FreshPhoneNews.com

Good news and bad news. Bad news first. The release date for the Treo Pro has been pushed to the end of February. The good news is that sprint is offering a $25 discount to all those who were expecting to have it by the previous release date. Now the news which if true is great new, is that it may feature simultaneous voice and data usage. This could be a possible milestone for the carrier. Technically the Rev A EVDO band has this but it has yet to come to a CDMA Band. Unfortunately this offer comes from a combination of Palm and Sprint who are bad at giving release dates and probably change them more than underpants which is why the release date sounds something like “the end of February” instead of a number. This is the third change that Sprint has made in the release date

Orange UK is out to become the first provider of pay-as-you-go PAYG carrier for the BlackBerry there. And the deal it’s providing is pretty good. The BlackBerry 8120 indigo will cost £145 and the PAYG package will cost £5 per month which is pretty good. It is hearsay that it will be launched on January 29th. If this offer sits well with all the English then perhaps Orange UK will also expand the color availability of the BlackBerry as currently it is offered as an “exclusive colored blackberry” meaning it’s in Indigo. The carrier is expected to bring some more RIMs so if you’re not on board with the color, then maybe a short wait will give you what you want.

Are you a fan of texting and living on the iDEN side of the road? Well then you will love Motorola i465. It’s almost like the Martin Luther King of iDEN cell phone. (Or a really great basketball player at the very least).  The phone features a QWERTY keyboard Bluetooth 2.0 and a VGA camera. Ok its great that Motorola cares about all the little people, but if it really cared why wouldn’t it give us a better camera? I mean VGA? Does anyone even remember what that stands for anymore? The phone isn’t going to the world pageant either but I guess iDEN users would like it for other reasons. After all beauty is skin or OS deep. And speaking of OS, its definitely not on windows mobile and don’t expect the any great specs to be revealed over the course of time. And after a VGA camera, why would you anyway. The price and release date are not yet known.

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Fido brings Canada the BlackBerry this February 4th, or at least that is what all the reports say. It pretty definite though because it has begun shipping out the units and many stores have received their inventory.  Fido has already trained their staff and everything looks like it’s good to go but the BlackBerry that is coming is the Pearl 8100. Sort of a letdown but hey, it’s still a BlackBerry. The package plans available are

·         $15 – Unlimited Personal Email + IM (BBM, WM, Yahoo, AIM etc…).

·         $25 – 500MB BIS Data

·         $30 – 1GB BIS Data

·         $60 – 3GB BIS Data

The Pearl itself will be priced at:

·         $400 MTM / No Contract

·         $350 on a 2 Year

·         $25 on a 3 year w/ Voice + Data (no minimum monthly total cost required).

Tethering will be allowed but no BES, I guess Roger would prefer you run it through them

Recession is indeed weighting on the heads of many and with layoffs all over the cell phone industry, Verizon has also changed tactics and is ending it “test drive” service. I often refer to the increase in rates as recessionary measure because it seems rude to call the companies lowlife rip offs or Scrooge. The test drive service is just that, you try out the Verizon carrier and if you don’t like it then you can return it within 30 days without having to pay for the used minutes and you choose to port your number to another carrier. The service ends on February 15th so if you opt to sign up for its services on or after the date, you’ll be paying the charges.

In addition to this, Verizon has also announced changes in its New Every Two program which are confusing enough. The New Every Two program is a two year contract that offers additional discount on a new handset if you opt to sign up for another two years. Customers under the monthly calling plan of 79.99 or greater get a $100 NE2 discount on a new handset. With the discount, the plan will cost $50. So in a nutshell what we are trying to say is if you want to try the Verizon service or are eligible for the NE2 discount, get your butt down to Verizon.

If didn’t like the white steel and grey editions of the Nokia E71 from AT&T then we have good news. Seen on the Nokia website for Europe is the N71 in two, count ‘em, two new colors! Black and Red. The purchase options don’t yet include these new colors but I guess they are waiting for stock to arrive. Well there is dangling candy in front of a kid for you. The red set is not all red but is accentuated with silver and looks like cupid will be buying! It’s his color and Valentine’s Day is near. As purchase options are not yet available for the new sets there is no way to tell if Nokia will charge a premium for the new schemes. Of course since many are awaiting the arrival of the E71x from AT&T one may as wonder why go for the older version just because it’s in a new color. Perhaps that’s why it’s only up and about in Europe and not in the North American region. But I guess it depends on you either being loyal to you model or a collector of them.

People of the world, rejoice, for real this time, because the Helio Ocean 2 is finally almost here. After Virgin Mobile announced that it would be sponsoring Britney Spears’ tour of Circus, and handing out O2s to select fans, everyone got the obvious idea that the O2 would be out soon, by March 1st at the very least, as that was the first day of the tour. But happiness is bountiful and the Phone is set for release on February 12! The O2 will be launched in “red limited color” edition with new colors to be available as the year progresses.

The specs of the phone are,

·         2.6″ QVGA Screen

·         Optical Sensor for touchpad-like navigation

·         Dual slider (One QWERTY, one number pad), a la the original ocean

·         5 hours of talk time, 10 days of standby

·         2GB internal storage, microSD support

·         2MP Camera w/ video support, night shot, and geotagging

·         Full HTML browser with tabbed browsing

·         Upgraded Ultimate Inbox: Threaded text messages, Google Talk

·         Access to all the Helio services: Connect, Buddy Beacon, WHERE, HelioUP

This is second generation of the Ocean lineup has upgraded versions of Ultimate inbox and HTML browser. It also includes Google talk and has 2GB of internal storage.

We love Dell as a computer manufacturer who has helped deliver highly customized Laptops and well other computer stuff. And rumor abound id that dell might be looking to make a new home in the Smartphone industry. And why not, after all it has had immense success both in dollars and in customer retention with prior mobile devices so it looks like the next big step.

Rumors of this had been abound for as far back as last year and now an article has surfaced in the wall street journal and SAI simultaneously saying the new Dell smartphone might just be available by September 9^th 2009 and going by the name MePhone, (hopefully just the Code name).

Well the rumors have a good chance at being true since Dell has been reportedly in contact with Asian suppliers and manufacturers for the past year and has even gotten hold of Ron Garriques the mind behind the success of the Motorola RAZR and has given him the title of “President of Consumer Business”. Everybody please join me in saying, “ooooooo”. Also there is the fact that after Dell purchased Zing in 2008, it didn’t really use that as a real asset and this could just be that opportunity. What’s more is perhaps the phone will also be free of windows mobile and may feature Android OS. As Homer Simpson would say, “wohoo”. Let’s hope all this does come true at a nice competitive price and good carrier. And then Palm can have a go at Dell too.

I guess the only thing missing in the world of cell phones was a collectable. The rumor of the “Samsung Memoir” seems to be coming true. Well what’s true is that a new phone from Samsung is indeed coming via T-Mobile. The release date is estimated at February 25th and the price is at $299 for a two year contract. The phone is expected to feature a xenon flash and 16x digital zoom with autofocus. Other expected features of the handsets, one of the first subsidized 8MP camera phones, include access to 3G data networks along with a full HTML browser, GPS sensor and stereo Bluetooth support. All this has been confirmed through an ever diligent document abound in plenty on the internet detailing release date and price. The document at least confirmed that the Samsung memoir is indeed a memoir. The Samsung memoir is touchwiz.

It’s the expensive cell phone line up and after Apple has come out in an I-refuse-to-lower-prices one piece swim suit, next up is Vertu. And it is indeed the phone without an equal! Thank God. The Vertu is known to be a high price phone and now it is coming up with new and current features. Previously designed to be simple and expensive, they are now equipped with the latest features and expensive still. This time it’s the signature model. I guess Nokia finally nudged its ultra deluxe division to start earning its keep or perhaps to help it out of the depression. Shrewd Nokia, very shrewd. The all-new Signature features quad band EDGE, HSDPA on the 850 and 2100MHz bands, 3G and WiFi, first time ever from Vertu, let’s hope it has used some of the Nokia genius and has an upscale browser to go with it. It’s been displayed at the Vertu website and is available for something above $12,000. And the phone is kind of pretty in a filthy rich kind of way.