Where else? The British have decided that they need to use bomb-proof garbage cans, that not only won’t allow terrorists to attack the city starting with them, but will also feature LCDs (bulletproof?) that stream travel info and news. How about the stock market?

I can’t find that clever, no matter how I twist it, but I do understand why they decided to take such a decision. Apparently since the mid-80′s, Londoners stopped seeing rubbish bins in subway stations, but that’s about to stop after producer Media Metrica will install their totally indestructible one ton bomb-proof garbage cans.

They say it can an absorb heat from explosives, prevent shrapnel spread, and extinguish “fireballs” but I wouldn’t count on it if they’d bring a couple of these things in Bucharest. We have great savagers that would be great testers.  – via Times Online

Be it cars or new technology, the Brits always seem to get their hands on these things among the first. That’s not the exact case with the new Nokia N85 that is going to hit UK stores tomorrow : October 31st, which is later than other European countries for example.

The Finnish dual slider is actually a multimedia powerhouse that is supposed to replace the N81 with a modern and compacter design. But it’s not only the design that gets the attention because it has quite some qualities inside. First of all, I’m impressed with the 2.6-inch OLED display (16M colors, 240 x 320 pixels), features an accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, has a Touch-sensitive Navi wheel, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, GPRS & EDGE, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth, a microUSB 2.0 port, email client, a headset jack and FM radio, plus an interesting 1200 mAh Li-ion battery.

Early reviews make it look like a winner. We’ll see how things are exactly …

The success of the T-Mobile G1 is why new cellphone makers decided to release new Android handset. That’s the case with ASUS, who’s been invited by Google to join the Open Handset Alliance, and in return they’re going to come up with an Android mobile phone by the first half of 2009 (more like summer).

ASUS is also expected to ditch the Ericsson Mobile Platform (or EMP) in its phones and go for the Qualcomm and Marvell platform. Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Ericsson is not yet a member in OHA while the other two, are!

Good game Google, on making the cell phone market even more crowded that before and on making people play by your rules. – via DigiTimes

I’m not sure about you, but I sure love a glass of good wine from time to time. However, it’s not my drinking habits that you may want to know about, but the fact that the new European Union trade rule forbids all wineries to use the words “PORT” unless they’re from Portugal. Pretty stupid if you ask me, so that’s why California’s Peltier Station Winery decided to mock them up. The USB wine that they’ve been released, has a very interesting label designed by 6 West Design who’s fill-in-the-blanks on the back of it, like “an im____ant agreement” or “in your ____folio.”

I really think they did the right thing, don’t you think? – via Wired

Casio and the Japanese from KDDI AU, have been working together these days to release the new EXIFILM-series W63CA flip phone that might just pack the best camera on the market. It’s a 8.1 megapixels that features a nine-point autofocus and wide angle, has a 3.1-inch OLED display (480 x 800), face detection, anti-shake technology and a YouTube mode that records VGA video at 30fps to a microSD card.

Apart from being a great camera, the less than 0.7-inch thick EXIFILM W63CA is also featuring Stereo Bluetooth, has an integrated dictionary (Japanese to English) and will go live in pink, white gold or green, early November. – via Akihabara

The new T-Mobile G1 or the Google Phone, has been released in the US last week and the Chinese already got their hands on it and are illegally selling it for RMB 3,999 (about $550). In the US, G1 is bound on a two-year contract with T-Mobile and sells for $180 so I suppose it’s too bad for those that want to pay the extra fee (add $73 to unlock it if needed) because I’m sure Google will soon hit the Asian markets and the price won’t be that peppered. Next to get the Android-based mobile phone, are the Brits in early November, followed by Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2009. – via Pacificepoch

What a splendid way to honor someone! This beautiful looking pen is as much a winner as all the other luxury writing tools that Caran D’Ache has presented so far.

This Caran D’Ache 1010 Limited Edition takes its name from “Ten minutes past ten” and has rightfully been designed as a tribute to the exceptional Swiss watch making industry. It’s made of rhodium-coated silver with a clip in similarity to a watch hand also has a balance wheel placed between two rubies under a sapphire dome with tiny tick marks embossed around the barrel.

The marvelous 1010 even has a piston pump with a ruby and sapphire crystal dome at the tip and is available at a cool price range starting from $19,000.

Lately I’ve been trying to find a car amplifier that can help me out with the latest Coldplay album, Viva La Vida. Listening to music with at max volume is key element for those times when I’m driving alone. It’s like RedBull directly injected into my blood, so I really need it.

I can’t say that my system is not getting the job done, but I needed some extra help and that’s where the new Kenwood KAC-9104D steps in. For just $182 (that’s how much I paid for it) I got myself a mono car amplifier with an outstanding reliability and advanced sound quality, all packed in a 30-percent smaller rugged aluminum cast chassis, that sends some 900 watts of RMS to my subwoofers, which may be just enough to not hear the Police behind you.

Back to what I think about Kenwood’s KAC-9104D, it has a built-in low pass filter that adjusts the output so that you receive the best possible sound and also a subsonic filter that eliminates inaudible and ultra low bass sounds that interfere with performance.

Also interesting is the fact that it can withstand a low impedance of 1 ohm which gives you more flexibility for connecting to several car stereo speakers (exactly why I’ve bought it), has two channel speaker level input connectors and a two way phase switch.

I love the way I spent my $182, and it looks like you can get it for even lower if you browse enough. – via TestFreaks

For the last few months I’ve been waiting for someone to come up with a statistic saying how many new mobile phones are being announced each day, each our, each minute or second. It would be fun seeing all these phone giants battling for market share, wouldn’t it?

The latest groundbreaking release this fall is Samsung Pixon M8800, a 15.5mm thick 8 megapixel camera phone that packs some incredible photography skills. Autofocus, built-in double flash with LED, image stabilization and anti-shaking software, panoramic shooting, face/smile/blink detection are just a few of the features that can turn the new Pixon into a pretty good point-and-shoot camera. It also records videos at a resolution of 720 x 480 @ 30 fps, or 320 x 240 pixels @ 120 fps.

Other than a perfect camera phone, it packs a 3.2-inch display (400 x 240) with 256k colors, a TouchWiz interface from the i900 Omnia, 2100 MHz HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, built-in GPS, a built-in memory of 200MB, Micro SD slot (up to 8GB), 1000 mAh Li-ion battery and unexplainable … it misses WiFi. It does, however, play divx, xvid, h.263, h.264, wmv, mp4, mp3, aac, wma si amr files. Talking about audio and video playback, it has a stunning feature. It tries to mimic a 5.1 surround device.

Samsung Pixon M8800 is expected in stores at the end of October, start of November, and the price should be somewhere near $800. I think it’s going to be a top seller, right from the begining.

Though announced a while back, the new Nokia E71 is the first mobile phone that got a 10 out of 10 rating on TestFreaks. No it’s not perfect, but the features, the price and the design are some key elements to consider buying one. It’s a great cell from Nokia so we decided a review of one of their best mobile phones ever and the first with a QWERTY keyboard, was indeed needed.

First of all some specs about it. It’s a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE mobile phone, that features 3G/3.6 HSDPA, has a 2.36-inch QVGA display (320 x 320), a 3.2 megapixel camera, up to 8GB Micro SD cards, BT, GPS, WiFi and of course a QWERTY keyboard.

PROs

• the design : is one of the most attractive smart phones or email phones to date, with a certain finesse the metal casing really attracts
• email : it’s a business oriented mobile phone that allows you to access your personal email on Gmail or Yahoo, and connects to the internet almost everywhere you go via HSDPA (3.5G) or Wi-Fi
• Wi-Fi scanner : very useful when trying to find a hotspot to log on
• browser : all pages are displayed in full, supports Flash and YouTube videos and streams audio
• it runs on the S60 operating system that allows you to download and install all sorts of applications including Google Maps
• GPS : used with the sat-nav feature from G Maps you can accurately track your location and get directions
• battery : it last long enough with only one charge, an ideal candidate for those who stress test their mobile phones. also if you don’t use Wi-Fi or HSDPA you can turn these off, and that will also increase battery life

CONs

• a very disappointing camera

Though the camera is bad, I really think it deserves a 10, because it does what a mobile phone should do these days. Kudos for the Nokia E71. It’s a great phone.

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via TestFreaks