Mobile News and Mobile Info

Is it cooler than Sprint’s Snap? That’s for you to judge, but whatever the case, Verizon has now announced its own version of HTC’s latest WinMo Standard handset. The so-called Ozone features WiFi, global roaming capability, VZ Navigator and visual voicemail support, a QWERTY keyboard (which feels great if it’s anything like its cousin’s), and a beefy 1500mAh battery that we’re betting will keep this thing going all day and then some. The best part, though, might be the price: it’ll be just $49.99 on contract after rebate when it launches online on June 29 and in stores on July 13.

While some interesting things may or may not be happening under the hood, the freshly announced BlackBerry Tour for Verizon and Sprint (pictured in Verizon garb on the left) is hardly a departure on the surface. It mostly appears to be a minor modification to the Curve (right), though it does seem inexplicably thicker. The Bold seems positively overwrought in comparison. We didn’t get much time to play with the OS, but the screen and the keyboard are pure new-generation BlackBerry charm.

We’ve got some good and bad news… mostly bad, though. First, the good news: HTC is looking into finding a way to bring its new Sense UI — the one featured prominently in the new Hero — to its non-Google branded Android devices, such as Canadian carrier Roger Wireless’ Magic. Unfortunately, and this is the bad news, even that’s not a sure thing, and as you can probably guess from the wording, any phone that’s got the “with Google” branding, like T-Mobile USA’s G1 and myTouch 3G, won’t be getting a chance at all due to the same licensing terms that prevented Microsoft Exchange clients on those same phones. Them’s the breaks, folks, but we’re sure some hacker with enough know-how will bypass the silly restrictions and do it anyway.

And so it continues. Geohot has returned with some help from hacking buddies chronic, posixninja, and pod2g with news that the same “24kpwn” exploit used to cracked open the iPod touch 2G will work on the iPhone 3GS. That means a jailbreak and unlock can be launched just as soon as the existing tools are updated for the iPhone 3GS (which won’t be long). As George Hotz laments,

On a personal note, I’m sad. Apple, it took me a week to break through your new defenses. And to let us reuse an exploit like that; 24kpwn was so 5 months ago. Although I imagine it must have been painful watching the devices roll by on the assembly line, knowing they all had a hole in them and you couldn’t fix it.

Sony Ericsson just announced the T715, and I’m trying to stay awake reading their press release. You’re getting a 2.2 inch screen, 240 x 320 pixels, it’s small at 91.5 x 48 x 14.9 mm and weighs less than 100 grams. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, quadband GSM/EDGE, and mysteriously comes in two versions with the T715 only having 3G on the 2100 MHz band, yet the T715a will ship with triband 850/1900/2100 3G. That’s is folks. No GPS, no WiFi, nada. On the plus side it takes microSD cards, no more M2 nonsense. The T715 will ship in Q3 of this year and in typical Sony Ericsson fashion, no price was mentioned.

High resolution photo after the jump, also view the complete photo gallery over at Sony Ericsson’s site. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s all about UI these days and we’re seeing a growing number of companies adding their own bits to the table. South Korea’s Pantech thinks they shouldn’t be an exemption, hence they’ve unveiled their user interface called TruEmotion.

From what we’ve heard it is simple to use, “intuitive and dynamic” interface with some sexy 3D transition effects.

The first device that will ship with TruEmotion UI will be the 3.2-inch VGA touchscreen-equipped Pantech IM-R470S, which will debut in Korea next month. No word whether they’ll bring it to the Western hemisphere at the moment, but I don’t see a reason why not…

Sure, we’ve been chummy with the Zune HD in the past, but we just took it for a quick spin on video so you can check out those smooth transitions for yourself. Unfortunately, the unit we were playing with had zero content loaded on it, but you can check out the slick unlock mechanism, swooping screen-change animations and a bit of pre-loaded Zune video on the gorgeous OLED screen. Plus we tossed together a few pics and a shot of the Tegra chip that’s doing all the work into a gallery below. Video is after the break.