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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/design/The_IPhone_Killer_9′; Mmm, touchscreens. Expansive, gorgeous touchscreens. That pretty much sums up our initial impressions after taking one hard look at James Piatt’s Plica concept. As you can tell, this foldable cellie opens up to reveal a pair of touchscreens just begging to be used for web browsing, texting and photo viewing. There’s also a mini-USB port and a headphone jack, though we’d certainly be interested to see how he plans on slipping a battery in there that lasts more than a hour or two. Can we get a major handset manufacturer to look in this direction — pretty please?

[Via gadgetell]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Fired up to capitalize on some of the hype Sprint has managed to drum up for the Instinct down in the States, Samsung’s taking its iPhone fighter north of the border for a promised intro later this summer. Bell Mobility is the lucky partner (seriously, Telus, you probably should’ve hustled Samsung a little harder for this one), launching at price points ranging from $149.95 up to $449.95 for a three-year contract all the way down to zero commitment. Features and software look like they’re all carrying over from their stateside cousin, although the UI’s looking just a little bit less Sprint-ified (read: no yellow tinge). Nice.

[Via MobileSyrup]

Update: There are rumors that Telus is slated to pick it up, too, but we haven’t seen anything solid just yet. We’ll let you know.

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Shoot, all Motorola had to do was change from pink mahogany to this nice, normal, compliant shade of black, and that would’ve been enough of an update to justify a model name change. There’s more, though: the V9x will officially offer AT&T Navigator, the Telenav-powered navigation system already found on the Z9, and we can see from these press shots that it’ll even work on the secondary display, which is pretty trick. This appears to be the same update that we’d originally heard would drop way back in January, which means we can likely expect Video Share support as well. Take a stroll on over to Engadget Mobile for the full gallery.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The question on quite literally every WinMo fanatic’s mind as we go into the second half of the year here is, “Touch Pro or X1?” It’s not an easy question to answer, and anyone hoping to sink some cash on either one of these models in a few months is going to want to do so with a crap-ton of research and anecdotal information under their belts lest the buyer’s remorse set in particularly quickly. MobileBurn scored an early look at the Touch Pro — which won’t be available at retail for a month or three yet — and came away impressed with the all-important keyboard, saying that it was “much more” usable than the QWERTY found on Sony Ericsson’s rival superphone. Closed, it’s said to be virtually indistingushable from the Touch Diamond (which we’d say is a good thing) other than being a bit thicker to accomodate they keyboard and picking up a matte-finish rear cover. Unfortunately, HTC refused to show off the Touch Pro’s interface — apparently on account of some new tricks up TouchFLO 3D’s sleeve that haven’t already made their way into the Touch Diamond — but they did share that the new model will handle landscape mode with particular aplomb. So this one might have the X1 beat in the keyboard department, but the X1’s WVGA display takes the crown for sheer pixel count. Decisions!

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Though they’ve already been well documented (heck, they’re already on sale in some parts of the world), Nokia’s just now getting around to making its foursome of Supernovas official. The new line reps mid-range fashion (think L’Amour, but not over the top) and comes in your choice of two candybars, a flip, or a slider as the 7210, 7310, 7510, or 7610, respectively. The 7210 features a tri-band GSM radio plus EDGE, a 2 megapixel camera, and an FM radio; look for it to launch in the third quarter for €120 (about $189). The 7310 apes the 7210’s look but adds support for changeable Xpress-On faceplates, TV-out, and support for GSM 850, and while all that extra kit adds €35 (about $55) to the price over the lesser model, it’s available now. The 7510 goes for the flip form factor but carries over most of the 7310’s spec sheet, waiting it out until the fourth quarter for a €180 (about $283) launch in scary colors like “Fatal Red”. Finally, the 7610 (no, not that one) moves up to a beefier 3.2 megapixel camera and hits next quarter for €225 (about $354).

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Who would’ve thought that rumored iControl app would not only turn out to be real, but survive the inevitable internal politics, delays, and feature cutbacks to make it all the way through to a summer release? Sure enough, iTunes 7.7 has been pushed out to developers in the past several hours, and the installer encourages iPhone and iPod touch owners to “use the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store.” No further details are given — and it’s not clear whether the “iControl” name seen earlier has been scrapped altogether — but we can guess that it’ll use WiFi to hook up with your mainframe, which really makes the idea of an AirPort Express appealing all over again.

On another note, Apple has released Beta 8 of the iPhone SDK and is using the occasion to kick off acceptances of applications to the real, live App Store in preparation for its July 11 launch. It appears that Beta 8 is actually required to complete the process, so don’t go jumping the gun now — goodness knows the rest of the iPhone-toting world doesn’t want your half-baked apps in a couple weeks, you shady developer, you.

Read - iPhone / iTunes Remote app
Read - Applications to App Store now being accepted

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Looks like Sprint’s gargantuan marketing blitz for the Instinct is in the process of paying off, because the carrier has announced that the Samsung device has become its best-selling EV-DO device ever in the first week of availability. Long-term popularity will depend largely on word of mouth as early adopters decide whether they made the right purchase, of course, but it’s a promising sign for a company that hasn’t had a ton of good news to report lately. They’re reporting that the overwhelming popularity has led to shortages in some areas, but go on to assure us that “Samsung has increased efforts to deliver new supplies of Instinct on a daily basis and manufacturing plants are operating at full capacity to keep up with the demand.” Here’s our question, though: Sprint makes a point of saying that it’s their best-selling EV-DO device, so what’s their best-selling device regardless of technology — the Sony Z-100, perhaps, also known as the baddest cellphone of all time?

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As expected, T-Mobile has taken the wraps off its very own version of Motorola’s ROKR E8, a glossy black candybar offering a 2 megapixel camera, 2GB of internal storage (plus a microSD slot that’ll swallow up to 8GB more), stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio, and that so-called “morphing” keypad that selectively renders keys invisible depending on the mode you’re using. It’s missing 3G, but that’s one feature T-Mobile customers are all too well acquainted to missing out on — and considering that the just-announced flagship ZN5 doesn’t even do any WCDMA, it shouldn’t come as any surprise. Subscribers and would-be subscribers will be able to nab the E8 come July 7 for $199.99 on contract.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Are we taking a shot of the 8.1 megapixel Sony Ericsson C905 here, or is it taking a shot of us? Find out the answers to these burning questions and much, much more as we take a quick peek at the C905 alongside the Z780 and the mighty XPERIA X1 over on Engadget Mobile!

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Hints of Motorola’s new MOTOZINE series of devices have gone back as far as last year, but today marks the first time that Moto’s officially spilled any beans on the goods. The headlining feature on the first model, the ZN5 candybar, lies on the backside: a 5-megapixel sensor courtesy of a partnership with Kodak, featuring autofocus, a xenon flash, image stitching, and on-device integration with Kodak Gallery. Otherwise, you get WiFi (score), Motorola’s so-called “ModeShift” technology for morphing the keypad depending on device mode (a la the E8), and a run-of-the-mill quadband GSM radio with EDGE. China’s the first country to get the hookup starting next month, but Moto expects to take the ZN5 on a world tour over the course of the remainder of the year.

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Unless you’re very, very special, you haven’t yet had an opportunity to run your hands over Openmoko’s latest open-source creation, the FreeRunner, which was announced several months back with the hope of a spring release. Unlike the Neo1973 before it, the FreeRunner’s said to be chock full of enough spit and polish to take on an audience larger than the original’s hardcore developer base, and while a springtime date with destiny is now out of reach, it looks like they’ll only miss the mark by a few days. A recent message from Openmoko’s VP of marketing on the community listserv said that the retail phones should be packed and shipped by tomorrow and — if all goes well, of course — should clear customs by the first of July, meaning buyers should be able to get them delivered in the first week or two of the month. If they’d been able to squeeze in 3G, we’d hardly be able to contain ourselves, but even as it is, we suspect there’s enough buzz to get units sold; let’s just hope they’re already hard at work on version three.

[Via The Inquirer Spanish]

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A full fortnight is way too long to go without seeing a little more of Samsung’s Windows Mobile 6.1-powered i900 Omnia, so we were just tickled pink to find a new video showcasing the mobile’s user interface. More specifically, the web browsing function gets most of the attention, and while it doesn’t exactly look like a refined experience from here, why don’t you head on past the break and judge for yourself?

[Thanks, TUcow]

Continue reading Samsung’s i900 Omnia surfs web on video

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RIM hasn’t even had the opportunity to announce the Kickstart 9100 — much less release it — but it looks like we might already have some intel leaking out on the first BlackBerry flip’s successor. In RIM parlance, a “10″ tacked on to a model number is often a sign that a GPS receiver lurks within; sure enough, metadata obtained by Boy Genius Report lists GPS support in the 9110 “Seawolf.” There’s also mention of an “Aurora,” indicated to be a member of the 8100 (Pearl) series, though its device ID curiously matches that of the Thunder / Storm so it’s possible that the two projects were merged at some point. Are we crazy for missing the days of yore when RIM’s model names were nothing more than four solid, reliable, old-fashioned digits?

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If the idea of a sub-$200 3G touchscreen fashion phone sounds vaguely familiar, trust us, it’s not just your noggin playing tricks on you. Sprint is apparently circulating documentation internally revealing that the Samsung Instinct will run $199.99 on contract after rebates, a move that doesn’t really come as surprise; Sprint itself has worked overtime trying to play up the Instinct versus iPhone angle, after all, and it’s entirely plausible that the carrier was holding out for Apple’s announcement before settling on a price. Sprint will also be requiring that users sign up for an “Everything” plan when taking delivery of their Instinct, a move that smacks of AT&T’s marriage of the iPhone to specific plans. The Instinct gets the jump on Apple’s hardware by a few days thanks to a June 20 launch, so it’ll be interesting to see just how much Cupertino thunder Samsung can steal here.

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Paris who? Sony Ericsson’s let yet another one slip out of its fingers before the official announcement, this time around a killer slider said to be the Cyber-shot C905, codenamed “Shiho.” If the rumors pan out, it’s got one heck of a rap sheet, too, starting off with an 8.1 — yes, eight point flippin’ one — megapixel camera with both xenon and LED flashes (for still and video capture, respectively), GPS, TV out, DLNA certification, and HSDPA in your choice of European and American flavors. The screen’s apparently just QVGA, but in light of everything else we’re hearing, we might just be willing to let that slide. It’ll apparently be announced on the 17th of the month in gold, silver, and black for a fourth quarter release. Wowza!

[Thanks, Adrian]

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