We've just received a fresh round of release dates on AT&T, and if we had to pick a single word to describe the theme here, it'd be "colors." Shades upon shades of phones -- both new and old -- will see a release on AT&T in the next couple of months, starting with the Sony Ericsson Z750a, the first 3G Sony Ericsson to be released by a carrier in the States (but not in North America -- that honor belongs to Rogers); it'll hit in your choice of gray, pink, or purple in early April. The now-ancient UTStarcom 5700 finally sees release toward the end of April more than a year after we first saw it in the FCC's business, giving a lower-end choice to the Windows Mobile faithful. Finally, May should bring about the LG CU720 Shine in black, following its initial offerings of silver and red.

Oh, and it looks like the Motorola Z9 and the black Centro should be widely available pretty much any minute now -- stay tuned. Strangely missing from the list is the Vu, though that doesn't necessarily mean it won't be released by the end of May, it merely means that AT&T's not sure yet. Surprise, surprise.

[Thanks, Kal]

It doesn't look like much, but it's the innards of UTStarcom's unassuming CDM7126 flip that makes it a superstar. It turns out that this is the very first CDMA phone to launch in the US on AWS bandwidth, meaning that in addition to the typical 850 and 1900MHz support, this one adds in a little extra coverage punch via the new 1700MHz spectrum that T-Mobile is also sharing for its 3G services. We spied the CDM7126 at CES earlier this year -- hence the somewhat unusual picture -- and while we can't find it hiding out on carrier partner Cricket's website, residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma should be able to march into stores as soon as today to pick 'er up. Don't get too excited, though; other than the noteworthy use of AWS, the phone lacks EV-DO and an external display. Yikes!

[Via Phone Scoop]

We've just been slipped some bittersweet information that we deliver with a heavy heart: AT&T's latest pricing information, which runs through April 7, apparently makes no mention of the hotly anticipated LG Vu. There's no mention of the Samsung Access, either, leading us to believe that the carrier's mobile TV launch may have been pushed out one more time for good measure. Of course, we suppose it's possible that there's no delay and they just haven't slipped pricing details to stores yet, but we're jaded enough at this point to say that another slip is entirely within the realm of reason. Now, onto some happier tidbits: the black version of the Shine should launch, along with the Sony Ericsson Z750 in pink, gray, and purple, the long-overdue 5700 low end smartphone, the white Centro sporting push-to-talk support, and the Motorola Z9 slider -- which AT&T curiously identifies as "ruggedized." We don't remember anything remotely rugged about the one we saw, but whatevs.

[Thanks, Kal]

What would you do if the US patent office gave you the go-ahead on a far-reaching, non-specific application filed for a "mobile entertainment and communication device"? If your answer was that you would immediately draw up lawsuits against almost every major electronics manufacturer that even looked at a smartphone funny, you get a cookie. Yes folks, as impossible as it is to believe, the holders of the aforementioned patent have just sued Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, AT&T, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, and Samsung... amongst others. So eager was this company to sue, in fact, that legal papers were filed a day before the patent was granted, and subsequently had to re-submitted. The real sucker-punch here is that the patent simply combines a list of prior technologies jumbled into one product, a practice which has recently been ruled against by the Supreme Court. Still, we doubt it will stop the holders from trying to nab a few dollars in settlements, staying the work of real innovators, and generally making a mockery of our patent system. Bravo!

[Via Slashdot]

Wouldn't it be pretty awesome to have the launch dates for, like, all of AT&T's most anticipated devices on one convenient 440 x 330 image? Well, that's not quite what we have here -- the Sony Ericsson K850 is nowhere to be found, for one -- but this is a solid start. It sounds like that SMT5700 (codename "Bulldog," how cool is that?) that we've been anticipating for nearly a year now will finally get outed on February 5 alongside the Vu. We still don't know whether AT&T's MediaFLO network will launch at the same time, and we've heard rumors that there will be a second Vu without MediaFLO support, so we could be seeing that here but we're really not sure. Despite the missing K850, Sony Ericsson's still putting up a reasonably strong showing here with a pink W580i launching this week and the 3G Z750 in grey, pink, and purple on March 11. In addition to the Vu, LG will be offering the CU720 Shine in red on January 22 and in black (ooh, that might look hot!) on February 28. Option's HSUPA data cards are now targeted for January 24, and last -- and probably least -- the Motorola V3xx outstays its welcome by making an encore appearance in "lavender" on the 22nd of this month.

[Thanks, Kal]

In terms of layout, UTStarcom's booth is close to a dead ringer for its showing at last year's CES; just the promos and handsets have changed, basically. The darlings of the show have to be the HSM180, an absolutely bizarre HSDPA candybar featuring two circles for a keypad, and the TXT8010, a QWERTY slider with an attitude for CDMA networks. Check 'em out, yo.

We've been patiently waiting for a national US carrier to launch a version of HTC's Libra for nearly a year, and by golly, it looks like it might finally happen (and not in the hideous green Verizon was showing back in the day, either). The UTStarcom-sourced XV5800 lies somewhere between the Vox and the S730; although it shares 3G functionality with the S730, it's from the same vintage as the Vox (its GSM cousin) and has launched on a number of carriers. No word on a price or release date just yet, but it'd be a nice Festivus gift if we got 'er before the end of the year, yeah?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Yeah, there's a cooked Windows Mobile 6 ROM floating around for the now-ancient Apache, but it ain't official -- and let's be honest, there's a good contingent of folks out there that like their updates officially blessed by the powers that be. That very group should be delighted to hear that UTStarcom appears to have an official Windows Mobile 5 AKU3.3 update (you know, the one that was hacked for the handset many moons ago) available, which we would imagine means Verizon should be offering it directly before too long. Windows Mobile 6 it's not, but the patch appears to offer some key goodies like A2DP, tethering via USB, and Microsoft's Daylight Savings Time fix from frickin' ages ago. Oh, and the best part? You don't have to wait for Verizon to roll it out -- just follow the read link and look for the XV6700-related files on UTStarcom's site (user beware, of course, since this hasn't been announced). Rock on! Follow the break for a rundown of what's new in the package.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

With the holidays right around the corner, carriers will pull out all the stops to attract new customers and Verizon's no exception to the rule. First up, it's the Motorola's elusive Q9c -- cousin to the Q9m -- outfitted with a 1.3 megapixel camera, expandable memory via miniSD, 128MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM, Windows Mobile 6 Standard, and Bluetooth 2.0. Next up, it's UTStarcom's QWERTY-sliding SMT5800. The device will rock a 1xEV-DO Rev. A radio (which unfortunately looks like it will be held to Rev. 0 at launch), 2 megapixel shooter, microSD support, 128MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM, Windows Mobile 6 Standard, and Bluetooth 2.0. UTStarcom looks to finally bring the XV6800 running WM6 Professional, too -- but sadly, it will also have the EV-DO Rev. A radio downgraded to Rev. 0 at launch. Rounding out the November launch schedule is the Palm Treo 755p, trailing Sprint by a country mile, but Palm OS faithful are probably thinking it's better to launch this one late than never. Let's hope these dates stick, yeah?

[Thanks, HTC Kid]

With major releases like the Motorola RAZR 2 V9m and BlackBerry 8830 in its rear-view mirror, Alltel's been doing a commendable job keeping up with its larger, national rivals -- and if our intel's accurate, we can expect the trend to continue. In the smartphone department, the Palm Treo 755p should be launching pretty shortly (alright, granted, they're a little late on this one) along with the 8130 variant of the so-called Pearl 2 from RIM, a nice stablemate for the more businesslike 8830. One wildcard that we're hearing about here is the UTStarcom 6850 -- it's not clear what this device is, but given the UTStarcom branding on HTC's PPC-6800, it's conceivable to think that this could be some sort of mild refresh. Then again, it could be some totally boring low-end device sourced from a generic ODM, so we'll just have to play the waiting game on that one. From Motorola, look for two: a U5 (likely a new CDMA PEBL, given the "U" prefix on the model number) and the MOTOROKR Z6m. Not bad if it all pans out, eh?

[Thanks, dizzy]

Like pretty much everything else in life, carriers' launch dates tend to slip, sometimes to the extreme (oh, come on, you can't tell us you've never procrastinated to the point where you couldn't make a due date!). To that end, we've gotten an updated look at AT&T's expected drop dates, and it seems like the wait has gotten a little longer for a few of the more anticipated handsets in the pipe. Some devices like the red version of the Nokia 6555 have slipped a couple weeks, while others -- the lowly Samsung A127 comes to mind -- have actually moved up. The Pantech Duo has also been pushed out from October 9 to the 30th, possibly to give the just-launched Tilt a little breathing room in the spotlight. Click on for the full list!

[Thanks, Kal-El]

Update: A second source is telling us that the Duo is still tracking for shipment "on or about" the 9th. Of course, the proof is in the pudding -- but either way, at least we'll be getting our Duo on before the month's out.

We haven't the foggiest what's been holding them up here, but the long-outdated XV6700 has finally gone out of stock on Verizon's site, suggesting that the XV6800 -- Big Red's version of the HTC Titan -- might finally be getting ready to go live. Sprint's variant went live ages ago, and let's not forget that we first heard about the XV6800 back during the Triassic, so we think Verizon's got some splainin' to do.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We've just been tipped on a fresh roadmap for AT&T's fall launches, and goodness, there's a little something for everyone in here! Note that these are order dates, subject to change -- not necessarily in-store dates -- so your mileage may vary trying to grab these devices on the dates you see here. First up, LG rolls out the CG180 and CU515 "Chiwoo" on October 2. Nokia adds another color for the 6555 on October 11, red, which we think will suite it quite nicely. Speaking of new colors, Sony Ericsson brings a black version of the W580i on October 9. The Pantech Duo -- a device we suspect many folks are getting fired up over -- should hit on the same day. From Motorola, the Q9 Global becomes orderable just a few days from now, September 25, alongside the Tilt from HTC. UTStarcom outs the AMOI-sourced 5700 on October 9, giving folks a low cost (albeit non-3G) Windows Mobile option. RIM gets busy with the Curve 8310 on October 4, effectively sunsetting the original 8300 by adding GPS into the mix. On the data modem side, Sierra and Option will both be contributing HSUPA devices in October. Let's hear it for speedy uploads! Follow the break for the full roadmap.

[Thanks, Superman]

Would ya believe Virgin is just now getting down with that whole Bluetooth fad? No, seriously, it's true, and it has a name: Super Slice. As the moniker implies, the 10.2mm thick candybar is the successor to last year's Slice, a phone also sourced from UTStarcom. Features include a VGA cam, up to 270 minutes of talk time, speakerphone, a fresh user interface, and a refreshing price: $59.99 contract free (Virgin's prepaid, after all) when it rolls out to shelves in the middle of the month.