By Chris Scott Barr

When you were a kid, how many times did you get home a little late when your parents weren’t home, but lied and told them you were on time? Or perhaps you snuck out, then back in late at night. Fess up, I’m sure that you did it at least once. Well it seems that some parents may be able to keep track of just when exactly their children arrived home. Oddly enough, it comes in the form of a femtocell.

DoCoMo has announced a new femtocell that not only helps your cell phones maintain a great signal while you’re at home, but it also can send out notifications when a phone has entered the area. Essentially, the parents could set it up to get an email every time their child came home. Seems like an interesting idea, until the kid figures out that he can flood his parents inbox by going in and out of the range of the device over and over. Come to think of it, that’s probably the first thing I’d do in protest.

[ FarEastGizmos ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

While the hundred acre woods might seem like a fun place to live (Tiggers are a wonderful thing afterall) gadget fans might want to think twice because this Winnie the Pooh themed mobile phone is pretty much your only option. For about $120 you get a dual SIM, quad-band phone that supposedly has a yellow finish just like Winnie, even though the product shots tell a different story. It’s also got a basic multimedia player, a 2-inch LCD display revealed via its clamshell design, an FM radio and a 1.3 MP camera with the lens cleverly hidden in Pooh’s nose.

[ Winnie The Pooh Dual SIM Card Phone ] VIA [ 2dayBlog ]

I got a text from my mother-in-law the other day, which was weird. For one reason, I don’t like to talk to her that much, any married guy will understand. The other reason is that I didn’t know she knew what texting was and she has a phone that is older than my kids.

Sprint has a new entry-level phone for people like her that are just getting into texting and want a cheap phone to make things easier. The Sanyo SCP-2700 is cheap enough at $29.99 after an instant $150 rebate, a $50 mail-in rebate, and a 2-year contract.

The device sports a full QWERTY keyboard and can access work email from Exchange or Domino. The handset can also access the web and social networking sites. Other features include GPS navigation support, Sprint Family Locator Support, and picture mail support.

[ Sprint ]

By Shane McGlaun

The mobile phone market is down like most other electronics categories thanks to the global economic recession. However, the smartphone segment is still booming and thanks to the success of smartphones, more and more devices are being introduced.

Verizon Wireless is getting three new handsets from LG this summer including the LG Glance, LG enV Touch, and the LG enV 3. The handsets share some of the same features including support for text, picture, and voice messaging along with Bluetooth support. The handsets work with VZ Navigator, email, IM and chat as well.

Both enV handsets have full QWERTY keyboards and can surf the net with HTML browsers and support up to 16GB microSDHC cards. The enV Touch has a 3-inch external touch screen and a 3-inch internal touch screen along with a 3.2-megapixel camera. The enV 3 has a 2.6-inch internal screen and a 1.56-inch external screen along with a 3-megapixel camera. The Glance offers a 1.3-megapixel camera. The enV 3 will sell for $129.99 after $50 rebate, the Touch will sell for $149.99 after $70 rebate, and the Glance will sell for $49.99 after rebate.

[ Verizon Wireless ]

By Chris Scott Barr

In some ways I feel bad for parents these days. Sure, as kids we all had our own slang that our parents didn’t always understand, but that’s nothing compared to what is used for texting. To the older generation it can read like a foreign language. Well LG feels the pain of these parents, and has created a translator.

The DTXTR is a simple little web app that lets you enter “teen text” and click a button for a translation. I suppose this is a decent idea, as some parents might be confused by what their kids are saying. But honestly, I wonder how many people will actually bother with it. I mean if a parent isn’t savvy enough to decipher the messages that their kids are sending, are they really going to bother going to a website to figure it out? If I were a kid and sent my parents something that they couldn’t understand, they’d just ground me until I learned how to spell properly.

[ DTXTR ] VIA [ TechCrunch ]

By Shane McGlaun

There are tons of phones on the market. Despite the economy the high-end segment of the mobile phone market including smartphones are selling quite well. Sales in the middle of the market are dropping though.

Samsung has announced that US Cellular is getting the new Samsung Gloss handset that looks like something a woman would keep in her purse. The Gloss is a square phone that measures 2.55-inches x 2.94-inches x 0.82-inches and has a 2.2-inch LCD.

Under the square clamshell lid hides a full QWERTY keyboard for texting and the phone supports music player functionality. Music, video, and photos are stored on up to 16GB of external memory (presumably microSD cards) and the device supports the US Cellular easyedge navigation service. The integrated digital camera has 1.3-megapixels.

[ Samsung ]

By Shane McGlaun

When the Sidekick first launched long ago, I thought it looked really cool and wanted one. Then I found out that the T-Mobile network really sucked outside most large cities and decided to make do with the then cool Motorola Razr. Those of you who can actually access a T-Mobile network may be glad to hear there is a new Sidekick in town.

T-Mobile has unveiled the Sidekick LX calling it the first 3G Sidekick ever. The handset is aimed at the social network crowd and includes a software bundle for Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. The phone comes in two colors — orchid and carbon. Orchid looks more like maroon to me and the carbon is just a fancy name for plain black.

The handset has integrated GPS with Live Search, a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash and video recording capability, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and an integrated music player. The camera can record video and upload it to social networking sites via email or file transfer. The swiveling QWERTY keyboard returns from previous models and a 1GB microSD card is included. The 3.2-inch screen has a resolution of 854 x 480. The phone will cost $199.99 when it goes on sale next month.

[ Sidekick ]

By Chris Scott Barr

There’s a part of me that wishes I were a kid growing up right now, since I wouldn’t be stuck with dial-up and an NES (Though I did love my NES). Of course there’s another part that makes me more than happy that I don’t live under my parents’ roof any longer. This new GPS tracking service from AT&T would definitely fall into the latter category.

If you have a family plan with AT&T for an extra $9.99 (for two phones) or $14.99 (for up to five phones) you can track down any other phone on your plan using FamilyMaps. You can activate this feature from either your phone or a PC and find out exactly where your loved one is. Depending on how you use it, you will get text messages with location updates, or you can watch them on a map in real time. Granted, the person gets a text message letting them know you’re tracking them, but they have no way to stop you from doing so.

I can definitely see how a parent would enjoy such a feature. It’s an easy way to make sure that they’re not going places that they shouldn’t be. If you’re worried about your own privacy, don’t be. The feature can only be accessed by the account holder on a family plan.

[ AT&T ] VIA [ Dvice ]

by Shane McGlaun

Guys have lots of choices when it comes to a Bluetooth headset. Most of the offerings on the market are masculine looking with black or silver colors and blocky designs that a dude can wear without feeling girly. The ladies on the other hand have but a few headsets that are decked out in girly glitz.

A new Bluetooth headset from ChicBuds has been announced that is called the PinkTooth. The PinkTooth has a lithium-polymer battery good for 200 hours of standby time and six hours of talk time. The glam part of the headset is the pink or white Swarovski crystals that decorate the earpiece.

The PinkTooth Wireless headset is available now for $49.99, making it cheaper than many Bluetooth headsets on the market. The PinkTooth headset should find a following considering Best Buy claims that women spend $14 billion more on electronics than men do each year. I bet lots of that loot is spent buying gifts for their guys though.

[ ChicBuds ]

by Shane McGlaun

I am a big fan of cool gadgets as you might imagine, but when it comes to smartphones the most money I am willing to pony up is the $300 or so the iPhone costs. There are a few phones on the market that are designed for those with wallets fatter than mine though and perhaps one of the most expensive was announced today.

Earlier this month we talked a bit about the Chairman phone from Ulysse Nardin, but at the time there were few hard specs for the device. Today a bit more on the specification side has been announced for the handset. The Chairman can be had in a few different styles including a solid gold version, a steel/gold version, and a solid steel version.

The device features a 2.8-inch touchscreen and oversized numeric buttons for fast typing. The only other spec offered is that the phone has fingerprint security allowing only the owner to use the device. A service plan is included with the phone that provides repairs to the exterior and inner components at any time. The biggest design element is the watch rotor built-in to the phone that when wound provides alternative power to the internal battery. Exactly how much power isn’t specified, which likely means it’s miniscule. Pricing is still unannounced, but you can be sure it’s more than your wallet can support.

[ UNChairman.com ]