Samsung Rant, the new cell phone unveiled by Sprints is surely going to grab some attention with its delicious candy bar structure, tough construction and a comfortable feel in the hand.

It will surely become popular among the texters as it has got full QWERTY keyboard. Its unique style includes its square navigation toddle.

The stylish Samsung Rant also called SPH-M540, with a 2-mega-pixel camera, has some other attractive features too, which include e-mail and messaging, support for Sprint’s 3G EV-DO network, Sprint TV and a music player with access to the Sprint Music Store.

It also has GPS with Sprint Navigation, speaker-independent voice dialing, Microsoft Live Search, stereo Bluetooth and personal organizer applications.

San Francisco - Google is to launch the first mobile phone running its Android software next week in a joint initiative with T- mobile, the companies said Tuesday.

The open-source Android system is seen as Google's answer to Apple's successful iPhone and as a key initiative in the internet giant's quest to extend its dominance to the mobile web.

Google has worked closely with US carrier T-mobile and Taiwan electronics maker HTC to develop the new phone, which is to be called Dream.

New Delhi, Sep 16 : France on Tuesday said the Nuclear Suppliers Group''s waiver to India for conduct of nuclear commerce makes it possible for the two to sign a bilateral trade agreement in this area.

Describing the NSG waiver to India as a "historic achievement," French Minister of State for External Trade Anne Marie Idrac said here that "it opens the way for signing of the bilateral agreement, which was concluded during visit of President Sarkozy in January."

New Delhi, Sep 16 : The Union Government is planning to issue guidelines to Internet service providers to secure wireless fidelity (WiFi) networks so that terrorists do not use it to send threatening e-mails.

“We are always in constant talks with the Department of Telecom on security issues. We might take some action soon,” Department of Information Technology Special Secretary R Chandrashekar said.

The move comes on the heels of a group called Indian Mujahideen using an unprotected WiFi network to send emails almost at the same time of the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi.

Washington, September 16 : Researchers at the University of Bath in the UK are helping to develop new rechargeable batteries that could improve hybrid electric cars in the future.

As concern grows about climate change, a range of ‘green technologies’ are being developed to help reduce carbon emissions.

Hybrid petrol/electric cars that use conventional metal-hydride batteries are already available but they are heavy and the cars have limited power.

Professor Saiful Islam, of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bath, is researching new materials to use in rechargeable lithium batteries, similar to those that have helped to power the worldwide ‘portable revolution’ in mobile phones, laptops and MP3 players.

Washington, September 16 : A new study has shown that oil palm plantations are no substitute for tropical rainforests, which makes the protection of the rainforests all the more important.

Emily Fitzherbert from the Zoological Society of London and University of East Anglia carried out the study.

The continued expansion of oil palm plantations will worsen the dual environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, unless rainforests are better protected, warn scientists.

“There has been much debate over the role of palm oil production in tropical deforestation and its impacts on biodiversity. We wanted to put the discussion on a firm scientific footing,” said Fitzherbert.