Google has now completely debunked all rumors of a Googlephone, or Gphone, in their official blog, where they formally introduced their new open-source mobile OS platform: Android. It will be a joint effort by the members of the group known as Open Handset Alliance, comprised of companies, such as Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC, and T-Mobile.

With the Alliance, Google plans to develop a mobile OS "without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation".

A good old one-two to divert the attention away from the competition would be similar to what Ultimate series creators i-Mate did recently: drop two high-end bombshells. Introducing i-Mate's Ultimate 8502 and 9502, two QWERTY high-end cellphones running on Windows Mobile 6 operating system and sporting a specifications set like other sweet features decked on the competition's bleeding edge mobiles.

The 8502 and 9502 go all out black, though the 9502 (image to your right) sports quad-band GSM, 3.5G connectivity, and tri-band HSUPA powered through Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 operating system. It also comes with a video out port aside from providing crystal clear, crisp images through its sliding VGA LCD display, and LED flash for still captures.

But yes, it also jogs all the way down to the 2.5 millimeter audio jack, which doesn't quite broaden your headset options.

The 8502 in contrast touts a more simplistic design (no slide-down LCD screen), though its feature set is anything but simplistic. Aside from the usual WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity, you get 256 MB ROM and 128 MB RAM from the get-go, plus the 9502's 400 MHz Qualcomm processor. The camera slices down to a 2.0 megapixels from the 9502's 3.0 megapixel camera.

There are no details yet on price and retail shipping yet, so we can't tell you how much moolah you'll have to burn for i-Mate's new muscle gizmos. But as soon as they come up, we'll let you know. For now, feel free to visit i-Mate's website to take a gander at these beauties. The link redirects you to the Ultimate 9502 section.

Do you ever feel that satellite phones, although marketed to be a mobile technology, make you feel like you're carrying the whole damn satellite disk on your pockets?

Well, now you can say buh-bye to brick-heavy satellite phones 'cuz just this Thursday, Globalstar Inc. announced what is currently the world's smallest and lightest cellphone unit that's powered by, and spans, a global satellite network. Fellas, meet the brand spankin' new GSP-1700 mobile satellite telephone. Here are some of this little wonder's features:

• operates on Globalstar satellite network in more than 120 countries and six continents
• weighs approximately 7.1 ounces or 203 grams
• runs on lithium-ion battery that gives users four hours of talk time and 36 hours standby time
• dons an EV-DO modem which basically means that you can get high-speed data access virtually anywhere and everywhere
  

No word yet on how much this baby will cost, as it's still in the manufacturing stage over at the Qualcomm labs, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that it won't be a big leap from its predecessor's (GSP-1600) price, which is US$750. We'll keep you guys posted as soon as we find out.

Finnish cell phone magnate, Nokia, has recently announced that they would stop making cell phones using the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) standard. They also announced plans of scrapping CDMA cellphone-making with Japan's Sanyo Electronic Co. The reason behind this move is the allegedly shrinking market for CDMA cellphones. However, Nokia will still offer CDMA handsets in North America since that standard is still popular there.

CDMA, in case you're in the dark about it, is the less popular wireless telephony technology, used by 25 to 30 percent of mobile subscribers, and competes with the GSM standard used by about 70 percent of the world's 2 billion mobile phone users.

Nokia has been on top of the GSM standard but they are lagging behind in the CDMA standard. The reason for this poor CDMA performance is Nokia's refusal to use Qualcomm Inc.'s chips and because of that, the Finnish company had to pay significant technology licensing fees to the U.S.-based firm, which holds most patents to the CDMA technology.

With this announcement, a promising joint venture between Nokia and Sanyo is in peril of being welcomed to cellular phone heaven (or hell), since the partnership had been intended to develop and make mobile phones using CDMA, which dominates in the United States and is popular in parts of Latin America and Asia including Japan, India and China. The venture was announced last February of this year.

Nokia also mentioned that it will take a €150 million ($190 million) charge in its third-quarter accounts for restructuring its CDMA operations and expects the changes to boost its operating margins. It will end its own CDMA research and manufacturing by next April and is reviewing the options for its CDMA infrastructure and assets, after deciding against the Sanyo venture.

It's back to nature for Qualcomm and other companies. They're promoting a radically new breed of screens for cellphones and other handheld devices. The new screen technology allows cellphones to stay on all day without draining battery life. With the new technology, the new screens don't need to be backlit. Instead, they'd rely on the sun's light or movement by liquids inside the screen for illumination.

Backlights are like vampires that suck 90% of the power supplied to the display, and the display itself eats up 30% or even more of the phone's overall energy. Liquavista came up with liquid-filled screens to address this issue. Here's how it works: Each pixel contains water and a droplet of dyed oil. When an electric charge is applied to the outside surface of the pixel, it becomes hydrophilic. The water is attracted to the surface, forcing the oil to the side and making the pixel take on the color of the lower surface of the pixel. When the charge is reversed and the surface becomes hydrophobic, the pixel takes on the color of the dyed oil.

Qualcomm, on the other hand is trying to market the iMod screen to cellphone manufacturers. With the iMod screen, the phone creates images that become visible when sunlight or ambient artificial lights hits the screen. In dimly-lit places, an integrated light does the work to brighten up the screen, but with less energy consumption.

The first batch of iMod screens show info in black, white and gray, but future iMods will have color displays capable of showing videos.

The technology is currently being tested on handheld devices, but is expected to be used in notebooks in the near future.