Remember that U800 we peeked in the middle of last month? Turns out, that very mobile is the one pictured above, though it now has an official moniker to round things off. In an attempt to migrate the Spirit of Soul (Samsung's words, not ours) to the candybar design, the Soulb was born. The handset checks in at 9.9-millimeters thick and features a 3-megapixel camera (with Power LED flash), document viewer / editor, web browser, multimedia player, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radio (with RDS support), 1GB of internal memory and a microSD slot just in case. It's also noted that the Soulb will be available in Soul Grey, Platinum Silver, Metallic Black, Soul Pink and Amethyst Violet for an undisclosed price, but things aren't looking too swell for North Americans. Germans will get first dibs when it lands in "early June," while just about every region save for NA gets it shortly thereafter.

[Via phoneArena]

After O2 dropped its Southeast Asian outpost at the side of the road, we weren't terribly sure whether it'd be able to flourish -- let alone survive -- without the mothership's lifeline. Turns out they're at least giving it the old college try, though, with new models appropriately dubbed "Zinc II" and "Atom V" (notice that the "Xda" branding of old has left the building). We know this courtesy of Expansys' Hong Kong outpost, which has done us all a favor by posting preorder pages for both devices; we only have renderings at this point, but they look pretty legit and realistic. Both devices feature quadband GSM and triband HSDPA (nice!), 256MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, integrated FM radio, WiFi, and GPS. The Atom V is the slightly higher end of the two -- despite a slightly lower price -- thanks to a 3 megapixel cam around back (versus 2 for the Zinc II) and an Intel core clocked 20MHz higher than the Zinc II's Samsung silicon, though the Zinc II should win some hearts and minds with its semi-automatic sliding QWERTY pad. If Expansys is to be believed, the Atom V will run HK$4,775 (about $612) while the Zinc II will set you back HK$5,305 (about $680) when they're available.

[Via the::unwired and MoDaCo]

Read - Zinc II
Read - Atom V

Everybody is sworn to silence until the auction is over, so we won't be seeing much more information about this until it's all over in the spring of next year, but for now it's still fun to speculate. Business Week is doing quite a bit of that speculating as well, with word that DoCoMo, KDDI, SK Telecom and even China (through the T-Mobile and Global Tower invested Blackstone Group) could be chipping in a few billion here and there to spice things up for Google and friends in the 700MHz C Block auction. DoCoMo, which got burned in the US a while back with pre-Cingular AT&T Wireless, mentioned to Business Week that it'd be interested in partnering with Google for its wireless network, and the other carrier might not be talking but have to be at least considering the possibility of being involved in US wireless data in a big way, and KDDI has a history of being chummy with Google in Japan. The word is that average North American data service bills are less than $10 a month, and are expected to grow to $38+ a month by 2012 -- and who wouldn't want in on that action? As growth slows in Europe and Asia, it seems only natural for the innovators over there to head over here and kick things into gear, but we'll try not too far ahead of ourselves.

[Via The Inquirer]

First, the bad news: the rumors have turned out be true, O2's pulling out of its Southeast Asian biz. Now the good: rising from the ashes is a new operation, MWG, that looks ready and willing to carry on with O2 Asia's product lineup. In fact, MWG's website says that they've outright inherited O2 Asia's entire management team, so really, it's the same company in shiny new clothes. Current offerings include the Xda Atom Life, Xda Flame, and Xda Zinc -- not a bad start, if Windows Mobile is your thing -- and they're promising "an exciting roadmap" through 2008. Best of luck, fellas!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Shockwave, purveyor of its "Shockwave Mini" games to Verizon handsets in these parts, has entered an agreement with Nokia to offer some of its mobile entertainment through portals in Europe and Asia. Though it's not clear whether the games will eventually be bundled with phones (Nokia's own Snake in its various forms will always be near and dear to our hearts), it looks like the initial offerings will come through the manufacturer's Content Discoverer app. A quick game of Sumo Swinger, anyone?

Though it doesn't even operate any networks of its own in the region, O2's Asia Pacific outpost has been known to release (or tease us with) some of the more lustworthy Windows Mobile devices out there. They apparently aren't lustworthy enough, though, with DigiTimes reporting that O2 is looking to reduce its footprint in that part of the world or -- horror of horrors -- withdraw altogether. The company has apparently stopped placing orders and taking delivery of existing ones from its Asian ODMs -- Quanta, Gigabyte, and Arima -- a pretty solid reversal from its recent trumpeting of four new Windows Mobile-based models for the second half of the year. O2 naturally claims that it's simply "adjusting its product strategy" and has no plans to withdraw, but with no new hardware in the pipe, what else could it possibly mean?

[Via the::unwired]

O2's Taiwan and Hong Kong chief has reaffirmed the company's long-standing commitment to rolling out Windows Mobile devices, recently commenting that it'll roll out four new models in the second half of 2007. That's good news for Quanta, Arima, and Gigabyte -- the ODMs taking on those orders -- but O2's partnership with ASUS has been scrapped, allegedly because it adopted Intel's 3G chipsets for its models when Qualcomm's are considered to be snappier. All four new models will rock out with Windows Mobile 6; one will be an entry-level piece with EDGE data while the other three will all burn rubber with downstream speeds of "at least" 3.6Mbps. At least this explains O2's untimely cancellation of the Xda Zinc, we guess.

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

Good news for those of you in Taiwan (and America, too) who can't wait to get acquainted with HTC's Touch, as its creator has reportedly announced that it will be deployed shortly in its "home base," with an American launch to go down before the dawn of 2008. Peter Chou, chief executive officer at HTC, has purportedly stated that it would "only be fitting if the first country in Asia to sell the Touch was Taiwan," and also noted that Chunghwa Telecom would be its "exclusive partner in distributing and retailing the handset" in that country. On the home front, all we know is that the Touch should indeed be found on American shelves before the year's end, but here's to hoping it's closer to today than December 31st.

Read - HTC launch in Taiwan
Read - HTC launch in USA

After what was apparently a tremendously successful launch in Europe, LG's KE850 Prada phone is heading east to grace some Asian territories with its pricey, high-fashion wiles. Specifically, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan were tapped as KE850 destinations at a launch event at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong hotel last week, with LG confidently spouting that it "would be as popular" there as it was in Europe. The phone and its nifty touch interface are about as trick as anything on the market right now, but with a frightening price point -- not to mention Prada's retail police making the rounds -- we're stopping short of sharing LG's optimism for the moment. [Warning: subscription required]

So wait, why did Dopod just announce two Dopod-branded devices yesterday? Strange timing indeed, but HTC and Dopod have now let it be known that Dopod's name -- well-known only in Asia -- will be phased out in favor of that of its corporate parent. Ultimately, the move makes a lot of sense, allowing HTC to standardize on device self-branding for the entire world (it already sells devices under its own name in Europe and North America). Was just a matter of time, we reckon.

[Via the::unwired]

We don't really know the back story on China's "Omnipotence" brand, but seeing how it's apparently going after the luxury phone segment with a vaguely Vertu-esque logo and resides in a country with a particularly freewheeling attitude toward patent and trademark law, we're already a bit skeptical about the legitimacy of the licensing agreements (or lack thereof) that led to the phone's Disney and BMW (yes, BMW) branding. Nonetheless, there'll only be 130 of the 10 millimeter thick candybars produced, each bearing Disney-themed software goodies (never mind the company's misspelling of "Mickey") and a dubious "Design by BMW in Munich" inscription on the back -- so get yours while the gettin's good. Features include a 1.3 megapixel cam, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD expansion, touch sensitive nav buttons, and some sort of alleged certificate of authenticity from BMW. One point three frickin' megapixels, though? In a so-called luxury phone?

[Via electro^plankton]

While there's been no shortage of standalone electronic dictionaries of late, LG is looking to put the words you need right on your mobile with its LC-3200. Featuring a slider design, this sleek handset comes in at 3.89- x 1.91- x 0.67-inches and rocks a two-inch external LCD, CDMA connectivity, USB, IrDA, MP3 playback, an elusive "sports game," and of course, a presumably non-English dictionary. Additionally, you'll find a 1.3-megapixel camera where you can snap pics in all six nations (including China and Taiwan) where this thing will reportedly work. Per usual, there's no word on price just yet, but we're not counting on this one hitting the US anytime soon anyway.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

Alright, so we're taking this one at face value, but according to an admittedly weird report in Asia, Guangzhou residents should be on the lookout for a clever pup who looks mighty innocent, but is reportedly a "hardened criminal." After locating the dog in a Panyu District home, the owner was surprised to see the mysterious creature cease playing with his daughter, dart over to his cellphone, and make a break for the exit. According to local police, it's becoming somewhat common to see "thieves training canines" to sneak into homes and swipe cellphones for crooks to resell. While it would certainly be easy to brush this off as completely ludicrous, the idea actually isn't that far-fetched, as an English Springer Spaniel is already on patrol in UK prisons sniffing out and retrieving mobiles that were brought into the jails without consent. So if you're strolling through Guangzhou, make sure that cellie is well covered, cool?

[Via Textually]

Although providers around the globe have been doing away with those pesky roaming charges for some time now, not everyone has the luxury of yapping anywhere without a care in the world, but at least those loyal 3 customers out there can now. The newly-unveiled "3 Like Home" plan allows 3 customers to travel abroad and not face roaming charges when dialing out or receiving a call in a nation that 3 covers, which includes Hong Kong, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, the UK, Austria, Denmark, and Italy. Furthermore, SMS, video calling, and data services will be filed under the same principle, meaning no roaming fees altogether when using your mobile in a coverage area. Notably, the company states that users will still "face higher charges if they roam onto a non-3 network," but hopes that "the European Commission will be successful in reducing these wholesale charges, which will allow price reductions for customers roaming between different operators within Europe." We wonder if they can take a hint?

[Via MobileBurn]

While many of us might be satisfied with the low-end cellies that just handle the basics, there's apparently a hefty chunk of consumers on the other extreme, too. Joining D&G, Hulger, and Gresso (just to name a few) in the avant-garde phone realm, Prada is teaming up with LG Electronics to unveil a brand new (read: not rebranded) mobile in 2007. Although neither firm has leaked any prototype snapshots of the presumably pricey handset, we do know to expect a "unique, sophisticated and elegant phone" that'll sport an "advanced touch interface" to eliminate the traditional keypad. Moreover, the Prada touch doesn't end at the outside motif, as we'll see a dash of luxury in the packaging, software, user interface, music functionality, and overall design. As expected, this gem is slated to launch in Europe first ("early 2007"), while Asia / Korea should expect it shortly thereafter; unfortunately, there's no set date for an American release, but even we know it can't resist Hollywood for too long.

[Via Textually]