Mere months after its initial launch, the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 5800 XpressMusic handset has proven to be a success. Nokia today announced that their first mass-market touchscreen handset has hit Platinum status with 1 million handsets sold since October 2008!

“The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been received very positively and this milestone is just further proof that people all over the world want a device that is not only a great music experience, but also makes the most of touch screen technology,” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic sold out within hours of their Hong Kong and Moscow launches, highlighting the handset’s popularity in all parts of the world. Nokia also mentions that their UK launch of the 5800 XpressMusic saw 150 customers “queued” outside Nokia’s Flagship Store in London. And, with a wide-aspect 3.2-inch touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera, 8GB of storage, 3G data connection, and WiFi radio packed within, it’s easy to see how the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has risen so quickly to the one-million milestone.

Kudos to Nokia and their success with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Nokia

Your eyes do not deceive you. What you see here is an all-black variant of Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s flagship Nseries handset, the Nokia N96. The reigning Nseries king has been around for a good while, and has even been offered for free when purchased with a new 18-month contract from UK carrier O2 (NYSE: TEF). But, news of an exclusive full-black Nokia N96 being sold by Carphone Warehouse is definitely worthy of a second look.

Carphone Warehouse was apparently the only source of the Gun-Barrel Black variant of the European Nokia N95 (the Nokia N95-1, for the initiated) back in the day, and it seems that Nokia has blessed the mobile phone retail giant with a new exclusive N96 offering.

Like we said, Full Black Nokia N96 for free on contract. Find it here.

[Via: SymbianGuru]

Sure, you could just use your T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) G1 as an Android smartphone and call it a fulfilling day. But then you’d be missing out on the geekery that is booting your PC from your T-Mobile G1! The fine folks over at Logical Tech have figured out a way to use the T-Mobile G1 as a bootable USB drive, and they’ve posted a nice little guide on how to do it for yourself.

You see, the T-Mobile G1 sports a microSDHC card slot, allowing you to expand the G1’s storage up to 16GB of space. And, with the T-Mobile G1’s mass storage mode allowing you to use that microSD card like a USB flash drive, the next logical step was to use the T-Mobile G1 as a bootable drive.

Specifically, the Ultimate Boot CD utility that allows you to view and interact with the contents of any hard drive has made the jump from USB drive-based booting to G1-based booting. With a couple patches, you too can use your T-Mobile G1 to boot your PC using the Ultimate Boot CD.

Getting your T-Mobile G1 to act as a bootable drive for your PC is a simple matter of:

1. Inserting microSD card into G1
2. Connecting G1 to computer
3. Mounting the G1 as a USB device
4. Installing UBCDfix2.exe (extract to folder “UBCD” on your desktop)
   
5. Downloading the Ultimate Boot CD to the UBCD folder on your desktop.
6. Running the fixubcd2.bat file within the UBCD folder

It really is that simple. A few simple steps and a couple downloads is all it takes to turn your G1 into a bootable flash drive running UBCD. Head on over to Logical Tech for the complete tutorial!

[Via: LogicalTech]

Grains of salt, people. Take your grains of salt.

The just-announced Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre smartphone has been rumored to be launching well within the 1H 2009 launch window that Palm set for itself. In fact, word on the street is that the Palm Pre will be launching next month – possibly as soon as February 15.

The tip comes from a TreoCentral reader that claims to have been tipped off by the same source that leaked the Palm Treo 800w’s launch date, but there’s little other evidence to give this particular rumor any credence. The tipster also claims that an active data plan will be a prerequisite to owning the Palm Pre (makes sense to us!).

The Palm Pre has been churning up the hype-machine recently with talk about its slick finger-friendly Web OS and high-line feature set bringing Palm back from the brink of financial ruin. The Palm Pre’s 3.1-inch capacitance touchscreen, 8GB of on-board storage, 3-megapixel camera, aGPS, and WiFi radio make the all-new handset one a serious contender in a crowded smartphone market. And, with the Web OS providing an intuitive, multi-tasking UI that can automatically pull in data from multiple online sources, the Palm Pre is likely to quickly rise through the smartphone-ranks.

It’s just too bad we can’t put too much faith in this latest rumor. As much as we’d like for this dubious speculation to pan out, there are just a couple facts that we can’t get over. We’ve yet to hear a peep out of Palm in regards to the Palm Pre’s complete spec-sheet (processor speed, battery life, etc.), and the FCC has yet to sign off on the Palm Pre’s US aspirations. We would have expected Palm to put out a serious Palm Pre marketing-blitz prior to its launch, and we just don’t see that happening in a month’s time.

In all fairness, however, Palm does have about a month to get their Palm Pre sorted out on Sprint (NYSE: S)’s network (the Palm Pre’s exclusive US carrier). But, that’s assuming that the FCC approves the Palm Pre soon enough to give Palm enough time to launch the handset.

Remember those grains of salt? Go ahead and take them now.

[Via: TreoCentral]

The iPhone 3G has barely landed on Taiwanese shores and retailers are already lauding Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s success in cracking the island’s mobile market. According to sales reports, Apple has locked down a solid 2.2% of Taiwan’s mobile phone market. With 12,012 iPhone 3Gs sold during a December that saw a total of 546,000 mobile phone purchases, it’s clear that Chunghwa Telecom and the iPhone 3G are doing quite well for themselves.

The iPhone 3G now has the distinct honor of being the 6th most popular handset in the country. The jury is still out as to why the iPhone 3G caught on so quickly or whether or not the iPhone 3G stole market share from Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE), Samsung, or Motorola (NYSE: MOT) (who all saw degraded market shares in December 2008). Notable is the fact that the iPhone 3G single-handedly took HTC out of the Top 6 handset manufacturers in Taiwan. While both Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and HTC managed to increase their market share last month, HTC was edged out of their home-country’s most-popular list with just a single percent of the Taiwan mobile market.

It’s clear that the iPhone 3G’s sleek design and innovative touchscreen UI is hard to ignore, but the handset’s almost meteoric rise to the top of Taiwanese charts in just a month’s worth of sales is impressive nonetheless.

Look for HTC to give Apple a bit more competition in 2009, what with the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) G2 expected to hit this May.

[Via: Electronista]

Well we’ve seen a monster of an expensive device appear in the last month or so – the Motorola Aura. It’s somewhere between £1300-£1600 in the UK at the moment, and that is one good-size kick in your wallet. But my question is at the moment, is anyone able (apart from Football players) to buy these uber-bling items?

I had an experience last year with a “premium” device – Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s 8800 Arte – which was at the time pretty much the most expensive device they had (until the Carbon Arte came along!). It was a nicely-machined device, but the functionality wasn’t amazing. In the end (ironically), the hardware developed a fault within a couple of weeks, and I returned it. But had it not gone wrong, I’m not sure I would have been comfortable owning a very shiny & expensive piece of metal with a GSM radio in it!

Since then, the credit crunch has truly crunched on people, and so where as before we might have ’splurged’ out on a premium device on credit, now that avenue has warning bells flashing all around it.

So, IntoMobile readers, do you have any idea who is buying these ‘premium-aesthetic’ devices? People with lotsa cash? More cash than sense? Or something else maybe I haven’t considered….?!

That Motorola Aura does look nice though!

You can find out more about the Motorola Aura at it’s website here.

While AT&T (NYSE: T)’s own-branded HTC Touch Pro, the AT&T Fuze, has quickly risen through the Windows Mobile smartphone ranks to become one of HTC’s most prolific and popular WinMo handsets, the steep price-tag has undoubtedly kept the Fuze from soaring to even higher heights. That may all change, now that the AT&T Fuze is being offered for the entirely affordable price of just $150 from NewEgg.com.

The $150 AT&T Fuze sports a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, aGPS, WiFi, 3G data, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and the beautiful TouchFLO 3D UI riding on top of Windows Mobile Professional. But, you likely already knew that.

The AT&T Fuze gets high marks for its feature-set and flexibility (the Fuze will happily follow you from work, to school, to gym, to a night out on the town). The keyboard is finished with a soft-touch rubberized coating that makes it a joy to use. The camera serves up crisp pictures, while the TouchFLO 3D UI keeps things fun and organized. There’s really nothing bad we can say about the AT&T Fuze – except for its once-prohibitive price tag.

Fortunately, the new price-point comes in at almost half the original asking price for the AT&T Fuze. Of course, a new two-year contract is required and mail-in rebates also come into the equation. But, hey, for $150, you really can’t ask for a better deal on the hottest Windows Mobile smartphone currently on market.

NewEgg

Owner’s of Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s first device to rock the company’s touch-based S60 5th Edition OS will be happy to hear that Nokia has rolled out a major firmware update that should fix a lot of bugs and improve overall system stability. Following on a recent firmware update for the Nokia E71, the new S60 5th Edition v11.0.08 firmware promises to significantly improve your experience with your Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Included in the massive change-log are fixes for the missing Google (NSDQ: GOOG) search box, fixes for crashing applications (messaging and phone book), and updates the web browser to work reliably with Flash content. The new Symbian S60 5th Edition v11.0.08 firmware is available now for download through the Nokia Software Updater (NSU) application.

Remember, back up your data, charge your device, and then fire up the NSU application to update your device. Performing a firmware update in the reverse order is not recommended.

[Via: SymbianGuru]

Despite speculation that the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G would fail to catch on in any significant manner in Japan – a country so used to advanced cellphone features that it makes the iPhone 3G’s feature-set look dull – it seems that Japanese geeks are just as enamored with Apple’s glossy-finished touchscreen handset as the rest of the world. A new Japanese survey reveals that many Japanese mobile enthusiasts consider the iPhone 3G the “Best Smartphone of 2008.”

Of the 3,000 survey participants, the iPhone 3G was voted 2008’s best smartphone 1,286 times. A solid 61% of those surveyed though the iPhone 3G, available from Softbank (OTCPK: SFTBF) in Japan, was the leader of the smartphone pack – no small feat in a country that defines high-technology. The Japan-only WILLCOM 03 was voted as the second-best smartphone of 2008, garnering just 321 votes (about 15%).

The iPhone 3G was criticized for its lack of an integrated mobile TV receiver, but it seems that Japanese smartphone fans have looked past the iPhone 3G’s feature-set and embraced its innovative UI and slick design aesthetic. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that Softbank released an external iPhone 3G mobile TV receiver a few months ago.

The iPhone 3G’s popularity around the world is a given at this point. But, it remains to be seen if the iPhone 3G can carry over its fanatical growth into 2009. Apple is rumored to be working on an iPhone Nano, which could give Apple more form-factor options with which to push their iPhone brand. We’re still holding out for an iPhone 3G HD with a larger, higher-resolution display and a 3- or 5-megapixel camera. Apple, you listening?

[Via: k-tai]

You would think that Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) Essar might make a wee exception and call the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) 9500 the Monsoon instead of the Storm, but hey, I guess there’s branding to preserve. Vodafone Essar will be offering the Storm as of January 15th. for Rs27,990. While BlackBerry service is still relatively young in India, the Storm represents RIM’s latest and greatest to the second-biggest country in the world. While the Storm’s software remains a point of conention for many (and the SurePress clicking touchscreen a point to many more), Vodafone has spread the device across many countries since the UK launch this summer regardless, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain. Based on all of the Storms I saw at CES, the device is starting to catch on, and if it can capture even a portion of the vast Indian market, it will do very, very well.

[via EFYTimes]

[image via Jeff Hutchens]