Celebrity tie-ins are always a surefire way to put a little more oomph behind the launch of an otherwise bland handset, and in Mexico, carrier Telcel is doing exactly that to celebrate the launch of its latest Pantech piece. The C570 is a pretty basic GSM phone with some stylish color accents, FM radio with RDS, and dedicated music controls, but what immediately turns up the interest knob by a notch or two is that they've hooked up with local star Paty Cantu to preload the phone with artist content. Further helping the handset's street cred as a music phone is the fact that it's also got a 3.5mm jack, a remote with yet another set of music controls, and microSD expansion up to 8GB -- but with the brooding expression on Paty's face here, we can't rightfully say we're sure whether she's delighted, horrified, ambivalent, or utterly unaware of the offering.

Here's a fact: the world really doesn't need another mildly tweaked Aura. Sorry, it just doesn't. That being true and all, we're still pretty jazzed to see Motorola giving the ultra-luxurious handset another go with the moon-themed Celestial Edition. Word on the street has it that this here handset won't deviate much from the predecessor, but it will come pre-loaded with multimedia from the original moon landing mission, a laser etched quote honoring the 40th anniversary of the journey and a price tag that's far, far beyond stratospheric. We're told that it's all set to go on sale next month, but good luck finding one.

[Via phoneArena]

Well, well, there it is. The world's first and only Snapdragon phone available for retail, Toshiba's TG01, is up and dancing on Orange's UK site with a "coming soon" badge. Soon meaning the July 9th London press event, presumably, where this 9.9-mm slate running WinMo on a 4.1-inch 800x480 pixel display should get a shove out the retail door. Yes, Windows Mobile 6.1, why do you ask?

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

We get it. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes when you're staring into the sad abyss of an empty Tennessee fifth, the idea of initiating an impromptu video conference in total darkness seems mighty compelling. That's where Samsung's SCH-W760 with 7.2Mbps HSDPA and front-facing infrared camera can help. It's available now in Korea and could be the difference between making a solo bed-spin performance or 3- to 6-months served at county for violating your restraining order. The choice is yours for KRW580,000 or about 445 of the green stuff.

Samsung's already committed to offering Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrades to Omnia IIs released with 6.1, but just how necessary is that commitment going to end up being in practice? Microsoft's Austrian outpost has announced that the Korean company's latest WinMo superphone will be launching in the domestic market in September with 6.5 already installed -- suggesting that at least some of these handsets in other markets around the world could be coming out of the gate in the same configuration. It also raises new questions about the market launch for 6.5 on a broader scale; we've always known it'd be hitting toward the end of 2009, but we've never gotten an exact date out of anyone for retail availability -- presumably because it has as much to do with manufacturer partners' plans as it does Microsoft's. We're not saying the Austrian Omnia II will be the first WinMo 6.5 retail device anywhere, but at this point, it's looking likely that this'll be in the first wave.

[Via WMExperts, TamsPPC, and wmpoweruser, thanks Daniel M.]

Upstart Zer01 has been touting its so-called "Veritable Mobile Convergence" technology since early in the year, promising to attach to all sorts of carriers with which it has agreements around the world to bring unlimited data and calling to the masses, and now they've launched -- sort of. It turns out that the company is actually looking for partners that'll resell the service, which focuses on data and uses VoIP to deliver on its promises; what that means to anyone navigating to the site right now to sign up for a new line is that... well, you can't. You'll need to buy service through a distributor, and since Zer01 doesn't have a distributor network yet, that's a little hard to do -- so for all practical purposes, the wait for cheap wireless data nirvana continues.

A few days after blocking PlayStation 3 users, Hulu has yet to respond to questions concerning the change which has only helped to fuel rumors it is related to the Microsoft ad campaign currently featured on the site, but that seems less likely now that we've confirmed it also began blocking the Flash-enabled Skyfire browser on Windows Mobile devices at the same time. Whatever the cause is, if you prefer a homegrown hack over something like PlayOn or TVersity, Eric over at ypass.net has put together a simple enough walkthrough for creating an "unblockable" workaround by setting up a locally connected PC running Linux or Windows with the freely available Squid proxy server software that will make your PS3 look like appear as a PC running a Firefox (or whatever you prefer) browser to any website that asks. Of course, just like the other solutions your computer will need to stay running to keep you connected, but we figure it's a small price to pay for enjoying relatively low res Flash video running on an HDTV.

Read - Got a PS3? Want Hulu Back? Easy enough...
Read - Squid-setup for Windows NT /2k /X

Right about the time Kindle for iPhone hit the App Store, Amazon's true intentions in the e-book space started to become clear: it wasn't about dominating the market end-to-end with Amazon-branded equipment. It never was; that's Apple's game, of course, but Bezos and Company were taking a starkly different tack. Instead, Amazon almost seemed to shout "please, someone else do this for us" by creating powerful, well-intentioned devices in the original Kindle, the Kindle 2, and the Kindle DX that scream "reference design" more than they scream to would-be customers buying on sex appeal or real-world ergonomics. It's clear now that Kindle is a platform, not a piece of hardware, and Amazon's specialty is the same as it has been since day one of the Washington-based company -- delivering content. If people buy Kindles in the course of discovering the platform, Amazon figures that's all well and good, but the ultimate goal is to bring them into that content ecosystem at any cost, which means building software that can extend Kindle support to as many platforms as humanly possible. After tackling the iPhone, rumors are swirling that Windows Mobile may be next on news that the company is actively hiring WinMo engineers; the timing would certainly be right with the imminent launch of 6.5 and the Windows Marketplace, and if there's one thing that could help keep the WinMo loyal in the fray for another build, it might be a stellar e-reader. Granted, there are already great e-readers out there for the platform, but how many tap into the Kindle universe?

[Via PhoneArena]

We heard earlier this morning that the GSM Pre was set for a UK launch, and now it sounds like things are coming together: The Guardian says the Palm's baby will launch on O2. That makes perfect sense, O2 owner Telefonica reportedly secured broad global rights to the Pre back in March. Of course, this is all yet to be official, but with actual GSM handsets floating around out there and an announcement expected next week, we're guessing we don't have too much longer to wait.

Ready for even more rumors about Windows Mobile 7 and Microsoft's mysterious "Pink" smartphone project? Good, cause we've got a few -- and the first is potentially huge. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says her best understanding of "Pink" is now that it's a Microsoft-branded phone running a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile 7, developed by what's left of the Danger team and targeted at the Sidekick market. Yep, Microsoft-branded -- as in, the exact thing Microsoft has been denying for ages now. What's more, Redmond wouldn't be letting third parties use this new UI -- Pink would be manufactured only by Sharp or Motorola, who've made Sidekicks in the past. It all makes sense, even if it does feel a bit like MS is knifing its partners in the back -- companies like HTC and Samsung have been equally aggressive in layering their own UIs like TouchFLO 3D and TouchWiz on top of WinMo, but it's another thing entirely to compete against Microsoft itself, especially now that AdWeek says Microsoft's selected an agency to develop a Pink ad campaign. Yeah, things are starting to get a little wild -- we haven't even mentioned the open questions of whether the Zune HD is running Tegra because it's based on Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, or whether Pink will launch on Verizon, or whether Zune will appear on other phones, or... you get the idea. Hey Microsoft -- you want to clear any of this up by shipping some products?

Read - ZDNet
Read - AdWeek

So much for exclusivity, eh? Sprint is staying toe-to-toe with Verizon in the race to get the BlackBerry Tour to market, launching the consensus hottest RIM device to date on July 12 for $199.99 on contract after rebates. It's awfully refreshing to see an ominous statement like "later this summer" morph into "early summer" instead of slipping into the "dead of winter" as is all too often the case with hotly-anticipated phones, and we have a sneaking suspicion the Tour's gonna sell like a remastered Bonnie Tyler live album (that's a good thing, by the way). Who's in?

You might say that Verizon's brand new BlackBerry Tour 9630... ahem, took a "tour" through our offices this morning, gracing us with its QWERTY-having, global-roaming, 8830-killing presence. There's absolutely no question it's the best-looking CDMA BlackBerry to date and we also think you'll be able to stop Bold owners in their tracks as you flash this thing around town; we'd argue that the Curve 8900 is still a cuter handset when you take the company's lineup as a whole, but then again, the 8900 lacks 3G, and the Tour's keyboard might just be the best RIM's ever crafted for a phone. Bottom line, owners of any BlackBerry on Verizon or Sprint should be salivating at the sight of this thing -- and if they're not, honestly, they need their salivary glands checked. Stay tuned for our full review, but in the meantime, enjoy an unboxing and a few quick shots of the Tour taking its first breaths!

Sprint and Verizon have been enjoying their CDMA femtocells stateside for a while now, but Vodafone becomes the first to do the honors in Europe today by launching the continent's first commercial 3G femtocell, christened the Vodafone Access Gateway. The device -- seemingly sourced from Alcatel-Lucent -- requires an in-home broadband internet connection with a minimum speed of 1Mbps. It's rumored to be capable of full HSPA, enough horsepower to feed even high-end Voda handsets with WiFi-free broadband in places around the home where reception's normally a little dicey (or absent altogether), and it'll drive up to four authorized phones with it at the same time. Anyone on a £30 monthly contract or higher can get it at no charge, but otherwise, you can expect to pay £160 (about $263) for the pleasure of building out Voda's network on its behalf. So, AT&T, what's going on over there, guys?

[Via Slashdot and eWeekEurope]