Remember that midrange full-touch Samsung Infinity that was
rumored for AT&T a while back? It looks like the stars are
aligning for a model called the Solstice to be launching on the
carrier in the next few days -- and it looks (and sounds)
suspiciously like what we'd all expected out of the Infinity.
Basically, this looks to be Sammy's mainstream touch offering for
AT&T, with a relatively meager 2 megapixel cam, QVGA display,
dual-band 3G, and not a whole heck of a lot else. The good news is
that you should be getting a good deal in exchange for the light
spec sheet -- Boy Genius Report has the Solstice launching
this coming Sunday, August 2 for $99.99 on contract.
Coincidentally, Samsung's official product directory conspicuously
shows a Solstice off in the distance of its page banner, so yeah,
this thing is definitely happening one way or another -- only
question is whether we've got the specs, pricing, and launch date
all nailed.
Samsung Solstice for AT&T spotted on official site, coming in at $99.99 next week?
Verizon Wireless and AT&T engage in legal fisticuffs over ad slogans
Which North American wireless provider do you think is telling the
truth in its advertising? If you answered "none of 'em," you're
probably right, but that's not stopping Verizon Wireless from going
to court to uphold its commercial honor, having been called out by
AT&T earlier this month. VZW took the A train down to US
District Court in Manhattan asking that its slogans like "America's
Most Reliable 3G Network" be validated, claims AT&T earlier
said were false. We're not quite sure why 'ol Blue and White is
getting feisty, since it's had its fair share of
issues, but maybe this is just some attempt to make the two
look like they hate each other in public while exchanging sweet
nothings and
text messaging price hikes in private. All we know is this
isn't the first time carriers have battled over such claims,
and it sure won't be the last.
Samsung Link launches on Virgin Mobile Canada
If you're
looking for EV-DO, go ahead and keep right on lookin' because
you're not going to find it here -- but otherwise, the Link offers
portrait QWERTY on the cheap alongside a 1.3 megapixel cam, microSD
slot, and stereo Bluetooth. If you like what you see, you can go
ahead and grab it now for CAD $99.99 (about $92) on prepaid or CAD
$29.99 (about $28) on a three-year deal. Sorry, Bell guys -- it's
coming soon. We think.
Samsung InstinctQ gets WiFi certification, but what is it?
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Thought that the upcoming
m850 was the end of the road for the Instinct series on Sprint?
Apparently not, seeing how a so-called m900 "InstinctQ" just nabbed
WiFi certification. Other than the fact that it's a "phone, dual
mode," we can't make much of it -- but we do know that
North American Samsungs starting with "SPH" are destined for
Sprint, and the InstinctQ name certainly jibes with that.
Cellpassion intriguingly claims that it could be packing
Android, which would makes some amount of sense considering that
Samsung and Sprint are both getting into the Android game and the
Instinct line is considered one of Sprint's hero brands. We're
going to hold off on waving the green flag of Android victory until
we see some proof, but we're hopeful -- if not for our sake, than
for Sprint's. [Warning: PDF link]
[ Via: Engadgetmobile ]
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Oh, by the way: July 13, 2009
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some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile
for Monday, July 13th, 2009:
- Samsung has
released a new firmware for its i8910HD that enabled AAC audio
while recording HD video. The problem? Right now, only Italian
firmwares seem to be eligible for the update, which comes through
Samsung's PC Studio app. - Excellent music identification app Shazam is
now available on the BlackBerry Storm. And let's be honest,
Storm owners need all the entertainment they can get. - In France, the Samsung S5230 Player One has been
re-released in Zadig & Voltaire livery; we've never heard
of 'em, but we bet it's a big, important fashion house
somewhere. - NuevaSync recently
launched its interesting push email service, which simply uses
IMAP IDLE on the back end and Exchange ActiveSync to connect to
your device (because as push goes, more devices support EAS than
IMAP IDLE). - GSM / CDMA dual-band versions of the HTC
Snap and
Touch Pro2 have been confirmed for launch on Telus, though
dates and pricing haven't been given.
[ Via: Engadgetmobile ]
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Samsung Highlight comes to T-Mobile, we play with it
That rumored Highlight
for T-Mobile is now official, filling yet another niche segment in
Samsung's massive full-touch attack on the carrier -- an attack
that now includes the Behold, the Memoir, and
this bad boy. As you might have gathered from the appearance, this
one comes in at the bottom end of that range, but it really doesn't
slack on the spec sheet -- it's still managing to pack AWS HSDPA, a
3 megapixel camera, WQVGA display, quadband EDGE for world travel,
AGPS, and a full HTML browser. It's available in two colors today
-- fire and ice, which are basically orange and a black / cool blue
combo -- for $149.99 on contract after rebates.
We've been toying around with the Highlight this week in its "fire"
livery, and we've got to say: for its entry-level aspirations,
we're really impressed. The TouchWiz UI is plenty speedy, the
browser was about as good as you could expect a samsung dumbphone
browser to be, we had an easy time adapting to the landscape QWERTY
keyboard (and the numeric one, for that matter), and -- this is a
biggie -- the screen felt really good. Historically, some
of Sammy's full touch phones have had a reputation for having
really bendy plastic screen -- and yes, granted, this is clearly
still plastic, but it's thick and / or strong enough so that
there's virtually no give to it. That definitely makes you feel
more confident using the phone, and gives it a vaguely upmarket
appeal. Do we recommend it? If you're looking for a relatively
cheap way to get on T-Mobile's 3G network, yeah, absolutely, though
we might wait until they get their pricing strategy figured out --
it's clearly a lower-end device than the Behold and it needs to be
priced accordingly. If T-Mobile can manage to get it down to, say,
$79.99, it's an all-around winner.
[ Via: Engadgetmobile ]
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Confirmed: Samsung's SGH-T939 Behold2 for T-Mobile runs Android
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First we'd heard that the
InstinctQ for Sprint might be Android-based, but what other
Google-rife gear does Sammy have up its sleeves? That SGH-T939
Behold2
spotted in the WiFi Alliance's documents turns out to be
Android-equipped without question, seeing how its user agent
profile -- found on Samsung's own site -- lists its browser as
"Android Browser." Sure, we suppose they could get all cute on us
and name their random, featureless dumbphone browser "Android
Browser," but that trick would be mean beyond words -- and we're
further encouraged by the fact that the screen size is listed as
480 x 320, exactly the resolution that the doctor ordered for
Android action. There's no word on when this is coming, but it goes
without saying this'll find its way to T-Mobile since that's where
you get the original Behold;
unfortunately, the old model isn't too ancient yet, so we
wouldn't be surprised if we were in for a bit of a wait.
[ Via: engadgetmobile ]
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- samsung Exclaim hands-on
Samsung Exclaim hands-on
At every price point, there are certain phones that are built like
tanks -- finely-tuned machines that were obviously designed and
built with a meticulous eye for detail. They don't always look
good, but they feel good -- and when you're talking about a device
that you're likely going to be holding, using, and typing on for
hours each and every day, "feels good" is a surprisingly important
checkbox to mark.
The Samsung
Exclaim doesn't fall into that category. At $79.99 on contract,
it's cheap, but it's not that cheap -- in the QWERTY
category, the Rant, Lotus, and Rumor 2 all
cost less and we're pretty sure we'd rather have any of them,
particularly the Lotus. Sprint Navigation works well (as it usually
does -- though we didn't like how the portrait softkeys were still
functional in landscape mode, so the bottom key confusingly
corresponded to the left function) and the Exclaim has one of the
loudest, best speakerphones we've heard, but it's doomed by its
whopping 17.8mm of girth, its cheap, bendy plastics, and the fact
that it lacks a rudimentary touchscreen for entering digits --
something that the similar LG Neon has (for
$50 less) and the Rant overcomes with a dedicated, fixed numeric
keypad. Yes, the Exclaim slides down to provide the functionality,
but it's an unnecessary mechanical burden that adds more thickness
than it's worth -- put simply, there are better ways of doing
this.
For what it's worth, the slide-out keyboard works quite well --
teens and twentysomethings will appreciate the dedicated text and
emoticon buttons, and the duplicated softkeys and directional keys
are helpful -- and 3G is a plus, but in the face of hot, cheap
competition from other models in Sprint's lineup (including some of
Samsung's own, ironically), the Exclaim is a definite pass.
[ Via: Engadgetmobile ]
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- samsung Galaxy predictably coming to O2 UK
Samsung Galaxy predictably coming to O2 UK
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It's
already being stocked by its German cousins, so it stands to
reason that O2's British outpost would be looking to carry the
mighty i7500 Galaxy from samsung as well. Indeed, TechRadar is
reporting that O2 UK has confirmed that the Android-powered OLED
beast is on the way in August, though pricing is yet to be reported
in any official capacity; for comparison's sake, O2 Germany is
offering it for €69.99 (about $98) on contract, so we can
certainly imagine the new launch coming somewhere in the same
range. Then again, we can also imagine it being completely free on
the right plan, in which case we're packing our bags and filing for
our visas.
[ Via: Engadgetmobile ]
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