Panasonic has announced what it calls the world’s lightest 3G ready notebook with a 14.1-inch wide display and internal optical drive. The notebook is called the Toughbook F8. Embedded 3G is from Gobi and can provide connectivity all around the world.

The Panasonic Toughbook F8, which possesses a 14.1-inch display, weighs just 3.7 pounds, has an internal optical drive, has a handle for easy carrying and is 3G-ready. Other specs include an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM and a 160GB shock-mounted hard drive. It’s seriously portable and offers serious flexibility for those that are a little rougher on their computers than most.

The rest of the 8-Series received an update as well, with the W8 and T8 models getting embedded Gobi 3G technology, making for the ultimate in connectivity with mobile broadband (WWAN) from Qualcomm. The 8-Series Panasonic Toughbook notebooks will be available starting in November. The W8 and T8 are expected to cost $2,900 and the F8 is slightly pricier at $2,499.

“The growing trend of portability in computers–lighter weight, longer battery life, advanced wireless capabilities–needs to be balanced by true durability,” said Daniel Longfield, industry analyst, mobile and wireless, Frost & Sullivan. “Highly mobile government, enterprise and small business users need reliable connectivity to drive continued productivity. Panasonic’s proven business-rugged notebooks enabled with Gobi address this requirement.”

According to sources cited by Reuters, Nokia will unveil its first touchscreen phone at an event in London on October 2. Earlier this year, Nokia confirmed that it would offer a touch-based phone by the end of 2008.

In launching the device, the world’s largest handset maker takes its stab at the Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone, which set off a wave of copycat devices that attempted – often with little success – to emulate its slick user interface. Nokia is the last of the major handset makers to put out a touchscreen device, which it hopes to integrate with its Comes With Music service.

“Nokia is under enormous pressure to deliver something that’s good,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “People have been waiting for this for over a year now.”

The Comes With Music program takes on Apple’s iTunes software, which is the No. 1 retailer of music, according to NPD Group.

With the Tube, Nokia will be entering a crowded field. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.SE) and LG Electronics Inc. (066570.SE) have tried their hand with multiple touchscreen devices. Motorola Inc. (MOT) has its Ming product in China. Sony Ericsson plans to launch its Xperia X1, and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) is working on a touchscreen Blackberry.

Nokia is typically late in the game when it comes to bringing innovative features into its products. But Milanesi said the company typically designs with a platform mindset, and added that she expects more touchscreen devices to show up soon.

The Tube will also test the appeal of the S60 platform that powers many of Nokia’s devices. S60 is software developed by Symbian, which Nokia said it was acquiring.

While it is likely to be a hit in Europe and other international markets, where Nokia phones dominate, it’s unclear how successful the Tube will be in the U.S. Many Nokia phones don’t receive carrier support, and are sold through third-party retailers such as Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) and its own stores. High- end products such as its N95 appeal to a niche market.

Google which is one of the world’s top brand is now with a new mission, to make a place for themselves in the highly competitive mobile world. The new phone powered by Google is set to launch , ready to face off against Apple’s iPhone in the run .

T-Mobile is expected to launch the first Google Android phone on Tuesday at an event in New York. The mobile, already dubbed the “G-phone,” will run on Android, Google’s new software for mobile phones. It will be launched in New York , and will be available in the US by next month. It is anticipated that the phone will be available in British stores by November.

The G1 is expected to cost about $199 (£108), which would be around the same cost as basic 8GB version of the iPhone.

The phone is expected to have as built-in GPS (global positioning system), a tilt sensor for gaming, and a camera. It is thought it will be able to run Google’s range of web applications, including Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps, and will likely also feature Google’s new web browser, Chrome. The arrival of the first G-phone is the opening round in the battle to create and control the software that will run the next generation of mobile phone that will be able to access the Internet.

Google also hope to take the lead over Apple, by making Android “open source” – meaning that no-one will be charged to use it on their handset or for writing applications for it. This means that anyone can write programs that will run on an Andriod-powered phone.

So far, these free application include “BreadCrumbz”, a GPS style navigation system that not only give a drawing of your route, but also includes real-world photos of your surroundings to keep you from getting lost. Another application is “TuneWiki”, a karaoke player for mobiles which synchronizing written lyrics to a song’s YouTube video.

Developers have already been creating applications for the iPod and iPhone, with users of Apple’s devices downloading the 3000 applications available through iTunes over 100m times since they were available in July this year.
Android, is expected to put Google’s new browser at the forefront of the G-phones, enabling the internet giant to tap into this audience.

There are more Android powered phones set for launch next year, with manufacturers LG and Samsung set to unveil their first mobile phones that run on Google’s new software next year.

Philips has a new basic cell phone for music lovers, the M200. It is a cool looking candybar handset with an FM tuner, microSD support, and a dedicated music key to quickly access the player.

The company Philips posted on its website information on the new GSM mobile phone – M200, the main purpose of which is in addition to making calls – to listen to music. Now, with stylish mobile phone Philips M200, performed in the classic form-factor “monoblock”, music lovers can dive into the world of 3D-sound system, to gain access to all your songs by pressing a button and enjoy a variety of uninterrupted music, as with the built MP3 player, and the FM-radio, which also takes place in the M200.

Specifications Philips M200:

• Support for communications standards: GSM 900/1800 MHz, GPRS Class10
• Dimensions: 105×44, 5×13, 2 mm
• Weight: 70 gr.
• Display: 1.8-inch, a resolution 128h160 points, cSTN, displaying more than 65 thousand colors
• Sound: 64-tone polyphonic ringtones, MP3 ringtones and MP3 player with EQ
• FM-radio
• Messaging: SMS / MMS
• Communication: WAP2.0, USB1.1
• Memory: 3 MB, microSD cards
• Battery: Li-Ion, a capacity of 1050 mAh
• Other features: Alarm clock, calculator, calendar, currency converter, stopwatch
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Samsung Electronics recently launched an entertaining mobile phone, Samsung Innov8 or i8510. The phone comes in two flavors with either 8G or 16GB Flash memory and external memory slot up to additional 16G. For video recording it has QVGA @ 120 fps or VGA @ 30fps with full editing suite on board. The phone also supports variety of video playback formats including DivX, WMV, Real Player and MPEG4. According to the press release:

Samsung innov8 is also ideal for enthusiastic gamers. It comes pre-embedded with two of the world’s most famous games, Asphalt and FIFA 08. The handset has been chosen as the official phone for the World Cyber Games 2008, which begins on 25th July.

To round out its features, it also support GPS and will run on Symbian OS V9.3, S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. Now that you have drooled on the features and can’t wait to get your hands on it, close your mouth if you live in US. Since this is a GSM phone without WCDMA 850 support, it is being launched in Europe in August and subsequent launches in other markets in September.

Mr. Geesung Choi, President of Samsung Telecommunication Business said, “Samsung innov8 is made for tech-savvy users who want to enjoy the best possible multimedia entertainment with their mobile phone. With the 8-megapixel camera, pre-embedded 3D games, high speed data connections and much more other features will help users gain the true benefits of mobile entertainment.”

Besides, the Samsung innov8 phone is equipped with latest connectivity options including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and HSDPA high speed Internet. It also has GPS technology which offers navigation and geo-tagging service.

The phone comes loaded with two famous mobile games Asphalt and FIFA 08. The information regarding pricing and availability has not been disclosed as of now.

Nokia launched a new music service Tuesday in the U.K. that bundles free access to music with the purchase of a phone.

The new service called “Comes with Music” offers users of certain Nokia phones a year’s subscription to the company’s music service. The program will initially be offered through Carphone Warehouse in the U.K., but Nokia has plans to eventually roll it out globally.

Nokia first announced the comes with Music services last year. The service essentially bundles access to digital music with the purchase of a new handset. The first phone to use the service is the 5310 XpressMusic device. With the free one-year subscription to the service, Nokia users can download as many songs as they want and keep the songs even after the subscription expires.

It Comes with Music handset will be available only from the UK’s Carphone Warehouse on a pre-paid basis.

Although the music catalogue available will be far less than that offered by Apple’s iTunes, analysts forecast it could become a serious rival.

The bundled phone goes on sale in October and Carphone Warehouse is currently taking pre-orders.

The service gives people a year of unlimited access to the Nokia Music Store catalogue.

Users can transfer downloaded music to their PCs and will be able to keep all downloaded tracks after the year is over.

It’s not known yet how much Nokia will charge for the new 5310 XpressMusic with the one-year music subscription. Carphone Warehouse currently sells the prepaid version of the 5310 for about $145, including $18 worth of talk time. T-Mobile USA has subsidized it for about $50 with a two- year contract, making it much cheaper option than Apple’s iPhone 3G, which costs $200 with AT&T’s subsidy.

Nokia is clearly going after Apple with the launch of the new music store and the bundled offering. The company, which is the No. 1 maker of cell phones in the world, sees services as a key component of its strategy going forward.

While Nokia’s music store is much smaller than what is currently offered by iTunes, the company has managed to sign up three of the largest music labels, Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group.

Nokia hasn’t said when it will begin rolling out the Comes With Music bundle in other countries. The Nokia Music Store is currently only available in a handful of markets, including much of Europe, Singapore and Australia. U.S. customers will likely have to wait awhile before they can get access to the Nokia Music Store or the Comes With Music bundle.