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Cameraless BlackBerry Bold launching on Friday, October 16th
Looking for a new BlackBerry, but don't want to wait for the Bold 9700 to launch?  White BlackBerry Bold 9000 doesn't tickle your fancy?  Need a cameraless device for work?  Look no further than the BlackBerry Bold cameraless version, coming this Friday to an AT&T store near you.  Feature-wise, it's exactly the same as the original Bold, but without the 2.0-megapixel camera.  My guess is that stores won't carry a huge stock of the cameraless model, so purchasing online or via telesales might be your best bet.  Via IntoMobile

HTC Pure on sale for a penny at Amazon.com
Despite it being fresh out of the gate, Amazon is taking no time in marking down the HTC Pure Windows Phone.  Priced at $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on AT&T's website, Amazon is taking it to a whole new level by offering it for $0.01.  Of course, a new two-year agreement is required, so family plans and contract upgrades don't apply.  Via IntoMobile

Clear picture of the Motorola Droid/Sholes comes to light
Courtesy of BGR, we have the first clear picture of the Motorola "Sholes," now referred to as Droid.  While we wait for more pictures to come to light, the shot above tells us that the device will be running Android 2.0, rumored to be a marked improvement over today's builds.  Here's to the hope of a launch before the end of the year!  Via Boy Genius (Twitter)

Air Canada and The Weather Channel applications available for BlackBerry
If you're flying on Air Canada, need to check the weather, and own a BlackBerry, you're in luck.  Fresh off of a similar announcement for the iPhone, Air Canada has launched an application for the BlackBerry.  Checking in, boarding, obtaining flight information, and checking flight announcements is easier than ever, and thanks to the company's electronic boarding pass program, paper copies could become a thing of the past.

Separately, The Weather Channel has launched a free (but ad-supported) version of their application for BlackBerry.  Current conditions, 36-hour forecasts, 10-day forecasts, radar maps - it's all there.  Plus, with a built-in location tracker, the information is about as precise as it gets.

Download The Weather Channel application here (directly from your BlackBerry):

• Weather Channel for the BlackBerry Curve, Bold and Tour: here
• Weather Channel for the Storm: here

Source: IntoMobile

With any data outage (or technology problem, for that matter) that was as severe as the Sidekick/T-Mobile/Microsoft snafu was, I knew it would only be a matter of time before the class-action lawsuits came to life.  Sure enough, two cases have officially entered the system: one in California and one in Washington.  The interesting thing here is that they're going after T-Mobile and not Microsoft, the company that operates the servers in question.  In both cases, the users claim that T-Mobile misled customers into thinking that the Sidekick platform was secure.  As a result, the users suffered a "complete and catastrophic loss of all data" when the systems went down.

With Microsoft and T-Mobile now claiming that most data is able to be restored (and should return to the device in the coming days), I'm curious as to whether the class-action lawsuits will hold ground.  Despite that, I have full faith in the American legal system, and I'm sure that someone will come up with a way to successfully sue them at some point.

Source: Engadget, The Inquirer

Billed as a BlackBerry Bold in a Curve-like body (quite similar to the comments about the BlackBerry Tour), it's no secret that T-Mobile USA plans to launch the US version of the 9700 in November (heck, launch party invitations have gone out to a lucky few).  As the second HSDPA BlackBerry, the excitement level surrounding the device has been nothing short of overwhelming.  Trackpad, 3.2-megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard, OS 5.0 - all things GSM BlackBerry users desire.

While the official launch dates haven't been announced quite yet, T-Mobile Germany has posted (and since removed, if you're on the website looking for it) a page for the Bold 9700.  Said to have a "particularly fine design," the Wi-Fi toting 9700 is all set for a November launch in Germany.  With a confirmed launch month in Europe, the US and Canadian variants can't be too far off.

Source: Engadget Mobile

You’re attacked by a bear!  You’ve got an iPhone.  The fact you’d even remember that in such a situation, under assault by approximately a million killer kilograms (mass estimates are a little unreliable when your enemy is a goddamn bear) already makes you the sort of fanboy Steve Jobs dreams about while refreshing stock prices, but when it actually saves your life you’re doing well.

Kris Rowley was walking in the wilds of Vermont, for reasons best known to herself, when a bear started chasing her.  She slung her smartphone at the beast and made a break for it as the ursine investigated the iPhone, which could well make Apple’s the most effective branding in the history of anything.  Unfortunately she undid both of her intelligent actions, “Understanding life is more important than phone” and “Getting the hell away from a bear”, by returning to the scene with a baseball bat.  We would pay money to see what would have happened if the bear had still been there.

Instead she came away with an intact body and a mangled iPhone (the opposite of what someone who returns to a bear for seconds deserves), which the local Apple store refused to replace.  She had to buy a whole new phone, which is fair enough.  Even the most sophisticated cellphone is not insured against such a grizzly fate.

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

It’s not your average medical tool, Smartphones are better suited to businessmen and women in a busy office or the young fashion followers on their latest shopping spree. It’s unlikely that you’d see a doctor reaching for his phone during patient diagnosis, but that could be about to change.

Software advancements have made it possible for the smartphone to find a place in medicine. Health workers in the remote Philippines province of Batanes have been trying out devices to make simple hospital procedures a lot more efficient, in particular helping to reduce the time it takes to get an x-ray to a radiologist and get a diagnosis.

The software’s created by a non-profit organisation Moca, who saw vital flaws in medical care in developing countries. Apart from the lack of expert decision support, the medical centres were crying out for a platform to share information. Moca realised that mobile phones could bridge the gap between health workers in rural areas and doctors residing in cities.

The average mobile phone comes with an increasing number of features, which could all be used for medical data collection. Cameras can send, record and help analyse changes in skin lesions, wounds etc., the voice recording feature provides a quick and simple way to record, and listen back to note dictations and of course Wi-Fi/GPRS connections provide constant access and communication with databases.

The Moca team have done a pretty good job in setting up the rural to urban mobile communication. Key design features include, built-in training and workflow solutions on the handset so mobiles can be used to train local nurses and health workers. The software is downloadable to the phone so training and decision support is always available, even in the most remote areas, where connection is poor or non-existent.

A crucial element to the medical platform was the user interface. When designing the system Moca made sure that it was simple to understand and navigate. Health workers can run a procedure and collect patient data, via text, image or sound, it is then uploaded to the Moca database where city docs can review the case and send over their diagnosis.

So far, the system has proved very successful and now plans are in place to develop a video function so health workers can send real-time footage to hospitals. Moca believe this would greatly reduce infection rates in remote areas. For example, after surgery, patients are required to see the surgeon for routine check-ups after surgery to make sure the wound is healing without infection. Patients in remote areas often skip these follow up sessions because of the hassle getting to the hospital. With the Moca system patients could go to their nearest health clinic and have a video of the wound sent directly to the surgeon. If there was a chance of infection, antibiotics could then be prescribed direct from the clinic.

Medical mobile advancements could prove to be a vital instrument in improving healthcare in developing countries. Initial reports, such as the work done by Moca are showing very high success rates; with more time and investment we could eventually see mobile medical systems going global.

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

The past few months has seen intense competition within the smartphone market. Each manufacturer’s trying to stay one step ahead by bringing out the best hardware and software package money can buy. But different markets call for different specs. The Ubar recently carried out a survey to see what hardware the socialites and fashionista’s among us want to see on their phones.

Samsung and HTC are targeting the artistic community, with the bold paintwork on the Genio Touch and inventive covers on the Tattoo. Other manufacturers, Nokia and BlackBerry are far more interested in software than the handset appearance sticking to fairly standard black and white models. But, does aesthetic value play a part in handset choice? The Ubar survey found the most popular handset colour to be bog standard black, with white a close second. Rather sensible colours followed, deep reds, dark blues, before we hit the niche market of fluorescents, hot pink, yellow and orange.

Heatmap flagging the popular colours 

Obviously, from this research alone, we can’t wipe-out the novelty value of a creative range of handsets, but, participants were from all age groups giving a fairly rounded view of the market. What’s more the Ubar users generally tend to be the more pro-active users, the ideal target for ‘out there’ phone designs.  While quirky designs grab the headlines, it doesn’t always mean they’ll bring in the sales.

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

Research in Motion is planning on releasing two new versions of their popular Storm in order to challenge the dominance of the iPhone. Look for the BlackBerry Storm2 9520 and the BlackBerry Storm2 9550 coming in November. Both units will support WiFi, amidst a number of outstanding features.

The Storm 2 will be Wi-Fi® Enabled, include a 3.2 MP Digital Camera, have Video Camera Capabilities, Supports BlackBerry App World™, are Bluetooth® Enabled, with their own Multimedia Players. They also support SMS/MMS and Wireless Email, and come loaded with an Organizer, Browser, Phone, and Corporate Data Access.

Not only that, but the Blackberry Storm 2 contains strong multimedia support, including MPEG4 H.263, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.264, and WMV formats. Audio formats aren’t lacking either, with MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, and WMA ProPlus included.

Add in GPS capabilities, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and your choice of wireless networks and you can quickly see how the Blackberry Storm 2 is a powerful smartphone alternative to current offerings.

Of course many others have already attempted to surpass the iPhone. Now it’s RIM’s chance to do it.

We often hear news about tragic fights being caught on mobile phone cameras. The same urge that forces us to look at car accidents when we pass by them compels us to watch these frightening video clips of assaults in action. But why torture ourselves with the fear of fighting when there are so many awesome, funny, sexy mobile phone fight videos out there that we can watch. These ten videos are some of the best on the web for pure silly entertainment. Enjoy!

1. Sexy Razr Video. This commercial for the Moto Razrphone is super hot. It depicts a sexy couple in an action-movie style fight using mobile phones as their weapons of choice. There are some silly moments such as when the woman beckons the man into the fight with a come-hither movement of the phone but mostly this funny video is really just hot.

2. Teen iPhone Fight. Mobile phones are used as weapons in this video as well. Two teens bump into each other in the hallway and the next thing you know they’re arguing over who has the better iPhone. They begin using their phones to shoot lasers and other ridiculous stuff at one another in a fight that has them running through the halls of the school. Totally ridiculous but this video is a fun little waste of time.

3. Ants in Action. This video tricks you at first. It looks like someone is headed down into a dark basement to capture an actual fight between people on his mobile phone. As the camera gets closer you see two ants battling it out on the apparent zoom function of the phone. It quickly becomes clear that these boxing ants aren’t real but that doesn’t make the footage any less funny to watch. (more…)

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

Marketing 101 is clearly at work here.  When a company (or a brand within the company, in the case of the Sidekick snafu) experiences a near-complete technology failure, people are going to be mad.  As a competitor, your job is to...well, compete.  And what better way to do that than offering disgruntled Sidekick users free merchandise? 

Complete with the creative phrase "Why be a sidekick, when you can be a superhero?," Peek is coming to the rescue.  Offering unlimited e-mail and text messaging for $20 monthly, they're not going to sit by and watch Sidekick users miss important messages.  To that end, they're offering a free Pronto e-mail device to anyone who sends in a picture of themselves and their Sidekick device by Friday, October 16th.

So, pick up your non-functional Sidekick, make a sad face (and if you feel how I would feel if I just lost all of my data, doing so won't be hard), and send it to the e-mail address here.  Make sure to include your mailing address along with that beautiful mug shot.

Source: Engadget Mobile

Samsung formally announced the availability of the Blue Earth today, a touchscreen phone designed with the environment in mind.  What we like about the device is despite its "eco-friendly" moniker (which, until now, has been synonomous with "boring"), the Blue Earth doesn't skimp on the features.  Offering HSDPA 3.6 Mbps in the 900 / 2100 MHz spectrum (read: European 3G bands) and EDGE/GPRS  850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz, a 3-inch touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera, and stereo Bluetooth v2.1, it's ready to rock out of the box.

Crafted from Post Consumer Material (PCM), the Blue Earth features "Eco Mode," which allows Bluetooth, screen brightness, and backlight duration to be set to energy-friendly levels.  What's more, the device includes "Eco Walk," which allows the user to see the reduction in C02 emission by walking versus driving (measured in number of trees saved).  Though it comes with an energy efficient charger, the phone offers a solar panel on the back for an alternative charging option.

The Blue Earth will be available in Sweden in October, followed by France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal, and other European and Asian countries in the coming months.  Could we see a US version?  It's entirely possible.  In the meantime, pick up one of the European Blue Earth devices, but remember - 3G won't work in The States.