Ugly watch phone, a phone that's a car, and why O2 looks set to make fortune from 3G iPhone
It's the weekly Pocket Picks round-up
After last week's 3G iPhone hullabaloo, things have been predictably quieter on our sister site Pocket Picks over the past seven days.
The week started poorly with the world's ugliest watch phone, a Taiwanese 'delight' that probably won't find its way to the UK, thankfully.
On a more aesthetically pleasing note, Sony Ericsson was on hand to unveil (officially, after several leaks) a few nice looking handsets to get the week back on track. The first was the game-centric F305 with motion sensing controls and gaming specific buttons. Shortly after, the camera focused C906 Cyber-shot handset (boasting eight-megapixel resolution) and the less dramatic S302 Snapshot made their official splash, too, bringing a bit of class to the week's opening.
With the help of tennis wizz Maria Sharapova and her new collection of Sony Ericsson accessories, the company shouldn't have too much trouble shifting its wares.
The other big handset reveals came later from Nokia in the shape of the business focussed E71 and E66. The new pair of Eseries handsets sport good looks, exchange support and some decent media capabilities too meaning that, handset-wise this week, between Nokia and Sony Ericsson all the bases were covered.
Speaking of Nokia, a video of an N95 running a version of the Android OS popped up on YouTube, prompting raised eyebrows all round. Software of a more official variety soon followed from the Nokia Beta Labs with Nokia Map Loader 2.0, though, an application that lets you download maps to your handset for viewing offline.
But the biggest software announcement of the week came from fring, with the launch of the fringAPI, which should allow developers to get cracking on all manner of cool new mobile applications with in-built VoIP functionality.
Meanwhile, news that the Met Office is launching an official mobile content service also caught our attention, if only because we'd love to see it predict anything other than rain when it's released.
In more general news, the Welsh NHS Trust announced that it will lift the ban on visitors and patients using mobile phones on hospital premises while the European Commission revealed that European mobile users may soon end up paying for receiving calls as well as making them. That's sure to be popular.
And so whereas the iPhone was the theme of last week's Pocket Picks update, it's mere a footnote this time around with news that O2 is set to make a fortune out of the cheaper 3G iPhone while Mercedes Benz unveiled an in-built iPhone cradle for in-car use. Smashing.
While we're on an automotive note, a lunatic has turned his car into a giant red telephone. Each to their own and all that.
Right, that's as good a place to stop this week. Remember to click 'Track It!' to catch next week's Pocket Picks round-up.