Atmel Corporation is in beta with XSense, a flexible touch-panel technology that you can roll it up).

Atmel says XSense touch will not only enable a new generation of smartphones and tablets, but also transform the large screen market as well.

Based on a proprietary roll-to-roll metal mesh technology, XSense touch sensors offer such advantages as “flawless” touch performance, enhanced noise immunity, low sheet resistance and low power consumption.

Product designers can turn touch-based concepts into functional designs at lower total system costs compared to current market alternatives.

Go Atmel XSense

Tamagotchi creators Bandai have plans to turn iDevices (iPhone or iPod Touch) into robotic pets with Smartpet-- a clunky yet cute robot dog with an iPhone for a brain.

Controlling the robot is a free app, making the Smartpet to react to touchscreen gestures, voice commands or movements in front of the Facetime camera. The "pet" can learn various tricks, as well as make facial expressions, sing and even dance with other Smartpets via Bluetooth.

And when the games are over the Smartpet also doubles as an alarm clock and a handsfree set.

It will be available in either black or white in Japan from April 24. Sadly enough, we have no word on international availability yet.

Watch Smartpet iPhone Robot Pet

Will Apple change the iPhone design in order to follow the bigger-sized smartphone trend? Reuters reports the next iPhone will carry a 4.6-inch display once it reportedly launches sometime around Q2 2012.

All current iPhone models have the same screen size-- 3.5-inch.

The rumoured bigger size would be on part with popular iPhone alternatives, such as the Samsung Galaxy S II (4.5-inch) and the HTC Titan II (4.7-inch).

Big screens make sense with customers wanting a more comfortable smartphone experience-- that is, using a mobile device for non-phone functions, such as watching video, playing games or photo editing. For instance the huge Galaxy Note (5.3-inch) proved to be fairly successful with customers for that exact reason.

However an increase in screen size might prove to be a hassle to one segment vital for Apple's mobile success-- iOS developers, who would have to re-code apps in order to fit yet another display size and resolution.

Go Apple's New iPhone Will Use Bigger Display (Reuters)

According to ABI Research smartphones will be the driver for the global 2012 aftermarket mobile accessory market-- making $20 billion (out of a total of $36BN) thanks to smartphone owners spending more on accessories.

The analyst says feature phone customers will spend an average of $28.17 on accessories per device, while smartphone customers will spend $56.18. How come? A combination of accessories costing more while customers buying more accessories for smartphones.

ABI Research says smartphone accessory revenues will grow to $38BN by 2017, while feature phone accessories will decline to $12BN.

However customers will have increasing expectations for their purchases-- "accessories must focus on delivering tighter integration with smartphone functionality and features offering a more intelligent accessory product or smart accessory,” the analyst concludes.

Go ABI Research Mobile Handset Accessories