It’s called the Wingtech D20, and basically what they have done is take all the beauty of the Aura and flush it down the toilet through the use of cheap plastics and bad colors. And there ya have it. Instant crap-gadget for people on a budget. Everyone will know you’re on a budget when they see this thing. Some features include: Swiveling, switchblade-like design exactly like the Motorola Aura, Support for dual-band GSM networks, GPRS Class 10, 1.5-inch TFT 128 x 128 pixel LCD, Multi-language support, MP3 and MP4 player, USB connectivity, and Up to 4 hours of talk time and 120 hours on standby.

[Unwiredview]

Designer Nicolas Myers gives you some background:

Social networks, such as Facebook or Myspace, are a reality people using Internet can’t avoid. They become more and more important and take a crucial part of our virtual but at the same time real world identities. The way these systems work leads to new yet somewhat limited relationships : you can either “add a friend” or not, say “yes” or “no”. A binary thinking like this leaves no room for degrees of shade.

These oversimplified interactions are to some extent compensated by quantity - by collecting hundreds or even thousands of “friends”. On Myspace the true quality of the service lies in the size of the network itself. But how can you deal with these such complex networks? Are concepts like “friendship” or “relationship” still meaningful when you handle hundreds of them?

And then he goes ahead and goos up your social life:

Our project offers an indirect way to deal with these problems. A virtual robot makes and keeps new contacts for you by taking over your virtual identity. Your only control over its decisions is through an interface representing the network itself : a black liquid surface covered by numerous spikes that stand for each of your “friends”. It is by altering the surface of this « liquid », that one can interact with the robot and influence his actions in the virtual world.

This reminds me of a game called Progress Quest, a game in which your only interaction with the character, storyline, or anything else, is turning the game on. Heard of it? Me either.

By the way, this project is called Sociable Robot.

Designer: Nicolas Myers