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Fresh images of the Motorola Calgary have hit the web. You may remember that the Calgary is Motorola’s Android treat for Verizon, something that’s a sure win with the tween crowd. The mouth-watering live shots are courtesy of a tester who’s had the Calgary for a while now, accompanying the shots are reports that the OS is amazing, smooth and responsive, as it should be. As for Hardware, the Calgary packs three touch-sensitive Android keys on the display, a pretty decent working optical joystick, a solid QWERTY keyboard, and decent phone abilities. Among the usuals is a 3 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack, GPS, digital magnetometer, Wi-Fi, microSD card slot, and spring-assisted slider. All in all, the Calgary will find a place in the hearts and pockets of Verizon users. No release date has been announced yet, but Q4 is looking to be very inviting.

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And finally we have much the awaited official word on Dell’s first Android handset. The Mini 3i is now officially in China, staying with China Mobile and had a coming out party at Beijing. The Mini 3i bears some pretty decent specs, even though it is EDGE only and stripped of all Wi-Fi.  Who wouldn’t say yes to;

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
• Size: 68.6cc
• 103g grams weight
• Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
• Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
• OTA capable
• Microsoft Exchange support
• Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
• 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
• USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• A-GPS
• On-screen QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition, multi touch UI
• MicroSD slot

Not to mention it looks purty too.

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And we finally have pictures of the Nokia Rover aka RX-51. This Maemo 5 powered smartphone has gotten its graduation certificate from the FCC and if all guesses be true, we may see it pop up on T-Mobile. The handset still features the Nokia right-centered space key. Something never change. In any case, the specs are cool, and if you’ve forgotten them, here’s your fresher-upper;

• 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen
• 800 x 480 pixel resolution
• 32GB internal memory
• 5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, auto-focus and sliding cover
• MicroSDHC support
• FM transmitter
• Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA 900/1700/2100, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP
• GPS
• CPU: ARM cortex A8 @ 600mhz up to 1Ghz (similar to iPhone 3GS and palm pre)

But you came here for the pictures, keep scrolling along and enjoy yourself.

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Big Brother is dangerously spreading his influence in our world. It seems like everyone is pulling a Big Brother, every chance they get. Newest on aboard the Death Star is Palm. That’s right folks, developer Joey Hess performed a very public examination of WebOS and revealed to us all that your Pre is indeed giving Palm ‘intelligence’ such as;

• Your location
• Which apps you’ve used and for how long
• Your app crash logs
• Which apps you have installed

That’s right, not in the least bit nice. And while questions are being raised about ethics, disclosure, privacy, Palm’s privacy policy, like others in its league is strangely broad enough to cover nuttiness like this. Hesse has suggested a way to disable this information sharing feature, but it requires the use of Linux. Let’s just hope an easier way of fixing the feature comes out soon.

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Pantech has just given Verizon a handset, which although not the fanciest piece of equipment on the block, is very very useful. The Pantech Escapade is a handset right out of 2002 with a 2 megapixel camera and GPS…and that’s about it. The good thing about this device is that it is the only non-smartphone device on Verizon which can work overseas on GSM networks. If you still don’t like the looks of this budget travel solution, then be prepared to either borrow a smartphone or fork over some hard cash for one of your own. Available as of now, the Escapade will receive an applause from the budget conscious.

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AT&T has just launched a service called FamilyMap that lets you locate any number on your AT&T account, for a monthly fee. The interesting part is, apart from the first text message alert that lets the subscriber know they are being tracked; the rest of the process is pretty much invisible. No text message alerts that you’re being checked up on. Nothing. Also this is not by triangulation; it actually activates the GPS chip in the handset. Not your usual geo-tracking service. The monthly fee, a small $9.99 (rather pricey if you compare to Sprint’s $5 per month offer).

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News for Storm users, Google just announced a few days ago that Google Maps on the Verizon BlackBerry Storm will now use GPS for My Location. That’s right, you lot now get to use Google Maps tailored to utilize the built in GPS of the Storm. Just point your browser here and get the latest version of Google Maps. The new version reportedly adds to accuracy in both My Location as well as Latitude. Sad part of this news, this is only for the Storm, even if you have an internal GPS like the BlackBerry 8130, you still won’t be getting GPS love on My Location.

A day or so ago we told you that Europe was getting dibbs on the G2 known to them as the HTC Magic. Well now the news all official; Vodafone is going to be the exclusive carrier for UK, Spain, France and Germany. As for Italy, enthusiasts there will be able to purchase the world’s first touchscreen-only Android phone as no-exclusive buyers. Though a definite release date isn’t out yet, Vodafone’s website says the Magic will be “Arriving in April.” As for the United States, let’s just hope we get some Magic sooner than later.

Now the HTC Magic is a definite improvement on the tub of plastic that was the G1, especially on the appearance side. Here are the specs;

1.      Android OS

2.      Quad-band EDGE / dual-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (900/2100 MHz)

3.      512MHz Qualcomm® MSM7201a

4.      512MB ROM / 192MB RAM

5.      3.2″ HVGA touchscreen display (though the press and Vodafone say QVGA, but we all know Android does not play nice with QVGA displays)

6.      Virtual QWERTY keypad, trackball

7.      3.2 megapixel camear w/ AF (no flash)

8.      WiFi 802.11 b/g

9.      GPS

10.  Bluetooth 2.0

11.  microSD

12.  1340 mAh battery

13.  Talktime: 400 min 3G / 450 min GSM

14.  Standby: 660 hours 3G / 420 hours GSM

15.  113mm x 55mm x 13.65mm, 118.5g

16.  Available in black and/or white depending on market

Yes, you noticed right, no 3.5mm audio jack or LED flash. Major bummer.  And here’s the full press release if you want to gobble up more details.

Sprint, in all efforts to save its sinking ship, has brought a new feature to its push-to-talk messaging network; NextMail. NextMail basically adds GPS co-ordinates, location timestamps, street addresses and interactive maps to messages. Sprint users will now be able to send location, date, time and voice observations to dispatchers, call centers or field workers.

The interactive map will let recipients of messages see an aerial view of the sender’s location, a hybrid view showing the names of roads and streets surrounding the sender, and a bird’s eye view that provides a snapshot of the location. Users can use the tool to send real-time commands to their command centers, making coordination a lot easier.

According to Danny Brown the President of Nextel Direct Connect for Sprint, “NextMail Locator will allow mobile workers in industries such as transportation, utilities, field service and public safety to increase productivity by communicating their voice message along with their location to their home office or another worker without waiting for a call to be answered.”

NextMail is available on select GSP-enabled Nextel handsets, and the unlimited data plan will cost you $19.99 per month.

Pharos is bringing a New Year’s gift that will win over many fans; the Traveler 137. The phone is unlocked, GPS-centric and will support 3G on both T-Mobile and AT&T’s networks. Getting an unlocked set to rock T-Mobile is a new one. This is a pretty snazzy Windows Mobile phone and boasts a number of great features such as;

1.      3.5″ 800×480 touchscreen with 65,000 colors

2.      Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528MHz528 MHz processor

3.      Unlocked quad band GSM850/900/1800/1900 MHz,EDGE/GPRS and Tri-band 3G, 1700/1900/2100 MHz, UMTS 384Kb/s, HSDPA 7.2Mb/s, HSUPA 2Mb/s

4.      256MB DDR SDRAM, 512MB Flash ROM

5.      Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

6.      aGPS with Pharos Smart Navigator software

7.      Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR

8.      FM radio

9.      Dual cameras: 3MP on the back and VGA on the front

10.  256 Mb RAM/ 512 MB ROM

11.  MicroSD expansion (up to 16 GB)

12.  Stereo audio jack

13.  Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional

14.  Battery : 1380 mAh battery, 4 hours of talk time

15.  Dimensions : 4.6″ x 2.4″ x 0.51″

16.  Weight : 4.9 oz

The Traveler 137 includes Pharos Smart Traveler software that will bring you full-featured GPS navigation with turn-by-turn voice directions, real-time traffic, POI search and a Follow Me feature allowing others to track your GPS location over the Internet or through another Windows Mobile Smartphone. What makes this even sweeter is the fact that all this comes without any monthly fees! The navigation software also comes with a unique hybrid system that downloads maps when your cellular coverage is strong and caches them for use when cellular coverage is weak or non-existent. This means you ultimately are not getting lost just because your carrier’s signals aren’t getting through. The Traveler 137 will be shipped with US maps and you can get other maps on a pay-as-you-go basis. Right now you get your pick of maps from Canada, Western Europe and Eastern Europe on a daily ($1.99/day), weekly ($4.99/week), monthly ($6.99/month) or yearly basis ($49.99/year), with future support expected for China, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and beyond.

As a finishing touch, the Traveler 137 comes preloaded with a touch screen keyboard, SPB Mobile Shell with touch-based user interface, Microsoft Office Mobile suite, built-in Media Player and Live Search. The Traveler 137 will be available in lateQ1 2009 from major retailers and the suggested price is no modest $599.95.