This new cell phone concept by designer Tao Ma looks pretty sexy. It not only cuts cost and weight, but it also boosts battery life by getting rid of the display or touch screen completely. Instead, all functions and displays use LEDs below the translucent surface.

For instance, while in phone mode, the keypad would be displayed. Other arrangements of lights and shapes are displayed during gaming, SMS and other modes, depending on what you are doing. It accomplishes this thanks to a net of touch sensors behind the keys. The concept relies on two AAA batteries recharged via USB.

The idea behind Nokia’s latest concept phone is the merging of communications and health and environment. One would be able to share environmental data that the sensing device collects and view other users’ shared data, increasing global environmental awareness.

A sensor unit will be worn on a wrist or as a neck strap made from solar cells that power the sensors. NFC (near field communication) technology will relay information by touch from the sensors to the phone, or even to other devices that support NFC technology. Both the phone and the sensor unit will be as compact as possible to minimize materials used, and those materials would be renewable and/or reclaimed. Inside the devices, would be more energy saving technology.

[UPDATE: Turns out this phone has actually been out for awhile. Shame to Sanyo for dating the press release for this week!]

Sanyo and Sprint together have announced from CES the availability of an upgraded model of the popular Katana cell phone. The new one is known as the Sanyo Katana DLX and it’s priced at around $130 with mail in rebate and two year contract.

The Sanyo Katana DLX is optimized for broadband related Sprint multimedia content. It is available in several body colors and offers features like phone as a modem, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera built in and support for microSDHC memory cards.

The ultimate glamorous feature phone is now available in the U.S. Motorola, Inc. announced today that MOTORAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition is available in the U.S. exclusively through MOTO STORE. It features the signature MOTORAZR2 form factor with gold-plated accents on medallions, navigation key and hinge and it’s embossed in a snakeskin-like texture. It’s available unlocked for GSM networks.

Without even opening the flip, users can read and respond to texts on the large external display, which also boasts touch-sensitive music controls, picture caller ID and self-portrait camera display. Motorola’s CrystalTalk technology helps insure clear calls by automatically accounting for background noise and adjusting the audio accordingly. Travellers will appreciate the device’s quad-band technology to stay connected while traveling the globe.

Pioneer’s AVIC-F500BT GPS Navigator is designed to be compatible with any factory car audio set-up. The system lets you add in-car navigation and entertainment without modifying your existing car stereo.

The main feature is the VoiceBox Conversational Voice Search Platform, which is an advanced voice technology for controlling iPod and Bluetooth enabled devices. It has the ability to analyze and execute voice commands. For instance, if you say, “Let me hear the artist Led Zeppelin” or “play Led Zeppelin”.

The Palm Foleo was a small laptop that was severely panned, belittled and put down when it was first announced. It’s image was so bad that Palm killed it before it could be released, hiding it away like abused child it was. As happens sometimes, another company is taking a shot at it, if you actually wanted one. The Celio Redfly SIS is pretty much the same thing.

It’s more or less a smartphone with a bigger screen and a keyboard for when you have to do some serious work. The price is a hefty $499, but you’ll have to wait until this month’s CES to discover the release date.

Hop-on, a developer of cell phones, unveiled today a new mobile PDA which is AT&T and Verizon ready. The new Hop-on HOP2001 seems to be available but specific pricing information was not announced.

The Hop-on HOP2001 is a PDA style mobile device which makes use of Windows Mobile 6. It offers callers dual mode GSM and CDMA properties and is being touted as having “the ability to become the world’s first handheld slot machine, video poker or black jack device.” You get in this phone what is becoming your usual mix of wireless technologies as well, including GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0.

Do you suspect that some of your friends are actually aliens? Maybe you’ve watched too many X-Files episodes, but just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. First you need to consult Agent Scully, then you’ll want to grab this device.

It will detect Alien anomalies in your general vicinity. Any alien being, whether it’s a grey, has tentacles on it’s head, or looks just like us, will be detected by this little gadget. It will even detect UFO’s. It’s available from Japan right now. Finally, you can expose the global conspiracy and stop the invasion.

Verizon Wireless and LG today added a new color to their Venus mobile phone: pink. This new LG by Venus phone is priced at around $200 after rebate and contract.

The pink Venus by LG is the same as the current model in Verizon’s line up except for the color. It is a slider design which provides you features like a two-megapixel digital camera, microSD expandable memory and support for mobile Web content. It can also play music files from formats like MP3, WMA and AAC.

Wireless services provider Cricket unveiled today a new phone for its line up of mobiles. The Motorola ROKR Z6m is priced at around $300.

The Motorola ROKR Z6m is a slider style phone which can double as a music player. It sports a large QVGA screen, USB 2.0, Bluetooth stereo support and weighs around 3.81 ounces. It’s also capable of making use of Cricket’s Web services via being data capable.

Samsung and T-Mobile are teaming on a new mobile phone which supports the latter’s HotSpot @Home service for placing calls over 802.11 wireless networks. The Samsung Katalyst is priced around $80 with rebate and service plan.

The Samsung Katalyst is a slider style cell phone which lets you make calls over wireless Internet networks such as those found on your home network or at T-Mobile Hotspots. The call can be carried over to T-Mobile’s regular network when one leaves a wireless zone. One can instant message with others on several different networks using the Katalyst and also make use of wireless Bluetooth technology for hands-free communication.

If you like wearing a phone on your wrist like Dick Tracy or Buck Rogers, but hate it when people ask you why your watch looks so strange, you’ll like this new Tag Heuer watch/phone. The watch maker has officially announced the Tag Heuer mobile phones. As far as looks go, it is heavy on the watch side. You wouldn’t know it was a phone at all by looking at it. In fact, the design is 3 years in the making as they wanted to streamline this new breed of mobile phone.

Though it seems that nothing has been finalized yet, it looks like the watches will include a touchscreen display, a speaker and vibrate mode, stereo bluetooth, an MP3 player, and a kinetic power source.

The makers of the Mini MOB mobile phone apparently feel that a little nostalgia might help spur some mobile phone sales, letting the cutting edge business man of the 80′s relive the days of carrying a brick-style phone around (unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a super-sized charging cradle to match).

Like the Brick Phone we saw earlier this year, the Mini MOB does bring some modern features into their neo-brick including a camera, MP3/MP4 player and a miniSD memory card slot and an included 128 MB card. The phone is also slightly smaller than those heavy solid models of 20 years ago measuring 11cm tall by 3.5cm wide (and an estimated 4cm deep). It comes with two batteries that are charged through a USB cable and take advantage of the extra size with 30 days of standby and 3 days of continuous talk time.

Verizon Wireless and LG Mobile Phones are out today with word of a new Chocolate by LG phone color for all you fashion trend setters. This time around the color is dubbed “Blue Ice” and it is priced at around $80 and contract and rebate.

Verizon says this of this phone that “the silky-smooth slim slider design comes coated with a frosty blue finish.” Choke! Silly marketing language aside, what you do have here is a colorful slider phone for those looking for something a little different. This Chocolate phone, like others in the series, has your traditional features like vibration feedback, navigation wheel with red trace motion lighting and microSD memory card expansion.

AT&T and LG want you to find a little extra something shiny in your stocking this year. The two have teamed to unveiled the exclusive LG Shine. It’s priced at around $150 after a two-year contract and rebate.

The LG Shine is described by AT&T as a mobile multimedia device. To that end it supports a variety of AT&T online services, including video sharing, mobile banking and mobile music. It’s a slider-style mobile which sports a silver exterior as well as a 2.2-inch mirror LCD screen.