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.

[Image via Gizmodo]

Ad agency T.A.G (a unit of McCann) has apparently been chosen to work with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on what they openly referred to as the Pink project. It does exist! The rumours of Pink have floated around like vapourware for a long time now, but this certainly helps to cement its reality. The last we heard about Microsoft’s Pink was a list of preliminary specifications of the device, but it was still unclear if that encompassed the whole scope of the project. How it incorporates the Zune brand, if at all, and Windows Mobile 6.5 (or even 7) remains something of a mystery, but it would be no surprise to see all of these things come together somehow with Pink.

[via All About Microsoft]

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.

[via WMPowerUser]

Now this is an odd one. Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) New Zealand has reportedly pulled the HTC Magic from their website. Calls have been put in to Vodafone in the region, and the response was somewhat ominous: the Magic can be purchased for $1,099 NZD, but no more are in stock and it isn’t clear when more will be available. Very strange indeed. Blogger Ben Gracewood has also reported that not only is the device no longer available online, but all stock has been removed from stores. If you’re in the region and are hoping to pick up a Magic, looks like your best bet would be to either call Vodafone or pop down to a local store to see if you can nab the now elusive device. (Either that or catch a flight to Australia).

Something isn’t right here for sure. The Magic was launched only last week in New Zealand at a large party with many celebs in attendance. One thing is for certain, time will tell us what’s going on here.

Note: It’s interesting to note that the HTC Magic in New Zealand is a ‘Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Experience’ device. I suppose it’s possible Vodafone is having some issues with Google? Who knows. Let’s wait and see.

[Via: AndroidAuthority]

Yes, finally a Crokinole game for mobile! Ha ha, not sure if anyone out there is familiar with this great little game, but around these parts my friends refer to me as ‘Old Croke’. I love the game.

New for Android is Carrom3D Pro. The game features not only the classic game of Crokinole, but 3 other ‘Carrom’ games for your enjoyment. The developers at Kinetic Bytes put a lot of effort into getting the physics just right, and they’ve done a pretty good job. In fact, you can even adjust the physics of the whole game via settings built right into the app. Adjust the sliding friction, rolling friction, coefficient of restitution and more. This makes for a totally custom gaming experience… Just tweak the settings until you get it how you like it!

If you’re a fan of Crokinole or Carrom, you’ll want to pick this one up right now. It’s available in the Android Market via a free trial, or you can throw $1.99 down for the full version.

[Via: AndroidTapp]

When it comes to super-slim and sexy smartphones with enough computing power to take over the world, the Toshiba TG01 takes the cake. Thanks to a power-packed Snapdragon chipset, the TG01 speeds along at 1Ghz clock speeds while playing with a hefty 256MB of RAM and a 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen display. The kicker - the TG01 stuffs WiFi, GPS, 3.2-megapixel camera and 3G data connectivity into a package barely 10mm thick! And, it’s coming to the UK next week.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01 ever since we had a chance to put hands on the super-thin smartphone in Barcelona. Despite having pulled the plug on Japanese production, Toshiba looks to be going strong with their TG01 roll-out. Check out our in-depth Toshiba TG01 hands-on here.

While those of use in The States will have to wait for the Toshiba TG01 to get all official, it looks like the UK will be the next market to get the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone. Come July 9th, Toshiba will be showing off something really cool in London. Given Toshiba’s Summer launch window for the TG01, it’s highly likely we’ll see Toshiba unleashing the Toshiba TG01 on British soil next week.

For the time being, enjoy our hands-on video.

Stay tuned!

[Via: SlashGear]

Like to take trips to foreign locales, do you? Don’t forget your iPhone! Armed with the right iPhone apps, your iPhone can be an invaluable tool to help you organize your trip and find your way around not-so-familiar terrain. Who better to help you find those iPhone travel apps than the globe-trotters at National Geographic? The renowned travel/exploration publication has posted their Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps for your perusal, and it’s a good’n.

From free iPhone apps like “Room” to paid apps like “Packing,” Nat Geo has all the your travel needs covered. Common travel apps like FlightTrack and Google Earth are staples of any would-be traveler, but less popular apps like Babelingo (300 common phrases in 11 languages), Room (helps you pack for your trip) and Cheap Gas (um, self-explanatory) also deserve a quick mention.

Head on over to National Geographic for the full Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps list.

[Via: NatGeo]

Chances are if you were one of the eager beavers signing up on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G mini site, you have received an email to add fuel to the fire…. Pictured above, T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) has sent out this mailer to help build some much needed anticipation for device launch. Nothin’ too crazy here, but the mailer does point out that myTouch 3G pre-orders should arrive and be in-hand by August 3rd.

In case you missed it, a press event is scheduled for July 8th in New York City, where the myTouch 3G will be formally announced. From that point pre-orders for existing customers will be available. Latest rumors have the device available for general consumption on August 5th, but we’ll see. These dates have a way of changing.

[Via: TMoNews]

It’s fair to guess Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will launch a new Internet tablet device later this year. We’ve already posted an article with the rumored specs, but we haven’t said — cause we don’t know — whether the touchscreen used will be capacitive or resistive. The point of this article is to make the case for the use of capacitive touchscreen as well as a chance to add my 2 cents to the table.

First of all, I must say that I’m a big fan of the Maemo platform. Though I haven’t used the original Nokia 770, I relied on the N800 a lot. Coupled with a Bluetooth keyboard, it was my mobile office, and I wrote hundreds (yes hundreds) of articles for IntoMobile on it. Later on, I ordered the N810 from the U.S. — because it was significantly cheaper due to a weak dollar — but it got lost in the transport to Europe. Boy was I pissed…

Anyway, I continued using my N800 until I bought the Dell Mini 9, which is the cornerstone of my current mobile office. This is not to say I’m not using the N800 any more, it’s just that I’m not using it as often as I used to.

As a matter of fact, I brought the Nokia tablet with me to Barcelona. And there’s the part where my plead for the capacitive touchscreen comes in. It was very hard, almost impossible to see anything on the N800’s screen under the Sun in Spain. At the same time I had my iPhone with me, which touchscreen hasn’t bothered me at all. Now you could argue the capacitive touchscreen is no good for some markets in Asia where handwriting recognition is a must have feature, to which I say - fine, make two versions of the device, one with capacitive and the other one with resistive touchscreen. I’m sure, actually quite confident, the capacitive version will outsell the resistive one even if it ends up costing $50 more. And having a choice could prove beneficial to the platform, or at least me thinks so.

To summarize - capacitive touchscreen is a must. Otherwise I don’t see a reason why would someone (mainstream user, not a Linux fan) would go for Maemo rather than Windows Mobile. The rumored specs we’ve seen go in line some of the existing WinMo smartphones such as some HTC and Acer models, which rely on the “classic” resistive touchscreen technology. This is not to say this is the only reason for selecting one platform over another, it’s just something pretty visible/tangible to the end user.

You could argue an AMOLED screen could do the trick, but i don’t buy it.

As for the rest of my wishes, I hope Nokia will use the same or at least very similar keyboard as the one the N810 has. I like the D-pad on the left, but I don’t like the new-look keyboard of the N97. To be fair, the N810’s keyboard could slide a bit more down to leave little more space for the first row of the keys.

Moreover I’m looking forward to see a decent CPU running the show, and from what we’ve heard, that will be the case. Will Intel jump in as a supplier? I think that may happen, though Nokia could opt for some other chip maker for the first Maemo 5 device — some of their existing semiconductor suppliers.

Finally, to further spur the adoption of the Maemo platform, Nokia should offer the new Maemo device(s) to developers either for free or with a significant discount. The same should go for journalists and bloggers. Speaking of latter, have I mentioned I’m a big fan of Maemo?

Wattpad keeps conquering new mobile platforms. After BlackBerry and iPhone, the popular “YouTube For Ebooks” is hitting the Android world, too.

A dedicated application is available in the Android Market, using which users can discover new ebooks, share their collection with the world, and download ebooks other people have shared.

According to Wattpad, each month over 10,000 stories are published by thousands of passionate writers, including many well-known writers such as John Gregory Betancourt, whose story Alien Still Life was first published online on Wattpad…