Internet is 20 years old… according to Microsoft, in 10 years, what we today call “Internet” will be like this…

most likely, the concept of being “on line” or “off line” will disappear and objects, not only computers, will communicate independantely to each other.

That could be true for highly developped areas, but for these who, still today, have hard time to get access to drinkable water and haven’t seen electricity yet, this future by MS is definitively science-fiction.

Huawei has unveiled the E180 next generation mobile broadband device.

The world’s slimmest HSPA USB stick to date, the only 10mm thick E180 is a highly compact device supporting the complete range of HSPA/UMTS and GSM/GPRS/EDGE network technologies, allowing fast uplink speed rates of up to 5.76Mbps and a downlink of up to 7.2 Mbps.

The E180 is a real plug-and-play device compatible with MS Windows (2000/XP/Vista) as well as Mac OS and is designed with a ultra slim rotatable USB connector, which can be turned by 270 degrees. This way, the USB connector can be stored safely without the need of an additional cover.

The E180 comes with its built-in MicroSD card slot and supports up to 8GB memory card which eliminates the need for an additional USB memory stick to carry documents, music or movies. In addition, the device supports various useful services like SMS/MMS, PC voice, phone book, flow display and statistics.

Availability : Mid-June 2008

Specifications

HSPA/UMTS (2100MHz)
EDGE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
Support 2Mbps (5.76Mbps ready) HSUPA and 7.2Mbps HSDPA services
Support SMS and Voice services
MicroSD Card Slot
Plug & Play
Data statistics
Support Windows2000 , Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac Operating Systems

Source: Huawei

Features

• Push technologies
• MS Exchange support
• VPN Protocols
• Remote Wipe
• Certificated and Identities
• etc..

Technical Specs:

Cellular and wireless

• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

GPS

• Assisted GPS

Storage Capacity

• 8GB or 16GB flash drive

Display

• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Colors

• 8GB model: Black
• 16GB model: Black or white

Audio

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit
• Stereo earphones with built-in microphone
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Impedance: 32 ohms

Video

• Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second.

Camera and photos

• 2.0 megapixels Camera located on back of iPhone.
• Photo geotagging
• iPhone and third-party application integration

Power and battery

• Talk time up to 10 hours on 2G
• Standby time: Up to 300 hours
• Browsing up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 7 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 24 hours

Size and weight

• H 115.5 x W 62.1 x D 12.3 mm
• 133 grams

Price

• 8 GB : 199 USD Worldwide
• 16GB : 299 USD Worldwide

Availability announced in 25 countries by July 11th and up to 70 later this year.

All details here