Verizon Wireless and Nokia introduce the Nokia 2705 Shade(TM), a compact flip phone that fits in a pocket or purse for stylish connectivity. Available initially as an online exclusive, customers will have the option of purchasing the phone with or without a camera. The Nokia Shade also allows the customer to have the ability to choose the color of their choice with Xpress-onTM covers, sold separately.

Available colors: Black with Xpress-on(TM) Covers sold separately

The LG Versa VX9600 is the touch-screen phone for people who hate touch screens.With a unique detachable QWERTY keyboard, it easily swings between key-tapping and touch-screen-only modes. The Versa is a terrific texting phone, but the software's rough edges prevent it from being an all-around winner.

Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics announced today that the LG VX9600 Versa will launch next week on the Verizon network. The touchscreen phone features an attachable QWERTY keyboard to help users write e-mails and messages, or they can choose to leave the keypad at home to reduce the overall size of the device.

Specifications for the LG Versa
Band:	CDMA 800/1900MHz
Data:	1xRTT/EV-DO (Rev. A)
Size:	106mm x 53mm x 14mm (4.2in x 2.0in x 0.5in)
Weight:	108g (3.8oz)
Battery:	1,100mAh
Battery Life:	Estimated 18 days standby time
	Estimated 5 hours talk time
Main Display:	3.0-inch 256k color LCD (480 x 240 pixels) TFT touchscreen
External Display:	0.9-inch OLED (56x120 pixels) (Only available on QWERTY attachment)
Camera:	2 megapixel with autofocus, flash
Messaging:	SMS/MMS/IM
Email:	IMAP, SMTP, POP3, and Web-based
Bluetooth:	v2.1 +EDR, A2DP stereo
Memory:	microSD card slot
Availability:	March 1, 2009
Other:	VZ Navigator, 2.5mm headset jack,speakerphone, speaker-independent voice commands, MP3/WMA/AAC/AAC+ music player, 1,000 contact phonebook, RSS feed support

The Versa's 2MP camera promises a lot, with face detection and a feature called SmartPic, which claims to reduce noise and improve low-light performance. Picture quality was sharp if sometimes overexposed in the bright areas. Low-light photos didn't look too bad, and didn't show too much blur, while daylight photos showed a bit of visible compression artifacting. As far as we could tell, SmartPic didn't help much. The camera's autofocus is terribly slow, causing a 2.1-second shutter delay, which drops to a more reasonable 0.6-second delay if you turn autofocus off. The 640-by-480 movie-recording mode produces footage that, at 14 frames per second (fps), looked a bit jerky and compressed in testing; the 320-by-240 movie mode, at 20 fps, looked better.
The Versa's 3-inch touchscreen with tactile feedback features an animated OS with a 3D interface and customizable home screens. The phone's accelerometer rotates the screen between portrait and landscape modes, and can be used to control games. The Versa's Web browser supports Flash, RSS, and tabbed browsing. Users can snap pictures and video with the Versa's 2 megapixel camera, which can save the multimedia to the phone's microSD card slot.


The Verizon LG Versa will be available March 1 for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement.

Verizon and Casio launches the G’zOne Commando, a rugged Android smartphone ideal for the business environment, especially for fields such as construction, transportation, manufacturing, utilities and healthcare. The rugged phone runs Android 2.2. It meets Military Standards 810G for Immersion, Rain, Shock and Dust Resistant, Vibration, Salt Fog, Humidity, Solar Radiation, Altitude, Low and High Temperature Storage.

The G’zOne Commando sports a 3.6-inch 480×800 touchscreen, a 5 Megapixel auto focus camera, LED flash and camcorder, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. It includes Mobile Hotspot capability to share 3G connection with up to five WiFi-enabled devices. Casio’s G’zOne Commando is available for $199.99 with a 2-year contract.
G’zGear operates in eight modes:

• Earth Compass – Functions as a standard compass, the GPS shows the distance and direction to several domestic and international landmarks, including Yosemite National Park and Mt. Everest.
• Walking Counter – Measures steps, distance and energy consumption, and total steps for the day, week or month. It also provides virtual treks for famous North American trails and roads including Mt. Kilimanjaro, Annapurna Circuit, Torres Del Paine Circuit, John Muir Trail and Transcontinental.
• Adventure Training – Takes training to a new level by allowing users to run with virtual opponents, like world-record holders, wild animals, or their own best personal performance stored in the training history.
• Trip Memory – Plots and records outdoor activities along with location information to share with friends and family on Twitter™ and Facebook®.
• Tides – Showcases the tidal graph for the day; time of tide ebb and flow; and current, past and future sea tide levels. GPS displays the nearest location map.
• Thermometer – Displays current temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit with numeric and graphic thermometer readings and compares the current temperature across multiple locations.
• Sun / Moon – Checks the time of the next sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, and tracks the moon phases for your current location.
• Star Gazer – Utilizes GPS to display the stars and constellation names based on the current season and time.