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.

We suppose the uptick in smartphone demand could be to blame, depending on your perspective, but regardless of semantics, a new study put out by J.D. Power and Associates has found that surging interest in high-end handsets is causing the average purchase price of mobiles to shoot upward. Compared to 2007, consumers are currently paying around $9 more on average per phone. The average price rose to $101, up from $92 just six months prior, and it also marks the highest figure found since the study's inception in 2003. Analysts are pegging recent demand in RIM, Palm (saywha?) and Apple devices as the primary culprit, and it's noted that the average price paid for a smartphone these days is $208. Not surprisingly, these folks also found that the percentage of customers who receive free phones on contract has sank from 36% to 33% in the past six months. If you're the number loving type, be sure and hit the read link for lots, lots more where this came from.

[Via RCRWirelessNews]

According to the Boy Genius, it's not just iPhone users that will be getting / not getting the telco's WiFi on the house -- the company has plans to offer use of its hotspots for free to Laptop Connect and smartphone users. An internal memo from the provider appears to state that effective May 20th, anyone with a $60 or higher Laptop Connect plan will be able to take a ride on AT&T's networks in 17,000 locations, and the service will be extended to smartphone users later in the year. Of course, the company hasn't exactly wowed us with its rollout of this service for iPhone customers, so don't be surprised if nothing goes the way it's planned.

We've had our eye on this willowy little minnow ever since we first gave it a proper once over at CeBIT earlier this year, and now E-TEN has announced that its everything-but-the-keyboard Glofiish X800 WM6 Pocket PC is finally shipping (we saw it unlocked on MobilePlanet for $650). Very similar to a number of 3.5G HTC devices already on the market, the X800 steps up the game by offering a sexy 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 screen, 500MHz Samsung processor, and dedicated SiRFstar III GPS chipset. Still, if you can hold out just a little bit longer, a QWERTY-fied M800 boasting the same specs is right around the corner.

Are you ready to project that SMS or Opera Mini image from your mobile onto a nearby wall? We've been waiting for something -- anything -- to make it to market that would allow us to take our grandiose images and xHTML browsing (and thumb-emailing) from that 2 inch handset screen to, say, the size of a 15 inch LCD -- as in the wall next to you almost everywhere you may be. The delightful folks at Stanley Electric have developed a disco ball mirror system that is meant for ultra-compact projector systems...like the kind that would fit inside a newer smartphone handset. What for, you ask? To actuate images from that dashing 2 inch screen prison all of us have and get that mobile information over that EV-DO or HSDPA connection bigger and better by being projected on a nearby wall or similar structure. The deets? Micromirror actuators, piezoelectrics and biaxial laser scanning systems sum up Stanley's technology here. Sounds like a PhD thesis in physics to us, but we'll take it for our precious mobiles any day.

[Thanks Steven]

Right on time, the hotly-anticipated T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile-based smartphone is now up for grabs direct from T-Mo, retailing for the expected $199.99 after the usual contract signings, instant discounts, and mail-in rebates. If you been following it as closely as we have, you no doubt know the specs like your shoe size, but for those not quite up to speed, it boasts quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE capabilities, WiFi and Bluetooth, a 2.4-inch TFT, 1.3 megapixel camera, myFaves support, 128MB flash / 64MB SDRAM, and a microSD slot for expansion, all in a slim 4.2 ounce, QWERTY-riffic package. If you're still on the fence about it, you can always take another peek at our review of the device, or bust out the credit card and do your own hands-on -- just don't forget the unboxing pics in all the excitement.

[Thanks, Scott R.]

It was a total mob scene after Palm's DigitalLife press conference, but we managed to fight the crowd and get our hands on the new Treo 680. Click on for a bunch of jumbo pics!

Even if you're a die-hard Palm or Windows Mobile fan, it's hard to deny the appeal of Nokia's N-series lineup of S60-powered "multimedia computers," whose connectivity and imaging options are some of the best you can find on a smartphone today. As promised, the company has just officially released both the N73 (pictured, bottom) and N93 (pictured, top) handsets that we've been following for some time, and although you probably won't be able to pick them up through traditional channels, we know that they'll definitely be available at your local Nokia retail outlet. As a quick refresher, both of the phones (we know, we know, we're not supposed to call them phones) are highlighted by 3.2 megapixel, Zeiss lens-equipped cameras, with the N93 throwing in a 3x optical zoom and support for 30fps VGA video. Both models also feature high-res 2.4-inch displays, Bluetooth radios, a miniSD slot for image capture or rocking tunes, and quad-band GSM plus 3G UMTS capability. On top of all these attractive features, the N93 also gives you built-in WiFi with UPnP functionality, video out for replaying your precious memories on a big screen, and what sounds like better-than-average in-camera editing. We're still gonna stick with our current smartphones for now, but these models are so hot that we're seriously reconsidering our snobby insistence on rocking those handy QWERTY thumboards at all times.

Read- N73
Read- N93
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It's been a crazy few years for the once unknown Taiwanese OEM known as High Tech Computer. Although still not a household name like Sony or Samsung, HTC has leveraged its strong ties with Microsoft to offer tantalizing products that have made us early-adopters stand up and take notice, and now the company feels that it's in a strong enough market position to ditch the Qtek brand and begin selling phones under its own name. The Qtek phase-out was announced as part of HTC's official unveiling of the 3G Hermes Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone -- now known as the TyTN -- as well as the compact, UMTS-capable Breeze smartphone -- which is now called the MTeoR (yeah, we're noticing a MOTO-like naming trend too; see the rebadged STRTrk for further proof). In announcing July's European launch of these self-branded handsets, HTC reemphasized its dedication to the many carriers selling its products under their own names, but this development certainly bodes well for the company's overall name-recognition; imagine, instead of lying and telling people we have a Treo because Sprint-branded-UTStarcomm-PPC-6700-based-on-the-HTC-Apache sounds so nerdy, we may one day be able to proudly proclaim "Oh, it's an HTC." [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Geekzone, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Having already conquered the US and much of Europe, Canada's most famous contribution to consumer electronics is poised to take over yet another Asian market, when the ubiquitous BlackBerry hits phone-mad Japan this fall. Coming hot on the heels of KT Powertel's introduction of the 7100i in South Korea, wireless giant NTT DoCoMo has announced that it is partnering with BlackBerry-maker RIM to offer customers GSM / WCMDA "worldphone" versions of the addictive handhelds -- which is yet another step towards the carrier's commitment of having an all-GSM-enabled lineup within the next two years. Besides the traditional push email functionality that we've come to know and love, nothing much is known about the specifics of these upcoming foreign models, like how the pocket-sized BlackBerries will manage to pack in the thousands of keys necessary to represent all those Japanese glyphs.

[Thanks, Gina]

An invitation for a six-day, six-city series kicking off June 13th in Houston on getting the most out of your BlackBerry also seems to reveal the launch of RIM's 7130 candybar-style smartphone for CIngular's network. Called "Own Your Day," the event is described as beginning with "an introduction to the latest BlackBerry device" complete with "exclusive hands-on demonstration." which almost certainly refers to the 7130c that we've spotted several times before. Still, until we get official word from Cingular, you've gotta file this under "speculation" for the time being.

[Via Pinstack forums]

Brighthand, a site we happen put a good deal of credence in, is reporting that "very reliable sources" have informed them that there is no such creature as the Treo Hollywood. The Hollywood, which first appeared in a Saigo Investments report last year along with another model known as the Lowrider, was said to be a more stylish 3G-enabled Treo for the antenna-hating European market. Even more intriguing were pictures that have been steadily leaking out of an antenna-free Treo with blue highlights that were said to be Hollywood, but which Brighthand is now discounting as possibly just a restyled GSM version of the 700w. Stay tuned to this station folks, because Palm's plans for this year just got a lot more open-ended.

It's only rather recently that smartphone manufacturer High Tech Computer Corp. became more than just another obscure OEM making reference devices, and BusinessWeek has an inside look at the factors that propelled HTC from unknown to Microsoft's go-to-guy. HTC was founded in 1997 by a group of refugee engineers from Digital Equipment Corp's Taiwanese subsidiary, and they immediately began to focus their efforts on handheld devices -- more specifically those that run one of the flavors of portable Windows. This early dedication to Microsoft operating systems (HTC was responsible for designing the first iPaqs), along with CEO Peter Chou's renowned attention to detail (he sent the Star Trek back three times before he was satisfied with its features) and the creative rein given to employees (whose titles include "Wizard" of this or "Magician" of that) made the company one of Redmond's favorite hardware partners. And even if HTC isn't yet a household name, investors have most definitely taken notice of its performance: the company's consistent double-digit growth (last year's $356 million in profits were triple the previous year's) have caused its stock to skyrocket more than 1000% since 2003.

[Thanks, Dave Z.]