LG GD880 Mini (Just Arrived) $369 No Contract

The LG GD880 Mini is a looker. Quite the way to start really, but the Mini isn’t all about looks. From the hardware design through the high-res screen to the software – everything was crafted by skillful hands. Beauty is function in design – nothing is more complex than it needs to be, but beneath the deceptive simplicity there’s a myriad of functions.

The LG GD880, despite its name, is not a small phone, in the sense of some recent minis (*cough*X10mini*cough*). It is darn small next to the LG BL40 New Chocolate, but by no means tiny.

Indeed, Mini also refers to the design concept – there are barely any hardware keys on the device, and the GD880 has one of the cleanest faces in business.

Minimalism does not mean lack of functionality. The scratch-resistant 3.2” display of the impressive WVGA (480x854 pixels) resolution opens the door to HTML5 and Flash capable browsing over a zippy HSPA connection.

Then there’s the multitasking, the social networking, and the multimedia features. Here’s a list of goodies that make the Mini quite big in terms of functionality.

Key features:
Quad-band GSM support and dual-band 3G
7.2Mbps HDSPA and 2Mbps HSUPA
3.2" 256K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen display of WVGA (480x854 pixels) resolution; multi-touch support, scratch resistant surface
Latest S-Class UI; Flash and HTML5 support
Cool minimalist styling and great build quality
5 megapixel auto focus camera; image stabilization, geo-tagging, face detection, Smile Shot, Beauty and Art shot
VGA@15fps video recording
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with DLNA and built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
Bluetooth with A2DP and microUSB v2.0 (chagrining)
Hot-swappable microSD card slot; up to 32GB cards supported
Stereo FM radio with RDS
3.5mm audio jack and Dolby mobile
DivX/XviD support
Social networking integration (Facebook, Twitter)
Accelerometer sensor for automatic screen rotation; proximity sensor
Office document viewer

Acer Liquid Stream gets official as the Acer Stream

Acer has just made the high powered Liquid Stream official via a press release. Acer describes the Android 2.1 device as a, “high-end multimedia smartphone, optimized for watching movies, listening to music and enjoying web browsing like at home,” and judging by the specs sheet, it looks to fit that bill. Here is the official skinny: 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 512 MB of RAM, 3G+ HSDPA @ 7.2Mb/s, 3.7″ WVGA touch-screen display, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), GPS, 5 megapixel camera, 720p video recording, HDMI out, and a microSD card slot with support for up to a 32 GB card. Availability and wireless carrier are currently unknown. What do you think? Are you impressed, or have you see an Incredible stat sheet like this before? We’ve got the official press release and a video ready for you after the break.

US lags behind world in broadband speeds

According to Net Index, a new website operated by Seattle-based Ookla (the people behind Speedtest.net), the United States is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to wired broadband speeds. Based on user test info generated over the past 30 days, Net Index ranked the US 26th in the world for downlink speeds with an average downlink speed of 10.16Mbps. Such speeds might not seem all that bad at first glance, but considering that the global average is 7.67Mbps, it’s clear that US ISPs have a lot of ground to make up. South Korea finished first with an average of 34.14Mbps, followed by Latvia, the Republic of Moldova, and Japan at 24.29, 21.37 and 20.39Mbps respectively.
Moving to uplink speeds, South Korea once again led the pack with an average of 18.04Mbps while the US’s 2.21Mbps was barely above the world average of 2.10Mbps. In an attempt to keep things as even as possible, Net Index only counted results from nations in which tests were taken from at least 75,000 unique IP addresses. And though the results are by no means scientific, they will no doubt provide a lot of talking points for those currently engaged in the ongoing battle between advocates of net neutrality and ISPs whose interests are best served by imposing caps on data speeds and usage Results from colleges and businesses were excluded from the results.

just arrived SE X10 Mini at $379.99 (upnextwireless.com)

The X10 mini is here to show how a mini phone should live up to its name – sheer smartphone power in a half-size package. There’re always sacrifices involved to fit the new cut but if size is what matters it’ll hardly get any better than that.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini at a glance:
General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 1900/2100 MHz, HSPA
Form factor: Touchscreen bar
Dimensions: 83 x 50 x 16 mm, 86g weight
Display: 2.55" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen with QVGA resolution
Platform: Android OS 1.6 with Sony Ericsson Timescape UI
CPU: 600Mhz processor
Memory: 128MB internal memory, microSD card slot, 2GB card included
Camera: 5-megapixels auto-focus camera, LED flash, geotagging
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, digital compass, 3.5mm audio jack
Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, FM radio with RDS, TrackID music recgnition
Battery: Non-removable Li-Po battery
OK, there are downgrades in most departments compared to the original XPERIA X10 but those are never too painful, especially if they’re reflected in the price.

Some might argue that the 600 MHz processor is nowhere near as impressive as a 1GHz Snapdragon but the X10 mini doesn’t seem underpowered at all – screen resolution makes quite a difference. In fact, it is the most capable handset with a QVGA screen to date and we have seen those kinds of devices perform admirably on weaker CPUs.

T-Mobile Garminfone available June 9th for $199.99

Good news for everyone who has been waiting on a launch date for the T-Mobile Garminfone, as today it was announced that the GPS-centric and Android-powered smartphone will be available starting June 9th. Priced at $199.99 after a $50 MIR on a 2-year contract, the Garminfone isn’t exactly cheap for a phone that offers a 3.5″ display, 3 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and HSDPA to the table, but let’s be real here — the Garminfone is all about its amazing GPS and navigational features. Right, we almost forgot… T-Mobile is currently running a contest in which it’s giving away 5 Garminphones. Check out all of the details for the contest here. Good luck!

T-Mobile CEO Robert Dotson stepping down

In a press release issued early Wednesday morning, T-Mobile announced that its current CEO Robert Dotson will be stepping down after 15 years with the company. Citing a desire to spend more time with his family, Dotson will pass the reigns of the company to CEO-designate Philip Humm on July 1st. Humm, who served as CEO of T-Mobile Deutschland from 2005 to 2008 and is currently the CRO of sales and services in Europe for Deutsch Telekom, will officially be given the role of CEO in February. Dotson will stay on board with T-Mobile as a non-executive board member until May of 2011.

BlackBerry Pearl 3G with AWS 3G passes the FCC

Although T-Mobile has remained mum on the issue of whether or not it will carry the BlackBerry Pearl 3G, it’s good to sell the phone so far as Uncle Sam is concerned. Both the SureType and T9 siblings have passed, as the AWS 3G variants just received FCC certification. Of course with rumors recently circulating saying that T-Mobile had passed on the Pearl 3G in favor of a cheaper, 3G-capable Curve floating around, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not we’ll ever see these hit the shops.

Dell Streak gets official in the UK

As if resident of the UK didn’t already have a line-up of handsets to chose from that would make even the most reserved American green with envy, today Dell announced that it and O2 will be releasing the Dell Streak in early June. A giant amongst smartphones, the Streak features a 5″ WVGA capacitive touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, 16GB of internal memory, support for microSD cards up to 32GB, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, 7.2Mbps HSDPA and 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. To debut with Android 1.6, Dell says the Streak has been “designed with the future in mind” and will be subject to OTA updates which will bring Adobe Flash 10.1, Android 2.2 “Froyo”, and video chat apps to the Streak before the year’s end. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the Dell Streak will be available online and in stores from O2, at Carphone Warehouse, and later “later in the month at Dell.co.uk.” Oh, anyone whose thinking of making an easy buck brining these bad boys over to the US better move fast — it’s coming here “later this summer.

T-Mobile brings HSPA+ with “4G speeds” to the Northeast U.S.

If you live in the Northeast U.S. and T-Mobile is your poison carrier of choice, there’s reason to smile this morning, as the nation’s fourth-largest carrier has announced that much of Upstate New York, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island are now basking in the electromagnetism of its HSPA+ network. Capable of theoretical speeds of 21Mbps, T-Mobile had cojones to say in its press release that the network is capable of delivering “4G speeds today” while its competitors with geniune 4G “are asking consumers to pay more for faster wireless service with limited coverage and very few capable devices.” T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network currently reaches 30 million Americans, and is on track to offer coverage to 155 million more by the year’s end. Boston and Washington, D.C. are on deck and should feel the HSPA+ love “in the coming weeks.” Hit the break to check out the press release.

New BlackBerry Bold 9800 pics leak out

Can’t get enough BlackBerry slider action? Well today’s your lucky day, as a bunch of new images of the handset have leaped out by way of TheBerryFix. Showing off what looks to be a late prototype / early production model, the images give us a pretty good glimpse of not only the handset itself, but some of the new niceties of the BlackBerry 6 OS including a virtual QWERTY keypad, a clone of Cover Flow in the media player, and, of course, the much-hyped WebKit browser. Anyone else excited to see this sucker launch on AT&T during the June/July timeframe?

All white next-gen iPhone shows up in Hong Kong

Considering the country that these photos were snapped in, we can’t help but hear the words “fake” in the back of our minds, but Apple.pro is claiming what we’re looking at is proof positive that the next-gen iPhone will be available in an all white body. If you look closely at the pics you’ll notice a curiously big gap between the fascia and the aluminum mid-section, but in fairness, that alone is not enough to rule this as fake. Same goes for the holes for screws seen next to the 30-pin dock connector, something we know to be a hallmark of early prototypes. We’ve got one more pic after the jump, but man, wouldn’t it be nice to have such a fresh looking device?

myTouch 3G Slide coming to T-Mobile on June 2nd… for $180

Today, T-Mobile announced that the fabled myTouch 3G Slide will be available to the masses starting on June 2nd. Despite the fact that the 3G Slide is nowhere near the most advanced Android smartphone on the market, we know for a fact that a lot of readers are really looking forward to picking one up from T-Mo. There is just one problem…for some unknown reason, T-Mobile is going to ask customers to pay in blood $179.99 for the Slide after a $50 MIR. For those of you keeping track — and we know you are — that’s only $20 cheaper than Sprint’s EVO 4G which launches 4 days later for $199.99. The question is: Are we the only ones who think $180 is way too much to pay for the myTouch 3G Slide, or are the folks at T-Mobile smarter than we are?

Google TV gets official

Combining the web and TV in an orgy of awesome, today at I/O 2010, Google announced Google TV. With the goal of mashing together the web and TV without accepting compromise, Google is hoping to let people take advantage of the biggest and best screen in their house. Check out all of the features after the jump! We promise it’s awesome.

Nokia E73 Mode rumored to land on T-Mobile June 16th

AT&T made a pretty big splash last year when it launched the Nokia E71x, and now it appears that T-Mobile is hoping to do the same on June 16th. That’s the date Engadget has been informed T-Mobile will introduce a new, business-centric and Symbian-based QWERTY smartphone from Nokia known as the E73 Mode. Other than it will have 3G and Wi-Fi, concrete specs have yet to emerge (although we think it pretty safe to assume it will best the E72 based upon nothing but our knowledge of Nokia’s naming conventions). We’ll hit up some of our T-Mobile connects and try and find out what we can, but in the meantime please feel free to speculate at will.

T-Mobile officially announces new BlackBerry colors for the summer

T-Mobile just officially announced what we’ve all heard for a pretty long while — they’re going to be adding some summer colors to their BlackBerry lineup starting today. First up is the BlackBerry Curve 8520 in Fuchsia Red. It hits T-Mobile’s retail stores and online today and will retail for $49.99 with a two year service agreement. In terms of the big boy toys, T-Mobile is rolling that luxurious-looking BlackBerry Bold 9700 in “Flash White”. That device will start to become available on May 26th for the same price as the current 9700, $129.99 with a two year agreement. Lastly, T-Mobile’s BlackBerry 9700 OS upgrade that just became available will be pre-loaded on the new Casper Bolds out of the box. We’re not complaining.

Google announces Chrome web store for apps

Today at I/O 2010, Google announced the Chrome web store for apps. To debut later in the year at an unspecified time, the Chrome web store will allow users to install web-based applications that will run in native code such as Flash. Some of the applications featured in live demos included Dark Room, Plants vs. Zombies (it looked awesome), and Lego Star Wars. Google also announced it will be brining magazines to the Chrome web store. Sports Illustrated was on stage and showed off a pretty slick looking example which included slideshows, videos, live scores and more. Feature-rich advertisements were also shown off.

iPod touch with camera spotted in Vietnam

That Asian Pacific pipeline of prototypes continues to flow with a new iPod Touch now gracing the front pages of blogs across the world. This latest leak showcases an iPod Touch with a rear facing camera and the designation DVT-1 which indicates that it is an early design. Very similar in appearance to the iPod Touch pair that appeared on eBay recently, this latest leaked prototype has a bare bones OS that is chock full of diagnostic utilities. Despite the iPod’s pristine condition, it is unclear whether this is an older prototype left over from Apple’s failed attempt at placing a camera in the iPod Touch last year or if it is indeed the next generation model. We may have to wait until September to find out whether this is a prototype hot off the presses or if it has been stored safely in someone’s drawer for a long time. Hit the jump for a another shot of the iPod Touch and a hands on video.

Amazon brings Kindle to Android

Amazon is turning up the heat in the e-book market by porting their popular Kindle for iPhone and BlackBerry application to Android. The Android app will resemble its iPhone counterpart with the ability to read, preview, and purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle bookstore, navigate with the flick of a finger, and sync reading progress across all supported platforms. The Android app also looks to be compatible with all the popular Android handsets including the DROID, Nexus One, and the HTC Incredible. It is expected to debut in the Android Market soon and you can sign up at Amazon to be the first to know when it lands.

T-Mobile introduces unlimited pre-paid plans

No doubt a response to Virgin Mobile’s serious push to reign supreme in the pre-paid market, T-Mobile today announced two new unlimited pre-paid plans which go live this Wednesday. Under the new plans, $15 will net users unlimited text, picture and video messages with nationwide voice calls at 10¢ per minute, while $50 offers the same in terms of messaging but allows for unlimited nationwide calls with no per-minute fees. Definitely not bad plans if you’re looking to kill off a landline and not get locked into a lengthy contract commitment, but we’d have loved it if T-Mobile were to introduce a third plan with data. We mean, they are trying to play it both ways, right?

HTC announces the Wildfire

Well, well, well, look what we have here. No, it’s not some Chinese knockoff of the Desire — it’s the entry-level Wildfire, announced today by HTC. Running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense UI, its key specs include a 3.2″ QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, microSD, dual-band (900/2100MHz) 7.2Mbps HSPA, 512MB ROM / 384MB RAM and 528MHz processor. One interesting feature the Wildfire brings to the table is its “app sharing widget” which allows users to recommend apps to family, friend and peers via email, SMS and social networking sites. The HTC Wildfire will be available in Europe and Asia starting in Q3. No word yet on potential U.S. availability. Yay or nay?