Smartphones

Sony Ericsson just launched the Aino multimedia smartphone in the United States. Though not cheap at $599.99, this 3G-enabled phone includes an 8.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth headphones, charging base, 8GB microSD card and comes unlocked. It also has a Remote Play feature, which lets you access content from your PlayStation 3 and PC.

The Aino has a 3-inch, 432 x 240 touch screen display, media browser with 3D navigation, and another cool function, Media Home, which will check your PC every 30 minutes for videos, music and photos, and upload them from your PC to the Aino phone.

The Aino is now available at Sony stores and online at www.sonystyle.com for $599.99. Read more

Best Buy Mobile announced on Thursday that they are now offering the Verizon Motorola DROID smartphone for presale. The DROID is the first Verizon device running on the Android operating system. The phone will be available in stores on November 6th.

Best Buy is giving customers an incentive to purchase the phone through them by applying the rebate instantly, rather than deal with the hassle of mail-in rebates. The DROID is available at Best Buy for $199.99 with two-year activation.

"We're excited to feature this new device for our consumers, as it represents the latest and greatest in mobile technology," said Best Buy Mobile President Shawn Score. "Bringing the DROID to Best Buy Mobile expands our already unmatched assortment of smartphones allowing customers to compare high-end devices like the iPhone 3GS, HTC Hero and DROID all under one roof. The fact that customers can purchase the phone first at Best Buy through the pre-sell is an added bonus."

Verizon Wireless today unveiled DROID by Motorola, the first smartphone powered by Android 2.0. Featuring high-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, a customizable large screen, and access to thousands of Android applications and hundreds of widgets, the DROID by Motorola is also one of the thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available.

DROID by Motorola will be available exclusively at Verizon Wireless on November 6, for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate.

See a video demo of the DROID in action on Verizon's YouTube Channel.Read more

Sprint just announced that the Palm Pixi will be available on November 15th for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement, after a $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate.

Pixi has the same features of the Palm Pre, including the gesture area, full QWERTY keyboard, Palm Synergy, true multi-tasking, universal search and intuitive notifications, but also adds Yahoo! integration to Palm Synergy, joining Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Exchange ActiveSync and LinkedIn. A new Facebook application will be available as well, so you can see and comment on all the latest news from your friends, as well as update your status. Read more

Verizon Wireless announced today that the BlackBerry Storm2 will be available beginning Oct. 28 at Verizon Wireless stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com. The BlackBerry Storm2 gets an upgrade with the BlackBerry OS 5.0, including new SurePress "clickable" display technology and built-in Wi-Fi.

The Storm2 features a 3.25-inch display at 184 ppi, 3G and global connectivity support, Wi-Fi, 256 MB of Flash memory, 2 GB of onboard media storage, a microSD/SDHD memory card slot with a 16 GB card (included). A 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, Image Stabilization, flash and video recording, 3.5mm headset jack, built-in GPS are also included.Read more

The new BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be in stores from both AT&T and T-Mobile in time for the holiday season. It will be the first 3G-powered BlackBerry smartphone available from T-Mobile, and also the first smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) that includes built-in support for both 3G connectivity and voice calls over Wi-Fi.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone includes support for 3G HSDPA networks around the world, a next-generation (624 MHz) processor, 256MB Flash memory, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g).

It also has a full-QWERTY keyboard, a touch-sensitive optical trackpad, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video recording; and a music and video player. A hot-swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot gives you additional storage for multimedia files. A 2GB memory card is included with support for 32GB cards. Read more

It seems that everywhere you look, there is a new Android device hitting the marketplace. Not to be outdone by T-Mobile's line-up, Sprint just announced that the Samsung Moment handset on the Android platform will be available on November 1, 2009.

Featuring built-in Google mobile services, such as Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube, the Samsung Moment has a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch-screen and is powered by an 800 MHz processor.Read more

The hot handset this holiday season seems to be the Android powered device. And T-Mobile seems to have something for everyone, even if Android isn't your thing. Here is a listing of T-Mobile's holiday handset line-up:

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition

The newest in the T-Mobile myTouch franchise, the myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition has a guitar-inspired wood-grain finish and has access to the Android Market. It also features a 3.5mm headset jack, pre-installed 16GB microSD card, and exclusive pre-loaded video and audio clips by iconic musicians. It will be available later this year. Pricing has not been announced, and unfortunately, a photo is not available yet either.Read more

Sprint and Samsung announced that the Samsung Intrepid Windows smartphone will be available at Sprint stores on October 11, 2009.

Samsung Intrepid runs on Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional and has a customizable Today screen to display the features that you access the most, such as new emails, text messages, missed calls, etc. And, the Intrepid is the first device to offer Microsoft's Tellme, which lets you dial a contact, compose a text message and search the Web by using just your voice. Read more

Best Buy Mobile just announced mIQ, a new Web-based service that lets smartphone users access their contacts, text messages, calendar events, calls, photos, videos, and phone settings captured on their mobile devices, from a Web interface on any computer. Once a user signs up for the free service the information is uploaded from the mobile device and backed-up in a personal mIQ account.The service will be free beginning October 12. Read more