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HTC Droid Eris

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

When it rains it pours. On Thursday, Verizon Wireless opened the floodgates and unleashed a handful of cell phones and smartphones that should make their way into your hands just in time for the holiday shopping season. It looks like there's a little something for everyone, so let us know which you are most excited about in our comments section.

Here is a roundup of all of today's news:

Verizon's Droid Eris offers Android for less
Verizon introduces BlackBerry Curve 8530
LG Chocolate Touch is now official
Samsung's Convoy goes rugged
Verizon offers prepaid wireless for laptops

LG Chocolate Touch

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

We've been waiting for months for Verizon to finally unveil the latest in the line of LG Chocolate phones, and it's here at last. The LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 is officially available today, making it the first touch-screen version of the Chocolate phone lineup. As we suspected, it's very different from the LG BL40 and looks a lot more like the other LG touch-screen handsets we've seen, like the LG Dare for example.

The Chocolate Touch continues the Chocolate tradition of music-specialized phones, with music features like the Dolby Mobile equalizer, an FM radio, integrated song ID, stereo Bluetooth, and even a unique "Join the Band" feature that lets you play around with a full drum kit and a scrolling 88-key keyboard. Other features include quick access to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, EV-DO Rev. 0, a full HTML browser, and a 3.2-megapixel camera with settings like intelligent shot (for improved quality) and panorama shot (for three guided sequential shots).

The phone is available now for $79.99 with a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year agreement. The rebate will be in the form of a debit card.

The Android onslaught continues with the announcement of Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 and the rumors of Verizon's HTC Droid Eris. Though we will get to see the Droid Eris in our hot little hands--and for the bargain price of $99--the X10 may never see life in North America. We're not thrilled that the Moto Droid skimped on the finger-pinching multitouch. Also in the podcast, Nicole talks rips on the Twitter Peek.

Xperia X10

(Credit: Sony Ericsson)

Rumor of the week
Leaked docs confirm Droid Eris details: November 6, $99

News
Verizon to raise ETF for "advanced devices"
Android and iPhone price plan comparison
Xperia X10 drawing new lines in Android battle
Motorola Milestone is GSM Droid LG Chocolate Touch to drop on November 5?
HTC HD2 coming to a U.S. carrier in early 2010
Does cell phone design still matter?

Reviews
Samsung Freeform
Samsung Caliber
Sony Ericsson Equinox

Upcoming reviews
Cricket Captr
Twitter Peek
Samsung Code
Nokia 3711

LG's VX8575 Chocolate Touch is no BL40.

(Credit: Phone Arena)

We've seen leaked photos of the elusive LG VX8575 Chocolate Touch before, but nothing as clear and close up as these pics on PhoneArena. Unfortunately, it does seem like Verizon's version of the Chocolate Touch will look nothing like the luscious LG BL40 that the Europeans are getting this fall.

PhoneArena's source mentioned that apparently a few focus groups didn't care so much for the BL40 and so we got stuck with this scaled-down version (thanks a lot, "focus groups").

Still, it doesn't look too bad. It looks to have a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3.5-mm headset jack, an HTML browser, and a music player. We're still waiting for this thing to become official, which probably won't take long, and we'll get you all the official specs, pricing, and availability once that happens.

Much has been made about the elongated touch-screen beauty that is the LG BL40 Chocolate phone. It has a really nice 4-inch display with the 21:9 wide-screen ratio, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and lots more--you can read CNET UK's early hands-on with the BL40 to get more details.

But we haven't talked much about the BL40's lesser sibling, the LG BL20. The LG BL20 looks a little like a stretched LG KG800. It appears to have a very impressive display, as well as a sliding keypad and tons of cool features like a 5-megapixel camera, TextScan--which lets you capture images of notes--and a "widget hot key" that lets you view widgets, like news and the weather. Sadly, LG has kept the touch-sensitive navigation pad that annoyed us to no end in the KG800. The BL20 even has a "smooth side touch control," which brings the touch-sensitivity over to the side controls as well. Maybe the touch-control implementation on the BL20 is better than we think, but we won't hold our breath on that one.

We don't know too much about the phone's release date or pricing, but LG has at least seen it fit to release the official promo video for the LG BL20 seen above. No word on if it'll ever make its way Stateside, but rumors have persisted over Verizon's own next-generation LG Chocolate. Could this be it? We'll see later this fall.

(Via Engadget Mobile)

LG Chocolate Touch? Maybe?

(Credit: Engadget Mobile)

Engadget Mobile has received this leaked photo of what looks like the LG Chocolate Touch for Verizon, and wouldn't you know it, it doesn't look at all like the LG BL40 that the Europeans are all getting this fall. No giant 4-inch display, no 21:9 aspect ratio, that's for sure. Which makes us wonder if this truly is the LG Chocolate Touch, or if it's some other LG phone.

But since we're used to not getting the pretty European models, we wouldn't be surprised if this really is the Chocolate Touch that we were waiting for. Seeing as the holiday season is coming up, we'll probably know soon enough what the LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 truly looks like.

At its global launch in central London, the latest Black Label phone from LG broke its cover. The Chocolate BL40 is a 5-megapixel fashion phone with an ultra-wide 800x345-pixel LCD touch-screen display. And despite the number of unusual (and unneeded) models here to glam-up its christening, we're feeling cautiously impressed.

You'll remember that this was the phone we all thought looked too long and enormous to believe comfortable, but it's actually quite compact--like an iPod Nano, only thicker and a bit heavier. Its 4.1-inch-thick capacitive touch screen is responsive too, with rich colors and a tight pixel density that produces crisp menus and images. It feels solid and well-built, too.

LG Chocolate BL40 hands-on -- photos

Its menu system works--sadly--like the LG Arena's, but the enormously wide screen allows the phone to present its contents more intuitively. For example, when browsing the text messaging menu, the people you've been chatting with appear in a list down the left half of the screen. But when you tap one of their names, their messages to you appear in a window on the right-hand half of the screen--it's like using a computer with two monitors. You'll see a photo illustrating this in the gallery above.

In terms of specifications, the BL40's 5-megapixel camera is only backed up with a simple LED flash. To be brutally honest, for a phone set to be used in clubs and bars, a Xenon flash would've been an epic win in terms of design. But it's got a proper 3.5mm headphone socket for listening to MP3s; a 7.2Mbps HSPDA data connection for downloading them; support for MPEG-4, DivX, and Xvid video formats; Wi-Fi; stereo Bluetooth; and A-GPS--all excellent strings to have on your phone's bow.

Now, we only spent half an hour with the phone in our hands, and that's by no means long enough to use as a basis for recommendation. But at this early stage the BL40 is looking like the smartest, and the most attractive, of LG's Black Label phones and we're seriously looking forward to getting one in-house for a full review.

It'll launch on Orange in the next two or three weeks, but no word yet on when or if it will make its way to the U.S.

(Source: Crave UK)

No iPhone 3GS for Verizon, but the Omnia 2 is due to hit stores shortly.

(Credit: Samsung)

Since we posted a First Take of Samsung's Omnia 2 back in June, a lot of readers have been asking when Verizon would actually begin selling it. Well, according to the good folks over at the Boy Genius Report (who have a "trusted mole" at Best Buy Mobile), the much-anticipated iPhone pretender will be launching August 23, along with several other phones from different carriers.

Here's the complete list that leaked:

• Omnia 2 (Verizon)
• Global AirCard G2 (Verizon)
• Samsung Rogue (Verizon)
• LG Chocolate Touch (Verizon)
• Samsung u450 Intensity (Verizon)
• Samsung Gravity 2 (T-Mobile)
• Samsung Solstice (AT&T)
• LG Xenon (AT&T)
• BlackBerry Tour (new shipment--Sprint)

More:

Omnia 2 complete specs
Omnia 2 clears FCC

(Source: Gizmodo via Boy Genius Report)

Now that the LG BL40 Chocolate is official, LG has released this promotional video of the LG BL40 that shows you how to really use the long phone to surf the Web, check your e-mail, and watch your favorite movies or TV shows. We've also confirmed a few more specs on the LG BL40--not only will it have the 4-inch scratchproof display, it also boasts Wi-Fi, an Active Flash UI, a dual-screen UI (so you can have two different content types on the same screen), 7.2 mbps HSDPA, A-GPS with maps and turn-by-turn direction, a 5-megapixel camera with flash, e-mail, multitouch capability, and lots more. The video above also shows that the LG BL40 has "one-touch copy and paste," which seems to be heavily influenced by the iPhone. We're also excited to see that the LG BL40 has been approved by the FCC recently--does that mean it's coming stateside any time soon? We can only hope for now.

(via Gizmodo)