Geckos don't have shells, but Gekkos will -- and it looks like T-Mobile is going to be serving up an unprecedented level of customization for its latest Sidekick. Hiptop 3 is showing mockups of what appears to be T-Mobile's shell creation site, a special little place on the internets where users will be able to design their own Gekko (aka Gecco, aka Sidekick 2008, aka "please just release this thing already") skins, which in turn will likely be outsourced to Skinit for manufacture. Considering the Sidekick's line wild, crazy, and creative target demographic, it seems like a great idea and a potential gold mine of secondary revenue for the carrier. Who's going to be the first with an Engadget shell, hmm?

Tough time to try to hype a new skin for Windows Mobile, we'd say, what with juggernauts HTC and Sony Ericsson both trying to knock balls out of the park with TouchFLO 3D and the XPERIA's shell, respectively; that's not stopping ASUS from giving it a go, though. The Taiwanese manufacturer has chosen Computex as the stage to officially take the wraps off its "Glide" UI concept, the first shot of which we saw in the leaked shots of the P560 a few weeks back. Features of the shell include ASUS Today, a home screen replacement; Anytime Launcher, a straight-up app launcher; EziPhoto for photo management and EziMusic for a glorified media player. Nothing too groundbreaking here, but hey, can't blame 'em for trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Lest the danger (or non-danger) of cellphone use stray too far from your mind, here's a trio of recent studies to get the juices flowing again. First, the best news: an Australian researcher has come up with a five-point ranking system to lay out the likelihood of getting cancer from partaking in various substances and activities, and if that system has any basis in reality, cellphones are "unlikely" to cause cancer -- so take it for what you will. The second study, thrown down by the Cleveland Clinic, showed a significant decrease in sperm "quality" (as determined by a number of stats) as average daily cellphone usage increased; not necessarily a short-term problem for the users themselves, but a finding their future children (or lack thereof) might take issue with. The third study brings more bad news, showing that human skin exposed to cellphone radiation altered the cells' protein expression, a potential (though by no means definitive) precursor to cancer. As always, your mileage -- and your body's mileage -- may vary.

[Via textually.org]

Read - "Cell Phones No Cancer Risk, Study Says"
Read - "Effect of cell phone usage on semen analysis in men attending infertility clinic: an observational study" [Warning: PDF link]
Read - "Mobile phone radiation might alter protein expression in human skin"

For all of you fervent Treo fans chomping at the bit to get your hands on the 500v, here's an interesting piece of information which may stir "things" deep inside your mind and body. Apparently, the Windows Mobile-equipped smartphones will be touting a UI that's a pretty big step away from Microsoft's staid and standard operations. According to a slow, yet detailed video we've seen, the new interface will be pulled together using a completely revamped "start menu," (similar to the UI which Samsung is employing on its SGH-i620) which gives you much faster access to applications and settings, and has a completely new look. Menus and application icons also appear to be a departure from what we've seen in other WM devices, giving the interface a wholly unique aspect. Check the video after the break and see for yourself.

[Via pocketnow]

Goodness, these hacks are getting so slick and easy to use that we're really not sure it's appropriate to call them hacks anymore. ModMyiPhone has outed a rather impressive web-based home screen skinner, allowing even the most timid of iPhone users access to the wide world of iPhone modding. Besides the extensive selection of stock icons, users can upload their own, position them in the order they wish, and add a custom background while they're add it. The app spits out an .ipb file -- install it on the handset using InstallIPB (see the site for details) and you're good to go. Make your skin for free while you can, though; the site's suggesting that it may need to move the service to a subscription model depending on how popular it becomes.

While skins to make your Pocket PC look like a little more like the iPhone are nothing new, they've got nothing on this full-on interface change an enterprising programmer created for his E-TEN M600 smartphone. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much to pretty up the exterior of the device, but it does manage to successfully emulate some of the iPhone's more notable bells 'n whistles, including its trademark finger-touch scrolling, its slide-to-lock feature, and its now-familiar menu system, all of which was apparently written in PPL (Pocket Programming Language). It also appears to have had the not unexpected side effect of bringing down its creator's site (linked below). Possibly as a result of past brouhahas, it seems that the software won't be going very far beyond that one lucky E-TEN anytime soon, although you can check it out in action in the video after the break.

[Thanks, Joel]

iPhone skins are pretty much a dime a dozen at this point -- Pocket PC included, much to Apple's horror -- so why not switch it up with something a little more... shall we say, in the "in the family?" Polish firm JGUI has thrown together a skin for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs that mimics Vista (which we hear ain't bad looking) with a Sidebar clone complete with gadgets, Aero-esque taskbar, and a totally retooled UI for all of the phone's major functions. The screen shots look fabulous (with the possible exception of our mohawk-sporting contact here) and, from what we've seen, put Crossbow to shame in the eye candy department. Note to Microsoft: "Get your ideas for Photon here." The Today screen is freeware and the entire package is available for under $25 -- not bad compared to, say, Vista Ultimate.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

So maybe you're not the Palm OS user by day, closet iPhone fanatic by night type. No, that's not you at all; you're the Pocket PC user by day, closet iPhone fanatic by night type. Totally different breed, we understand. The cats over at xda-developers have cobbled together a means to get the Windows Mobile Pocket PC of your choice looking pretty much like an iPhone -- if you let your eyes go out of focus, that is -- using a combination of apps and skins. Of course, none of this makes Apple too happy (as evidenced by the removal of the screenshot from the forum), but aren't the folks using these hacks just rearing to buy an iPhone in June anyway?

[Thanks, Denys]

With the various OS X and Vista themes we're always seeing crop up, just to be shut down by Apple and Microsoft legal teams all lickity split like, it's really no surprise that someone whipped up an iPhone theme for Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC already, and it's equally unsurprising that Apple legal is already doing its darnedest to put the kibosh on the skin. The pretty view comes to us courtesy of "hanmin" of the XDA Developers forums, and while there's only so much you can do by swapping out a few icons, we're still liking the look -- WM5 was never really the pretty one.

[Via MoDaCo; thanks to everyone who sent this in]