Apple iPhone makes official debut in South Korea

After years of wrangling with privacy concerns over the iPhone’s location-based services, the Apple iPhone is now finally available in South Korea. Hundreds of people, hoping to be the first on their block to rock the iPhone, lined up overnight outside Olympic stadium in Seoul. Those not willing to brave the elements turned to pre-orders, with nearly 65,000 customers reserving an iPhone in the weeks leading up to the launch. The iPhone is being sold by #2 cellular provider KT Corp and has been priced competitively with a 32GB iPhone 3GS retailing for 396,000 won ($338USD) with a monthly plan of 45,000 won ($38 USD) and 264,000 won ($225 USD) with a monthly fee of 65,000 won ($55 USD). Samsung and LG, two homegrown manufacturers that currently dominate the South Korean market, are supposedly already feeling the pressure as they’ve started to lower handset prices across the board in South Korea.

sales of Sony Ericsson Aino halted!

When it rains, it pours, and for Sony Ericsson, this week has been one big torrential downpour. Earlier we reported on the Sony Ericsson Satio which has been pulled from the shelves of the UK’s two major retailers due to a software glitch. Only a few days later, sales of the Sony Ericsson Aino were halted due to a growing number of customer complaints with the touchscreen. Once again, the source of the complaints was traced back to a glitch in the software. Trying to minimize this public relations nightmare, Sony Ericsson responded by saying “We are working as quickly as we can to solve it. Aino has sold limited numbers in the UK and this issue affects a very small number of consumers.” The promise of a future software fix is little consolation to Aino owners affected by this glitch and a thorn to angry stockholders who must be shaking their heads in utter disbelief.

Sony Ericsson Satio pulled from the shelves of two major UK retailers

More bad news out of the UK for Sony Ericsson as its flagship handset has been pulled from the shelves of both Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U. The two largest mobile phone retailers in the UK have suspended sales in response to a high volume of returns due to a reported “problem with the phone.” Sony Ericsson cites a software glitch as the cause of the problem and is expected to release a software update within two to three weeks to address the issue. In the interim if you absolutely must have the Satio, Orange and Vodafone are still selling the beleaguered handset with no problems being reported in their carrier-specific versions of the handset.

Google to partner with TiVo and DISH Network, DVR info to be analyzed

Grab your tinfoil hat and rip the coaxial out of your TiVo privacy-freaks. Search giant Google has setup strategic partnerships with TiVo and DISH Network to analyze customer DVR data in a move billed to better “align advertisers with viewers.” Google TV will do what Google does best — mine data – TiVo and DISH will be providing Google with “second-by-second viewing information on who’s changing channels and when, who’s fast-forwarding through commercials and anonymous information on viewers themselves.” We’re unclear as to how information can be both anonymous but about the viewer? The information will be used to more accurately target and price 30 and 60 second advertisement spots as the data will be able to indicate just how many people actually watched that Viagra ad, versus how many people fast forwarded over the bloody thing.

Nokia unveils the 6700 and 7230, two new sliders

Nokia has announced two new entry level 3G sliders, the Nokia 6700 slide and Nokia 7230. Both are set to launch in Q1 2010. The Symbian-powered Nokia 6700 slide features a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and Carl zeiss optics, 2.2 inch QVGA display, HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, an FM radio and microSD expansion slot. Available in a rainbow of colors as shown above, the 6700 slide will retail for EUR 160 ($239 USD). Less flashy but equally attractive is the Nokia 7230, a slim slider that features a 2.4 inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, microSD expansion lot, with Symbian S40 being the OS of choice. Look for the Nokia 7230 to retail for an affordable EUR 100 ($149USD). One more shot after the break.

Boost Mobile new release of the iDEN Motorola i410 "In Stock now at upnext wireless"

Motorola added a new handset to its iDEN workhouse line today when it introduced the i410. Upnext Wireless has received their batch of inventory in stock. Destined for Boost Mobile, the i410 has a rugged flip phone design in black and silver. The small external display sits in the middle of the etched front panel, while inside you'll find a color display and the standard navigation array and keypad.

Features are firmly on the low end. There's no camera, but you get GPS, Bluetooth, a speakerphone, messaging, an Opera browser, and a personal organizer. Pricing is $89.99, no contract necessary. $50 / month includes unlimited talk, text, web and walkie talkie nationwide long distance and roaming in the USA included.

Google map navigation officially hits android 1.6 and higher

If you’re currently using every other Android device besides the Motorola DROID, you might have thought that Google was holding out on that navigation love. Luckily, and just in time for your holiday travels, Google Maps Navigation has just been made available for Android 1.6. Now your myTouch 3G, Motorola CLIQ and T-Mobile G1 can better help you in getting around your in-laws’ town for turkey day with GPS voice navigation, automatic re-routing and Google’s new Layers feature for navigation. Unfortunately for Hero and Eris users, you’re left out in the dark until HTC and your respective carriers crank out that 1.6 Donut update for your phones. We’re crossing our fingers for you that it hits before Christmas.

Dell Mini 3i now official in China

Thanks to a China Mobile press release, the details that we leaked back in August about Dell’s Android-powered Mini 3i are now confirmed. According to both sources, the Mini 3i will pack a 3.5” nHD (640×360) display, Quadband GSM/EDGE, 3 megapixel camera with zoom, auto-focus, flash, and video capture, Bluetooth, GPS navigation, and microSD expansion (up to 32GB). Dell’s first serious smartphone venture will be available to China Mobile’s 500 million strong subscriber base in “Red Passion” and “Oiled Bronze” variants later this month.

Blackberry Pearl 9100 gets pawed

After RIM’s release of the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 flip-phone it was hard to tell what direction the former candy bar style handset was headed, and rumors of the models demise began to circulate around intertubes. However, the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated as an updated 3G Pearl has been whispered for months, and it looks like RIM has gone back to the Pearl’s form-factor roots with its latest spin on the classic, the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 — code name Striker or Stratus. The 9100 prototype in question is a GSM device with RIM’s now standard optical trackball, SureType keyboard, 3G, Wi-Fi, and BlackBerry OS 5.0; it also incorporates many of the stylistic changes of the BlackBerry Bold 9700. We’ll stay on top of this one and provide you more details as they become available, but for now there is a short teaser video from salomondrin.net all queued up for you after the bounce.

Nokia Nseries ditching Symbian by 2012

According to the Maemo marketing team, it looks like it’s already in motion. Apparently Nokia still has some Nseries devices in the pipeline which will still use S60 as the operating system, but after those are out of the factory, it seems like Maemo will be the OS of choice for Nokia’s Nseries. That doesn’t mean that Nokia has plans to ditch Symbian altogether yet, as the enterprise-friendly Eseries and new Xseries will still run Symbian for the foreseeable future.

BlackBerry Internet Service hit with data outages worldwide

We’ve been receiving multiple reports that BlackBerry Internet Service, or BIS, is down for many people — possibly worldwide. Initially, we thought the outages were only affecting certain carriers, but users from multiple carriers have reported a service interruption for what seems to be a few hours now. Naturally, we’ll keep you updated as we receive more news, but for now we’re not quite sure what’s causing this outage as it seems to be possibly affecting BlackBerry users on a global scale and we have numbers of around 75-80% in terms of users affected. Is there anyone out there currently experiencing data issues? Let us know in the comments!

Second iphone virus found, again targets jailbroken iphones

Earlier this week, an Australian coder by the name of Ikee wrote an interesting iPhone worm targeting users with jailbroken iPhones — specifically those users who had not RTFM and changed their root password. The worm was programmed to scan the 3G IP ranges of the Telus, Optus, and Vodafone networks in Australia. Once a vulnerable iPhone was found, the exploit would change the wallpaper of said device to…Rick Astley. Respect. In an interview Ikee explains that his worm was designed as more of a warning shot than an attempt to compromise user data. Ikee had hoped users would be motivated to change their root password, which is set to “alpine” by default post-jailbreak, after seeing the consequences of a compromised root password. Fast forward to today, and a new anonymous coder has modified Ikee’s worm, and this new variant has less of that public service announcement feel to it. The modified strain, dubbed “iPhone/Privacy.A” by the online security firm Intego, is programmed to do several things: act silently and retrieve e-mail messages, SMS messages, calendar appointments, contacts, photos, music files, videos, along with any other data recorded by your iPhone apps. Currently details on where the worm is uploading the farmed data is scarce, and the threat of being infected is low. What’s our recommendation? If you have a jailbroken iPhone, change the root password. Maybe this is why Apple’s looking to secure their incredibly unsecure mobile operating system…

T-Mobile plans to unleash blazing 21Mbps HSPA+ in mid-2010

T-Mobile might have been last in launching a 3G network in the U.S., but that hasn’t stopped it from moving right along. We had already known that T-Mobile was planning on lighting up its 7.2Mbps speeds in some cities by the end of 2009, but it looks like HSPA+ is kicking in just months later. Slated for mid-2010, a number of U.S. markets will have data speeds of up to 21Mbps on T-Mobile’s network. There are also a decent amount of handsets that will be able to take advantage of the 7.2Mbps kick, like the G1, CLIQ and the myTouch 3G, but we’re really looking for what T-Mobile has in store for the masses once HSPA+ hits. In addition to the speed upgrades, the company is also continuing to spread its 3G footprint across the country. Now where are those Nokia N900s with AWS 3G support?

Nokia N900 gets it's marching orders

Nokia smartphone loyalists that feel S60 is a bit long in the tooth and are looking for something new should be all smiles today, as earlier Nokia announced that the Maemo 5-powered N900 smartphone has begun shipping out after a series of delays. To officially retail for around 500€ ($749 USD), the N900 has been spotted on various US-based websites for well under $600. And that’s a darn good deal, too, because you’re not going to find many phones at that price that offer up the following:
■Maemo 5 OS
■3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) resistive touchscreen display
■110.9 × 59.8 × 18mm, 181g
■Portrait-orientation sliding QWERTY
■Mozilla-based browser, full Adobe Flash support
■ARM cortex A8 processor
■32GB internal memory
■5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, auto-focus and sliding cover
■MicroSDHC support up to 16GB
■FM transmitter
■Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA 900/1700/2100, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP
■GPS
■1320 mAh battery
One word of caution: as it currently stands, the N900 will not play nice with the new SIMs from 3 in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Austria, although a software update to resolve this comparability issue is due out before the end of the year. A launch video from Nokia is lying in wait after the jump.

T-Mobile losses "even more" customers in Q3

Here at upnext wireless we love the underdog, so we are a little disappointed to have to tell you about the latest figures coming out of the T-Mobile camp. T-Mobile released their Q3 numbers today and suffered a net loss of 77,000 subscribers, with 140,000 customers packing up their number and shacking up with another carrier. Compare the loss with the 325,000 subscribers it gained in Q2 of this year or the 670,000 it gained in Q3 of last year, and, well ouch; it would appear as though T-Mo’s momentum might be slowing. The profits also shrunk a bit, in Q2 T-Mo posted a $425 million profit while in Q3 that number shrank to $417 million. So, will the new “Even More” plans, Android handsets, and new BlackBerry smartphones be enough to get T-Mobile back on track for Q4? Or will the comparatively meek holiday lineup make for a flat Q4? We’ll find out.

HTC HD2 now shipping to Europe & Asia, confirmed to U.S. in 2010

Our readers in both Europe and Asia have reason to smile this morning, as HTC has at long last announced that the highly anticipated successor to the Touch HD has finally begun shipping. Citizens in Europeans will be able to pick up the HD2 in the next few days while our Asian brothers and sisters will see a gradual rollout staring in a weeks time. As for the majority of our readers, Americans, HTC has formally confirmed what we reported one month ago when the device was first announced — the HD2 will be making its way to “a major US carrier” in early 2010. The only mystery is which carrier could HTC possibly be referring to. Hmm

T-Mobile voice outage!

We're getting reports from sea to shining sea this evening that T-Mobile service is down or intermittent on both voice and data -- particularly bad timing in light of the recent Sidekick drama.
We just got an official statement from T-Mobile, and it's confirmed -- service is down. Here's the statement:
"T-Mobile customers may be experiencing service disruptions impacting voice and data. Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to restore service as quickly as possible. We will provide updates as more information is available."

Sony Ericsson announces the XPERIA X10

And yet another manufacturer has officially entered the Android game as Sony Ericsson has formally announced the XPERIA X10. Powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and running on Android 1.6 “Cupcake”, the X10 boasts a 4″ WVGA capacitive touchscreen display, an 8.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and two flavors of UMTS/HSPA — one of which supports T-Mobile, the other, AT&T — in addition to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Regrettably there is only 1GB of built in memory, although an 8GB microSD card ships in the box. In terms of UI customization, the X10 comes with the UI overlay UX called Rachael (user experience) which extends into two premier apps: Mediascape — the media player which we’ve already seen twice — and Timescape, which more or less is SE’s answer to a MOTOBLUR type skin. Pricing and countries of availability has yet to be announced, but the XPERIA X10 will be available in Q1 2010 in Sensuous Black and Lustre White (yes, we LOL’d, too). Hit the jump for a promo video and a press release.

Sprint and Clearwire plow ahead with 4G WiMax launch

Just a few days ago, Sprint announced its plans to release a ton of new and exciting handsets which included WiMax-capable devices. Our initial thoughts were, “Who’s gonna use these? And outside of a few cities, where is WiMax even available?” But it looks like Sprint has a plan and is sticking to it as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and a few other cities are going to be lit up with 4G goodness.
Sprint says, “To use Sprint 4G service, all you will need is a 4G plan and the Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem U300. Just plug in the device and start downloading mammoth attachments, uploading huge files and video-conferencing with no lag.” In case you were wondering, WiMax hits max speeds of about 10Mbps, which is faster than what some people have wired at home, and averages between 3Mbps – 6Mbps. We’re just hoping that the 4G plans are set at the right price points.