Crave

Perhaps you have already become used to Verizon's Droid tossing names at the iPhone like an 8-year-old boy behind his teacher's back.

However, the latest ill feelings directed at Apple's little cutey seem beyond even anything heard in an elementary school.

In a new TV spot, Droid asks an important question: "Should a phone be pretty?" To which many sane people would say "yes," and many emotionally challenged beings made of metal would say, "Huh? What?"

Its answer--the latest in its presentation of the Droid as a robotphone--is to hurl metallic-tasting custard pies as if the Apple store was a state fair.

"Should it be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?" belches the ad's rhetoric, clearly referencing the iPhone, while wrapping the pie in a question.

I know many Socratically-inclined Apple fanpersons will object to the notion that beauty is only skin deep. But they will surely rail against the mere suggestion that the iPhone is digitally clueless.

Of course, this ad implicitly suggests that the Droid is, well, one of Cinderella's sisters, which might well affect its abilities to entice certain sectors of the populace.

Actually, the suggestion is more than implicit, for the deeply hirsute voice declares: "Is it a precious porcelain figurine of a phone? In truth, no."

So do you wait for a design that is pretty and is, as this ad so elegantly puts it, "racehorse duct-taped to a Scud missile fast" or do you have to compromise?

I know they say you can't have everything in life, but surely there must be some very attractive engineer out there who can give us everything in a few square inches of cell phone.

Nokia N97

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

The smartphone space has grown extremely competitive over the past couple of years, and though in a numbers race Nokia continues to sell more smartphones than its competitors, particularly overseas, the Finnish handset manufacturer is slowly losing its grip on the top spot.

Realizing the changing landscape, Nokia announced on Thursday that it will reduce its smartphone portfolio by half in 2010 in order to put more research and development into the products that it does put out. The company released around 20 smartphones in 2009, including the Nokia E71x, the Nokia N97, and the Nokia N86.

"We have cut down unnecessary differentiation, so that we have a far more focused portfolio for next year," said Antti Vasara, head of Nokia's smartphones research-and-development department.

Though Nokia's devices offer high-end features, the company has been criticized for churning out too many models with minimal variation among them. In addition, many (customers and tech reviewers alike) have criticized the Symbian operating system, which runs on a majority of Nokia's smartphones, for being outdated and lagging behind the competition, though it looks like the OS is working on a major face lift. The Linux-based Maemo platform, demoed on the Nokia N900, could also be a key player and differentiator for the company.

One big barrier for the adoption of Nokia devices here in the United States has been cost. Often passed up by U.S. carriers, the smartphones can cost anywhere from $200 to $650 and while the freedom of an unlocked phone is attractive, shelling out that much money upfront for a phone often overshadows any of the benefits. However, part of Nokia's plan is to push smartphone prices down.

"We see...really fierce competition certainly in the high end, but we also see it in the mid-to-low end of smartphones increasing," said Jo Harlow, the new head of Nokia's smartphone unit. "We will defend our position, but we believe we also have tools to play offense as well as defense."

Well, OK then, Nokia. Let's play ball.

(Sources: Reuters, Engadget Mobile)

Kent kicks off the podcast this week by reminding our dear listeners that Verizon iPhone rumors are just rumors. Until Steve Jobs says differently, he's not ready to believe a thing. New New Yorker Bonnie is taking the week off, but Nicole signs on to give her take on Android fragmentation, a costly new LG phone and the quality a Rock for Verizon.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Rumor of the week
Verizon iPhone rumors are just rumors

News
Moto Cliq gets software update
AT&T Voicemail to text
Google Maps Navigation arrives for Android 1.6
Differentiation leads to fragmented, confused Android
Developers want a better Android Market
Project with the powerful LG Expo
Casio G'zOne Rock
Kyocera spills three new handsets
Nokia slides out two new sliders
Motorola's iDEN i410
On Call: All about the Droid

Reviews
Prizefight: Samsung Behold II vs. HTC Droid Eris
Pantech Impact
Samsung Omnia II
Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito

Upcoming reviews
Sony Ericsson Aino
Casio G'zOne Rock
LG Shine II
Nokia N900

The Curve 8900 is just a penny.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

Service contracts may chain you to a wireless carrier for up to two years, but they also can save you some serious cash when you're buying a new cell phone. And since carriers love holding on to their customers, they're quick to offer free phones of all types. Some handsets will just make calls, but others will offer media players, cameras, Web browsers, and full keyboards for messaging.

If you're looking for a phone that won't put a dent in your wallet, CNET has pulled together a list of free phones from the major carriers. Prices can change frequently, but these handsets are free with a service contract at the time of this writing. Admittedly, AT&T's RIM BlackBerry Curve will actually cost a penny, but I thought it deserved a place on this list anyway.

To help you make the best choice I've also thrown in a link to the CNET review for each phone. Most of our reviews should also offer you a link to buy your handset, though you may need to visit the carrier site to get the very latest price.

AT&T
LG CF630 (blue and red) LG Neon
Motorola EM330
Nokia 2600
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900
Samsung Magnet
Samsung SGH-A237 (red and blue)
Sony Ericsson W518a

T-Mobile
Motorola V195s
Mototola W490 (bubble gum pink and heather grape)
Nokia 5310 (orange and red)
Samsung Comeback (pearl white plum)
Samsung Gravity (aqua)
Samsung Highlight (fire and ice)
Samsung SGH-T639
Samsung SGH-T819
Sony Ericsson TM506 (emerald)

Verizon Wireless
Motorola Rival (silver and purple)
Motorola VU204
Motorola W755 (black slate)
Nokia 2605
Samsung Intensity (flamingo red)
Samsung Smooth
Samsung Sway
Verizon Wireless CDM8950

Sprint
LG Rumor2
Samsung Reclaim (green)
Samsung SPH-M330
Sanyo SCP-2700 (impulsive pink)
LG LX370
Sanyo Katana LX (elegant pink)
Sanyo SCP-3810 (red)
Motorola i776 (silver)

(Credit: HP)

This post was updated on 11/24, 12:33 p.m., PT with pricing after rebate.

Well, here's a name we haven't heard in the smartphone space for a while, HP. The company announced on Tuesday the upcoming availability of its latest smartphone, the HP iPaq Glisten, which will arrive in the "coming weeks" for AT&T and cost $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Designed with business users in mind, the iPaq Glisten runs Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Edition and features a 2.5-inch AMOLED touch screen as well as a full QWERTY keyboard. The smartphone also offers 3G support (UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

Despite the business focus, you do get a 3.1-megapixel camera with HP Photosmart Mobile software for editing photos. A Facebook app is also preloaded on the device so you can upload photos directly to the social-networking site or post them to the Web via Snapfish.

Other highlights include Voice Commander software, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 32GB of expandable memory (256MB SDRAM/512MB Flash), and a high-capacity 1590 lithium ion user-replaceable battery.

The HP iPaq Glisten will be sold through AT&T business channels, HP, and third-party online retailers.

Samsung Omnia II

(Credit: Samsung)

On Monday, Verizon Wireless announced that it will offer the Samsung Omnia II starting December 2 for $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

First introduced in early June, the Omnia II will take over for its predecessor, the Samsung Omnia, and brings a number of enhancements and new features, such as a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED touch screen and Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Edition.

The Omnia II will sport Samsung's TouchWiz interface, allowing you to customize the home screen with various widgets and shortcuts and includes a similar 3D cube interface like the Samsung Behold II. In addition, Samsung has included a virtual QWERTY keyboard with Swype technology, which allows you to input text with a continuous swiping motion onscreen. (Check out a video demo here.)

Other goodies of the Samsung Omnia II include a 5-megapixel camera, support for DivX and Xvid movie files, 8GB of internal memory (expandable up to 16GB), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Opera 9.5.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Last Sunday, Palm and Sprint released their second WebOS device together, the Palm Pixi, for $99.99 with a two-year contract.

In the grand scheme of things, $100 for a smartphone is a pretty darn good deal, but when you consider the fact that there are other products out there with more power and more features (for example, Wi-Fi) for the same price or lower, it makes the Pixi look foolish. Fortunately, thanks to third-party retailers, you can now get the entry-level smartphone for much less.

Both Amazon and Wal-Mart have lowered the price of the Palm Pixi by 75 percent, so now the smartphone is only $24.99. You will still need to sign up for a two-year service agreement, but it's certainly a much more enticing offer. In addition, the Palm Pre is now available from Amazon for $79.99, which is $70 less than Sprint's price.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

From left, the Incognito, Torino, and Domino.

(Credit: Kyocera)

Just as the holiday shopping season is reaching its peak, Kyocera on Friday dished out three new cell phones that offer midrange features in varying designs.

The Kyocera Torino S2300 is a squat candy bar phone with a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. The feature set offers 3G, Bluetooth 2.0, a megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, and threaded text messaging.

The Kyocera Domino S1310 has a simple candy bar design in bright orange. Inside are Bluetooth 2.0, a WAP 2.0 browser, support for BREW, text and instant messaging, a personal organizer, and a speakerphone.

Kyocera also introduced a new handset under the Sanyo brand. The SCP-6760 Incognito is a candy bar phone that opens to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The style is similar to Kyocera's Wild Card, except it appears to be a bit more refined. Features include a 2.2 display, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, threaded text messaging, instant messaging and e-mail, a speakerphone, voice dialing, USB mass storage, a 2.5 mm headset jack, and BREW support.

The Incognito will be first out of the gate with a November 30 launch date for Sprint. The Domino will follow in December and the Torino will go on sale next February.

Starting Friday, Verizon Wireless customers can purchase the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 in stores and online for $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

As the CDMA kin to the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520, the Curve 8530 is more of an entry-level device so you won't find some of the higher-end features found on the BlackBerry Tour, such as world roaming capabilities and a high-resolution display.

However, the Curve 8530 certainly brings some worthy upgrades to the aging Curve 8330, including a next-gen processor, an optical trackpad, and dedicated media controls, and one key feature that even the Tour lacks: integrated Wi-Fi.

On paper, it seems RIM has another crowd-pleaser on its hands, but we have some reservations about the phone's design and Verizon also happens to have another capable messaging smartphone in its lineup, the HTC Ozone, which offers the same features plus world roaming and costs $50 less.

RIM shipped us a Curve 8530 to check out, but it didn't include all the software that would ship on the final version, so we'll hold off on posting a review and verdict till we get a final product. In the meantime, however, you can read some of our first impressions in our hands-on photo gallery below and get a better 360 view of the phone in our First Look video. Stay tuned for more.

Verizon RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 (photos)