What, i hear you ask, is Quantam Physics going to allow my phone to do? Run on nuclear power? Transport me to another dimension? Shrink the family pet to a mere fraction of it’s original size? Well, in a word no, it isn’t anything quite as cool as those, but, it is something we feel could become an integral part of everyday Smartphone use. What the Yorkshire based company have come up with, is a technology that will not only allow a touchscreen to register the touch from your digit, but also how much pressure you are applying at any given time.

What this will allow a phone to do is to interpret how much pressure is being applied into varying responses, i.e. for instance if you were scrolling a page and wanted to scroll faster, you could apply more pressure on the screen. There are many applications for this that spring to mind although probably the most obvious of which will be the inclusion of this technology into gaming.

The Yorkshire company has since sold the rights to this technology to manufacturing giants, Samsung and Japanese Touchscreen manufacturer Nissha; so expect to see this technology making it’s debut in mobile touchscreen application in the not so distant future.

With no official specs on the table for the Apple tablet (likely to be called the iSlate), it’s hard to pinpoint exactly who the product is aimed at. The obvious target market is netbook users. An ultra portable, user friendly touchscreen device sporting Mac OS or Windows could conceivably replace a netbook. Couple this with Apple’s stunning design and unrivaled ability at generating market interest and the tablet could be a runaway success. However, the lack of a physical keyboard could deter some whilst others may wish to avoid the early adoptor phase to see how third party support develops.

Along with netbooks, the tablet could also have the high end smartphone fixed firmly in its sights as it looks to enter the market this year. Whilst very few cold hard facts are known about the HP tablet or proposed iSlate, one company who have laid their cards on the table are DigitalRise, a little known company specialising in home entertainment solutions. Debuting their X9 tablet at CES earlier in the month, DigitalRise confirmed the device will feature built in 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi, GPS and a webcam along with a rather tasty 10.2 inch multi-touch touchscreen display. In terms of size, the X9 is more than double even the largest smartphone (currently the 4.3 inch HTC HD2) and is unlikely to handle voice calls but a superior web browsing experience and powerful (relatively speaking) Intel Atom processor could put the smartphone under some serious pressure.

Will Apple risk cannibalising their crowning glory, the iPhone, in an attempt to coax users on to the tablet or do they see the iSlate as the perfect companion to the iPhone capable of more heavy duty computing? Obviously the emergence of tablets won’t have people abandoning their smartphones in favour of the device but will tablets offer enough to encourage us to carry both? Only time will tell.

Normally, i detest these Star-Trek wannabe devices because frankly, excluding the rare few, they’re just isn’t any conceivable way that a piece of plastic hanging from your ear could be considered cool or fashionable, that was until now.

This is the Jabra Stone and it is said to break the mould of the traditional headset. I think we can all agree, when docked, it is an incredibly sleek and stylish looking thing isn’t it? The unit looks to be an almost seamless, polished and perfectly formed pebble; which in actual fact was what Jabra sent it’s customers as a marketing stunt.

As far as specs go, you can expect 8 hours of talk time, thanks to the re-charging on-the-go capabilities of the Dock, as well as up to 12 days on standby. It also has something built in known as Noise Blackout Extreme Technology which doesn’t just sound cool, it apparently completely eliminates background noise. Apparently there is also what Jabra describe as a “nearly invisible” touch-controlled volume pad.

Expect to pay around the £99 mark for this bit of kit, which may sound expensive, but is worth it in our opinion.

Mobile Wi-Fi on the 3 network works in the same way as traditional mobile broadband modems. The included sim sits inside the Mobile Wi-Fi device and gives you a connection of up to 3.6 Mbps. The difference is that rather than connecting via a USB cable, you connect wirelessly via a Wi-Fi connection. The Mobile Wi-Fi device can support multiple connections at once so is perfect when shared between students or for a start up business. Best of all, as all you need s a Wi-Fi enabled device to connect and get online, you don’t have to just use a Laptop, you can use anything from an iPod Touch to your mobile phone and even a Sony PSP.

The Mobile Wi-Fi device from three is available on a 1 month rolling contract so you don’t have to worry about signing your life away. £69.99 gets you the device, 5GB of data a month and you’re good to go. The Mobile Wi-Fi modem is not only great when you’re out and about but also doubles as a wireless router when you’re at home. Let’s say you’re upstairs and your friend is downstairs and you want to watch a movie he’s got stored on his laptop. Simply connect to his laptop using the Mobile Wi-Fi device as a router and share pictures, music, movies - whatever you want! In stock now at Mobiles.co.uk, click here to check it out!

In the run up to the announcement, a specifically arranged webcast was aired entitled “put your ears in control”. It is this that proved to be the most telling insight into Sony Ericsson’s plans as they unveil to the world, drum roll…. a new pair of headphones. Yes, when Sony Ericsson said they were going to change the way we listen to music, we didn’t think they meant it so literally. The new MH907 headphones literally put your ears in control as they offer motion activated controls. Pop both the buds into your ears and the music starts. Pull a headphone out and your music will pause. Simple, yet effective. These controls are mirrored when using the headphones for handsfree calling. Plug ‘em in to answer a call and take one out to end it. Okay so it didn’t exactly deliver the life changing event promised, but still it’s good to see someone putting a new twist on an old product. Check out the video below to see a demonstration in eye-wateringly cute cartoon format.

And, as pointless as it seems on first encounter, after watching the promo video, we actually quite like the idea, the only slight problem we have with it; it’s American, and whether or not the UK is to be blessed with such an app is yet to be seen . (It can’t be long before other car manufacturers do something similar surely?)

The new app allows the owner to schedule services, access trouble shooting guides and place tow requests for those times the car isn’t, well… at its best . The application automatically submits the location and car details for you, so you spend less time having to spell out every detail of your car two or three times because the operator on the other end can’t hear a word over the traffic belting past, beeping their horns and shouting obscenities.

As the video shows, the user can enter all of the details of the car, which will be then submitted to the company, with even the ability to give the car a nickname, quite what the relevance of the cars nickname is to the mechanic we don’t know, but we’re pretty sure its a feature female MINI owners will love.

Whether or not this service works well or even at all, we don’t know, what we do know is, for those of you sitting with a Blackberry Curve or Bold in your pocket, you need not feel left out as the application would be available for you too, if they ever bring it to the UK.

Sony E

But what we do have is some features of the RIM watch, so how does it stack up against the LG? well, lets find out…

Firstly, the RIM watch is not going to be a standalone device, it is a bluetooth paired accessory to accompany the Blackberry phones, but hang on, that doesn’t mean you should rule it out completely, because not only is it likely to mean a significantly lower price tag, it also means that it is far less likely to suffer from software bugs and other issues that may arise when trying to include all of the features of a phone into a watch that isn’t the size of that worn by Flavor Flav.

In addition to this Blackberry has promised to build in what is being called a “solid selection of features.” Quite what this means, we don’t know. But from the rumours and what RIM have released, we can assume that it includes the ability to check messages (we assume that will include text messages, e-mail and Blackberry Messenger,) as well as displaying Facebook and Twitter posts.

Keep watching the blog for photos and updates about price and the release date.

If you like the security of a stylus to fall back on, you’re restricted to a phone with a resistive touchscreen display as it reacts generally to pressure applied and so can be prodded with just about anything (though we recommend you stick to a stylus). But, does this mean you have to sacrifice the responsiveness of a capacitive touchscreen in favour of the more workman like technology used in resistive touchscreens to get your stylus fix? Not if HTC has anything to say about it!

HTC, those purveyors of all things touchscreen, have been spotted filing a patent for a stylus that is fully compatible with standard capacitive touchscreen displays. Described as sporting a magnetically charged tip, HTC are confident the stylus will be compatible with a standard, unmodified capacitive touchscreen. Those using the iPhone without trouble may see the need for a stylus as over kill but spare a thought for the fat fingered and cold handed among us (the iPhones touchscreen display wont work if you’re wearing gloves y’see!). Interesting stuff and hopefully proof that capacitive will become the norm in terms of touchscreen technology.

The watch offers a caller display option, will alert you if you leave your phone behind and alerts for new incoming SMS