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Sprint customers won't be the only ones to get their hands on the RIM BlackBerry Torch 9850, as U.S. Cellular revealed today that the all-touch-screen BlackBerry will be available starting August 26 for $199.99 with a purchase of a data plan and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

The Torch 9850 has a 3.7-inch, an 800x480-pixel touch screen, a 1.2GHz processor, and a 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capture. It's also running the latest BlackBerry OS 7 software, so you'll get such enhancements as better graphics, faster Web browser, and BBM 6.

To … Read more

U.S. Cellular customers looking for a prepaid account will now have two more phones to choose from: the Samsung Gem and the HTC Merge.

The angular, black plastic Gem is a full touch-screen Android 2.2 Froyo handset. It has a 3.2-inch screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and it'll cost $139.99.

The heavier HTC Merge has metal accents, also runs Android 2.2, has a 3.8-inch touch screen, a 5-megapixel camera, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and dual-SIM mode for world travel. It costs $299.99.

U.S. Cellular's prepaid plans range from $40 to $… Read more

More than a month after we got our first surprise peek at the Samsung Series 3, a new mainstream line of Samsung laptops that included some very attractive and affordable 12- and 11-inch ultraportables, the 12.5-inch version of the Series 3 has arrived at CNET's offices. We've taken it out of its box and will be running it through benchmarks and testing it, but for now here are our initial impressions.

Ultrabook, schmultrabook: why pay a lot of money for a thin laptop if you can get one for cheaper? While the Series 3 isn't technically an "Ultrabook" by Intel's definitions--it's thicker and uses a regular non-solid-state hard drive--this little laptop reminds us a lot of the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s. It's nearly the same size and weight and has the same-size screen and keyboard, but features an even faster processor. … Read more

Let's cut to the chase. U.S. Cellular's Samsung Character is an affordable slide-out QWERTY messaging phone with the kind of traits that place it in the teenage camp. Running Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz Lite interface, its home screens are ruled by widgets, and its apps by texting and music. There is one extra feature I like, but I'd like it more if it showed up as a widget. Watch the video above and read my full review for more on the Samsung Character.

Look, it's a phone that makes calls! U.S. Cellular has not forgotten the lowly basic flip phone with the LG Envoy, which went up for sale today for only $9.99. It doesn't have too many features going for it aside from dual displays, a VGA camera, Bluetooth, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, simple WAP browsing, and that's about it. Hey, sometimes that's all you need from a phone, especially if you're trying to save some cash.

Most folks only think of propane as the gas that fires their grill, but the clean-burning fuel has become an alternative for municipalities looking to save money.

According to the Department of Energy, propane is considered clean-running because it releases 20 to 40 percent less carbon monoxide and about 80 percent less particulate matter than gasoline. The Department of Energy is funding programs around the U.S. to introduce cleaner government fleet vehicles.

This week, for example, dual-fueled patrol cars that run on propane and gasoline have rolled out of two North Carolina police departments as a cost-cutting measure, reported … Read more

If you're of the school of cell phone design that leans toward messaging cell phones with full QWERTY keyboards, U.S. Cellular's newest phone is meant for you.

The Samsung Character, released today, features a 2.8-inch QVGA touch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and of course, Bluetooth support. There's also an onboard music player.

The Character runs on Samsung's custom TouchWiz Lite interface, with three home screens. It costs $39.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, and is available in blue and gray.

When we hear "File-Sharing,", we tend to think of P2P, Torrenting, or even cloud services. Services like DropBox, Fetch.IO, and MegaUpload all support file storage and sharing in some way or another but require a number of steps, such as registration, browsing files, labeling... a process that can easily become messy and time-consuming. Instead, Carl Hu and John Xie strive to remind us of the good ol' days of grade school back when sharing was considered fun, fast, and easy. Their philosophy gave birth to Minus, a Web application that makes sharing files so simple that even … Read more

The LG Cosmos Touch has arrived for U.S. Cellular in the form of the LG Attune. It's essentially the same phone but with a slightly different button layout and it comes in a red color scheme instead.

It has a 2.8-inch touch screen, a four-row QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, GPS, and microSD support for up to 16GB cards. The LG Attune is meant as a basic messaging phone with a touch-screen interface. It's available now for $49.99 after a $50 rebate and a two-year contract. A data plan is required with the … Read more