Blackberry Tour officially hitting Verizon on July 12th

We’re not sure how much doubt a person could have had before, but in the interest of being crystal clear, Verizon Wireless will make the BlackBerry Tour available online and in stores on July 12th for $199 with a two year agreement.

T-Mobile myTouch 3G to land in stores August 5th

Some keen observation and javascript sleuthing may have uncovered the in-store launch date for T-Mobile’s second Android-powered handset, the myTouch 3G. Announced earlier this week by T-Mobile USA, the myTouch 3G will be available for pre-order on July 8th with an in-store release of the Android handset to follow sometime in “early August”. Now according to some serious sleuthing by the Android and Me blog, it looks like early August can now be clarified to August 5th. An author on the blog claims to have stumbled upon a T-Mobile development server containing a widget that counts down to the handset’s US release date, as indicated by the phrase “myTouch 3G in stores”. The server, according to the source, is owned by “the same media company who developed the official G1 website”. It all adds up, though no URL for the alleged server is provided so until we get some official word, this is all just a rumor. Either way, we have bigger and better things on our minds right now…

T-Mobile to hold events on the HTC Dash 3G / Touch Pro2 beginning July 14

One of our T-Mobile secret agents gave us a heads up about some business events that T-Mobile will be holding in July. T-Mobile reps will apparently be on hand in seven cities to show off the HTC Dash 3G and Touch Pro2, two devices T-Mobile is hoping will strike a chord with both business users and prosumers alike. The best part? Everyone who attends the events will receive a free Dash 3G which just so happens to drop on July 15th. The Touch Pro2 is rumored to become available on the 22nd. We’ve got the complete list of dates below and they all still have room for people to sign up — or at least they did at the time this post was written.

July 14 - San Francisco, CA
July 15 - Chicago, IL
July 16 - Los Angeles, CA
July 21 - Arlington, VA
July 22 - Houston, TX
July 23 - Atlanta, GA
July 28 - Fort Lauderdale, FL

In other T-Mobile news, we’ve also been told that a new plan for businesses is coming soon and that it will include unlimited voice and data for $59.99 a month.

Sony Ericsson T715 slider coming in Q3 2009

There’s nothing extraordinarily fancy about Sony Ericsson’s newly announced T715, but it should handle everything you could possibly throw at it — as long as you don’t need a QWERTY keyboard or a proper smartphone. The new slider features a 2.2-inch QVGA screen that SE claims will be visible in direct sunlight (pretty nifty if it actually works). Slap on a capable 3.2 megapixel shooter, Google Maps, AccuWeather and Microsoft Exchange support and you have yourself the winner of just-above-averageness. Best of all, it will be available in European and American versions with 3G support for both. Woo hoo! Q3 of this year is as close as we have to a release date for the time being — anyone looking forward to it?

HTC CEO reportedly confirms Sense UI to current Android handsets

Sure, current Android handset owners, it’s understandable that you’re looking at HTC’s new Hero handset with a bit of jealousy. The new Sense UI alone is reason enough to be envious of course, as HTC has seemingly done for Android what it has done previously for Windows Mobile — added a UI layer that boosts sex appeal by about a million times. Don’t fret though… It looks like at least some of you will be getting some Sense UI love in the near future. HTC CEO Peter Chou is reportedly quoted as stating, “HTC sense will be available on some other existing devices.” That little snippet can be interpreted a variety of ways of course, but suffice it to say that the Dream/G1 or the Magic/myTouch 3G (or even both) are destined for updates that include the new Sense UI. As for what carrier versions will be privy to said update, your guess is as good as ours for the time being. Keep those fingers crossed, T-Mobile subscribers.

HTC Hero is now official......

HTC has announced its latest Android device in the Hero. With many of the Hero’s specs being the same as the Magic, the handset does manage to beat out the Magic with its 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, 3.5mm headphone jack (finally!!!), improved battery life and Adobe Flash support. But what makes the Hero really exciting is the fresh new GUI overlay. Much like with TouchFLO 3D for Windows Mobile, the new HTC Sense UI gives Android a much needed injection of style and functionality by allowing users to keep the content that matter to them — such as weather, contacts, photos, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and bookmarks — at their fingertips.

Another feature found within Sense is Scenes, which essentially allows users to switch from “work to weekend mode” (think of it as Modes on Nokia’s Eseries but sexier) and also helps organize emails, texts, photos, Facebook updates, call logs and more per contract entry much like Palm’s webOS. The Hero’s dedicated Search button features Spotlight-like search, meaning finding the contact, email, app, Tweet and more you’re looking for couldn’t be more simple. One last thing — the Hero is coated in Teflon that not only feels soft to the touch and thus easier to grip, but also protects the devices paint job from your greasy hands.

The Hero will be available next month in Europe with Asian availability coming in the later summer months (Orange UK has already announced it will be carrying the Hero in graphite for as low as £0 on contract this July). As for North Americans, well, we’re just going to have to wait for a little while longer. Hit the jump for the complete specs, some pics and a video.

Nokia and Intel announce Joint partnership to develop the next generation of mobile devices

Nokia and Intel announced a collaborative effort today that will empower the next generation of mobile devices — according to Nokia and Intel at least. Each company will brings its respective expertise to the table in an effort to develop devices that will combine Intel’s low-power mobile chipset architecture with Nokia’s wireless broadband connectivity technologies. The collaboration will focus on and accelerate development in several open source mobile Linux software projects, including Moblin and Maemo. Everything else aside, we were looking for a bit more substance from this release beyond typical vague PR speak but alas… Nokia and Intel have worked together for quite some time. They’re going to continue to work together. That is all.

Nokia 3720 first water/dust resistant, due out in September

As much success as Nokia has had — and still has — in emerging markets, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume the Finnish company’s lineup is already jam-packed full of durable handsets. That assumption, at it were, would be wrong. Say hello to the company’s first water and dust resistant handset, the Nokia 3720. With IP54 certification, the 3720 will also be shock resistant if and when it drops (wink, wink) some time in September. Beyond that, our guess is that we’re looking at a pretty inexpensive handset that will run S40 and never make it to this side of the pond. Tears of indignation or shrugs of indifference?

Samsung Jet breaks the 2 million mark for pre-orders

Think one million is impressive? Samsung announced this morning that pre-orders for its recently announced Jet handset have topped the two million mark — the highest volume pre-order in the Korean company’s history. The Jet is a well-rounded device with a 3.1-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display, 800MHz processor, new TouchWiz 2.0 user interface, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA (3.6Mbps) 900/1200, full HTML Dolfin Web browser, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, DNSe & SRS Sound Effect technology, DivX and XviD video support and Microsoft Exchange support. With all that punch packed into a sexy little package, it’s no wonder pre-orders are coming in like crazy. The Jet is slated to launch later this month in 50 countries worldwide. Anyone excited enough to take the plunge and push Samsung towards the 3 million mark?

T-Mobile myTouch 3G handset becomes official

We’re finally allowed to tell you that T-Mobile’s second Android-powered handset will indeed be the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. An HTC-manufactured device, already available in other countries with other carriers, finally will make its way to T-Mobile USA in early August. It is available for pre-order on July 8th for a retail price of $199 with two year agreement. The rumored color options were correct with white, black, and “distinctive merlot” colorizations. Here’s a list of full specifications, and further information is available after the break!

Quad-band EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA (1700MHz/2100MHz)
Wi-Fi
GPS
3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with YouTube and Picasa uploading support
MicroSD slot with included 4GB microSD card
3.2″ HVGA capacitive touch screen
Microsoft Exchange support
T-Mobile is really pushing customization options on the myTouch 3G with exclusive applications

iPhone 3G-S plagued by sound issues?

Are you enjoying your brand new iPhone 3G S? Did you get a 16GB or a 32GB? Well, that won’t matter if people are experiencing what we are. There seems to a problem with sound files on the 3G S and the result after they’re triggered. After they are done playing — like the unlock sound, SMS sound, for instance — the iPhone emits a high-frequency tone. No, we’re not kidding. Something pretty high around 15KHz. We’ve confirmed this isn’t a local isolated issue with our phone, and since some people can’t hear these types of high-pitched tones, your iPhone might produce it yet you’d never notice.

We’re 99% sure it’s software related because if you set the phone to vibrate, big surprise, no high-pitched tone. So, anyone out there experiencing this? It’s amazing this was skipped over in the many reviews published, but oh well. Hopefully Apple fixes it soon because this is kind of painful and pretty outrageous.

Steve jobs had a liver transplant 2 months ago.

Gentlemen, they can rebuild him. They have the technology. According to today’s The Wall Street Journal, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs went under the knife approximately two months ago in a Tennessee hospital and received a liver transplant. Why? The Journal speculates that the pancreatic cancer Jobs was diagnosed with in 2004 had slowly but surely spread to his liver, an occurrence which is by no means uncommon for those who have had pancreatic cancer. Seeing as the talk of cancer spreading to Jobs’ liver is nothing but an unsubstantiated rumor at this point in time, it really makes us wonder — shareholders rights or the right to privacy? Either way, we wish Jobs a speedy recovery.

So Long, T-Mobile unlimited loyalty plan

It was fun while it lasted folks, but all good things must come to an end. Apparently loyalty can only take you so far as T-Mobile reportedly prepares to retire its very attractive Unlimited Loyalty Plan. To refresh your memory, ULP gives loyal customers with solid payment histories unlimited minutes for $50 per month, unlimited data for $25 per month and a bunch of other great plan options. While the plan is still available to eligible customers, it will supposedly be retired some time between now and the end of June. In other words, if unlimited is your bag and you haven’t yet explored ULP as an option, it’s definitely time to get on the horn and see what Tmo can do for you before the offer expires.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 new images

Well lookie what we have here — a few juicy new images of Sony Ericsson’s second Xperia handset, the X2, have just surfaced over on the Esato forums. Looking stellar in a full silver overcoat, the X2 shows off its sleek design and PC-like keys. These are indeed the first device-on shots of the X2 so we also get a glimpse of the handset running Windows Mobile 6.5 in all of its glory. To refresh your memory, here are the rumored specs as reported earlier this week:

8.1mpx auto focus, VGA @ 30fps (MP4 HQ)
3.5-inch WVGA OLED (increased from 3.0 from X1)
GPS, aGPS
3.5 mm headphone jack
Accelerometer
Faster processor
512 RAM
Custom Windows Mobile 6.5 (SE engineers customized Win6.5 which runs very. very speedy. in par with iPhone and better in some cases)
XPERIA Panels are modified with plenty of innovative features (PS3 remote play being one of them)
Upgrading to Windows Mobile 7 is supported by Xperia panels
Presuming Sony Ericsson can manage to ship this puppy some time before Window Mobile 9 drops, it should definitely compete well with other high-end WinMo handsets due to hit the market soon. Hit the jump for more shots.

Nokia N86 8MP begins shipping

Touchscreen not your thing? QWERTY not your bag? It looks like the new kid on the block will soon have a cheaper, photo-centric neighbor as Nokia has just announced that the N86 8MP is now shipping globally. As for when it might touch down here in the US… Soon. The N86 8MP is two parts camera and one part smartphone, touting an 8 megapixel sensor, variable aperture, automatic motion blur reduction and half the processing time between snaps. It also sports 8GB of internal storage and up to an additional 16GB thanks to microSDHC support, ensuring your photos and videos have plenty of room to breathe. Pricing in the US has still not been revealed but the N86 8MP was announced at €375 so we should be looking somewhere just north of $500.

Samsung Omnia II

This rumor is for everyone out there who nearly went insane from all of yesterday’s WWDC coverage. Word is that what you’re looking at above is Samsung’s upcoming GT-i8000 aka Omnia II. Assuming the picture is the real deal and the specs are right, we’re hearing that the Omnia II will come with a 3.7-inch AMOLED WVGA resistive touchscreen display, 8.1 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and VGA video recording at 30 fps, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and HSDPA connectivity, miniUSB, 150MB of internal memory and a 1500 mAh battery. There is also a rumor that the Omnia II will run custom take on TouchWiz above Windows Mobile 6.1, which while not as polished as TouchFLO 3D is still remarkably better than the standard WinMo fare. But then, what isn’t? And yes, we too noticed that this resembles the mysterious x-ray of a device Samsung plans to spill the beans on next Monday.

T-Mobile confirms security breach

Following yesterday’s news of a possible security breach at T-Mobile, the carrier has confirmed today it was indeed a victim of data theft. According to the company, internal information posted on the Internet by hackers was authentic. T-Mobile also claims however, that the stolen data does not appear to jeopardize its customers.

T-Mobile reply: Regarding the recent claim on a Web site, we’ve identified the document from which information was copied and believe possession of this alone is not enough to cause harm to our customers.

A bit PR-ish, considering the hackers claim to have obtained several confidential documents along with financial and database data. The unnamed group first tried to sell said information to T-Mobile competitors and when that didn’t work they offered the data up to the highest bidder. Whether or not a sale has taken place is unclear for the time being.

Meet the new iPhone 3G-S

Pretty much all the rumors regarding the new iPhone turned out true - the iPhone 3GS (S for Speed) has a 3 megapixel camera with video recording and a compass. The unexpected thing however is that 3GS will look exactly as the original iPhone 3G.The camera should have improved low light sensitivity (whatever that means) and macro mode (10cm). Other than that there still won't be any settings at all to tinker with. A simple video editor will allow to trim your recorded videos.One other novelty though not as significant is the voice control/dialing. A longer press on the Home button will invoke the voice command interface.Apple have a long-standing cooperation with Nike and their personal running service called Nike+. You'd probably be glad to learn that thanks to the new accessories support that comes with iPhone OS 3.0, the iPhone 3GS has wirless support for the Nike+ system and its monitors.In response to the numerous security concerns with the previous iPhones, the iPhone 3GS now comes with hardware encryption that safeguards the personal data on board. Additionally iTunes backups are also encrypted. The Remote Wipe feature is now available to all users and is instant.

For those of you who always dreaded losing or misplacing their phone, the iPhone 3GS will offer a special Find my iPhone service that should help you get through those tough times. It will allow the user to locate the phone by simply logging in to MobileMe on any browser.

You can then either send a message to the phone which will play a sound even if it's in silent mode. And in the most unpleasant circumstances that your iPhone 3GS gets stolen you can send a remote wipe command which will delete all of your data, avoiding getting it in the wrong hands. Should you find your iPhone later on, you can sync it up with your latest backup on the computer and you should be up and running in no time.

Even though the new iPhone 3GS has increased functionality and virtually the same dimensions Apple have somehow managed to increase its battery life by about 20 percent. The talk-time in 2G network has been upped to 12 hours (10 on the iPhone 3G) and the audio playback has reached 30 hours (24 on the iPhone 3G). Video playback endurance has been upgraded from 7 to 10 hours, while the stand-by and 3G talk time remain unchanged.
The iPhone 3GS will be available as soon as 19 June 2009 in the first wave of countries and it would spread to all the 80 planned countries within a couple of months later.

The first wave will hit USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and UK on 19 June, while the rest of the countries will follow suite on 09 July and 09 August.

Available again in white and black, the iPhone 3GS will retail for 199 US dollars and 299 US dollars for the 16GB and 32GB version respectively.

In the same time, the iPhone 3G will continue selling at a reduced price of only 99 US dollars for the 8GB version.

iPhone 3G 16GB to sell at $149 with a 2 year contract

iPhone 3G 16GB model is available for $149 on a 2 year agreement on AT&T. Since Apple seems to be only touting the 8GB 3G model for $99 on their site, we’re guessing this is a “while it lasts, bitches” situation. Seriously though, you’re not going to spring the extra $50 for a brand new iPhone 3G S 16GB model? Also we’ve been told AT&T stores can now pre-order the iPhone 3G S for customers starting immediately, just like Apple.com.

T-M0b!le h@x0red?

One thing consumers always seem to worry about is electronic security, especially when it comes to places like mobile carriers where a lot of sensitive information is stored. Although unconfirmed, there have been reports that T-Mobile’s infrastructure has been hacked and proprietary operating data, customer databases and financial records became vulnerable. T-Mobile hasn’t made any formal statements yet and information regarding the security breach is nowhere to be found on its website. We’re sure that, if the reports are true, the company is doing everything it can to figure out how it happened and to exercise some kind of damage control. Also, the last thing they want to do is make everyone panic unnecessarily…

A gutted Palm Pre reveals $170 worth of parts

Yesterday many people across the country eagerly waited in line to get their hands on the most anticipated handset of the year, the Palm Pre. While the overwhelming majority of people who took a Pre home with them are counting on it to be their reliable companion for the foreseeable future, the people at Rapid Repair were merely interested in taking it back to their offices and ripping it apart. So what did we learn other than the fact that disassembling a Pre is best done by people who really, really know what they’re doing? Pre components are worth about $170 — a massive leap above the iSuppli estimate of $138. In other words, it’s probably best to actually have a unit on hand before estimating its production cost. Just a thought.

T-Mobile cuts handset prices, no MIR necessary!

The folks over at T-Mobile can be a little unpredictable sometimes. First, the company ditched the handset upgrade fee only to bring it back just a short while later. Then, out of the blue, new smartphone purchases absolutely had to be accompanied with data plans. When will the insanity stop? Luckily, T-Mo’s newest bag of tricks involves cutting the price on a number of handsets and doing away with that pesky mail-in rebate! Nothing beats that instant gratification when you think about how your laziness will sometimes keep you from purchasing a stamp and mailing in the proof of purchase. As of today, feel free to go nuts and spend your hard earned pay on the following deals:

Blackberry Curve 8900 — $149.99
Blackberry Curve 8320 — $74.99
Blackberry 8820 — $99.99
Sidekick 2008 — $99.99
Sidekick LX 09 — $199.99 ($249.99 new customers)
T-Mobile Dash — $49.99
T-Mobile G1 all colors — $149.99

Full specs of the BlackBerry Tour leak out

We all know that Bell is prepping to launch the BlackBerry Tour 9630 sometime in the near future, and now for the first time a document detailing the full specs of the hotly anticipated smartphone has leaked out. While the majority of the specs have been known for quite some time, there are a still few things that can be learned from the document. So take a peek because this is the real deal, people:

T-Mobile’s HTC Dash 3G and Touch Pro2 training kicks off on June 16th

T-Mobile fans, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news — internal training on HTC’s Dash 3G (Snap) and Touch Pro2 is set to kick off June 16th on the east coast. In other words, we’re likely very close to seeing both handsets get official. The bad news — training doesn’t wrap up until July 2nd in Baltimore/DC so the rumored July 1st release date for the Dash 3G is pretty much not going to happen. The rumored July 22nd launch for the Pro2 could be on the late side of things however, so it’s not all bad. Our ninja only has access to the east coast training schedule but assuming the rest of the country wraps up around the same time, we could see one or both of these handsets by mid to late June — because June isn’t already jam-packed with sweet handsets launching left and right. Woo!