With the smartphone LG BL40 newchocolate it is all coming down to design: Because of the slim form factor and the black double clear-coat finish the LG BL40 newchocolate is a real looker. For a good reason: The LG BL40 stems from the first cell phone of the Black Label series, LG KG800, which was very popular at its time. The handset’s dimensions of 51 x 10.9 x 128 millimeters are as unusual as the 21:9-format touchscreen with a 4.0-inch diagonal and a resolution of 345 x 800 pixels. The oblongness of the phone also brings the older Communicator handsets of Nokia to mind.

When I had the chance to take a first glimpse at the new Samsung smartphone Omnia II I8000, I was excited about the phone: It offered all up-to-date functions, had a well responsive touchscreen and was easy on the eyes. Now that I had the opportunity to take a closer look at the Omnia II I8000 and after having found several weaknesses of the phone, I have to revise my first opinion. Please read this review in order to get to know more about the strong and the weak points of the new Samsung smartphone.

The Sony Ericsson Yari is a new kind of gaming phone. Users can play gesture-controlled games such as Fitness, Bowling or Tennis like with a Nintendo Wii or a Sony Playstation. The movements are registered by the mobile phone either by the integrated accelerometer or by the secondary camera above the display. However, you shouldn’t buy the Sony Ericsson Yari just because you love mobile gaming because the gaming fun is limited and telephone, messaging and mobile internet features and applications are not impressive and with limited purpose.

The new Android 2.0 (Eclair) smartphone Motorola Milestone (the GSM version of Motorola Droid) will be available in Germany at O2 Germany and Vodafone stores. O2 Germany will sell the Motorola Milestone for 481 euros without contract, Vodafone has not revealed any prices yet. At German online stores the Motorola Milestone will be available for prices beginning at 450 euros without contract.

The Samsung Jet S8000 comes with the TouchWiz 2.0 user interface with widgets of several online services, a new visual upgrade and a new 3D cube system of selecting applications that brings a blend of the Apple iPhone and the LG KM900 Arena to mind. A 800 megahertz processor ensures that apllications start quickly and run smoothly and that the touch screen is responsive under the finders. This makes the mobile phone easy to use, however, you won’t experience any jet-like feeling using the Samsung Jet S8000.

The AMOLED touch screen is one of the strong points, the large number multi media features another. On the other hand, the smartphone gives the user some kind of plastic-feel and there is no app store by Samsung yet.

Now the city maps of Stadtplandienst.de can also be used on touchscreen smartphones like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Garmin and the online hotel reservation portal Hotel reservation Service (HRS) make hotel booking and arrival easier. Users can now transfer hotel data directly from the HRS website to their Garmin mobile navigation device.

Articles and recommendations of the user-generated local review site Qype can now also be read on the Apple iPhone.