Phonedig

Samsung’s Omnia phones are an attractive bunch, there’s no doubt about that.  But for those with a penchant for a tactile QWERTY keyboard will turn the other cheek, that is until now.  It’s still very much in the rumor stage, but apparently Samsung has plans to launch the Omnia Pro, a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen smartphone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.  They’ll also pack in a 5 megapixel camera and Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgradeable to 6.5 upon launch).  Unfortunately, the image above is just a mockup but according to the rumor we’ll see this handset as soon as July.

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Garmin-Asus announced their official partnership a few months back and with it we expected the long rumored, then officially announced Garmin phone to launch in a timely fashion.  I guess our hopes were set a little too high, because word on the street is that we won’t see the first handset from the navigation company until June of this year, at least that’s what an inside source says.  Carrier and price you ask?  Keep dreaming, but if one of their phones - probably the G60 as alluded to by the source - is set to launch in June you can probably expect an announcement in May, which is around the same time Windows Mobile 6.5 launches (which might mean the M20 instead).

[via BGR]

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According to Alley Insider, via a source close to the Hulu team, the TV and movie streaming website will launch their iPhone app in the next few months.  Further inflating the rumor is news that the app will stream over both WiFi and 3G.  Unfortunately, they don’t have any evidence to bring credence to the rumor, but with so many other streaming apps out there it only seems likely.  Question is will Apple and AT&T approve the Hulu app given SlingMedia’s recent experience?

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Recently, Apple ordered a whopping 100 million NAND chips from Samsung, including the 16Gb variety. Could this be in preparation for the 32GB iPhone to be released this summer? Analysts sure think so since, historically, Samsung has been Apple’s iPhone memory supplier. 

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Rumors suggest that Nokia is working on a “swivel” phone for Verizon. The new phone is supposedly similar to the Nokia E71 smartphone and will feature a full QWERTY keyboard when swiveled open. Other details are scarce but the interface is said to be based on the Nokia S40 UI.

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The blogosphere is aflutter with Palm PRE news.  Most of the info, at least regarding launch dates has turned out to be bunk, that is until now.  A memo to all employees states that Sprint will begin to train its retail employees on the PRE this month.

Employees can expect training to start in April as well as multiple communications to get them excited and ready to help our customers.

Also, word has just come through that Sprint has issued a ‘vacation blackout’ on the month of May for all retail employees, which is exactly what AT&T did before the iPhone launched.  Is the world ready for the PRE?  You bet your bottom dollar!

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Here’s some more Verizon news for you.  They’ll start selling the Samsung Trance U490 on April 24th, or so the rumorville has it.  It’s not exactly a high end phone, but the Bang & Olufsen ICEpower should be a welcome technology for any music snob since it’s said to reproduce music in astonishing quality.  Specs you ask?  2.1-inch 176×200 display, 1.3 megapixel camera, CDMA 1X 800/1900mHz, 1GB of internal memory with microSD card slot for expansion, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth with A2DP, media player (duh) and the usual cell phone specage.

Expect the Samsung Trance U490 to retail for $50 after a $50 mail-in-rebate + 2-year contract signing or $120 after a $50 mail-in-rebate and 1-year contract signing.

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The other day we reported rumors of a Blackberry Storm 2. Well, now we can say it’s been confirmed by RIM spokesperson Alain Segon de Banchet of the Netherlands. According to him, the “Storm 2″ (name still unconfirmed) will be released at the end of this year or early 2010 and will not be tied to one carrier-at least in the Netherlands.

The new Storm will address the biggest complaint of the device, the finicky touchscreen, by offering a “new way of typing.” Now, the details of that are left to our imagination but I’ll take a  risk here and go with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

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RIM is readying the Blackberry Storm 2 with built-in Wi-Fi, according to reliable sources. To be released in September, the second iteration of the Storm seems to be RIM’s answer to complaints regarding a lack of Wi-Fi capability and peculiarities with the touchscreen. No other details but there’s sure to be some tweaks and possible enhancements to the phone.

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Reports indicate that T-Mobile is planning to release home communications devices based on the Android operating system. The first device, to be released early next year, is a home phone similar to Verizon’s Hub. The other is a tablet computer to be released soon after.

Devices using Android OS are highly configurable and almost infinitely expandable, so this is exciting news indeed.

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