Windows Mobile 6.5.3 (not kidding)

That's right. Instead of calling this version Windows Mobile 6.6 or 6.7, it's 6.5.3. Don't you just love it? We've gone from:

• Windows Mobile 6
• Windows Mobile 6.1
• Windows Mobile 6.5
• Windows Mobile 6.5.3

Do you see a pattern?

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 will offer more touch-friendly features and will also allow users to leverage a capacitive touch screen (if you device has a capacitive screen). Plus, support for multi-touch gestures will be included. Let's hope that also includes "pinch to zoom." Most of the older smartphones use a resistive touch screen plus a stylus. I think the days of the toothpick stylus are gone. As smartphones use resistive touch screens and rely on finger-touch, we won't be using stylus pens anymore. 

The first Windows smartphone running 6.5.3 will be the Sony Ericsson Aspen.  You can expect to see larger buttons, a modified user interface, a magnify feature, an improved version of Internet Explorer, and several other new features.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (Google Android)

I love Sony products. Back in the old days of TDMA, I used to have an Ericsson phone. The upcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 will be running Google's Android smartphone operating system and this is going to be a fantastic device for those who can afford it. This device is going to be a "high-end" model with a large display that allows for multi-touch gestures. You can expect great performance on this device since it will run a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

The sad news is that I don't know if we're doing to see this model appear in the U.S. Right now, the U.K. store is estimating a Feb 10 launch date. You can stay current on new product launches by following the Sony Ericsson Product Launch Blog.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 (Google Android)

The upcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 will be running Google Android. Before we know it, every major smartphone manufacturer (except Apple and Palm) will have an Android smartphone on the market. We're seeing this from all the major players. How will Apple and Palm keep up with this type of competition?

According to the folks over at Brighthand:

The name "X3" hasn't been 100% confirmed. Some reports say it may have been changed to "X10" or the " Infinity". In any case, the code-name is definitely "Rachael".

Regardless of what this phone is called, the Sony Xperia X3 looks like it's going to be a really nice smartphone. As we see more medical apps for Android emerge, I think we're going to see a massive movement of medical students, residents, and attending physicians using Android-powered smartphones in the clinical setting.

Spy smartphone

I'm a James Bond fan. I don't own all the 007 movies, but I own several. In the latest James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, we see James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) using his Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot camera phone to take pictures of thugs in a large, dark auditorium. I want to know how he did that with no flash. Of course, the pictures were quite blurry in the movie, so that made it seem realistic (considering modern smartphone capabilities). However, I wouldn't be surprised if we see much more powerful cameras in future smartphones. Spies like James Bond will have very sophisticated gadgets in the near future.

Could you use your smartphone camera to spy on someone? Perhaps you know of someone who is an amateur computer spy. What if someone used a phone camera to take a photo of your driver's license when you're in line at the grocery store? Could he/she use this information to gain access to your personal information? What if someone took a picture of your credit card? When we're in public, we see so many people using a mobile phone. Should we be paranoid that they might be spying on us?

We live in a world where we're probably surrounded by computer hackers and spies. If you turn on the news, you'll hear of many stories of data breaches and identity theft. You may have an automated computer spy on your computer (either in the form of a virus or spyware). We must be vigilant and we must frequently change our computer passwords. Never share your password with anyone. Speaking of passwords, my Facebook account was hacked a few months ago. I checked all my computers to see if I could find some type of computer spy. Nothing ever came up.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 looks like it's going to be a really nice smartphone running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5.

It's a slider with a full QWERTY keyboard. When's the last time you saw an 8.1 megapixel camera on a smartphone? HTC and Samsung are now facing some competition in the Windows Phone market as more manufacturers are creating smartphones that have similar capabilities. Will Windows Mobile 6.5 impress users? I'm currently using it, and I'm not that impressed. Hopefully, users will be more impressed by the hardware more than the operating system.

Hottest New Phones

According to infoSync, the hottest new phones are currently:

• Palm Pre
• Nokia N97
• LG Arena
• Samsung S8300 UltraTouch
• RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900
• Pharos Traveler 137
• Sony Ericsson C901
• Sony Ericsson W508

Want to read more about each of these? Go here for the infoSync story