CTIA show

Nokia Messaging comes to the Nokia 5800 in May

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

In conjunction with the Web 2.0 Expo and shown in action at CTIA 2009, Nokia announced that it has added Windows Live Hotmail support to Nokia Messaging.

Nokia Messaging is a free, downloadable application that lets you access up to 10 personal e-mail accounts on a Nokia device, all of which organized under a single icon. The app also supports Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL Mail, among others.

In addition, the Hotmail integration, the company also said it will add Nokia Messaging support to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic starting in May. Currently, the app is available on 20 Nokia models worldwide, including the Nokia E71, Nokia E65, and Nokia N79, and will work on the upcoming Nokia E55, Nokia N97, and Nokia N86 8MP.

(Credit: DataViz)

DataViz announced on Thursday that it is now offering Documents to Go Standard Edition version 1.0 and a beta version of RoadSync through the Android Market. The two applications will give T-Mobile G1 and HTC Magic owners the capability, for the first time, to work with Microsoft Office documents and get support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

Documents to Go has long been available for Windows Mobile and Palm devices, but now Android users can finally have the capability of viewing, editing, and creating Word and Excel documents through the productivity suite. The suite's editing capabilities are vast, including support for track-changes, multiple zoom levels, bold, italics, underline, bulleted and numbered lists, embedded pictures, insert and delete rows and columns, cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, save, and save as. You'll be able to use your smartphone's touch screen, trackball, and keypad to perform such tasks.

The app supports native Word and Excel files from Microsoft Office 97, 2000, X, XP, 2003, and 2007 for Windows (and 98, 2001, 2004, and 2008 for Macs), and files can be opened whether they are transferred via Bluetooth, USB, memory cards, or as an e-mail attachment.

More good news for the corporate set is the availability of RoadSync. Though available only in beta right now, the app finally brings direct push synchronization with Exchange Server 2003 and 2007, and the beta supports push e-mail, attachments, and contacts.

Both applications are available now through the Android Market. Documents to Go Standard Edition will be offered for a special introductory price of $19.99 (regularly $29.99), while RoadSync beta is available as a free download until May 31, 2009.

Those are not my hands.

(Credit: Bonnie Cha/CNET)

OK, I know I just got done gushing about the third-party apps on the Palm Pre, and I didn't want to take anything away from that, but there's something I need to get off my chest.

Sprint, Palm, what is the deal with not being able to hold and use the Pre with my own two hands? At CES, GSMA 2009, and now CTIA, the companies have required that a Palm or Sprint representative have at least one hand on the smartphone at all times even when we're just trying to take pictures, and we're not allowed to touch certain functionalities, and I just don't get it. What's the purpose? Who is it benefiting?

If you're worried that you'll get knocked for bugginess, I think most of us understand that the Pre isn't final product and that there will be some hiccups. If you're worried about it being swiped from the show floor, I can understand, but in situations like the Sprint VIP Lounge where it's a select group of people, in a small room where you've got people stationed at the exit, don't you think it'd be OK for a little solo hands-on time? I mean, I couldn't even reposition the phone by myself today just to get a better angle for a photo.

Hey, I appreciate every opportunity and invitation to view the Pre, but it's just frustrating to have this hot device right in front of you and yet, you really can't do anything with it. It's And every time this happens, I can't help but think of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers' "Really!?!" skit from "Saturday Night Live" and play out my own little scenario in my head. Really? You won't let me touch the Palm Pre? Really!?! I have to be Jimmy Fallon in order to get a little personal with the Pre? Really?! It's just for my amusement, but it helps lighten the situation.

OK, rant over. Now back to your regular CTIA programming.

Palm Pre at CTIA 2009--photos

While we didn't get the release date or pricing of the Palm Pre at CTIA 2009, we did learn a few new things about the smartphone, which is better than nothing, we suppose.

Fandango on the Palm Pre

(Credit: Bonnie Cha/CNET)

The first bit of news actually came out of the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco where Palm announced that it's ready to release the Mojo SDK to developers so they can create apps for the Pre and Palm WebOS.

Back here in Las Vegas, Sprint and Palm hosted a VIP Lounge where invitees could kick back and check out the Pre in a more intimate setting, away from the masses. I stopped by the lounge, and we were disappointed to learn that there's still a "look, but don't touch" policy (more on this later), but we were happy to see that they were demoing a number of third-party apps on the smartphone, which we really haven't seen before.

The first app I saw was Fandango. The movie ticket site was announced as a partner back when the Pre made its debut at CES 2009, but we finally got to see how it would work on the smartphone, and I've got to say, it's pretty sleek. You can view trailers, check show times, and buy tickets through the Fandango app. If you buy tickets, the Pre will even create a calendar entry to remind you about the show.

Next up was FlightView. This is a real-time flight-tracking app that's designed to make it easier for you to know the status of a friend's or family member's flight. It lets you view in-air maps, receive status notifications, and also offers Calendar integration. FlightView will also use the smartphone's GPS to find the nearest airport to your location

Perhaps the most exciting app for me was Pandora. I love music, and Pandora's introduced me to some great new artists, so it's wonderful to see the integration of the Internet radio service on the Pre. Even better, you can run Pandora in the background while using other applications and without having to go back to the dedicated app, you can use the notification bar along the bottom of the screen to check out what's currently playing and perform some basic functions (e.g., stop/pause, next track).

Last but not least, we got to see a couple of Sprint's services demoed on the Pre, namely Sprint TV and Nascar Sprint Mobile app. The latter lets you get live race audio, keep tabs on your favorite drivers, and receive alerts on their latest results, and so forth. Sprint TV, of course, allows you to access to programming from a variety of channels, including CNN, Comedy Central, Sprint Exclusive Entertainment. The video playback on Sprint TV wasn't all that great. Picture quality was choppy and at one point, there was a couple-second stall in playback. However, to be fair, we've seen this on other Sprint TV-enabled smartphones and cell phones.

In general, I was impressed with what I saw. There were, of course, some hiccups, but everything's still in beta stage and I understand there are issues to be resolved, so I'm not going to pass final judgment. The bigger picture is that the smartphone offers great multi-tasking capabilities, and this is where I think the Palm Pre trumps the iPhone. Being able to run and interact with Pandora while working in another application is just a great example of the Pre's multitasking capabilities. Well played, Palm, well played. Check out photos of the apps and more beauty shots of the Palm Pre above.

LG's big CTIA news was the introduction of the LG Xenon and Neon for AT&T, and Nicole Lee's all over the messaging phones with hands-on impressions and photos.

LG-GM730

(Credit: LG)

However, I wandered over to the LG booth myself (actually, I crashed Nicole's one-on-one meeting), because I wanted to find out what the company's plans are for bringing more smartphones to the United States.

As you might remember, LG announced at GSMA 2009 that it has committed to the Windows Mobile operating system for its smartphones, intends to increase the number of Windows phones available in 2009 tenfold, and bring up to 26 new devices in 2012.

It even announced the LG-GM730 to kick-start the mission. That said, it was a little unclear whether this would extend to U.S. shores. Well, there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that there are no current plans to bring the GM730 Stateside, nor are there any new releases scheduled for the near future.

However, LG said it recognizes that more and more customers are wanting smartphones, so there's a big push internally to move in that direction, and we should see new models toward the end of 2009/early 2010. Obviously not ideal, considering that's still a ways away, but at least we know they're coming. Currently, the LG Incite is the only LG smartphone available with a U.S. carrier.

HTC Snap

(Credit: HTC )

The Nokia E71x, the LG Neon, the Samsung Magnet--seems like messaging phones are all the rage at CTIA 2009 and now you can add another one to the list. The HTC Snap.

HTC kicked off the show Wednesday morning by introducing the Snap, its newest QWERTY device. We haven't seen one in this form factor from the smartphone manufacturer in a while (think back to the T-Mobile Dash) and given the design, it's no surprise that the handset is optimized for e-mail and messaging.

In fact, HTC thinks e-mail is so important it has created a new feature called Inner Circle that prioritizes your e-mails based on your preferences. By pressing the dedicated Inner Circle button, the HTC Snap will bring e-mails from a preselected group of people to the top of your in-box so you can read and reply to them immediately.

The new functionality was created in response to a Harris Interactive study that found 44 percent of U.S. adults are overwhelmed by the amount of e-mail they receive, and 55 percent of U.S. adults prioritize five or fewer people with whom they communicate via e-mail.

The HTC Snap offers Microsoft Direct Push Technology for real-time e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via Exchange Server as well as support for POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts. The smartphone's full QWERTY keyboard also features "extra-large domed keys" to provide for a better typing experience.

Moving beyond messaging, the Snap will run Windows Mobile 6.1 and comes with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, 256MB ROM/192MB RAM, a microSD/SDHC expansion slot, and 2-megapixel camera/camcorder. The smartphone measures 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.4 inch deep and has a 2.4-inch QVGA nontouch display.

The HTC Snap is expected to be available in select channels during the second quarter of 2009 and will be rolled out worldwide during the second half of the year. Here in the States, we'll get our on own version of the Snap, called the HTC S522, this summer and it will support AT&T's 850/1900MHz HSDPA bands, though it'll be sold unlocked and not through the carrier. Pricing was not revealed at this time.

We hope to get a better look at the HTC Snap during the MobileFocus event on Wednesday night, so check back for some hands-on photos and video. In the meantime, you can check out some images of the smartphone below.

HTC Snap photos

In addition to the Samsung Mondi and Instinct s30, Samsung announced its plans to add mobile-connected applications to future TouchWiz cell phones and smartphones at CTIA 2009.

The company said it has been working with Yahoo, Google, and AccuWeather.com to bring one-touch access to Yahoo OneSearch, Google search, and worldwide weather information right from the home screen of your mobile.

The new apps will come preloaded on select TouchWiz devices and will be available through the widget tray, such as the one found on the Samsung Omnia. However, it doesn't stop there.

Samsung said it will release an SDK (software development kit) next month to professional developers so they can create and submit their own mobile applications to sell through the Samsung Rich Connected Application storefront.

In addition, Samsung will offer a Web-based tool for casual users and hobbyists to create their own widgets, and service providers will have the opportunity to add carrier-specific services to the TouchWiz widget tray. Current widgets include messaging, calendar, games, music player, clock, and alarm clock.

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

By now, you've probably heard that Samsung revealed the Samsung Mondi and Samsung Instinct s30 during a press conference on Tuesday night, one day before the official start of CTIA 2009. At the end of the event, there was a Q&A session and one of the questions that came up was the status of Samsung's Google Android devices.

Unfortunately, the company didn't have much to say, other than what we already know. (Hey, I'm just passing along the message, so don't shoot me, OK?) Samsung said it is absolutely committed to the Open Handset Alliance but it's company procedure not to talk about any specific products until closer to launch, blah, blah, blah. Samsung did emphasize that there are no delays and that it's on track to release its Android devices during the second half of 2009.

Getting a jump-start on CTIA 2009, AT&T Wireless announced on Sunday night the upcoming availability of two messaging-centric smartphones: the Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro.

The two devices are expected to be in stores and online in the coming weeks, joining the carrier's four other new releases, the Samsung Impression, the Samsung Magnet, the LG Neon, and the LG Xenon.

The Nokia E71x has long been rumored for AT&T and is largely like the unlocked Nokia E71, which we reviewed in July.

The AT&T version comes in a sleek black and is currently the thinnest QWERTY smartphone on the market. The GPS-enabled device is compatible with AT&T Navigator for turn-by-turn directions, and it features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, HSDPA support, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The E71x comes with a very attractive price tag of $99.99, with a two-year contract and after discounts and rebates.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Propel Pro beefs up the offerings of the Samsung Propel with the addition of Windows Mobile 6.1. The slider phone comes in a cool silver-and-chrome color and also features a full QWERTY keyboard. It also has integrated Wi-Fi connectivity and a 3-megapixel camera.

The Propel Pro will be available on April 1 for $149.99 with the standard contracts and rebates.