Now here comes a global-roaming phone from LG - LG has just announced the LC-3200 handset in Korea that is capable of handling different CDMA frequencies. To the layman, this means you can tote the LC-3200 around Asia without fear of incompatibility. Features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, an integrated MP3 player, and an electronic dictionary amongst others.

This global roaming phone is a dual-band type that supports both 1800MHz band used by LG Telecom and 800MHz, a frequency band used by countries in Asia-Pacific region. This phone will provide automatic roaming service in a total of 7 countries including China, Taiwan, Guam, Saipan.

Especially, using ‘LCD slide-up design,’ applied in this model, users can slide up the LCD when talking over the phone and they don’t need to slide up the LCD when checking text message, searching for phone numbers and others. Furthermore, 5 sports games are mounted which include golf, baseball, fishing, bowling, and soccer.

Source: Ubergizmo

LG’s copycat iPhone, is what its being called, but LG PRADA appears to have beaten Apple to the keypad-less punch with the launch of the PRADA Phone, which also carries the more prosaic model designation KE850.

There’s more to the touch screen interface, the PRADA phone is fasionably skinny at a mere 12mm, and comes with a 2Mpixel camera featuring a lens from the famous Kreuznach-Schneider factory.

Okay, it doesn’t appear to have the iPhone’s huge 4 or 8GB internal memory however, although it does come with a micro-SD card slot for storage expansion. LG PRADA, will be available in Europe starting February 2007 costing around 600 Euros or US$777.50.

So while the world waits for the Apple iPhone, Europeans will soon be sporting this keypad-less interface as early as February thanks to the LG PRADA.

The collaboration between LG and Italian fashion house Prada started over a month ago and so the LG PRADA has indeed pioneered the touch screen interface and not Apple.

Korean giant Samsung’s announced that it has developed a double-sided LCD display, which can show two entirely different pictures on both sides. Samsung’s new double-sided LCD can show two different pictures or sets of visual data simultaneously on the front and back of the same screen.

This is different from other conventional double-sided LCDs that only show a reverse image of the same video data, the company said. Yun Jin-hyuk, executive vice president in charge of the Mobile Display Division of Samsung’s LCD Business, said, “Our new double-sided mobile display underscores Samsung’s commitment to equip our customers with advanced display technology that accelerates the trend toward slimmer mobile products. We anticipate high demand when we commence mass production in the first half of 2007.”

The new double-sided LCD is 2.6mm thick and 2.22-inch wide, with QVGA (240×320 pixel) resolution, and has brightness values of 250nits for the front and 100nits for the rear display. It will be exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show, which opens in Las Vegas on January 8.

Samsung’s out with first 1GB mobile memory chip – the first of its kind. This will spearhead a new revolution in the mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) market for mobile products, using 80nm process technology.

The company claims its 1GB, monolithic, Mobile DRAM to be a highly competitive choice for mobile applications over the available double-die stack. Compatible with a wide range of advanced handset applications as well as with digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products, the 1GB mobile DRAM features a temperature-sensing technique that maximizes the efficiency of self-refresh cycle.

The new chip also reduces power consumption in standby mode by up to 30 percent as compared to other double-die stack alternatives. Samsung will enter into mass production of the product in the second-half of 2007. Also offering a more compact form factor, the new 1Gb Mobile DRAM chip is at least 20 percent thinner than a multi-stack package of 512Mb dies, allowing a single high-density package solution of 1.5Gb or even 2Gb Mobile DRAM memory, for which market demand is expected to grow in 2007.

Mobile gaming fans can rejoice as Samsung is launching the SCH-V960 the first handset to include an optical joystick. The new model is a slider phone with a sensor-laden joystick in the spot above the number pad where most phones sport a multidirectional button.

According to Samsung, a user will control the joystick with their finger, activating the phone’s onscreen cursor. This could make finding your way around cell phone menus a little easier and could cut down on erroneous button pushing while trying to open applications.

The phone also has a Smart Lighting feature, which will automatically adjust the brightness of the screen and keypad; other features include a dedicated Bluetooth button, two-megapixel camera, microSD slot, MP3 support, and EV-DO and GPS capabilities. It has a 2.1-inch (240 x 320-pixel), 262,000-color screen.

But for now gamers have to wait as it is only going to available in Korea and if it gains acceptance there, we will soon see it in the US.

Do you like to express your personality with your accessories? Then this is for you – LG and Prada are partnering to develop iconic and stylish mobile phones.

The first Prada telephone by LG will combine high-end technology with avant-garde design offering the best in both style and performance. This forward-thinking product is the result of a different approach to the typical fashion designer and mobile phone manufacturer co-branding exercise.

The result is a unique, sophisticated and elegant phone, with an advanced touch interface, which eliminates the conventional keypad. The initial launch is planned for early 2007, with distribution starting in Europe followed by countries in Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

Now this where fashion meets technology! “We are passionate about developing exclusive phones that appeal to consumer’s desire to express their personality through their choice of mobile and feel very strongly that Prada shares this belief,” said Mr. Mun-Hwa Park, President & CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.

When Motorola pushed out its uber popular RAZR phone it set the bar for how thin a phone could go. Well it seems a small Korean manufacturer by the name of VK wishes to claim the crown of thinnest phone evAr with VK2000.

The phone is a sick 8.8mm thick and weighs in at a whopping 48g (/sarcasm). What seals the deal for it being one of the hottest gadgets for the holiday season is the fact they are pricing it under $100. No word on whether or not this will hit stateside, but you can anticipate it happening sooner or later once word spreads.

So what is it with trying to get the world’s smallest/thinnest phone? I think they are cool, but I also don’t wish to lose something as tiny as a business card yet cost 3000x more. I currently use the Motorola A630 and am very happy with it’s size and thickness. Maybe they will just create disposable phones one day as that would seem to make life a bit easier.

via ubergizmo