LG Puts a 3G Wi-Fi Phone on Your Wrist

LG plans to debut a 3G-enabled mobile phone that fits on your wrist. A 1.4-inch touch-screen, a text-to-speech feature, Bluetooth capability and MP3 playback make it an instant curiosity, so why did LG decide to call it the LG-GD910?

Those James Bond films from the 1970s are looking sillier and sillier, and not only because the plot of "Moonraker" makes less sense with every passing day. Gone are the days when a watch containing a radio or even a television screen was the height of technology. LG Electronics says it plans to debut a wristwatch-style, Wi-Fi-enabled phone at this January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The wristwatch-sized phone sports a 1.43-inch wide screen and is 0.56 inches thick, according to the company Web site. The phone will come equipped with touch-screen capability, an MP3 player, a built-in speaker for text-to-speech and speech-to-text, a camera (for videoconferencing), 3G HSDPA and Bluetooth compatibility. Some sources are also reporting the handset is waterproof (for underwater videoconferencing, naturally). LG is touting it as the first 3G HSDPA wristwatch phone on the market. It certainly ups the ante on Maxwell Smart's shoe phone.

For a gimmicky concept that usually seems outdated by the time it has hit the market, LG has included a surprisingly alluring array of features combined in a thin, streamlined package. The South Korean electronics giant said the phone, rather prosaically called the LG-GD910, will go on sale in the European market first, presumably to appease those enlisted in Her Majesty's secret service.