HTC's Star Trek can now be safely categorized in the "classic" file, but it'd be a big mistake to put this interesting footnote in HTC's history out to pasture just yet. The handset, after all, ranks among the smallest Windows Mobile phones ever made, among the only clamshells, and arguably, among the most attractive (alright, maybe that's a bit of a stretch). But with that stale Windows Mobile 5 build on there hastening its death, what's an owner to do? Turn to the wizards at xda-developers, of course, who've come out swinging with a number of different Windows Mobile 6-based ROMs for a variety of Star Trek flavors, including the Cingular 3125 likely owned by many American customers, and it's all available for download. Always fun to see new life breathed into perfectly decent hardware, ain't it?

[Via pocketnow.com]

HSDPA, Windows Mobile, QWERTY, slim design -- what more could a road warrior ask for? The Samsung BlackJack for AT&T packs all of the above and a whole lot more, even offering up a little somethin' for the music lovers in the form of stereo Bluetooth support. The good folks at Samsung have hooked us up with AT&T's little 3G Smartphone wonder, and guess what? We'd like to pass it on to you.

A few rules (yeah, there are always rules):

• You may only enter this specific contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you'll be automatically disqualified and barred from all future giveaways. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) In other words, be careful when commenting and don't submit more than once, ok?
  
• You may enter our other EngMob relaunch contests, but you can't win more than once; if you happen to win more than once (which is pretty unlikely, but still) we'll ask you to choose just one of your prizes.
• The prize is open to US entrants only. Hey, it's a US phone, you couldn't do anything with it anyway.
• Contest is open until 11:59pm EDT on Friday, June 8th.
• We'll be shipping all the phones to winners once all the relaunch giveaway contests are over. (Yeah, we know it bites to have to wait, but dems the breaks!)

Thanks and good luck to everyone! Have a look at our other contests, too, before it's too late: Sprint UpStage by Samsung (the first one), Nokia N75, Motorola T305, Samsung u620, (PRODUCT) RED MOTORAZR V3m for Sprint, Sprint UpStage by Samsung (number two)

Carry around a little piece of history in your pocket, the recently-launched Nokia N75. And no, we don't mean it's an ancient phone -- far from it, in fact. The N75 makes history as the first S60 handset (and the first Nokia, period) with American 3G to see launch. Features include QVGA internal and huge 160 x 128 external displays, a 2 megapixel camera, dedicated music controls, Bluetooth (with A2DP rumored to be in the pipe), and a pair of some of the loudest speakers we've experienced on a phone in recent memory. Read our quick take, then try your luck at winning your own!

A few rules (yeah, there are always rules):

• You may only enter this specific contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you'll be automatically disqualified and barred from all future giveaways. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) In other words, be careful when commenting and don't submit more than once, ok?
  
• You may enter our other EngMob relaunch contests, but you can't win more than once; if you happen to win more than once (which is pretty unlikely, but still) we'll ask you to choose just one of your prizes.
• The prize is open to US entrants only. Hey, it's a US phone, you couldn't do anything with it anyway.
• Contest is open until 11:59pm EDT on Friday, June 1st.
• We'll be shipping all the phones to winners once all the relaunch giveaway contests are over. (Yeah, we know it bites to have to wait, but dems the breaks!)

Thanks and good luck to everyone! Be sure to get in the running for our previous giveaways, too: Helio Ocean, T-Mobile Wing, Sprint UpStage by Samsung

We know that there's another grueling week to survive between now and the Coca-Cola 600, but here's a NASCAR tidbit that will hopefully satisfy your Sunday desire for a little roundtrack action. AT&T has been given the green flag to rebrand Jeff Burton's (very orange) #31 race car after Judge Marvin H. Shoob of the US District Court, Northern District of Georgia, "granted AT&T's motion for preliminary injunction in its suit against NASCAR." It was noted that the decision gives AT&T "the immediate right to put its logos and brand marks" on the vehicle, and while we're not certain if we'll see a slightly new look come May 27th, we're sure it won't be long before the blue sphere makes its official debut.

[Via RCRNews]

Sorry for the emotional rollercoaster, AT&T subscribers; we know it's been a rough week. Happily, the LG CU500v (AT&T's first Video Share phone) and Nokia N75, both anticipated devices in their own right, are finally on sale. No, seriously. Check out the links below if you don't believe us.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - LG CU500v
Read - Nokia N75

Field tidbits from Engadget's mobile insider, the Boy Genius.

Did you know that AT&T plans on marketing the N75 to males and females ages 25 to 45? Or that said individuals should be "spontaneous and fun"? Personally, we think that North America's first 3G-compatible S60 device suits 18 year old curmudgeons and 80 year old hermits just as well as it does anyone else -- just don't expect your friendly local AT&T sales associate to agree after he or she takes a gander at AT&T's training guide for the device. Nothing too surprising in here from a device features perspective, though we're glad to see that AT&T lists "hundreds of compatible applications" as one of Symbian's selling points, suggesting that the carrier is going to be making at least a half-hearted attempt to keep the phone open. Hit the gallery for the full doc!

Don't get your hopes up, it's not Windows Mobile 6 or anything cool like that, but HTC and AT&T have thrown 8525 owners a bone today with the official release of an expected (albeit a tad late) firmware upgrade. HTC's page for the update is about as vague as it could possibly be without totally concealing the fact that it is, in fact, an update -- but we've heard through other sources that it should offer up a functional push-to-talk button, miscellaneous bug fixes from the 8525's original firmware, and that love-it-or-hate-it AT&T branding. Can't have your flagship smart device dressed up in outdated branding, now can you?

Cash money revenge is at hand dear BlackBerry users. After suffering a 12 to 15 hour e-mail outage last week, Cingular, uh hem, the New AT&T is offering its business subscribers a prorated credit as long as your willing to call and complain. We're talking a mere $1 to $2.50 refund depending upon your plan -- but hey, what were you expecting? If that doesn't slake the retribution jones then perhaps you should up the Methadone.

As expected, AT&T has launched the GT Max 3.6 Express from Option to satisfy the needs of the many, many road warriors toting nothing more than an ExpressCard slot to satisfy their 3G data needs. Tragically, the ExpressCard/34 device isn't being shipped with Mac OS support out of the box, though Option touts Apple compatibility and we're pretty confident that determined MacBook Pro owners will have little or no issue getting it up and running. Another intriguing option for laptop data, the Sierra Wireless 875U, hooks up to the USB port of your choice; like the Option, AT&T's only supporting Windows at the moment even though Mac OS drivers exist for the device. Get the GT Max 3.6 Express now for a penny shy of $50 on contract after rebates -- pricing hasn't been announced for the 875U just yet, but it'll be available in "early May," so we don't have terribly long to wait.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Press release
Read - Option GT Max 3.6 Express

Field report tidbits from Engadget's mobile insider, the Boy Genius.

Always wondered just how AT&T's one-way Video Share system was going to work? Us too, so we were more than happy to get a gander at the quick start user guide for the upcoming LG CU500v, a phone that's destined to be among the very first to support the feature. It sounds like setting it up will be a breeze (as long as both caller and callee have Video Share handsets and are in a 3G coverage area): just wait for "Video Share Ready" to appear on the display and press the camera button. Strangely, disconnecting the video feed is a more complicated operation, requiring no fewer than three button presses to accomplish. After the share is finished, the sender can save the feed to memory -- sorry receivers, you're left out of the fun here. Click on for a closeup of the instructions!

Score one for North American HSDPA! Samsung has triumphantly reported that the SGH-A707 -- better known as the "SYNC" to AT&T customers -- has been sold over a million times since its introduction five months ago, a figure that was apparently boosted significantly by the introduction of red and blue variants on store shelves. Coming in at half a million units shipped is the BlackJack; an impressive figure, considering its higher price point and classification as a smartphone. Here's to another million, folks -- keep the 3G love coming.

[Via I4U News]

The one-upping in the US carrier industry of "who has the most subscribers" sometimes seems to be a driver behind mergers and the like. Well, we're half joking, but it certainly seems that way sometimes. When Cingular combined with the old AT&T Wireless years back to leap ahead of Verizon Wireless as the largest U.S. mobile carrier, we're sure Verizon was a little steamed. It took some time, but Verizon Wireless has clawed its way back to the top of the pile, as IDC now says that Verizon's 56.8 million U.S. subscribers has caused AT&T to fall into second place in the country with 56.3 million subs insofar as direct retail customers. Add the fact that Verizon Wireless also has the top spot for wireless data usage and percent of subscriber revenue used on data, and pow -- AT&T just got dealt a blow. AT&T won't be down for the count though with its retail customers, we think. It just might buy T-Mobile USA if Deutsche Telekom wants to sell it -- or not. Perhaps Alltel? Why, we love GSM and CDMA carrier combinations! In the meantime, we suppose they can still tout their status as the nation's largest GSM carrier, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it, now does it?

[update: added additional description]

Not to be outdone by the impending reality of nationwide EV-DO Rev. A from both Sprint and Verizon, AT&T's apparently felt enough heat to come clean with its intentions for an HSUPA launch. The technology -- the second half of the equation in GSM's HSPA 3.5G strategy, the first being HSDPA -- works the same magic for uplink speeds that HSDPA did for downlink, giving users uploads in the 1.5Mbps range. For the record, users of AT&T's present HSDPA network get hooked up with plain ol' UMTS uplink speeds in the high 300kbps range, so needless to say, this is an upgrade we can throw our support behind. Look for AT&T to roll out the requisite software upgrades to its equipment over the course of 2007, with the first compatible modems hitting midyear. Hint, hint: ExpressCards, AT&T. Please.

We were just casually wandering the expanses of LG's slick booth here at CTIA (stay tuned for more goodies from it) when we happened across this gem: a glass-encased flip simply known as "LG575." What caught our eye, though, was the telltale stylized AT&T globe on the OK button, so yeah, we pretty much know where it's headed. Judging from its appearance, we'd say its a midrange 3G piece in the same vein as the Samsung SYNC, but with an exterior that might be real metal (we couldn't be sure) and a clever-looking touch strip below the external display, presumably for music control. Judging from LG's recent naming convention for Cingular handsets, we wouldn't be terribly surprised to see this one turn into the "CU575," but who knows?

AT&T and Napster have joined hands to offer customers access to some three million songs for a year via Napster To Go. This 180 dollar freebie -- if, of course, you have the right plan -- will allow subscribers to download, organize, and create playlists on a PC and then sync them to their handset or compatible music device. This offer is a bit of a rehash from back in November 2004 when Cingular owned AT&T, but this time instead of 14.95 a month, it's free (and we love free). Reading through the list of qualifying plans is a bit of a daunting affair, so our advice is to hit up your local bricks and mortar AT&T shop on or after the April 1st launch for the lowdown.