The popular rumor floating around at the moment is that Microsoft intends to announce self-branded handsets powered by NVIDIA's beefy Tegra architecture for next-gen phones and MIDs at the GSMA's Mobile World Congress in February of next year. Let's put aside for a moment the fact that Redmond continues to vehemently deny having any interest in getting into the hardware end of its Windows Mobile racket -- concealing the truth is a part of doing competitive business, after all -- and turn our attention to the practical matter of whether this makes any sense whatsoever. First off, Windows Mobile's strength lies in its incredibly deep and wide partner base, a base that includes visionary teams at HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and countless others. With Android and Symbian finally becoming viable opportunities for third-party manufacturers, Microsoft doesn't want to do anything that's going to hasten the revolt before it's able to wrap up version 7 (or at the very least, 6.5) -- and competing with your own licensees would be a bang-up way to do that. Granted, Microsoft did exactly that by introducing Zune following the PlaysForSure initiative, but let's be honest: Windows Mobile and Zune don't play in the same league. Zune's a hobby, a side gig; WinMo's a monster, a long-term cash cow that's got to be treated with the same franchise tag as Windows itself.

Surely that "last stand" Motorola handset is still burned into your memory, right? No? Anywho, said mobile was just given a face courtesy of Boy Genius, and it's an, um, interesting face at that. We'll let you be the judge on its unsightliness (or beauty, depending on inebriation level), but aside from design, we're expecting this one to include Windows Mobile 6.1, NVIDIA graphics, a 5- to 8-megapixel camera, A-GPS and a Q4 release date. As always, we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for more.

While our homeboy Boy Genius may not be quite as well-known for his Moto scoopage as he is for his streak of RIM leaks, we're totally intrigued by his report today that Moto is working on an 8 megapixel phone code named "Alexander" that's being internally described as the company's "last stand." The unit is said to feature an NVIDIA-sourced chipset for video and 3G graphics (Tegra, perhaps?), an integrated GPS chip, and "probably" running "UIQ 4.0 or higher." It's not confirmed whether it'll have a touchscreen or what the final form factor will be, but release is set for October, and BGR says that if it's a flop the Moto brass will give up and sell the company off. That's a lot of pressure -- but with Moto's struggles lately, we can't say there's much to lose by betting the company.

Yesterday we told you about NVIDIA's new mobile platform, Tegra, and today, we've got some videos from the company showing off the system, and giving you a good impression of just how much less juice this architecture uses compared to the competition. Check the videos after the break demonstrating the systems' lean energy needs, HDMI output capabilities, blazing fast gaming, and that fancy UI we keep telling you about.

It's been a long while since we've seen anything from NVIDIA on the cellphone front, but the company has changed that in a fairly big way today, with it showing off its first major cellphone applications processor: the APX 2500. As CNET points out, that chip is largely the result of NVIDIA's acquisition of PortalPlayer back in 2006, and represents the company's first attempt at building a true computing processor for cellphones. From the looks of it, they sure look to have gotten off to a decent start, with the chip itself (based on an ARM11 core) able to run at speeds up to 750MHz, and encode and decode 720p high-defintion video, opening up the possibility of some pretty capable cellphone / video camera hybrids. Of course, this being NVIDIA, they also squeezed in some of their GeForce graphics technology designed especially for low-power devices, which they say is to allow for 3D interfaces, but we're sure could also be put to some other uses as well. No exact details as to when and where we can expect to chip just yet, but it'll apparently start to make its way into phones sometime next year, with Windows Mobile in particular able to exploit the technology in the chip -- no surprise there, given Microsoft's hand in the chip's development. Follow the break for a shot of NVIDIA's totally trippy demonstration interface that's in use on the APX2500's reference platform.

While we've already seen some still images of the newfangled OpenKODE-based interface for cellphones, and heard plenty of details about the capabilities of NVIDIA's GoForce 5500 mobile chipset, there's nothing like a good video to pull it all together, which Shiny Shiny has thankfully provided on their recent trek through the wilds of 3GSM. As you can see for yourself after the break, the combination definitely impresses, with full 3D games, seemingly high-quality video, and other multimedia capabilities on full display, not to mention a fairly snazzy and customizable interface. Somewhat ironically, NVIDIA seems to have decided to show it all off on the biggest monitor they could get their hands on. Although that may have ultimately been for the best -- the sight of a gaggle of sweaty and tired tech journalists huddled around a cellphone screen probably isn't the best way to attract interest from passer-bys..

Yup, just another touch-screen media phone up there which have are poppin' dime-a-dozen since you know what. Ok, it's just a rendering from Quanta (yeah, that Quanta); no worries, it's only meant to demonstrate nVidia's GoForce 6100 multimedia applications processor -- the company's first. That's right, nVidia just unleashed their new silicon slab pumping a dedicated 250MHz ARM processor are its core with hardwired acceleration for processing-intensive multimedia and security (read: DRM) functions. It's capable of delivering H.264 and WMV9/VC-1 video at up to VGA resolution and 30fps. Hell, it even integrates 802.11b/g WiFi with WPA2 security and QoS, and supports USB 2.0 hosting and camera sensors up to 8 megapixels. Best of all, it's said to do all this while consuming less than half the power of "any applications processor available on the market today." NVIDIA is demonstrating a prototype at 3GSM running Chronos' OpenKODE 1.0 (think DirectX for handhelds) for rich, 3D widgety goodness. Expect the new proc to show up in a wide variety of portable electronic devices in 2007/2008. Oh, and peep the OpenKODE interface after the break.

Read -- NVIDIA
Read -- Khronos OpenKODE

Nvidia has taken the wraps of its MobileMedia platform for Windows Mobile 5.0-based devices at Taiwan's big Computex trade show, promising to bring high-quality digital TV and video, 3D graphics, and high fidelity audio to PDAs and smartphones. At the heart of the MobileMedia platform is Nvidia's GeForce 5500 chip, which supposedly delivers "console-class 3D gaming," although they convienently don't specify which console -- we're guessing it falls somewhere below an Xbox 360 but above a Sega Genesis. As it turns out, we've actually already seen a couple of the smartphones based on the Nvidia platform, although no one was spilling deets at the time. Modeo's DVB-H smartphone (seen here) is just one of the devices already announced that has Nvidia tech on the inside, as is Samsung's i310 smartphone, as well as an unnamed device from ReignCom. Nvidia also announced that they've hooked up with Intel and Freescale to develop reference designs for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices currently in development that should be unveiled later this year.