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Yep, looks like the Android-powered Dell smartphone rumors were correct.  After months of speculation, AT&T today announced the Dell Aero, Dell's first Android-powered smartphone.  Billed in "coming soon" status, the details are surprisingly sparse at the moment - though the press release mentions a custom user interface of some sort.  As AT&T's second Android smartphone, I hope it's not bogged down with AT&T bloatware and foolish requirements (Backflip, anyone?).

The Dell Aero portion of the press release is below.  What do you say - the Dell Aero, or the AT&T version of the Nexus One?

AT&T also will soon unveil an Android-based smartphone the Dell Aero. This will be Dell’s first smartphone available in the U.S., and will feature a new, beautiful custom user interface developed by Dell and AT&T. To learn more about the Dell Aero, visit www.att.com/aero.

“Our unparalleled choice in smartphones has put us at the top of the industry—and given us twice as many smartphone customers as any of our competitors,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “As the leaders in mobile broadband, we complement our smartphone lineup with the nation’s fastest 3G network and the largest Wi-Fi network in the U.S., with more than 20,000 public hotspots. We’re also the only carrier to offer valuable features like A-List with ROLLOVER, which add even greater value to our products and services. We’re looking forward to bringing these benefits to customers who choose one of the Palm smartphones or the exclusive Dell Aero.”

Who said Palm was going down without a fight?  Sure, they've had their share of financial troubles as of late, but that doesn't mean that they can't play in the same field as the big boys.  Proving that they still have some fight left in them, the maker of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus announced that the two devices would be coming to AT&T later in the year.  The Pixi Plus will cost $49.99 and the Pre Plus will cost $149.99, both after mail-in rebate and new two-year agreement.

The full press release text can be found below.  Now that we have webOS options on the nation's top three wireless carriers, when will we see the option on T-Mobile?  Sound off in the comments section!

AT&T* today further cemented its status as the U.S. leader in smartphones by announcing an expansion of its industry-leading lineup to include the Palm^® Pre™ Plus and Palm Pixi™ Plus. The new smartphones will run on the nation’s fastest 3G network – and take advantage of the ability to talk and surf the Web at the same time. Further strengthening AT&T’s leadership, the new smartphones make AT&T the only U.S. carrier to offer devices representing all major operating systems. The Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus are AT&T’s first smartphones to feature the Palm webOS™ platform.

The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus available at AT&T will be the only Palm webOS devices in the U.S. to support simultaneous voice and data while running multiple applications at once. The Palm Synergy™ feature in webOS keeps your email, contacts and calendars up to date with integration to Yahoo!, Facebook®, Google™, LinkedIn®, and Microsoft® Office Outlook®, all in one view. For more information on Pre Plus and Pixi Plus visit www.att.com/webos.

Palm Pre Plus will be available at $149.99 and the Palm Pixi Plus will cost $49.99, both after a two year contract and mail-in-rebate.

All of these new smartphones feature Wi-Fi connectivity and AT&T customers with these devices will receive AT&T Wi-Fi access at U.S. hotspots included as part of their unlimited data plan. AT&T’s has the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network with more than 20,000 U.S. hotspots.

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

Mobile apps are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. In fact, it has recently been predicted that by 2012 there will be more people purchasing mobile apps than buying CDs. But what exactly can we expect to see happen between now and then with mobile apps? Here are some of the trends that people expect:

Growing Sales

The biggest trend is going to be that more and more people are going to be using more and more apps. This is due in part to the greater availability and use of smartphones. Better phones (as well as ever-faster networks) are more capable of handling a variety of different apps. The growth is also due to the greater availability of mobile apps. And although there are some expensive apps out there, many apps are free or cheap which also helps to stimulate sales. Recent research says that the mobile app industry is going to be worth a whopping $17.5 billion by 2012. That’s up from just $7 billion in 2009 and is approximately $4 billion more than the sales of CDs predicted in 2012.

Cheaper Apps

One of the nice predictions that we can expect to see come true is that apps are likely to get cheaper over the next few years. There are quite a few free apps right now, of course, but the average app is approximately $2. This average amount is likely to decrease by nearly one third. The reason for this is because the way that app makers are getting money for their work is starting to change. Makers today get most of their money from the sale of apps to consumers. However, as mobile apps have grown in popularity, there has been a shift for getting more ad-based revenue. Right now this type of revenue only accounts for about 12% of what these people are making. This amount should more than double by 2012. The results will be that app developers make the same amount of revenue or more but there is a savings drop for consumers.

Fewer On-Deck Apps

Many smartphones right now come pre-loaded with apps. Of course, you can customize your phone by downloading the apps that you want but there’s a set group of them that does come with the phone. Interestingly, this is predicted to change in the near future. That’s because it’s just not going to be that profitable for carriers to offer their own apps since the apps that people want are the ones being offered by third party providers. The number of apps that people use that come directly from the carrier is going to drop considerably thanks to greater availability of other apps as well as this predicted decline in the number of on-deck apps. Right now approximately 60% of app revenue is coming from carrier-based apps but it’s believed this will drop to approximately 23% in the next couple of years.

Android Will Give Apple a Run for Its Money

Right now the largest app store is, by far, the Apple store for iPhone apps. However, Android phones have been faring well in the market. Developers are often interested in working on apps for Android phones. As a result of these things, some people predict that the Android app store could be just as popular as the Apple store or even more popular by 2012. Other app stores (such as BlackBerry) will continue to grow in popularity as well but these are the two that will dominate the mobile apps market.

Money Transfer Apps

Mobile banking is on the rise. One of the main things that people want to be able to do in this area is to transfer money using their mobile phones. It has been predicted that the largest area of app growth between now and 2012 will be for apps that allow people to make money transfers. Other apps related to mobile banking will also likely grow in popularity over the next few years.

Augmented Reality Apps

Another area of growth that we’re probably going to see is in the development and sales of augmented reality apps. There are some apps like this already out there (with Layar being a great example). They allow you to scan the location that you’re in using your mobile phone and then layer additional information over what you’re scanning in order to augment your reality. The iPhone is a terrific platform for these apps with many of them already starting to be used by consumers. However, we’ll see use of these continue to grow on not just the iPhone but other phones as well. One limitation thus far has been that GPS technology on many phones isn’t strong enough to support these apps but the technology is improving and so growth of this area will improve too.

Business App Stores

There is a growing need for a separate app store for business apps. This will allow businesses to easily find the apps that are best for them. It will also allow developers of business apps to become more visible to their target customers. Google has just recently announced a business app store for their apps. Mobile developers are likely to follow suit with business app stores of their own.

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

Finally, we’re going to see increased marketing of apps around the board. We’ll see on-device marketing as well as marketing in other areas of media. As more and more apps are developed, app developers will need to get attention to the apps that they sell. As more app stores open, those stores will need to be advertised in order to gain and keep customers. You can expect to hear a lot more about mobile apps in the future!

HTC head Peter Chou has announced that the Taiwanese telephone company will fully defend itself against Apple’s allegations (which boil down to “Smartphones are ours and no-one else should be allowed to make any.”)  Apple recently filed an intellectual property suit claiming twenty patent violations, asking the legal system to pretty please prevent those nasty foreign phones from being imported to the US.

No-one on either side has mentioned Google yet, though the timing of the lawsuit – just before the release of the maybe-revolutionary Nexus One – does it quite effectively for them.  The Android operating system is the only stylish rival to Apple’s “all-in-one nerd-cool” cachet, and it look like HTC will be the legal Vietnam between two titans of consumer technology.  We can only hope they don’t get paperworked to pieces in the process.

Sony Ericsson's first Android smartphone, the Xperia X10, arrived at my office Saturday - a day late, courtesy of FedEx. I've had a little less than two days now with this unlocked version of the device, and have been using it on AT&T's 3G network. Read on for my first impressions. Unboxing video coming soon - it's a long story, but I made some dumb errors while editing the vid, posted it, took it down, and re-edited. Now it's ready to upload, but as I'm at the airport awaiting my flight to Vegas for CTIA, I can't find a fast enough uplink to get the file up to the cloud. Oh, the travails of modern workflife.

All in all X10 is a nice device that could be very, very nice but suffers from some quirks and minor lags. Sony's custom user interface, comprised primarily of their Timescape and Mediascape apps, is nice but feels less revolutionary now than it looked when the X10 was first previewed some months ago. While the phone is powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, it lags while loading certain apps - likely due to a combination of the outdated Android OS 1.6 platform and the network intensive nature of Timescape.

- Call quality is pretty good so far, but the earpiece seems kind of quiet. Voices on the other end of calls have been clear but low-volume; I had to crank the volume all the way up, and at that point could hear the plastic chassis of the X10 vibrating ever so slightly during a call.

- Battery life has been fairly solid, but I'm concerned about drain from Timescape connecting to Twitter, Facebook (and MySpace, if I used MySpace) to pull updates. Timescape is easily adjustable, though, to limit automatic network updates or turn them off entirely.

- The 4" display is very nice to look at. I'm convinced that 3.7" (Nexus One and Droid) is now the absolute minimum size for a high-end smartphone, and 4"+ is the wave of the future. X10's size nicely splits the difference between smaller devices and the slate-like enormity of the HTC HD2.

- While X10's display is capacitive touch, I'm finding it less responsive than best-in-breed touchscreens like iPhone, Nexus One, and Droid. I don't know if it's hardware, software, or a combination of both, but simple button taps aren't always registering for me.

- That said, when the system works, it's fluid and graceful. Kinetic scrolling is nice, SE's visual design is classy and geeky all at once, and photos look great on the 854 x 480 high-res screen.

- Mediascape is a really nice music app - perhaps the best music player to hit Android to date. The Web tie-ins to your local music library are nice (Web search, YouTube search, etc), but what I really like are the graceful but information-filled views offered while browsing your media library and playing individual tracks.

- Timescape is kinda neat, but much more suited to the casual social networking user than the power tweeter or Facebook fiend. Think of it as a much easier to view - if slightly less powerful - Motoblur. While it's nifty to see my contacts' photos along with their latest status updates or messages, I quickly moved the Timescape widget off of my main home screen panel and installed a proper Twitter client to better suit my needs. 

- My X10 came with both the Android Keyboard and something called "Standard Keyboard" pre-installed. Neither is very satisfying. While two-thumbed typing in widescreen mode is pretty nice thanks to the huge 4" display, the keyboard itself suffers from some strange design decisions. Comma and period deserve dedicated buttons, no? Luckily, it's super easy to install a keyboard replacement on Android.

- The device comes with a Sony Ericsson stereo headset but won't work with any of the third party headsets I've tried. Both my Etymotics and a pair of Shures I'm reviewing balked during calls and music playback - something about the "iPhone compatible" connector plug doesn't jibe with the structure of the X10's headphone jack. Standard headphones (without inline microphone) work fine with the phone, however.

- I tried the 8.1 MP camera briefly yesterday and results were pretty good given the harsh lighting conditions.  Video quality seemed quite good. I'll try to upload some shots later today.

- No word on possible upgrade paths to Android 2.1. I'll check in with Sony Ericsson this week.

More coming soon - I've got the X10 in hand for the trip to CTIA.

Jon Quach's Weekly Bone video covers the PhoneDog news highlighted last week on the site. 

Our excitement concerning Microsoft’s next generation operating system may have been dampened slightly following MIX10, but the release of the first TV advert promoting the OS has helped revive our interest.

Anna, Miles and Luca are the family Microsoft are targeting with their sharing, caring and connected Windows Phone 7 system, and the ad shows the exceptionally smiley gang all enjoying its social networking, photographic and gaming potential.  Take a look for yourselves:

OK, so it’s not going to be winning an originality awards, but it certainly does emphasise the ease of use Windows Phone 7 promises.  It’s also quite early for Microsoft to be getting the word out to the non-tech crowd, seeing as it’s still six months before we’re set to see a phone in the shops.

Talking of phones, what was being used in the ad?  Was it an HD2, or a generic Asus-alike seen at Mobile World Congress?  Whatever it was, we can’t help be a little disappointed that the projected images probably won’t be a standard feature!

You need to be able to charge your mobile phone. However, you want to be eco-conscious. How can those two things go hand-in-hand when charging your mobile phone inevitably uses up precious electricity? Getting a green phone charger is your solution. Whether it’s powered by the sun or simply designed not to use energy when its not charging, green phone chargers reduce the carbon footprint of keeping your mobile phone’s battery full.

Here’s a look at 10 of the greenest phone chargers:

ZERO Charger. This new phone charger was just announced by AT&T. It’s a model of phone charger that we’re likely to see more of in the future. The way that it helps the Earth is that you can keep the charger plugged in to an outlet but it won’t drain any electricity from the outlet unless you are actually charging your phone. Most chargers still take a bit of energy out of the outlet even when they aren’t in use. This draining of so-called vampire energy is something that more and more green folks are getting concerned about. Chargers like this one could be the answer to these concerns.

Volt Eco Charger. This phone charger that is already out on the market is similar in many ways to the ZERO charger. Like that charger, it’s designed to stop consuming any energy when your phone is done charging. It’s also designed to be highly energy-efficient when it is charging. More importantly, it’s a durable charger that is designed to last for a long period of time (and will likely outlast your mobile phone) so it’s not going to end up in a landfill anytime soon.

iGo Charge Anywhere. This charger is made by iGo which is another company concerned with vampire energy. Their devices are also made to stop sucking energy out of outlets when not in use. This charger is even better than that, though. It actually retains the power that it gets from the wall outlet. Then you can take it with you and plug your phone into it whenever it needs to be charged. It solves two problems in one: how to charge your phone on the go and how to stop wasting wall energy when a phone is done charging.

Solio Universal Solar Charger. This is a solar-powered solar charger that ranks among the best in the market. The charger itself can be powered by the sun. It can then transfer that energy to your mobile phone. It works with a range of different handsets and should be useful to most people. It’s a compact charger so it’s easy to take with you on the go. This is convenient because it means that you can easily expose it to the sun to make sure that it’s full. You would probably still use a normal wall charger at times to pack your battery to the brim with power but this is a good charger to supplement your wall charger as you begin to get greener.

iSun Charger. This is another solar power charger that is worth taking a second look at. This one comes with seven different attachments so you can plug in a range of different devices and power them up using the phone. A cell phone is, of course, one of those devices but if you also carry around other gadgets that need charging then this could be a good green solution for you.

K3 Wind/Solar Charger. This is a handheld charger that you can take with you to power your mobile phone. It is a hybride charger that uses both solar power and wind power to generate electricity to charge your phone. Like most other handheld solar chargers, this one probably isn’t going to be the only charger that you ever use but it’s a great additional charger.

BioLogic ReeCharge. This is one of the best pedal-powered chargers on the market to date. You hook it up to your bike and it gathers the energy that you’re creating from pedaling. You mount your phone onto the bike and it captures that energy while you read.

nPower PEG. Even if you aren’t a cyclist, you can still gather up the kinetic energy that you yourself create and use it to power your mobile phone. This charger collects energy that you generate while walking or jogging. You can plug your phone into it and this energy will be used to charge the phone. Kinetic energy chargers are on the rise and this is definitely one to watch.

iYo Yo Yo Phone Charger. This phone charger was designed as a yo yo which gathers up electricity as it is being played with. Once it’s charged, you could plug your phone into it to power it up. This is a super cool concept that was developed in 2008 for the iPhone. It never ended up coming to the market but it’s a really neat idea that could serve as the prototype for cool green charging options in the future.

Roto Charger. Need energy to power up your mobile phone? This handheld device just requires that you crank or rotate it to generate that energy. Use the energy to charge up your phone. This one is particularly useful in third world countries where electricity may be sporadic.

There are so many complex things that we can do on our smartphones right? Sometimes we forget that the original purpose of the phone was to make and receive voice calls. In fact, some phones are really easy to navigate when it comes to SMS messaging or the mobile web or the phone’s geo-location features but not nearly as simple when it comes to just making calls. That’s why you need a refresher course on the many different calls that you can make on some phones. This is your total guide to making and receiving calls on your Motorola Milestone.

Getting Familiar with the Phone Home Screen

To become a whiz at making and receiving calls on your Motorola Milestone, you’ll first want to get familiar with your phone home screen. To get there, simply go to the regular home screen and then press the phone button (symbolized by the phone icon). Here’s what you will see there:

• The bulk of the screen is taken up by the normal number screen. This is where you would press numbers in order to dial them just like you would on any other handset.
• At the top of the screen, you will see four buttons:

1. Phone button.
2. Call log button. This is useful since you often want to re-call someone you’ve recently spoken to.
3. Contacts. This is where you can find all of your contacts. This section will be discussed in detail below.
4. Favourites. It’s nice to set up favourites to call on a regular basis.

• At the bottom of the screen, you will see two important buttons:

1. Voice message button for retrieving your messages.
2. Phone symbol to press when placing calls.

This is the screen that you will see when you have not yet made a call. When you do place a call, the screen will change. Some of the important buttons that you will see on the new screen include:

• Add call. This button is used for conference calling.
• End call. Symbolized by a red phone, you can press this to end your call.
• Dialpad. This will take you back to the number pad.
• Bluetooth. This is where you can activate Bluetooth. If you want to use a hands-free Bluetooth device then just press this button to get started.
• Mute. You can mute calls by hitting this button.
• Speaker. If you want to turn the speaker on then you’ll press this. This allows you to hear and speak to the caller without pressing the phone directly to your ear.
• Home and back. Both of these buttons (symbolized by a house and a reverse arrow respectively) will take you out of this active calling home screen and back to the original screen described above.

Basics of Making and Answering a Call

Surely you already know how to do this on your Motorola Milestone but just to refresh your memory here are the basic steps of making a call or answering an incoming call.

• To make a call: On the home screen, press the phone button on the top left corner of the screen. Dial a number. Press the phone symbol on the bottom of the screen.
• To receive a call: Look for the phone symbol that is displayed when you receive an incoming call. Slide it to the right. You have answered the call.

Ending or Rejecting a Call

If you see an incoming call that you want to reject, slide the phone symbol to the left instead of to the right. The call will be rejected and the caller will be able to leave a voice mail message.

If you have already been participating in a call and are ready to end it, simply look at your active phone home screen and located the end call button. Tap this button and you will end the call.

Making Conference Calls

It’s very simple to make conference calls using your Motorola Milestone. Here’s how to do it.

• Call the first number.
• Wait for the person to answer.
• Ask them to hold on.
• Look at your active phone screen. Select “add call”.
• Dial the next number.
• Wait for the person to answer.
• Look for the “merge calls” option. Press this button.
• Your conference call has begun. Everyone should be on the line.

Exploring and Organizing Contacts

Getting the most out of your phone will require that you organize your contacts in the phone. Explore this function by returning back to the home screen and pressing the “contacts” button at the top of the screen. A list of all of your available contacts will appear. Some of the things that you can do from this list include:

• Scroll through the list. If you flick on the list, a scroll bar will appear and you can easily scroll through all of the contacts that you have on the phone.
• Jump to a specific contact. Start typing in the name of a contact and you will be taken to the area where that contact is located on the phone.
• Call the contact person. Tap the contact’s name. You will be given options to call, text or email that person. Select the call option and the call will go through.
• Edit contacts. Tap the contact’s name and that press menu to go to the area for editing that contact. From here you can change the contact’s name and phone number or do other things like delete the contact entirely. Note that you can give each contact a personalised ringtone if you want to. This is done through the editing section. Use the appropriate dropdown box to select the ringtone that you desire for each contact.
• Add new contacts or create groups. Use the menu button to add new contacts to the list. Simply select “add contact” from the options on the menu button. You can also create groups from this section. To do this, select “display options” from the menu button and proceed to create and label your groups. Groups make it easier to manage all of your contacts.

That’s the basics. Now that you know all that you need to know about making and receiving calls on your Motorola Milestone, you can get back to doing some of the more fun stuff that this phone is known for.