Rather than push for more and more integration, giving tiny but extremely complicated devices where only a small amount of the functionality will ever be used, they have gone for a modular approach where lego-like modules click together to add features.

The BUGbase unit contains the main processor, a small LCD, connectivity via USB, Wifi and Ethernet plus the battery power supply. It has a host of electronics industry standard interfaces and four BUGmodule connectors. These are the real soul of the system; optional and interchangeable modules can contain functionality such as GPS, displays, motion sensors or cameras. You pick the functionality you want at that moment in time, clip it together and use it in a reassuringly clunky old style manner.

This particular incarnation isn’t likely to set the world on fire; it is too big and not properly refined – yet there is something about it that makes you just want to pick it up and see what configurations you can come up with. Do you want the display on the same side as the camera for a self portrait or video call? Just plug them both onto one side of the module. For a more traditional camera look, unplug the display and plug it in on the other side.

Bug Labs claim that these will be imminently available, but pricing hasn’t yet been announced.

Gas guzzler

We are constantly being reminded that we should be working to minimise our carbon footprint, recycle and take care of the world’s natural resources. The government run European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has seen that it is difficult for people to see how minor changes in daily routines can lead to large overall benefits when applied to the population as a whole, or even just their own household. To help people to analyse their lifestyles, it has released a free mobile Java applet called mobGAS which runs on most fairly recent handsets.

mobGAS asks you to enter basic information about your family and the house you live in, then fill in details of your lifestyle and work; how you commute, how you control the heat in your house and even how you keep yourself clean. You can keep a daily diary, from which it will show your estimated carbon emissions.

The result isn’t the slickest piece of software you’ve ever seen, but it is worth having a look at.

Nokia goes Green

At the recent Nokia World event Nokia was pushing to regain its status as an environmentally friendly company. The new 3110 Evolve handset (pictured) has covers manufactured with 50 per cent renewable material and minimal packaging made from 60 per cent recycled content. With the number of handsets being sold every year still not tailing off, small changes in the design and packaging can have astounding impacts; Nokia believe that its change to more compact packaging last year has resulted in 5,000 fewer trucks being needed on the road – and it frees up space in your stockroom too.

Browser share

US internet monitoring firm Net Applications says the iPhone is now being used to view more websites than every model of Windows Mobile handset combined – despite the iPhone having a much smaller userbase.

The figures are calculated by looking at the web browsers which access sites containing net Applications’ counters and statistics generators. When a browser accesses a site, it tells the web server information such as the browser type and operating system it is running on.

As you’d expect, neither the iPhone or Windows Mobile are particularly popular compared to desktop broswers; Windows XP based desktops topped the chart at over 78 per cent Intel based Macs managed less than four per cent, whilst the iPhone crawled in at 0.09 per cent compared to Windows Mobile’s 0.06 per cent - 50 per cent higher.

That could be for a combination of reasons; the browser may just be better, so users are more likely to whip out their iPhone than find a desktop PC. It may be that the “unlimited” data plans that iPhones are sold with encourages use that would be prohibitively expensive on other handsets. Alternatively, it may simply be that the iPhone tends to be sold as a consumer item, whilst many Windows Mobile devices are company phones where the users aren’t as interested in web browsing.

Having said that, good old Opera Mini, the Java based browser for mobiles, has seven times the amount of page hits as the iPhone, so there is some way to go before Apple’s baby is the mobile browsing market leader.

Mobile Hotspot

Cradlepoint, an Idaho based startup, has produced a Personal Hotspot, to give Wi-Fi internet access anywhere that there is a 3G mobile signal. This pocket sized box contains a Wi-Fi access point and a USB port to connect either to a 3G USB modem or a compatible 3G handset.

It’s a very neat solution for setting up a temporary web connection for a small group of people; a tradeshow stand, an offsite meeting or even just a holiday where more than one person wants to use a laptop in the evening to keep in contact. It has the usual Wi-Fi WAP/WEP encryption to try to stop passing strangers using it without your permission, though of course having several people sharing a single 3G connection is likely to not give startling performance and will push you quite rapidly towards your “unlimited” tariff’s fair use quota.