like Nokias are, and in addition to phone, email, and Web functionality it also supports Sprint TV. And while the QWERTY board on the Centro looks tiny in photos, it actually seemed pretty usable in hand.  Even with my giant thumbs.

T-Mobile had their new Sidekicks - the Slide and LX - on display.  The LX is also now available for purchase, as well.  I liked the Slide's smaller, lighter form factor and new sliding display/keyboard cover.  Slide also features a 320 x 240 resolution display to the LX's 400 x 240.  Both models also feature cameras and music players.

And while the Nokia booth on the show floor was primarily geared towards showing off their Ovi ecosystem of Web 2.0 services (more on that in another post soon), they did have handsets, too of course.  The N95 8GB is slick.  Finished in black with a larger LCD display than the original N95, the 8GB model is a total powerhouse.  I also checked out the N81 8GB, and came away really impressed by its graphics performance during gaming.  Nokia's serious about rebirthing N-Gage, and while the new NGage is a platform and not a specific handset, the N81 was a good choice for showing it off.  FIFA soccer, in particular, looked terrific on the S60 slider.

Motorola had the Z6tv and Q9h (amongst others) on display at their booth.  The z6tv is a Verizon Wireless slider that supports VZW's MediaFLO-powered VCAST Mobile TV service.  What's nice about the Z6tv is that it's the first VCAST TV handset without an ugly external antenna.  It's basically a RIZR done up in a nice, black and chrome finish.

The Q9h is the forthcoming GSM variant of Moto's newest smartphone - the Q9m has been available on VZW for awhile now.  Aside from with a few cosmetic differences, the big differences are under the hood.  Q9h will run Windows Mobile 6 and feature HSDPA support for 3G data along with a 2 MP camera.

Moskovitz spoke about mobile as the next frontier for Web sites like his, and encouraged developers to check out Facebook's open platform architecture.  Facebook users can register for developer status and download an API which allows them to create Facebook applications that can be distributed and used freely on the site.

Just hours after the Keynote, Facebook and Microsoft announced a deal in which the software giant paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the not yet four year-old social networking site.  Microsoft beat out Google to get a piece of the Facebook pie, and the deal gives Facebook a $15 billion dollar valuation, which is roughly on par with the market capitalizations of Gap Inc. and Marriott International Inc.  You've heard of their jeans and hotels, right?

The deal makes Microsoft the exclusive third-party advertising platform for Facebook.  Previously, Microsoft had inked a deal to sell banner ads next to member profiles on the site in the US through 2011.  Facebook said they plan to use the investment to double their staff over the next year, amongst other growth initiatives.

The guys from Samsung - Kim Titus, Director of Public Relations for Wireless Terminals and Eric Villines, Group VP at MWW (Samsung PR) - were very personable, down to earth, and cool to chat with - as was Tracy from Samsung's PR firm, but I already knew she was.  Their good nature was all the more appreciated considering they'd flown halfway across the country and spent half the day at pre-show events before our powwow.  So here's hoping we can do it again bigger and better - maybe at CTIA Las Vegas next Spring? 

So thanks to Eric, Kim, and Tracy from Samsung, and to the readers and fellow media who came out, as well.  And special thanks to the one reader who brought out her *old skool* Audiovox PPC ... looks like she might be in the market for one of Samsung's new smartphones, and she definitely wins the prize for oldest handset any of us had seen in a long, long time.

And check out the lovely pic of me and Kim with the Samsung Blackjack.

The F700 is nice - the screen is big and bright, the touchscreen functionality works well and provides vibrational and/or auditory feedback, and the QWERTY board is pretty comfortable to type on.  And the phone is surprisingly light but not at all cheap feeling.  While the Samsung guys wouldn't go so far as to say a US version is confirmed, I got the impression that it's certainly worth hoping for an F700 on this side of the pond before too, too long.

Check out the hands-on video for a closer look at the F700, and special thanks to Kim and everyone else from Samsung for making this available at the reader meetup in San Francisco.

The tilting screen is actually pretty handy - you can leave it flat like other HTC slideout phones (Mogul, Wing, etc) or tilt it towards you for more of a mini-laptop feel.  Backed by a zippy processor, 3 MP camera, Wi-Fi, and 3G data speeds, the Tilt is arguably the best all around smartphone currently made for use in the US. 

At least until those new i-Mate Ultimates start shipping ...

Look for a more in depth review in the next couple of days.

The show gets started in earnest tomorrow, but today is chock full of "pre-show conferences" including the Billboard event and the Smartphone Summit going on at the nearby Marriot hotel.  And, of course, there's the PhoneDog.com Reader Meetup (sponsored by Samsung) this evening over at the Pickwick.

Right now I'm listening to Blake Krikorian, CEO of SlingMedia, talking about placeshifting -- using a device like Slingbox (or the Monsoon HAVA) to take your cable/sattelite TV signal, DVR recorded programs, and other multimedia content and shift it out of your home to your mobile device via the Internet.  A tale is being told about a guy who used his Silngbox to watch so much TV on his Motorola Q that he exceeded the quota on his Verizon Wireless "unlimited" data plan.  SlingMedia, by the way, was just acquired by EchoStar.

A cool thing about the conference room here is that Mozes is providing a solution to allow folks in the audience to text message questions to the discussion moderators and participants.  It's like a very civilized, hi-tech version of one of those TV talk shows where folks can yell out questions from the audience.  Pretty cool

Later on there's a discussion about the impact of iPhone on the industry and an appearance by celebrity host Quincy Jones.  Then I'm headed over to the Smartphone Summit to check out the state of smartphones and talk to some folks from UIQ (the software behind Sony Ericsson smartphones, among others) about their recent deal with Motorola and, I'd imagine, iPhone's impact on the smartphone biz.  For a company who only makes one handset, Apple certainly has made their presence felt in the industry.

Now Blake's talking about using his Nokia N95 to watch cable TV from a hotel room in Japan via his Slingbox back at home in the states.  He used the N95's TV Out jack to connect the Slingbox to his hotel room TV, and thanks to 3G data speeds he was able zone out to the tube on a big screen ... from his phone!  It's a crazy world, I tell you.

Speaking of crazy, yes, that photo is of me standing next to a banner featuring me.  Pretty odd feeling, I gotta say.  But, hey, if it gets the word out about PhoneDog, I'm all for it.

More from San Francisco as the day and week at CTIA move on ... Hah, Blake just mentioned iPhone saying of Steve Jobs, "Who knows what Jesus is doing to do down there in Cupertino" ... Good stuff!

Motorla's Global Director of Experience Planning, Parrish Hanna, is talking about the new ROKR U9, and they just world premiered the new commercial for the handset, featuring Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas.  He's talking about switching modalities in a device - using add-on software and hardware to customize the experience on a device to suit a soccer mom on the one hand, and a CEO on the other.  Parrish is showing the Moto S9 Bluetooth headphones, which let you place/take calls and listen to music in stereo from a compatible musicphone.

Parrish is joined onstage by Mike Wehrs, VP of Evangelism for Nuance Communications (who thinks of these titles?).  Nuance is primarily known for their text and speech recognition software for mobile phones.  Mike is talking about iPhone's user experience - the gesture-based multitouch navigation system, in particular.  He's now showing a demo of a Nuance-powered handset solution that lets a user browse through a cell phone's features by way of a 3D, animated user interface backed by predictive-text enhanced searches. 

Mike's point is that user experiences need to be more intuitive and compelling, and that it needs to be easier for users to find the "forgotten features" buried two or three levels deep on their handsets' menus.  He's also saying that graphics can be used to make the process of finding and using those features more efficient and compelling at the same time.  His demo is kind of cool, but it really reinforces the fact that iPhone's user experience is really head and shoulders above anything else geared for the mass market.  Sure, a geek/power user would be interested in a Linux-based Motorola or Windows Mobile handset with a new 3D UI ... but it's just a layer on top of a system that, at its core, is too complicated for the mainstream user to enjoy.

For as cool as iPhone's form factor and feature set is, it may well be its ease of use and "human" UI that really sets it apart from the pack.

To all of our delight, Noah won!  He was awarded a free trip to CTIA WIRELESS 2008 next April in Las Vegas.  So stay tuned for what Noah will have in store for us all next year!!!     

2. Apple iPhone
Once again Apple steals some of the spotlight at a tech show they didn't even pay to be a part of.   You know the story by now: AT&T exec pulls an iPhone out during keynote, world stops spinning for a long moment.  Is iPhone as good as everyone thinks it'll be?  Will consumers pay $500 for a phone?  Will smartphone users flock to a device with virtually no buttons?  April 11 (wishful thinking!) June 11 seems to be the day we'll begin to find out.

3. Nokia N95
Nokia's flagship superphone is somehow losing a bit of its luster seeing as it keeps showing up at trade shows but hasn't started shipping yet.  The specs (WiFi, GPS with Maps app, 5mp Camera) are top notch, and the hi-res display is gorgeous, but will function outweigh Nokia's signature chunky form factor?  And will those specs still be state-of-the-art when this thing finally reaches users' hands?

4. Sony Ericsson w880
SE's new flagship Walkman phone is sweet.  While the specs aren't all that eye popping, the phone itself is darn near a work of art.  Thin, sexy, fun to use: Is this really an SE handset?  Too bad it's not gonna work on 3G networks in the US.

5. Motorola Z8
I love Symbian.  Hence, I was drawn to Moto's somewhat bizarre new slider phone.  It rocks Symbian and also "features" an odd, flexing housing that's meant to better conform to your face when in use.  It also has some cool - or are they ugly? - neon accents.  I might totally hate the Z8 in a month or two.  But for now it's got my curiosity sufficiently piqued. 

Honorable Mention: HTC Advantage, HTC Vox, Samsung UpStage, Samsung F700, Nokia N76, Nokia E90, SE z750, LG VX8700.

While the 8700 - which Verizon apparently isn't going to brand as Shine, despite the moniker being plastered all over LG's displays - didn't inspire the absurd levels of lust in me that the original Shine did, it's still worthy of the "sexy cellie" moniker.  Featuring a beautiful brushed metal clamshell housing with a three line, mirror-finish external display and full 240 x 320 internal screen, the 8700 packs multimedia features like a 2mp camera, support for VCAST and LBS services including VZ Navigator, and stereo Bluetooth support into a slim profile. 

LG seems to have done a great job with this phone, striking a balance between thin and light with just enough heft to give the 8700 a solid, classy feel in hand.  This one should have mass appeal thanks to its combination of hip good looks and mid-range tech features.  I'm going to start harassing my LG contacts about getting a review unit just as soon as they're back home from Orlando.  Look for it online April 6 and in Verizon stores on the 17th, and expect to drop $180 (and a two year contractual commitment) before you can call it your own.

Selected from more than 250 submissions, Celltop took the top prize at the Second Annual Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards, honoring products and innovations in consumer applications, hardware, network infrastructure and enterprise solutions.

Celltop gives customers more control over their wireless experience through a unique and fully customizable technology similar to the desktop on a personal computer. Now available on select Alltel Wireless handsets, and on most new phones by late-2007, Celltop is free-of-charge and currently features 11 "cells" that come pre-installed and via download. Each cell is a category-specific half screen comprised of graphics and text that provides shortcuts for wireless users to navigate through information and applications, including call log, weather, news, baseball, basketball, football, stocks,and ringtones and more.

"We are proud to receive the 'Best in Show' award at CTIA Wireless 2007, and we accept it on behalf of our customers," said Wade McGill, senior vice president of product management for Alltel Wireless. "Those customers are the reason we created Celltop and the reason we are committed to offering the most innovative and advanced applications in the marketplace."

As part of Celltop's extensive array of customization options, users can also modify the appearance, presentation and organization of information within each cell. Users can further customize their Celltop experience through a wide variety of new cells that Alltel will roll out in the coming months via its Axcess Shop. Similar to "widgets" on a personal computer, Celltop is open to the developer community, providing unlimited user expandability of new and unique cells.

Alltel worked closely with creative consultancy frog design to conceptualize, style, and implement the Celltop technology, maximizing the user experience across mobile devices.

Alltel has teamed with Motricity, a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions, to provide content from the most established and respected names in the industry. For example, the news cell allows users to view top news stories and breaking news from the Associated Press; the weather cell, with content provided by AccuWeather, displays the latest conditions in the user's location of choice including current readings and five-day forecasts; the football, basketball and baseball cells, with information provided by STATS Inc., deliver live scores and stats from the teams and players that are of most importance; and the stock cell provides information on stocks that are of interest to the customer.

Additionally, Celltop provides an innovative ringtone management cell that allows users to seamlessly scroll through ringtones they've already purchased or browse and buy new tones all on the same screen. The ringtone cell also provides the ability to toggle through ringtones with a single tap - making it easier than ever for customers to personalize their wireless phone.

1. Samsung
You really couldn't get anywhere near CTIA without noticing Samsung's presence.  They had banners inside the convention center, banners on the exterior of the building, and even a banner or two hanging on the faces of adjacent buildings.  Samsung built a lot of hype surrounding the launch of UpStage, their new music phone for Sprint, and while the public will decide whether or not the dual-sided candybar phone is a winner, Sammy's presence at CTIA was impossible to ignore.  Along with their Ultra Series handsets and the new dual-pivot u740 for Verizon, Samsung thrust UpStage into the eyes and minds of nearly every show-goer this year.

2.  Tie: Apple and Pantech
It really says something when two of the most talked about phones at a convention weren't even out on the show floor.  Phone geek hearts everywhere skipped a few beats when AT&T's Randall Stephenson pulled an iPhone out of his pocket during his keynote address.  The rumor mill now pegs June 11 as the launch date for this much talked about but seldom seen handset from those renegade computer makers in Cupertino.

Perhaps even more interesting, though, was Pantech's Ocean phone, set to be launched in the next few months by Helio.  Helio was showing the handset behind closed doors, only, and everyone who glimpsed the dual-slider smartphone came away impressed.  Sporting a new user interface, top-notch Web browser, and three-layer candybar design with full dialing and QWERTY keypads, Ocean is the phone Helio CEO Sky Dayton says he dreamt about making when he took over the company. 

4. HTC
HTC didn't have a booth on the main show floor, but they were at the pre-show Mobile Focus event with an array of smartphones on display.  The Advantage, which HTC announced they'll be selling direct to US consumers under their own brand name, garnered the lion's share of attention, though the Vox may be the most practical of HTC's new offerings.  Featuring a sliding QWERTY board in a standard candybar phone form factor, the Vox offers full email and texting functionality in a handset that's a little smaller and cuter than your average smartphone.  Also on display - though inside a glass box - was the Shift, HTC's first entry into the Ultra Mobile PC market.

5. Tie: LG and Sony Ericsson
LG had a snazzy booth with a real live DJ and, oh yeah, also announced a US version of their uber-chic Shine phone.  The brushed metal VX8700 clamshell will be available through Verizon next week, and while Verizon seems to have chosen to drop the Shine moniker, this new flip is certainly worthy of some consideration if you like your phones sexy, full-featured and, yes, shiny.

Sony Ericsson gets props for introducing two new US-spec handsets, including their first HSDPA phone, the glossy (if not shiny) z750 clamshell.  SE was also showing off what may be the most gorgeous phone they've ever made, the w880 Walkman phone.  This one's not bound for the US just yet, but I'm sure unlocked versions of this super-thin GSM candybar will be showing up on eBay before too long.

Apple once again cast their shadow over a major trade show without even paying for a booth.  First they introduced iPhone at MacWorld San Francisco while all of their new competitors were over at CES in Las Vegas, and now they've got some CTIA buzz without even suffering a cross-country flight to Orlando.  AT&T COO Randall Stephenson made news at CTIA by holding the forthcoming handset aloft during his keynote speech and announcing that his company has received over one million calls asking, "When's iPhone coming out?"  Click through below for a short video from Stephenson's keynote, and also to check out CNET's breaking rumor/scoop that AT&T allegedly confirmed June 11 as date when folks across the land can get iPhones of their own.

Helio made waves, as well, holding closed doors previews of their forthcoming smartphone, "Ocean."  Based on what I could gather on my own, and a sweet video preview of the device put together by Eric and Eric over at PhoneScoop (great guys who I had the pleasure of hanging out with at Sprint's UpStage party), Ocean looks to be neck-and-neck with iPhone as the must-have new handset.

A three-layer slider featuring separate dialing and QWERTY layouts, Ocean features an entirely reworked user interface and slick new Web browser meant to get the most out of Helio's 3G data services.  The Ocean sports a 2.4-inch, 260K color high-resolution QVGA display viewable in both portrait or landscape modes, external stereo speakers, a 2.0-megapixel camera with digital zoom and flash for photos and over two hours of continuous video recording.  The Ocean is planned for launch in spring of 2007 at a suggested retail price of US$295.  Helio CEO Sky Dayton has been quoted as saying Ocean is the phone he dreamt of creating when he took the company's helm, and between its innovative "no click" search features, support for multiple IM protocols, and full HTML Web browser with some very cool looking zoom and micromap features, I'd believe it.

Watch iPhone at CTIA Video: http://www.iphoneworld.ca/news/2007/03/29/iphone-at-ctia-wireless-2007-video

View and watch Helio Ocean hands on preview: http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/ctia_2007/index.php?p=d2

I was most excited to get my hands on the Ultra Smart F700 cell phone, what with its iPhone-killing touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY board and 5 megapixel shooter.  The sample that made its way around the breakfast tables, however, seemed to be nothing more than a souped up dummy phone, as evidenced by its inability to do more than flash the "SGH-F700" startup screen for half a second before shutting off, and the look/feel/sound of the thing that made it seem there was little more than a big spring (for the sliding mechanism) inside.

Still, Samsung did say that the F700 will eventually make it to the US, which is exciting for all you Ultra Smart types.  They also passed around a few sexy Ultra thin phones - 3MP cameraphones in bar and flip formats - as well as a souped up WiBro phone for the Korean market that included a dedicated RSS button, MobiTV, and a host of other too-hi-tech for the States goodies. 

Also, I owe a world of thanks to Kim from Samsung's PR team who pointed out to me that Gallagher was in the room.  I'm still not sure who he is, but apparently while I was busy watching Family Ties back in the '80s, he was doing stand-up comedy and smashing fruit with hammers.  And now he writes about cell phones, or at least sneaks into Bloggers' Breakfasts.

Sony Ericsson had two new US-bound handsets on display, in addition to their flagship w880i Walkman phone.  First up, the z750 is a fashion-conscious clamshell featuring a 2mp camera, tri-band HSDPA data, music player, and glossy finish exterior with OLED display.  This model will be available in pink and grey, and I liked it as a solid mid-range flip with a bit of style to it, even if it's not ultra-thin. 

The w580 Walkman phone is a slider that comes in white and black, and features a 2mp camera and Walkman 2.0 music player in a 14mm thin package.  While I liked the form factor and user interface on this phone, its plastic construction felt a little insubstantial in hand.  This may be because I also got to play with the w880i Walkman phone, which somehow manages to feel solid despite its impossibly thin 9mm profile.  The w580 is a solid addition to SE's Walkman line, and it will hopefully be available for a decent price through a US carrier later this year.  If you've got the cash, however, the w880i - along with the most recent 3.2 megapixel CyberShot model, the k810i - is definitely SE's current gotta-have-it phone.

Moto also showed the recently released to T-Mobile RIZR Z3 slider as well as two new sliders: the MOTOROKR Z6m and Z8.  The Z6m is a media-centric handset featuring a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, Stereo Bluetooth connectivity, and a 2mp camera, while the Z8 features a unique curved profile that flexes to better fit the user's facial contours while in use.  The Z8 also runs Symbian OS and is capable of widescreen video playback in horizontal (landscape) orientation.  Whlie the Z8 isn't destined for a US release at this point, I definitely recommend checking it out if you can. 

I'm not necessarily sold on the curved slider, but I loved seeing Symbian on a sleek, media-centric handset.  The display and UI looked great, and I was very impressed with the video playback demos I saw.  Speaking of operating systems, the Linux-based ROKR e6 touchscreen phone was also on display.  Moto was also showing a line of entry-level handsets, the W series, which are modeled after the KRZR and SCPL phones but designed to bring some bling to customers at a lower cost of ownership.  These phones looked and felt great, and only hardcore phone geeks would be able to tell the difference between a KRZR and w395 at first glance.  And not to be left out, Motorola had a few new accessories making the rounds, including the ROKR S9 stereo bluetooth headset and the impossibly small H9 and H680 mono bluetooth earpieces.

Sony Ericsson was showing off two new handsets actually designed for the US market.  The w580 Walkman phone is a nicely thin (14mm) slider featuring SE's Walkman player 2.0, a 2" QVGA display, 2mp camera, quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity, and stereo Bluetooth.  The z750 clamshell features a shiny finish with "hidden" external OLED display and a 2.2" internal QVGA display, 2mp camera, and tri-band HSPDA access.  Both phones will be available later this year.  I also got a chance to paw SE's w880i Walkman phone (a GSM model not destined for the US) and man if it's not a million times better in person than in photos.  The w880 is super thin and has a very nice brushed metal front finish that made me want it, even if it doesn't really do that much more than the older and thicker w800i I had in my own pocket.

LG had some new Verizon and Sprint-bound models on display, but I spent my time at their booth holding the precious Prada phone in my hands.  This "iPod killer" touchscreen smart phone is oddly beautiful and boring all at the same time: it's basically a slab of metal and glass that doesn't do much until you make contact with the touch screen, and then it does what a touchscreen phone does, magically morphing itself into a dialing keypad here, an SMS composition window there, and so on.  While Prada is not destined for our shores, LG would go so far as to tell me that "the technology will be making it to the US" in some form.  Soon...or sorta soon, anyway.

Nokia showed me their 6110 Navigator GPS phone, which was unveiled at 3GSM in Barcelona.  The slider handset combines GPS navigation and location-based services with a quad-band GSM/EDGE phone with HSDPA capabilities, and also features a 2mp camera, QVGA display, and a microSD card slot supporting 2GB cards.  Nokia also had their N-Series range on display and confirmed that that N95 is, at long last, about to start shipping.  I then ogled the N76 a few times just to remember falling in lust with it at CES in January.  It's a thin flip phone that runs Series 60 and features that all important "fifty cent part," the 3.5mm headphone jack.

 



Kyocera had a slew of US-bound handsets on their table, including the CDMA M1000, a candybar phone that opens "the long way" to reveal a full QWERTY board on the inside, a la LG's enV for Verizon.  The M1000, along with a curvy, chrome clamshell dubbed E5000, features a 1.3mp camera and EV-DO support, and will ship later this year.

HP showed off their 500 series IPAQ Voice Messenger, a WiFI-enabled GSM/EDGE smartphone that can do VoIP calls.  Aimed at the enterprise user, the Voice Messenger will ship with Windows Mobile 6 and features a slew of user-customizable controls including shortcuts that can be programmed to speed dial numbers, access URLs on the Web, and perform a variety of other tasks.

Motorola had the super slim, curved Z8 slider on display.  It's thin, and it's curved - the latter feature designed to better contour to the user's face during calls.  Moto was also showing the q9h smartphone I wrote about earlier today.  I'm hoping to get some more quality time with both phones in the next few days.

Speaking of smartphones, iMate has dropped the "Jaq" naming scheme and rechristened their line "Ultimate."  They were showing off the Ultimates - a group of phones all packing the same high-end smartphone specs into a plethora of form factors. 

And smartphone fave HTC had a crowd gathered 'round its table to peep the Advantage, Vox, and Shift.  The Advantage toes the line between smartphone and ultramobile PC (UMPC) by combining a quad-band EDGE radio with tri-band HSDPA, and WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity with a 5-inch VGA touchscreen, 3mp camera, 8 GB hard drive, 256 MB or RAM, and a 624 MHz Marvell processor with ATI graphics.  The Advantage also features a snap-on magnetized keyboard so the handset can be used as a traditional (if quite large) candybar phone or as a laptop-esque PDA.  HTC will be selling the Advantage direct in the US under their own name beginning in June.

The Shift goes Advantage a step further into full-blown laptop mode, running Windows Vista Business Edition on a 7" touchscreen backed by a 30GB hard drive and 1GB or RAM.  Shift features tri-band HSDPA and EDGE for cellular connectivity along with 802.11g for wireless broadband.

Last but not least at HTC's both was the Vox, a more traditional smartphone featuring a candybar design with slide-out QWERTY board.  The Vox is smaller than other HTC QWERTY phones like the Cingular 8125/8525, but it sacrifices screen size in order to fit into that neat little package.

All that and CTIA hasn't even officially begun ... on to the show floor!