Dashing away from the Google I/O keynote as fast as our feet would carry us, we scored the very first look at Logitech’s Google TV companion box. While we’ll share full details when we catch a breath, here’s the scoop: the box extends the full functionality of a Logitech Harmony remote and a WiFi access point to your TV, providing not only Google TV but also allowing you to control your entire entertainment system (including DVR) with a still-in-development keyboard / touchpad remote or an iPhone or Android smartphone app over WiFi. Hit the gallery below for a taste of what the little set-top box can do, and rest assured we’ve got more info on the way.

Update: Now with video, after the break.

When we got to Logitech’s demo space, we expected to see a keyboard and mouse. To our surprise, the Logitech product manager pulled out a Nexus One and iPhone. He explained that the companion box has all the technology of Logitech’s $400 Harmony 900 remote and extends it to your handset over WiFi. Several scrollable pages of dedicated buttons let that particular iPhone control not only the Google browser but also a Samsung TV, Onkyo receiver and TiVo set top box, and the product manager showed us that there were three additional control schemes (including a touchscreen D-pad, gesture swipe pane and virtual keyboard) that could be activated simply by shaking the phone. Should you not have a more modern smartphone, it won’t be your only option by far — the box will have an optional RF keyboard / touchpad available at launch, and a pair of USB ports in back allow users to connect dongles for 2.4GHz peripherals. In addition to standard Google TV functions, Logitech said the box would come with Logitech’s free 1080p 720p video chat solution, Vid — though you’ll have to shell out extra for thewebcams required to make it work.

The unit itself is based on Intel’s CE4100 “Sodaville” Atom processor, with this particular chip operating at 1.2GHz, and the board features 4GB of memory and 802.11n WiFi. In addition to the aforementioned twin USB sockets, the rear I/O panel features wired LAN jack and two IR headers for additional connectivity (the former presumably affording the system direct IP control over DVRs) and has a pair of HDMI 1.3 ports that handle all visual content, with Dolby 5.1 surround sound transferred via either HDMI or S/PDIF out. If your home entertainment setup is entirely wired with HDMI, you’ll find the unit allows full digital passthrough; if your sources use any other kind of jack (component, composite, etcetera) you may need a receiver of some sort; reps available couldn’t tell us if the box required HDCP to stream content.

Update 3: Logitech just informed us that Vid will actually run at a resolution of 720p.

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Apple has just updated its online store with a shipping date for the 3G-equipped variants of its iPad. As you can see, all varieties of the hallowed Apple tablet should be out and about by May 7th — meaning that some deliveries could sneak out even earlier — and you can expect AT&T will be ready and waiting for you to activate that $30 a month unlimited data plan. Just for the European record, that means the iPad will be out in full force for American consumers three days ahead of the announcement of specific international availability. Ah well, at least that gives the UK and others hope that they might see the 3G and WiFi-only slates coming out at the same time, which should be somewhere around the end of May.

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It says something about the array of fancy new innovations vying for your attention at Mobile World Congress that some incredibly cool developments can pass you by entirely. How – for example - did I manage to miss the unveiling of Sagem Orga’s ‘SIMFi’, which claims to be the world’s first SIM card with on-board Wi-Fi?

Maybe it was the firm’s rather uninspired press release? Or maybe I just automatically switch off when the subject turns to SIM card technology? Either way, I missed a trick because SIMFi is exciting. Very. And its impact could be massive.

It’s a simple enough concept. The firm has managed to embed a WLAN modem into a standard-sized mobile SIM card, effectively turning any mobile phone that uses the SIM into a Wi-Fi hotspot. How they managed to cram all this into something the size of a postage stamp I don’t know. Anyway, this allows the handset to become a tethering tool that can connect devices such as laptops to the Internet using HSPA without having to faff around with USB dongles, embedded modules and the like.

In this respect, the technology can be seen as a competitor to portable Wi-Fi hotspots such as Novatel’s ‘MiFi’ and 3 UK’s identically-named product, both of which launched last year. But while these products do the same thing, they exist as standalone products. SIMFi, by contrast, delivers the same functionality inside the phone itself, which means you’ll end up taking a Wi-Fi hotspot with you everywhere you go.

There are multiple use cases for this technology, and many more are likely to emerge as mobile networks become faster and more reliable. In theory at least, it means a clunky old Nokia could be used to wirelessly enable a whole household.

It’s early days and Sagem Orga was light on details around pricing and availability. One assumes the cards are not cheap to produce and they’re also likely to represent a serious drain on battery life. Then there’s the issue of what this means for mobile operators, which are unlikely to be keen to distribute SIMs set-up to allow third-party devices to access their networks – especially in the current climate of data network capacity meltdown.

Interestingly, Telefonica worked with Sagem Orga on the prototype showcased in Barcelona, and it was noted in the press release that SIMFi will “enable Telefonica to broadcast HSPA Internet access through Wi-Fi to notebooks and netbooks.” Seems the Spanish operator giant is at least planning some trials, which could give us some ideas around possible business models.

Whisper it, but we could be looking at the next killer app.

mablott@gsm.org

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Member

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No surprises here, with both the WinMo-running M10 and Android-powered A50 both leaked in January by Asustek’s president. The partnership between Garmin and Asustek has resulted in a few lacklustre phones, but the A50 actually sounds more than decent.

They’re boasting it brings “more location technology than any other smartphone,” as you’d expect from the satnav dudes at Garmin. The hardware isn’t all that surprising, with a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen, a 3.0-megapixel camera with autofocus and geotagging, Bluetooth, 4GB of internal storage (with the usual microSD card slot) and an accelerometer. No word on Wi-Fi just yet.

Bundled with the phone is a car mount and power cable for the car, which is a nice touch—nothing worse than having to fork out for additional accessories after laying down a few hundred on the actual device. The software is, of course, Garmin’s turn-by-turn navigation.

It’ll go on sale sometime in the first six months of 2010—nice and vague—and the price hasn’t been announced (or rumored, in the M10′s case) just yet.

That aforementioned M10 (above) won’t be showing up with Windows Mobile 7, launching instead with 6.5.3 (though presumably it’ll be available for a software update once WinMo 7 launches at the end of the year). Specs sound just like they did when Asustek president Benson Lin blabbed last month about it, with the 3.5-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and the same again for ROM. Garmin and Asustek have chosen a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM 7227 chip which won’t steal too many headlines, but at least it’s running the most recent version of WinMo, eh? The rumored price was $435 last month, but we’ll keep you updated once we receive official word. [GSM Arena andBusinessWire]

Send an email to Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, at khannaford@gizmodo.com.

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After buying that little multitouch company Touchco last week and merging it with Lab126—their Kindle division—Amazon’s now gotjob listings looking for a Hardware Display manager that knows LCDs, and a Wi-Fi specialist. You do the math.

Okay! I’ll add some calculus of my own. Like Ammunition’s Robert Brunner, who helped Barnes & Noble create the Nook, told Bits, I don’t think it’s crazy to expect Amazon to have two types of Kindles: An E-Ink and full-color multitouch version, since they can’t abandon the E-Ink train, not yet.

If the Super Kindle grows into a sorta-computerish thing that runs apps, also not crazy, given what it’s trying to compete against, I sorta kinda hope it doesn’t use Android, ’cause it’d be too much like some other readers out there, and I hate sameness. [Lab126 via Bits]

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