The lowly Moto V365 really can't soldier on forever as AT&T's only "rugged" (and we use that term loosely) clamshell; we'd thought the W760r was coming in to save the day, but sadly, it's yet to materialize. So what's a butterfingered AT&T subscriber to do? With any luck, the answer is to wait just a few more weeks, because Boy Genius Report claims that the Samsung a837 will launch in the mid-September timeframe with HSDPA, Video Share, Bluetooth, GPS, push-to-talk (naturally), and a 1.3-megapixel cam, making it AT&T's first and only beefed-up 3G set. Yes, it could be prettier, but something tells us that's not really the market AT&T's going for here -- then again, with de facto competitor Casio trotting out the Boulder in orange, maybe we're off base on that one.
Samsung i770, u810 pictured for Verizon

[Thanks, HTC Kid]
Sprint getting Katana Eclipse in more colors, Rumor replacement?

Sprint prepping Motorola i365, Renegade, and a pair of Samsungs

Out of the Moto camp, we get the i365 ruggedized brickphone for iDEN fanboys and fangirls -- you know who you are, so stop looking around -- which will run $90 and include Bluetooth despite its early-90s appeal. Finally, the most exciting of the foursome has to be the V950 Renegade, but excitement comes at a cost: $199.99, to be exact. In this case, your pair of Benjamins is going to net you QChat capability, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD expansion, and external music controls, which makes it just about the coolest Direct Connect phone going. Line starts over here, folks.
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Samsung makes mobile memory go zoom with new software
If there's one thing smartphone can never be, it's too fast. Yeah, granted, mobile processors have been intentionally throttled for years in the interest of keeping battery times reasonable -- so we're always delighted to hear when someone's doing something to boost speeds in different, creative ways. That's where flash memory giant Samsung comes into play, rolling out new file systems and drivers for its OneNAND, Flex-OneNAND, and moviNAND storage solutions (none of which are pictured to the right) that it claims will slap a turbocharger on boot and access times. The new software is available for basically every major mobile operating system, and Sammy even claims that it'll decrease engineering times, so it looks like it's a win all the way around.Samsung Omnia review

Enter the Samsung i900 Omnia, a phone that submits to design direction forced upon the industry largely by the iPhone -- full touchscreen, no keyboard, you know the drill by now -- and does pretty much everything in its power to overcome WinMo's limitations to make it competitive in the year 2008. Did Sammy succeed? Read on.
Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup!Gallery: Samsung Omnia review
Support for Access Linux Platform waning in the wake of Android?
Without much fanfare, the Samsung i800 was canned at the tail end of last month. When asked why, Orange simply noted that it was pulled in order to "prepare a more competitive Linux mobile." A recent writeup at Ostatic takes a hard look at whether this simple withdrawal is really a sign of things to come, and it suggests that ALP could see support fade as the major players in Linux (and maybe even Nokia) step to the plate. One analyst was even quoted as saying that "having Google's brand behind Symbian could very well mean 'game over' for mobile Linux in the mobile phone market," and we honestly can't disagree too vehemently with that assertion. Of course, the LiMo Foundation has stated its intentions to not back down from the mighty Google, but sometimes, even the best intentions fall through. Guess time will tell, huh?[Via jkOnTheRun]
Samsung i900 Omnia turning up in UK
The Windows Mobilicious i900 Omnia from Samsung definitely qualifies for the upper echelon of 2008's crop of smartphones, thanks in no small part to a 5 megapixel cam, capacitive touchscreen, and a UI that seems to do a bang-up job of concealing WinMo's ancient visuals. That's all well and good, but most of us don't live in a locale where the Omnia has launched on a carrier -- which is precisely why we should all be nice and jealous of our British friends righ about now. It seems the 16GB handset is now available through O2 over in those parts, and what's more, it's straight-up free if you sign up for a £35 (about $65) plan. Hey, American carriers, you guys paying attention here?
T-Mobile USA getting a beefy Tocco from Samsung?
We can think of about fifteen plain-vanilla EDGE flips from Samsung that we'd expect T-Mobile to launch ahead of something like this, but you're definitely not going to see us complaining. TmoNews is claiming that the guys and gals in pink magenta have an ace up their collective sleeve in the form of Samsung's F480 Tocco -- or really, an Americanized version of it dubbed T919. Naturally, the US version goes through the usual dilution, losing the front-facing cam -- but on the upside, it manages to hang on to the really important stuff like a 3G radio (AWS, we'd assume), GPS, and 5 megapixel cam. There's no telling when it'll be on sale, but if we know our carriers -- and we think we know 'em pretty well -- they'll want it on store shelves in plenty of time for the holiday season.
Sprint unleashes individual app updates for Instinct
Looks like that promised big-ass update for the Instinct has started to materialize -- but wait, there's a catch: it's going down piecemeal. Rather than receiving updates for a bunch of the Instinct's core components at once, app updates are being delivered in nice little bite-sized chunks because each app is individually "updated by the vendor, and the vendors set their own schedules," according to Sprint. By the time all is said and done, virtually everything on the phone will have been refreshed in one fashion or another; if you want to get into the nitty gritty, it looks like Picture Mail, the browser, YouTube, Sprint TV and Radio, Navigation, Email, the Music Store, and Visual Voicemail (among others) are all getting some love in this round. Many modern phones support OTA updates, but very few ever have the good fortune of getting bugs fixed and features added -- carriers are too busy turning their attention to the next great thing to bother sprucing up their existing lineups -- so it's refreshing to see Sprint seemingly putting some serious effort into getting the Instinct right. Keep it up, guys.[Via Everything Samsung Instinct]
Samsung S7330 moves Soul train a bit downmarket

[Via Unwired View]
Samsung debuts corn-based E200 Eco cellphone

Samsung's new E200 Eco cellphone may not stand out very much based on its specs, which include a 1.3 megapixel camera and MP3 player functionality, but the company is hoping that folks will take notice of it for another reason: its casing is made of corn. Or, more specifically, a corn-based bioplastic, which has some drawbacks of its own but is becoming more and more commonly used these days. No word on a release 'round these parts just yet, but the phone (which also comes in packaging made from recycled materials) will be available in Europe sometime next month.
[Via HotHardware]
[Via HotHardware]
Verizon gets Motorola VU30 next month, Nokia 7205 not until December?

Leak Sauce: Sprint's '08 and '09 iDEN lineup gets roadmapped

Sprint's iDEN lineup certainly seems to be alive and well -- despite what we've heard stating the opposite -- with the 2008 / 2009 roadmap boasting 10 new phones by Q2 2009. Starring in the outing -- and arguably its piece de resistance -- is the BlackBerry 8350i, a WiFi equipped, 2 megapixel shooter-toting, GPS-enabled device set to ship in Q4 this year. Also up for grabs in Q4 are the Mil-Spec GPS-enabled Motorola i576, and the mysterious -- we say mysterious as we've no real details yet -- Motorola i776. Q1 2009 ushers in with the QWERTY Motorola Monolith, the walkie-talkie styled rxxxx, what looks to be a Motorola V8, and some barely noteworthy Sanyo set. Motorola's Mil-Spec Immersion, the Sanyo Pro 410, and a Samsung music-centric slider will see us into Q2 next year. Sadly, details are all still very thin, but we suspect the releases will find their way onto these pages in the coming weeks and months.
Sprint AIRAVE review
























