Not every smart phone has to have a touch screen, thank goodness. For a few months now, the HTC S740 has been a cult object among a certain set of technorati: folks who want a good-looking, modern Windows Mobile phone with a full keyboard and none of that touch-screen nonsense.
The S740 is just well put together. It’s got all the requisite specs, including a 528 Mhz processor, 2.4″ 320×240 screen, 3.2 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi, but it also has that ineffable build quality that causes you to say, yeah, sure, it’s a bit thick, but it’s sexy. I tried one for a while, and the design is definitely desirable (though the model I got had a bad ROM version, so I couldn’t finish testing it.)
The downside, at least for North Americans, is that the S740 doesn’t have the US 3G bands. It works with AT&T and T-Mobile, but only at 2G EDGE speeds. In 2009, that doesn’t cut it.
Enter the S743. Today HTC announced the S743, which seems to be identical to the S740 except for one thing: its 3G comes on the AT&T-friendly 850/1900 Mhz bands. The S743 will also be sold officially through various unlocked-phone channels like Dell and CDW.com when it launches this quarter, so it will be easier to get than the S740. Sadly, T-Mobile users must continue to live without the 3G love. (Why, HTC, why?)
HTC hasn’t announced a price for the S743, but unlocked S740s currently sell for $500, so it’s got to be somewhere around there.
Nothing is more frsutrating than when your IR remote “misses” a piece of gear — your whole carefully synchronized setup goes out of whack, especially if you’ve got macros programmed on that remote. Hillcrest Labs is hoping to save you some headaches by joining up with Texas Instruments to produce RF remotes that comply with the 
Having triumphed over all concerns about what to do while your HDTV is on, LG has turned its focus to what happens when you switch your display off. The 47-inch Digital Photo TV flicks over to a low power idle memory mode, using 10-15 percent the power it would while on and displays a static picture like fine art, vacation pics, or perhaps that picture on Facebook your friend simply won’t stop tagging you in no matter how many times you tell them you could get in really big trouble if anyone ever notices when and where it was taken. They’re calling this a concept display, but we wouldn’t at all be surprised to see televisions sliding into the 
