Verizon Wireless and Google have announced a “groundbreaking agreement” for “wireless innovation” that will offer “a compelling experience” for consumers. And yes, the press release is mostly wind-blowing and back-patting, complete with two incidents of the word “leverage.” But hold on now, it’s actually pretty interesting news.
If “TouchWiz” didn’t sound creepy enough already, how about “TouchWiz with Android?” This is the interface you’ll be playing with on Samsung’s Behold II, which combines Samsung’s existing TouchWiz UI with Google’s Android mobile operating system and Android Market. The hallmark is a series of widgets that slides onto the screen, giving users one-touch access to their favorite features and applications. There are also three home screens, allowing you to arrange different workspaces by dragging and dropping widgets on the touch screen.
AT&T and Terrestar have announced that they will be releasing the Genus satellite smartphone. The phone will operate on AT&T’s network like a regular smartphone, but will also have access to Terrestar’s satellite phone system when required. When out of range of cell coverage, users will be able to make use of satellites to access voice and data in the U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and territorial waters. AT&T cited the value of such a device to emergency service workers, maritime users and others that depend upon reliable, uninterrupted communications. Satellite network subscription and roaming charges will be integrated into customers’ monthly bills along with regular cell charges. The phone will be available in Q1 of 2010 to enterprise, government and small business customers and their corporate liable users, but there’s no indication of how much it will cost. The companies are also working on a similar solution for consumers. [AT&T via Crunch Gear]
This is great: An iPhone owner in the New York area is suffering the same dropped calls as everyone else, but instead of just dealing with it, he takes the phone to an Apple Store to have it checked out. After running some tests, the techs at Apple’s Genius Bar determine that everything’s normal from their end. It’s just AT&T’s shoddy service to blame. The work authorization form, which notes a 22 percent dropped call rate, says that “the phone is fully functional and the problem is consistent with the service provided by ATT.” Even worse, the Genius told the customer that the average dropped call rate is 30 percent, so the customer’s phone is actually performing quite well. Your $90 per month service contract at work. [via Gizmodo]
If you’re a believer in Android, the Motorola Cliq’s $200 price tag should be quite reasonable when the phone goes on “pre-sale” in October. Starting October 19, the Cliq will be available only to those who have already pledged their undying loyalty to T-Mobile (a.k.a. existing customers). The rest of you will have to wait until November 2. The buzz-generating phone has a 3.1-inch touch screen, a slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera and a pre-installed 2 GB MicroSD card. But the main attraction is Motorola’s MotoBlur interface, which bombards the phone’s home page with text messages, e-mails and social networking updates. Of course, the cost of entry is only good with a two-year service agreement. [via Engadget]
After over a year and a half of hype and waiting, it appears the market will finally get the Garmin Nuvifone G60, beginning next week on October 4. The phone combines traditional smartphone capabilities with extensive GPS features found on Garmin standalone units, including preloaded maps of North America, voice-based directions, “Where Am I?” feature and millions of points of interest. Premium Connected Services can be added for $5.99 per month (after 30-day trial) and include real-time traffic info, weather, white pages and other features. Traditional phone specs include 3.5-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, 2 gigs of internal storage, microSD expansion (up to 16GB), 3G capability, Wi Fi, full HTML browser and 3MP camera with geotagging. The phone will be carried by AT&T and will retail for $299 with 2-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. It should be interesting to see if anyone’s still interested in this phone after such a long delay and considering its rather lofty price tag. [via CNET]
If you look at sales alone, the Blackberry had a pretty good summer. Research in Motion shipped 8.3 million of its popular smartphones from June to August, up from 7.8 million during the same period last year. Of those sales, 3.8 million were new accounts, possibly translating to new Blackberry users. However, RIM also gave away a lot of phones over the last few months, with Verizon Wireless running multiple two-for-one events. Net income is actually down this summer, at $475.6 million compared to $495.5 million last summer. On the bright side, revenues are up, and RIM is feeling good about the current quarter, expecting at least 4 million new Blackberry customers. The rumored Bold 9700 and follow-up to the Blackberry Storm could assure another spike in sales. [via Electronista]
Gizmodo’s being all secretive with its big unsanctioned reveal of Microsoft’s Pink phones, posting under the alias “Pretty Boy.” (That was following the unveiling of Microsoft’s “Courier” tablet under the name “Paperboy.”) Why all the secrecy? Because an inside source is leaking what’s been speculated about for months now. The Pink phones, Turtle (above) and Pure (after the jump), both have slide out QWERTY keyboards and touch screens. The whole design is decidedly not Microsoft, lacking the buttoned-down interface of Windows Mobile and having a decidedly youthful form factor. Gizmodo says this is because of Sharp’s involvement in the project, which originally produced hardware for the text-centric Sidekick. It’s been rumored previously that Pink will include Zune services and have a separate app store. It looks like the phones are in the later stages of development, so hopefully we’ll hear more soon — I’m guessing early next year.
Though not an official confirmation, some photos of the flagship HTC Leo have emerged, and they look good. Almost the entire front panel is a capacitive touch screen, measuring an impressive 4.3 inches. Running on Windows Mobile 6.5, the Leo — which could just be a code name at this point — has a 1 GHz Qualcomm processor, 512 MB of flash memory, an SD card slot and 512 of RAM. There’s also a 5-megapixel camera, GPS and an LED flashlight. With all the screen real estate and beefy hardware, we wouldn’t mind seeing the HTC Leo on a more entertainment-centric phone, but who knows? This could be perfect for all those business applications you plan to run. [via Ai.rs Blog]
