Cellular-news did a bit of sleuthing on some sort of O1 virtual keyboard phone that projects a laser keyboard on the surface in front of it and was said to have 32 gigabytes of storage. It turns out the magazine that broke the story, T3 – your basic boobs and gadgets lad mag from Europe – owns the O1 website and could essentially be in marketing bed with the scammers who are trying to pass this off as real or, worse, T3 is making its own news. Either way, don’t hold your breath.

Gigaom reported that the N78 is not VoIP compatible and when they asked Nokia why, the company replied:

“Nokia Nseries is committed VoIP services as part of its offering. That is why we have included SIP stack and improved the developer VoIP offering in S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 by enhancing the VoIP APIs to improve the call quality…A Nokia VoIP client is not included with the Nokia N78 and the Nokia N96 and VoIP solutions based on this particular client such as Gizmo will not work. However, Forum Nokia will cooperate with third-party developers to support them in porting their applications from S60 3.0/3.1 releases to S60 3.2. One example is Fring, whose popular application will be offered via Nokia’s Download! service for the Nokia N96.”

The removal of VoIP brings into question Nokia’s new ‘openness’ platform, especially at a time when carriers are starting to explore the possibilities of fixed/mobile convergence, in services like T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home offering.

But before we condemn, we’ll wait and see how Nokia’s ‘commitment’ to VoIP services shakes out.

PhoneArena managed to get their hands on the manual for a new Motorola flip phone heading toward Verizon. Previously only known as the VU30, the handset has now been dubbed “Rapture”. Apparently someone at Motorola or Verizon thinks this phone is in line with the second coming of Jesus Christ. Of course, they could be using one of the other definitions – either way, probably not the smartest word to play etymologist with.

Besides the touch sensitive secondary screen on the face, it’s all pretty standard spec: CDMA/EVDO (Verizon), 2 mp camera, and microSD. If that keypad isn’t as painful to use as it appears to be, the VU30 could be a nice basic flip.

Two more scans over at PhoneArena

$5 Cover will be available online at www.fivedollarcover.com, and on mobile devices. Along with the show, MTV hopes to build its digital empire by offering social networking applications and other digital tools for fans of the show; MySpace and Facebook widgets created for “$5 Cover” will continuously feed related content, including exclusive music performances, video blogs and video tours of popular Memphis juke joints.

Brewer said in an MTV statement:

“Content is now a click away and distribution platforms can fit in the palm of your hand. Everyone in entertainment is trying to figure out what to make for the online ’snacking’ culture and how to craft a successful business model. I think the best any filmmaker or producer can do in this new medium is embrace a frontier spirit, charge in head first, and celebrate what you love…And now people from around the world, at any time of the day, on a multitude of devices, will be able to click and snack in my own backyard with some of the coolest cats this side of the Mississippi River.”

First the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, and now the Treo Pro – it’s starting to look like if you’re aiming to make up for a few years of stale design, you call in HTC to make your handset for you.

Digitimes is reporting that sources at handset vendors have pegged Taiwan’s good ol’ High Tech Computer as the manufacturer of Palm’s pretty little newcomer that leaked all over the place last week. It certainly isn’t the first time HTC has been an ODM for Palm, but it’s the first we’ve heard of it in a while.

YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

Besides being a master lyricist with such classic lines as “Gurl B Double O-T-Y-M-E A T You Know It Dats Dat Bootymeat”, Soulja Boy also happens to be a cell phone aficionado and a super amazing gamer. Knowing this, Danger apparently sent him an otherwise unreleased Xbox 360 themed Sidekick LX, which he in turn filmed and put online. Update: And by that, of course, we mean he installed a widely available theme and pretended it was special.

Looks like Danger might be using their recent Microsoft acquisition to push out yet another limited edition handset. The only differences visible in the video are on the software end of things – a bit of 360 based graphic and sound modifications, and some sort of ancient looking Resident Evil mobile game. Unless somethings going on on the backside, the hardware is all the same — even the mood light LEDs are still blue, rather than the 360’s signature green.

YOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!!

Click here to check out the full video.

[Via EngadgetMobile]

Pic via MobileBurn.com

With a notable chunk of the mobile market being made up of IM-addicted hooligans, a solid AIM application is pretty much an absolute must for any platform. It’s somewhere that Windows Mobile has been lagging behind for years – while there are plenty of AIM offerings for the devices, the vast majority look and run like they were designed for Windows 3.1x rather than any modern UI.

Realizing this, AIM has spent the last few months cranking away at their new official WinMo offering and is finally ready to remove the “beta” subtitle. The download is pretty big, according to MobileBurn, the application itself gobbles up the bandwidth. After you’ve checked to make sure you’re not paying by the kilobyte, grab the new client by pointing your handset at http://wap.aol.com/

PhoneArena’s got the scoop on LG’s newest all-in-one multimedia endeavor, which will be known as the LG KC910 until someone gets around to rebranding it.

Skipping the obvious aesthetic comparison to that other touchscreen handset, we’ll go ahead and get to the marrow of the story: this one’s a friggin’ beast. Check out these specs:

• 8 mp shooter w/ Xenon flash and Schneider-Kreuznach
• 30 FPS video recording at 640×480, 60 FPS at 320×240
• Internal GPS w/ Geotagging
• Dolby Audio
• Divx/Xvid support
• Manual Focus
• Smile, focus, face detection, Image stabilization
• Quad-band GSM, HSDPA 7.2 mbps
• Bluetooth 2.0
• WiFi
• MicroSD up to 8GB
• 3″ touchscreen, 240×400
• TV out support

The resolution of the screen is a bit paltry compared to the competition (320×480 on the iPhone, 432×240 on the Instinct), but it seems to have everything else covered while cramming it all into a 14mm thick shell. As long as they can manage to not screw up things on the software-side of things, I look forward to poking and prodding at this one. We know that the LG KC910 should hit sometime in October of ‘08, but no pricing or other information is available.

Aching to try out the Skyfire browser, but just can’t seem to find a way into the beta?

In order to get the word out there about the recently added Silverlight support , Skyfire has decided to open up the doors to everyone for the next 8 days.

On the eve of the Olympics, we added Silverlight support to Skyfire, meaning that Skyfire users can watch any ofthe 2200+ hours of Olympics coverage provided by NBC on their mobile phones. To celebrate Michael Phelps’s monumental accomplishment of winning 8 Gold metals in a single Olympic games, today we have released a special code “Michael8” which will give new users access to Skyfire and the games (and the full PC web). Spread the code “Michael8” to your friends and let them part take in these historic games on the go.

If you’re rockin’ a WinMo or Symbian handset, head on over to the Skyfire Beta Sign-up page and punch in the code for the download. If your friends ask, tell them you’ve been in the beta since day one.

[Via GearDiary]

Sometimes, the FCC can be an outlet for the most interesting of goods. Other times, the only things they have to share are things like the Nokia 2680 slider phone.

There’s nothing wrong with the Nokia 2680 – baseline handsets are a key product for the huge chunk of the market that isn’t completely obsessed with their phone. Hell, we wouldn’t even make fun of you if you bought it. I mean, how could we? With a presumably low-end camera, music player, and FM radio built right in, you’d be the talk of town when you picked up the kids from soccer camp in your mini-van.

Expect to slide out of AT&T with a Nokia 2680 for about $115 bucks sans-contract.

[Via IntoMobile]

(Sort of) Good news, everyone! Sprint has decided to cut prices on their phone-as-modem tethering plans, taking it from $50 dollars per month down to $15. Of course, there’s a bit of a catch.

With the change, tethering has become an add-on rather than a stand-alone option. First you’ve gotta rock a separate data plan, which will set you back somewhere between 30 to 70 bucks a month depending on which plan you need. So when all is said and none, it’s not so much a price cut as it is an adjustment of the bottom line; what once cost $50 now costs $45-$85 dollars. Of course, many people are already paying for these separate data plans anyways, which oughtta make the $35 dollar discount welcome.

What say you, tetherers of the internets? I’ve always relied on unofficial means for my tethering needs, so I can’t really weigh in — does this little switch-up work in your favor?

[Current Analysis via RCRNews]

Bam! Just 3 days after its release, the 2.0.2 firmware update has been made safe for jailbreak lovers by the always prompt iPhone dev team.

It’s a Quickpwn, meaning they’ve taken a lot of the cludge out of the process to speed things up. However, it also means that it won’t update (or unlock) your iPhone/iTouch – just jailbreak it. It’s up to you to update your handset via iTunes before “pwning” it. It’s Windows only for now, but an OS X version is on the way.

All the normal disclaimers of course: stuff like this goes awry some times, so be careful and don’t cry to us if your iPhone bursts into flames.

Download it here

Larry Shapiro, executive VP of business development and operations for Disney’s Internet Group, estimated that more than 50% of U.S. 10-year-olds have cell phones and Disney wants to “own” them.

Yikes.

Disney’s mobile plan this round is to port many of its Disney.com offerings to mobile phones, including a digital storefront for purchasing Disney games, ringtones and wallpapers, as well as its Speed Chat messaging system which will allow users to IM mobile-to-mobile, mobile-to-PC and PC-to-mobile. Offerings should start being announced in the fall, with Disney working on more applications that will combine its online and mobile worlds to follow.

And going beyond even the tween market, Disney said its also looking into making mobile applications for preschoolers.

Hah! Just when we were starting to think today might be a slow news day, word came in on this little gem: bedazller jeweler Knalihs Anthem has studded out 50 iPhone 3G handsets with 475 diamonds each, and wants to sell you one.

How much, you ask? If you manage to nab one of the first 10, you’ll walk away with it for a paltry $10,000. Jeez! That’s less than I pay my butlers per quarter on my private island! After the first 10 are gone, the price will start ticking upwards.

I’m going to go cry now.

[Via Bornrich]

Devinder Kishore, Nokia India’s marketing director, confirmed that the company has been working on

“the Series 60 platform for touchscreen user interface, and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end.”

Though Kishore didn’t mention any specific handsets, its assumed he’s referring to the Xpress 5800, called the Tube. While the handset maker has already admitted such a phone is in the works, the company hasn’t said when it will be available. And while photos of the Tube have been circulating, not has been made official in the way of features.

ZTE’s slick C79 clamshell is now available from MetroPCS. The C79 features AWS, 60 MB of internal memory, MP3 player with external music keys, a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and picture messaging.

The handset is available now, with no contract for $169.

Move’s suggested uses for streaming TV to MIDs include:

“a sports fan could view a live football game in high definition while lying on the beach, a teenager could catch the latest episode of her favorite drama while being driven to school, and a business executive could watch live financial news while shopping for groceries at her local supermarket.”

John Edwards, Move Networks CEO, said:

“High definition, high quality Internet television delivered to people wherever they want, whenever they want, on the viewing devices they want—that is Move Networks’ vision of the future. And, with our support for the Intel MID platform, we move one step closer to realizing this vision.”

This one has been hanging out in the rumor mill for a few weeks now, but now Sony Ericsson’s gone and made the official announcement.

Just in time for the 3G rollout, the TM506 flip is Sony Ericsson’s first handset to support T-Mobile’s high-speed offerings on the AWS spectrum (1700/2100). Also packed beneath its shiny shell (offered in Chrome/Amber or Emerald) are a 2 mp camera, aGPS, and Bluetooth 2.0 w/ A2DP support. No word yet how much change this one will set you back, but look for it at all the normal T-mo outlets in early September.

Full specs after the jump

Scott Ahn, president of LG’s mobile communications division, told the Financial Times: “We want to become a firm top-three player by 2010 and become number one eventually.”

LG has been steadily gaining on its larger rivals, overtaking Samsung earlier this year for the second largest slice of the U.S. mobile phone market. And as Motorola’s market share, still tops in the U.S., declines on the world’s stage, analysts predict LG could overtake the flagging U.S. handset maker later this year, becoming the third largest handset maker worldwide.

Though Ahn stressed that LG would avoid starting a price war and instead pursue “value competition.”

Via Financial Times

Just yesterday, the mobile video search and delivery service Blueapple.mobi announced that they had reidentified themselves as Vuclip.com after a year and a half of developing under the radar. Unlike most video delivery services which pre-encode and store a library of videos for each handset’s required format and resolution, Vuclip transcodes videos from a number of popular video sharing sites on-the-fly, beaming it straight to your handset in a format that it can handle.

I had the opportunity to sit and chat with Vuclip’s CEO, Nickhil Jakatdar, about their recent shift out of the stealth space, their name change, and the future of the service. I’ve transcribed the Q&A session below:

So, what is Vuclip?

Vuclip is a mobile video search and delivery service. Basically what any consumer can do is go to the browser on their phone and, without downloading any application or client, they can go to Vuclip.com, click in the search terms they are looking for, and play those videos.

A big part of your coming out of stealth is the name change, which also involves a top-level domain change. You were blueapple.mobi, now you’re Vuclip.com. Why the changes?

The primary reason for the name change is the fact that when we launched [Blueapple] about a year and a half back, we felt like the dotmobi domain would take off. We were unable to get the blueapple.com. What we ended up finding is that the dotmobi domain is very awkward for many people to remember. By default, they would go to blueapple.com, and that ended up being a squatter site. Whoever was squatting on it realized that Blueapple was doing pretty well, so they made themselves look like our video search. We ended up seeing a lot of leakage that would go there, believe that that was us, and wonder what was so good about it.

So, we felt that we needed a .com, and since Blueapple was unavailable, we tried to find a name that was indicative of what we do.

Read the rest of this entry..