LG’s KF700 shown at the 2008 Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

LG’s Venus-like KF600 at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

A quick demo of the Nokia N78 and its new touch sensitive scrolling d-pad controller. You can see the new S60 3rd Edition FP2 fading transition screens, as well. Shot live at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Morph is a concept demonstrating some of the possibilities nanotechnologies might enable in future communication devices. Morph can sense its environment, is energy harvesting and self cleaning . Morph is a flexible two-piece device that can adapt its shape to different use modes. Nanotechnology enables to have adaptive materials yet rigid forms on demand. It is also featured in the MoMA online exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind”. It has been a collaboration project of Nokia Research Center and Cambridge Nanoscience Center.

HTC’s Touch was the first handset to offer a user experience comparable to the iPhone, largely by emphasizing the kind of intuitive touchscreen navigation that made Apple’s brainchild so popular. Based on HTC’s animated, three-dimensional TouchFLO interface technology, the Touch recognizes and responds to the sweep of a finger across the screen, complete with the intelligence to distinguish between finger and stylus input. A new 2.0 version of the TouchFLO UI, codenamed Manila, is scheduled to debut sometime later this year.

Zeemote’s patented Zeemote JS1 is a handheld, Bluetooth-based controller promising near-console gameplay for mobile devices. Measuring 3.7×1.4x.08 inches and weighing less than 2 ounces, the ergonomically-designed Zeemote controller features a thumbstick and four assignable trigger buttons, offering real analog control over mobile games and related applications and services. Eliminating the keypad from the equation results in more natural and fluid gameplay, but the question is whether even hardcore gamers will consent to carrying an additional accessory, even one so small and light.

Motorola’s ModeShift technology combines mechanical engineering expertise with ergonomic principles to optimize the user experience, emphasizing hand placement, keypad spacing and thumb movement to create an organic, intuitive UI. ModeShift relies on tactile responses to simulate key clicks, transforming the device into one of multiple modes–voice, music or camera, for example–with the press of a button. ModeShift will debut in March via Motorola’s forthcoming ROKR E8 music device.

Skyfire is a free, downloadable Windows Mobile smartphone browser touted as a “better than iPhone” experience. In addition to enabling full audio and video, Flash content, QuickTime, advanced Ajax and Java, Skyfire displays web pages in miniaturized form, a la iPhone, with a SmartFit feature that resizes each article’s text to fit within each individual handset’s display. No less impressive, the web pages load within seconds.

The Modu system comprises a tiny, 1.3-ounce core module that integrates with a series of “jackets,” effectively enabling users to transform their phones into different kinds of mobile devices depending on individual or contextual needs. The core module’s domino-like UI is extremely simple and user-friendly, with a micro-USB interface and a proprietary port on the bottom.

Brief run through on the soon to be released Nokia N96