Soban Photo Keychain

The Soban Photo Keychain is a replacement for storing wallet-sized pictures of your kids printed out on—gasp—paper. Instead, the Soban has 128mb of memory storing up to 7,000 (really tiny) photos. A slideshow can run for 8 hours on a charge.

Let's be clear about one thing: the Soban is not a good product. Even if the screen is decent, it's too bulky for a keychain when we can already use cellphones for a similar purpose. However, should such a display be thinned and actually fit in a wallet, it could be a reasonable product update for baby boomers and retro cool to the younger generations. At least that's my two cents on the matter. source : gizmodo

Toshiba Satellite RG4-E02 Approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently approved the Pocket PC phone Toshiba Satellite RG4-E02. The device is actually Toshiba G900, already available in other countries. Now, after FCC’s approval, US customers can enjoy this super phone too, under the name of RG4-E02.

Toshiba Satellite RG4-E02 operates on Windows Mobile 6, it has a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard and an elegant design. A photo and video camera of 2 MP with a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 pixels is integrated, but probably one of the most appreciated features is the very generous display: a 3 inch TFT LCD with Touch screen with a resolution of 480x800 pixels. This will surely give users an excellent mobile internet experience. With such a display, and being a Pocket PC phone, RG4-E02’s dimensions are not as big as some may think: 119 x 61 x 21.5 mm with a weight of 198 grams.

The phone is 3G-compatible and features tri-band GSM (with GPRS and EDGE included) and one-band UMTS (HSDPA included). Among other important features, we can name: fingerprint recognition, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, headset connector, microSD card for up to 2 GB of extra memory, Pocket Office, photo album and photo editor, MP3 player, voice memo etc. The device has an industry-standard mini-USB connector, which means that any mini-USB cable can be used, and not only the original one. The standard Li-Ion battery can keep RG4-E02 in stand-by for 260 hours and provides a talk time of up to 4 hours and 20 minutes.

Some of the pre-installed applications are Opera Browser, Picsel Viewer, Java, TIPtalk, Teleport and GoldKey.

A US price had not yet been announced for Toshiba RG4-E02. But, regardless of price, the high resolution and the other nice features (plus the fact that it runs on Windows Mobile 6) will make this Pocket PC phone an important competitor for all the other mobile devices of this type released in the US.[via]

Toshiba 814T, the Titanium Mobile Phone

Japan seems to be exclusively getting its hands on a large number of unique mobile phones. Just now, they have expanded their cellular line with the Toshiba 814T model.It is probably not even that special to have a thin design anymore, as a large number of handsets have been using this popular feature in order to attract and automatically obtain the appreciation of mobile phone buyers. Still, we must mention the fact that Toshiba 814T is only 12.9 mm thick. That is quite impressive, although this feature alone will fail to make it gorgeous.

The slim case probably did not hit the soft spot of all mobile phone buyers, so it comes with another feature that is just as special. Toshiba 814T has a Titanium panel, which will probably make it harder than rock. Aside these facts, the handset has a simple design, with a tiny one-color external display. The lines are slightly rounded on the corners with a smooth touch.

When opened, the phone will reveal a keypad with large, difficult-to-miss buttons. Moreover, it has an internal 2.4 inch display screen, which proves to be quite impressive in the case of a flip phone. Toshiba 814T also has a 2 megapixel camera that is meant to provide high quality pictures.

The memory capacity for this phone model has not been specified yet, but it also has a microSD memory card slot. Still, Toshiba 814T comes without several features that would normally be considered essential in the case of the more technologically evolved handsets. The phone lacks Bluetooth connectivity, GPS navigation and WiFi support.

Toshiba 814T will be available in Japan starting this July in a variety of five different colors to choose from. The price that it will be available for has not been revealed yet.[via]