Samsung plied a bunch of us media types (old media like Popular Science and new media like Phonescoop and Engadget) with coffee and eggs this morning, and gave us the chance to drool over some of their Ultra series phones that are meant more for the Asian and European markets than our own fair shores.  They also talked WiMax and WiBro, and showed off their Ubicell home VoIP router, which will actually be available in the US later this year.

I was most excited to get my hands on the Ultra Smart F700 cell phone, what with its iPhone-killing touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY board and 5 megapixel shooter.  The sample that made its way around the breakfast tables, however, seemed to be nothing more than a souped up dummy phone, as evidenced by its inability to do more than flash the "SGH-F700" startup screen for half a second before shutting off, and the look/feel/sound of the thing that made it seem there was little more than a big spring (for the sliding mechanism) inside.

Still, Samsung did say that the F700 will eventually make it to the US, which is exciting for all you Ultra Smart types.  They also passed around a few sexy Ultra thin phones - 3MP cameraphones in bar and flip formats - as well as a souped up WiBro phone for the Korean market that included a dedicated RSS button, MobiTV, and a host of other too-hi-tech for the States goodies. 

Also, I owe a world of thanks to Kim from Samsung's PR team who pointed out to me that Gallagher was in the room.  I'm still not sure who he is, but apparently while I was busy watching Family Ties back in the '80s, he was doing stand-up comedy and smashing fruit with hammers.  And now he writes about cell phones, or at least sneaks into Bloggers' Breakfasts.