It seems today was the landing date for the BlackBerry 8800. Boy Genius unboxes one on his site with a few notes on the style and performance. If the Pearl was your kind of thing, maybe you want to check this out. It seems wider, and a little more PDA driven, and not so much for the fashion set. I doubt, if you own one, your in the fashion set though.

Unboxing: Cingular BlackBerry 8800 [The Boy Genius Report]

Auto manufacturers are racing with each other to integrate support for Apple’s soon-to-be-released iPhone into their respective vehicles, with BMW being the current leader in this race. The newer 7-Series sedan will be the first vehicle that comes with multi-level connectivity with the new cellphone from Apple, boasting integration that goes beyond standard Bluetooth. Let me guess - will it come with a special iPhone dock as well as work in hand with BMW’s iDrive system? I doubt users will transfer their entire iPod music library over to the iPhone, so having such a function isn’t really important when purchasing a car. Bah, I’m just bitter I can’t afford one of Bavaria’s finest.

PDA maker Palm Inc. announced that its Palm Treo 750 smartphone would now be generally available across Europe. The company added it has upgraded the device to support 3G networks with high speed HSDPA data service.

Palm Treo 750v was previously available in the U.K. on Vodafone’s 3G UMTS network and across part of Western Europe. The handsets will now be available at Palm’s online stores in Europe and at retail outlets too. It will be priced at 365 pounds and VAT as applicable. Treo 750 is based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 software. It is also capable of adding user interface enhancements like Google search integration and ability to quickly find and dial a contact. It also supports push delivery of emails from servers running Microsoft Exchange 2003 SP2. It comes preloaded with Microsoft’s Office Mobile application suite.

Palm’s European vice president Roy Bedlow said in a statement there are over five million Treo smartphones sold globally so far and Palm intends to focus on expanding the Treo footprint.

Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. cellphone carrier, passed on the chance to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone almost two years ago, balking at Apple’s rich financial terms and other demands. Apparently Apple’s first choice for exclusive iPhone service was Verizon and not Cingular! The two companies couldn’t agree on a deal that worked for both companies. “We said no.” Said Jim Gerace, a VZW VP. “We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial.” Talks began as far back as two years ago, but Apple’s demands were steep.

Apple wanted a percentage of monthly service fees, control over distribution that would limit iPhone sales to Apple and Verizon stores, and even some control over service and support for iPhone customers. “They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat … on hardware and service support,” say Gerace.

Whether consumers — who would have presumably had a fair shot at an EV-DO iPhone with Verizon as a service provider — will win in the end is yet to be seen.

Source: Engadget

Members of the candybar phone set who envied the Motorola RAZR”thin is in” good looks are in luck. The Motorola SLVR L7, offered by Cingular in the US, takes the RAZR’s techno-chic design and signature polished metal keypad and flattens it into the thinnest candybar phone on the US market. The 11.5mm thin SLVR lives up to its name, being incredibly slim though not notably small in height or breadth.

The SLVR is about more than good looks, and falls into the feature phone category thanks to its VGA camera, Bluetooth and Micro SD (aka TransFlash) card slot which comes filled with a 512 meg card. Why such a high capacity card? Because the SLVR is yet another iTunes phone from Motorola and it can handle up to 100 songs. Unlike the 100 song ROKR, whose only claim to fame was its iTunes capability, the SLVR L7 more subtlely adds the feature as one of several reasons to want this phone. Much better marketing: getting a SLVR means getting a cool looking phone with decent features that also happens to replace an iPod.

 

Source - MobileTech

A combination cell phone and music player, the Sony Ericsson W810i, the latest in the company’s Walkman phone line, delivers just about everything a gadget-lover could want. A super-small beauty, the W810i crams a lot into a surprisingly tiny package. You’ll get a music player with an external memory card, a 2-megapixel camera, and Bluetooth. This phone is only carried by Cingular at the moment, but Amazon has unlocked phones that you may be able to get activated to your service.

The W810i is a candy bar-style phone measuring only 3.9 x 1.8 x 0.8 inches and weighing in at 3.5 ounces. We love its sleek black styling and its generous cool factor; it feel like a phone for night-clubbers who know the best undiscovered places.

Source - PDAStreet

Cingular is working with MySpace to develop a mobile version of the social networking site. MySpace Mobile will be made available to Cingular subscribers through a Java application for a monthly fee of $2.99. Cingular has exclusive rights to the application for several months, after which it will be available to other national carriers.

MySpace features accessable through the application include messaging, comment and blog entry posting, photo uploads, viewing friends and searching for new friends. A subscriber can download the app by text messaging “myspace” to 384 (FUN).

Source - MobileTracker

The iPhone is here! The iPod maker’s now into the mobile phone business and has renamed the company Apple Inc. from Apple Computer reflecting its increased focus on consumer electronics.

The iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. Whew!

It also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. The iPhone also comes loaded with Apple’s Safari Web browser and fully incorporates Google’s search and mapping services. Users can make phone calls directly from Google Maps. Exclusively Cingular Wireless will provide phone service in the U.S.

The price tag on a 4GB model going for $499 with a two-year service contract, and a 8GB model with the same contract for $599 and will be available from June.

Cingular users get the first Palm Treo smart device running on Cingular’s 3G/UMTS network. The Treo 750 five-band phone runs Windows Mobile 5.0 with Direct Push Technology and offers Palm’s exclusive usability improvements plus business features, including email, security, and web access on the go.

The Treo 750 also has a full QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3-megapixel camera; a 240×240 touch screen and support for Bluetooth stereo headsets. With a built-in 60MB of user-available storage, using the miniSD slot to add memory cards of up to 2GB, which can be used to storing data, photos, music and video, can enhance memory.

Cingular says, the Treo 750 is being positioned as more of a business device and will cost $500 with a two-year contract (but a $100 mail-in rebate will bring that price down to $400). It will be available at Cingular’s Web site and retail stores, and through Palm’s Web site.

Cingular and Mastercard are trying to make like easier for you by helping you pay faster! They are launching a trial program for paying via cell phone at stores in New York City.

Only the Retailer you are at should have the set up for MasterCard’s PayPass which lets you just tap your card to the machine instead of sliding and signing. Your phone should also be equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC), and all you have to do is all you’d have to do is tap one button on your cell and you have paid.

Have a look at how this works here and soon you can leave your cards at home but keep a close watch on your cell phone! So now instead of opening your wallet you can pay by tapping on your phone. However, methinks not much to gain with this project!