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Samsung’s SCH-B500 is not just the universe’s thinnest satellite TV- and radio-receiving S-DMB cellphone, it also happens to be so outrageously desirable even trained “spokesmodels” have to hold the thing at arm’s length if they want to escape with (mostly) unsinged facial hair.
The B500 is 13.5mm thick, which is about half the thickness of first-generation models that went on sale in early 2005, and is 101mm long by 52mm wide. It weighs 100g, which is also lighter than earlier models.
The phone is compatible with the CDMA2000 1x EVDO cellular standard and packs a 2-megapixel digital still camera, a QVGA resolution display, MP3 player, Bluetooth, document viewer and TV output. There’s also an audio book feature that will read aloud three fairy tales in any of four languages: Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English.
Like other similar phones the B500 will only be available in South Korea. The S-DMB signal from local provider TU Media covers only the Korean mainland, so it wouldn’t be very useful in other regions anyway.
— Martyn Williams contributed to this report.
Yoshi’s take: Rumor has it Samsung is busy signing up all the best phone-holding models as we speak.
02:45 PM 
Mark Hiratsuka •
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