The touchscreen battle continues while Nokia ruffles feathers in Germany

If there is one thing that has really shaken up the mobile industry over the past year it has been the arrival of the touchscreen. Though they had been around on various Sony Ericsson handsets for a while before the iPhone made its debut, it was Apple's device that acted as a catalyst for the industry. As such, a touchscreen interface to match the iPhone's has become the industry's holy grail.

So kicking things off on our sister site, Pocket Picks this week was Samsung's latest stab at the tech du jour with the F490 outdoing the iPhone with a 5 megapixel camera and HSDPA connectivity.

Still, even against such stiff competition it seems unlikely that the iPhone will be toppled from its lofty 'must have' status anytime soon, especially when cool new applications such as a version of Sling's Slingplayer and Mac Daddy's iPhoneCam are coming thick and fast.

Even so, Apple fans everywhere were looking to hear about future versions of the iPhone rather than updates to the current as the Macworld Expo 2008 drew near. As it turned out, iPhone heads had little more than a firmware update to keep them warm, though a pretty hefty one including plenty of notable improvements.

Nokia had a bit of a mixed week. It revealed it is to pursue a business route that would secure the handset giant as more of a Web 2.0 company than simply a phone company. It's a smart move and should keep the shareholders happy, or at least happier than some.

But following it's recent announcement it will be closing its last Germany-based manufacturing plant, there has been an outcry with various German politicians have come forth making their boycott of the brand publicly known.

In software, two web browser streamlining options made themselves known, first from mDigger for Windows Mobile and then from Web Viewer, again for Windows Mobile. Taking the useful Windows Mobile application count to a nice round three was the awkwardly titled CommMgrPro, a location-based profile manager.

In culture, ITV launched its second made for mobile TV show, The Gym, featuring Ingrid Oliver (best known for Channel 4's Plus One) and Rich Fuller (best know as Bob Fossil on BBC3's The Mighty Boosh).

And lastly it seems that text messages are not a facile means of communication at all as a new study has shown that they can motivate young voters to make their way to the nearest ballot station come election time.

That's it for now, to be sure to catch next week's Pocket Picks update, just click 'Track It!'.