That Q11 can't be far off now that Moto's starting to send it through labs for regulatory approval, and ClubeCelular seems to have gotten the inside line on the latest Q as it happened through Brazil's hurdles. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the rumored specs (and a few glances at the unglamorous shots Moto sent with the phone's labwork) leave us scratching our heads as to why anyone would want this over a Q9: quadband EDGE, stereo Bluetooth, WiFi, miniSD expansion, a 2.5mm (yes, 2.5mm) headphone jack, and a 3-megapixel camera with flash. Besides the cam, we're not seeing what the draw is -- and we're particularly bewildered as to why Moto would think it was cool to leave 3G out these days, so we're hoping that particular spec magically materializes by the time the phone floats north (and no, Motorola, just because RIM thinks it can get away with leaving out 3G doesn't mean you should, too).

[Thanks, eloy]

We just happened to be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this week and when the news popped up that a group of Brazilians had unlocked the iPhone 3G, we just had to pop in to say hi. Like the Turbo SIM unlock for the original iPhone, this system uses a wafer-thin card that piggybacks on your SIM while in the phone. Of course, Turbo SIM needed some tools installed on the iPhone -- so Jailbreak was key -- this solution does not, just DesbloqueioBr's chip and your SIM. Paulo and Breno of DesbloqueioBr explained that the magic lies in the programming of the SIM adapter itself, by tricking the iPhone into believing a test SIM has been inserted, the iPhone allows service and then functionality is handed back to your SIM. We tested the unlock in our own FIDO locked handset with a local TIM SIM card, then in their AT&T set, and it worked perfectly in both. How much will this cost average Joe iPhone user? They were pretty tight lipped as to what the final pricing will be and how exactly they'll deliver the service, but we should hear more in the next few days. Check the vid of it all in action after the break.

Have 1,499 reais (about $904) to blow? Live in or around Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil? Great, because Samsung has a little something it wants to show you. The V820L pivoting flip is a capable 3G phone in its own right, complete with Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD expansion, and a front-facing secondary cam for video calls, but it also adds digital TV reception for Brazil's nascent ISDB-T spectrum. The relatively expansive 2.6 inch display should be a boon for watching your favorite Portuguese-language programming on the go, though it sounds like the limited coverage could be a big bummer at this point until broadcasters have the time to build out the network just a bit. It sounds like carriers might subsidize the phone a bit to knock down that stratospheric price tag, but even so -- just how much do we want to pay for a few square miles of entertainment?

[Image via Abril.com, thanks Marcelo R.]

Nothing shows your complete and unwavering devotion to a handset maker like buying an ultra-rare vehicle with its logos on there, wouldn't you agree? Those vigorously nodding up and down (well, those vigorously nodding up and down in Brazil) can get set to grab a limited edition Renault Sandero, which will come "fully equipped with Nokia's navigation system and [undisclosed] car add-ons." The super-special Sandero will come stocked with an N95 and cost around €17,650 ($27,693), but you'd better hurry, as only 1,000 of these niche motorcars are being built. It's like Nokia heard your cries for letting the chance to nab one of those co-branded Twingos slip through your too-busy-texting thumbs or something.

By the very nature of the organization, details of OpenMoko's upcoming FreeRunner are no secret -- quite the opposite, in fact -- but it's always refreshing to see the new kit out and about, doing what it does best (pictured here on the left). This image comes to us from the Bossa Conference in Brazil, where OpenMoko's Mickey Lauer talked up the Neo1973 successor, showed off the device bearing ever-so-slightly updated styling over its big brother (and over the model we saw at CES), and went over a laundry list of its impressive features. Three-axis motion detection is going to be a big win for devs and hobbyists looking to maximize the FreeRunner's potential, but other goodies include Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi (allegedly 802.11n, but that sounds a little optimistic to us), and a Samsung-sourced core humming along at a solid 134MHz better than the model it replaces. Would be nice if we could touch this thing at CTIA next month, yeah?

Well, that certainly didn't take very long -- that Venus-esque piece from LG, the KF600, has already broken out of China for launches in Brazil and Turkey. At around $350, the dual-screen "touch navigation" slider is far from entry-level -- and that's just the way LG likes it, apparently. The company has gone on record saying that it's all but ceding the low end of the mobile spectrum to Nokia and Samsung, instead focusing its efforts on the $300 range globally as the key to reaping "stable and strong profits." With the Chocolate and Shine series seemingly doing so well across the globe, we'd venture to guess that might not be a bad niche for LG to fill.