One thing that has always turned us off about PDA’s is the inaccurate control the touch screens actually grant you. They hand you a stylus and send you on your way, but they neglect to tell you that the touch control does more messing up than it does controlling.

Some researchers for Microsoft over in Redmond are working on a system called Shift, which will enable users to use their fingers as a mouse to control their PDAs. This technology is similar to what the iPhone might have or will have in the future. Maybe we’ll see it in a Zune phone eventually. One thing’s for sure, Apple seems to be the company to follow in terms of innovation, and Microsoft is doing exactly that. — Andrew Dobrow

Link

Chinese company Hanwang has created this intuitive gadget that is a classic case of a mash up device. It combines the pointing device feature of a mouse, and a tablet feature which can be controlled through a stylus and recognizes handwriting. Chinese characters can be written directly onto the dragon pad using a stylus hidden in the mouse.

This mouse could be used for transcribing those hard to type Chinese characters directly into your Word document. 5 color choices are available including the pearl red color pictured. Seems like a good idea for the Asian countries with character-driven language.

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Pictured above is the infamous N73-clone, called Nokir E828, produced by a mainland Chinese company (NOKIR) next to the real Nokia N73 (on the right), it has been selling well enough to catch Nokia’s attention. However the company did not have enough evidence to go against the manufacturer and the copyright-protection laws are a bit tricky in mainland China, so instead they decided to bully the tiny tiny shops that are selling the Nokir E828 in Hong Kong. Those poor scapegoats are asked by the representing law firm to relinquish all the stock voluntarily and pay a HKD 30,000 ($3870) fine for the damage incurred. Most of those shops are only run by 1-2 people in a space no bigger than 25 squared feet in Mong Kok (a more ghetto part of Hong Kong). According to the shopkeepers, they’ve been trying to get in touch with Nokia as the deal is not fair, so far they have received no reply.

The Nokir E828 is a dualband GSM phone that houses a 2.6″ QVGA touchscreen and a 2 megapixels camera. MP3 and MP4 are supported and the memory expansion used is microSD. Being smaller and lighter than the N73 (110×55x14mm 105g), the E828 seems to have everything a fanboy would dream of, check out the $100 price tag, too: unbeatable. You’ll have to be very lucky to find any of these after this incident though. –Sam Chan

Link (in Chinese)

Anyone who’s familiar with the Final Fantasy series of video games remembers the cute little chocobos and how entertaining they are. Square Enix announces the newest Final Fantasy game, Chocobo Tales, for the Nintendo DS Console, due out April 3, 2007.

Chocobo Tales is said to have story line references which play back all the way to the original Final Fantasy. Executive Producer Shinji Hashimoto says he is “confident that fans of both Final Fantasy and Nintendo alike will enjoy this exciting title.” Featuring the innovative touch screen and stylus trademarks of DS, mixed with classic characters from the Final Fantasy world, is sure to make a interesting, and fun game. Available April 3 for $30. — Andrew Dobrow

Chocobo Tales Page [Square Enix, via GWN]