It's a problem that I am sure has occurred in most of our lives - you're at a friends, your phone battery runs low and needs a charge, but you've left your charger at home. You ask around only to find that no one in the house has the same phone as you.

However, I'm sure you will be glad to hear that in the run up to 2012 the top phone manufacturers around the Globe have agreed on an eco-friendly universal phone charger for all phones.

Not only does this mean you can be safe in knowing that when you charge your phone you are contributing much less to global warming than if you were using a unique phone charger (does anyone worry about this anyway?), but also that you will never have to lug around your phone charger again, be afraid of forgetting it, or even have to worry about not being able to contact a friend or family member because your phone has ran out of juice.

The article states that the universal charger will use a "mini-USB plug" and will consume "half as much energy when on standby" than those that are currently in use by the majority of mobile phone chargers.

Source: [Telegraph]

EvilDragon just posted a new item on the OpenPandora blog showing off a new video of the Pandora in action. The Pandora is shaping up to be a very impressive gaming device which is focused on the open source community. Previous videos have had the LCD connected to the PCB with no body/shell of any kind; This new video released by MWeston2 shows off a FDM prototype which has fully functioning controls and touch sensitivity for the LCD.

In the video he shows off the resistive touch screen and the fully functioning keyboard as well as some games and videos playing. It’s finally good to see some solid progress on the device, which was originally slated for a holiday ‘08 release.

The Pandora Team has gone through some tough times with this bad boy but hopefully we will get the device in our hands soon. The latest estimate has a release around April, so just a bit longer folks! You can check out our previous coverage of the device here and check out the newly released video after the break.

Pandora Video [Pandora]

One of the world's leading providers of telecommunications equipment has just recently announced a plan aimed at combating this economic pandemic that's currently sweeping our world. In a swift act of cost reductions, Ericsson plans to reduce the number of consultants and other temporary staff by 5,000. This action was brought on by a hard hit to the company as a result of a fourth quarter net income freefall of 31%. Cutting jobs seems to be turning into a trend now, isn't it?

Despite this seemingly harsh figure for a fourth quarter net income, Ericsson did surprisingly well for 2008 as a whole - with sales growing a comfortable 11% compared to '07, and operating margins steadily improving. Afterall, Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, said with confidence that "We have had a solid performance in 2008," so don't expect Ericsson to be too adversely affected by its fourth quarter performance.

The biggest hit coming to Ericsson for '08 is its Sony Ericsson cellphone brand. But rest assured, "Sony Ericsson is affected by the economic downturn and the declining demand in the consumer market and has taken necessary actions." says Svanberg. Lets all hope that Sony Ericsson can pull through these hard times ahead unscathed.

Ericsson Announces Plans to Cut 5,000 Jobs [cellular-news]