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Smartphone goliath Research in Motion (RIM) has officially announced the Blackberry 9630 Tour, expected to be available this summer on both Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks.  The Tour is the company’s successor to the popular BlackBerry 8830 world edition, and boasts connectivity to high-speed 3g EVDO networks in North America and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad, [...]

As a rule (with the exception of the BlackBerry Storm), GSM carriers have a tendency to pick up BlackBerry devices before their CDMA counterparts.  As a self-proclaimed BlackBerry addict, I've been excited about the launch of the BlackBerry Tour 9630 for some time now, and the device was officially announced this morning.  Granted, we knew it was coming, but it's still nice to hear official confirmation from the Verizon PR team. 

What's more interesting though, is Sprint's press release release a few minutes after Verizon's, stating that they would also be picking up the device, and even went as far as to mention a price ($200 after rebates).  This struck me as interesting, given the disproportionate amount of "chatter" given to the Verizon version over the Sprint one.  At any rate, now that announcements have been made, we should see them sooner rather than later.

Source: Engadget Mobile

Clearly the onslaught of high-profile handset launches already foisted upon us this month has made me want a beer. But I stand by my metaphor: Palm's comeback device, the Pre smartphone represents not only one of the best high-end handsets currently available on the US market, but also a boatload of potential for the future of the onetime King of the PDAs and the mobile device market as a whole.

Is Pre, v1.0, the best mobile phone ever?  No.  Is it the best mobile phone currently available?  I'd also say No.  But is it an exciting and, I think, wise investment to make in the next two years of your mobile life?  Yes, and - depending on your personal needs and wants - perhaps even, Absolutely!

I won't get into the hands-on details of Pre's hardware or using Palms' new WebOS environment to perform various tasks on the device: You can get all of the nitty gritty you can handle via Aaron's excellent written review and my exhaustive (and exhausting, lemme tell you) hands-on video of the device ... including a dogfight with Apple's iPhone 3G.

I will however tell you this: Even in its minorly buggy, has a big battery life issue to overcome, state of being, the Palm Pre is a whale of a mobile device.  Pre handles myriad forms of communication almost as well, if not better, than HTC's excellent new TouchFlo 3D system, but Pre has the advantage of doing it as part of a modern operating system that's a joy to use (TouchFlo sits atop the decrepit Windows Mobile 6.1 OS).  While I wasn't crazy about Pre's hardware, many people love it, and there's no disputing that the multitouch display is gorgeous, accurate and responsive.  And the keyboard ... well, I kinda think it sucks but also was used to it after about two days' worth of pounding out tweets and IMs with it.  So it's usable, at least.

WebOS has a ton of potential.  A ton.  From what I can tell, the platform's silky smooth notifications system is accessible to developers via APIs, and the young, hyperconnected set is sure to love the way Pre tells them they have new messages and calendar events without getting in the way of the task at hand (a crime which iPhone is guilty of).  The "Cards" multitasking system is great, and does what Symbian and WinMo can only dream of: Combine robust multitasking with an intuitive, user-friendly way of managing multiple open apps.

And so long as you've got good coverage in your neck of the woods, a Pre on Sprint is a bargain as compared to an iPhone, G1, or other competing smartphone on AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon.  You've gotta look at the long-term here, people: Forget Pre's $199 sticker price and look at how Sprint's unlimited plan compares to those of its competitors.  Sprint will save you on order of $30/month, which adds up to over $1,000 over the course of a two-year contract.  That's a lot of cash.

I can't wait to see what Palm has up their sleeves next both for WebOS itself and in terms of new hardware.  Pre on Verizon or AT&T?  Eos/Pixie, the Centro-esque thin candybar running WebOS?  Something entirely different?  I gotta get myself an interview with a Palm product manager.

In the meantime, Palm Pre gets a big, but reserved, thumbs up from me.  The caveat, of course, is that it's a thumbs up in an age where mobile devices are rushed to market before all of the bugs are worked out.  Battery life is an issue and the Webkit browser has bugs, but Palm knows that and they're working on it.  Look for more-or-less monthly OTA firmware updates for the foreseeable future as Palm stomps bugs and rolls out new features sure to have long been part of the gameplan by now.

Is Pre "better" than iPhone or the Android-based G1 or a BlackBerry Curve/Bold/Storm?  That honestly depends what you want and need from your mobile device.  I can tell you that Pre and WebOS are more exciting than ... well, they're just as exciting as Android, anyway, and I'd say more exciting than iPhone OS 3.0 and the forthcoming 3G-S device.  If you're in the market for a new cell phone and aren't tied to a particular platform or carrier, take a trip to the local Sprint store and check Pre out before you make any decisions.  You may wind up with an iPhone or BlackBerry or G1 in the end, but it'll be well worth your time to give the new kid on the block a good, hard look first.

Noah gets the long-awaited LG Neon. Xenon's little sister is only $30 on contract, and has a full QWERTY and semi-touchscreen.

Even though HTC was responsible for the first couple of Android phones, and maybe the next ones (possibly being announced later this month), the company still prefers the Windows Mobile operating system — and always will — says Frederic Tassy, CEO of HTC in France.

In an interview with Mobinaute, Tassy spilled the beans about the company's WinMo love connection, saying that the Microsoft mobile platform is the OS of choice for the majority of the company's flagship devices. ("We will always have more flagship products on Windows Mobile," he says.)

The exec pointed out that the Touch HD is the company's best-selling device, beating out the G1 and Magic, which tells him that some consumers still clearly favor WinMo-powered devices over the Google operating system. And although Tassy thinks the idea of Android netbooks is intriguing, the company's just not that into it, so it won't be heading in that direction.

Is Tassy an Android hater? Or is he just an equal opportunity offender? The high-powered exec also took a pot shot at the Apple iPhone, saying that it's only a matter of time before mobile customers get tired of them. "[Mobile operators] want something else now, I can assure you."

It's a good thing for HTC that the company's phones outclass its executives. Anyone know how to say "catty" in French?




[Mobinaute (Google translated) via PhoneArena & techradar]

If you think cellphone skins are a tax on the easily impressed, well, you might be right - but the level of impressing is about to go up.  Kent Displays are demonstrating a new reflective LED-based phone cover which can change colors on command.  These colors could be used to display mood, match your outfit, or even reflect the status of the call (green: friends and family, red: work.)

They’re not available yet as the company is still looking for a production partner.  We can’t imagine how that’s the case - are manufacturers looking at this and thinking people WON’T buy them?  It’s a flashy shiny thing that hooks into a phone!  And people already buy Eminem phone covers!  This thing couldn’t be a more guaranteed sale if it dispensed money, so we look forward to finding them in stores in the near future.

Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.

We have been waiting to see what phone will be at the bottom of Samsung’s Unpacked box since the beginning of the month and last night, at the Battersea Evolution exhibition centre, the wrapping was taken off their latest touchscreen mobile, the Jet!  We have seen the Jet before, when it was leaked back in March and more recently when it was rumoured to be a Samsung Android handset.

Android, as we suspected, is not the OS used by the Jet, in fact, it appears to run a proprietary Samsung OS!  Samsung’s use of the tag line ‘Smarter than a Smartphone’ suggests the Jet is indeed a feature phone, but one that’s ready to take on the smarts!  The spec list says smart though, as the Jet is powered by an 800Mhz processor plus TouchWiz 2.0, boasting multiple application support, a six-sided ‘cube’ interface, downloadable widgets and ’smart unlock’ which allows direct access to features by ‘drawing’ a letter on the screen.

The phone’s face is dominated by a 3.1″ WVGA - that’s 480×800 - AMOLED screen displaying 16 million colours and the casing is just 11mm thick, making this a really slim mobile phone.  It’s a 3G handset with (more…)

Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.