Smartphones

I just missed a call from our front desk this morning saying that two representatives from Sprint were downstairs with a package delivery. My first thought? "OMG, the Palm Pre!!"

I ran downstairs, and when our security operator told me they just left to drop the packages off at our loading dock, I bolted out the door to the back of our building and caught up with them. Guess what? It wasn't the Pre.

Instead, I got a little package of fortune cookies and a flash drive filled with press releases on Sprint's service plans, its … Read more

Forget what I told you before about disguising your iPhone; there are alternatives to feeling embarrassed by your mobile phone. Why not buy one that you can be proud of, maybe even one forged from the ashes of Miss Mother Nature herself? Set yourself up with an iWood 3B smartphone and you'll never again miss "all the times you wood rather stab someone in the eye than talk about 3G anything."

The iWood 3B is the perfect complement for the on-the-go professional who knows when it's time to work, when it's time to play, and when it's time to tap on a 3-inch by 4-1/2 half inch piece of Bamboo Plywood. Amazingly, the entire device is crafted from a single block of wood, and it's contoured at a precise 90-degree angle to fit ergonomically in your hand.

Like its current competition, it has all the internal components you now expect out of a full-time device: accelerometer, proximity/light/infrared sensor, and even its own sensor for sensing sensors around your sector. Best of all, the iWood 3B draws all of its power from a rechargeable gyroscopic battery that should last for approximately infinity hours with just one twitch.

What all-in-one (AIO) would be prepared for the masses without its own set of unique applications? Aside from the standard to-do list, calendar, MP3 player, and Web, the iWood also offers its own line of real-world apps that run autonomously off the OS. … Read more

During the past couple of weeks, we've seen pieces of the puzzle falling into place--leaked images and internal memos, FCC approval, a scheduled New York launch event. However, Thursday night, T-Mobile put all the speculation to rest and added the final and definitive piece to the puzzle. The end product? The new T-Mobile Sidekick LX.

Not to be confused with the original Sidekick LX, which it will eventually replace, the Sidekick LX 2009 offers a slimmed-down design and some great new features, including 3G, Flash video support, and Twitter integration.

Current Sidekick owners will get first dibs on the new device. Online presales start now for a price of $199 with a two-year contract. If ordered by April 30, customers will receive their Sidekicks on May 12; if ordered after April 30, the device will be delivered within 7 business days. For everyone else, the Sidekick LX will be available in stores nationwide and online on May 13, but final price had not yet been determined.

To come clean, we actually got a preview of the T-Mobile Sidekick LX at CTIA 2009, but we couldn't say anything because of nondisclosure agreements. However, now that the cat's out of the bag, we can talk about all the features and our first impressions. … Read more

We're not really sure why Verizon Wireless has been so slow to release firmware updates for the buggy RIM BlackBerry Storm, but it looks like help might finally be on the way.

According to PC World, Verizon is set to release an over-the-air firmware update to BlackBerry Storm users over the next couple of weeks. Version 4.7.0.113 fixes a number of issues and adds some new features. In all, there are over 30 bug fixes and about a dozen improvements. We won't list them all here (check out Wireless and Mobile News for a comprehensive … Read more

Sprint, you're a sneaky one. Without much fanfare or, frankly, even a peep, the carrier released a cameraless version of its RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i.

The smartphone is available now for $149.99 with a two-year contract and comes without the 2-megapixel camera for those customers whose workplaces ban the use of camera phones. The rest of the device's feature set is the same as its camera-loving counterpart, so you'll still get support for Nextel's Direct Connect push-to-talk services, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

(Via: Boy Genius Report)

Whenever Dell does unveil its much-hinted-about new handset, it will apparently be taking a nontraditional route to the market, according to an analyst report Monday.

Dell has decided to sell its new product through retailers only, Ashok Kumar of Collins Stewart said. While that's certainly interesting, and in line with Dell's recent record of testing new ways of approaching the market with its products, the reason Kumar gives is far more tantalizing: he says U.S. and European carriers were none too impressed with Dell's effort when the company tried to sign up some wireless partners during a meeting at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.

"The carriers, who see products from all the leading handset vendors, have decided to pass on Dell's handset," he wrote in a research note Monday. "Some carriers are citing a noncompelling product with a road map that lags competition."

Dell hasn't responded to a request for comment. But if Kumar's claims are true, this presents serious problems for Dell. The company already has relationships with some of the major carriers, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, to sell wireless-service plans for its notebooks and Netbooks in the United States and in Europe. Rejecting what will, by its very nature, be a high-profile product from a current business partner doesn't speak very well of the product's competitiveness.

Having been rejected from the major carriers will also handicap the device from the start, since U.S. consumers are conditioned to buying subsidized phones and may balk at paying a full price. But the bigger problem is that there's just not that much market share left to grab, especially without the marketing might of large carriers behind it.

"It's a crowded market. Two years ago, (Dell) may have had an opportunity, but (Research In Motion), Nokia, and Apple have been joined by HTC, Samsung, LG, Palm, Motorola, (and Acer)," Kumar said in an interview. "The market is extremely crowded just as it's slowing down." … Read more

A correction was made to this story. See below for details.

Updated at 2:54 p.m. PDT with with additional information about the volume of NAND chips Apple is reportedly purchasing and its effect on the number of units the company could ship.

Apple has reportedly ordered 100 million units of 8-gigabit and 16-gigabit NAND flash chips, with the bulk of its order coming from its main iPhone chip supplier, Samsung, according to a research report released Monday by a Lazard Capital Markets analyst.

The majority of the sizable order is expected to be applied toward the 16-gigabit NAND, … Read more

Better late than never? Well, we'll leave that up to you to decide, but any Verizon Wireless customers who have been lusting over the HTC Touch Diamond can finally get one of their own.

The carrier announced that the Touch Diamond will be available for purchase starting on Friday, through business channels and online. The unfortunate part? It's going to cost you $299.99 with a two-year contract. A little high, don't you think?

It just doesn't make sense considering 1) the smartphone is nearing its life cycle with the HTC Touch Diamond2 waiting in the … Read more