Motorola's Krave:

Motorola's Krave:

If you're a fan of really cool technology, you'll definitely crave the Motorola Krave ZN4, available from Verizon for $149.99 after contract and rebate. Krave's cool technology is what the company calls a "touch cover" – a clear plastic protective flip flap that covers the Krave's 2.8-inch touchscreen that also is touch sensitive. In other words, touch the touch cover, and the LCD touchscreen beneath it reacts, complete with haptic tactile feedback

Krave's credentials include a 2 MP camera and video recorder, an excellent MP3/AAC/WMA music player compatible with the Rhapsody subscription music service, stereo Bluetooth, the subscription-based V CAST TV live broadcast TV service, an HTML Web browser that connects via Verizon's EV-DO Rev.A network, complete email, text,messaging, instant messaging and chat services, and a microSD slot that can accommodate up to an 8 GB card.

There's also an accelerometer, which means when you rotate the phone from landscape to horizontal, pictures, the camera viewfinder and Web pages rotate as well.But back to Krave's main LCD touchscreen. Instead of the usual square-ish 240 x 320 pixel area, Krave's bright display is 80 pixels longer/wider, 240 x 400 pixels. This gives you a longer Web reading page and provides extra width for Krave's touch horizontal QWERTY keyboard.

But Motorola giveth and taketh away; with the touch cover up, you can't comfortably hold and tap out messages on the QWERTY keyboard with your left thumb.

That silver Motorola insignia on the edge of the touch cover is actually the Krave's earpiece. Don't ask how you can hear your caller with no visible wires connecting this speaker to the phone's main body. However it works, it's really cool and sounds good, too.

On the negative side, even though Krave has two touchscreens, you can't navigate the Web by direct touch. You have to finger-drag around an engagement ring-like cursor superimposed on every Web page to "point" at links. It doesn't always work as advertised, and the experience could leave you screaming at the phone in frustration.