Cell phones

Velocity Mobile ships first smartphone

Five months ago at the main CTIA show in Las Vegas, Velocity Mobile made its debut. The new company, which brought together a firm called Inventec plus a host of wireless industry veterans, promised to jump headfirst into the competitive smartphone market with a host of original models. At the time, we were quite excited by not only the promise of a new player in cell phone land, but also by its innovative recasting of Windows Mobile.

Now as CTIA Fall 2008 begins on Wednesday, the company announced that it would start shipping its first smartphone, the Velocity 103. Sporting … Read more

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 gets September launch date, but not in U.S.

Why? Why must you tease, Sony Ericsson? On Wednesday, the cell phone manufacturer announced an official launch date for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, but only for certain markets. Naturally, North America is not one of the lucky ones. No, only the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden will be able to get their hands on the hot Xperia X1 come September 30, while the rest of us admire from afar and continue to wait it out.

Sony Ericsson did say that the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone will make its way to other markets across Europe, Asia, and Latin America … Read more

Yahoo announces social networking app for iPhone

Updated at 3:50 p.m. PDT with further detail and information about Blueprint programming tools for mobile devices.

SAN FRANCISCO--Yahoo on Wednesday released a preview version of a free new iPhone application called OneConnect that can centralize communications and social-networking activity.

"OneConnect allows everybody to keep connected to the persons they care about. It's a socially connected address book," said said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Yahoo Connected Life, in a speech here at the CTIA Wireless show. "The address book now comes to life."

Yahoo is racing against Google and others to bring … Read more

Virgin Mobile Shuttle is the carrier's first 3G handset

Virgin Mobile and Personal Communications Devices (formerly known as UTStarcom) have announced the Shuttle, the carrier's first-ever 3G handset. Equipped with EV-DO, GPS, and a slew of high-end features, the Shuttle is one of the first signs of Virgin's Helio acquisition, in that it is enriching its rather basic lineup with strong full-featured devices previously associated with Helio.

Indeed, the Shuttle will feature Virgin Mobile's first location-based services from uLocate, like Buddy Beacon, a friend-finder application found previously on Helio phones, as well as Where, an application that delivers local information such as nearby events and restaurants. … Read more

Sprint Nextel debuts Motorola i576

Have no fear, iDEN fans, Sprint remains committed to your beloved network. On Wednesday as the CTIA Fall 2008 show opened in San Francisco, Sprint announced a new iDEN-only phone with the Motorola i576. It should be the first of four new iDEN-only phones promised before the end of the year.

Positioned as an i570 replacement, the i576 sports a flip phone design with all the rugged packaging Nextel loyalists have come to love. That means it will stand up to the usual military specifications for rain, dust, solar radiation...and shooting it out of a cannon.

Inside you'll … Read more

Sprint first to offer HTC Touch Pro

Unlike last week's slip up, Sprint managed to keep this bit of news under wraps and announced on the opening day of CTIA Fall 2008 that it will offer the HTC Touch Pro starting October 19. The ultimate replacement for the Sprint HTC Mogul, the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone will go for $299.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates.

The Touch Pro is similar to the HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint but has three major differences: 1) the smartphone features a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard; 2) it has expandable memory; and 3) the 3.2-megapixel camera … Read more

Samsung on a Rant

Is it just us, or is this deja vu? If we didn't know any better, we've seen one of Sprint's newest cell phones before. The Samsung Rant, which Sprint introduced Wednesday as CTIA Fall 2008 began, looks a lot like the year-old LG Rumor. It has same basic candy-bar shape with similar dimensions (4.5 inches by 2.1 inches by 0.7 inch) and it sports a full QWERTY keyboard hidden that's hidden behind the sliding face. And like the Rumor, the Rant is aimed directly at messaging addicts.

So what gives? Has Sprint run … Read more

Hands-on with Sprint's new LG Lotus

Sprint and LG have just announced the LG Lotus, a messaging phone with a foldout QWERTY keyboard. The Lotus is the official moniker for the rumored LG LX600, which we mentioned on Crave a few weeks ago. It's one of the first Sprint devices to offer One Click, a customizable user interface that lets you organize up to eight shortcut tiles right on the landing screen.

The LG Lotus will have EV-DO support, which means it has access to Sprint's broadband and entertainment services such as Sprint TV, the Sprint Music Store, and a host of other streaming … Read more

Samsung hits a Highnote

Samsung has been spinning out new cell phones left and right since the start of the month, but it is using the CTIA fall 2008 show to showcase its newest and flashiest models.

One of its most promising handsets is the new Samsung Highnote for Sprint. Positioned as a music phone to replace the Samsung Upstage and the LG Muziq, the Highnote offers all the usual comforts of a Sprint music phone including access to the Sprint Music Store. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera, a 262,000-color display, a 3.5mm headset jack (yay!), support for Sprint's 3G … Read more