Looking for an LG KEYBO or Shine at a new low price? Koodo up in Canada has thrown these two devices on their ‘refreshed’ list… When I say ‘refreshed’, I really mean ‘refurbished’, because that’s what these units are. If you don’t mind using someone else’s trash (OK, maybe that’s just a tad harsh), and are OK with some minor cosmetic dents and scratches, both of these LG beauties are going for $100 outright. You save $75. Not bad.

You can check out all the details over at the Koodo Bargain Bin.

Update: Looks like the KEYBO is nowhere to be found in the bargain bin. Guess they sold out (that’s my guess!)

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Koodo Drops Price of LG KEYBO to $200
• TELUS Set to Launch the LG KEYBO 2
• LG KEYBO 2 Coming to TELUS August 7th
• Telus LG KEYBO 2 Now Available from $99.99
• Samsung Slyde and Intensity Get a New Coat of Paint on Koodo

For those of you who are making the pilgrimage to Best Buy Friday morning, I hope you did some working out beforehand as trying to pick up a TV or a refrigerator without any kind of preparation will not end well.

If you’re anything like me, years of being a hermit has turned your body into a soft, delicate pile of pudding.  So why kill yourself when Best Buy has a great number of handsets for sale on Black Friday.  If you can lift a bag of potato chips from your lap, then lifting these handsets should be cake!

• AT&T Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) W518a – Free with 2 year contract
• BoostMobile Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Clutch i465 – $59.99
• DLO Jam Jacket For iPhone – $9.99
• Jabra BT-2080 Bluetooth Headset – $19.99
• LG Chocolate Touch From Verizon – Free with 2 year contract
• MiFi 2200 By Novatel Wireless – Free with 2 year contract
• Mobile Broadband Card 598U By Sierra Wireless – Free with 2 year contract
• Motorola DROID – $199.99
• Motorola i465 Boost Clutch – $59.99
• Motorola H710 Noise-Canceling Bluetooth Headset – $39.99
• Motorola S9 HD Stereo Bluetooth Headset – $49.99
• Net10 Samsung T401G – $39.99
• Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre – $79.99 with 2 year agreement
• Sandisk 8GB MicroSDHC Memory Card – $19.99
• Sandisk 8GB SD Card – $19.99
• Sprint BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Curve 8330 Smart Phone – Free with 2 year contract
• Sprint Samsung Instinct S30 – Free with 2 year contract
• T-Mobile Motorola Renew Phone – $7.99
• Verizon Wireless DROID – $199.99 with 2 year contract
• Verizon Wireless Motorola Rival – Free with 2 year contract
• Virgin Mobile Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) X-tc – $49.99

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Black Friday Mobile Deals – Radio Shack
• Motorola’s bone-conducting Endeavor HX1 Bluetooth headset sneaks out to Sprint stores
• Deal Alert: $99 Motorola Droid, FREE HTC Droid Eris from Wirefly.com
• Jabra Launches Halo Stereo Bluetooth Headset, Confuses Gamers
• Motorola Droid just $119 from Dell

After a sneak peek, the LG GW880 OPhone has been announced by China Mobile (NYSE: CHL). The GW880 packs a 3.5-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen, Bluetooth, 5-megapixel camera, 256MB of RAM/512MB of ROM, CMMB mobile TV and running on Android over China’s TD-SCDMA network. Of course, the apps will all be approved by big daddy China Mobile before making it to the market, but it should still give the iPhone a bit of a fight over there. The Android scene is just getting started in China, too; Lenovo and Motorola are likely launching their own handsets also running on China Mobile’s Open Mobile Phone framework. No word on release date or price point for the GW880, but we’ll be keeping an ear open.

[LG via Akihabara]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Lenovo’s Android-Powered ‘OPhone’ Coming to China Mobile in Q1
• Android-Powered Ophone Arriving at China Mobile in May
• Lenovo’s Android-Powered ‘OPhone’ Makes the T-Mobile G1 Look Like Steaming Garbage
• China: ZTE to ship mobile phone with Chinese flavor of Android supporting Chinese 3G
• China Mobile to offer Android handsets?

Ah, Thanksgiving.  The time where families come together to share a delicious meal and be thankful for all of life’s blessings.  Once Thanksgiving is over, that’s where the holiday shopping season begins.  Black Friday is known across America as the Friday after Thanksgiving where retailers drop prices on a lot of popular merchandise in order to get you into their stores.  Between today and tomorrow, we here at IntoMobile will be highlighting some Black Friday mobile deals that we feel would help you in planning your holiday shopping.

First up, we have Amazon’s Black Friday sales.  If you’re the type to do your holiday shopping online, they have an impressive array of deals for Black Friday:

• BlackBerry Bold 9700 – $149.99 with new T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) service plan
• Blackberry Curve 8900 – $0.01 with new AT&T (NYSE: T) service plan
• BlackBerry Storm2 9550 – $149.99 with new Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless service plan
• BlackBerry Tour 9630 – $49.99 with new Sprint (NYSE: S) service plan
• HTC Pure Windows – $0.01 with new AT&T service plan
• LG Xenon GR500 – $0.01 with new AT&T service plan
• Motorola TalkAbout Earbud with Microphone for All Series – $12.05
• Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset – $84.99
• Plantronics Voyager PRO Bluetooth Headset – $70.00
• Samsung Moment M900 – $79.99 with new Sprint service plan

Additionally, you MIGHT want to come back next week as we have something special planned for our readers.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Black Friday Roundup: Savings for Mobile Phones and Smartphones
• T-Mobile Publishes List of Black Friday Deals
• Bplay Launches ‘7 Days of Deals’ Promo
• Brief: Sprint’s Motorola Q2 with Palm OS – for sure not going to happen
• Price Drops on Rogers BlackBerry Bold 9000, Curve 8900 and 8520

Even though most carriers around the globe still have to get the LG BL40 Chocolate, the Korean company has prepared a special edition of the device to celebrate the Christmas season. The so called New Chocolate Christmas Edition BL40 will drive the built-in camera’s megapixel count to 8, up from the “default” 5, and will hit South Korea on December 10th. In addition, this special edition handset comes in a special color – black case with golden accents, while each buyer gets a voucher that can win them up to 5 million KRW (more than $4,000).

And that’s about all we know at this stage. No word on pricing, nor whether the improved BL40 will ever hit the Western hemisphere. We think it will, but you never know…

[Via: Unwired View]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Motorola RAZR2 V8 gets a new color – Antique Rose
• LG Shine – now in Red
• Sony Ericsson releases T303 Daisy edition for T-Mobile UK
• LG launching LG Chocolate 3 in Black and Light Blue variants
• Nokia 7373 Swarovski special edition

Earlier this month you may recall the TELUS LG IQ making a cameo in a Best Buy mobile ad. The device that was once a bit of a mystery is starting to come out into the light, today in the form of a few spy shots.

The IQ features a 3.2″ touchscreen, 5.0MP camera with video, and a full and somewhat luxurious slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The IQ will be TELUS (NYSE: TU)’ first device to offer Windows Mobile 6.5… I can’t imagine there being much (if any) demand for Win-Mo, but good on TELUS for mixing it up a bit here.

I’m by no means a Windows Mobile fan, but I’d sure like to get my hands on this bad boy… I’ll see what I can do…

[Via: TheMobileNinjas]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Sprint HTC Touch Pro unboxing pics
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Unboxing Pics
• HTC Touch HD With Slide-Out Keyboard in the Works?
• Telus launches HTC Touch, S640 in Canada
• Available Now: TELUS HTC Touch Pro2

LG has officially announced the Shine II, which we’ve already seen in “in the wild” photos back in August. Compared to its predecessor, the new device doesn’t bring much new to the table with only visible change being in the D-pad that’s now placed on the top part of the slider mechanism.

Rest of the specs include a 2.2-inch QVGA screen, 2-megapixel camera with flash and video recording capability, GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, music player, email and IM clients pre-loaded, Java 2.0 support, and so on.

AT&T (NYSE: T) has picked up the Shine II and it will start selling the phone on November 22nd for $119.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with contract…

Related News from IntoMobile:

• LG Rhythm lands on Alltel, too
• LG Shine now official on AT&T
• Texter-friendly Pantech Impact launched by AT&T; Could be yours for 100 bucks on a contract
• Samsung Moment, Sanyo SCP-3810 now available at Sprint
• Two Samsung devices, Mythic and Flight, hitting AT&T on November 8th

Remember the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E71-look-alike LG GW550, which we initially saw back in June. Well, it has just been released in South America and Asia. Brazil and Argentina are the first to get the device, with other 20 countries in the two regions to follow shortly.

The Windows Mobile smartphone definitely looks appealing, especially for many candybar QWERTY phone fans (i.e. BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and Nokia E71 users), and in that sense I’m not sure why LG doesn’t push it to Europe and the U.S.

Specs wise, the 12mm thin handset comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, HSPA, whereas Windows Mobile 6.5 is running the show. The price was not unveiled, and that’s probably due the fact that it depends on the country you buy it from…

[Via: Unwired View]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• LG KF300 Wine hits Japan and Europe
• Vodafone gets to exclusively launch the Nokia 6730 classic
• Nokia 6300i: The 6300 with WiFi
• Alcatel’s OT-707 and OT-800 bring touchscreen, QWERTY to masses
• HTC Snap hitting Sprint on June 21st!

Although LG’s GD910 watchphone is far from success, the company plans to release more such devices next year. With CES coming in two months, we’re wondering whether they will use the event to go all official with a new watchphone, just like they did in January of this year. The move certainly generated tons of publicity for the company.

In an announcement made on Thursday, LG said there will be more styles available in 2010. That’s plural baby, meaning we could see not one but more watchphones being unveiled. This is not to say I’m a big fan of such devices, but they do intrigue my imagination — I was a big fan of Dick Tracy comics, I admit.

[Via: Unwired View]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• LG Watchphone gets unboxed
• Comics iPhone app updated with 50 new issues
• Video: LG demos two-way video call on LG GD910 watchphone
• Comics iPhone app lets you, well, read comics on your shiny device
• Hyundai Mobile’s Watch Phone Spec’ed

Bell busted out their fresh HSPA devices yesterday, and today we  have a similar official announcement from telus (NYSE: TU). Earlier this week, we had a chance to sit down and take a look at the new toys; most of the players you’ll already be familiar with, but here’s a rundown of telus‘ take on each one.

First up we have the Hero, HTC’s Android avenger, jam-packed with their custom Sense user interface. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t packaged in Sprint (NYSE: S)’s slick, smooth, curve casing, but telus apparently wanted to capture the European flavour by offering something unique to North America, although it’s arguably reminiscent of Rogers (NYSE: RCI)’ HTC Dream in terms of aesthetic. Prodding a little bit about other Android hardware in the future, telussaid that they’re really not interested in vanilla builds – they really want to see some unique experiences with each manufacturer, and I couldn’t agree more. If you’re hoping to see the Hero on another carrier up north, good luck; telus said they’ve nabbed the Canadian exclusive on the Hero, and it sounded indefinite. The price point is also killer: $99.99 on contract, $499.99 off contract.

Next is the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold 9700. You’ve seen our first impressions, and they’re mostly good, though it’s still a pretty predictable iteration on a proven formula. RIM has been making a point to say that their Wi-Fi is UMA capable, allowing for calls over your local wireless internet connection, assuming your cellular service provider has a supporting plan. I took the opportunity to prod telus about supporting UMA, and they said they’re continually evaluating options, but don’t expect UMA before the holidays. Things sounded doubtful in general though, so don’t hold your breath. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is available on telus for $249.99 on contract, or $649.99 with no strings attached.

Then there was the LG BL40, a ridonkulously widescreen device. I hadn’t spent much time with with LG’s S-Class 3D user interface, but the cube-spinning was kind of cool. The real wow factor was that telus was claiming a North American exclusive on the device. The original Chocolate did pretty well for itself, and I trust that the new one on telus will be equally successful. You’ll be able to pick up the New Chocolate for $79.99 on a three-year contract, or $249.99 without.

Finally, there’s the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E71. There wasn’t much to ask about it, since it’s made the rounds by this point, but considering Rogers recently announced the N86 with 8 megapixel camera, I think telus is going to have some catching up to do when it comes to their high-end Nokia handsets. Still, the E71 is a great handset, and it’s available for $29.99 on contract, or $329.99 without.  Red/white version is also available, apparently.

Oh, then there’s the iPhone, but they didn’t have one there for some reason. Maybe they think everyone already has heard enough about the damn thing. I’m tempted to agree. The telus 32 GB iPhone 3GS will run you $299 on contract, $799 otherwise.

We also got some numbers on the new Clear and Simple pricing, which cuts the system access fee and 911. Here’s a quick rundown of the smartphone plans, which all includes voicemail, call waiting, and conference calling:

• $50/month: 100 local anytime minutes; 50 bonus anytime minutes; and choice between 5 local favourites or 1,000 outgoing and unlimited incoming SMS or double anytime minutes; unlimited nights and weekends; 500 MB data
• $65/month: 200 local anytime minutes; 50 bonus anytime minutes; and choice between 5 nationwide favourites or unlimited incoming SMS or double anytime minutes; unlimited nights and weekends; 1 GB data
• $80/month: 350 local anytime minutes; 50 bonus anytime minutes; and choice between 5 nationwide favourites or unlimited incoming SMS or double anytime minutes; unlimited nights and weekends; 2 GB data
• $100/month: 450 local anytime minutes; 50 bonus anytime minutes; and choice between 5 favourites or unlimited incoming SMS or double anytime minutes; unlimited nights and weekends; 3 GB data

Devices and plans aside, we talked about the HSPA rollout itself. Everything was built right on top of their existing EVDO network, so everything completely overlaps. The situation in the prairies still sounds somewhat sketchy, however – a roaming agreement with Sasktel is getting finalized, but the Manitoba network is still under construction. In terms of future hardware selection, telus will be pushing HSPA for the first little while, but they won’t be abandoning their EVDO network; it’s inaccurate to think that Bell and telus are swapping out CDMA for GSM, since they’re really just piling one on top of the other. It’s also kind of interesting that the HSPA handsets will have no 2G connectivity, which makes me a little scared – it’s always been somewhat reassuring that on Rogers I could fall back on an EDGE connection if 3G coverage was hurting. HSPA does have its benefits, though, like simultaneous data and voice transmission; missing calls while tethering shouldn’t be a problem.

I also asked about the telus Black’s Photography acquisition, which is seeing a proper retail presence today. I was a little worried that employees in a camera store would know jack-all about selling phones, but telus was likening the situation to Best Buy in that they’re as trained as they need to be to sell phones. It will be interesting to see what kind of perspective those salespeople offer on phones with higher-end cameras, though.

The whole lot of handsets are available today, but if you’re excited for these phones, telus showed us a few others that will be worth sticking around to hear about. One in particular we’ll probably be seeing Monday…  For more information, check out telus‘ HSPA landing page.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Bell Intros Smartphone Combo Plans, Outros Employees
• Rogers Wireless Continues to Disappoint Consumers in Q4
• Former Globalive Employee Leaks Marketing Strategy Slides Online
• Rogers Set to Update Smartphone Data Plans
• Rogers announces official iPhone 3G rate plan pricing

With all the hub-bub these days surrounding the Motorola DROID and HTC DROID Eris, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has taken the chance to launch a new device quite quietly, amongst all the noise made by the DROID insanity. Which device? Well, I’m talking about the LG Chocolate Touch. Available for $79.99 (after $50 rebate) on a 2-year contract, the Chocolate Touch (love that name) features a 3″ touchscreen, comes pre-installed with VZ Navigator, V CAST Music and Video, oh, and there’s a 3.2MP camera on-board as well. You’ll also get visual voicemail and a convenience key all tricked-out to help you pull up your favorite social networks.

The LG Chocolate Touch also comes complete with Dolby Mobile… A setup that apparently ‘produces an audio quality that rivals MP3 players’. Oh goody. 1GB of internal memory is slated for music, and if that isn’t enough room you can expand up to 16GB with a microSD card (not included).

My initial impressions? Meh. Yeah, DROID does sound a little bit better. I love to eat chocolate, but I’d be hesitant to ever use it as my ‘daily driver’.

Check out the LG Chocolate Touch for yourself at Verizon Wireless.

[Via: BGR]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Dolby brings surround sound to mobile phones and portable media players
• Verizon updates lineup with new LG Chocolate VX8550
• Verizon Wireless to get a new Chocolate, LG VX8550
• Verizon to drop LG Chocolate 3 on July 14 for $129
• Verizon introduces LG Chocolate in Blue Ice

So what is this LG ‘IQ’ all about? You got me, this is the first I’ve heard of it. The device has made an appearance in an ad found in a recent Best Buy Mobile catalog. Pictured alongside the Rogers LG Eve and TELUS New Chocolate (the BL40). It looks to be a QWERTY slider with a fair-sized display. I’m assuming all of the standard features are built in, including Bluetooth, 3-4MP camera, WiFi, GPS (perhaps?), and the usual bevy of built-in apps. Should be interesting to hear what comes down the tubes on this one… But at the moment I’m hearing the IQ will arrive on TELUS (NYSE: TU) at the end of this month, or early December… and it will run WinMo 6.5 with a custom LG user interface. Stay tuned for more.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Nokia RM-526 spotted on FCC in all its swiveling glory; Heading to Verizon?
• Rumor: LG Versa Coming to Telus?
• LG KEYBO 2 Coming to TELUS August 7th
• HTC HD2 Confirmed Due in North America Early 2010
• Bell and Telus to Announce iPhone Deal with Apple Real Soon?

Bell has today gone ahead and flipped the switch on their brand new HSPA network. Coupled with telus (NYSE: TU) launching their own tomorrow, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) will no longer have a lockdown on hot GSM handsets like the iPhone, and Canadians will get some much-needed choice in service providers. The only devices Bell was forthcoming about before today’s announcement were an HSPA+ internet stick, and MiFi mobile hotspot, but they have really opened up both barrels with their full HSPA family. Earlier today, you might have heard about the Bell BlackBerry Bold 9700, but there’s also the original Bold 9000 for $249.95 on contract, the LG Xenon (simple, full-QWERTY slider; $89.95 on contract), the Nokia 2730 (standard candybar; $29.95 on contract), the Samsung omnia II (touchscreen slate running Windows Mobile with TouchWiz 2.0; $199.95 on contract), Samsung Impact (A.K.A Highlight, touchscreen slate with voice and motion-controlled UI; $79.95 on contract), and of course, the beloved iPhone 3GS.

On top of devices, Bell is also announcing a new HSPA video calling service available on the omnia II and Xenon that not only works with other capable phones, but also through a Facebook app. Overall, this is a huge step for Bell and Canadian wireless overall, and it’s not over yet – we’ll be hearing more about telus‘ HSPA  grand opening tomorrow. For a closer look at Bell’s full lineup, check their online store, or their HSPA landing page for more info on the new network.

[via Bell]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• The Signal 46: Canadian HSPA and H790 Bluetooth Headset Giveaway
• Bell Due to Flip GSM Switch This Month, TELUS in October
• Bell’s HSPA Launch List Leaks: Bold 9700, iPhone 3GS, and More
• Samsung posts Canadian Samsung Omnia!
• Samsung Omnia Available at Telus for $129.99

Looking for a little more Android love north of the border? What if I told you Rogers (NYSE: RCI) has tossed the Android-powered LG Eve up on their website? Would that interest you? Well guess what partner, that’s exactly what is going down.

The LG Eve joins the HTC Magic and Dream as the third Android-powered device on the Rogers network. It packs the sexy S-Class UI, 3″ 480×320 touchscreen, 5MP camera with video and autofocus, an awesome photo gallery and media editor, slide-out 5-line QWERTY keyboard, GPS, WiFi, accelerometer and more. You’ll also get a 2GB memory card in the box, with expansion to 16GB available (microSD).

At the moment the Rogers website lists the Eve as ‘out-of-stock’, but expect that to change real soon. Pricing starts at $49.99 on a 3-year term, $299.99 on the 2-year, $349.99 on a 1-year, and month-to-month is $349.99 as well. If you’d rather pick up the device only, be prepared to hand over $399.99.

For more info, hit up Rogers.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

UPDATE: Official announcement can be found here!

Related News from IntoMobile:

• LG Neon TE365 coming to Rogers Wireless
• Android-powered Samsung Saturn i6500 in works
• Rumor: HTC Mega: Cheap Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone with 2.8 inch QVGA screen and HSPA
• White Nokia E71 Arrives at Rogers
• LG Globus TU330 Arrives at Rogers

LG has launched a new phone in Korea. It’s called LG SB210 and it comes pre-loaded with maps for 280 golf courses, as well as some other golf-related services, including the so called “Receive PJT” application.

The all-touchscreen device also comes with 3-inch 240×400 pixels display, accelerometer, compass, GPS, 3-megapixel camera, and a microSD memory card slot. Size wise, it measures 111×55x12.3 mm and has a weight of 106 grams.

As I said, it’s a Korea thing only at the moment, but if proves successful, we could see this baby being exported to the rest of the world. SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) will be selling the SB210 for 638,000 KRW, which is about $539 – i.e. lot.

This isn’t the first time we see a handset maker bundling some golf software with the phone. Back in 2006, we had Nokia (NYSE: NOK) selling the special golf edition of its once powerful N93 smartphone…

[Via: Unwired View]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• South Korea now allows the sale of foreign made mobile phones
• Pantech’s Sky DuPont IM-U510LE looks like a famous lighter, costs $830
• LG BL40 New Chocolate Christmas Edition comes with 8-megapixel camera!
• Pantech Sky IM-R470S with TruEmotion UI launched in South Korea
• Nokia N93 Golf Edition

Cricket has another low-end device in its portfolio – LG HELiX. Feature set of the LG handset won’t impress many, hence it’s made for those looking for basic things such as texting and calling. In addition, there’s a large keypad coupled with increased font size, making sure even the eldest can use the phone.

Rest of the specs includes a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, mobile web browser and pre-loaded MyPerks and MyBackup applications. As for the pricing, Cricket asks $139.99 for HELiX, which BTW is available in silver and pink…

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Cricket unveils CAPTR, crappy camera phone
• Cricket launches TXTM8, affordable QWERTY slider
• Cricket adds Motorola QA4 Evoke
• Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot in Titanium Silver is James Bond’s latest phone
• Cricket MyPerks brings free content and special offers to customers mobile phones’ homescreen

The good folks at TELUS (NYSE: TU) have just released the LG Versa. The Versa comes with a 3″ touchscreen, and features LG’s 3D S-Class UI. Users will be able to tweak out 3 customizable home screens among other unique features. Also look for a 2MP camera with autofocus, flash and video… expansion up to 16GB via microSD, stereo Bluetooth, full html browsing capabilities, and MP3 player, and more.

The price? Try $79.99 on a 3-year contract, $179.99 on the 2-year, $229.99 on the 1-year. And, $279.99 for contract-free living.

For all the details head on over to TELUS.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Available Now: TELUS HTC Touch Pro2
• BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 Officially Released on Telus
• Telus goes live with LG Dare for $99 on contract
• Telus adds Samsung U540 to its offering
• TELUS Unveils Samsung ‘Renaissance’ R540

It looks like the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) 8520 will be getting an update that includes 3G connectivity, according to an internal Verizon (NYSE: VZ) newsletter, but details are scarce, aside from what we already know about the 8500-series Curves having Wi-Fi. The Curve2 likely has something to do with the projects code-named Essex or Atlas, which were meant to be a companion to the Tour that would have Wi-Fi (and the Essex specifically having a trackpad). However, I think the overall assumption was that either one would still be packing the Tour form factor, complete with nicer screen and camera. In any case, for those hungry for a Wi-Fi-enabled CDMA BlackBerry and can’t stomach the Storm2’s SurePress or won’t wait for an updated Tour, the Curve2 will be their only option. To get a feel for what the device might feel like, check out our BlackBerry 8520 review – just tack on Wi-Fi and likely OS 5.0.

Other devices to make an appearance in the newsletter include the HTC Imagio, Ozone, enV Touch, enV3, Chocolate Touch, Rogue, Intensity, Alias2, and the white Pearl Flip; of course, Droid gets a two-page spread to itself.

[via BGR]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Video: BlackBerry Essex Brings Wi-Fi and Trackpad to Tour
• Sprint Readying BlackBerry Tour, ‘Inferno’ Curve 8330 and Red Curve 8350i
• BlackBerry ‘Essex’, aka BlackBerry Tour 2 Captured on Camera
• Hands-On with AT&T BlackBerry 8900
• Hands-On With the Sprint BlackBerry Curve 8350i

Folks in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan have another new touchscreen device up for grabs. SaskTel has launched the LG Bliss, which features a 3″ touchscreen, 2MP camera (with video), microSD expansion to 16GB, Bluetooth, speakerphone, voice dialing and much more. The Bliss will set customers back $99.00 on a 3-year contract, $179.00 on a 2-year contract, $259.00 on a 1-year, and the prepaid/monthly option goes for $323.00.

For all the details pop on over to SaskTel.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Bell Launches the LG Bliss for $79.95
• LG ‘Bliss’ Coming to Bell August 7th
• Palm Treo Pro Arrives at SaskTel
• TELUS Launches LG 5500 Flip Phone
• Apple iPhone on Pre-Paid and Hybrid Plans! (New details emerge)

The Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) announced that LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp will support the JIL widget specification in future mobile handsets from the first quarter of 2010. As a result, developers will be able to make a single widget that works across multiple platforms and devices. On the other hand, end users will have more widgets available for download.

Other JIL member companies include large carriers like China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), SOFTBANK (OTCPK: SFTBF), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), which have a combined user base of more than 1 billion.

Commenting on the announcement, JIL’s CEO Peters Suh said: “The decision of LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp to incorporate the JIL widget specifications in their future product roadmap is proof of the tremendous potential that JIL offers both to developers and customers. All four companies are innovation leaders and this is another strong affirmation of both JIL strategy and its robust technical specifications.”

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Vodafone Launches a Combined €1,000,000 Prize Fund to Find the Best Mobile Widgets
• RIM Releases BlackBerry Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 1
• GSM Association: Global recession doesn’t impact innovation
• Microsoft to focus on fewer Windows Mobile devices
• Widgetbox announces iPhone widget gallery