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The LG KP500 is nicknamed the Cookie. It's billed as an affordable touchscreen phone and in fact there are some amazing deals out there to tempt you. But before you rush off to buy one, join us in a tour of the Cookie, and let's find out what's missing compared to the more expensive rival touchscreen phones.

Let's start by looking at what you do get. You get a genuine touchscreen-driven phone (not just one with touch-sensitive buttons) that is controlled by pressing virtual buttons and icons with your finger or the stylus that's supplied with the phone. Pioneered by the iPhone (and others), touchscreen is the hottest trend in mobile phones in 2008, and it's hard to underestimate the amount of fun that you can have pressing virtual buttons on a screen. Especially for people like us, who don't get out enou

gh. In the early days touchscreen phones were often tricky to use, but these days they're all pretty easy once you've got used to them. We don't think that the Cookie will pose any trouble, although some may find the stylus a nuisance. Anyway, great fun to use! The KP500 also has a built-in accelerometer, which simply means that it senses which way is up and automatically rotates the display. The virtual QWERTY keyboard slides into view when you turn the phone to landscape mode, which looks very cool. The accelerometer is also used when playing games, so you can tilt and turn the phone Wii-style to control movement. You can shake and flip the phone at other times to control various functions. It's all great fun, as long as you don't mind being stared at by passers-by.

The Cookie is more compact than most touchphones. It's about 20% smaller than the iPhone 3G and several millimetres thinner than its big brother, the LG Renoir. And weighing just 89g, it's probably the lightest touchscreen phone ever. We can't think of any lighter ones off the top of our head anyway. But, and this bit is important, LG have cleverly made the phone smaller without reducing the size of the screen. At 3 inches across, it's a big display by any standards, and when it comes to touchscreen, size really does matter! A bigger screen makes it easier to use, and the Cookie is definitely an easy phone to use.

So, the ergonomics are good, and the screen is good. What else is good? Well, it has a media player that plays most popular digital music formats. It also has a stereo FM radio. It's got a good web browser. It supports email and has a document viewer installed. Connectivity includes USB and Bluetooth, and the operating frequency is quadband GSM, so you should be able to use the phone anywhere in the world.

Now let's take a look at what's missing.

The camera is not as good as the 5 or 8 megapixel cameras seen in LG's high-end phones. It's limited to 3.2 megapixels, and there's no autofocus but this is reasonable when you consider the price. The memory is also more limited at 48 MB, although you can add a microSD memory card to bring this up to 8GB. It's not 3G and there's no WiFi, so web browsing probably isn't a good option, despite the big screen, which is a shame.

Inevitably there are trade-offs between price and features. We feel that LG have got the balance just right with the Cookie. By removing the features that most people won't miss, and by installing an average camera, they've not on ly slashed the cost, but have also made the phone more compact and easier to use in many ways. As long as you won't miss high speed web browsing or the camera quality, you can have all the benefits of the latest touchscreen phones for a fraction of the cost. For example, on contract you can expect to get the LG KP500 with half-price line rental for the duration of the contract, or a freebie such as a Nintendo Wii Fit, an XBOX 360 or even a couple of hundred quid cashback! With deals this generous, it's very hard to find fault with the Cookie.

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This is a new and impressive find. DocShots provides publishers with a new option for presenting documents online while providing readers a better way to preview and download these documents. This free, turnkey service converts any posted document on your website or blog into a hover-able link that enables instant online document preview. With DocShots, there are no heavy downloads or disruptive wait times.

This is the screenshot for Docshot

To use Docshots, you'll need to log in to Docstoc, or take a moment to register, to generate your own custom DocShots code. The code is a few lines of javascript that you cut & paste into the bottom of your site’s HTML pages. All the documents you post on your website or blog will be accessible through your Docstoc profile. This way you can easily follow their usage statistics. Best of all, DocShots is made customizable for your site.

Users of Docshots have the controls to:

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Microsoft hasn’t been known to invest on any iPhone applications. However, surprisingly at that, it has bought a speech recognition company called Tellme.  With Tellme, you can speak on your phone and automatically it will give back a screen that would show the information you need.

TellMe’s CEO who is also Microsoft’s executive, Mike McCue, has been tinkering away on his desk, placing the application on Microsoft’s mobile phone. He said that he technically wants the application on every phone available. McCue is also working on other phone service companies; and in fact, Tellme was originally created for the Blackberry phone. With this, he merely said that he wants to be where the mobile customers are.

Besides the fact that iPhone is believed to be the dead-end of all mobile gizmos, McCue said that the iPhone seems to be bulky and it’s quite a headache to navigate while looking at local listings. Furthermore, one would have to click six times to tune in to your favorite song on the list. In this case, changing the music stored in your phone is somewhat like engaging in a technological war.

Voice application is seen as a great solution to this need of a better interface. It is believed that Microsoft will be following if not surpassing Apple for its mobile applications. McCue, on the other hand,  is working closely with the group working on Windows Mobile 7—Microsoft’s next version of mobile phone operating system.

Source: http://news.cnet.com

You've probably heard of blogging. Those long entries filled with pictures and descriptions of everyday happenings, gadgets, and mindless thoughts. Perhaps you already have a blog. But did you know there is an even easier way for you to put your thoughts online for all the world to see? Presenting Twitter.com, the most famous of many microblogging online facilities that brings blogging to a whole new level. What is it? Think of Twitter as a way to blog. The only difference is that you only have 140 characters to say that you want to say.

Not enough? For thousands of Twitter users it actually is. Think about how you have been posting blogs lately. Hasn't it been a pain just thinking up the many words that will help you express your single thought? This is where Twitter comes in very handy. Just send a tweet and perhaps a link to your thought or even your full feature blog and you are good to go. Want to tell your followers on Twitter (Followers are basically the community of friends that you will end up with on the site) that you are going on a great beach adventure? Then Twitter it! The results are known as tweets and the more up to date you are, the better.

Twitter is taking long strides in the industry right now. Although there is some speculation about where all of this is going, there have been reports of people actually putting up their Twitter accounts for sale as well. Check out this story. So you can actually make some cash from micro blogging as well. At the current Web 2.0 Expo, the latest development boasts of Twittervision by twitter user Dave Troy, a site that allows one to check out where all the latest tweets are coming from and what those tweets are. Opening the site and sitting back to watch it is a novelty on its own. You can join in on the fun as well. Just log onto your account on Twitter.com, make sure you plug in your location in settings, and you could end up watching yourself tweeting as well.

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