If LCD and Plasma HD televisions are the hottest items at CES this week (Toshiba unveiled no less than 20 new flat screens), GPS and mobile devices must rate a close second. We’ve already seen some groundbreaking new developments, including voice control and cellular-equipped GPS that will change the game for portable navigation when they arrive in Australia. Here are the highlights. There are two technologies we’re excited about, as they promise to help solve a longtime drawback of all GPS devices – losing the signal when you go into a tunnel, or between tall city buildings. Essentially, by combining extra sensors GPS makers hope to maintain a fix on your location, even if you lose satellite signal briefly. Mio’s Navsteadi technology is one example, which didn’t get a lot of CES coverage, but looks very interesting.

The system takes into account acceleration, heading data and closely coupled GPS to “improve positioning accuracy”. Mio’s local national sales manager Peter Farrigno told us the system should maintain a signal even in a tunnel. “It’s a form of dead reckoning, it’s especially of aid when you’re in canon-esque type environments where there’s an enormous amount of signal loss,” he said.

Dimming Wall Street hopes for a profit, Motorola Inc. said on Wednesday it will post an operating loss in the current quarter because its mobile phone business is taking longer to turn around than expected. The company, whose weak cell phone product line caused it to lose customers to rivals like Nokia and Samsung Electronics in 2007, warned of further market share losses this quarter and back pedaled off its forecast for its mobile devices division to return to profitability in 2008. Motorola forecast a first-quarter loss per share from continuing operations of 5 U.S. cents to 7 cents, before any reorganization charges. Analysts had expected a profit of 9 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. “The figures had us scratching our heads, checking the date to see if we were looking at an earnings release from 2002,” JPMorgan analyst Ehud Gelblum said in a note to clients. Some analysts questioned if Motorola would stay intact after its outlook overshadowed quarterly results that were in line with expectations.

Activist shareholder Carl Icahn has called for a break-up of the company. He was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. “They’re flirting with the handset death spiral. They’re losing share, which makes them smaller, which makes them less competitive on costs, which makes their phones less compelling, which loses more share,” said Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. Asked about the potential for a company break-up, Motorola Chief Executive Greg Brown would only say he was focused on cutting costs, getting mobile devices back to profit and expanding the set-top box and enterprise mobility units.

Let’s take a typical situation. A guy suspects his girlfriend is cheating on him. Looking at her mobile, there are tons of calls to the same number, and you want to find out the owner of that number and what they do. This is where a reverse phone lookup service comes in. These are basically databases of millions of numbers, complete with information about the owner such as their name and address. They are both free and paid. Free services will be useful for looking up landline numbers, but will not include mobile numbers in their database.

Before you do anything else, though, it is worth trying a free service. If the number is a landline home number, then they should be able to give you a result. Otherwise, if the number is a cell phone, then you’ll have to go with a paid service. Why Don’t Free Services Include Cell Phone Numbers? Well, cell phone numbers aren’t freely available to the public. Putting them into a database (complete with information about the owner) is very costly, and good databases with millions of cell phone numbers take tens of thousands of dollars to build and update. To make back these costs, there needs to be a small fee.

Luckily, these services typically only charge you once for an unlimited number of searches. If you wanted to, you could search every single number in your spouse’s phone. You might be surprised at some of the information you find. And you can do it confidentially, from the comfort of your own home.

“Hackers Inc” are seeing red after Apple Computer released a software update that renders useless - unlocked iPhones aka iPhones that have been altered so as to be able to work with cellular carriers other than the official one, namely AT&T. Hackers had it coming when earlier this week, Apple Computer warned about its upcoming software — that would not only offer access to iTunes and fix a few security bugs — but significantly, possibly end-up permanently disabling the unlocked iPhones.

Put-on-the-defensive, the hacker community has responded saying that depending on the type of unlocking program used, iPhones may or may not continue to work after installing Apple’s newest software update. In case of unlocked iPhones that live to tell of the software onslaught, they will be workable only with the original SIM card that ties the phone firmly back to official carrier, AT&T. Apple’s move comes even as hackers were about to dismiss the company’s warning as a mere arm-twisting tactic. Meanwhile, it can’t be told how many people have actually managed to unlock their iPhones, but from the looks of it, the activity has been particularly popular in Europe.