While doing some poking around in the BlackBerryOS forums today, I happened to notice something disappointing… especially for the good folks residing in Israel. Seems as though BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) App World is no longer available in the country. Paid apps disappeared first, and now, apparently free apps aren’t available either. Strange.

I know there is quite a BlackBerry community over in Israel, so this news just flat out sucks if you’re packin’ a BB and are looking for new apps. If any BlackBerry users in the country could comment or shed some light on this situation, it would be much appreciated.

Samsung Canada’s site is showing off a handset we haven’t really seen before: the A886 Forever. It’s running the all-too-familiar TouchWiz user interface, and proudly sports the Rogers (NYSE: RCI) branding. Here’s a quick run-down of the specs:

• Quad band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and dual band HSDPA (850 / 1900)
• 3.0″, 240 x 400 WQVGA TFT touchscreen
• 1000 mAh battery, 3 hour talk time, 250 hour standby
• 2 megapixel camera with autofocus (no flash)
• AGPS, Stereo Bluetooth

They’re pitching the A886 as a web-capable phone that you don’t necessarily need a data plan to enjoy; bizarre contradiction, especially without Wi-Fi in there. It’s pretty mid-range, so it’s entirely possible that this will fit into Rogers’ sub-$99 “webphones” family.

[via MobileSyrup]

Bell’s inagural HSPA lineup had lots of new toys, but telus (NYSE: TU) was drawing a bit more attention with the HTC Hero. Luckily for Bell, Android will be one less leg-up the competition will have, as they’re getting the Samsung Galaxy I7500, according to this promotional poster. The Galaxy has been traipsing around Europe since launching over the summer, and boasts a 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of internal storage, 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, GPS, and Wi-Fi; no custom work on the user interface, it’s straight vanilla Android. Samsung has already provided the Impact and omnia II for Bell’s HSPA grand opening, but the Galaxy is really the icing on the cake. No word on a release date, but I think it’s safe to expect the I7500 in time for the holidays.

[via MobileSyrup]

The original XPERIA Pureness

If you thought Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)’s high-fashion XPERIA Pureness was pretty enough to make up for its low-tech attitude and nothing-to-cough-at price, you’re in luck. Sony Ericsson is apparently planning to launch a follow-up to the XPERIA Pureness with a Pureness 2. According to Electricpig, the Pureness 2 isn’t anywhere close to an official announcement (let alone a launch), but early reports indicate that Sony Ericsson is looking to create a more simplified and stripped-down Pureness phone. Sony Ericsson’s Pureness designer, Daniel Mauritzson, says the focus right now is on “taking away” features.

Imagine that. In a world where feature-packed smartphones jockey for visibility in a crowded market, Sony Ericsson is moving away from feature-bloat and looking to bring “counterbalance” to the smartphone market. Not just that, but Sony Ericsson is slapping its highest-end XPERIA brand on the Pureness handsets. That’s saying a lot about what Sony Ericsson thinks the public wants in a mobile phone.

The XPERIA Pureness is already a good looker, we can’t wait to see what the Pureness2 will bring to the table.

[Via: Electricpig.co.uk]

Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Northeast Securities, is now the butt of all my “people who work in this industry who have no clue what they’re talking about” jokes. This time last month he told The Street that Google will be releasing their own Android device, only to be burned a few days later by the head of Android Porject, Andy Rubin, who said “we’re not making hardware, we’re enabling others to build hardware”. Kumar now has new information, and I’m being a total idiot for linking to it, but here it goes:

• Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will be releasing a Google branded handset that has unlimited free calls powered by Google Voice and the recent Gizmo5 acquisition
• This handset will have a “large touchscreen display” and will have a processor “nearly twice as fast as the iPhone 3GS”
• It will “probably” run a new version of Android called Flan
• The device will “probably” be built by HTC and have a Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) processor inside

At this point in time you may proceed to slap your forehead.

If Google ever released their own mobile device, which they’re not going to, they would be alienating handset makers.

If Google ever released their own mobile device with unlimited free calls, which they’re not going to, they would be alienating handset makers and operators.

Will there be a version of Android called Flan? Absolutely, Andy Rubin already talked about, and he confirmed it will support advanced 3D graphics.

Will there be an Android device, built by HTC, with a processor from Qualcomm that is nearly twice as fast as the iPhone 3GS? Yes. Just take the HTC HD2, which has a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor inside, compared to the 600 MHz processor inside the iPhone 3GS, slap the latest version of Android on it, and there is your mythical Google Phone.

What next Ashok Kumar? Are you going to tell people that the next version of Android, the one after Flan, will be called Gelato and it is going to power the new Google Phone? It’s going to be 4 times faster than the iPhone 3GS, has the ability to tell you where the nearest café serving a hot steaming cup of decaffeinated “shut the fuck up” is, and best of all adds the ability to purchase said cup of coffee with Google Checkout!

Previously, there were rumours that Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)’s X1 would get an update to Windows Mobile 6.5 after a supposed leaked ROM hit xda-developers. Well, sources close to the matter are apparently dashing those hopes, saying that no official update is actually in the works. Considering the X1 already has a customized user interface, you aren’t really missing out on the facelift, and Marketplace is coming to 6.1 anyway, so the only substantial feature X1 owners won’t be enjoying is My Phone. Big loss? Not really.

[via CNET]

The upcoming Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Kurara, which got a brief glimpse of last week, just got an extensive review. This is clearly Sony Ericsson’s competitor to Samsung’s OmniaHD i8910, and meets the challenge on a few levels, such as processor (Cortex A8) and camera (8 megapixels), but the display loses a few points for not being AMOLED. The Symbian-based OS is similar to the Satio, complete with Facebook and Twitter integration, but the reviewer’s final conclusion is that this handset’s success will depend entirely on the price point – there’s not a lot of innovation going on, but a 300 Euro price point would likely be enough to win over a few folks. Even with the pricetag taken into account, I’m not sure why anyone would pick up the U5 over the X10…

[via Mobile-Review]

My bud David at TMoNews has managed to get his hands on what looks to be a holiday pricing guide. Please note I’ve filed this under ‘rumors’ for now. I’ve heard mixed reports of these deals actually becoming available… so lets let this ’shake down’ until we get to the bottom of it.

Take a gander at the list above for all of the rumored goodness. Moto CLIQ for $50? I’ll take 2. BlackBerry Bold 9700 for $50? I would have taken 3, but it looks like I missed the sale by a day. How about the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Curve 8520 for $25 following Christmas? Yessir! Looks like the ‘biggie’ for the holidays is going to be the Motorola CLIQ, which goes back on sale December 21st through 24th for $50. Awesome.

Note: Apparently these prices are available on all rate plans. New 2-year activations qualify as well, but the customer must be eligible for the discounted rate.

The Chinese mobile market is ever interesting. Now that all carriers have rolled out 3G, it’s time to build a differentiating portfolios. China Unicom is known to carry the iPhone, China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) is betting big on their flavor of Android – OPhone, and China Telecom… well, they seem to work to get some Palm (NSDQ: PALM) and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) devices ’till the end of this year or early 2010, according to a Reuters source.

RIM already sells some of its devices in the world’s fastest growing economy, whereas Palm is a virgin when it comes to China. For them [Palm], unveiling the Pre and Pixi would certainly be beneficial and would help the once proud Treo maker get some decent numbers its shareholders desperately want. Moreover, if Palm does get in, it should establish a developer portal to spur webOS app development. There’s a plan!

[Via: Engadget]

Looks like Bell is getting ready to crank up the Holiday Promo Machine. According to a report over at MobileSyrup, on December 1st Bell will unveil a new ‘Skullcandy Mash Up Package’. The package will be available anyone willing to sign a new 3-year sentence, er, contract with Bell.

So what do you get? Well, for $69.95 you’ll get to choose one of the following packages:

• Red and white Samsung Vice with matching red/white Skullcandy Lowrider headset
• Black Samsung Vice with matching chrome/black Skullcandy Lowrider headset

I should also note that each package will come with 10 free Sony music downloads, to help you workout those new Skullcandy headsets.

Side Note: Check out the new Skullcandy NBA Player Series headsets, coming soon… Neat-o.