Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and "DVD quality" video capture at 30fps, too. The specs are certainly impressive, let's see if the S60 5th Edition OS can support it. The N97 will launch with a retail price set at around €550 ($693) excluding subsidies and taxes, phone to ship in H1 2009.

Update: Hah, Nokia just boasted on stage at Nokia World that the N97 was the scoop "Engadget didn't get." O RLY??? Sure looks like the device codenamed Eitri that we broke to the world last month.

Update 2: Video demonstration after the break.


Read -- Press Release
Read -- A bit more detail

The writing was on the wall following Nokia's official withdrawal from Japan, and sure enough, NTT DoCoMo has now officially nixed plans to bring the E71 to market early next year. In a product lineup flush with wide VGA displays, giant cameras, and happiness generators, we suspect the QVGA QWERTY set won't be sorely missed by most over there -- and hey, that just means more E71s for the rest of us. Anyone need a second or a third?

We knew this day would eventually come, but somehow we're still misting up a little -- Linux has been ported to the iPhone and iPod touch. Dev Team member planetbeing is the mastermind in charge of bringing everyone's favorite open-source OS to Apple's handhelds, and while it's a little rough around the edges (read: no touchscreen drivers, sound, or WiFi / cell radio support), it's definitely the first step on the road to hacking nirvana. The team is hard at work, and it even sounds like they're thinking about porting Android in the near future (!), so hit the read link to try it out and lend a hand if you can -- or just head on past the break for a quick vid of the port in all its text-scrolling glory.

[Via iphone-dev.org; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Word on the street is that people have suddenly (and rather unexpectedly) started to be able to buy the Curve 8900 on Rogers for $179.99 on a three-year contract with support for the carrier's Talkspot UMA service. Why this wasn't heavily advertised leading up to the release, we don't know -- folks seem to be red-hot for this release -- but at any rate, you should be able to stroll into your local shop in the next few days and pick this sucker up. That eternal question comes up yet again: Curve, Bold, or Storm?

Update: Game on -- according to Boy Genius, the Curve is now listed in Rogers' internal database and retail stores are starting to get stocks. So what's it gonna be?

If it's a 5-megapixel cameraphone you're looking for, there are decidedly cheaper entries on the market -- but if only a 5-megapixel WinMo Professional set will do, the Omnia's just about the best (read: only) deal you'll find on an American carrier these days. The CDMA translation of the smartphone that Samsung's been selling in other parts of the world for much of 2008 in GSM form carries over most of its key features, namely Windows Mobile 6.1 with TouchWiz, WiFi, DivX certification, the love-it-or-hate-it optical directional pad, and that beefy cam with flash and autofocus. It also nabs VZ Navigator support, stereo Bluetooth, a 3.2-inch 400 x 240 display, and 8GB of internal memory. Gives pause to that imminent Touch Pro purchase, doesn't it? Look for it to be available for order this week -- a full retail launch is expected come December 8 -- for $249.99 after rebate on a two-year contract.

You've read the review, now Verizon's BlackBerry Storm is available for purchase for $200 on two-year contract. Really, what's left to say -- you're either ready to pull the trigger or not.

[Thanks, JR]

It's here. Google Street View and over the air Podcast downloads from iTunes. Yup, public transit and walking directions too and the ability to share your location via email. Bug fixes, Safari enhancements, the ability to toggle auto-text correction, and plenty more... just like we heard in the pre-rumor run-up. Now get outta here, your iTunes update awaits.

Update: Added some screenshots of the most notable new features after the break. The Street View implementation seems solid though we miss the compass feature found on T-Mobile's G1. Also, the real-estate saved by moving the Google search field next to the URL field in Mobile Safari is a welcome and obvious change. As to auto-correction, well, that's personal taste. Tipster Vizcaya also noticed that Apple added a new option to rate an App when you delete it from your phone. You can also view multiple screenshots of applications available in the App Store.

Update 2: The other big update, Podcast downloads, works just as you'd hope and should further promote the spontaneous isolation we all crave. A few shots of that added after the break.

[Thanks Gustavo and badburro]

Alright T-Mobile, seriously, how can you charge $299.99 for a Wing on contract with a straight face (do carriers have faces?) while every single one of your competitors is rocking a device that's essentially two generations fresher for the same price? Alltel becomes the latest to add HTC's quintessential WinMo QWERTY smartphone to its stable, charging $279.99 for the privilege of adding a Touch Pro to your account on contract after $100 rebate. From the looks of things, it's basically Sprint's version with a tweaked version of the TouchFLO 3D UI that's either prettier or uglier than the stock build, depending on your point of view. Let's be honest, though: doesn't everything look good in VGA resolution?

[Thanks, theups]

OMG OMG OMG... sorry, but our inner japanese school-girl was just unleashed with the arrival of the Nokia N96 Bruce Lee Edition. If Nokia had any sense, they'd expand the action-doll bundle to the world beyond Hong Kong. Even for 8,788 Chinese Yuan (about $1,286) we're seriously tempted. Watch Bruce clean up at ping pong in the Nokia video posted after the break -- no, really.

[Via Unwired View, Thanks Robin oL]

Goodness, that was quick! We'd expected LG's Incite smartphone to pop up maybe by the end of the week if we were lucky, did all of our homework, and went to bed on time, but AT&T's gone ahead and jumped the gun by throwing up the glossy touchphone for sale already. To recap, most of the rumored specs were spot on: wide QVGA, 3-megapixel cam, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, WiFi, and GPS round out a promising feature set, but you're going to pay to the tune of $299.99 on contract before a $100 mail-in rebate on a Visa gift card. What happened to good, old-fashioned cash?

[Thanks, Luis]

Realistically, the death knell tolled long ago for Qualcomm's stillborn Ultra Mobile Broadband initiative, its own special flavor of 4G and the logical next step in the CDMA2000 family of technologies. To make things nice and official, though, they went ahead and officially announced that they've halted development on the spec during an analysts' meeting earlier today, throwing support behind the competing LTE standard -- one of the two remaining techs vying for the hearts and minds of the world's 4G-wanting public. So where's one of the world's great patent enforcers going to collect cash now? Oh, don't worry about little ol' Qualcomm; the company claims it has plenty of 4G-relevant intellectual property that'll keep its bankrolls full for years to come.

[Via dailywireless.org]

It may not be the iPhone-beating pricing we'd been hoping for, but $199.99 on a new two-year contract after $50 mail-in rebate will probably still be enough to sell a Storm or two (or billion), especially considering that it becomes both RIM's first touchscreen set and Verizon's first phone with global 3G when it finally floods the market (a bundled 8GB microSD card doesn't hurt, either). Speaking of flooding the market, it'll be available both online and in-store starting November 21 -- just a week from this Friday -- so get ready to finally say goodnight to that grungy BlackBerry 950 you've been using since 1978.

Hey Sprint, you listening? Granted, GSM doesn't do Sprint a whole lot of good in the States, but swapping a CDMA radio into HTC's first WiMAX effort here would make for a downright mighty response to the Touch HD. The previously-seen T8920 has turned out to be the MAX 4G, an 800 x 480 monster with 8GB of Flash on board, two cameras, an FM radio, GPS, WiFi, triband EDGE, and -- most importantly -- WiMAX support, making it the first GSM / WiMAX handset anywhere in the world. It'll be launching on Scartel's Yota network in Russia, and if you have friends cool enough to have a MAX 4G of their own, calls between the two of y'all will automatically be routed over the WiMAX airwaves using VoIP. A launch date hasn't been announced, but unless you're in Russia, there's probably not much point in even bothering to lust after this one.

Beep beep, outta the way, incoming RIM product blitz! Seriously, this is like a high-powered corporate executive's dream -- not one, not two, not three, not four, but five major product launches out of Waterloo in the span of a few months' time. Latest out of the gate is the 8900 Curve, successor to the 8300 series featuring a heavily-upgraded 480 x 360 display, microSD support to 16GB, WiFi, 3.2-megapixel cam with autofocus, and integrated GPS. Sadly, network data tops out at EDGE speeds -- but if you really need more, we s'pose that's where the Bold comes into play. No word on any launches outside of Bavaria just yet, but on T-Mobile Germany, the 8900 is available "mid November" (which is basically now) for €4.95 (yes, that's not a typo, 4.95 euros) on a 24-month contract.

[Via IntoMobile]

The E63 just broke the shackles of the rumor monger to become Nokia's latest messaging device. With a pre-tax, pre-subsidy price of just €199, Nokia hopes to see the Symbian S60 device generate some mass-market appeal. So let's see: WiFi, physical QWERTY, choice of ruby red or aquamarine blue, standard 3.5-mm audio jack, camera with video recording, and the ability to switch from an E-series business mode (corporate email, appointments, intranet) to personal mode (pictures, personal email, and browser shortcuts) with a single key press -- sounds like a winning combination to us. Nokia's even tossing in 1GB of Ovi file storage for free when the E63 begins shipping in the coming weeks -- where, is Nokia's little secret for now. We'll update you with the hard details just as soon as Nokia releases them. Until then, check the blue version after the break.

Update: We were able to hack forth the following detail from the bowels of Nokia's website: 113 x 59 x 13-mm / 126g form factor, 320 x 240 pixel display, quad-band GSM / EDGE with 660 minute talk / 432 hours standby, microSD memory slot with 110MB internal memory, 2 megapixel camera capable of QVGA video @ 15fps, and of course, Bluetooth. It'll also be released in WCDMA 900/2100, 850/1900, and 850/2100 configurations. Sorry, no HSDPA data or infrared like that found on the E71.