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A leaked inventory system screenshot from Best Buy has revealed that Verizon Wireless is well on its way to getting the BlackBerry Storm 2 as early as this month. How do you all feel about an October 25th release date? Additional inside info has it that the retail price for the Strom 2 will be $599 on Best Buy. This also means that an official announcement is near, very near.

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Okay so even thought the Zune HD is not the biggest thing to happen this side of the century, but Redmond does have a lot riding on its success. The specs are very pleasing, and now we are in love with the price point. Leaked screenshots of Best Buy’s inventory have emerged and show that gave a pretty decent idea about the price, which was later confirmed by Amazon’s website featuring the same price points. While the iPod has the App Store to cover its back, if we make a stand-alone device comparison, the Zune HD is the single device that really puts up competition for the iPod Touch. So yes, we really like Amazon’s pre-order page and its Zune HD process; the 16GB will launch at $219.99 (while it costs $299 for the 16GB iPod touch) and the 32GB model will hit the streets at $289.99 (another score since it costs $399 for the 32GB iPod touch). You can promptly get a 32GB Zune HD for $9.01 less than a 16GB iPod touch. yay! As for launch date, September is still lookin’ good.

Alright folks, time to take your magic marker and put a big circle around September 15. According to a leaked Best Buy pre-order flyer, the mid of September is when you get your beloved Zune HD. For those looking to make faces at the iPod Touch crowd with something, you have a partner. We already have a guess at the pricing, and we’re pretty sure that if Redmond wants to keep the Zune ball rolling, it will stick under-pricing the iPod Touch.

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Best Buy is certainly making August a month of handsets. Leaked documents have revealed what best Buy plans for the later weeks of August and we have to say, it is gooood. Here’s what you’re looking at;

• Samsung Gravity 2 (berry) — T-Mobile
• Samsung Solstice — AT&T
• LG Xenon (red) — AT&T
• Global AirCard (G2) — Verizon
• Samsung Rogue — Verizon
• LG Chocolate Touch — Verizon
• Samsung u450 Intensity — Verizon
• Samsung Omnia 2 — Verizon
• BlackBerry Tour — (new shipment, Sprint)

There’s also a Samsung M330 coming to Sprint that will be popping up on Best Buy on September 8^th, or at least early September if this is just a tentative date. Oh well, let’s just focus on the treat at hand…LG Chocolate…mmmmmmm.

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Every now and then corporate slip ups happen that just make our day. Of recent, we had the Best Buy slip up that many wished would be true, the Palm Pre went up on the Best Buy website for an awesome $99.99. And before we could have our field day, John Bernier from Best Buy sent out a Tweet that it was mistake and was being corrected. That’s life for ya. Of course there may be a few lucky and smart mouth customers out there that did manage to take Best Buy up on its word. Rest assured, if there are any, we shall be hearing them boast soon. It was fun while it lasted.

Best Buy has just put up TELUS’s HTC Touch Pro2 on its website. This Best Buy being Best Buy, since ELUS hasn’t given a hint as to how much the Touch Pro2 will cost, but Best Buy will give it to us for $249.99 CAD. Smooth move. Now if that weird looking image of the Touch Pro2 could be replaced by an honorable depiction of the world’s most gorgeous looking WinMo smartphone, we’d call it a day.

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Lately it’s all been about the BlackBerry Tour, and while some of you may be wincing at the very title of this post, there are plenty others who want a modern CDMA BlackBerry with a full QWERTY keypad. N Canada, TELUS will be offering the Tour along with Bell, but TELUS’ price point for the coveted handset as of July 15th is $249.99 on a three year contract. And this really is a tad too high, considering you just signed away three years of your life. Before heading on to TELUS, how about checking in with Best Buy, since they’re offering the Tour $20 cheaper. Not enough to pay for your next vacation, but a penny saved is still a penny earned.

The HTC S511 broke free of its captivity a week early much to the delight of everyone and made an appearance the Best Buy website with a rather outdated price tag and contract. The HTC that has gone by names such as HTC willow and HTC Cedar (and HTC Christmas tree) is Sprint’s take on the HTC snap and was rumored to be out by June 7TH. Sprint should make the handset official in about a week’s time with an updated price tag and contract. You can check out the details on the Best Buy website for this QWERTY, 2.4 inch QVGA and 2mp candy bar set.

But be warned if you decide to pick the 7th for shopping for a Pre and they tell you it’s out of stock; don’t get reeled into buying the Snap. It’s so not what you want if you came for a Pre.

Well we can now safely say that every carrier has their own broadband card, based on the fact that Virgin Mobile’s got one. Where? According to yet again another inventory page leaked from our beloved Best Buy, the retailer will be carrying broadband cards from the carrier. If you want to economize on your monthly data usage but know you’ll tip that 5GB softcap any day now, a pre-paid card can really solve that problem. As for how much it should cost, the final word on pricing isn’t in yet, but it is going to be competitive with the monthly plan offered by Cricket; $40 for 5GB as well as a cheaper 1GB plan option. The card itself will cost $149.99.

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As we dread the Pre shortages that will come to Best Buy like the plague, there’s still a little matter of Sprint. Exactly what will be the position of the Pre stock at Sprint, the carrier that needs this handset to blow every ball out of the park it if plans to survive, and the words of Sprint CEO Hesse on ‘excess demand’ didn’t settle well with us. Sensing the tension, Sprint has come out with an explanation;

“At Sprint, we’re excited by the response to the Palm Pre, but what’s been posted is pure speculation. Because of the Pre’s popularity, it’s likely that initially we won’t be able to keep up with the demand for the device. If that happens, we will work diligently to ensure that everyone who wants a Pre can get one as soon as possible.”

Right, so the matter is not that there will be a few Pres shipped out, it’s just that given the immense popularity (no sarcasm at all folks, you know you want this phone) of the Pre, there is a solid chance that supply will fall short of demand. But no worries, Sprint will rise to the occasion and make sure you get your Pre as soon as possible.

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