Samsung, fresh off their announcement that they’ve pushed over 150 million handsets on to American shores, is going after the more feminine demographic with their Samsung U800 Soulb clad in Pink. And, the philanthropist within us all will be pleased to hear that Samsung will be donating £10 (~$20) from each Pink Soulb sale towards fighting breast cancer with the Breakthrough Breast Cancer foundation.

The quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM handset sports the same internals as its more staid stablemate. With 3G (HSDPA) connectivity, a 3 megapixel camera, and 1GB of onboard storage, the Pink Samsung U800 Soulb should bringing charity along with some style.

Look for the cancer-fighting Pink Samsung Soulb to drop in the UK soon.

[Via: TechDigest]

Proud of that hot, new ride you just bought yourself? Sure you are.

But, whether you’re just mashing the throttle in a straight line or carving up the twisties, sawing the wheel back and forth in search of grip, you’re probably wondering just how fast you’re actually moving. Well, iPhone owners need wonder no more.

Two in-vehicle performance meter applications have popped up in the AppStore, allowing you to measure almost every important aspect of your car’s performance.

From drag-times to lateral G-forces to horsepower, Dynolicious uses your iPhone or iPhone 3G’s accelerometers to serve up those oh-so-important performance metrics. Forget that trip to the local dyno, and don’t go buying more expensive stand-alone vehicle performance meters (GTech). Dynolicious helps you track performance metrics over time, and even allows you to track performance gains after each modification. Find Dynolicious here for $12.99. (iTunes link).

If all you need is straight-line performance metrics, then g-tac might be more down your alley. g-tac doesn’t offer all the features of Dynolicious, but if high-speed runs around your local canyon roads has you doubting your skills, then g-tac will be a perfect fit. For $4.99, g-tac offers drag times and stopping distance data using your iPhone or iPhone 3G’s accelerometers. Find g-tac here. (iTunes link)
And you thought your iPhone was only good for surfing the web, location-based social networking, playing media, gaming, and staying in touch with your friends.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) recently announced that they would be launching their Nokia N96 flagship successor alongside the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 businessphones in the third quarter. The Finns made good on their promise to bring the much-anticipated enterprise handsets to market in Q3 2008, so now we turn our attention to Nokia’s new hotness – the Nokia N96.

Rumors are swirling around the UK indicating that Espoo is planning to out their Nokia N96 in October – dethroning Nokia’s current N-series flagship, the Nokia N95. ElectricPig is reporting that they’ve gotten some sort of confirmation from Nokia that the Nokia N96 will be launched in the UK on October 1, just in time to make the Q3 launch window that Nokia promised.

With 16GB of onboard storage, 5 megapixel Carl-Zeiss camera, WiFi, 3G (HSDPA), GPS, and mobile TV under the hood, the Nokia N96 brings glossy-chic to the dual-slider design that made the Nokia N96 so popular. And, with improved build-quality lending a more refined feel to the device, we can’t wait to get some long-term experience with the Nokia N96.

For now, don’t get your hopes up. But, the October release window sure does jive well with Espoo’s official announcements.

[Via: ElectricPig]

Forget multi-tasking, push background notification is where it’s at. With the limited resources available to mobile devices, running multiple applications in the background can tax the CPU, drain the battery faster, and lead to system instability as multiple applications fight for memory allottment and CPU cycles.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has seeded a new iPhone 2.1 OS SDK beta to select iPhone developers with the tools needed to create iPhone applications that can take advantage of the push background notification service. The first iPhone 2.1 OS SDK beta showed signs of Apple’s push notification service, and now this latest SDK beta gives some developers the tools to craft applications compatible with the service.

While Apple has seen to it that their core applications on the iPhone and iPhone 3G can run in the background (Mail, Safari, iPod, Phone, Text Messages), they’ve barred third-party applications from stretching the iPhone’s resources too thin. To that end, Apple unveiled their push background notification service at the iPhone 3G keynote. Push background services allows third-party applications to receive updates from third-party servers without the need to keep the application up and running. Information from third-party servers would be pushed to Apple’s push background services server and then pushed down to the iPhone through a persistent background connection.

Information can be pushed to all manner of applications, like instant messaging or social networking apps. The push background notification server allows for data can be used to update icons, sound-off notification alerts, pop-up text alerts, etc.

Bring on the push background notification services! With a little luck, we’ll be seeing applications capable of receiving information updates in the background (while inactive) in a few months.

[Via: MacRumors]

Nokia isn’t going to idly sit by while handset manufacturers the world over try to catch up to the Finnish handset vendor’s industry-leading market share. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has been cutting prices on their media-centric handsets by up to 10% – particularly their Nokia 5310 and 5610 music phones and the Nokia N81 8GB.

While other handset makers are struggling to turn a profit in an increasingly hostile economic environment, Nokia has turned to significant price cuts in the US and Europe. Nokia has also made lesser price reductions across its handset portfolio.

The move to make their handsets more accessible is seen as a way to press harder on the competition. Nokia has always kept their finger on the pulse of various markets’ prime pricing strategies, and it seems that cheaper is the way to go these days.

So, now is the best time to get a hold of one of Nokia’s handsets. With 41% market share, Nokia’s in the perfect position to undercut the competition with cheaper wares. In the end, its the consumer that wins.

[Via: Reuters]

There’s no doubt that Motorola (NYSE: MOT)’s handset manufacturing business is on the ropes. Following on quarter after quarter of multi-million dollar losses and sliding global market share, Motorola has been trying to shore up its mobile phone division in an effort to gussy it up for a potential investor to come in and sweep it off its feet, so to speak. But, until now, Motorola’s faced a losing battle.

Today, things are looking a bit brighter for the No. 3 handset vendor. They’ve posted their Q2 2008 financials with a surprising twist – there’s profit in their books! Motorola has reported $8.1 billion in revenue, down from $8.7 billion in the same quarter last year. More importantly, Motorola’s net profit hit $4 million, which is a stark departure from the $28 million red-ink stain that Moto marked down last year. And, Motorola projects that they’ll be ending the year in profits.

Motorola beat Wall Street estimates of $7.69 billion in revenue, and the stronger than expected revenue gave Moto’s stock a much needed boost. Motorola CEO Greg Brown stated that the positive financial report indicates a massive turnaround for the company.

“We’ve pushed out enhanced products and put new leaders in key roles this quarter,” Brown said. “I’m confident that we are in a better position with mobile devices to compete and succeed.”

Still, Motorola’s handset business has failed to cross over in to the black. The mobile phone division reported Q2 2008 revenues of $3.3 billion, down 22% from the same period a year ago. Profits were again non-existent with a whopping $346 million loss – a greater loss than the $332 million that Moto’s handset division lost last year.

Motorola is solidly still in a transition period, and could very well rebound from their too-long decline in the mobile space. The company is concentrating on launching new devices around the world, but only time will tell if their strategy is enough to spark a turnaround. Innovation in handset technology and design is an area where Motorola is critically lacking. And, with the handset division still without an executive to lead it back to profitability, the company is in for an uphill battle.

[Via: RCRNews]

The T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) Sidekick 2008 is ready to bring swappable shells and customizable graphics to the entry-level HipTop market – especially for all your creative types looking to change up your Sidekick’s look with the changing of the seasons (or months, or days, depending on how much you want to spend on new shells). With video recording and playback capabilities, and a 2 megapixel camera, T-Mobile’s Sidekick 2008 isn’t going to disappoint on the media-front either.

The slenderer T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 has already been reviewed by the  folks over at Phone Arena, and they’ve come away pleased with the new Sidekick. The overall dimensions are smaller than with the flagship Sidekick LX, so a smaller 2.6-inch display is expected. But, the display is still easily viewable and automatically adjusts its brightness based on ambient lighting conditions (thanks to an ambient light sensor).

The keyboard is classic Sidekick, and makes for some easy typing. Although, the upper row of keys are apparently a bit over-sensitive and take some getting used to. Likewise, the swivel mechanism is slick and smooth – again, classic Sidekick.

Video capture, 2 megapixel camera, and stereo Bluetooth round out the otherwise simple feature-set. The Sidekick 2008 is marketed as a decidedly more down-range HipTop for the youngest of Sidekick users with lesser budgets, so the inclusion of a decent camera and stereo Bluetooth is a nice surprise.

Unfortunately, as a down-range device, the Sidekick 2008 sports cheap-feeling plastic exterior pieces that pick up smudges and scuffs like nothing else. But, seeing as how additional Sidekick shells can be had for $15 from T-Mo, Sidekick 2008 users can replace scuffed-up shells at a whim.

Overall, the Sidekick 2008 is exactly what we’d expect in a low-end Sidekick. In fact, the Sidekick 2008 surprises us with a healthy spec-sheet and decent styling – something you don’t see everyday in the entry-level market. Find the full review at Phone Arena.

[Via: Phone Arena]

For those of you waiting on RIM’s very first clamshell BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) offering, the BlackBerry KickStart is no doubt high on your list of gotta-have handsets. But, written reviews of the device can only do so much. So, to better demonstrate the BlackBerry KickStart 8220’s SureType keyboard, BlackBerry OS 4.6, and more deeply inset trackball, and web browser, CrackBerry has posted a video showing just how slick the BlackBerry KickStart 8220 really is.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is priceless. Peep the BlackBerry KickStart 8220 video below.

[Via: Crackberry]

It’s happening all over again. Just as we saw with the original iPhone, AT&T (NYSE: T) is offering their hard-of-hearing customers the option to use their new iPhone 3G as a text-messaging communications device with none of the voice-call costs. The Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) has come to the iPhone 3G.

AT&T isn’t going to make their hearing-impaired customers pay for voice service that they’re not going to use, but that doesn’t mean AT&T isn’t going to charge them more for the TAP plan. The iPhone 3G TAP plan will see the same $10 price hike that we saw with the unlimited data plan, making TAP for iPhone 3G come in at $50 per month. Business users will be paying $65 per month for the same service.

And, to make sure that even the hearing-impaired iPhone 3G user can make an emergency voice call, AT&T will be charging $0.40 per minute of voice-use.

For those of you thinking that you can save on voice-calling costs by representing yourself as a disabled customer, be warned, there’s a qualification process to weed out the less-than-honest out there.

AT&T

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) and AT&T (NYSE: T) announced that the extension of a 3G network to all principal islands in Hawaii has been completed. Using AT&T’s 3G network, DoCoMo customers now have access to data and voice roaming services in the main populated areas of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kauai.

NTT DoCoMo began providing 3G roaming services on Oahu in October of last year and then extended the services to other islands including Hawaii and Maui.

Even before that, in July, the Japanese mobile operator helped AT&T build the 3G network in the summery U.S. state.

[Via: slashphone]