A new smartphone app designed to help empower women in developing countries won deserved recognition recently.

Tienda Tek is an app that could’ve been drowned out amid all the latest mobile phone developments showcased at the recent Mobile World Congress 2011 event in Barcelona.

But thanks to a $10,000 prize awarded as one of the winners of the Vodafone-sponsored GSMA mWomen Base of the Pyramid Apps Challenge held at the mobile event recently, the app can help support more female entrepreneurs.

The winning smartphone app enables corner shop businesses in Latin America, the majority of which are run by women, to operate more efficiently by tracking transactions, receiving relevant education, connecting to suppliers and selling virtual goods, such as mobile pre-paid airtime and micro-insurance.

In addition to the cash provided by Vodafone to assist in creating, testing and commercialising the app, the prize winners also receive exclusive access to a leading venture capital firm and top innovation and design company.

The Base of the Pyramid Apps Challenge was first launched in October 2010 as part of the official launch of the GSMA mWomen Programme, which addresses the key barriers to women’s access to mobile phones, including total cost of ownership, technical literacy and cultural barriers to adoption.

Frank Meehan has been getting the tech world’s knickers in a twist by claiming women find Android-based phones too geeky.

The founder and chief executive of hardware firm INQ Social Mobile reportedly told gadget newswire Mashable recently that pretty girls only use iPhone or BlackBerry handsets.

“She has no emotional attachment to an Android phone. It’s too complicated. It’s a geek device, it’s all wrong,” said Meehan at the recent Mobile World Congress 2011 event in Barcelona.

His is the company behind the INQ Cloud, also known as the first unofficial ‘Facebook phone,’ based on the Google smartphone operating system.

But while some tech geeks have dismissed the INQ range as underpowered and superfluous to requirements, given the numbers of social networking apps already available, Meehan has defended his company’s approach by saying an obsession with specs and features has meant Android-based phones are missing out on a lucrative market that buy smartphones as the latest fashion accessory.

Frankly, we think he’s talking utter rubbish and that girls are just as interested in ‘speeds and feeds’ as guys are in the look and feel of the latest gadgets. Otherwise, that would make the executives in many big corporates demanding to replace their BlackBerrys and PDAs with iPhones and iPads very effeminate indeed.

The question is, have you had similar gender-bending smartphone experiences using Android or do you know any women that do?

Not a day goes past where we don't have to duck and dive into highstreet corners, puddles or similar to get away from the woman who is wearing the exact same dress or jacket as us.

Now, don’t get us wrong, we are not being snobby – after all Topshop off the rail is hardly a metaphor for “one off creation,” but sometimes we don’t like to be seen next to the girl whose legs/arms/ chest looks better in the clothing we decided to wear for the day.

So imagine our glee when we heard about Toshiba’s new service that allows you to design an entirely original, customised cover for your notebook.

The Lapjacks service lets you choose from thousands of high quality images, upload your own digital photographs or even create an original design and submit it for production. The designs are then printed onto an adhesive vinyl cover, which like a pair of Levi’s for you legs, is made to fit the exact dimensions of your  notebook.

Prices start from £14.99 for pre-stocked imagery and £29.99 for customised designs – we just wish one off pieces of clothing were so cheap.

Lets be honest, traditional Bluetooth devices weren’t really made for us gadget girls were they?

Not only can they be uncomfortable but they also make us look like a bad presenter from QVC – that is, unless they are covered in nice pink diamonds.

Also, if you have been blessed with Dumbo ears then you’ll probably agree that they also don’t always fit.

No? Well maybe that’s just us and someone from Bluetrek then, because the company has launched a new style of Bluetooth.

The MINI Bluetooth headset is an elegant, accessory that can be worn either as an earpiece or around the neck like a necklace. For those who like to share more than a bit of gossip the headset/necklace also comes with 7 hours of continuous talk time - or 10 days standby time for the times of laryngitis.

It is available from this month for £29.

Hmm, we no longer feel so bad about getting drunk and losing our wedding ring down the pipes in the bathroom – we wish we were joking - because it means we can now get ourselves a funky geek wedding ring as a replacement.

Designed by Seattle based metal smith Jana Brevick, the geek wedding rings are designed from old computer parts, such as male and female serial connectors, to bind many a happy couple.

If you are feeling particularly loving towards your other half, the way that these rings have been made means that they can be plugged together. This, makes an excellent alternative to holding hands – especially if one of you suffers from sweaty Betty hands.

 Now they may be a bit bigger than your average size zero diamond but that makes them perfect for those who are prone to dropping things down small holes – well a ring as big as this won’t easily slip down pipes and plugholes will it.

Ladies who lovingly made a compilation cassette tape to impress the opposite sex and who loved the sounds a chewed tape emitted - often like you had dunked the singers head under water -  will be as disappointed as us to hear that Currys is slowly killing off the audio cassette.

Yes, that’s right, the product we all grew up with and loved has finally been committed to its dreadful death by the electronics retailer who has bowed to digital pressure and is outing the product to make more room for iPods and mp3 players.

Currys will continue for now to sell existing stocks of cassette tapes, but these will not be replenished giving the products a shelf life of at least 18 months.

The store will also phase out tape decks by Christmas, which are currently available in less than five per cent of audio equipment – better hurry up get all you old mix tapes copied onto CD then.

If you are on one of those diets where you constantly feel hungry – that’ll be the starvation diet - then you may want to look away now as this product might just send you straight for the fridge/breadbin/cupboard/MacDonald’s drive through.

The Donut clock is a battery operated wall clock that has had its numbers replaced by handmade miniatures of the kind of delicious pastries you could only dream about. 
This includes a Glazed Donut at 12:00, Chocolate Bar at 6:00 and an Apple Turnover for eleven[ses].

Still not enough to make you ram-raid the local store?

Well how about if we told you the clocks also come with Sushi and Dim Sum miniatures? Yep - we thought that might do it.

If the wet and windy weather leaves you housebound for fear of ruining your newly blowdried hair and you want to do something a bit more interesting than read or watch TV, then the lightweight indoor Picoo Z Micro Helicopters may be just what you need.

The ‘copters, which are only 6 inches long, need no assembly or fiddling with batteries, you just pull them straight ‘outta the box and they are ready to fly.

Because they are so easy to use no experience is needed either – well we suppose we should put our pilot’s license away then. 

The choppers will take off, hover, turn left or right and will annoy your cat, dog, nan or whoever happens to be in the house, for a full 10 minutes before they need to be refuelled. Unlike cheap airline flights this only takes half an hour.

For those who like to make members of the family think that they have been invaded by aliens in the middle of the night these little flying gems also come with LED strobe lights – well anything that hovers around you when you’re half asleep/drunk looks like a UFO doesn’t it. 

The helcopters/UFO’s/ annoying flying things are available from crazy about gadgets from June. They come in Khaki, Silver and Pink.