Hasta La Gadget!

Windows Mobile market share has dived recently around the world. Six months after the original iPhone launched in mid 2007, it had already surpassed Windows Mobile in browser share. And Android is already threatening to eclipse WinMo in device sales.

That said, Windows Mobile’s primary stronghold has been the U.S. Unfortunately, that’s gone too. Research in Motion has been first here for a while. But a new comScore study shows that the iPhone has now surpassed Windows Mobile in U.S. smartphone market share, FierceDeveloper reports.

The numbers reflect current phone ownership at a specific point in time, averaged over a three-month period ending in October, for mobile subscribers in the U.S. over the age of 13. About 36 million Americans own smartphones, compared to another 196 million that own “non-smartphones” that feature closed operating systems. (We can leave that debate for another post; the definition of a smartphone is still evolving.)

One note: “Palm” doesn’t include webOS share yet. comScore claims the numbers weren’t significant enough yet to be considered solid data for this report.

Novero has unveiled a series of five cell phone accessories that build on the company’s existing TheFirstOne Bluetooth headset.

TheTalkyOne is a Bluetooth speakerphone that works with calls and music, and is designed for home, office, and in-car use. Next up are two car kits: TheTrulyOne (pictured) is a Bluetooth car kit with a remote control and an LCD display. TheTrustyOne is a more basic hands-free Bluetooth car kit.

Finally, there are two new chargers. The TravelOne is a microUSB wall charger that comes in white or black, and includes adapters for North America, the EU, the UK, and Australia and New Zealand–193 countries in all. Finally, TheCarOne is a universal microUSB charger that works with any car’s cigarette lighter.

All products will see an official unveiling at CES on January 7th, and will soon be available at Amazon.com and other retailers.

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.

I’m not sure what’s up with these expensive car kits for iPhone GPS apps, but it looks like Magellan wants in on the action. The Magellan Premium GPS Car Kit works with the iPhone and any GPS app–including, of course, Magellan’s brand new RoadMate app.

The car kit mounts to the windshield, charges the iPhone while mounted, and includes a noise-canceling, hands-free speakerphone with a powerful amplifier. It rotates for use in both portrait and landscape modes. And interestingly, it features a built-in GPS receiver that enhances performance or adds it to an iPod Touch.

None of this comes cheap, though. The kit costs a whopping $130–more than some solid Garmin and TomTom standalone devices, I might add–and doesn’t come with the app either (same as with the TomTom kit). In other words, either one could put your iPhone GPS solution over the $200 mark in total. Despite the cost, Magellan’s kit looks good, and the iPod touch compatibility is a unique twist.

Jing Li, a scientist in California’s NASA Ames Research Center, has designed a smartphone plug-in device that could sense chemicals from the environment. Current prototype of the device works with the iPhone, and plugs into the handset’s bottom connector. The device can detect chemicals in ambient air such as methane, ammonia and chlorine gas. It’s designed to connect to a network through WiFi or a regular phone connection in order to send alerts to other phones also equipped with the device. According to Li, a previous prototype of the device was the size of a soda can – this iteration, however, is touted as one of the smallest complete sensing-device in the world.

The device contains a silicon-based sensing chip with 64 nanosensors. Li and colleagues had to work on making a chip that can contain all those nanosensors and yet is compact, high-speed, low-power and low-cost. The chip consumes 5 milliwatts, and can last for 100 hours when ran continuously. Although connected to a bottom connector and draws power through it, data communication is routed through the audio input jack due to restrictions imposed by Apple upon third-party developers. There might be a chance that the second phase of the device’s development could be made for a smartphone other than an iPhone. Whether this happens or not, Li envisions future prototypes to be used by fire fighters and other kinds of emergency responders.