BuyMeGetMe.com

They’re the number one cell phone manufacturer on the planet – and early every fall they present a big showcase for their upcoming models.

This year, the annual line show known as “Nokia World” is being held in Stuttgart, Germany and there are lots of goodies to tell you about.

First of all, their top-of-the-line smartphone, the N97 gets a slight overhaul and will now be called the N97 mini. It’s only slightly smaller than the original but this time Nokia wants you to think of the device as a small Netbook-like smartphone that fits in your pocket.

The just announced price is in the 450 Euros range ($640) before cellular carrier subsidies, tax and tip.

Then comes its younger brother, Nokia’s new N900 Internet tablet/smartphone.

This is the first Nokia phone to be released running their brand new Maemo (Linux-based) operating system. Hopefully the new OS will silence critics of the older OS software.

This 3.5G cellular device has a fast ARM processor and is being touted as an iPhone/Pre/Android killer. Can’t wait to try one in person. The photos look very cool.

Price has been set for the Nokia’s latest flagship device at 500 Euros ($711) before carrier subsidies.

Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic phone has morphed into the new X6 handset.

New features include a 3.2-inch touch screen, 32GB of flash memory, a 5MP camera with dual LED flash and a television output jack.

Expect the X6 to retail for 459 Euros ($653 U.S.) before carrier subsidies.

There’s also a new X3 music phones with a smaller non-touch screen and slide-out keyboard and a 3.2 MP camera. It runs on an earlier version (Series 40) of Nokia’s Symbian OS.

The X3 is a lot cheaper too. It will retail for 115 Euros ($164 US) before subsidies. It doesn’t come with a microSD card though – but they’re relatively inexpensive, these days.

And, we now know a little more about Nokia’s new small laptop/netbook offering, the Booklet 3G.

The new computer will sport a 10.1-inch screen, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1 GB or RAM, a 120 GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a SIM card slot (for cellular data connections) and will run on Windows 7. Battery life is said to approach 12-hours per charge.

Price is set at 570 Euros ($811 US) before (possible) cellular subsidies.

All of these devices are promised to ship before the end of the year.

A new scientific study suggests that all that time you may have spent in front of all those gaming machines playing Tetris was actually good for your brain.

I’m not making this up.

According to today’s press release using your brain can give you positive results:

“Researchers at the Mind Research Network today announced the findings of a scientific study that used brain imaging and Tetris to investigate whether practice makes the brain efficient because it increases gray matter.

Over a three-month period, adolescent girls practiced Tetris, a computer game requiring a combination of cognitive skills. The girls who practiced showed greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. Compared to controls, the girls that practiced also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred.”

Notice that they say they used girls in this study. I’m guessing that results might have been significantly different if they had used adolescent boys. Maybe not.

This is not the first study to use Tetris. According to scientists, playing these kinds of games (Tetris, juggling, etc.) improves many functions:

“It requires many cognitive processes like attention, hand/eye co-ordination, memory and visual spatial problem solving all working together very quickly. It’s not surprising that we see changes throughout the brain.

Neuro-imaging studies demonstrate plasticity of cortical gray matter before and after practice for some motor and cognitive tasks in adults.”

Dr. Sherif Karama, a co-investigator at the Montreal Neurological Institute believes this is a good thing:

“We showed that practice on a challenging visuospatial task has an impact on the structure of the cortex, which is in keeping with a growing body of scientific evidence showing that the brain can change with stimulation and is in striking contrast with the pervasive and only-recently outmoded belief that our brain’s structure is fixed.”

So now, when someone tells you to stop playing games you can refer them to the actual scientific study. Remind them you enjoy “challenging visuospatial tasks.”

You can begin sharpening your brain power by playing at Tetris.com and freetetris.com. You can also join the Tetris group on Facebook.