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In an effort to bring the other three senses up to par with sight and sound in the virtual landscape, researchers in the UK have developed a headset that not only offers a stereoscopic display and four speaker surround sound, but throws in smells, tastes, and a fan for heating your grill up (or cooling it down) for good measure. The Virtual Cocoon doesn’t look too terribly comfortable (this thing would be burdensome without the required tubes for the user’s mouth and nose), but Professor Alan Chalmers of Warwick University doesn’t seem to think this is a problem. If anything, the team is betting that you’re going to welcome the opportunity to smell your co-workers when telecommuting, or your fellow cybernauts when running around Second Life. The device, which will have an estimated cost of £1,500 (around $2,100), should be ready for production within five years. More pics after the break.

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As with any trade show, flashy, high-end products have a tendency to steal the lion’s share of the spotlight at MWC — but the fact is, featurephones still outsell traditional smartphones by an order of magnitude. Companies like INQ are betting the farm on the belief that today’s ultra-connected generation of Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook users are ultimately going to pick fashionable, cheap, easy-to-use handsets over the complexity of an iPhone, G1, or Omnia. There’s something to be said for that — most people don’t know the model of their own phone, after all, and have no interest in learning how to download and install an app, let alone learn an entire mobile operating system. Plus, for the youngest members of this profitable group, there’s a lot of price sensitivity — smartphones are typically out of reach.

If startup Sonar has its way, that’s where its new platform comes in. The idea was to fundamentally rethink the way average consumers — you know, the ones who are plugged into three, four, or fourteen social networks and don’t know a G1 from a P1i — use a phone to communicate, and they’re ready to show off their efforts for the first time here at MWC. We had an opportunity to sit down with Sonar’s founders this week for a tour of the system, and we’re pretty stoked about what we saw. Read on.
Gallery: Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo
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We had opportunity to check out one of LG’s newest smartphones, the LG GM730 at MWC today. We’ve seen all the specs but thought knew you all needed a really good look at the new S-Class UI. This phone is not final, so our hands-on shows a few interface hiccups, but, you’ll get the drift. So what’s the take away here? This appears to be a darn fine overlay on Windows Mobile, access to things from the home screen are simple and quick: mail, messaging, calendar, menus to get at network settings and so forth are a welcome addition. The device feels sturdy (even without a back) and looks just fine in our sleep deprived eyes. Carry on for a video with all the action and a gallery stuffed full of MWC love.
Gallery: LG GM730 hands-on (with video!)

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Windows Mobile 6.5’s presumably going to be the big news out of Redmond here at MWC this week, but Microsoft’s also using the show as an opportunity to launch the “technology preview” of its Recite software, an ultra-simple voice note app for WinMo 6.0 and above. The concept is one of those “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that” moments, actually: one button records your quick notes, and the magic happens with a second button that you use to search your previously recorded notes by voice. For example, you can record “Sean Cooper’s birthday is May 22″ and later search on “Sean,” “Sean Cooper,” “birthday,” or any combination of words you’ve mentioned in the note to recall it. Doesn’t get much more straightforward than that — and happily, you’ll pay a big, fat goose egg for the privilege of grabbing it. It’s a beta product, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: Microsoft’s trying to gather feedback on how awesome (or not awesome) it is before deciding how to use it going forward, so give it hell and let ‘em know what you think.
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Looking for a surefire conversation piece or guaranteed nightmares for weeks on end? Then you may want to take up Little Island’s offer to create a tiny, custom robot version of you, which can apparently even be used as a VoIP phone of sorts to freak out family members when you’re away. Unfortunately, the “robot” doesn’t appear to actually have many true robot abilities, although it does have a built-in camera to let you check out its surroundings via a connected computer, and it’s apparently able to do a few basic tasks like read your RSS feeds or check the weather. The bot is also essentially just a plush PC itself (complete with a 500MHz Geode processor), so there’s certainly plenty of opportunity to expand its capabilities for those so inclined. At over $2,000, however, it doesn’t exactly come cheap, and you’ll have to wait upwards of six weeks after sending in your picture to receive it.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Eagerly awaiting your opportunity to try out Cupcake on your G1 or other Android-powered device? Sadly we still don’t know exactly when you’ll get your chance, but we can at least give you an opportunity to check it out emu-style. Nullwire has the links, files, and instructions you’ll need to get the current revision Android emulator up and running on your home computer, plus the freshly-frosted binaries you’ll want to get a taste of some Cupcake action. We verified everything does work, so hit the read link if you want to take a bite yourself, or, if you’re just looking for a guilt-free glimpse, take a look in the gallery. It has freshly baked screens of the new notepad app, the global time globe, and of course the delectable virtual keyboard.
Gallery: Android Cupcake
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World, Moto Surf A3100. Moto Surf A3100, world. Glad I could help introduce you. This is Motorola’s entry to the iPhone Killer department, and not a bad Windows phone to boot.

Overall from my first impressions I felt it was very similar to the TouchFLO interface found in most HTC WinMo devices, such as the Touch Pro. The Today screen was actually easier to see, larger fonts and icons spaced out further to allow ease in touching them.

I didn’t get too much of an opportunity to play around with the features. I noticed the grid-style menu allowed for customization, with the ability to move icons around as someone would do on the iPhone.

Reps are telling me the Moto Surf will be available this quarter starting in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia before spreading out to other parts of the world. So for now, enjoy some pictures and I will have a video of it ready for you later.

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