One more tidbit of Canadian mobile news before I take a breather over here. Best Buy Mobile has confirmed that the TELUS (NYSE: TU) HTC Snap and HTC Touch Pro2 are ‘coming soon’. Rumored pricing to purchase the HTC Snap outright is sitting at $449.99, while the Touch Pro2 is coming in at $549.99.
No launch details for the Snap or Touch Pro2 were revealed, but in the flyer above, all details within are ‘good until July 30th’. So, chances are we’ll see all 3 of these devices before then. In fact, the TELUS BlackBerry Tour is scheduled to drop on July 15th (starting at $249.99 on a 3-year contract), so we could very well see all three devices launched on that date. That said, I’d lean more towards a solo Tour launch on the 15th, with the Snap and Touch Pro2 coming sometime between the 16th and the 31st. We’ll see!
This one caught my eye the other day… thought there may be a few Curve 8900 or Bold 9000 users out there wanting to give this the once-over. Designed by Ahead of the Curve Designs, their new Premium Fusion theme features custom fonts and icons, and is very sharp, clean, and easy to use. Six user-selectable home screen icons are also built into this one as a nifty feature.
Official description:
This theme is all business! Featuring my newest Icon Set-Fusion; this combines my favorites of the precision icons with an all new icon set. The Home and Applications Screens are unlocked allowing you to change the images to your favorite wallpaper. The Message List Screen is set to device default letting the end user choose their preferred font.
Not sure if any copies are left, but BerryReview is running a 40% off sale on this theme (regular price $6.99) for the first 50 copies sold. Check out either the 8900 or 9000 version of the theme and enter coupon code ‘BRdiscount’. Hopefully it works for ya!
Here’s the latest rumor from the land of Canadian mobile. Word has it that Samsung lovers in the Great White North are in for a treat. Samsung is set to release the ‘Link’ via Bell on July 15th. Not much else is known at this point (no pricing or device specs), but as you can see from the amazing image above (can you feel the sarcasm?), the Link will at the very least feature a full QWERTY keyboard. No slider here.
Stay tuned for more on the Samsung Link… I’m very interested to learn more about this one!
Way to crush people’s dreams Craig. Just over a week ago I live blogged the Intel-Nokia (NYSE: NOK) conference call where they announced they’ll be working together to create a new class of devices and usher in an era of unprecedented connectivity. Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett was in Helsinki yesterday and he told Retuers that “we will have to wait a few years to see if the deal is successful.”
Not one, not a couple, but a few. I’m not surprised really, an Intel Atom processor still consumes an order of magnitude more than the equivalent ARM processor, just keep your expectations in check. Don’t expect to see Intel based smartphones for a long, long time. 2011 we may see high end models, but 2012 is more likely.
The Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E75 is the first Nokia to feature a slide out QWERTY keyboard, it is also the first Eseries device to run S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 and feature a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It has WiFi, GPS, a 2.4 inch 320 x 240 resolution screen, 3.2 megapixel camera and if you want to know more check out the product page. When it launched it came in black, and now they’ve added a red version. There should be more colors coming out, when I was testing the device it came in … wait I don’t think I can tell you that
Don’t mind the fancy suit case, you’re not going to get that. It’s all a part of Nokia’s blogger out reach program to stir buzz. It’s on Amazon.com for $450 by the way, the USA version.
The super sexy HTC Hero is at the FCC’s labs. We’re talking about the version of the device that can sing along AT&T (NYSE: T)’s and Canada’s Rogers (NYSE: RCI) Wireless 3G networks. The question is will AT&T pick it up? They have a good relationship with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), which might be pissed to see such a contender being offered by their carrier partner. On the other hand, AT&T shouldn’t want to miss the Android wave, hence we may see them start offering the Hero alongside the iPhone.
Anyway, that’s something we’re still speculating on. The good thing is that the paperwork needed for launching the Heroic launch in the States is getting close to an end, and you’ll always be able to grab the device unlocked, sans any strings attached.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Ovi Maps 3.0 just launched, and I’d love to tell you what it’s like, but I’m such a huge fan of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps that I see no compelling reason to switch. For those of you living in nations that have expensive data plans, Nokia Maps is for you since you can preload maps. For those of you who need turn by turn navigation, Nokia Maps is for you. For the rest of you, the majority of you, just go to google.com/gmm on your phone, download, and enjoy.
Why all the negativity? You need to download a file on your computer, to install an application on your phone. How silly is that? Even more silly, the file you need to download to get Maps 3.0 on your device will only work with a PC. Sure Google Maps may not have “3D landmarks for over 200 cities, rotation, tilting, night view, and fly-overs and fly-throughs” or “enriched POI information by Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities, as well as a weather service that provides 24 hour and 5-day forecasts”, but the search works remarkably well and when I’m trying to find a bodega at 4 in the morning in a rough neighborhood, I want to see accurate results and fast.
A memo has just leaked from AT&T saying that the day the iPhone 3GS launched, it broke almost every record AT&T has ever had. Along with that, the day Micahel Jackson died, AT&T’s network was processing around 65,000 text messages a second. Crazy stuff:
1. Fact of the Week: On June 25, the day Michael Jackson died, text messages sent on our network spiked at 65,000 messages per second — the largest volume ever recorded — surpassing events like American Idol voting and New Year’s Eve, when millions of our customers wish their friends and family a happy new year via text.”
2. “iLaunch day 2009 was one for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.
Here’s a look at some of the milestones we achieved:
* Best-ever sales day in our retail stores
* Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores
* Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day
* Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day
* Largest order day in att.com history
* Largest features sales day in att.com history
On this year’s launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008’s iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 — all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008’s launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours.
Just received note from our friends at Bplay that ALL products are on sale at Bplay… 30% off that is. All you need to do is enter coupon code ‘JULY‘ on checkout. This sale is on now, through July 6th, so go ahead and check out all of the BlackBerry gaming goodness before it’s too late!
Important Note: This offer is not eligible for Bill to Phone (direct billing) or in-game purchases… and Bplay tells me some products are not eligible for this offer. Bummer I know. Bottom line, add what you want to your cart, enter the coupon code, and hope that the discount applies
Two minutes of blurtastic video have bubbled up which give a basic tour of Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard running on a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q9h. One would easily expect that the newer Windows Mobile handsets are built with 6.5 in mind, but it’s great to see even older hardware can handle the new OS, too. There’s not much that especially catches the eye - in fact, the whole thing looks pretty samey, but we all know 6.5 is more of a facelift than anything else. The SDK for the “new” Windows Mobile has already been released, so you can expect the software soon - maybe late summer/early fall if the hardware rumours pan out.
Just received note from our friends at Bplay that ALL products are on sale at Bplay… 30% off that is. All you need to do is enter coupon code ‘