New Blackberry Takes On iPhone

Among the cavalcade of mobile superstars in this summer’s smartphone extravaganza — which, so far, has boasted the likes of the HTC Evo 4G, the Motorola Droid X, a series of sleek Samsung Galaxy handsets, and (of course) the iPhone 4 — one marquee name has been noticeably absent: the BlackBerry.

Well, in the final weeks of summer, Research in Motion (along with carrier partner AT&T — and yes, we're talking another AT&T exclusive here) is looking to make a better-late-than-never splash with the BlackBerry Torch 9800, a new QWERTY slider with a redesigned touchscreen OS that the mobile giant hopes can garner the same kind of buzz that Android handsets like the Evo and the Droid X and the new iPhone have been enjoying for the past few months. (Well, Apple probably didn’t “enjoy” all the “Antennagate” buzz, but at least people were talking about it.)

Unveiled Tuesday morning at a packed press event in Manhattan, the widely leaked Torch — the "best BlackBerry ever," as AT&T wireless head boss Ralph de la Vega bragged — will go on sale August 12 for $199 with a two-year AT&T contract, and it represents a departure for RIM in more ways than one.

First of all, it’s not a candybar-style phone, as are the vast majority of BlackBerry handsets; instead, it’s RIM's first touch-enabled slider, with a full QWERTY keypad that slides down from beneath the 3.2-inch, 360-by-480 touchscreen.

Via : foreign.peacefmonline.com

Nexus One now available as ‘Developer Phone’ for $529 (Update)

Somethings never go out of fashion and Google will never let you forget Nexus One. From today, Nexus One became available as Dev Phone to Android Market developers. Earlier two Dev phones were HTC Magic and HTC Dream.

UPDATE: Nexus One Dev Phone is not available worldwide, just in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, Spain, UK and US. These are so called approved markets.
India has been left out for God know what reasons. While Google is all happy giving Indian employees free N1s, why can not they let Indian devs buy Google Phone.

Via : androidos.in

Sony Ericsson concept phone is as clever as it is unreal

Looking for some innovation to go with your porridge this morning? How about this fan-made flip phone concept that pivots vertically and horizontally? You can use it as a standard old clamshell,

with the lower of the two displays acting as your number pad, or you can rotate it down to pair the screens into one snazzy widescreen panel.

That's all there really is to it, but it seems like such an ingenious idea to us -- maintaining the slimline

dimensions that some think are crucial to phones, while offering the generous screen size that we all want. Hit the source link to see more of this "Sony Ericsson" FH concept.

Via : Yanko Design