With the IdeaPad S12, Lenovo is first to offer a netbook based on Nvidia’s Ion chipset. So far, we like what we see. The 12-inch netbook will give you the whole HD, game-playing thing for about $500. Nividia’s Ion is basically Intel’s Atom processor combined with the Nvidia 9400m graphics unit.

The resulting performance offers smooth 1080p video, accelerated h.264 playback, Blu-ray playback and moderate gaming capabilities. When it’s in a netbook, you get a midrange, 12-inch netbook with a multimedia slant.

On Tuesday Nokia added the 6600i slide to its roster. It’s Nokia’s smallest slider yet, with a 5-megapixel camera that includes dual LED flashes. That brushed-metal housing should get your slider some attention. It also has a tap interface for quickly waking the phone, muting alerts and ringtones, as well as turning down calls.

The phone accepts microSDHC cards up to 16GB and has both a 1GB card in the box and a combo headset, FM radio and mic. Expect it to ship to “select markets” this summer for 200 Euros ($272) before carrier discounts.

Last we heard, the Curve 8900 was scheduled for a vague “early summer” release. Well, AT&T has just announced that the Curve 8900 will be available both online and in stores starting this Friday. That’s a whole lot less vague and just two days away.

If you are adding a line or are eligible for a fully discounted upgrade, you’ll need about $200 not including tax. To recap, some features include WiFi, GPS and a 480 x 360 resolution display and the joy of owning a BB.

Mobile phone battery life is one of the most important factors to consider when buying a phone. And Philips has one that will last a long tme with the Philips X550. This phone apparently has a battery that can last up to a month in stand-by. Some sacrifices had to be made obviously.

No 3G connectivity here and it relies only on GPRS and EDGE for data transfers. Some other features are: A QVGA display with 262k colors, Bluetooth, FM radio with RDS, 3.2MP autofocus camera, MicroSD card support and up to 8GB memory. No pricing info yet.

Thanko has released a new super tiny camcorder named “video water”. It’s a finger sized water-tight video recorder that can be easily attached to anything. The camera will work under water up to a depth of 20 meters. That way, you record all the fish you want, or record your friend getting their pants pulled down in the pool. Whatever.

Resolution is equivalent to the camera in an ordinary cell phone. Record time is about 6 hours. The video is encoded in .3gp format and the 2GB of memory can hold over 6 hours of video. Charge time is how much use time you’ll get.

It won’t be long before Samsung releases the Samsung B7300, a Windows Mobile-powered smartphone. This one supports Quad-band GSM, GPRS, EDGE connectivity.

Some other features include a 3.2-inch 320×400px TFT LCD touchsreen display, 3.2MP camera, integrated FM Radio, built-in GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0. This particular Windows Mobile-powered smartphone lacks Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

Here’s an e-book reader that does things that the Kindle 2 won’t. Like fit in your pocket and have built in PDF support. The reader weighs in at just 5.3 ounces and packs a nice resolution of 200 DPI. Some other features include a 6″ display, 1GB of flash memory that can accommodate ePub, PDF, HTML and text formats. You’ll also have access to a catalog of 150,000 books.

Software features would let users pick one of 12 font sizes for readability as well as let owners organize e-books by folders. Battery life will give you about 8,000 page flips, which is quite a few novels(Or one Robert Jordan Wheel Of Time novel.) No 3G wireless feature, but you’ll get 21 days at standby.

WWDC approaches. You know what that means. Apple rumors galore. Today’s Apple rumor has BusinessWeek saying that AT&T is working on cheaper iPhone data plans. We don’t have many details, so we don’t know just how it would work.

One popularly-discussed option is a $20 “limited-access” plan which could be potentially offered alongside a cheaper iPhone to be introduced at WWDC. The big question is, what exactly does “limited access” mean? If it won’t allow you to do anything fun, no one will care.

Here’s another Dynabook notebook from Toshiba. While it looks pretty similar to the rest, the Dynabook Satellite TXW/67JW is available exclusively on its e-Store.

Here’s what’s beneath the hood: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz processor, 4GB RAM, Intel GM45 Express Chipset, 16” 1,366 x 768 resolution LCD display, 320GB hard drive, DVD Super Multi drive, and Wi-Fi.

I really like my iPhone and I have had it since the first generation devices launched. It’s about time for me to upgrade to a new handset and I am just waiting until June to see if any of the rumors about a new iPhone coming are true. Being a married geek one of the caveats of upgrading my gear is that it has to make it through the wife approval o’meter. Scoff all you want single geeks, any married guy will know what I mean. One good way to get the approval on an upgrade for my iPhone is to convince my wife that she should take my current iPhone over her Blackberry, which is honestly nowhere near as good as the iPhone.

The problem is that my wife always wants to use her nails to work the capacitive touchscreen. Anyone who has used an iPhone knows that won’t work. Another big problem for users in cold environments is that you can’t work the iPhone with gloves on. Today we are going to look at the Pogo Stylus for the iPhone that will solve both of these problems. Read on for all the details on the Pogo Stylus for iPhone.

SGP makes metal skins for iPhones, iPods, cell phones, MP3 players, laptops and cameras. The skins are made of 24K gold plating or thin nickel and comes with a precision cut face plate. A word of warning, you better have a steady hand. The company warns, “Handle with Care. Thin and Sharp edge of this product may cause hurt.” You don’t want to experience the dreaded hurt, so be careful.

Each kit comes with skin and accessory stickers at prices between $14.99 and $24.99. They also carbon fiber, wood and leather covers. Maybe it’s just me, but do you really want to cover your beloved gadget in this crap? I mean, if you love your device, you probably love or at least admire it’s looks.

The SlingPlayer app for iPhone will finally be available tomorrow. There has been a lot of discussion as whether or not AT&T (or other carriers) would let this bandwidth sucking app use their networks. Well, looks like the carriers had it their way and the Slingplayer app will work only with WIFI on iPhone.

If you want to use SlingPlayer on 3G, you’ll need a Blackberry or any other smartphone. AT&T complains that SlingPlayer would bring its wireless network down, while they’ve been trying to push their bandwidth-hog services like AT&T mobile TV. Which costs $30 per month. Thanks but no thanks.

With the global economy in tatters, most technology companies are seeing profits fall and demand for their products at all time lows. One of the few categories still posting growth in the economy are smartphones. Consumers are looking to the smartphone to provide Internet access and voice calls to replace a normal phone and laptop.

Viewsonic has announced that it plans to enter into the 3G smartphone market. The firm says that the first region to get the new smartphones will be China, but the company doesn’t say when we can expect to see the phones hit China.

Though it won’t be officially introduced until tomorrow, Lenovo will be announcing their IdeaPad S10-2 netbook. It’s a thinner form factor than the previous IdeaPad S10. The body also weighs less and it will be available in four different colors.

This netbook will feature a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, a six-cell battery and Windows XP. The battery will give you up to six hours and this new version will have a larger touchpad. Some other features include an extra USB port and the option of adding 3G.

Samsung announced the availability of its new Vice for the Canadian market via Bell. The 3G phone features a sliding full QWERTY keyboard with standard number keys that should make texting, emailing, and Facebook easier.

The phone also comes with a 2.2-inch color display, 2MP digital camera, built-in GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, integrated media player, and a microSDHC card slot for expansion. You can get the Samsung Vice through Bell Canada for $49.95 with a 3-year contract.