Samsung Moolsan Co

The phone's sleek lines and touch-screen keyboard are unmistakably familiar. So is the logo on the back. But a sales clerk at a sprawling electronic goods market in this Chinese coastal city admits what is clear upon closer inspection: This is not the Apple iPhone; this is the Hi-Phone.

"But it's just as good," the clerk says.

Nearby, dozens of other vendors are selling counterfeit Nokia, Motorola and Samsung phones, as well as low-cost look-alikes that make no bones about being knockoffs.

Samsung Electronics has joined the Google-backed Android party with the announcement of the Samsung i7500. The device, with a full touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, will be available in Europe in June.

No official plans have been announced for availability in the U.S., but J.K. Shin, a Samsung executive vice president, told Engadget that two Android smartphones will be made available in the U.S. later this year.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has formally adopted a new high-speed standard that will enable Bluetooth functionality to run over Wi-Fi (802.11) without the need for an intervening wireless network connection.

Solid State Drives (SSD) are becoming standard in modern notebooks and netbooks, often replacing traditional hard drives. More and more, it's becoming common to retrofit older computers with SSDs, either as external hard drives or with PCMCIA cards.

Anyone in need of an especially fast hard drive should do well with an SSD. They work much faster than standard drives, which rely on magnetic storage, reported the German magazine PC Welt recently. A test of 10 SSD drives showed that users usually enjoy faster speeds, both with index and data searches, the report said.

With anticipation high for a new iPhone this summer, rumors are rising after a recent Apple purchase from Samsung. Apple bought 100 million 8GB NAND flash chips, which DigiTimes says points to increased storage for the iPhone.

Flash-chip suppliers Hynix, Intel, Micron and Toshiba may also have had a part in the Apple purchase. The order fueled rumors that Apple is building a bigger-memory iPhone, likely with 32GB of storage, to share shelf space with the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3G models already on the market.

Samsung has confirmed plans to release Android phones, according to a recent story in Forbes. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, executive vice president of global product strategy in the mobile communications division, told the magazine during the recent CTIA trade show in Las Vegas that the company will release several handsets using the Google-backed, open-source operating system.

The first of the devices will be launched in June outside the U.S. Hong confirmed that two other Android devices will be released in the U.S. during the second half of 2009.

Sprint and T-Mobile

Is "extreme shepherding" the latest craze out of Scotland or New Zealand? Making the rounds on YouTube these days is a goofy video of sheep covered with LED lights being herded around a hillside in the darkness. As the flock makes its way across the heath, viewed from afar the lights form and re-form into various shapes and ultimately bounce through fields like the old Pong video game.

Android, Google's open-source operating system for mobile devices, is beginning to spread to other devices. According to a report in Sunday's New York Times, T-Mobile is planning to take the lead in that migration, rolling out Android on a variety of new consumer devices.

Even if you don't carry a fancy smartphone, the phone in your pocket more than likely doubles as a camera. Yet few people shop for a cell phone based on its ability to snap photos.

T-Mobile is touting the imaging capabilities of the Samsung Memoir I've been testing. The recently arrived handset is billed as the first 8-megapixel camera-phone sold in the USA. It retails for $250 with a two-year contract. Sony Ericsson is on its heels with the C905 Cyber-shot 8-megapixel camera-phone -- but has yet to announce pricing, release date or carrier.

As the world awaits the next Apple iPhone this summer, AT&T is forging ahead with a new lineup for the spring. On Monday AT&T announced six new models with text messaging, e-mail and Web surfing in mind.

The new lineup includes the Nokia E71x, the Samsung Propel Pro, Samsung Impression, Samsung Magnet, and LG Xenon and Neon. The additions expand the number of full-keyboard mobile phones in AT&T's lineup to seven.