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HTC’s no stranger to stuffing ridiculous mechanisms into smartphones. I mean, have you seen the HTC Tilt — or better yet, the HTC Universal ? Looks like they’re at it again, if this just unearthed patent is any indication. The graphic above may be a bit confusing, so here’s how it works: Imagine a clamshell phone, like the LG enV . Instead of opening the handset by pulling the hinged halves apart, however, you slide the top layer down a few millimeters, and bam! It springs open. When you slide the top half down, you’re breaking the connection between two magnets (one in each half of the phone) that held it closed, allowing the spring-loaded hinge to do its thing. If you’ve ever owned a Sidekick, you know how oddly addicting the act of opening/closing a spring-loaded handset can be when you’ve got idle hands. The patent, as dug up by the guys over at WMPoweruser , can be found here . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

HTC’s no stranger to stuffing ridiculous mechanisms into smartphones. I mean, have you seen the HTC Tilt — or better yet, the HTC Universal ? Looks like they’re at it again, if this just unearthed patent is any indication. The graphic above may be a bit confusing, so here’s how it works: Imagine a clamshell phone, like the LG enV . Instead of opening the handset by pulling the hinged halves apart, however, you slide the top layer down a few millimeters, and bam! It springs open. When you slide the top half down, you’re breaking the connection between two magnets (one in each half of the phone) that held it closed, allowing the spring-loaded hinge to do its thing. If you’ve ever owned a Sidekick, you know how oddly addicting the act of opening/closing a spring-loaded handset can be when you’ve got idle hands. The patent, as dug up by the guys over at WMPoweruser , can be found here . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Two things. First of all: No, the image has absolutely nothing to do with the post. It was between “Stock photo of a bunch of survey check boxes” and this picture of a cat with a human smile – which would you have chosen? Second: Please take this reader survey . We’re working on some awesome new stuff moving forward, and knowing a bit more about our readers would really help make it happen. It’ll only take a moment, and I’d really appreciate it. Crunch Network : TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Two things. First of all: No, the image has absolutely nothing to do with the post. It was between “Stock photo of a bunch of survey check boxes” and this picture of a cat with a human smile – which would you have chosen? Second: Please take this reader survey . We’re working on some awesome new stuff moving forward, and knowing a bit more about our readers would really help make it happen. It’ll only take a moment, and I’d really appreciate it. Crunch Network : TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Two things. First of all: No, the image has absolutely nothing to do with the post. It was between “Stock photo of a bunch of survey check boxes” and this picture of a cat with a human smile – which would you have chosen? Second: Please take this reader survey . We’re working on some awesome new stuff moving forward, and knowing a bit more about our readers would really help make it happen. It’ll only take a moment, and I’d really appreciate it. Crunch Network : TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

For years, Japan was the innovation leader in the cell phone industry , until South Korea and US started catching up rapidly. If you look back at what Nippon’s mighty carriers have released in the past few months , you mainly see super-powerful handsets with large OLED screens, 12MP cameras, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, double digital TV tuners, etc. But the form factor never really changes, as the majority of Japanese consumers still demands clamshell phones with jog dials enabling them to conveniently thumb-text emails. But if a country churns out 100 different handsets per year, there have to be some exceptions. And the most notable exception (that now has been priced and dated) is Fujitsu’s F-04B featuring the world’s first separable two-module body. In other words, the phone breaks into 2 parts that can be used separately (a keyboard section and a display slate). One part is a 3.4-inch touchscreen with a 12.2MP camera (there’s also an inner camera), acceleration sensor, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, e-wallet function etc. The other part is a full numeric/QWERTY keyboard with a geomagnetic and an acceleration sensor. The parts are joined by a magnet and connected via Bluetooth. Fujitsu says the main idea is to enable users to send or receive mails while talking on the phone. During video calls, users can keep the keyboard section to their ear while holding the display slate at a distance. When horizontally attached, the touchscreen will switch to character entry mode or display a “virtual” game pad so that users can write emails or play games (the keyboard can be used as a game controller, too). In areas with weak signals, for example in a house, users can put the display section near to a window and go inside to talk via the keyboard part (up to 10m away). Fujitsu claims the Separate Keitai offers superior battery life, too, as users can expect 2,000 hours of standby and 500 minutes of continuous talk, basically tripling the battery life of conventional Japanese cell phones. I first saw the so-called Separate Keitai (Keitai means handset in Japanese) back in October 2008 when it made its debut as a prototype at the CEATEC exhibition near Tokyo, and thought it’s a great concept. Fujitsu already plans to offer Bluetooth accessories for the device, for example a mini projector that could be remote-controlled with the keyboard section. As part of NTT Docomo’s winter lineup , the phone will hit Japanese stores in either March or April for $660. Here are some videos showing the Separate Keitai in action: Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

I saw a few of these pictures floating around a little while ago, when Gigabyte was announcing it was putting out an Android handset. “Good for them,” I thought, “but they couldn’t come up with something a little more original?” As it turns out — they might have. Because it turns out those pictures were fakeity-fake . I mean, the pictures themselves were real pictures, but they did not depict an actual Gigabyte handset. Seems weird that there would be this amount of intrigue associated with something as un-exciting as a phone launch by a relatively minor player, but hey. I don’t make the news, I just report it. The GSmart PR person added that the phone they’re working on is totally different, and likely won’t be seen until late 2010. You’d think they would hurry — by late 2010 we’re going to be swimming in Android devices. [via Phandroid ] Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

After so many years of hoping and wishing, developers can start getting excited about coding for the Symbian platform. Sure, it’s taken a while and some might be looking forward to Maemo 6 later this year far more than a newer version of Symbian, but opening up the source code to the world’s largest operating system is nothing to sneeze at. The Symbian operating system is aging and hasn’t changed dramatically over the last several years and this is exactly what the platform needs for a major facelift. The Symbian Foundation has already set up a page full of resources for developers who want to build apps for the platform. There are videos, code examples, books, tutorials and forums to foster a strong development community. So if you’re a developer looking to jump into making mobile apps, or expanding on what you might have done for Android, iPhone OS or webOS, you may feel right at home with Symbian. We’re sure it’s not going to take a lot of convincing if you’re familiar with the platform, but here are some fun facts that Symbian decided to put up: As of February 2010, the number of cumulative shipments of Symbian devices equates to one for every person living in the United States (with some to spare). As of February 2010, if every Symbian device shipped was laid end to end, the chain of phones would stretch around the circumference of the earth. If all the Symbian devices shipped up to February 2010 were laid flat on an average UK Premiership football pitch, it would be filled to a depth of 3.5 metres. Now you really can’t say that there won’t be much exposure for your apps! [ Symbian via PhoneScoop ] Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

It seems like only yesterday that T-Mobile BlackBerry users were being treated to the Curve 8900 when they were feeling Bold 9000 envy. But alas, the glory would be short lived as it has reached the end of its life cycle. We’re sad to see it go, but we won’t miss it too much. After all, the trackpad equipped Curve 8520 and Bold 9700 are so attractively priced right now that the 8900 was relegated to being the small fish in a big pond. So farewell! Thou art too dear for our possessing. [Via T-Mobile ] Crunch Network : TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz (previously known as “Kurara”) still doesn’t have an official release date, but it looks like someone in Sony Ericsson’s camp has been playing with one lately. The company just released a pair of sample videos, marking the first time anyone outside of SE has seen footage shot on this handset. Now, given that one of the flagship features of this handset is its 720p video recording mode, we didn’t exactly expect the camera quality to be garbage – but hot damn are these videos impressive. Check out the videos below, won’t you? The first video alone is pretty impressive, even if they are kind of cheating; if those E-Trade commercials and countless viral videos have proven anything, it’s that babies make everything better. That second video, though, of the rock concert… that’s amazing. As every 15 year old girl standing in the front row at a concert blocking everyone’s view with their stupid cell phone could tell you, concert footage tends to come out looking like a pile of hot garbage. The lighting goes from ridiculously dark to blindingly bright, the music is too loud.. it’s just a terrible combination. Now, I’m not sure if there’s some sort of pre-staged (or post-shoot) trickery going on here – but if that’s impromptu footage straight off the phone, consider me impressed. Really, really impressed. [Via AllAboutSymbian ] Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.