Nah, the Wizard isn't a reality just yet, but we can certainly envision this taking up its fair share of shelf space in the not-too-distant future. Dreamed up by the vivid imaginations at HJC Design, this emergency parachute pack would theoretically provide an "automated public safety solution with up to 250-meters of reciprocating lifeline technology." Beyond that, it seems like a pretty invigorating method of avoiding the elevator lines come quittin' time.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

Nice going RIM, you've successfully filed for a patent on a device that companies like HTC have been making since 2005. That's right folks, your friends at Research In Motion have just thrown an application in the direction of the US Patent Office which should look painfully familiar. The company is calling it a "Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and QWERTY Hide-Away Keyboard," but we're calling it the Wizard. We suppose it's possible that the BlackBerry-maker has something up its sleeve that goes beyond the typical functionality of a phone like this, but nothing in the application seemed to indicate such a scenario. Did RIM even check out the competition before issuing this paperwork? It seems unlikely given the obvious and commonly used shape and design of this particular handset... oh, wait, this one has a trackball. Okay, our bad.

[Via BlackBerry Cool]

It's still forwarding us back to the old-skool 8125's product page at the moment, but a tipster has managed to coax Cingular's site into giving up the goods on the 8525 -- Buy Now link and all. We're guessing it has something to do with region or Premier account status, we're not sure, but the point is that a select few are able to place their orders for Cingular's first HSDPA smartphone as we speak. Breaking out the wallet might be hard to justify for folks in 2G areas coming from an 8125, but if speed and power are top priorities, lick your chops as you read the full specs (highlights include a 400MHz Samsung core, 2-megapixel cam, and that fabulous 3G radio) after the break.

[Thanks, John]

Update: Judging from commenters' experiences, it's sounding like there's some buffoonery going on behind the scenes over at Cingular HQ -- the phone may not be shipping to anyone yet after all. In the meanwhile, enjoy the literature and imagery we've scooped, and we'll let you know what's going on as soon as we do.

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, HTC must be turning beet red right about now. The Mars II from ASUS follows the HTC Wizard / Hermes formula down to the letter, featuring that fabulous side-opening QWERTY keypad we'd now be lost without, an Intel Xscale PXA270 core making haste at 520MHz, 128MB of ROM, 64MB of RAM, UMTS, 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0, 2-megapixel shooter, and a 2.8-inch QVGA display (why no love for the VGA?). As you may recall, we were able to correctly call all the specs out last month with the exception of the name and the ODM, which we'd heard would be HTC -- and given the Hermes-esque dimensions and feature list, who could blame us? Look for the Mars II to grace O2's networks before too long as the "Xda Zinc," but thanks to the old-skool tri-band GSM radio sans 850 support, we're going to be putting our import plans on hold.

[Via phoneArena]

It's with mixed feelings that we greet the Cingular 8525's first live shots in the wild. Yes, it's apparently real, and yes, it matches the renderings we posted not long ago, but these pics also seem to sadly confirm our fear that this particular rendition of the Hermes will be coming to American buyers sans front-facing cam. There's no crying in cellphones, though, so we're going to do our best to concentrate on the positive: the 8525 should improve significantly on the 8125's speed thanks to a new processor, and of course, it's hard to argue with HSDPA. We don't have ship date for this puppy, but given the pics, the state of Cingular's 3G network, and the general availability of Hermes variants worldwide, we'd say that "real soon now" is an appropriate attitude to take.

[Thanks, Notorious Jatt]

When a manufacturer takes styling cues from a number of popular devices -- in this case, the RAZR, the Wizard, and the gone-but-not-forgotten Clie -- and throws in a number of high end features whose acronyms make us a little weak-kneed, the resulting products are bound to be pretty sexy. Such is the case with a trio of WiBro-capable PDAs being marketed under the Flyvo brand by POSDATA, all of which run Windows CE 5.0 Professional Plus on an ARM processor and let you get your 'net on with WiFi as well in case you have to travel outside of Korea. Introduced at this year's Wireless Broadband World Forum, these upcoming devices (which frustratingly lack either names or model numbers) also feature either 512MB or 1GB of flash RAM, with two of them adding T-DMB and VoIP capabilities, and the high-end model throwing in a little GPS action to boot. Lucky Koreans will be able to pick these up -- and possibly even drop their cellphone services altogether -- sometime early next year. Keep reading for more pics...

Read- The one that resembles a Wizard
Read- The one that resembles a PSP
Read- The one that resembles a Clie