What sort of sick, twisted world did we just wake up inside where NTT DoCoMo is getting rehashed has-been phones launched many, many months ago elsewhere? We're kidding -- sort of -- but we do find it a bit strange that Japan's favorite omniscient megacarrier is just now getting around to announcing its own LG Prada after the original KE850 model entered our hearts and minds almost a year and a half ago. Some of that embarrassment is salvaged in the form of NTT DoCoMo-specific changes and upgrades, or so they allege, anyway; all we're really seeing is the presence of 7.2Mbps data, even though the press release insists that the new model has been "redeveloped specifically" for 'em. Otherwise, fashionistas of the Far East will be treated to a 2 megapixel autofocus cam and a 3-inch wide QVGA display when it launches next month.

If ever there were an LG Shine to live up to its lofty name, this would definitely be it. We'd like to introduce you to the Iron Man phone -- presented here by our boy Robert Downey, Jr. -- based on the Shine slider as sold by AT&T. Unlike the garden-variety Shine, the Iron Man edition trades up to a deep red case with gold plated highlights and a solid 18K gold battery cover to commemorate the launch of the film in style. That's plenty enough element 79 to give this thing some serious heft. We're not bragging, though -- we want you to have it.

The phone is valued at a princely $1,500; twenty are being given away by LG directly -- we've got the twenty first. How do you pry it out of our hands? Easy: we want to see just how nasty, disgusting, and close to complete breakdown your current face candy is. Send us a pic and tell us a little bit about your poor, dilapidated phone and the long journey it's taken to its current state of disrepair. We'll pick the saddest entry and let you retire that terrible thing for something just a little flashier.

One word of advice though: don't bother breaking your phone or taking a photo of your dad's Dynatac or something, that's not what we're looking for.

Check out the gallery to see shots of the very Iron Man phone that could be yours, and don't forget to enter. Good luck!

The rules (yeah, there are always rules)

• Send us your original photo. If we find your picture elsewhere on the internet, you will so be disqualified. Don't test us here, we've seen every picture of every phone. Ever.
• Email submissions to contests [at] engadget [dawt] com with the subject "I am Iron Man!" And for the love of our inbox, please keep your images 1MB or under, ok?
  
• You may only enter this contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc.
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Entries must be in by 11:59PM EDT, Sunday, May 18th. After that, give us some time to sort through the entries and pick out the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it).

No surprises here -- particularly since LG's Vu has been on sale through a number of AT&T retail outlets since late last month (whoops!). Today, however, the carrier is officially listing LG's latest for sale, and the Mobile TV-supporting handset is going for a stiff $549.99 sans contract, or $299.99 after giving away your cellular soul for two years and waiting anxiously for a $100 mail-in rebate to arrive. Check out our hands-on gallery to see if you're really ready to make this kind of commitment.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

So our friendly local postman dropped this little gem off at our door this morning! That's right, your eyes don't deceive you -- it's an LG Vu of the CU920 variety, complete with Mobile TV support. We haven't had a chance to get the TV service up and running just yet, but we wanted to throw up a few visuals for everyone to feast on. In short, the screen's beautiful, we're pretty happy with the touch control so far, and we're pretty shocked at just how light this phone is. Click on, people! Do it!

MediaFLO is about to cut loose for AT&T customers this morning and we've got video to prove it. After the break you'll find Mobile TV running on LG's new $300 (2-year, after $100 rebate) Vu, one of just two Mobile TV compatible handsets launching on AT&T May 4th -- the other being the $200 (2-year, after $100 rebate) Samsung Access. Performance looks reasonably snappy when scrolling through the channel guide although some of the exclusive PIX and CNN Mobile Live content is not yet available. S'ok, AT&T has three more days to throw the big blue switch on the broadcast TV service which includes a $15/month unlimited Mobile TV access plan. Hear that Verizon? AT&T's about to step all over your portable TV game in the US market.

[Via MyFoxUtah]

Stores have started stocking up on Vus ahead of their launch next week, and we're getting a little photography here to prove it. It looks like this one is an honest-to-goodness CU920, too, meaning it sports MediaFLO reception -- either that, or AT&T was too lazy to put the Mobile TV-less CU915 model in a different package without the "TV" icon on the screen. We're still hearing May 5 is the official launch day for these, but it seems some locations are selling early, so try your luck and let us know how it goes, k?

[Thanks, Kal]

Get those textin' thumbs ready, peeps, because your latest weapon of choice is just about ready for you. LG's enV(2)-- a phone that we'd argue takes attractive design far more seriously than its predecessor -- will be available in exchange for a reasonable sum of cash (or cash equivalent) tomorrow, April 30, in Verizon stores across the land. Far more than a mere text machine, the enV(2) features a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, GPS, and a big ol' 2.4-inch display when the clam is opened. The only question left, really, is black or maroon?

phoneArena appears to have scored information on exactly when Verizon will be (or would like to be, anyway) releasing three new models from LG, all of which should be attracting some serious attention in their own right. Headlining the group is the VX9700 "Dare" -- Verizon's Prada-alike, if you recall -- which is allegedly now being targeted for a July 4 online release and an in-store launch shortly thereafter (we'd say those dates put it at risk of cannibalization from the Glyde, but the Dare'll win the photography battle with a 3.2 megapixel sensor versus the Glyde's measly 2). Next up, the trick VX8610 with the internal Bluetooth headset has apparently been christened "Decoy" and is tracking for May 30 online and June 9 in store. Finally, the VX8650 Chocolate Flip gets ready to mercilessly slaughter its VX8600 predecessor come June 24 on your trusty web browser with brick-and-mortar locations getting theirs in July. Naturally, launch dates tend to have the solidity of Jello, so don't be dropping your life savings on any wagers here with your shady friends. Not yet, anyway.

If you find yourself squinting at your celly but can't bear the thought of investing in a Jitterbug, LG has a phone that might catch your (bespectacled) eye. The new senior-friendly SV390/LV3900 Wine Phone features a larger screen inside (2.4-inches) and out (1.8-inches) for reading text "comfortably," plus larger buttons for aging fingers to press more comfortably, too. Beyond the up-sized screens your $400 gets you leather texture on the outside and a fancy digital camera, though not much else, much like LG's slightly smaller (and equally featureless) SV300 from last year. It's available now only in Korea, meaning those with bad eyes and big thumbs in the U.S. will either have to stick with their Jitterbugs or just keep squinting. We'd squint.

[Via SlashPhone]

Germany's been one of the European countries protesting the hardest against the EU's selection of DVB-H as the union's mobile TV standard of choice -- and for good reason, seeing how it already had a nice little chunk of cash sunk into T-DMB. We're not sure if this is Germany's version of passive-aggressive civil disobedience or if this is just how they plan on rolling for the time being, but Vodafone Germany is actually looking at rolling out a pair of phones next month that simply pull down plain ol' DVB-T signals -- the kind generally destined for home televisions, not pockets. This obviously gives the service a far larger footprint and content profile right off the bat, but the tradeoff is that DVB-T was never designed for the small screen and suffers from a greater power draw than either DVB-H or T-DMB. Anyhoo, the phones in question are the Windows Mobile-powered g-Smart t600 from Gigabyte alongside LG's HB620T clamshell. Both are expected to go out the door for about €100 ($159) on contract, apparently, which is just as well seeing how the t600 lacked 3G data last time we checked in on it. Who'd really trade fast data for television that's going to drain your battery faster than you can say "David Hasselhoff," anyway?

[Via the::unwired]

LG's KF750 was just announced official-like by the non-rioting folks at Lucky Goldstar. With it, we get the official specs courtesy of, uh, Photography Blog. Why is a site for digital photogs carrying a cellphone press release, you ask? Easy, this one's got a 5 megapixel camera with face recognition and the ability to shoot DivX video at 120fps. A member of LG's Black Label series, the 11.8-mm slider is the thinnest 5 megapixel cameraphone on the market. Unfortunately the press release is heavy on fluff and light on specs so we can only tell you that it'll also be sporting a touch-screen, suite of mobile Google apps, and Bluetooth when it makes its European debut sometime this year, presumably, for an unknown price.

Update: A few more details are rolling in: 2.4-inch display, haptic feedback, and available in May.

[Via Stuff.tv and Digital-Lifestyles]

Read -- Secret micro site (so secret it's currently down)
Read -- Press release

We liked the Viewty in black. We liked its Prada forebear in silver. Heck, we even liked in pink. But a shocking shade of purple? That might be pushing the limits of decency, even among the most loudly-accessorized mobile maniacs. Alas, Orange is trumpeting the arrival of its "exclusive" purple Viewty, featuring the same 5 megapixel camera, xenon flash, HSDPA, and full touchscreen that made the original a winner. It can be had for as little as zilch on the right contract, so we've gotta throw the question out there: any takers?

Strong work, Telus! First you guys are pretty much on the ball with your release of the BlackBerry 8330 Curve and the Motorola Q9c, and now you've become the first Canadian carrier to offer the LG Venus -- and you're clearly reveling in it, too, since you point out on your product page that this is actually LG's first touchscreen phone in all of Canada. $99.99 CAD (about $100) of your customer's hard-earned savings is going to net them a 2 megapixel camera, QVGA primary display, microSD slot, GPS, EV-DO, and stereo Bluetooth, so we'd say you've done good -- for the moment, anyway. Keep up the strong work.

[Thanks, Jesse]