FreshPhoneNews.com

Getting your hopes up ain’t a wise thing to do when it comes to HTC Dream or Magic from Rogers Wireless. Both these gadgets won’t be receiving an official OS update past Android 1.5, according to HTC’s website (Rogers Wireless has confirmed this as well). Android 1.6 upgrades for Rogers HTC Dream or Magic haven’t been planned as it was made only for “Google”- branded devices such as the G1. It isn’t available for the above two HTC-branded handsets that run Android 1.5, being considered a stable and reliable platform delivering an outstanding user experience. Bragging about the device, calling it an open-sourced “Revolution” and then turning down the customers is just plain sad. Did we mention that rival carriers offering Google supported devices have managed to tweak it up with some software upgrades?

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And it’s now official, the iPhone 3GS is definitely available in an 8GB version and Rogers will be getting it. The iPhone 3GS and 3G comparison chart that is currently up on Rogers’ website puts a very distinct blue check mark against the iPhone 3GS 8GB model. There isn’t any detail about possible release dates for the 8GB version, and it certainly would not do to find out this was a clumsy mistake by some sleepy marketing dude.

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Rumors and official looking document leaks are abound and all of them are pointing to one thing, Apple may very well be launching an 8GB installment of the iPhone 3GS. The leaked documents are very legit looking and we have to admit, it would be a good idea to give a smaller priced option to the iPhone 3GS to snag more customer. It also seems like Rogers in Canada will be the first to offer these 8GB iPhone 3GSs. Here’s to keeping fingers crossed that the 8GB iPhone 3GS replaces the $99 iPhone 3G stock hole.

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So after LG announces the very sleek looking LG BL40, the FCC goes on ahead and approves a version specially made for it (we guess). The LG BL40g. so what’s the difference between this BL40g and the BL40 we got to know earlier? Only the 850 and 1900 MHz bands of UMTS. So who could be potential carriers? We think, AT&T, Rogers and maybe even TELUS. So the good stuff is coming to this side of the world after all.

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Mobile carriers beware. The people are rising to power. The 7^th power if you will. Cellphone subscribers of various carriers have initiated a sort of judgment  day for the companies through a popular blog. Well its not so much as judgment day, more of a poll-gone-comparison where they are attempting to check the viability of big carriers and their 3G networks. Having already done AT&T, Verizon is next on the chopping block with the promise that Sprint and T-Mo will not be spared. So this is the ultimate in user end 3G signal and speed strength test. And no, they want location and as much proof as the user can give.

Both Canadian and U.S. users may soon have a pretty good reason to twitter and widget about. The royal family at the FCC has knighted the Samsung Omnia 2 and this is a pretty good spanking reason for us to believe that it will come to the U.S. and/or Canada soon. Not all documentation is out there but as for so much that is, it can be deducted that the Omnia2 has UMTS 850/1900. An all go for both the AT&T and Rogers’ networks. Whether either of them will carry the handset is not clear but for fans of the Omnia2 and of Samsung here is a refresher of the specs.

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/1900 MHz, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA5.76 Mbps
• 3.7-inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED touchscreen, Advanced R touch (Resistive)
• Memory: 8/16GB storage memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 32GB total)
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, TouchWiz 2.0 UI with 3D effects
• 800 MHz processor
• 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, dual LED flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) and D1 video recording at 15 fps
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, standard microUSB port, standard 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS
• Accelerometer
• DivX/XviD video support
• FM radio with RDS
• DNSe
• Dimensions: 118 x 59.6 x 11.9 mm
• 1500 mAh battery

Here’s another in a long line of hot WinMo touchScreen handsets. But we still love it.

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And

After a mere month on sale, Rogers Wireless has lowered the price tag on the three year contract for the HTC Magic and Dream by $50. That means all you Canadians who are interested in either device can get it for a reasonable $99.99. So why the price drop? Word has it it’s a twofold reason;

1. Rogers wants as many people as possible to be able to afford the smartphone along with the (very profitable) data plans.
2. It seems like convincing Canadians to buy a smartphone from a manufacturer other than Apple or RIM.

Plausible reasons. Hopefully the price drop should move handsets out of Rogers’ stock pile.

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Cell phone usage in Canada was never cheap, and if you had to make a few calls outside of the borders, well, that probably meant skipping on a lot of things inside the border. So it’s a release when major carriers actually come up with a plan that lets users save a buck or two. Rogers has just come up with some Travel Packages that aim to make your travel expenses on cellular calls a bit more bearable. Actually, the plans could save you cash in the regions of $15-$100 or more, sweet. The Travel Packages are good for one month once added to your account and require no contract. They’re also automatically removed from your account at the beginning of your next billing cycle. Here’s the rate list;

1. Africa

• $35 – 15 minutes
• $70 – 40 minutes
• $110 – 70 minutes

1. Asia, Mid-East & Oceania

• $30 – 15 minutes
• $70 – 40 minutes
• $110 – 70 minutes

1. Caribbean & Latin America

• $25 – 15 minutes
• $55 – 40 minutes
• $90 – 70 minutes

1. Europe

• $20 – 15 minutes
• $50 – 40 minutes
• $75 – 70 minutes

1. USA

• $15 – 15 minutes
• $25 – 40 minutes
• $40 – 70 minutes

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Living in Canada with an extra $199.99 is tough. But Rogers will be lightening the load on all such Canadians suffering from these awful circumstances. Rogers has just released the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and is out there for all of Canada. The XpressMusic as you may as well have guessed by the name is highly concentrated on Multimedia features and functionality. It’s a S60 5th edition Smartphone with  3.2-inch 640×360 resistive touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, auto-focus and dual-LED flash, 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi and aGPS.  Oh and get this, an 8GB microSD card come with it. And although the phone itself is good, it still pales in comparison to the other phones out there in the same pricing range. I mean if you want to spend $199.99, you do it on the best that you can get which as it turns out is not the Nokia XpressMusic 5800.

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Every Canadian is sitting on the edge of their sagging chair in front of the PC waiting for news on either Rogers or Fido about the release and pricing of the Apple iPhone 3G. Early adopters in the Canadian region made the iPhone 3G the coolest kid on the block or at least as far as wireless communication and carriers go. The two carriers, Rogers and Fido, had this to say regarding their offers for the iPhone 3G.

There has been a lot of excitement around the new iPhone 3G S and we wanted to recognize the early adopters who helped make the iPhone the hottest-selling handset in Canadian wireless history. We will be discounting the price of the iPhone 3G S by between $250 and $500 to provide savings to many of our iPhone customers.

What this means is that eligible iPhone owners can acquire the iPhone 16GB 3G S for as low as $199 or the 32GB for as low as $299 until July 31, 2009.

For Fido customers, we’re offering the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion. This enables iPhone customers to redeem FidoDollars towards a new iPhone 3G S with an additional $100 top-up from Fido.

For customers who don’t qualify for these extra savings, we are pleased to offer Rogers Wireless customers the iPhone at our cost on rogers.com. This cost – $580 for the iPhone 3G, $680 for the iPhone 3G S 16GB and $780 for the iPhone 3G S 32GB – represents the price we pay for the device plus a nominal fee for the SIM card. Customers can access these devices at retail locations for just $19 more for the three devices.

We’re also happy to announce that Rogers and Fido are extending the 6GB/$30 data promotion until July 31. This offer is valid for customers on a new or existing iPhone plan or customers buying an Android-powered HTC Magic or HTC Dream.

Five ways to save

1) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone 3G between July 11 and Sept. 30, 2008, and with an average monthly spend of at least $100, Rogers will provide $500 off the cost of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires July 31, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

• 16GB 3GS $199
• 32GB 3GS $299

2) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone between July 11 and Dec. 31, 2008, but aren’t eligible for the above offer, Rogers will provide $250 dollars off the purchase of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires July 31, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

• 16GB 3GS $449
• 32GB 3GS $549

3) All Rogers’s Wireless customers can upgrade to the iPhone 3GS at our cost at Rogers.com, or for a suggested retail price of just $19 more than our cost through our retail channels.

• 8GB 3G $580/$599
• 16GB 3GS $680/$699
• 32GB 3GS $780/$799

4) Fido customers can take advantage of the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion:

• Use FidoDollars towards the purchase of a new iPhone 3G S
• Fido will top up the FidoDollars amount by $100
• This promotion does not include an extension or renewal of their service agreement.

5) New and existing iPhone customers can take advantage of a limited-time promotion of 6GB of data for $30, now extended until July 31. Other Rogers and Fido data plans will remain the same, including the only national standalone data plan at $25 per month for 500 MB. We know that this is the right plan for most Canadians – 93 per cent of current iPhone customers on a data plan use less than 500 MB of data per month