After teasing us with a touchscreen phone way back at CES this January, iriver has been decidedly mum on the subject ever since, calling what we saw more of a "proof of concept" than a ready-for-market product. Well, that veil has been lifted and we're finally staring at the iriver wave, a touchphone that iriver plans to start shipping in Korea on March 9th of next year with KT, and with other major carriers to follow. Other than a touchscreen, the phone packs WiFi and the traditional kitchen sink approach of Korean PMPs, with multimedia playback, FM radio, e-books and an electronic dictionary. There's miniSD expansion, access to the Bugs Music Service for online music and we're sure a few other perks hidden under layers of Korean spec sheets. Overall the physical design hasn't really changed much from what we saw at the start of the year (looks like that 3-inch, 480 x 272 touchscreen is quite intact), but the software has certainly been refined, and is devoid of many of its original, erm, iPhone-inspired touches.

[Via Hallyu Tech]

We knew it wouldn't be too long before LG's recently unwrapped KP500 got caught under the lens, and sure enough, Le Journal du Geek has done the honors by hosting up a handful of splendid hands-on shots. The phone looks satisfactorily slim, heavy on the touchscreen and pretty beautiful overall. But hey, that's just our opinion -- feel free to form your own after giving the read link a once over.

Got touchscreen envy but don't have the pair of Benjamins required to get yourself into a celly without a keypad? LG has a solution: the KP500, a nearly button-less and stylus-bearing handset that sounds rather like another recent cheap smartphone. LG's not giving many details about this one beyond its 3-inch display, a 3 megapixel camera, motion sensor, and availability in black, brown, silver, or gold (though based on the pic above we'd stay away from that last one). There's a short video of the TouchFLO-like UI to whet your appetite just below, but that's all we have to share until this phone hits Europe in a month, with a worldwide release to come afterward.

[Via Unwired View]

Hey, bet you'd like to know that Verizon Wireless' Mike (you know, from Minute with Mike) thinks the BlackBerry Storm is going to "crush the competition." He also expects his sales team to "take the world by storm." He also states that this handset's screen is "built to be the most responsive of its time." Oh, but he totally neglects to mention a price and / or release date. Thanks Mike. Thanks a lot. Full mind-numbing episode is after the jump.

It looks like ASUS has more in store when it comes to touchscreen phones than that P552w we saw the other day. According to pictures leaked to the Mobile01 forums, the company is planning an Omnia-esque device that will feature a large (WQVGA or WVGA) touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, a trackball for non-touch navigation, and the predictable 3G radios / WiFi. Not much is known about the device at this point, though speculation is running rampant on the forum as to CPU specs and on-board memory. It's likely this will be at least competitive in comparison to recent Window Mobile devices we've seen of this variety, though nothing's certain till we get word from ASUS... which we're waiting patiently for, fellas.

[Via wmpoweruser]

BREW Ninja, who readily (and oddly for a ninja) enough admits that he's a mobile QA engineer over at Yahoo! Mobile, just scooped 3x phones in this quickie 4 and half minute video. The HTC Coke -- a variant of the HTC Touch Pro -- and tiny LG Lotus (AKA, LX600) with full QWERTY for Sprint are both interesting, but it's the hands-on video of RIM's touchscreen Thunder that blows our doors. At about 2:50 in, he reveals the BlackBerry Thunder for Verizon saying, "I don't like it, it's, it's an ok phone." His biggest concern seems to be the touchscreen (something we've heard before) which acts like a button -- you have to actual push the screen, hard, unlike most capacitive touchpanel devices. See for yourself after the break.

[Via Crackberry]

On Friday, ASUS announced its latest entry into the highly competitive and exciting world of tweaked Windows Mobile phones, with the introduction of the P552w. The full-touchscreen device boasts a speedy 624MHz CPU, a 240 x 320 QVGA display, HSDPA / UMTS radios, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP), 256MB of flash memory, 128MB of DDR, plus support for microSD / SDHC cards. What's really of note, however, is the inclusion of a skinned UI utilizing a technology called "Gester," which is controlled via slides of the finger, pinching, and flicks (think HTC's TouchFlo). The company is tacking on a few pieces of proprietary software as well, such as "EziPhoto" and "EziMusic," and claims that the device has "seamless Google integration." Clearly ASUS has backed away from that 3D interface we saw at Mobile World Congress this year, though we suspect the new UI -- dubbed "Glide" -- bears more than a passing resemblance to it. No word yet on release dates or prices, but you'll know when we do.

[Via Electronista]

Bad news, Greg Brown of Motorola fame: when you told Crain's Chicago Business last week that the portfolio of 34 phones you intend to announce before the year's out includes devices capable of "touch and messaging," it turns out the reporter with whom you spoke already knew. In fact, Crain's specifically calls out a Touch competitor codenamed "Halo," and existence of the full-touchscreen Blaze for Verizon is no secret; while we're not exactly sure what you mean by "messaging," a healthy portion of your handsets already support SMS and MMS (as well they should), and you've got the QWERTY thing taken care of with devices like the Q9 series and the Sidekick Slide. You also mentioned that we can reasonably expect to see such electronic wizardry on shelves by Christmas, which is totally bangin' considering the financial pickle your firm is trying to work its way through at the moment. Seriously though, Greg, we didn't mean to harsh your buzz here -- just thought you might want to know your cover's blown, so you can move right past the "ooh, mysterious unreleased phone!" phase.

[Image via Boy Genius Report]

Mmm, touchscreens. Expansive, gorgeous touchscreens. That pretty much sums up our initial impressions after taking one hard look at James Piatt's Plica concept. As you can tell, this foldable cellie opens up to reveal a pair of touchscreens just begging to be used for web browsing, texting and photo viewing. There's also a mini-USB port and a headphone jack, though we'd certainly be interested to see how he plans on slipping a battery in there that lasts more than a hour or two. Can we get a major handset manufacturer to look in this direction -- pretty please?

[Via gadgetell]

We've been hearing whispers about Nokia's touchscreen "Tube" phone for what seems like ages, and now it appears that the wait is almost over... with potentially less than inspiring results. In a statement released today from the company's head of devices, Kai Oistamo, the phone-maker says it will be launching a series of touchscreen devices in the second half the year, with the first model -- likely the Tube -- aimed at the "volume market." Oistamo claims that the mid-range market (not the high-end sector that devices like the iPhone 3G occupy) account for 50 percent of the total value of the touchscreen phone game. Essentially, it looks like Nokia's strategy will be business as usual, likely flooding the field with unspectacular mid-range phones, rather than taking on pricier competition like recent Apple and Samsung devices head-to-head, at least initially. Of course, who can argue with the company that shipped 122 million units in Q2 2008?

We spent some touching (get it?) minutes with the new LG Dare that's hitting Verizon Wireless today, and while we didn't come away from the experience a changed human being, we've gotta congratulate LG and Verizon for the obvious effort they've put into this unit. Particularly with the hardware the phone seems determined to differentiate itself from its iPhone competition, with helpful tactile feedback while typing, (almost helpful) handwriting recognition, video recording (in slow-mo, if you'd like) and even editing, and the beefed-up photo taking capabilities that a 3.2 megapixel sensor and built-in flash provide. The basics aren't too bad either, with a sturdy and bright screen, peppy EV-DO Rev A., expandable memory and a flush 3.5mm headphone jack.

Verizon Wireless isn't kidding around with this new Dare phone from LG: it'll hit Verizon's online shop tomorrow (the 26th) for $200 with a $50 rebate, and then land in retail on July 3rd. We've had little time to get accustomed to its touchscreen mug, unlike Sprint's long run-up to the Instinct, but Verizon and LG have certainly done their homework. There's a whole lot to chew on here, so we're going to drop it on you bullet point style:

Hardware:

• Dimensions: 103.9 x 55.6 x 13.8 mm (that's 0.54-inches thick for us yanks)
• 3-inch, 240 x 400 touchscreen LCD with "Vibe-Touch" tactile feedback
• Rev A EV-DO
• 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus and exposure control
• 120 fps slow-motion movie record mode
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microSD up to 8GB
• Proximity sensor for switching off the LCD when against your face
• Light sensor to adjust LCD brightness automatically
• Accelerometer
• 3D graphics acceleration, supports app transitions and rotations

Software:

• "Full HTML" browser (barely) with page overview and zoom functions
• V Cast store and VZ Navigator
• Cover Flow-alike music app
• 51 possible apps, 11 app "drag & drop" shortcut menu
• Shortcuts draggable to home screen
• Graphical favorites menu, drag icons to pertinent task like message, call or edit
• Contact list includes search ribbon and filtering
• Text input via QWERTY, predictive keypad or handwriting recognition
• Drawing pad includes colors, pen widths, eraser for scribbling and picture "editing"
• Background music listening
• Video editing, picture editing, panoramic stitching

Phew, these guys really packed it in. Stand by for our hands-on impressions.

Here's a little something that might put the brakes on some buyer's 3G iPhone dreams this week -- a real, live shot of the forthcoming BlackBerry touchscreen phone, the Thunder. There's not much info to glean from this image, save for the fact that it will be practically loaded with buttons (including send, end, back, menu, dual convenience keys, volume, lock, and play / pause) and will be headed to Verizon. If the UI is a spin-off of the one we've seen on the Bold, RIM could be striking gold here.

We've seen this puppy in awful renders and blurry spy shots, but now we've finally got a chance to view Samsung's SGH-i900 as intended. The latest entry in the touchscreen phone game doesn't look too shabby when it comes to specs (240 x 400 display, 5-megapixel camera, 16GB of onboard memory, HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0), but we get the feeling a lot of people will be springing for this for its looks. Fashion plates, start your engines.

[Via Navigadget]

If you just can't get enough news about Sony Ericsson's forthcoming Symbian UIQ touchscreen phone -- currently known as Paris -- perhaps this promo video of the thing in action can help. Sure, these appears to be pre-renders, but it does whet the appetite for things to come with the device, and who can complain about that pop-up weather app and confirmation that this will have a flash for its camera? Also, the dude in the clip sports a totally stylish cardigan. Watch the whole thing after the break and see for yourself.

[Via PHONE Magazine]