News

Samsung has recently announced the new SGH-a837 Rugby for AT&T, a ruggedized clamshell tested against Military Standard MI-SID-810F to withstand vibration, rain, humidity, solar radiation, dust, and extreme temperatures.

The device features a 1.3 megapixel camera for snapping photos and video and supports quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and dual-band 3G (850/1900MHz).

The Samsung SGH-a837 Rugby is available now from AT&T in black colour scheme, priced at $129.99 with a 2-year commitment, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Sprint announced the next BlackBerry Curve 8350i, from Research In Motion, the first Nextel smartphone with WiFi support. The QWERTY smartphone features a built-in push-to-talk, a 2 megapixel camera with video recording and a microSD memory card slot, an on-board GPS navigation, an integrated music player, and Bluetooth A2DP stereo connectivity.

The BlackBerry Curve 8350i works on Sprint Nextel's iDEN network and supports Nextel Direct Connect, Nationwide and International Connect, as well as Group Connect, which allows users to have conversations with groups of up to 20 other Nextel users at one time.

Pricing and availability information are not yet available at this time but Sprint expects the Curve 8350i to land in retail stores before the end of year.

The FCC has revealed two new clamshells from LG and Samsung respectively, with the A837 having been shown off earlier last week.

The phone features dual displays, a VGA camera with video recorder, microSD expansion slot, Bluetooth with stereo audio support, and speakerphone. While the phone itself does not feature AT&T branding, the draft user manual submitted makes mention of AT&T services such as MEdia Net, IM services, and the AT&T Mall.

Neither AT&T nor LG have announced the phone at this time.

It seems that Sprint will announce the availability of the HTC Touch Diamond on its network.

There are only a few details about the features of the handset, such as its 4GB of internal storage, 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, and its 2.8" VGA resolution touchscreen display.

The device will probably be available in September.

Palm has issued another update for owners of the Sprint Palm Treo 800w smart device.

At issue is the device failing to detect many of the packaged accessories when connected to the device as well as charging issues centered on incomplete charging and charging a completely drained battery. Palm regards this as a critical update and asks that all owners perform the update as soon as possible to prevent further issues.

Verizon recently launched its new Blitz phone. The handset comes in an electric blue color scheme with a QWERTY keyboard and features a 2.2" display, set in landscape orientation, with 220x176 pixel resolution, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a microSD card slot for extra storage and bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP.

The Blitz does not support 3G nor over the air music downloads.

The Verizon Blitz is currently available online and costs $69.99 when purchased online with a 2-year commitment.

Today Virgin Mobile USA announced that it has completed its acquisition of fellow MVNO Helio, which was until now owned by its original SK Telecom and Earthlink parents. In return for Helio, Virgin has payed an equivalent 13 million shares worth of its common stock, worth roughly US$38 million, to SK and Earthlink. Virgin Mobile USA stock is currently trading at US$2.72.

On top of the payments made, SK Telecom and Virgin Group, a UK based venture capital company, will each invest an additional $25 million into Virgin Mobile USA in exchange for preferred stock. SK telecom will also receive two seats on Virgin Mobile USA's board of directors.

The Helio deal marks Virgin Mobile's move into the post-paid market. Previously it had only offered pre-paid mobile services through an agreement with Sprint

It seems that Sprint Nextel wants to sell of its iDEN network to either NII Holdings or a group of private equity investors.

The deal supposedly would be extremely complex due to the integration between Sprint's CDMA and iDEN networks and would likely involve long term service agreements between Sprint and whatever entity ends up buying the iDEN network - if it even happens.

From the numbers posted yesterday by T-Mobile, the company stands at 31.5 million subscribers, a net addition of 668k subscribers for the quarter. Its churn rate for contract customers sits at a relatively high 1.9%, up from 1.7% in the prior quarter.

The company posted income of US$452 million, up from $350 million for the same quarter in 2007. Service revenue figures are up over 10 percent year over year to $4.85 billion, and the company says that its revenue from data services is up an impressive 31.5 percent. T-Mobile also said that it has added a million MyFaves users since the prior quarter, with the current total reaching 6.5 million.

The company reiterated its plan to light up over 20 more 3G markets before the end of the year.

Today Apple released an updated version of the iPhone's firmware, 2.0.1, a 250MB update that is available to iPhone and iPhone 3G users through the Apple iTunes application.

Apple only lists "Bug Fixes" amongst the changes. Early claims:

- Backup process for the iPhone is much faster.
- Netshare still works
- SMS typing faster