smartphones

Verizon drops price of BlackBerry Storm to $50; BlackBerry Storm 2 imminent?

Verizon Wireless is offering a buy-one, get-one-free deal on its BlackBerry selection and has lowered the price of the RIM BlackBerry Storm even further to $49.99 (with a two-year contract and an instant rebate).

This is the second price drop for the Storm (first was from $199.99 to $149.99), leading many to believe that the carrier is clearing out inventory to make room for the RIM BlackBerry Storm 2. While RIM has confirmed only that it is working on the device, it has not commented on a release date, pricing, or final specs.

Rumor has it, however, … Read more

Dialed In 93: Moto's Android invasion!

The gang is back together once again and it looks like our couple weeks of calm is about to be over. Motorola has announced a September 10 event here in San Francisco to reveal its new Android products, and we think we have a pretty good idea of what we might see. Also, Nicole gives the coveted Editors' Choice Award to another Plantronics headset and Kent is on a mission to beat up the Sonim XP3 Quest. Check it all out on this week's episode of Dialed In.

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Rumor … Read more

Budget-friendly Nokia 5230 debuts

On Tuesday, Nokia unveiled its latest touch-screen smartphone, the Nokia 5230. Similar to the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, the 5230 offers a 3.2-inch touch screen and focuses heavily on entertainment, but forgoes a couple of features to make the handset a little more wallet-friendly and accessible to more consumers.

To keep the price down, the 5230 loses Wi-Fi connectivity and downgrades to a 2-megapixel camera instead of 3.2 megapixels, but you still get support for North American 3G bands (850/1900MHz), Bluetooth, and A-GPS. The S60 5th Edition device also offers entertainment on the go, whether it be … Read more

Motorola hosting Android event on September 10

Well, well, look what just arrived in my inbox. Motorola has sent out Save the Dates for a September 10 event here in San Francisco focusing on Google Android. The invite provides little details about the event but one can only presume (or hope) that the company will reveal its Android devices, which are rumored to be the Morrison and Sholes.

Earlier this summer, Motorola announced the App Accelerator Program and Motodev Studio for Android Beta for Android developers. As part of the Accelerator Program, select developers were given tools, specs, and exclusive prerelease access to Motorola's upcoming devices … Read more

BlackBerry Bold software update brings visual voicemail, more

On Tuesday afternoon, AT&T will release a software update for the RIM BlackBerry Bold that will bring several enhancements to the smartphone. Such improvements include the ability to manually choose between a 2G or 3G connection and added support for AT&T's visual voicemail service. In addition, you'll get download icons for MobiTV, Mobile Banking, Tetris, and Scrabble, as well as some other "general handset optimizations."

BlackBerry Bold owners can get the software update several ways. You can download it over the air by going to the Options menu on your device, selecting … Read more

Mobile phones are enough for Japan's Net users

It's no secret that Japan has better mobile phones than the rest of the world. The country has also had access to better phone-based Internet services since the launch of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service all the way back in 1998.

Recent data from japan.internet.com (translated by whatjapanthinks.com) suggests that Japan's mobile phones offer users enough functionality that 49 percent of the respondents to a recent survey say a "mobile phone is enough" when asked what kind of mobile device they would most like to carry.

Mobile phone is enough 49.2 percent Smartphone 22 percent Netbook 16.3 percent Notebook computer 8.9 percent MID/UMPC 0.3 percent Other 0.3 percent Don't want to carry anything 3 percent

In addition to the wealth of services and games, with the character-based typing you really don't need an iPhone or other smartphone unless you need to access corporate e-mail. While this can also be delivered directly to mobile phones, in my experience most companies don't allow access unless it's through a VPN. … Read more

Report: AT&T to require smartphone data plans

AT&T customers buying or upgrading to a smartphone must subscribe to a data plan starting September 6, according to reports.

Existing smartphone customers sans a data plan will be grandfathered in.

Boy Genius Report first noted the change Friday, citing internal e-mails. BusinessWeek and Information Week later confirmed the change with AT&T.

According to Information Week, here is AT&T's statement:

Smartphone users tend to consume a higher amount of data services, like advanced e-mail, mobile Web, applications and more. Being able to take full advantage of these features without having to worry about … Read more

Nokia considers entering Netbook market

Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones, could be preparing to enter the crowded Netbook market.

According to the Economic Times, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told reporters at a press event Wednesday in India, that "the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge." He said Nokia sees a lot of opportunity in this convergence and he added that the company is "looking at the Netbook market to see what kind of opportunity is there."

It shouldn't come as a big surprise that Nokia might push further into the computing … Read more

Palm accepting submissions for App Catalog e-commerce beta program

In preparation for a mid-September launch of the Palm App Catalog e-commerce beta program, Palm announced on Tuesday that it is now accepting applications from developers who want to charge a one-time fee for their WebOS apps.

Developers can actually submit both free and paid applications via e-mail and if accepted into the beta program, they will have the opportunity to have their apps featured in the Palm App Catalog ahead of the next round of releases (speaking of which, when will the next round be, hmm, Palm?) and be among the first to be paid for downloaded apps.

Apps … Read more