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It sounds like gadget madness. A Blackberry-style handheld that has a full QWERTY keyboard, web browser and organiser functions – but no SIM card to get online.Made by Sanyo, the WiPoq instead uses Bluetooth to connect to your mob and thence on to the world using the phone’s data connection. It’s the first in what the company describes as a series of handheld companions for your phone, with TV and music versions also in the pipeline.At this juncture, you may be wondering why you’d get a WiPoq over a Blackberry. Bear with us. This little emailer is, in fact, perfect for anyone who owns and loves a feature-light fashion phone – such as Stuff stalwart, the Moto RAZR V3 – and only occasionally wants to do more serious and business-y jobs while they’re on the go. Think of it as a modular phone like, well, modular furniture. In addition to its email talents, the WiPoq has a stack of other messaging tricks up its skinny 17mm thick sleeve. There’s an instant messaging app – we don’t know yet which IM services it’ll work with – plus PIM functions displayed in an Outlook fashion. The companion’s web browsing talents are likely to beat your fashion phone’s, too, as it has an HTML browser to let you browse proper sites, be it eBay or your mates’ blogs.No pricing yet, but we do know it’ll launch here sometime between April and June. Stay tuned and graze in the meantime at Wipoq’s site. via stuffmagazine.co.uk

“The main feature on the front is, of course, the screen. The 2.8 inch LCD has a resolution of 240×320 pixels. The screen is very bright, clear and easy to see even with the backlight at half strength. Near the top of the device, on either side of the screen, are two status LEDs. The one to the left of the screen flashes blue when the Bluetooth radio is enabled and flashes amber when the Wifi radio is turned on. With both radios on, you get two flashing colors.” Read this nice review here:

Nokia has expanded the reach of location based services with the GPS Module LD-3W, a handset accessory that works with many of the company’s own Bluetooth devices.The result is a much improved position and destination finder without accompanying heavy equipment. For example, a consumer who has a handset connected to the LD-3W is able to determine his or her precise location with up to five meters accuracy. Also available is a digital map showing the path from current location to destination. This is a greater improvement over its predecessor, the LD-1W.”Location based services, such as navigation and point-of-interest search for hotels and restaurants are becoming increasingly popular with consumers,” says Aage Snorgaard, Nokia’s Senior Vice President for Mobile Phones. The LD-3W will be demonstrated at the 3GSM World Congress next week and will begin to sold in just a few weeks. via mobilemag.com

The recently announced new Nintendo DS Lite is coming in three colors in Japan. Japanese gamers get to choose between the standard crystal white, ice blue and enamel navy. As reported the Nindendo DS Lite will launch in Japan on March 2nd. There is still no word on when the DS Lite will be available in the United States or Europe.The Japanese Nintendo DS Lite site has several hi-res photos and a 360 degree spin worth checking out. The DS Lite is definitely an improvement in appearance of the DS. Of course you can pre-order a Japanese market Nintendo DS Lite for instance on Play-Asia. They sell it for $169.90, which is $20 on top of the Japanese price. via i4u.com

F-Secure and Nokia today announced that F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus will be available through Nokia to the users of four recently announced devices based on S60 3rd Edition – Nokia N71, Nokia E60, Nokia E61 and Nokia E70.For the Nokia N71, F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus will be distributed on the memory card in the standard device sales package, while for the Nokia Eseries devices, the antivirus client will be available at Nokia Catalogs service.F-Secure and Nokia have been cooperating in the area of increasing content security for years and have jointly developed distribution models for antivirus solutions. From 2004 onwards, F Secure Mobile Anti-Virus clients have already been available through Nokia to the users of select Nokia’s smartphone models. In addition, F Secure Mobile Anti-Virus clients have been included into some operator variants of Nokia’s mobile devices.Importing the antivirus software into the mobile device is an easy solution for the user. Once the antivirus client has been installed in the device, the user only needs to activate the antivirus update service.”As the market leader, Nokia is determined to be active in the development of security controls and preventive measures against malicious software. Providing antivirus software such as the F-Secure antivirus clients for select devices is a natural step in our aim to bring the most advanced security features into S60-based smartphones,” said Seppo Laukkanen, Vice President, Product Management, Nokia. via slashphone.com

Following the tradition the Swedish carrying case maker Krusell has published its monthly ratings of cell phones, smartphones and PDA. It is based on the volumes of sold carrying cases for the models. It reflects real demand for mobile devices in more than 50 countries. Top 10 PDA and smartphones in January 2006: 1. PalmOne Treo 600/650 2. (3) Qtek 9100/ I-mate K-Jam 3. (-) HP hx2100/24×0/27×0 4. (2) Qtek 9000/SPV M5000/MDA PRO 5. (4) HP iPAQ HW 65xx/6700 6. (10) Blackberry RIM 62X0/72X0 7. (5) HP iPAQ hx4700/4705 8. (6) Qtek S100/I-mate JAM 9. (7) Qtek 9090/IMate PDA 2k 10. (8) Blackberry 7100iIn brackets you see the previous rank. PalmOne Treo 600/650 communicators keep their first place, new Palm Treo 700 joined them this month. They share the position, as they have similar cases. According to Krusell these communicators enjoy the success due to a 1-megapixel camera, the support of fast data transfer standard and Bluetooth interface. Top 10 cell phones in January 1. Sony Ericsson K750i/D750i/W800i 2. (3) Motorola RaZr V3/ V3i /V3c 3. (2) Nokia 6230/6230i 4. (-) Nokia N70 5. (5) PalmOne Treo 600/650/700 6. (-) Qtek 9100/ I-mate K-Jam 7. (7) Nokia 6680/6681/6682 8. (8) Nokia 5140/5140i 9. (-) Sony Ericsson K700i/K700c 10. (-) Sony Ericsson W900i/c/W850Sony Ericsson K750i/D750i/W800i are still the leaders. They are followed by slim clamshells Motorola RAZR V3/V3i/V3c, the third position is occupied by Nokia 6230/6230i. The top of the rating hasn’t been changed much, as there hadn’t been released many new models over recent months. However the situation might change with the release of Sony Ericsson W810 and Nokia E60.

Makayama Software has launched Palm Media Studio 1.0 today. The new software converts DVD movies, downloaded TV shows and other video clips to a mobile format for your handheld or smartphone. The software installs an encoding package on a Windows XP computer, users pick any video file from their harddrive, CD or DVD and with only two clicks, the Palm Media Studio turns it into a compressed movie file, which will play on the bundled mpeg4-mediaplayer on the Palm (or you can use TCPMP). The headset or the built-in speaker can be used to listen to sound. Subtitled and foreign language DVDs are also supported. According to the company a full movie can be transferred to the Palm in less than 45 minutes on an average PC. A memorycard as low as 128 mb is enough to fit a feature film with the software compression. The software captures content in numerous formats (AVI, MPEG1, DivX, XVID, VOB, ASF) and encodes it to the Palm. Palm Media Studio 1.0 is a Windows application that supports XP/2000/NT. The software costs USD $32.95 (EUR 29.95) to register. A free demo version is available that will convert 3 minutes of content. via palminfocenter.com

More Nokia goodness. The Nokia 3250 music phone has been approved by the FCC, paving its entry into the US. The affordable version of the Nokia N91, you can stuff as much as 1GB of music on a Trans Flash microSD memory card . It allows playback of MP3 and eAAC+ files. We previously covered the phone.Bluetooth capability allows you to swap even playlists with other users. Thanks to the standard stereo headphone jack, you don’t have to rely on Nokia’s wimpy earphones anymore; get yourself the latest Bluetooth headset and you’re good to go.Based on the S60 platform, you have access to a wide range of software and some great games. The 2-megapixel cam is another nice bundle that Nokia included in the Nokia 3250.Check out more features in the extended entry. For further details, access Nokia’s website via mobilewhack.com

“The shell is made of monotone dark grey plastic (a touch reveals that it is an average quality plastic). A silver buttons line stands out in the middle of the front panel. The overall assembly quality is high, only the battery compartment gives slight creaks, when you squeeze the device in hand pressing it. Design is implementing the idea of Palm Treo – a candy bar shell, a finger QWERTY-keyboard under the screen. We can compare the design with that of Palm Treo 650 and HP iPaq hw6515, however the P50 is taller because of its rectangular screen (not a square one). Have a look at the comparison photos with HTC Magician, almost the same dimensions, only the height is taller because of the QWERTY-keyboard. I had unusual sensation during talks, it felt like I was using a good quality handset, not the communicator. Good proportions play the main role here, they are close to that of ordinary phones (the model is taller against other communicators, 125x60x20 mm).” Read this review here:

Following the success of the hugely popular Cingular 2125, the mobile service provider is rolling out a couple more re-badged HTC smartphones to its lineup. Based on the HTC Wizard, the Cingular 8125 and 8100 do the quad-band worldphone dance, while at the same time shooting data your way via Wi-Fi (802.11b), Bluetooth, and EDGE. Emailing, word processing, and text messaging couldn’t be easier with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. As expected, these latest PDA phones run on Windows Mobile 5.0, so you’ll have access to a full suite of Microsoft productivity tools, including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel, as well as Windows Media Player 10. If the 64MB SDRAM and 128MB of flash ROM isn’t enough to handle all your AAC, WMA, MP3, AMR, WAV and MPEG4 media, rest assured that there is a mini-SD expansion slot there for you.The only difference between the 8125 and 8100 is that the former sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, whereas the latter is camera-less. Look for prices to start at around $300 range.Learn more here: via mobilemag.com