Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year's CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that's been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won't reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone "might" be available "as early as next year." In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with "DMFC" clearly visible on the display.

There appears to be some speculation floating around that Dell is about to cannonball itself into the mobile pool, big time. According to whispered rumors from dark hallways (AKA Forbes), the company is putting together a smartphone / multimedia device which might be rearing its head sometime early in 2008. The device -- being developed with the help of Taiwanese company Quanta -- will sport video and audio playback, as well as internet functionality. The rumors are strengthened by the company's addition of former Motorola cell phone executive vice president Ron Garriques, and with the dropping of its PDA and DAP products, there's certainly a gaping void left open for a new device. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that Dell's recent acquisition of Zing and trademarking of the "Zingspot" moniker suggests the company is getting into content distribution -- perfect for a shiny new convergence device. Only time will tell if the PC powerhouse can get into the very-crowded smartphone game, too.

[Via InformationWeek]

When it comes to loyalty among the wireless handset crowd, we think it's a tough race out there. After all, newer and better handsets are released seemingly every week that are slimmer, geekier, lighter and just plain better. How does a single manufacturer build strong customer loyalty over time? Ask that to Samsung, which is the most favored handset brand in the US, according to the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Samsung's position atop other handset brands has been intact since 2002 according to that index. The company blushed and then promptly responded with "The honor of being the top brand for six consecutive years indicates the company's capability of meeting consumers' taste and their ever-growing expectations." With the bevy of standard, advanced and Windows Mobile Smartphone models for both the CDMA and GSM markets in the US, Samsung's product portfolio alone could vouch for the company's market-leading customer loyalty we think. [Warning: subscription required]

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don't need). Enjoy!

Phones
Samsung A640 - Read
LG AX490 - Read
Samsung T709 - Read
Samsung T719 - Read
Motorola ROKR E2 - Read
Samsung X461 - Read
Samsung X481 - Read
Samsung S109 - Read

Computers
Sony PCG-6J1L - Read
Motorola Mobile Laptop 900 - Read

Though it shares many of the same facial features as the Feeler, the XDA IQ (which is really just the HTC Tornado) will benefit from the Tornado's inclusion of 802.11b and EDGE; the rest of the specs aren't much to phone home about (64MB flash and RAM, 200MHz OMAP, QVGA display, Smartphone 5, etc.), so what we're looking to set this thing apart is price (unannounced) and release time frame (same).

We're sure the majority of these devices are tri-band Asian phones, but in the last year Chinese manufacturer Haier has returned triumphantly to CTIA with a veritable cadre of sweet knocks on namebrand cellphones. Take the above W800 rip, the M260, which features 2 megapixel camera, 262k color touch screen, and MiniSD slot. See, sometimes fake can be better than real. Click on for the rest.

It's quite refreshing to see so many "World's ____s" at Samsung's booth. This time we've got the World's First 10 Megapixel Cameraphone, the World's Best HSDPA Handset, and the World's First Mobile WiMAX rig. We got hands ons with their new T509 slimphone, B600 10 megapixel cameraphone, their 8GB i310, S4300 musicphone, Z540 Vodafone phone (which happens to remind one a little much of the V3x), the Z510,  D520 slim slider, Cingular's forthcoming D407, and, of course, some Samsung execs shooting the breeze about their devices.

Motorola usually has a pretty nice booth, but this CTIA they've injected a couple extra ounces of fancy, being they didn't have a whole lot of new gear to show off this time around. The PEBL amongst pebbles gag got a little old, but they needed to (and did) step up their booth's aesthetic. And you know when we start going on and on about booth aesthetics, we're pretty tapped for some news, so check out the CTIA eye candy after the break.