QWERTY is pretty much the king of smartphone text input. But there’s a new challenger on the horizon. It’s called Swype, it works with one-hand input and, yeah, it is pretty fast.

Yes, the first thing you may notice is that Swype technically uses a QWERTY layout. But instead of pushing each key individually, you drag your finger from letter to letter.

It’s tough to tell if the speed gains are legitimate, given this video has been created by the Swype camp. I will say, however, given that this demo is one hand vs two, the technology certainly holds its own. What do you think? Would you be willing to part with traditional QWERTY to spell words through nonsensical doodles?

Swype will debut in Verizon’s Samsung Omnia II arriving early next month before making its way to an unnamed Android phone next year. [Swype via TechCrunch via http://www.ohgizmo.com/2009/11/24/verizons-samsung-omnia-ii-to-be-first-to-sport-swype-text-input/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ohgizmo+%28OhGizmo!%29]

As we noted when we first saw the ai.rs video below, the TouchWiz 2.0 UI looks nice, but the resistive touch lag is a shame given the 800Mhz processor.

Key features:
• 3.7-inch ultra-brilliant (Wide Video Graphics Array Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) responsive touch screen
• Virtual QWERTY keyboard with Swype technology: input text faster and easier with one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional, which keeps customers connected with corporate and personal e-mail and synchronisation of schedules and contacts
• Microsoft Office Mobile: manage Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
• Enhanced 3D cube user interface
• Full HTML Web browsing capabilities with Opera 9.5 enhanced browser
• One-touch access to social networking sites via shortcut widgets
•Supports Verizon Wireless services, including V CAST Music with Rhapsody, V CAST Video on Demand, V CAST Song ID, Visual Voice Mail, VZW Tones, VZ NavigatorSM, Mobile IM and Mobile Email

Additional specifications:
• Full messaging suite, including SMS, MMS, Mobile IM, Mobile Email and Corporate Email
• Access to social networking applications, including YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, with Samsung’s TouchWiz 2.0 user interface
• 5-megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus and camcorder and decoder with DNSe technology and on-device editing capabilities
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (no N)
• Support for Divx and Xvid movie files
• 8 GB internal memory and expandable memory of up to 16 GB with microSD memory card (card sold separately)
• luetooth® profiles supported: headset (mono and stereo), hands-free (car kits), object push for vCard, basic imaging, phonebook access profiles. Also supports serial port, dial-up networking, object push for vCalendar, file transfer, basic printing and human interface device profiles

Available Colors: Black with red accents on the battery cover

Panasonic Z1

Panasonic’s flagship HDTV is its thinnest 54-inch (137cm) plasma HDTV ever, with only 2.5cm depth. They did it by eliminating a third sheet of glass found in all other plasmas except Pioneer’s Kuro and bonding the anti-reflective coating directly top glass. The Z1 employs SiBEAM’s 60GHz 1080p for wireless glitch-free images sent via the included transmitter/media box from up to 10m away. The Z1 has THX picture mode and a custom calibration mode, plus nice bonus features including Viera Cast internet connectivity and an SD card reader for photos. The Z1 delivers amazing performance with full 1080-line motion resolution, accurate HD colour, deep black levels and 96Hz for judder free movie viewing.

The sexiest HDTV of 2009, the TH-P54Z1A has an RRP of $7000 in Australia.

Pioneer Kuro Plasma Screens

The Kuro models offer the deepest black of any high-definition display on the market — without any white-letter-on-black-background halos occasionally seen on plasma TVs. The Kuro models feature hand-selected parts, 6cm depth, custom calibration, 72Hz refresh and control over the internet via its Ethernet connection. The Pioneer uses a single top sheet of glass to minimise internal reflections, with the anti-reflection coating bonded directly to the surface.

In Australia, the 50-inch (127cm) PDPLX509A retails for $6499, while a 60-inch (152cm) size PDPLX609A has an RRP of $12,499.

Samsung Series 8

Samsung has the slimmest LED television in the world (3cm deep). It’s feature packed with wireless connectivity, four HDMI inputs, no edge blur thanks to 200Hz refresh, a PV+C input for connection to your computer or HTPC, and it uses 40 per cent less energy than previous similar-sized LCD TVs. This is a benchmark LED LCD to judge against every other make and model.

All this performance comes at a price. The 46-inch (117cm) UA46B8000 and the 55-inch (140cm) UA55B8000 retails for $4699 and $6499, respectively.

LG LH90QD

This LG has all the hot LCD performance features video freaks crave, including LED backlights for excellent black levels, invisible speakers, and TruMotion 200Hz for increased sharpness and reduced motion blur. This LG also has all the tweaks anyone could ask for including ISF calibration and LG’s “picture wizard” for user set-up without calibration discs or external test signals. The LH90 isn’t the thinnest LED LCD, but it more than makes up for it with its price.

The LG LH90 series is available in 42-inch (107cm) and 47-inch (119cm) screen sizes in Australia. The 42LH90QD has an RRP of $4024 and the 47LH90QD goes for $4944. In case you couldn’t tell, the LH90 series is the value/performance leader of the pack.

Sony XBR

The XBR series is the only HDTV available with separate red, green and blue LED backlights (rather than all white). It’s got accurate HDTV colour, local dimming for deep black levels, enough brightness for a beach house, a 178-degree viewing angle, 100Hz Motionflow technology and Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 signal processing.

There are three screen sizes available in Australia. The KDL40XBR45 40-inch (102cm) version retails for $2999, the 46-inch (117cm) KDL46XBR45 retails for $4999, and the 55-inch (140cm) KDL55XBR45 goes for $8499.

Gary Merson is the HD Guru, the industry’s leading HDTV journalist. He’s been reviewing TVs for well over a decade, and recently wrote a guide to choosing an HDTV.

As we noted when we first saw the ai.rs video below, the TouchWiz 2.0 UI looks nice, but the resistive touch lag is a shame given the 800Mhz processor. Still, there you have it. Engadget’s tipster says the phone will hit telesales, online and retail stores on December 2. [Samsung via Engadget]

Omnia II (I8000) Specification

Network: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA 5.76Mbps
EDGE/GPRS 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz
UMTS 900 / 1900 / 2100MHz
Display: 65K WVGA AMOLED Display (3.7″, 480 x 800)
Advanced R-type Touch Screen
OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Camera: 5 Megapixel CMOS / Auto-Focus /
Dual Power LED / Face Detection / Smile Shot
Mobile Blogging / Geo Tagging / Photo Editor
Audio: Audio Format Support (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA)
WMDRM, OMA DRM 2.1 / Find Music (Music Recognition)
Bluetooth® Stereo Headset (A2DP)
FM Radio with RDS / 3.5 earjack
Video: Video Format Support (DivX, XviD, H.263,
H.264, WMV9, MPEG4)
Video Recording & Playing (30fps@ D1(720×480))
Video Editing (Trim video, Audio dubbing,
Live dubbing, Add subtitle)
Value Added: A-GPS with Navigation (3D Map) / LBS
TouchWiz 2.0 UI with Mobile Widget / 3D Media Gate
Multi-task manager / 3D Interactive Games
Connectivity:Bluetooth® v 2.0 / USB 2.0 / Wi-Fi
Memory: Internal Memory : 2GB/8GB/16GB
External Memory : microSDHC™ (up to 32GB)
Size: 118 x 60 x 11.9 mm
Battery: Talk time : Up to 10 hours (3G)
Standby time : Up to 430 hours (3G)

The first 100Hz LCD TV sets were shown off by Samsung back at CeBit back in 2006. Using advanced processing powers, the TV analysed each frame, and then created a composite frame in between the two to smooth over motion blurring. This essentially allows the picture to run at 100 frames per second, which translates to smoother pictures.

If that sounds a bit confusing you should check out this old post explaining the NTSC version of the same technology, 120Hz. The difference between the two is that NTSC traditionally runs at 60Hz, where as PAL runs at 50Hz, and so both techs simply double the frame rate. It’s argued though that 120Hz, which is a multiple of the 24p frame rate of movies, is therefore superior for watching films.

The simple rule today is that if you’re buying an LCD TV, make sure it has at least 100Hz technology on board. There’s another, newer version of the tech called 200Hz, but as a minimum requirement, having 100Hz is a must.

History of TV is Giz AU’s month-long look back at the development of the world-changing medium and its influence on our daily lives.

We’ve heard rumours like this before, but this time there are a few distinct elements that seem credible, maybe even enough to make us rethink our previous position. The rumblings are a bit vague, but point to an outsider-made but Google-dictated device, sort of like how Microsoft’s first Zune was actually made by Toshiba — and in the case of the Google Phone, there are a couple options for the possible manufacturer. The obvious choice is HTC, who’s been the major hardware manufacturer of Android devices, but TechCrunch hears that the source of the hardware will be Korean, not Taiwanese, which likely points to either Samsung or LG.

Samsung has a long-standing relationship with Apple, supplying tons of parts for the iPhone, so maybe LG would step up to the plate and develop this phantom device. LG’s no stranger to Android, but has been a minor player up to this point — maybe they’ve been working on this mysterious Google Phone in the meantime, which is supposedly aiming for an early 2010 release.

[TechCrunch]

Gold Winner: PAD (small domestic helpers) are “digital pets” that monitor heat, air quality and the welfare of plants in the home.

Silver Winner: ‘Stand Off’ turns off appliances remotely using Bluetooth technology.

Bronze Award: ‘Re-Siker’ is a recycling station that automatically sorts, bags and tags recyclable items and provides information about the items to the user.

The ‘Intelligent Organiser’ conserves energy by preventing “line over-charging”.

The ‘Recycle’ Bike translates movement into energy for the home.

The ‘E-Plant’ keeps track of energy consumption in the home.

‘Light’ provides “luminescent and fluorescent illumination without the use of electricity”.

The ‘Self Control’ meter is like a thermostat that provides information on energy consumption.

DNA is a semi-portable unit that generates electricity from the sun and wind.

TouchWiz is the first custom Android interface that’s worse than the standard one, and shows what kind of horrible things emerge when Samsung’s interface designers are left unchecked. Here’s how I think the design process went, roughly: The designers dropped a bunch of acid, stared at old Atari games while binging on Taco Bell, then proceeded to shit all over the phone for hours and hours.

If it’s not inherently ugly, like text input screens with awful ’80s neon orange and blue, it’s gratuitous and redundant, like the 3D app cube. Or an entirely separate menu of Samsung icons for apps. And some things, like moving the slide-out menu to the left instead of its traditional place on the bottom, actually work against the way you use the phone — the menu gets in the way now, since I’d often bring it out by accident while changing between desktops. It’s just… terrible. Worse, Home Switcher, an app that reverts phones back to the stock Android home screen, can’t erase Samsung’s disgusting mojo. The Behold II would be 10x better with a vanilla build of Android 1.6.

Even the phone hardware is a mess. The front of the phone is an orgy of buttons: seven, to be precise, not including a d-pad, with a dedicated button for the app cube. The lock key isn’t just on the side but it’s kind of hidden, flush against the bezel. The USB port is weirdly shoved on top. And, uh, what the hell is up with the back plate?

Two things are good about the Behold II — Samsung’s custom camera setup comes straight out of their point-and-shoot cameras, and is packed with features, like extensive manual controls and burst shooting, and it’s very fast unlike the rest of the phone. The other is the AMOLED display which is nice, though marred by the same kind of bluish tint as Samsung’s other AMOLED Android phone, the Moment.

Take a good long look at the Behold II though: It’s a warning to other developers what not to do, and a scary look at one dark possible future for Android, in its infinite permutations. Not just deep fragmentation of the platform, but customised crimes against humanity, perpetrated in the name of Android. It makes me want to cry, except that my brain’s too mushy to make my eyes work.

Every single time I’ve tried to Liveblog for Giz, I’m hamstrung by the fact that I’m one man with a laptop, a camera, a wireless connection and talent (OK, I made that last one up), but have to connect them all the old fashioned way. If only I could wirelessly stream the photos directly to the laptop from the camera as soon as its taken.

The Samsung ST1000 has got almost everything in the way of connections — Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth, plus GPS, 720p video recording at 30fps, and is available for an RRP of $749. There’s also a haptic touchscreen and 5x optical zoom.

If you’re a part of that sub market that needs Wi-Fi in its cameras, the ST1000 is available now.

[Samsung]