Sprint inks another three years’ worth of iDEN infrastructure support with Motorola, ‘several’ new phones coming in Q1
Even as Sprint starts to dream up ways to sunset its aging (but still popular) iDEN network , reclaim the spectrum, and migrate its push-to-talk customer base to something CDMA-based, there's still a network to maintain in the short term -- and to that end, the company has re-upped its contract with Motorola to keep the system in tip-top shape for at least another three years. Amazingly, this will mean that the network is some twenty years old by the time the agreement is up in 2013, after which they'll either need to be ready with their CDMA replacement (bearing in mind that QChat already failed) -- or we imagine they'll need another contract renewal. Oh, and this won't just be a run-out-the-clock situation, either: there'll be at least some new hardware, with Sprint saying that "several" handsets are on tap for the first quarter of 2011 including the i886 ("stylish," rugged, and landscape QWERTY) and the i686, an update of the i680 with improved waterproofing
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: cdma, contract, customer, entry, i886, landscape, mobile, quarter, qwerty, result
T-Mobile drops the G2 to $50 on contract, really wants you to buy one
Pretty self-explanatory really: the T-Mobile G2 is now available to buy for a measly 50 greenbacks from its carrier's online store. It's a web-only deal, but it's sweetened by free overnight delivery for anyone ordering before the 20th of December. So, $50 and two years of your wireless freedom in exchange for a phone capable of exploiting T-Mobile's HSPA+ network and offering an almost stock Android experience?
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: before-the-20th, discount, entry, greenbacks, pricing, qwerty, qwertyslider, your-wireless
Motorola Milestone 2 starts shipping in UK
Want a GSM Droid 2 ? Or how about a Droid 2 Global without CDMA and a slower processor? However you want to look at it, Motorola's Milestone 2 QWERTY slider is now shipping SIM-free in the UK -- and that's pretty much the only way you're going to get it, because at this point, none of the UK's major carriers are offering it directly
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: entry, london, milestone, milestone2, mobile, motorola, qwerty, result, Sim, starts-shipping, stellar-deal
Nokia C2-01 and X2-01 break cover: cheap to the max, launching soon
Symbian and MeeGo might be getting all the attention, but for Nokia, Series 40 is still very much a meat-and-potatoes part of the operation -- and to that end, they've announced a pair of new models today that go exceptionally easy on the pocketbook. First up, the C2-01 (pictured left) is claimed to be the cheapest 3G handset in Espoo's lineup, featuring a 3.2 megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, and memory expansion up to 16GB atop a 2-inch display; it'll be available in the first quarter of 2011 for around €70 ($95). Next up, the X2-01 certainly looks like a Symbian device from a distance -- but don't be fooled, it's still straight-up Series 40 with a full QWERTY portrait keyboard.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: attention, c2-01, dedicated-music, launching-soon, meat, nokia, nokia-c2-01, operation, qwerty, radio, result, symbian, wifi, x2-01
HTC Merge emerges on Verizon site a little early
Far be it from us to tell Verizon how to do a product launch, but showing off a 360-degree of the HTC Merge before the phone's even been announced doesn't seem like the soundest strategy to us. Of course, we doubt anyone intended for this Flash module to have become public knowledge like it has, but sure enough, a forum member over at Android Central spotted it among VZW's web properties and now we can all take a multidimensional look at this upcoming Android handset. Yes, that includes seeing it with its sliding QWERTY keyboard open -- you can find more imagery of that after the break -- though the pivotal questions of when, for how much, and "can you disable Bing?" remain unanswered for the time being.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: announced-doesn, enjoy-the-eye, forum, merge, public, qwerty, qwertyslider, time, verizon
LG Cosmos Touch hits Verizon November 23rd for $80
We're having a harder time by the day getting excited about a touchscreen dumbphone with a 1.3 megapixel camera for $80 -- especially now that you've got a number of respectable Android choices below that price point -- but if you're an LG diehard, you need physical QWERTY, and you couldn't care less about the Android Market, we suppose you might want to give the once-rumored , now-official Cosmos Touch a look. Besides the 2.8-inch wide QVGA display, you've got Bluetooth 2.1, memory expansion up to 16GB, some semblance of social networking support, and VZ Navigator turn-by-turn navigation on board. Interested
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: Choices, cosmos touch, cosmostouch, entry, memory, networking, qwerty, social-networking, some-semblance, support, verizon, verizon-wireless, verizonwireless, vzw
LG Quantum brings its QWERTY slider to AT&T
Miss out on Amazon's LG Quantum-for-a-penny deal this past weekend? Well, good news..
Categories: htc, Mobile Phone Tags: after-the-break, amazon, att, break, htc, phone, press-release, quantum, qwerty, wp7
Samsung Messager III launches on MetroPCS
Is the Messager Touch just a little too... well, touchy for you?
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: available-today, color, different-color, environmental, messager, phone-bears, qwerty, samsung, scheme, slider, sprint
Samsung Evergreen for AT&T is just as eco-friendly as it sounds
It's not going to woo power-users... except possibly people who power-use the environment
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: att, came-out-weird, entry, environment, megapixel-cam, mobile, qwerty, rohs, samsung, the-environment
HTC Knight surfaces for Sprint with Android and a sliding hinge of some sort?
What do we know about the picture above? Not much more than meets the eye -- this alleged HTC Knight is for Sprint and navigates Android using capacitive touchscreen keys.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: developers, from-the-source, htc knight, image, knight, mentions-users, qwerty, rumors, slide-screen, slider, sliding-hinge, smartphone, sprint, surfaces