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We’re just 5 hours away from the New Year here in the UK, so I just wanted to say thanks to all you MobileMentalism readers for making 2009 so great, and wishing you all a happy (and mobile!) 2010.

2009 was the year of our new site redesign, which I’m happy to say has worked really well. 2010 will bring some great new features to the site, tonnes more content, and a whole new world of mobile tech as the new decade sees the rise of the smartphone reach its ultimate conclusion – total dominance!

We’ll be taking a look back at mobile phones in the Noughties over the coming days, and will also do the obligatory look forward to what we can expect, not just in 2010, but in the next decade!

So prepare yourselves for great new posts coming soon, and in the meantime, have a cracking new year!

Google’s new Nexus One Android phone is set to be officially announced on January 5th. But who can wait that long? Not French bloggers Nowhereelse.fr, who not only got hold of one, they also helpfully recorded a 10 minute video review of the Nexus One.

Lovely people ;)

Details of the Nexus One are being leaked thick and fast. Now finally having had a chance to look at it, it’s looking like it really could live up to its hype. The user interface is super-slick, and the speed is simply incredible. HTC (the Nexus One’s makers) have really pushed the underlying 1GHz Snapdragon chip to the limits, letting Google’s Android team be as creative as they want with the interface.

Check out more details and the full video review of the Nexus One after the jump.

Samsung announced the Samsung Bada platform last week, a bold move designed to move Samsung phones firmly into the smartphone space. Bada is a whole new mobile technology from Samsung that takes on the iPhone and Android in a head to head battle.

Bada is a mobile operating system designed for smartphones, with support for everything you’d expect from an iPhone-equivalent device: GPS, Web browsing, touchscreen support, and all sorts of sensors, including tilt, GPS, proximity, and even weather!

Better still is Samsung’s strategy – virtually all of their new phones from 2010 onwards will feature Bada, meaning all of Samsung’s range of phones will be smartphones. As Samsung say, Bada will be the basis for a “smartphone for everyone”

Just one problem though – despite a lengthy presentation, Samsung didn’t actually show a Bada phone in action!

Fortunately, we can now put this to rights with these new pics of the Bada interface that have just been unearthed.

More pics after the jump.

So – the Google Nexus One. Brand new super-phone developed by Google to take on the world…or a simple update to the existing Developer’s phone, meant only for development purposes? The rumours are coming thick and fast, and fun though it is speculating about it, we’re not getting anywhere fast just by supposing!

Fortunately, the Nexus One ROM has already been leaked, and my ROM-hungry brother, @terminal7, has already installed it on his T-Mobile G1, so we don’t need to speculate – we can see what the fuss is all about for ourselves!

Yup, you read that right, folks – Google’s latest state of the art Android 2.1 operating system running on an old T-Mobile G1!

Pah! And EngadgetMobile thought they were clever showing us the Nexus One on a new Motorola Droid ;)

More pics after the jump.

We’ve put together a list of 10 of the best smartphones of 2009, and chosen one winner, to help you make your choice this Christmas just that little bit easier.

And if you’re not convinced by our recommendations, check out our Smartphone Buyer’s Guide to see what essential features you should look for, then have a look at what smartphones are on offer at the moment – many at crazy prices as the mobile phone stores compete mercilessly for your hard earned cash!

Check out our 10 best smartphones after the jump.

With so many super-whizzy touchscreen smartphones to choose from, how do you choose the best smartphone for you?

Simple: read our smartphone buyer’s guide! We’ve identified the 10 essential features that every smartphone should have and distilled them into one huge buyer’s guide that’ll help you choose the best smartphone that’s perfect for you.

Google have launched Google Goggles on an unsuspecting world! Google Goggles is an amazing new Android app that uses visual search to query the giant search engine. You can literally point your Android phone’s camera at any object, and Google Goggles will attempt to recognize it and search Google for related info about it.

Other apps already do this to a degree – ShopSavvy, for example, will let you take a snap of a barcode, and will then fetch related info about the barcode’s product. But Google Goggles goes much, much further.

Not only barcodes – you can snap the books themselves, logos, objects such as buildings, even text, and Google Goggles will fetch information that’s genuinely realted (well, mostly – sometimes it doesn’t work!)

Check out the video after the jump.

Google is developing its own Android phone, unlike anything on the market today. That, at least, is the latest rumour, which is growing in strenght daily.

A few weeks back, TechCrunch claimed that “…Google is building their own branded phone that they’ll sell directly and through retailers…The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding.”

Why would Google enter the hardware business? Why would it choose to compete directly with other Android phones from manufacturers such as Motorola, LG, Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson? Why take on the likes of Apple and Nokia directly?

And just what has Google got in store for us with its own custom-designed Android phone?

Read on after the jump for a few ideas of what Google’s up to.

Choosing the best camera phone is a nightmare as there are so many to choose from. In fact, 2009 was a bumper year for camera phones, with 5 megapixels now the norm, 8 megapixels becoming increasingly popular, and Sony Ericsson and Samsung raising the bar still further with their 12 megapixel monsters.

To help make your task easier, we’ve rounded up the best camera phones of 2009 for you, and even picked a winner (actually, 3 winners, but who’s counting?!).

If you’re not convinced by our choice, check out our guide on the six essential camera phone features to look out for to ensure you get the best one for your money.