A Peek at Samsung's Potential iPhone Killer

Also from the wireless show in Las Vegas: a Plantronics earpiece and the ultimate gadget protector.
By Gary Krakow ,

LAS VEGAS -- It's time for the CTIA Wireless 2008 spring trade show -- the U.S. version of the worldwide cellular industry show we told you about in Barcelona back in February.

Samsung is here in Sin City showing off some of the GSM phones it introduced at the Mobile World Congress in the hopes that a GSM provider in the U.S. (

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

or

T-Mobile

(DT) - Get Report

) might decide to sell them here.

The most interesting-looking design is its F480 handset. Think of it as an

Apple

(AAPL) - Get Report

iPhone killer in waiting.

A Small & Sexy iPhone Killer

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The F480 (surely it will get a catchy new name if and when it gets here) is a sleek, super-speedy worldphone featuring a full touch screen, a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus, power LED image and video stabilization, multiformat audio and video, FM radio with RDS, video messaging, email, mobile tracker and mobile blog.

The home screen is very cool. Widgets that normally reside on the left side of the screen can be dragged anywhere on the screen, and the icon sizes can be changed to create a main screen of your choice.

The F480 is smaller than the iPhone but seems to be packed with a similar number of features. The biggest deal is that the Samsung utilizes the speed of the fastest data networks available on GSM phones -- while Apple settled for greater battery life by using a much slower data technology.

Samsung's iPhone killer should be available for sale overseas later this spring. Whether of not we'll get to buy them from a U.S. provider is yet to be seen.

Plantronics

(SYMBOL)

was introducing its Discovery 925 Signature Bluetooth Earpiece. It's a clever design that adds a backup battery in its leather case.

So, when you charge the headset, you're also charging the second battery. If the main battery starts losing its charge, you can plug the headset into its case and get extra air time. Clever idea.

Discovery 925 will come in three colors: Opus Black, Lucent Gold and Noble Cerise (doesn't that sound a lot better than black, gold and mauve?). It will be available soon.

And I saw an amazing demonstration of a new product that will protect your cell phone or laptop unlike any product I've seen.A company called

Zagg

(ZAGG) - Get Report

calls its breakthrough the Invisible Shield. It's a clear-plastic, stick-on cover that reminds me of Colgate's legendary Gardol Shield (ask your parents). This clear plastic is either from the planet Krypton -- or it's made from the same material that our armed forces use to protect helicopter blades from being chipped or damaged.

The stuff is scratch-proof, nonslip, durable and seemingly invincible (like Superman). Prices range from $20 to protect your cell-phone screen, $30 to cover the whole phone and $50 or so to keep your laptop safe. Invisible Shield comes packaged in precut forms for many phones, MP3 players, PDAs and portable computers.

I'll tell you about more new phones in my next dispatch.

Gary Krakow is TheStreet.com's senior technology correspondent.

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