It looks like Nokia is trying to go head-to-head with iPhone and the T-Mobile G1 by unveiling the 5800 XpressMusic with touchscreen ability and music-oriented features.

To compete with Apple’s iTune store, the phone will include one year of Comes With Music, a Nokia service that allows downloads and access from the Nokia Music Store catalog.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will have 8 GB of memory for up to 6000 tracks and support for all major digital music formats, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a graphic equalizer, and built-in surround sound stereo speakers. The 3.2″ widescreen display allows for a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and recording, ideal for VGA quality video. A 3.2 megapixel camera is also built in to the phone and is able to send photos to sharing sites such as Share on Ovi, Flickr, or Facebook with a single touch.

Through the touch screen technology, users will be able to quickly access the “Media Bar,” a drop down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment, including favorite tracks, videos, and photos. The Media Bar also allows direct access to the internet and file sharing. Flash is also supported for full web browsing.

“With the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, we set out to connect people through the one thing we all feel a universal connection to - music,” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia. “The way in which people enjoy music is different around the world. With that in mind, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic gives people the freedom to experience music they love in the way they prefer.”

The phone will most likely be available worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2008 for an estimated retail price of 279 EUR or $385.

Virgin Galactic, a private company to provide space tourism to wealthy tourists, was offered a million dollars to shoot a sex video while the participants are floating freely without gravity. Will Whitehorn, president of the company, said the offer “was $1 million, up front, for a sex-in-space movie. That money we had to refuse, I’m afraid.”

The offer came from an unidentified party and was not disclosed any further during the International Astronautical Congress in which Whitehorn announced he rejected such a deal.

Beginning late 2009 or early 2010, Virgin Galactic – part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group — will be offering two hour space flights per person for $200,000. The flight begins at Sierra County, New Mexico and will be carried to 100 kilometers in altitude by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, which in turn will release the SpaceShipTwo craft that will allow passengers to experience five minutes of weightlessness as the vehicle reaches the boundaries of the Earth’s atmopshere.

Virgin Galatic has spent about $100 million to develop its business, mainly in research and development of the aircraft by Scaled Composites LLC of Mojave, California and has already received $40 million in deposits from 280 customers.

“Virgin” Galactic did not reveal their reasons for rejecting the million dollar offer for the sex-in-space movie. At $200,000 per person for just five minutes, it would certainly cause hardship to shoot a long one.

ExoFly, a flying insect-sized aerobot, is destined to charter the surfaces of Mars. Based on the DelFly, a dragonfly-like micro air vehicle (MAV) developed at the Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University, the ExoFly is modified and equipped with a camera to explore Mars, possibly Venus or the moon Titan.

The design is lightweight with the current prototype weighing a mere 17 grams, a length of 400mm, and a wingspan of 350mm. Equipped with a lithium polymer cell battery, it has a flight time of 12 minutes. There may also be plans through cooperative efforts between the universities and Ursa Minor Space & Navigation to increase the weight to 20 grams in order to add a solar energy panel and lengthen its traveling distance to 15 km.

Programmed in C++, it will most likely be able to gather data and images to simulate a 3D environment for detailed analysis and studying.

The size of the ExoFly would allow it to become part of the infrastructure of a larger planetary exploration mission. The aerobot would be able to reach areas that cannot be regularly accessed, such as rock crevices, for further geological study. Its insect like form and flight method is much like a dragonfly, allowing it to hover and navigate in all directions. The flapped wing flight allows it to be well suited enough to perfectly traverse the low density and highly vicious Martian atmosphere.

No mention of NASA interest in this aerobot yet, although Gordon Freeman was seen blasting a couple of these to bits in City 17.

Some of the most outrageous ornaments are going to be attached to Nokia headsets. Although Nokia has produced stereo headsets in the past, this time they are getting a huge aesthetic overhaul with the help of the public.

Nokia launched the Music Almighty Headset Competition to find the most quirky design for their upcoming new headsets. Five winning design concepts will be tailor made into actual, fully functional products.

Going through the competition gallery, you can find pretty ridiculous ornaments ranging from spikes to feathers to metal rods. The competition runs until the end of December. Anyone can vote for the best designs, with the top ten highest rated being narrowed down to the final five by an official panel of music and design experts. If all goes well, let’s hope Nokia allows the public to design their phones too.

Nintendo revealed this morning at a press conference in Tokyo that a new version of the Nintendo DS was hitting the market. The DSi, scheduled to be released November 1 in Japan, includes a number of upgrades. The cosmetic look is similar to the DS Lite, but includes multimedia features such as for music and pictures.

The DSi will be equipped with two 0.3 megapixel cameras, one on the outside and one between the two screens. Each screen is slightly bigger at 3.25 inches diagonally, a quarter inch more than the DS Lite. An SD memory card slot is included for users to transfer data from the DSi to other devices, such as moving music and photos to your computer. Users can also edit photos using the touch screen.

Included will also be mp3 player capability along with a web browser. Unforunately the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot has been removed, although Nintendo will most likely be offering these incompatible games via their DS Ware store wirelessly.

The DSi is scheduled to hit the European market by Spring 2009 and “well into the calendar year” of 2009 for the North American markets.

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announced during the fall Japan press conference that the company will be addressing the storage overflow problem with the Wii.

Coming Spring 2009, gamers will be able to download and save items directly to SD Cards in their SD Slot. Furthermore, gamers will be able to load and play software (classic ROM games, anyone?) directly from the SD Card.

This seems like a reasonable, cost-effective solution to the storage problem, praised by Nintendo fanboys everywhere. However, it is said at this time that the SD Card size limit will be 2 GB, so stock up on those 2 GB cards.

Scientists at KDDI and Tokyo University claims they have developed a prototype software that uses some crazy advanced methods to “see through walls.” Okay so it might not be intricate enough to see through buddy’s girlfriend’s shirt but who knows, at this rate, it just might happen soon.

It’s not really X-Ray vision, but the technology would rely on a specifically developed phone to detect and graphically render your surroundings, even places out of sight.

Using three acceleration sensors and a GPS chip, the phone can figure out where its located and what direction it is pointing in. Then using OpenGL, it magically displays your surroundings on the phone’s screen for your viewing pleasure (we’re not sure if it works indoors, however).

Not only that, but the engineers have decided to include a calorie counter in the technology, determining whether the user is in walking, running, or in a vehicle and then calculating calories burned. A shame it doesn’t calculate the number of calories consumed when eating my nacho supreme while driving my Toyota Camry.