LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States will pump $250 billion into its banks on Tuesday, following similar measures in Europe, but data showed the threat of recession has not been banished even if a financial sector meltdown has.

Formed from the same genetic ooze as Pantech's Slide Duo smartphone and rebranded Helio Ocean handset, the Matrix is a mildly frustrating device: spec'd with the best, but dressed in the worst. An HSDPA-enabled handset with GPS, a full QWERTY keyboard in addition to a dialpad, and two cameras should have the software to leverage the hardware, but AT&T and Pantech have chosen to stick with an in-house OS rather than opt for Windows Mobile as they did with the Duo QWERTY smartphone. Still, it doesn't look like a bad feature phone for people who message more than they talk, and it's available today at AT&T stores. [Crave]

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At Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference, the possibility of hiring freezes or layoffs was the top item on the consulting firm's list of things IT managers should prepare for in light of the financial meltdown.