Over the last several months many states have moved to a hands free law that means all drivers in the state can only use a cell phone when coupled with a hands free kit like a Bluetooth headset. Many drivers in states that still allow you to hold your phone and talk when driving prefer Bluetooth headsets as well.

A new Bluetooth headset from i.Tech has launched called the i.VoicePRO and it claims to be the first Bluetooth headset on the market with dual microphones using Bluetooth Profile v2.1. The dual mics mean that the headset has superior noise filtering properties.

The Japanese have done a ton of wacky things they should be ashamed of gadget-wise and otherwise. Now they’re getting into politics to sell phones and the result is bizarre. This commercial for Japan’s EMobile cellular company has a monkey dressed up in a suit, at a podium in front of a crowd.

The crowd is holding signs that read “Change.” At the end, the monkey cries a tear, clearly ashamed as he should be. Bad monkey. Their intentions may or may not have been entirely innocent, but we all know that if this aired in America there would be hell to pay.

Hewlett Packard, as you’ve probably noticed today, kicked out a ton of new digital products as part of a special coming out event. HP seemed to particularly go crazy in the laptop department, unveiling some 16 new notebook computers.

The rainbow of new HP laptops focuses across both consumer and business platforms. HP said in summary all of these notebooks are designed with new materials and software features that “enrich the user experience.” To get a general summary press release, check after the jump.

Pioneer over the weekend announced new additions to its line up of AVIC-F advanced in-dash navigators. These new offerings, which join the AVIC-F500BT shown off at CES, are the AVIC-F700BT, AVIC-F900BT and Premier branded AVIC-F90BT. Pricing is set at $850, $1,100 and $1,200, respectively, and all units will be available in June.

Pioneer is describing these in-dash units as going “beyond navigation” by offering “enhanced navigation and entertainment features paired with sophisticated voice control.” While you may read that however you choose there is no doubt Pioneer has packed these units with a ton of features, including “Apple iPod connectivity, Bluetooth, MSN Direct, HD radio, XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio, single CD, DVD video playback and compressed audio and video playback through USB and SD memory devices.”

For the full details, check out the press release after the jump. These Pioneer units definitely look to be the cause of many wonderful distractions as you cruise down the open roads.

Today Asus announced the launch of its award-winning GPS smart phone in the U.S. early this year and will be showing the P527 at CES 2008. The Asus P527 already won one of the CES Innovation Design and Engineering awards for 2008.

It’s a pretty nice looking device and has several versatile functions, but the most unique ones have to be Travelog and Location Courier. Travelog lets users record travel routes and export data to Google Earth, while Location Courier acts like an S.O.S. beacon and is at the ready to send a user’s GPS position to up to five preset numbers. Basically, the Asus P527 has the features of a cell phone, navigator and PDA.

JVC has some new ear buds set to launch sometime early in February that employ a little more natural materials than most with the housing made out of real wood. Birch wood, to be exact, was the material of choice for the designers of these $130+ ear buds. After all, real wood wood works well to encase larger speakers so why not use it for really tiny ones too?

The HP-FX500 ear buds don’t skimp on performance either, according to JVC. The buds use hybrid drivers, a damping gel inside to reduce jittering and help with noise cancellation, and they have a sound range from 8Hz up to 25kHz. Also, like most ear buds, they come packaged with a carrying case and multiple sized rubber tips to fit different sized ears.

Over the past week we’ve had the opportunity to try out Sound ID’s SM100 EarModule Bluetooth headset which resulted in a unanimous vote of “impressed” from those of us who spent some time with it. The headset seems pretty cool from its looks alone but there are also some less visible features that add to the uniqueness and value of the SM100. We tested the headset with the Motorola MOTOSLVR and the new Motorola MOTOROKR Z6m which were both very easy to connect.

For starters, and one of the most important things we watch for in these devices, is the general size and comfort. If you find yourself wanting a wireless headset its probably because you spend a fair amount of time talking on the phone and the last thing you need is something that’s too uncomfortable to wear for those multiple and long conversations. The comfort was not an issue for us with the SM100, and in fact after a few hours of wearing it I found myself once even having to check with my hand to see if it was in my ear. The headset measures about 1.75 inches by 1.0 inch by 1.2 inches and weighs only 0.4 ounces.

UTStarcom is pushing a new cell phone today targeted towards older users which is supposedly not complicated to use. The CDM8630, already available through Verizon as the Coupe, will be coming soon to other CDMA carriers in North America.

The UTStarcom CDM8630 will offer a variety of features which are thought to be senior citizen friendly. This include “large, easy-to-read on screen type; a distinct, clearly labeled keypad; ten one-touch speed dialing entries; and a special “In Case of Emergency” directory of emergency contacts.” The phone has earned a Good Housekeeping Seal for its design and features.

After Apple iPhone developers have already had a couple of volleys with hackers who want to run 3rd party applications on the new phone Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has today let the hacking community know that they can stop, or at least slow down for a few minutes. Jobs has announced that Apple is going to open up both the iPhone and the iPod Touch for third party application development on the device in February of 2008.

Prior to this the only way to get any third party applications on the iPhone was through an “open” platform on the Safari web browser which runs on the device and was still fairly limiting. Jobs attributed the these development restrictions to security issues stating that open development increases risks of viruses. He also states that these security risks are also why it will take until February to release an SDK for developers.

Long gone are the days of analog alarm bells. One system which looks interesting for all digital protection is the InGrid Digital Home Protection System, priced at around $300 for a standard home size kit.

The InGrid Digital Home Protection System is designed to be nearly impossible to defeat, says its maker. It “has system redundancy with multiple control points and no master control panel, which is known to be defeatable by intruders in seconds.” It has an always-on broadband connectivity feature for sending notification to a monitoring service of any changes, can let users customize its features via a Web interface, can notify you via text messages to your cell phone if there are problems and includes a two-way, key chain remote to arm disarm the system.

T-Mobile along with RIM launched a new, upgraded BlackBerry Curve today that not only features Wi-Fi for data but can also connect voice through the Wi-Fi connection via Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) and the HotSpot@Home service. The BlackBerry 8320 can take advantage of both the current EDGE network or a Wi-Fi connection when available, seamlessly switching between the two during a call.

When using UMA, users of the 8320 can talk through a 802.11g wireless home network or public Wi-Fi hotspot without racking up any talk-time minutes as they would through the standard cellular EDGE voice connection. The new Curves from T-Mobile will come in new colors of titanium silver (shown here) or a pale gold (exclusively through T-Mobile) but other than that are pretty much the same as the original BlackBerry Curve. The BlackBerry 8320 has a 2 megapixel camera, media player, microSD expansion slot, full QWERTY keyboard and takes advantage of T-Mobiles myFaves for 5 friends from any carrier.

Could the first gen iPhone already be in danger of extinction? That’s the latest rumor to spread and it comes courtesy of a Chinese outlet called the Commercial Times. According to the publisher they’ve heard reports from Apple partner manufacturers Quanta and Wintek that the next gen iPhone is already in the prototype phase and that the finished model could be ready for sale by as early as September. It may even retail for less than June’s iPhone, clocking in somewhere between $250 and $300.

September is just a short two months away and for …

If you’ve ever had a low battery issue with your cell phone because you forgot to plug it in, you know what a pain it can be when you absolutely positively have to make that next call and you have zero juice left in your rig. Well, now you can solve the problem by picking up an Emergency Phone Charger that is able to suck out the energy stored in an AA battery and import it directly into your phone.

The aluminum unit comes in a turquoise color and has four different adapters, making …

Since the first flip phone came out in the early 90’s mobile phones just haven’t been the same, and it just wouldn’t be right if the Brick passed up reporting on this retro style 1980’s cell phone. A brick can mean a number of different things; solid and reliable, some gadget rendered useless by time or technology and of course a great big heavy cell phone that makes you taste pennies and forget your name after more than 15 minutes of continuous use.

The 80’s Brick Cell Phone model FY8850 is an actually working mobile …

I have a cell phone that I use strictly for its functional purpose - to make phone calls. I choose not to “personalize” my phone with ringtones, faceplates, photos, or smells. In wireless industry parlance, this makes me an “Adult Adopter”.

comScore Networks recently published a study that focused on trends in the wireless industry. The part of the study I was most interested in is the study of behavior and attitudes that wireless consumers have towards their mobile phones. The survey was conducted from October 25, 2006 to November …