For lots of workers that are in harsh environments on a daily basis what they need in a mobile phone isn’t slick touch screen technology and a cool looking device. What this group of users wants is a very durable phone that still offers the features you expect on modern handsets.

Samsung has announced a new handset that provides all this type of user should need called the Z400. The Z400 is a Sprint Nextel exclusive handset and is designed to meet military MIL-STD 810F specifications for dust, shock and vibration resistance. The handset is covered in a rubberized coating to help with grip and reduce scratching.

Is it a toy or a cell phone? In fact, it’s a cellphone. The dialing pad can be found underneath the car where the axle should be. I like the idea, but I would feel weird talking on this thing. I would feel like I was talking on a cell phone that looks like a Ferrari. That would mean that I am probably trying to live out a second childhood or maybe having a mid-life crisis by talking on said phone.

It will cost you 96 British pounds and maybe some laughter from those with iPhones. Some specs: 2.2” 260K color display, Music player, Video player, 1.3 Megapixel camera, Memory slot, USB connector.

Unless you own an iPhone one of the biggest problems with mobile Internet access isn’t always the speed at which you can connect. The problem for many handsets is that the websites you can view on the phones are seriously lacking and many may simply not display at all.

A new service from Mippin launched today called Mippin Maker. The completely free service allows a website owner to take a normal website viewed form a PC and turn it into a site that is viewable on a mobile phone in four steps.

When you say plasma display most of us immediately think of a big flat panel TV. In the home theater realm plasma is losing ground to LCD displays as LCDs improve in contrast and brightness. For years now LCD has been the dominate player in the cell phone industry for displays.

Panasonic and AbleComm announced today that Panasonic would be building a cell phone that uses a small plasma display to operate on the newly announced AT&T Mobile TV service. The small screen will require only 1.5 volts to operate and will require no special wiring or power supplies.

The Levi’s ultra limited edition Red Tab mobile phone sports an interesting look. The red tab at the top will get people’s attention and they’ll say, “Hey you like your phone like your Jeans as well. Awesome.” I like the style of the buttons against that background.

It comes with an integrated MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth and 2.0-megapixel camera with flash. The fashion phone will include a premium presentation box, case for the handset, stereo hands free kit, a metal chain and as an added option, you can customize it with your name.(13 letters maximum) The phone is limited to 100 units only. It’s available online for about $870.

In case you’re keeping track of that latest open source development platform for mobile devices called Android , the team just released an updated version based on all the great feedback they’ve received from the early releases of the platform. This latest release got the snappy name of m5-rc14, which I guess seems fitting for a platform named Android.

This version has a UI that is still a work in progress but received a significant update. Also new is the addition of layout animations, new media codecs to support 6 new audio file formats, an improvements to the Eclipse plugin and classes for geo-coding that will let you go both ways, (address to coordinate and coordinate to address for you pervs).

It’s tough to give a good one-line summary of this new mobile handset from Nokia because as the younger sibling to the N95, this multimedia computer has a lot to live up to. Fortunately for us it appears to be handling it quite well.

For starters the N96 doubles the internal storage capacity providing a 16GB capacity that can be expanded further with MicroSD cards. It also packs in a 5 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens allowing quality photos and video to be shot at 30 frames per second. Video and DVB-H TV (if you are near it) can then be displayed on a generously sized 2.8 inch QVGA display. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and A-GPS round out the connectivity of this HSDPA 900/2100 MHz phone.

Sony Ericsson has recently rolled out the Z770, the latest to the Z series line of mobiles giving you a clamshell-style handset that has access to the internet and email without needing to buy a full-fledged smartphone. This handset has a familiar mobile phone design and is not too bulky at just 0.6 inches thick and 3.2 ounces, but still wields the power of web browsing and bringing in your email while on the go.

For internet browsing the Z770 has Magnet Mouse Pointer controlled by a navigation key, giving you different pointers as you scroll across the page for text input, pointing or links, similar to most desktop browsers. The 2.2-inch screen is not too bad for a mobile phone but still can be a little small, so SE added in a pan and zoom feature to make reading that tiny text a little easier.

Sony Ericsson today in Barcelona unveiled the new G series mobile handset line led by the G900, touted by SE as a touchscreen organizer for those with busy schedules and “are only interested in making their lives easier”. The G900 has an intuitive touchscreen interface that makes navigating the tools and organizing your day simple without all of those “frills” like a QWERTY keyboard found on many of todays smartphones, making them bulkier.

Typing through the interface can be done with the regular phone keypad or through a touchscreen keyboard. You can also use the stylus to tap out your selections or hand-write notes on the 240×320 pixel screen. The G900 handles connectivity with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GSM 900/1800/1900 radios with UMTS 2100 which appears to unfortunately leave us out here in the U.S.

Among the many product announcements released by Sony Ericsson today the most significant has to be the release of the new XPERIA line by introducing the XPERIA X1. The new XPERIA brand marks a new era for Sony Ericsson in mobile devices, with this sweet-looking new model featuring a whole host of communication mediums, driven from a touch screen and full-QWERTY keyboard and riding on Windows Mobile 6.

SE calls the design of the X1 an “arch slider” as it slides up to expose the full keyboard with a large 3-inch VGA display on top. The impressive list of features continues with a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and video, a microSD slot and communications via Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, and quad-band GSM/EDGE, and 900/1700/1900/2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA.

Sony Ericsson extended their line of Cyber-shot cameraphones today with two new models - the C702 and the C902. The camera phones were both designed with different audiences in mind. The C902 is geared more towards looking good and taking high-quality photos while the C702 caters to those wanting to take their camera phone more places with quick, easy functionality.

The C902 Cyber-shot is a 5 megapixel cameraphone with sleek design and a slide-out lens cover. It features automatic face detection, a big flash and auto-focus and 160MB of internal storage, of which you can supplement with a Memory Stick Micro. Sony Ericsson says it will be available around the second quarter of this year and come in some stylish colors of Swift Black or Luscious Red.

Apple’s done it and the rumor is that so will Google early next year. How about it: would you like to see a Sony PlayStation branded mobile phone or is your head now swimming with thoughts of the diabolically disastrous N-Gage?

According to the prestigious Financial Post newspaper Sony Ericsson is considering making a PlayStation phone to appeal to the gamer savvy market. The statement was said by the company’s outgoing president, Miles Flint, who added “We need to make sure that it is a credible phone, and be sure we are justified in putting that identity on it.”