Pre Hits 300,000 Sales In June, Dwarfs Palm's Previous Totals

We'll see plenty of "Pre sells X units in Y amount of time; not as many as iPhone" stories in the next year—in fact, we already have. That may be the wrong way to look at it.

Charter Equity Reasearch is now saying that Palm has pushed over 300k Pres into sales channels in June alone, setting them on a pace to sell a million units in the first quarter. Set in the context of the iPhone 3G and 3GS's million-in-a-weekend sales pace, this doesn't sound like a ton. Set in the more meaningful context of Palm's sales last quarter, it's huge. As John Paczkowsk ipoints out, the company sold just 351,000 phones total in the quarter preceding the launch of the Pre.

Palm may be waiting to release official numbers until supply issues are sorted out and they can claim a more flattering number, but this right here? Pretty impressive. If there was any lingering doubt that a single phone could salvage this ailing company (and assuming these numbers are right), it's gone now.

All credits and information was found by gizmodo.

Europe Gets Handset Makers to Agree to Universal Charger

Nokia, Motorola, Research in Motion, Apple (yes, even Apple) and six other cell phone makers have agreed to a European Commission request to develop a universal charger. The agreement was announced today by the the EC. The new handsets will use Micro-USB connectors, and will be available in Europe beginning next year. The GSM Association had been working on a similar effort todeliver a universal charger by 2012.

Importantly, only data-enabled phones will be able to accept the universal charger, since those are the phones that currently contain Micro-USB ports. While the Micro-USB standard may be replaced by a different one someday, for now having a universal charger will make it easier to replenish phones while on the road. As for reducing waste, I’m less certain that will happen unless cell phone providers stop including a charger with each phone. The EC hopes that the universal charger will spread beyond its borders, which is likely to happen given that the powerful GSM Association is also in favor of such a standard, but perhaps not by 2010.

Our friend at jkOnTheRun are wondering if this standard will make its way to the US? I certainly hope so.

All credits and information was found by gigaom.

Wired’s Smart Guide: Know Your Smartphones

Not long ago the best smartphone you could buy was the iPhone. No contest. The uncanny combo of beautiful chassis, intelligent OS, super responsive touchscreen, and app store was unparalleled. There was no device on the market that came remotely close to touching the Jesus phone’s near mythical marriage of hardware and software.

Them days is over.

Now each major U.S. carrier has a device that can legitimately compete with the iphone. To help you make sense of it, we took three major upstarts and stacked them up against the great white hype from Cupertino.Sprint with its Pre, T-mobile with its G1, and Verison with its Storm. So have a gander at how the specs from these four devices compare to one another. Think of it as a way to cut through a lot of the dumb hype that clouds these smartphones.

* Price is with a two-year contract

** Includes voice, text and data

*** Includes price of plan and cost of phone. Does not include taxes, activation charges or overage fees.

All credits and information was found by wired.

Sony Ericsson T715 slider coming in Q3 2009

There’s nothing extraordinarily fancy about Sony Ericsson’s newly announced T715, but it should handle everything you could possibly throw at it — as long as you don’t need a QWERTY keyboard or a proper smartphone. The new slider features a 2.2-inch QVGA screen that SE claims will be visible in direct sunlight (pretty nifty if it actually works). Slap on a capable 3.2 megapixel shooter, Google Maps, AccuWeather and Microsoft Exchange support and you have yourself the winner of just-above-averageness. Best of all, it will be available in European and American versions with 3G support for both. Woo hoo! Q3 of this year is as close as we have to a release date for the time being — anyone looking forward to it?

All credits and information was found by boygeniusreport.

Samsung Smartphones Take On iPhones, BlackBerrys

"Samsung Electronics has emerged as a power providing credible challenges to the mobile-phone king Nokia. But when it comes to smartphones, the South Korean giant is a minnow. While Apple (AAPL) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) are setting new trends in the fast-growing segment of the global handset market, Samsung has had a hard time trying to grab consumer attention."

All credits and information was found by mobiletechnews.

Solar Cell Phone Is Earth Friendly, Dirt Cheap

You don’t generally expect much from a cell phone that costs less than sixty bucks, and with the Samsung E1107, you don’t get much. It’s got a 128 x 128 display, an FM radio, and a built-in flashlight. The reason that you’d buy it is the solar panel the takes up the entire back of the phone, promising up to 10 minutes of call time per hour in the sun. While not the most efficient way of charging your phone, it’s a million times better than an iPhone 3GS at out of power performance, and at least gives you an option for mobile charging.

The other reason to get this phone is that it’s good for the Earth: it helps reduce global warming. Not in the way you’re thinking, that would be too obvious. No, I’m talking about how having a solar panel out in the sun absorbs photons, preventing them from imparting their horrible energy into the ground and making everything just a little bit cooler. If everybody was using solar powered cell phones, not only would we be saving energy charging them, but charging them would actually cool the planet by some fraction of a degree that I’m just going to go ahead and call significant and important! Yay solar power!

So far, the E1107 is available pretty much everywhere except the US. Why must they taunt us so?

All credits and information was found by ohgizmo.

Palm Pre Can Now be Upgraded to WebOS 1.0.3

WebOS 1.0.3 updates is available now, with changes to the Google contact sync, calendar and emails. The updates file can be done over-the-air from your Palm Pre, a 13 MB file will need to be downloaded before you proceed with the process. Check out the change log inside.

Feature changes to existing applications

Calendar

• Events created in your Google calendar – either in Calendar on your phone or in Google online – that contain a symbol or accented character in the event name can now synchronize. Previously, including a symbol or accented character in an event name prevented the event from synchronizing.
• Changes made to Google events on the phone now sync with Google online within a few minutes.
• The sync interval for Google events has been decreased from every few hours to every 15 minutes.

Clock

• If you create a weekday alarm on a weekend, the alarm sounds only on weekdays. Previously the alarm would sound on the weekend also.

Contacts

• Changes made to Google contacts on the phone now sync with Google online within a few minutes.
• The sync interval for Google contacts has been decreased from every few hours to every 15 minutes.

Email

• Power performance in areas where wireless coverage is sporadic or unavailable has been enhanced.
• Non-SSL Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) mail servers are now supported.

Other

• Miscellaneous updates for Email, Phone, and other applications.

All credits and information was found by slashphone.

Sony Ericsson c510

The Sony Ericsson c510 is currently shipping to retail location and should be up for sale in the coming days. Featuring a 3.2MP camera, a high resolution 2.2″ screen, built in accelerometer, 1 GB memory included (supports up to 8GB memory stick micro (M2)-the c510 will be able to take advantage of the 7.2Mbps download speed on Canada’s Fastest Network.

$79.99-3 year term

Blockberry 9500 Endorsed By Obama Unofficially

Why unofficially? Well, unless President Obama of the USA has put pen to paper for the new Blockberry 9500, this is but a blatant ripoff from the hype Mr. President drummed up when he was pretty unwilling to part with this beloved BlackBerry after he was sworn into the White House. The poster even has the audacity to trump the following - ” Obama have Blackberry, I have blockberry”. Interestingly enough, the Blockberry 9500 will be powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 instead of the Blockberry OS - er, we meant BlackBerry. Apart from that, you get a 460MHZ proccessor, 3.2" touchscreen display, W-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, SiRFStar III GPS chipset as well as support for 3G and EDGE networks.

All credits and information was found by ubergizmo.

RIM Introduces the BlackBerry Tour Smartphone

Research In Motion (RIM) today has introduced the BlackBerry Tour, featuring both EV-DO Rev. A, UMTS/HSPA (2100Mhz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM supported networks so that you can use it in any places.

The BlackBerry Tour is in a chic black finish with chrome highlights surrounding its body design (112mm x 62mm x 14.2mm and 130g). It also includes a full-QWERTY keyboard, 2.44-inch display with 480 x 360 resolution, full HTML web browser and 3.2 megapixel camera. The camera module seems to be a better one with flash LED, image stabilization and auto focusing.

For those business users who need some entertainment on the road, the BlackBerry Tour has a 3.5mm headset jack and support the Bluetooth Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP) for wireless music listening. Other than the 256MB flash memory, its microSD/SDHC card slot will allow up to 16GB microSDHC memory card for your file storage.

The BlackBerry Tour smartphone (model number: 9630) is expected to be available this summer from carriers in North America.

All credits and information was found by slashphone.

Sony Ericsson push mobile media with Pocket TV

Sony Ericsson have announced their latest attempt to push media onto mobile devices, with the launch of their Pocket TV show. Rather than offering third-party content, Pocket TV is a series of regular, self-commissioned shows available through Sony Ericsson’s WAP site, pockettvshow.mobi, as well as on You Tube.

The shows are intended to promote bite-sized mobile entertainment, a focus for the company’s recent multimedia-friendly devices Satio and Aino. Each fifteen minute show is broken down into five, 90-second segments available for mobile download, and each works as a standalone clip that can be viewed and forwarded.

The first shows have featured Marilyn Manson, The Veronicas, Face Invaders and Paloma Faith, and more media and citizen journalism is promised. Whether users will be willing to use their data allowances to pay for video downloads remains to be seen; having checked out the YouTube content, would you be interested in accessing this on your cellphone? Let us know in the comments.

All credits and information was found by slashphone.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Touch Screen Music Phone Unveiled

Finnish phone maker Nokia today debuted the 5530 XpressMusic, a new touch screen device that follows its successful 5800 smartphone.

The company said the 5530 XpressMusic touch screen smartphone uses a scrolling 'people carousel' to view up to 20 friends' emails, phone calls, photos and social media updates.

The handset also features a pop-up Media Bar to quickly access music, photos, videos, Internet and on-line sharing applications such as Ovi Share, Flickr and VOX.

Videos from social media sites such as Youtube and Facebook can be viewed on its 2.9-inch widescreen display.

The smartphone has a built-in music player with 27 hours of playback time and a 4GB memory card. Users can buy new music from Nokia Music Store.

Nokia said the 5530 XpressMusic will start shipping in the third quarter and sell for $280 before subsidies and taxes.

All credits and information was found by mobiledia.

Sprint offering HTC Snap starting on June 21

Yesterday Sprint confirmed that it will begin selling its own version of the HTC Snap smartphone starting on June 21. The Snap is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition powered device that features an offset full QWERTY keyboard, a QVGA resolution display set in a landscape orientation, and support for Sprint's high-speed 3G EV-DO network.

Unlike the GSM/UMTS version of the HTC Snap, however, the Sprint version, officially known as the S511, features a conventional d-pad controller instead of a BlackBerry-like trackball. The layout of the control cluster has also changed, and the QWERTY keyboard, while still offering offset keys, features a very different look.

The HTC S511 Snap for Sprint will be available for US$150 after rebates when purchased with a new two-year agreement. BestBuy.com is also offering the device for US$519 contract-free.

All credits and information was found by mobileburn.

Motorola Rival has Backlit QWERTY Keypad, Comes to Verizon

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless provider, today unveiled the Motorola Rival, a messaging device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that lights up keys according to usage.

The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based carrier said the Rival has a 2.2-inch screen and a backlit QWERTY keyboard that lights up either red or green depending on entry mode.

The handset offers IM-style texting that organizes messages by contact and displays them in a chat-like view. It also has one-touch access to text message composition, emoticons, symbols, IM and email.

The Rival has Verizon applications such as VCAST Music with Rhapsody for song downloads, VZ Navigator for turn-by-turn directions and Visual Voice Mail to organize voice mail messages without having to listen.

Additional features include a 2.0-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack and up to 8GB optional removable memory (microSD card is sold separately).

The Exilim costs $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

All credits and information was found by mobiledia.

Sony Ericsson Xperia 2 Shows Up in Silver

We’ve seen the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) “Vulcan”dressed up in black and even got a decent look at the specs, but now we’ve got a few more shots of the X2 in a silver colour scheme. Nothing in the way of new info, but a new paint job and fresh eye candy is always welcome. For those unfamiliar, here’s the low-down:

• 8.1-megapixel camera with auto focus, video recording in VGA resolution @ 30fps (MP4 HQ)
• 3.5-inch WVGA OLED (increased from 3.0-inches on the X1)
• GPS, aGPS
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Accelerometer
• Faster processor
• 512MB RAM
• Custom Windows Mobile 6.5 (SE engineers customized Win6.5 which runs very. very speedy. on par with iPhone and better in some cases)
• XPERIA Panels are modified with plenty of innovative features (PS3 remote play being one of them)
• Upgrading to Windows Mobile 7 is supported by Xperia panels

All credits and information was found by intomobile.

Apple iPhone 3G S Launches for AT&T on June 19

Apple will start selling the iPhone 3G S, a new version of its iPhone, on June 19 and slash the retail price of its least expensive iPhone 3G model, which came out last year, in half.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said the new iPhone 3G S will come with a faster processor, longer battery life, an internal compass, voice control features and an improved 3.0-megapixel auto-focus camera with video recording capabilities.

It will also run Apple's new iPhone OS 3.0 software and have the ability to cut, copy and paste text, and "tether" to connect a computer to the Internet. However, AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier of the iPhone, said it will disable tethering.

The new operating software, available for download June 17, lets software developers sell additional content, like electronic books or extra levels to a video game, within applications.

"The iPhone 3G S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet and we think people will love the incredible new features including autofocus camera, video recording and the freedom of voice control," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of WorldWide Product Marketing.

The iPhone 3G S will hit AT&T stores on June 19 costing $199 for a 16GB version and $299 for a 32GB version.

The 8GB iPhone 3G, which came out last year, now costs $99, instead of $199.

All credits and information was found by mobiledia.

Rumor: Next Samsung Omnia Called Samsung i8000?

With the previous Samsung i8910 Omnia HD running Symbian OS, the original Samsung Omnia is said to have a successor called Samsung i8000 or Samsung Omnia2. The new Samsung i8000 does have impressive features. It gets a 8.1 megapixel camera, dual flash LED, 30fps VGA video recording, 3.7-inch AMOLED touch screen and WVGA screen resolution. The user interface will not get a fresh design. It will still come with the TouchWiz UI, with probably more widgets at the sidebar.

The source at mobil.it mentioned that the AMOLED touch screen will support 16 million colors, though it is known that Windows Mobile can only do 65k colors? The next Samsung press event is coming up on June 15th, that should be the possible official announcement date for this i8000.

All credits and information was found by slashphone.

Rumor: The Latest iPhone 2009 Spy Photo

With the new iPhone 2009 announced on Monday tomorrow, here is the latest spy photo of the new addition, with minimal changes you could find on the blur photo. Although there might not be a brand new design for the iPhone 2009, the new iPhone is surely prepared itself for more market shares. Other than the initial 8GB, 16GB and 32GB options, a much cheaper 4GB version will be available in a later date, according to a leaked photo of Fido line up. The iPhone 2009 might be called iPhone Video, and it will have a secondary camera for video call. SlashGear will be doing a live report on the 2009 WWDC event, make sure you join the live coverage at 10am PT (1PM ET) at http://live.slashgear.com/

All credits and information was found by slashphone.

Sony Ericsson Unveils C901 and Naite 'Greener' Phones

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson today unveiled the C901 GreenHeart and Naite eco-friendly handsets, as the company pushes towards greener features in the next two years.

The joint venture between Japan's Sony and Sweden's Ericsson said the new models will use at least 50 percent recycled plastics and use an optimized display light sensor that consumes less energy.

Additionally, the C901 GreenHeart will be colored with waterborne paint that lowers exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).

They will also be sold in smaller packages that decreases transport related CO2 emissions by 80 percent and have electronic user manuals that reduces paper usage by 90 percent.

The C901 GreenHeart will also include a WalkMate application to let users compare the steps they take with the equivalent journey traveled by car.

The Naite will include an Ecomate application to help consumers make greener choices and a Carbon Footprint Calculator to show how much CO2 they save when walking instead of taking the car.

"Today we are announcing a commitment to roll out these innovations across the broader portfolio in 2010 and 2011," said Hideki Komiyama, Sony Ericsson's Chief Executive.

Sony Ericsson said on it targets a cut of 20 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions by 2015.

The C901 GreenHeart will be available in selected markets in the second quarter. The Naite will be launched in the third quarter.

All credits and information was found by mobiledia.

Sorenson Media Announces More Licensing Partners

Looking to add video functionality to mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, Sorenson Media today announced a significant expansion of its Sorenson Spark licensing program. As part of its announcement, Sorenson Media named new licensing partners for its Sorenson Spark video decoder. Ittiam and NXP Semiconductors are among the latest companies to license Sorenson Spark from Sorenson Media - joining Qualcomm, Verison, Sony, YouTube and numerous others.

“The Sorenson Spark decoder has become ubiquitous in the embedded space,” said Shantanu Jha, vice president media processing at Ittiam Systems. “Because of this, we saw a critical need to enable Sorenson Spark video decoding on our vast multimedia application array.”

Sorenson Media’s Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) enables developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets and semiconductors. The SDK is designed to provide Sorenson Spark decoding on any platform, including custom silicon.

All credits and information was found by slashphone.

Nokia N97 to start shipping to 75 countries in June

Nokia announced earlier today that its new flagship smartphone, the QWERTY keyboard equipped N97, will be available for purchase in 75 countries starting next month, in June. The N97, which features a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, was first introduced to the public back in December of 2008.

The Nokia N97 features a host of multimedia features, along with the horsepower to back them up. There is a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dial-LED flash for photo taking and video recording and a multi-format music player on board, both of which are backed up by 32GB of internal storage and up to an additional 16GB of storage from a microSDHC^(INFOR) card slot.

Nokia also points out that it plans to add new functionality to the N97 as time goes on by issuing user installable firmware upgrades. The company says it already has a roadmap of new features to be added during the second half of 2009.

No word yet on which 75 countries will be seeing the N97 available, nor any information on any specific dates. But to keep you entertained in the meantime, Nokia is offering a video of the N97 production plant in Finland, which you can view below.

All credits and information was found by mobileburn.