Hasta La Gadget!

BlueAnt has unveiled the Interphone F4 hands-free communication system for motorcycle riders–and at first glance, it looks brilliant. The system lets riders speak to each other via a wireless intercom, and also lets each rider make or receive cell phone calls using their voice–without having to let go of one of the handlebars.

The Interphone F4 comes with a main unit that mounts on a helmet, plus two earbuds on wires and a extra-long boom mic (pictured–helmet is translucent). Riders can answer calls simply by saying “hello.” (I wonder if that means you’ll have to say hello twice–once to answer the call and again to greet the other party?) The system also streams stereo music through A2DP, and supports voice dialing and redial.

BlueAnt designed the Interphone F4 to work clearly at speeds up to 110 mph, and can connect with other F4 units as long as bikers cruise within 1,640 feet of each other (just over a quarter of a mile apart). Each F4 will pair with up to eight Bluetooth devices, and contains multipoint technology for pairing with two of them simultaneously. The F4 offers 10 hours of talk time, 700 hours of standby time, and comes with a 2-year warranty.

The Interphone F4 is available now at www.blueantwireless.com for $225.00.

Nokia announced that its E72 business smartphone and 5800 Navigation Edition touch screen smartphone are now available online and in select retail outlets.

The QWERTY-equipped E72 includes built-in corporate e-mail support for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, plus 10 personal e-mail accounts. It also features a 5-megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus, several media players, Ovi Maps with GPS, 10 Mbps HSDPA, a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack, and an optical navigation pad.

The 5800 Navigation Edition (pictured) also includes Ovi Maps for mobile for real-time, turn-by-turn navigation for pedestrians and cars. It stores maps locally on the device for more accurate routing in areas with poor cellular signal. It also features a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a 3.2-inch touch screen, HSDPA support, and stereo speakers.

The unlocked E72 costs $469, while the 5800 Navigation Edition retails at $299. Both are available direct through www.nokiausa.com, as well as at Best Buy and some other retail channels.

Research firm IDC has published an overview of its predictions for 2010, one of what the company promises will be the first of dozens of similar documents over the next few weeks.

The first top ten predictions deal with generally macroscopic predictions; for example, the first is a belief that that the IT industry will return to growth, increasing 3.2 percent to worldwide spending levels of about $1.5 trillion. (Marketing budgets, the foundation of Internet advertising, are expected to increase by 3 percent after falling 8 percent in 2009.)

The fifth prediction, however, should attract the most attention from consumers. In it, IDC predicts that (surprise, surprise) mobile devices are becoming more important. IDC takes the extra step, however, and claims that they’re becoming platforms in their own right, and will eclipse PCs in their connections to the Internet. In total, over 1 billion phones will ship in 2010, IDC predicts, and about 16 percent of those will be smartphones.

IDC then goes on to call an Apple tablet a “no brainer”:

Nokia last week launched a major lawsuit against Samsung, LG, AU Optronics, and a handful of other LCD manufacturers over charges of price-fixing. The claims follow a similar LCD pricefixing suit filed last month by AT&T.

“The liquid-crystal displays were incorporated into Nokia mobile wireless handsets,” Nokia wrote in its suit. “[The companies] artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices.”

Nokia also filed a similar suit in the UK.

HP’s corporate-themed iPAQ smartphones have been pretty solid over the years. Now the company has unveiled the iPAQ Glisten, a fully updated model that will be available subsidized on AT&T–unlike the unlocked HP iPAQ 910 we reviewed last year.

Like that iPAQ 910, the HP iPAQ Glisten is your standard black QWERTY slab. HP distinguishes the Glisten, however, with a vibrant AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) touch screen–a first for AT&T smartphones.

The Glisten features Windows Mobile 6.5, Wi-Fi, GPS, and access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile. In addition, there’s a 3.1-megapixel camera, and AT&T throws in its free Wi-Fi Hotspot access for more than 20,000 locations.

The iPAQ Glisten will land “in the coming weeks” for $229.99 with a two-year agreement and after rebates. It will be available through HP corporate sales, AT&T business services, and AT&T and HP SMB Web sites, as well as third-party e-commerce sites.