Toshiba definitely made some waves at MWC with the Snapdragon-powered TG01, but you'll have to wait a while to get the real thing -- or you can front like you're VIP with the Venus JXD318 here, which cops all the style with none of the substance. You'll have to keep your friends at a distance (and possibly a little drunk) to keep the illusion alive, however: Venus didn't see fit to clone Tosh's stripes UI, instead going with the sadly-ubiquitous "wannabe iPhone" look, and the whole thing is controlled by those five tiny side buttons, since it's not a touchscreen. That's a pretty weak effort, overall -- come on, KIRFers, you can do better.

[Via PMP Today]

It looks like Motorola's hard times have been particularly good for LG, as it has now moved (by some accounts at least) into the number three position among the top five handset makers, just a quarter after it passed Sony Ericsson to take the fourth spot. That comes after LG moved an impressive 27.7 million handsets in the past quarter, a full third of which were sold in North America. LG is also particularly quick to boast about sales of its pricier touchscreen phones, which totaled some seven million. Among those, the Viewty was the top seller, moving more than two million units, followed by the Venus with 1.6 million, and the Voyager with 1.3 million. It's apparently not all rosy for the company, however, with it also warning that the slowing economy could cause its average selling price to fall by 26 percent.

Strong work, Telus! First you guys are pretty much on the ball with your release of the BlackBerry 8330 Curve and the Motorola Q9c, and now you've become the first Canadian carrier to offer the LG Venus -- and you're clearly reveling in it, too, since you point out on your product page that this is actually LG's first touchscreen phone in all of Canada. $99.99 CAD (about $100) of your customer's hard-earned savings is going to net them a 2 megapixel camera, QVGA primary display, microSD slot, GPS, EV-DO, and stereo Bluetooth, so we'd say you've done good -- for the moment, anyway. Keep up the strong work.

[Thanks, Jesse]

It's not like we haven't seen this thing in passing before, but the pink LG Venus is finally official and available now on Verizon Wireless. Feature wise, this one offers up no extras not already found on the black iteration, but just in case you needed a refresher, you'll find a 2-megapixel camera, VZ Navigator capability, a microSD expansion slot and built-in Bluetooth. Thankfully, you won't be asked to pay a premium for the new hue, so you'll be looking at $199.99 after you mail in a $50 rebate and sign your name to a two-year agreement.

We've been keeping our parcel carrier busy the past few days and today will be no different -- the LG Venus for Verizon just arrived at our door! LG has incorporated touchscreen navigation along with a solid music player into the latest incarnation (in spirit, if not in name) of the successful Chocolate series. From first glance, the device's slide mechanism is flawless and weighted perfectly, though there seems to be some sluggishness using the on-screen controls. But enough of the chit chat already, go check out the gallery and be on the lookout for the review!

Here they are, the product waifs, which can only mean one thing: the LG VX10000 QWERTY Voyager and LG VX8800, AKA Venus, slider are official. The dual-display Venus (2-inch main on top and 1.49-inch haptic VibeTouch touchscreen below for navigation) is up and dancing on Verizon this morning for immediate availability. Same $200 fee after online discount and 2 years of your life inked in blood that we already saw on pre-order. The Voyager with its 2.8-inch VibeTouch, external touchscreen (and 2.8-inch internal) is still on track for its 21st launch for $300 plus 2 year contract. Don't worry, we'll remind you come Wednesday.

[Via LG]

Read -- LG Voyager on Verizon
Read -- LG Venus on Verizon

Trying to wrap your noodle around the concept of a pink LG Venus? Us too, and naturally, visuals help -- the more, the better. On that note, we're pleased to present a handful of pictures of the pink Venus with a couple of its darker, statelier cousin thrown in for good measure. The black will launch first -- November 19, if you recall -- with the pink following on December 11 for $199 after a $50 rebate has been applied. QWERTY more to your liking? Fret not, as we're hearing the Voyager follows up on the 21st of November for $299 with the same $50 rebate.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

For devoted LG fans, each incarnation of the Chocolate line of music phones has been a step up from the one before it. With the LG Venus sporting new features like touch-screen navigation and being more ergonomically styled, many wonder if the device will live up to the hype. As Verizon prepares for online availability in the coming weeks, we thought it'd be fair to add more fuel to the flame with the quick start guide, yeah? Have a look!

We've caught boatloads of noise detailing Verizon's pipeline for the remainder of the year (and possibly into early '08), but exact launch dates have been harder to come by. Granted, the carriers often don't know these until the last minute anyway -- network test failures and supply problems being what they are -- but Boy Genius Report has scored a spreadsheet that should at least start to give us a rough idea of what we can expect for the next few months. The Samsung i760 finally (and we do mean finally) launches on October 19, followed by the Juke two days later on the 21st. The first of November sees the BlackBerry Pearl 8130, LG VX5400, and Palm Treo 755p (probably right about the same time Alltel gets it), with the LG Venus coming just a short few days later on the 4th. The 15th sees two new shades for the G'zOne Type-S -- black and "burgundy / gold" -- alongside the Samsung u900 "FlipShot." The ultra-cool LG Voyager and G'zOne "Type-Sptt" (possibly just a Type-S without the cam) slide in on November 18, with two new VX8550 shades dropping on the 21st. Whew! Now, the real question: how many of these dates are actually gonna hold?

We got to spend a little alone time with each of Verizon's new phones for the holidays, and we found plenty to like. We started out with the Samsung Juke, which is meant as an entry level music device. There's no EV-DO on board, and therefore no V CAST Music Store, but as a "phone that happens to be a low-end 2GB DAP," it should do just nicely, and A2DP is always nice. We could go for a stronger spring action flick motion, and when open the phone seems quite awkwardly long, but it's all solid and usable enough. The Pearl is just a Pearl, so we'll move on. The LG Venus has quite an interesting interface, that we suppose will be a love it or hate it affair. There's adjustable vibration feedback to your finger presses on the bottom touchscreen, but unfortunately you can't adjust screen sensitivity, and we had sometimes had trouble with getting the beta hardware Verizon was showing us to register our finger presses. Otherwise the phone is a thing of beauty, and has one of the best looking UIs we've seen from the likes of Verizon and LG. The camera interface is particularly polished, with options galore and some interesting usage of the touch screen for cropping and sending pics. Finally we have the LG Voyager. In most objective senses, the phone is pretty dang large, but somehow it's easier to overlook that fact when you're staring at dual screens and an immense QWERTY keyboard. The screen was quite responsive to our button presses, and there was no lag between using an app in touchscreen mode and opening up the phone for a QWERTY session. The HTML browser leaves a little to be desired -- after taking ages to load a fractured form of Engadget, we couldn't hardly scroll down it to save our life -- and it's pretty clear that the Voyager is less a smartphone out of the box than the iPhone is, despite its marvelous keyboard, but there's certainly a lot of potential.

Verizon isn't kidding around this fall, with four new fashionable phones, a couple of which might divert a few iPhone dollars from archrival AT&T. It's those exact four that Engadget Mobile got the scoop on last weekend, the Juke, Pearl, Venus and Voyager. A few of the details have changed, but the basic gist is the same. The Samsung Juke is the first "flick" phone to hit the States, and arrives with 2GB of built-in storage, A2DP (which shows up in all these phones) and a VGA camera, and comes in blue, red or teal. Verizon's BlackBerry Pearl is the first Pearl to get EV-DO and a 3.5mm minijack, and also adds Verizon's VZ Navigator service, which is standard across these phones. The Venus slider sports an interesting dual screen setup, with the bottom providing contextual touch controls and the top one acting like all normal-like. Venus, with black or pink color options, is the real fashionphone of the group, and rocks a boring 2 megapixel sensor, but there's a microSD slot for up to 8GB of expansion. Finally, the Voyager (pictured) does it all, with a full screen touchscreen on the outside, and a second screen on the clamshell interior, facing a gargantuan QWERTY keyboard. V CAST Mobile TV makes an appearance, as does a microSD slot and 2 megapixel camera. All of these phones are supposed to be out by Thanksgiving, but no word on price or exact dates -- though the Juke and Pearl are hitting first, to be followed by the Venus and then the Voyager.

The Shine may already be available in a variety of colors, but we're confident that LG had no part in this one. The so-called Venus JXD205 purports to be your average PMP, sporting AVI / MP3 / WMA / WAV support, a 2.4-inch QVGA color screen, FM tuner, built-in gaming function and an expansion slot that supports cards up to 2GB in size. Interestingly enough, it looks almost identical to a famed member of the Black Label series, but we doubt you'll do much any calling on this thing. Nevertheless, those willing to buy a potential heap can grab the 1GB version for 399CNY ($53), or you can double your capacity for just 100CNY ($13) more.

[Via PMPToday, thanks Brian B.]

Apparently due to launch in a couple of weeks, Verizon is prepping a phone blitz of fairly epic proportions. The new Samsung Juke, BlackBerry Pearl, LG Venus and LG Voyager are due for simultaneous arrival on the market, and are sure to turn heads. On the far left is the "Juke," Verizon's name for that U470 we spotted a couple weeks ago, which is supposed to arrive with 2GB of storage, A2DP Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Next up is the "new variety" Pearl rumored since August, with a 2 megapixel camera, A2DP and a 3.5mm audio jack. One to the right is the dual screen "Venus" slider, also known as the LG VX8800. The phone rocks miniSD expansion, A2DP, a 2 megapixel camera and some interesting touchscreen capabilities, including vibration feedback. Finally we have the beast of the bunch on the far right, the LG Voyager, also known as the VX10000. The phone sports a large external touchscreen, along with a lateral-clamshell form factor that opens up into a QWERTY keyboard and another well-sized screen, both screens are QVGA. Verizon is bragging of a full HTML browser, along with the expected microSD expansion, 2 megapixel camera, A2DP and some built-in stereo speakers.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]