Since the introduction of the Apple iPhone on January the 9th, the world has gone touch pad crazy, touch pad technology is the way of the future and many companies have heard the call and made their own touch pad phones in direct competition with the iPod. Now is touchscreen, the iPhone has its own mobile category (The iPhone Killer), almost all manufacturers realize that if they want to sell their smartphones they should label them as “iphone killer”, it is not enough to have a full featured smartphone if is not a iphone killer and everyday you see how desperate they are just adding touchscreen to make their devices look like an iphone instead of adding new features.

Check the list and make your bets, I believe that the only smartphone that will push down the iphone is another iphone.

1. Samsung F700

Coming in at Number 1 is the Samsung F700 ultra slim phone, answering the call early Samsung have come up with a splendid touch pad phone. Main features of the phone include a 5 megapixel camera, touch pad technology, impressive downloads speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and a cool slide out QWERTY Keyboard, which is something the iPhone is lacking. With their first deluge into touch pad phones Samsung seem to have hit a home run straight of the bat.

2. LG KE850 | Prada

The next touchphone coming in at a close Second is the LG KE850, this touch phone has actually been around for quite some time and is a smash hit in South Korea. It is widely believed amongst industry experts Apple based there design model around this phone. The phone features a 3-inch LCD touch screen display and 2 megapixel camera. The phone will be about $750. Any maybe available in Europe and America soon.

3. Nokia Aeon Concept Phone

At Number Three we see the Nokia Aeon Concept Phone. This phone is just a concept phone and not currently available to the consumer, it has been around for a very long time. Obviously Nokia was onto to touch phone technology from the very early stages, their long term research and studying into the technology, may see them if not in the form of the Aeon bring out a very advanced touch phone some time soon that will be available to consumers. If that happens you could probably elevated Nokia to Number Two iPhone competitor on this list.

4. Neonode N2 TouchScreen

Surprisingly at Number Four is unknown Swedish phone the Neonode N2 TouchScreen. This awesome little phone made it’s debut at 3GSM and plans to take it right up to the iPhone in a big way. Cool features include it’s size factor, it is alot smaller than other touchscreen phones which should make it easier to carry around than most other touch phones and also it features an interesting gesture controlled screen and runs off of an open source platform.

5. OpenMoko Neo1973

The OpenMoko Neo1973 has been dubbed the iPhone killer and it is hard to disagree it has some awesome features, such as a large, touch-sensitive VGA display, GPRS data, Bluetooth, 128MB RAM, AGPS (Assisted GPS), and 64MB of Flash. The best thing about this phone is that it is a open source project and anyone can contribute to making it into a great phone.

6. Asus Aura Concept Phone

At Six is another concept phone the Asus Aura Concept Phone. ASUS is mostly known for making computer parts and motherboards, however over the past year or so ASUS have tried there hand at making Cell Phones and their not doing to bad a job of it either. ASUS’s strategy is to make as many phones as possible in the hope that one will become a hit, there is not a day that goes by without ASUS releasing a new phone. This month they responded to iPhones call and made the Asus Aura Touch screen Phone, like the Samsung F700 this phone has a QWERTY keypad, features a 2-megapixel camera, 3.9-inch touch screen display and is only 9mm thick. Everyone better watch out for these guys they are a massive manufacturer and they are starting to make their mark in the cell phone industry, specially in countries outside of the US.

7. FIC-GTA001

The Linux based FIC-GTA001 smartphone fights it way to the Number 7 spot and actually comes bundled with a SDK (Software Development Kit). Sporting a 2.8-inch VGA display and
having nifty features like; multi-touch sensor recognition, GSM, GPS and MP3 playback capabilities, its no mystery why we think the phone is cool! The FIC-GTA001 draws it juice from a Samsung ARM9-based processor and the two finger scrolling is reminiscent of the Macbook.

8. BenQ-Siemens Black Box Concept Phone

Big on design but lacking in features, the BenQ-Siemens Black Box Concept Phone comes in at Number Eight. This phone is just a concept phone. BenQ is trying to make a impact in Asia cell phone market. This phones lacks all the cool functions the above phones have and just really has a nice design and big touch screen. Apple has nothing to worry about with this one.

9. Meizu M8

At Nine is the Chinese only Meizu M8 which is also known as the miniOne. It’s claim to fame and the reason why is it so well known in the tech world is because it is believed that this company knocked off the iPhones design. They plan to confuse the Chinese market and cash in big time by selling the phone on the cheap in China, which is just wrong, really wrong.

10. Sagem WA 3050

We searched everywhere but couldn’t find a tenth touch phone. There is sure to be another one soon, any help would be appreciated. We just couldn’t hold off on posting this awesome article any longer .

So thats it. This is only just the beginning of the Touchpad Phone revolution. The companies above have all heard the call and acted fast on this new phenomena. LG, Apple and Samsung in particular are in good positions to capitalize on early on sales of touch phones and establish themselves. Don’t expect Sony, Nokia or Motorola to stay on the side lines for too long, they will come out with their own touchpad phones soon no doubt. 2007 is looking like the “Year Of The Touch Pad Phone!”

Touchphone technology is not new, it has be evolving for several years. Believe it or not Micorsoft were the first makers of a touchpad phone, back in the year 2000 they made the Sagem WA 3050.

11. Blackberry Bold

The Blackberry Bold is an sleek designed full featured smartphone that provides everything that corporate users will need while on the road, it has a ultra powerfull processor, georgeous display, full qwerty keyboard and works on 3G networks, something that all iphone users are expecting in the next iPhone OS 2.0. While the Bold’s design is similar to the iphone it main target remain at corporations.

12. Blackberry Thunder (Touchscreen smartphone)

Image courtesy of www.boygeniusreport.com

The Blackberry Thunder will be launch in Q3 of this year, it is a full touchscreen Blackberry with no slide out keyboard. It comes with just 4 physical keys for Send/End, the Menu key and the Back key. There is not much information available, but it is rumoured to be a CDMA EV-DO device with a 4G implementation.

It is the real Blackberry threat to the iPhone and it will come with a more powerfull processor than the Bold and all the multimedia features and corporate stuff that RIM supplies.

13. Nokia N95

The Nokia N95 8GB comes with the advanced feature set expected from a state-of-the-art Nokia Nseries multimedia computer. The new Nokia N95 8GB offers a class-leading five megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and autofocus, WLAN, and a full eight gigabytes of internal memory, allowing for storage of up to 20 hours of video* or up to 6000 songs**. Complete with captivating 3D graphics, the Nokia N95 8GB will also offer compatibility with the upcoming N-Gage games service. It is also a full-featured GPS device with assisted GPS (A-GPS) and a large map database covering more than 100 countries, including a number of US state maps preloaded. The Nokia N95 8GB will also support Nokia Share Online 3.0, which will be made available via Nokia Download! and will enable consumers to upload photos and videos with one click to Flickr or Vox, allowing them to quickly share content with their social communities.

14. Nokia N96

The Nokia N96 supports common video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video, making favorite videos easy to view. Transferring and accessing videos is even faster with the high-speed USB 2.0 connection and WLAN and HSDPA support. In select markets, the integrated DVB-H receiver offers live broadcast TV with an automatically updating program guide. The massive memory can store up to 40 hours of video content. The storage capacity of the Nokia N96 can even be further expanded with an optional microSD card, such as the new Nokia 8GB microSDHC Card MU-43 which increases the available memory of the Nokia N96 to a total of 24 GB. For added convenience, the Nokia N96 features a ‘kickstand’ on the back cover that allows for hands-free viewing.

The Nokia N96 boasts a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash and video light. It allows DVD-like quality video capture at 30 frames per second. Further, with the integrated A-GPS, consumers can now ‘geotag’ their pictures with location data and share them with their online communities.

The Nokia N96 naturally supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services, including maps, music, media sharing and more.

15. Sony Ericsson Xperia

Powered with Windows Mobile® inside, you can enjoy your favorite entertainment and work efficiently on the move. XPERIA™ X1 is a premium mobile experience, Arc slider design, 3 inch Wide VGA display and premium metal body: with its sophisticated and distinctive design, XPERIA™ X1 redefines premiumness.

The Xperia is a powerfull, beautifull smartphone with a 3.2 mp camera, full featured with all the Sony Music stuff, wifi, bluetooth and the network features we expect, it has a 800 X 480, 65,536 color TFT screen, up to 400mb of internal memory and support for microSD, gps, wlan, lan and more

16. Sony Ericsson M600i

Slim design and features such as jog dial navigation and handwriting recognition make a device you’ll be proud of anywhere – or slip it in your pocket. High speed 3G Internet and a huge screen make multitasking a joy – stream the latest news, send email and listen to music while you talk handsfree.

17. Sony Walkman W880i

Funnel your favorite music into the ultra slim W880i Walkman® phone. Store up to 900 tracks – enough to give your musical taste buds whatever they fancy. The W880i kit contains all you need for a full musical experience. It includes a stereo handsfree, PC software and a 1GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™).

Shortcuts to more music
Click the PlayNow™ icon to browse the latest hits. Or check out potential future megastars at m-buzz.com, a site for unsigned artists.

18. HTC Touch Cruise

The HTC Touch Cruise™ is sleek, stylish, and compact, but big on features and with an LCD screen size that gives you an excellent multimedia experience in a mobile device. Featuring HTC’s innovative TouchFLO™ interface, the Touch Cruise is extremely easy to use. Using ordinary finger gestures, you can quickly browse through e-mails, web pages, messages, music, and images, making navigation a breeze.

The dynamic 3D Touch Cube interface enables you to quickly call contacts, open applications, listen to music, and browse media files. Built-in GPS functionality and the included software enable you to find the fastest route to your direction, locate restaurants and services on the way, and never get lost. Avoid traffic and delays, and take detours to visit points of interest and local attractions.

19. HTC Touch Diamond

2.8-inch touch screen, with four times the pixels of most phones.
Vibrant TouchFLO 3D user interface, responding perfectly to your finger gestures when scrolling through contacts, browsing the web, and launching media… all vividly displayed as photos and artwork powered by the 3D graphics processor.
HTC Weather – providing a constant view of weather at home and abroad.
Surf and download at broadband speed with HSDPA internet connectivity.
3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera for quality stills and video.
4GB of internal storage to preserve more photos, music, files and exchanged data than ever before.
Integrated GPS for use with maps software for a full turn-by-turn satellite navigation experience.

20. Philips X800

Philips is entering the iphone killer arena with the X800, a touchscreen smartphone that features a 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900, TFT touchscreen, 256K colors, 240 x 400 pixels (Wide QVGA), 2.9 inches, Camera: 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, autofocus, video, USB, bluetooth, MP3/MPEG4/WAV/AAC player.

The launch date is not available yet, but the Iphone Killer Category is getting better day by day.

Some information is powered by Mobilewhack.com

MoboVivo has been testing new technology that allows its users to purchase directly from an iPhone and synchronize television programs. The “Buy and Sync” program has been running since the iPhone release in June. Features continue to be added that will make it even easier to watch TV shows directly on a users iPhone or iPods.

Available channels include MoboDiva, MoboDocs, UrbanVivo, lifestyle and entertainment. Most programming is available around the world with few restrictions. It is compatible multiple platforms including cell phones, hand held devices, video-enabled mp3 players, cell phones, set top boxes, and gaming consoles made by companies such as Apple, Sony, Archos, Microsoft, and others.

“MoboVivo content is entertaining, but it is also important and smart,” said Trevor Doerksen, CEO of MoboVivo. “We know our customers want to live healthy, eat well, and stay informed, our documentary channel and lifestyle channel are very popular. We also know our customers are active and urban and the UrbanVivo nightlife channel is great entertainment”

MoboVivo is the first company to offer paid downloads of TV shows in Canada. It is also one of the first companies in the world to offer services to iPhone users. The new buy & sync program bridges the gap between a portable device like an iPhone or iPod and the users computer.

Point safari in your iphone or ipod touch to http://iphone.mobovivo.com

Today Microsoft chairman and mastermind, Bill Gates, announced that the software giant is giving away million of dollars in developer applications with a new iniciative called DreamSpark, which will provide professional software tools available at no charge to high school and university students worldwide. Wow, good software samaritan, we all love Microsoft, we really do.

The problem here is that for Microsoft it is nothing more than another Netscape, why? See it this way, why on earth would you like to give away professional softwares at not charge if in the end you won’t end up earning twice what you have already given? It is an investment and giving away those applications only hurts the Microsoft competition. This time is Adobe, which Microsoft chose as its favorite enemy.

Adobe and Microsfot danced a Tango for a very long time, the Tango is an amazing dance, where you must do your best to harmoniously orchestrate the must beautiful movements, the Tango ended being a disgraceful dance and Microsoft has decided to step in Adobe turf, competing directly with Adobe hardcore applications.

To achieve this new attack Microsoft created and is intensively marketing, Expression Studio, Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design and Expression Media.

Now those applications can be downloaded and used at not charge; would you buy Flash or Illustrator if you have something similar FREE? Not way. And this is where Adobe is going to be Netscaped and something must be done to avoid this. Adobe is a powerhouse, with tremendous resources, but can’t compete in a situation like this. It is like playing baseball against the owner of the Bat and the Ball, you can’t make a home run against him, this could terminate your game.

Lets wait for Adobe response to this matter, maybe we can get a free educational version of Adobe’s applications or maybe some anti trust lawsuits, why not, this is a very complicated situation, in one side is Microsoft helping young boys and girls around the world, but in the other end is Adobe losing ground with an iniciative that only helps Microsoft in the short and long term.

The FAQ is very light on the rationale for the decision, but in an interview with StockAsylum’s Ron Rovtar (subscription required for part of it), Adobe director James Alexander says, “We thought we went to market with a set of features and functionality that were going to improve workflow. It was just not as compelling as we thought it was going to be.”

I don’t have a lot of additional context to offer, other than to say that we’re working hard to make Photoshop, Bridge, and the other Creative Suite apps much more easily extensible so that they can support whatever services customers find useful–whether from Adobe or from third parties.

The product page read:

Thank you for using Adobe Stock Photos

As of April 1, 2008, the Adobe® Stock Photos royalty-free image service will be discontinued. Adobe made this decision in order to focus efforts in other areas. We appreciate your support of Adobe and the Adobe Stock Photos service.

Complete your images searches by March 4, 2008.
Make your final purchases by March 31, 2008.
If necessary, download past purchases again and print your purchase history by March 31, 2008.
When you’re ready, remove Adobe Stock Photos from your Adobe Creative Suite® edition or standalone applications. Download the uninstaller: Macintosh | Windows®
Purchase Adobe Stock Photos comp images directly from the image provider if needed. Use the Adobe Stock Photos image ID converter to determine which provider offers your comp image.

Via Adobe.com

MobileScrobbler connects your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch with the Last.fm social music website. As you listen to music on your device, MobileScrobbler sends the title, artist, and album to the Last.fm website. Last.fm uses this information to suggest new music, new friends, concerts, and events based on the music you listen to.

Features
Scrobble tracks as you listen on your iPhone / iPod touch
Queues songs for submission when offline and automatically submits them the next time you connect
Listen to Last.fm radio over EDGE or wifi (wifi strongly recommended)
Tag songs as ‘love’ or ‘ban’
View album artwork and artist data for songs as you listen
View lyrics for the currently playing song
View upcoming concert events and add them to your calendar
All data is cached for offline viewing

Requirements
A last.fm account
A wifi connection is strongly recommended for listening to last.fm radio.

Installation
MobileScrobbler can be installed through Installer.app. It is available in the Community Sources repository under the Multimedia category.

Usage
Settings
The settings view contains several options you can configure.

Username – Your Last.fm account username
Password – Your Last.fm account password
Scrobble Songs – Whether you would like MobileScrobbler to send information about the music you’re playing to the Last.fm website
Scrobble over EDGE – Whether MobileScrobbler should use your iPhone’s EDGE connection if not connected to wifi
Debugging log file – Whether MobileScrobbler should keep a log of all network activity. This is useful for submitting a bug report and troubleshooting issues.
Discovery Mode – This is a subscriber-only feature that tells Last.fm to only play music you’ve never heard before. See the Last.fm FAQ for more information.
The version information and scrobbler status are also displayed at the bottom of this view. Tapping the Done button will save your settings and return to to the Profile view.

Profile
The profile view displays the basic information from your Last.fm profile, and also contains several radio preset buttons.

Play My Recommendations – Music recommended by Last.fm based on your music listening history.
Play My Playlist – Listen to music in the playlist you have configured on the Last.fm website.
Play My Neighborhood – Music other users have listened to that have similar tastes to yours.
Play Personal Radio – Music that you have listened to previously. (Last.fm subscribers only)
Play Loved Tracks – Music you have marked as “Loved”. (Last.fm subscribers only)
Search
The search view lets you find a Last.fm radio station to listen to.

Artist – Play music similar to this artist
Tag – Play music similar to this tag
Enter a search term and tap Search to look for a radio station.

Now Playing
The now playing view displays information about the currently playing track. Tapping an empty part of the screen (except on the Events view) will bring up some additional controls:

Ban – Tell Last.fm never to suggest this song
Love – Tell Last.fm that you really enjoy this song and would like to hear it more frequently
Skip – Skip to the next song
You can also control the volume using the slider at the bottom. The now playing view is divided into several subviews:

Song Info – The Last.fm metadata for the currently playing song
Artist Bio – An excerpt from the Last.fm wiki entry for the currently playing artist
Lyrics – Lyrics from LyricWiki for the currently playing song
Events – Upcoming concert events for the currently playing artist. Tapping an event will add it to your calendar.
Tapping the Done button will return you to the previous screen.

Localization
MobileScrobbler is available in both English and German.

Get more information at dev.c99.org/MobileScrobbler.

While Sony’s Electronic books have been out for a while, the Amazon Kindle looks like the real winner in the E-Book arena, it is backed by Amazon, which one of its business is sell books, so there is nobody else as ready to provide this kind of experience as Amazon, they provide the ideal environment for this kind of device and in not matter of time they will turn the market upside down. Sony strategy with the Ebook Readers hasn’t paid off and it looks. But don’t count Sony out yet, this war is just starting to look interesting and Sony has its strategy in place for the Ebook Readers and in the Ebook Readers have some nice features that Kindle will have to match.

Sony Portable Reader System ($279.99)

Features
The Portable Reader offers a new and convenient digital reading experience. It boasts an amazing screen with technology that rivals text on paper. Weighing less than 9 ounces and at only 1/2″ thin, it’s more compact than many paperbacks. Plus, it comes with a soft, black cover and software that seamlessly allows you to search and browse thousands of electronic book titles from the Connect™ eBookstore and then easily transfer from your PC to your Sony Reader with built-in memory and multi-format support, you can take many of your favorite titles and documents with you. So compact and convenient, you’ll want to take it everywhere.

Impressive, paper-like display
The Sony® Reader provides a new way to experience reading. It boasts an impressive 6 inch display1, utilizing breakthrough E Ink® technology that’s almost paper-like. In addition, the text can be magnified for sight-impaired readers. Daylight readable, high contrast, high resolution, near 180º viewing angle

Ultra portable
The Sony® Reader offers a unique, on-the-go reading experience. With a very compact and lightweight design, you can take it almost anywhere. More compact than many paperbacks, it weighs 9 ounces6 (without cover) and is ½” thin8. You can easily hold it in one hand while sipping coffee with the other. And with its rechargeable battery, you can turn up to 7,500 continuous pages on a single charge. 2 Reduce multiple, large hardcover books into a compact package for people on-the-go.

Content Storage Capability
The Sony® Reader offers a unique, on-the-go reading experience. With a very compact and light design you can take it almost anywhere. And with 64MB of internal memory9, and a slot for optional removable memory cards you can take many titles, user-selected Web content, or other supported documents for reading on the go. Will hold up to 80 electronic books in internal memory and hundreds more with Memory Stick® media or SD memory card4 (sold separately).

Multiple eBook titles available
The Sony® Reader will allow you to search, browse and discover thousands of popular electronic book titles from the CONNECT™ eBook online store. You can then purchase and download these titles to your PC and easily transfer to your Sony® Reader.

Keep reading here...

(Via Desinformado.com)

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Whataboutmac.com

We all know the innovator in Apple, they can transform pure simplicity into marvel, why not apply this expertise to the TV. The Television as we know it hasn’t changed in years, we have HDTV, LC TV, Plasma TV, but the concept it is the same, UP/DOWN, 1234567890, picture in picture and none of them have given a brain to the TV. The TV was the center of your home and lose its crown to the internet, which has displaced it and instead of merge those technologies, the TV has continued its long journey.

What can Apple do?

Imagine a TV interface based on Coverflow, where you can change your channels moving your fingers in your remote control trap pad, where you can freeze, transmit and record your favorite programs. Where if you listen a song in any commercial, the information about this song is automatically stored in a small area of your screen, where you can link from an ad to a web page just touching a button and where you just can rate, preview and recommend programs as we do in digg.com and others social sites. This is the television we deserve right now, Tivo has done a nice job, but there is nothing new in its interface, Moxi brings a more interesting interface, but it is doomed if they can’t put it inside a TV, not just a set top box.

What we need is a TV with brain, hard disc, wireless transmission, automatic download of your favorite Youtube clips, a TV that understands how we interact with information and keeps learning about our habits, a TV that knows when there is nobody watching it and automatically dimm itsel.

And I know that Apple can transform our TV in something more compelling, in the end HDTV, LCD and new technologies only help you see a clearer picture, they don’t help you enjoy your TV.

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Whataboutmac.com

There is not time to crash a party than in the begining of itsel…. Coincidence, every major Apple news there is something bad around or Microsoft manages to launch one of its products…. Now it is Leopard and a porno trojan that changes your mac ip address disguised as a codec… only if you let it, everytime a strange application tries to change your mac settings, Mac OS let you know, and only if you accept it as a valid application it proceeds.

We are not talking about Windows, we are talking about your mac security and how people ignore everything about it, the mac security has worked for years and it is almost impossible to execute an application if you don’t permit it manually, you, the owner of the mac, the user, somebody who has the control of the computer, in this case a mac.

So everybody has been talking about how easy is for an internet trojan to runs in mac and they totally forget that (again) for this script/application to run it should be allow to do so… In the end what will really protect you is to think twice about what you do or where you go when you are online.

But please, security in mac works, it is not Windows XP and friends.

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Whataboutmac.com

Now everybody is turning to a new business model, a model that will let you listen your music everywhere in an itunes like interface services that will store your selection and let you share it, but not dowload it, so expect some dumb ass analysts tell you that Apple will lose market if it doesn’t let users have its music saved online.

People, what make Apple successful in the portable music space is the combination of good service and good hardware if one of the two fails then the whole experience will fail, Napster could have a nice approach, but not good hardware to support it.

Long live napster….

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Whataboutmac.com

Jobs had previously read about FON, the latest venture of Argentinean new media entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, which launched in November 2005 under mantra “WiFi for everyone.” It sells routers that have been designed to enable subscribers to share their home WiFi access in a more secure manner by splitting a traditional WiFi signal into two separate channels — one for broadband internet access and another to share with fellow subscribers… (Via Appleinsider)

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Whataboutmac.com