The Motorola Droid (codename: Sholes/Tao) has been seen time and time again with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) branding, so it’s clear that it’ll be launching with CDMA internals. But, thanks to a newly discovered FCC filing, we’re learning today that there’s a distinct possibility we’ll be seeing a GSM variant coming down the pipeline in the near future. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be coming to AT&T (NYSE: T). Or, T-Mobile (NYSE: DT).

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Sholes passed through the FCC in CDMA guise recently, obviously on its way to Verizon. But, today’s FCC filing shows a variant of the Android phone bearing GSM frequency support. But, the GSM Sholes doesn’t seem to support the 3G frequencies that AT&T uses. It doesn’t even support the 3G bands for T-Mobile’s 3G network.

We’re not sure if Motorola is just covering their bases, or if they think it’s acceptable to push a non-3G Sholes onto American shores, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on any upcoming GSM Sholes details.

FCC link [PDF link]

[Via: Androphones]

The iPhone can receive FM radio signals, but it has yet to support FM radio functionality. The iPod Nano can play radio through its integrated FM receiver, heck, it even allows you to pause live radio with the Live Pause feature. What about the iPhone? According to one of 9to5mac’s tipsters, iPhone radio is coming soon!

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is supposedly working on an in-house iPhone radio app that will enable the iPhone 3GS to play live radio broadcasts (with Live Pause!) through its currently-crippled FM receiver. Apple’s iPhone radio application is said to run in the background and might even be integrated into the iPhone 3GS’s iPod app. As it stands, the iPhone 3GS FM radio can be used with Nike+ hardware, but stops short of actually playing radio.

The source says that Apple is waiting to integrate the iPhone radio app with iTunes to allow users to find a radio song in the iTunes store and purchase that song on the spot, but only if the song is tagged properly by the radio station.

Radio in my area is a joke, to say the least. Because of that, I really don’t think I’ll get much use out of an iPhone radio app. But, I’m sure there are plenty of radio junkies out there that can’t wait for radio on the iPhone, especially with Live Pause functionality. That is, if this rumor pans out…

[Via: 9to5mac]

The Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre is a great smartphone. It features some of the highest-end technology you can expect from any smartphone today – capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch, gesture controls, wireless (inductive) charging, true multi-tasking support and more. The Pre is also seen as the best alternative to the iPhone 3GS. So, it’s no wonder Popular Mechanics has named the Palm Pre one of “The 10 Most Brilliant Products of 2009.”

Unfortunately, no amount of praise is going to boost Palm’s ailing bottom line. The Palm Pre was touted as Palm’s answer to the struggling smartphone maker’s dwindling market share, but has yet to see the Pre capture consumer minds in the same way the iPhone has done for the past few years. But, with encouraging interest from the UK market, Palm might see the Pre out-performing the iPhone on O2 (NYSE: TEF)’s network.

[Via: PopularMechanics]

The Samsung Omnia II seems to pop up every now and again, but we have yet to see or hear any details of the touchscreen smartphone coming to the US. But, if a new tip from one of PhoneArena’s readers pans out, we’ll be seeing the Omnia II going live in less than a month! The Omnia II boasts an eye-popping 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display, 5-megapixel camera (auto-focus and dual-LED flash), GPS, WiFi and hefty on-board memory stores, so you can see why we’re excited.

We recently spied the Omnia II, at CTIA Fall 2009 conference, wearing a Verizon (NYSE: VZ) logo, so there’s no doubt Big Red will soon offer the Omnia successor. Black Friday (the Friday following Thanksgiving) was a good bet for the Omnia II’s launch, but now we’re hearing that Verizon Wireless could very well go live with the Omnia II on November 1st.

The Omnia II will launch with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional installed, but can soon thereafter be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.5 as a free update from Samsung. Of course, Samsung’s TouchWIZ UI is a big part of the Omnia II experience, which is going to suck or be awesome for you, depending on how much you like the widget-based UI. We’re not too big on Windows Mobile, and even less on TouchWIZ, but the Omnia II’s feature-set might be enough to distract us from the awkward UI.

[Via: PhoneArena]

Okay, so remember how we told you that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) modified new iPhone 3GS’s to prevent current and future jailbreak exploits? Right, well, turns out that wasn’t as true as we once thought. Our bad. New iPhone 3GS’s have been modified, that much is true, but they can still be jailbroken (which is where we were wrong). The iPhone Dev Team is now saying that Apple may have killed the “24kpwn” exploit that allowed the current jailbreak to work, but it’s more of a bump in the road than an all-out roadblock against future jailbreak attempts. “It’s not going to be impossible to jailbreak even if the exploit we used is gone,” said the iPhone Dev Team’s Eric McDonald in a phone interview with Wired.

In fact, factory-fresh iPhone 3GS hardware can still be jailbroken. The “24kpwn” exploit was only used to make the jailbreak process as simple as possible. A new iPhone 3GS can still be jailbroken, but it will need to be connected (tethered)to a computer of some sort (like a TI-86 calculator) in order to boot up. It’s a hassle, to be sure, but the iPhone Dev Team is already working to re-enable “untethered” booting of jailbroken iPhone 3GS’s in the near future.

The Dev Team has already found a new exploit that they can use to jailbreak new iPhone 3GS hardware without the need for a tethered boot. We’ll inevitably see that new exploit in use in future versions of PwnageTool. So, fear not, potential iPhone 3GS buyer. You’ll have a working jailbreak available to you in the near future.

The cat-and-mouse game between Apple and iPhone jailbreakers continues…

[Via: Wired]

AT&T’s own on-contract pricing for their HTC PURE (AT&T (NYSE: T)’s branded Touch Diamond2) wasn’t too bad, but it’s got nothing on Amazon’s asking price. Amazon is now offering the just-launched AT&T PURE for just a penny, when purchased with a new 2-year contract through AT&T. Leave it to Amazon to undercut AT&T on a spanking brand-new Windows Phone.

What can you expect for your penny? Expect to get a 3.2-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, GPS, WiFi, 3G data, Bluetooth, 5-megapixel (autofocus) camera and microSD card slot with your penny’s worth of PURE. Of course, with Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional already installed, the new PURE is noticeably more usable and responsive than the Touch Diamond2 with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional installed. The WM6.5 update makes a significant difference.

Find the 1¢ HTC PURE here. Remember, you’re going to have to sign your life away for a couple year of AT&T-servitude to get the price. Or, as msmobiles puts it, “24 months of misery.”

HTC PURE for 1¢ from Amazon

[Via: msmobiles]

Sure, the HTC HD2 packs a 5-megapixel camera. But, is it any good? Compared to the rest of the HD2’s features, the camera has a lot to live up to. We can’t speak to HD2 camera image quality until we can put our own HD2 through its paces, but from the looks of newly posted image samples, the camera looks like a winner.

The images you see here were taken in Fine and SuperFine mode. Can you tell which is which?

Find more sample images at Ai.rs.

[Via: WMPowerUser]

The iPhone will officially come to China Unicom’s network on October 30th. We already knew the higher-ups at Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) locked down China Unicom as their iPhone partner in mainland China, and we were even given some initial pricing details, but this is the first time we’ve gotten specific launch information from the No. 2 Chinese wireless carrier. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS will both go on sale at the end of this month, and will be offered with a choice of a 2-year contract or contract-free.

The 2-year contract model might be business as usual for most of the developed world, but it’s a new way of doing things at China Unicom. The carrier is said to have specifically created their 24-month contract for iPhone users. It’s not clear how much these on-contract iPhones will run, but the no-contract prices are no joke. An iPhone 3G 8GB, sans contract will cost 4,999 CNY ($732). The iPhone 3GS 16GB will command slightly steeper 5,880 CNY ($861), while the range-topping iPhone 3GS 32GB will go for a hard-to-swallow 6,999 ($1,025).

Still, the arrival of the iPhone on China Unicom is a big step. Unfortunately, Apple had to cripple their China-bound iPhones to meet Chinese regulations. That means no WiFi for China Unicom iPhones. We’re sure some crafty Chinese iPhone user will manage to get WiFi functionality restored at some point, but it’s ridiculous that an asinine State censorship regulation is keeping WiFi off the iPhone in China.

[Via: CTN]

The baddest Windows Phone of the year may just be coming to Stateside on T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA’s network! A newly discovered T-Mobile slide suggests that the HTC HD2’s (Leo) will soon be available on T-Mobile USA. The slide highlights the HTC HD2’s massive 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and multimedia capabilities in a push to bring T-Mo customers “mobile entertainment like you’ve never seen (engaged with) before.” If that’s not enough to believe that HTC sold T-Mobile on the HD2, we don’t know what is.

If you haven’t yet checked out our hands-on coverage of the HTC HD2 (Leo), you might want to brush up on what we consider to be the hands-down best Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone of the year. The HD2’s gigantic capacitive touchscreen and pencil-thin silhouette make for a sexy handset, but there’s more to the HD2 than just a pretty face. Underneath, the HD2 packs a 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset, 5-megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash), integrated GPS, WiFi, microSD slot, FM radio, digital compass and a 3.5mm headphone jack. And with HTC’s HTC’s “>TouchFLO 3D (which has been tweaked to reflect HTC’s Sense design philosophy) making up for much of Windows Mobile 6.5’s downfalls, the HD2 is one helluva Windows Phone.

The T-Mobile slide makes no mention of when we should expect to see the HD2 hitting the US, but it can’t be too far behind the Nov. 11 European launch. Oh, and it’s probably a good idea to start scrounging for couch change. This bad-boy isn’t going to be cheap!

[Via: TmoNews]

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid (aka Sholes/Tao) and the Motorola Calgary are gearing up to bring Android to Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless! How do we know? Well, BGR got their hands on photos of a Verizon Wireless Cellebrite data-transfer tool showing telltale signs of supporting the new Android phones from Verizon. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Cellebrite, it’s basically a one-click tool that wireless retail employees use to transfer all your contacts data from one phone to another. And, now that Verizon’s fleet of Cellebrites are compatible with the Motorola A855 Droid and A555 Calgary, all signs point to a short term launch. Possibly on December 1.

For those of you paying attention, the Motorola Droid and Calgary are the two Android smartphones that Verizon recently announced would be launched later this year. The Droid is supposed to pack a3.7-inch touchsreen (capacitive is a good bet), 600Mhz ARM-based Cortex A8 CPU (same as iPhone 3GS), 5-megapixel camera and even a secondary Image Signal Processor clocked at 430Mhz – giving it the punch to compete with high-end Android smartphones like the HTC Hero. And, with native Flash support on Android 2.0 (Eclair) the Motorola Droid might just be the Android phone of choice when it goes live.

[Via: BGR]