AT&T and Nokia announces the upcoming availability of the Nokia Surge – a smartphone designed especially for all you social-networking minded individuals out there.

With features such as a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the Symbian S60 OS, the Surge allows you to stay connected with your family and friends whether it’s through the use of IM, text, email, multimedia messaging, AT&T Video Share, or updating and reading content from social networking websites.

Specs and features include:

• 2.0 megapixel camera
• Web browser with Adobe Flash support
• JuiceCaster application
• Support for AT&T Navigator, AT&T Mobile Music, and AT&T Video Share

What makes the Surge particularly interesting is the claim that the Surge was designed in the U.S. – a Nokia phone designed in the U.S. specifically for the U.S. audience. Not bad.

The Nokia Surge will be available through select AT&T retail locations and online for a price of $79.99 along with a new two year agreement and a mail-in rebate (Pay $129.99 and send in a $50 dollar AT&T Promotion Card). The company expects the Nokia Surge to be available starting on July 19th.

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Technorati Tags: AT&T, Nokia, Nokia Surge

Now in other Nokia-related news, the company announced that the E71x is now available for purchase at AT&T retail stores and online. The E71x is currently the slimmest smartphone on the market with features such as a full QWERTY keyboard, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and a built-in music player. The full feature list and specs are as follows:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA support
• 850/900/1800/1900MHz frequencies for GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• 850/1900MHz for UMTS/HSDPA
• Symbian S60 3.2
• 120MB memory
• microSD slot
• 2.4 inch 240 x 320 resolution display with support for 16M colors
• GPS and aGPS ready
• Wi-Fi, microUSB, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR + Stereo A2DP
• Infrared
• 2.5 mm UHJ connector for audio
• Speakerphone
• Video file format support including .Flash lite 3, MP4, .3GP, H.263, MPEG-4 VSP
• Audio file format support including MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+
• Measures 4.4 x 2.2 x 0.4 inches and weighs 4.4 oz
• Talk time of 4.5 hours
• Standby time of 12 days
• Mail for Exchange support as well as support for Yahoo Mail, AOL, Windows Live, Hotmail etc
• IM support including AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo
• Text and MMS support
• AT&T Navigator support
• Web Browser with Flash support
• 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and flash

And now.. for the price. The Nokia E71x is available for $99.99 after a new two year contract and a mail-in rebate.

[Check it out via Nokia Press Release]

Read this in Chinese Simplified and in French

Technorati Tags: AT&T Wireless, Nokia, Nokia E71x

Palm reported their Q3 revenue numbers this afternoon and yes – they had one rough quarter. The company reported a net loss of $98 million dollars (or $0.89 per diluted common share). Total revenue for the third quarter (which ended on Feb 27th for Palm) was $90.6 million dollars. Smartphone sales took a nosedive for Palm as the company reported $77.5 million dollars in smartphone revenue – down 72 percent from the year-ago quarter on sales of 482,000 units (down 42 percent year over year).

These are certainly tough times for Palm. They’re in the midst of rolling to an entire new OS and smartphone platform yet they still have a large inventory of existing smartphone devices to sell. Combine that with abysmal economic climate and customers waiting for the new Pre, it’s really not that surprising to see dismal numbers.

Here’s hoping the new webOS and Palm Pre product line will bring growth back to the company.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Palm third quarter revenue numbers

Sprint will begin offering the Palm Treo Pro Windows Mobile smartphone starting on March 15th for a price of $199.99 after a new two-year agreement (after a $100 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate, with an Everything plan with data or a $30 per month or higher data add-on. Was that simple enough for ya ?? ).  The Treo Pro will be available online, at retail stores, or by calling 800-SPRINT-1

In case you’re not familiar with the Treo Pro, here are the major highlights:

• Windows Mobile 6.1 OS
• First Palm phone with Internet Explorer Mobile 6 with options for either mobile optimized or desktop-like Internet browsing
• High resolution color touch-screen display
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Removable battery with up to five hours of talk time
• One-touch Wi-Fi button
• EV-DO Rev A support
• Integrated GPS
• Microsoft Direct Push technology support
• Sprint Navigation with turn-by-turn directions, maps, and points-of-interest searches
• Sprint TV – watch TV or video-on-demand
• Sprint Music – wirelessly download digital music tracks to phone
• Pocket Expres – get the latest up to date web content
• Ringer switch
• Clock and date screen saver
• New voicemail indicator – center button flashes when new voicemail is available
• Dedicated email and calendar buttons

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sprint Nextel, Palm Treo Pro, Windows Mobile 6.1, Windows Mobile Smartphones

The new Nokia E63 is the company’s latest Eseries handset designed for a broader market thanks to the suggested price of EUR 199. The E63 builds on the flagship E71 handset and features a QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi connectivity, Mail for Exchange support, and dedicated key access to contacts, calendar, and email.  Other specs include:

• CSD, HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA support
• 2.36 inch 320 x 240 (QVGA) display with support for up to 16 million colors
• Two customizable home screens – switch between a business mode to a personal mode
• Speaker dependent and speaker independent voice dialing
• 2.0 megapixel digital camera
• Built-in video recording and playback
• Built-in music player
• Voice and audio recording
• Micro-USB connector, full-speed
• microSD memory card slot
• 110 MB internal memory
• SMS, MMS, email, Web Browser,
• Nokia Music Store support
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• Speakerphone, Push to Talk, VoIP support
• Files on Ovi – allows you to get remote access to their PC files
• 1GB of online file storage for free
• Symbian S60 3.1 edition
• Measures 113 x 59 x 13 mm and weighs 126 grams

The E63 will be available in ruby red or ultramarine blue.

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Technorati Tags: Nokia E63

AND finally, the new Nokia 6650 clamshell handset will be available starting today (Friday) to AT&T customers for a price of $69.99 with a new two year agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. The 6650 handset, powered by the Symbian S60 platform features the following specs:

• 2.0 megapixel camera with integrated flash and 4x zoom
• Live video capture and playback
• Brushed metal fold design
• Internal 2.2 inch QVGA display with support for 16 million colors
• External 1.36 inch display
• Support for AT&T Navigator, AT&T Video Share, and AT&T Mobile Music
• 3G network support
• Built-in music player with support for MP3, MIDI, AAC, AAC+, AMR
• Streaming Radio, MusicID support
• Text messaging, IM, Email, Web browser
• Quad band GSM support
• microSD slot
• Measures 3.93 x 1.86 x 0.64 inches and weighs 3.95 oz

The Nokia 6650 is available now in red and silver.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: AT&T, Nokia 6650

Yes, the Palm Treo Pro finally got formally announced today by Palm Inc. As most of you know already (thanks to a ton of leaked pics), the Treo Pro is a new streamlined smartphone running the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS and featuring email, Wi-Fi, and GPS capabilities. Features include the following:

• One-touch Wi-Fi button supporting 802.11 b/g
• Today screen enhancements – perform web searches directly from the Today screen
• Ringer switch – silences the device immediately
• Screen saver – lets users know at a glance without turning on the device what time it is and whether they missed a call or have a new text message
• New voicemail indicator – center button flashes to let users know that a voicemail is waiting
• Dedicated email and calendar buttons
• Microsoft Direct Push technology – direct connection to Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and 2007
• Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 allows IT professionals to manager large Treo Pro deployments
• High speed UMTS/HSDPA support
• Integrated GPS receiver for maps, and turn-by-turn directions and point of interest searches
• Qualcomm MSM7201 400MHz processor
• 320 x 320 TFT flush touchscreen
• Quad-band GSM support
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
• 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom
• microSDHC card support
• microUSB 2.0
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
• Measures 4.49 x 2.36 x 0.53 inches and weighs 4.69 oz

The Palm Treo Pro will be available from Vodafone and O2 in Europe, from Telstra in Australia, and will be available in an unlocked version in the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. In the U.S., the Palm Treo Pro will be available for a price of $549.

Technorati Tags: Palm, Treo Pro, Windows Mobile Professinal 6.1, Windows Smartphone

New preview stills of the upcoming Palm Treo Pro (Treo 850w) have surfaced on the net courtesy of Treo8.com. No firm information on specs but the pics reveal it to be a GSM phone with a built-in stylus running of course, Windows Mobile (hence the w).The phone is thinner than previous Treo models.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Palm Treo 850, Treo Pro, Windows Mobile

Palm is trying to tell the world that it’s still a relevant company in the smartphone market by announcing that two million Palm Centro smartphones have been sold in 25 countries around the world. Thanks to data from the AdMob advertising network, Palm also announced that the Centro is now the 7th most popular device around the world. Keep in mind of course that this data is entirely based on mobile advertising analytics. AdMob also showed that Palm ranked number 2 in the U.S. in terms of mobile advertising reach and number 3 worldwide.

While two million Centros is certainly no small feat, let’s not forget that the Apple iPhone 3G hit one million units in literally the first weekend of availability.

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Technorati Tags: Palm Centro

Symbian’s S60 platform finally arrives on Samsung handsets with the formal introduction of the new i8510 smartphone. The handset features support for quad-band GSM as well as dual-band WCDMA. While certainly a smartphone on paper, the i8510 also features advanced digital photography specifications such as an 8 megapixel camera, smile, face and blink detection technologies, image stabilization technology, and the ability to create panoramic pictures.

Other specs include:

• Video recording in QVGA resolutions at up to 120fps and VGA at 30 fps
• Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition FP2
• 2.8 (?) 16 million color QVGA TFT display
• Built-in GPS receiver
• Built-in accelerometer
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• 16GB internal memory
• microSD memory card slot
• Bluetooth 2.0

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Samsung i8510, Symbian