KDDI is back to show LG, Apple, and Samsung that a keypad totin' candybar can still bring the sex-ay. Meet the Infobar 2 for KDDI's CDMA-based au network, first peeped as a concept back in November as a possible follow-up to the wildly popular (in Japan anyway) first generation Infobar launched in 2003. Measuring 47 × 138 × 15.5-mm / 104-grams, it packs a 2.6-inch 240 x 400 pixel OLED display, stereo speakers, microSD expansion, EZ FeliCA support, 2-megapixel camera, and built-in 1Seg mobile TV tuner. It'll squeeze in about 290 minutes of talk time or 350 hours of standy when these hit Japan in November. Call us spoiled, but we still can't help but to think that it would look better without those dedicated keys.

[Via Impress]

So that hot little batch of phones KDDI threw down for its CDMA-based au network in Japan this week? Yeah, seems we might have gotten a little too wrapped up in that nifty lookin' Media Skin device, seeing how we glossed right over this little gem: the W51H clamshell from Hitachi offers up a staggering 800 x 480 display in its snow white (or red or black) shell. We'd imagine this is the very same 2.9-inch screen being demoed by Hitach just last month, trading some extreme eye strain for a nearly desktop-class web browsing experience without sacrificing battery juice. Other features of the W51H are fairly typical Japanese fare, including a 2 megapixel cam, fingerprint recognition, GPS, and 30MB of onboard memory. As usual, expect this to hit American store shelves right about the time pigs take to the skies.

[Via SCI FI Tech]

Whether in the form of compressed images spun from disk or received over the air, portable video is a battery killer. Toss in a bit of WiFi and Bluetooth wireless to grind modern handhelds to a halt in just a few hours. This unfortunate truth makes sad chunky slabs of plastic and lithium polymer a must for those of you in need of some extra go-go juice. The Princeton PMB-BP18 is a 75-gram external battery pack capable of re-charging any portable USB device such as cellphone or iPod when away from the mains. What's more, Princeton touts the device's ability to charge the typical Japanese cellphone (via accompanying au and DoCoMo cables) twice before the PMB-BP18 external battery requires a refill. Sorry, that's an adjustable stand, not the backside of an LCD you're looking at, which somehow manages prop up your phone or mp3 player for viewing without the device sliding into your lap. Available now in Japan for ¥4,980 or about 44 US bucks.