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Nokia seems to be gearing up to announce something big. It’s running its own developers’ show next week, so the announcement may have something to do with that. All we know at the moment is that a new countdown site has appeared, counting down to a time on Tuesday morning when…well, we’ve no idea what will happen, but Nokia are starting to drive the hype machine, so presumably they’re up to something.

A new handset would be nice, but as its being timed to coincide with their developers conference, it might be something more software-orientated, like a major revision to its Ovi social network/file sharing service.

[Source: EngadgetMobile]

LG are warmly welcoming Christmas with a competition, in which you can win either an LG Secret, an 8 megapixel LG Renoir, or a new LG Cookie. Just go to the promotional Web site at LGHoliday.com, play around with the phones a bit, and then enter the comp by clicking Apply.

I should have a hands-on review of the LG Cookie in the New Year.

Time for a Samsung F400 review. The Samsung F400 is a music phone that combines the best bits of the Apple iPod with the luxurious sound qualities of a Band and Olufsen speaker system. Samsung realised they didn’t have the brand power to compete with Sony Ericsson’s Walkman range (or the Apple iPhone, for that matter), and so they’ve been using Bang and Olufsen’s musical wizzardry in their phones for some time now.

With the F400, they’ve included B&O speakers and a B&O ICEpower amp, as well as an iPod-esque music wheel. Add all the other bells and whistles you’d expect from a Samsung phone, and the Samsung F400 has the makings of a cracking music phone.

Let’s see how good it is with our Samsung F400 review, after the jump.

PDA phone, smartphone, smart PDA phone – whatever you call it, PDA phones have been the talk of the mobile phone world throughout 2008. There are now tonnes of different PDA phones on the market, and with a bewildering array of phones to choose from, finding the right one has become a nightmare!

To help you through the PDA phone maze, we’ve compiled a little guide to the best smartphones to buy for Christmas 2008.

Since the credit crunch descended on the world like a tsunami of gloom, things in the mobile phone sector have been shaken up as much as they have in every other sector. Mobile phones obviously cover the entire sector of price points, from virtually disposable, to completely unaffordable.

With an impending global recession looming on the horizon, though, it’s the more expensive designer phones that will start to struggle first. Designer phones are all about luxury, offering looks but few frills for a designer price. When everyone’s cutting back on their spending, though, look are the first thing to go. If you can make do with a similar phone that looks a bit uglier but offers the same features as a designer phone, what are you going to choose when money’s tight?

News now of the Sony Ericsson W705, the first Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson to feature Wi-Fi. A cool, if slightly ungainly-looking slider phone, the W705 is designed with fast connectivity in mind, to enable people to download their tunes (ideally from Sony Ericsson’s own music store) wherever they are.

Obviously Wi-Fi will help, but if you’re outside of a Wi-Fi hotspot, the W705 also comes with HSDPA, meaning you can download your tunes at 3.2Mbps wherever you are (unless you’re with T-Mobile, who for some odd reason seem to have a blackspot in Slough and Devon!)

Noia have finally officially announced the Nokia E63 business phone. Set to replace the Nokia E71, the new E63 shares many of the features of it predecessor, including a gloriously bright screen capable of showing 16 million colours, but will come with a new lower price and a touch-sensitive Navi-Wheel around the central menu button.

The E63 is designed primarily for business, and so as well as the full QWERTY keyboard, will also integrate seamlessly with a wide array of different email systems. Despite being designed for business, though, it also comes with the usual array of multimedia features you’d expect from a consumer phone, such as 2 megapixel camera, video recorder and GPS unit.

UK mobile phone retailer Phones4U have pulled off a bit of a coup by securing sole distribution rights to the new Blackberry Storm, RIM’s first touchscreen smartphone that’s currently being heavily advertised on the TV. The Storm breaks new ground for RIM in that its features are similar to other smartphones, and so rather than being pitched solely as a phone for business, it’s also being pitched to consumers who like their smartphone to have multimedia features as well as enterprise-level productivity tools.

In many ways, then, the Storm can be thought of as an iPhone for business. It’s undoubtedly classy, and with all the gizmos you’d expect from a smartphone, such as GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera, touchscreen, etc., combined with RIM’s legendary email features that the BlackBerry range is infamous for, it should go do well with professionals.