Two mobile platforms dominate the current smartphone landscape – iOS and Android – with two others hoping to gain ground – Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10.  But there’s a fifth mobile OS on the horizon that may make an impact as well – Firefox OS. 

Developed by Mozilla , Firefox OS is based on open web standards and APIs, and  would, at first, be aimed at low-end devices that would be affordable for consumers.

The first developer hardware for Firefox OS is set to launch soon: the Keon (seen above) and the Peak, with a larger screen and more advanced hardware.  Both will be sold by GeeksPhone.  These handsets are not aimed at consumers, but at developers who wish to write software for the new OS. 

No pricing or release information has been made available, but the hardware is expected to begin shipping soon.

It remains to be seen if Firefox OS can be a serious player in the mobile market, or if it’ll be more of a boutique project. 

It’s a day worth nothing in your journal when Microsoft surprises us with a new, innovative product, so grab a pen and get comfortable.  The company behind Windows, Office, XBox and Windows Phone unveiled a product that some had speculated about, but none had come close to nailing down: new Surface tablet.

And they even managed to pull it off with a bit of punk, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cool.

While there’s a lot going on here, and surely much more to come over the next few months, here’s what you need to know about Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablets:

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Adopting new technology often requires compromise. In the case of Bluetooth headsets, we traded boring ol’ sound quality for ease of movement, freedom from cords, and a tech fantasy dating back to Lt. Uhura with a silver chess piece in her ear. In the early Bluetooth years, many made the trade and went about their lives with poor audio assuming – at some point – quality would catch up to convenience.

Fast-forward ten years, though, and the picture hasn’t changed as much as we might have hoped. While there are many more – and far better – Bluetooth headsets available today, half of the original tradeoff remains: while what the user hears has improved, sound quality on the other end of the “line” still leaves much to be desired.

For this reason, many steer clear of Bluetooth headsets, not wanting to subject family, friends, or business associates to audio dropouts or the “tin can” effect. I, too, have tried a number of wireless headsets, only to set them aside and return to the phone-between-ear-and-shoulder paradigm.

So, a few weeks ago, I decided to see if the tradeoff could be eliminated once and for all, or at least significantly mitigated. I would gather several Bluetooth headsets of a specific type – those with boom microphones that extend near the mouth for the best outgoing audio – and see if there is, at last, a Bluetooth headset that can offer bi-directional satisfaction. What I discovered was somewhat disappointing, but incredibly useful. Put another way, there are at least a couple of Bluetooth headsets available that offer phone-like sound quality, going or coming.

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All microSD / microSDHC memory cards are not created equal; for example, many 32GB microSDHC flash memory cards are rated Class 2, meaning they have relatively slow data transfer speeds to and from the card.  But if you want faster read/write performance, you do have options.

For example, PNY has a Class 10 32GB microSDHC memory card with 20MBps (megabytes per second) read speed and 10MBps write.  This card will work well in newer Android-powered smartphones and tablets, as well as digital cameras (with an SD adapter) and other devices with memory card slots.  You can check your product literature to see how fast a card your device supports. 

But you’ll pay a premium for faster performance; a 32GB Class 2 SanDisk microSDHC card can be purchased for just over $40, while the Class 10 PNY will set you back $68. 

If you spend a lot of money on a high-end device, it may be worth your while to avoid data transfer bottlenecks with a faster memory card.

If you’re a T-Mobile Sidekick user, your days are numbered – or at least the days you’ll be able to use your current device as a phone and mobile web device. 

On May 31st, 2011, Microsoft will shut down its “Danger” servers, which manage content for existing Sidekicks.

T-Mobile will continue to sell Sidekick handsets after current support ends, transitioning to Android-powered models. The first will be the Sidekick 4G, which runs Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ and is compatible with T-Mobile’s HSPA+ high-speed wireless network.  No further information has been made available, but the hardware is reportedly being built by Samsung.

We don’t have a release date for the Sidekick 4G, but given the May 31st cut-off date for the current generation’s servers, it would make sense for its release to come before that time. 

Current users don’t have to switch to a new Sidekick – if you’ve been eying another T-Mobile smartphone, the carrier is providing solutions for getting your data moved over, including a web tool for exporting contacts, media, calendar entries, etc.  There’s also an app “in the Sidekick Catalog to make it easy to export personal data to the Sidekick’s memory card,” according to the carrier.

You can read the official T-Mobile announcement after the jump.

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