Barely a month after Nokia's North American E71 went on sale at the Chicago / New York flagship stores, we've received word that the QWERTY-less sibling (that'd be the E66) has now arrived at the same locales. The quad-band slider boasts support for AT&T's 3G network, and there's also a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi and all the other goodies you'd expect from another solid S60 contender. Snap it up now in Grey Steel for $540.

[Via IntoMobile]

So, you've got an outstanding ticket from talking while behind the wheel in Chicago, do you? Meet attorney Blake Horwitz, who is now likely to be the best friend you don't even know. Reportedly, Mr. Horwitz is suing the city and claiming that arrests of citizens caught driving and talking were in fact illegal, and furthermore, he's demanding that Chicago "dismiss any outstanding tickets and refund almost $2 million in fines collected since 2005." Apparently, the actual law that prevents users from yapping and motoring requires that the city erect signs that instruct drivers not to converse while driving, yet such signs have purportedly not been posted across Chi-town. The devil's in the details, we suppose.

[Image courtesy of ImportTuner]

We just stopped by the Chicago Apple flagship store and were greeted by chaos -- at least 35 to 40 people in line and a media frenzy of interviews taking place. Tyler Tessmann, the first guy in line, had gotten there at 2:30 and was holding court with NBC 5, while the rest of the media patiently waited to pounce. The store seemed busy but ready -- employees told us that most of the prep was done, and that the store was closing down tomorrow just to manage to crowd flow.

In the plus column, Nokia's gotten consistently better and better about keeping the US -- or its two US flagship stores, at least -- in the loop on its hottest releases, and as "hot releases" go, it really doesn't get much hotter than the GPS-sportin', HSDPA-havin' dual slide N95. In the minus column, though, the guts inside the American N95 are identical to its European counterparts, meaning we still have to go without any 3G data (let alone HSDPA, a Nokia first). Is it just us, or is EDGE no longer cool? Anyway, yeah, grab yours next time you're in New York or Chicago for a stout $750.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Besides opening their second flagship store this side of the pond, Nokia had a couple other tricks up their sleeve in preparation for what has turned out to be an exciting weekend for Nokia fanboys of the American persuasion -- namely, the US releases of the E70 and N93. We can personally attest that E70s have been quietly flying off shelves of the Chicago outpost (see picture above) for the past week or so; Nokia's been unable to keep them in stock, in fact, though we don't know whether the release was supposed to have been synched with New York's grand opening today. At any rate, the model being sold is the US-friendly E70-2 variant that swaps out 3G support in favor of a GSM 850 radio, and features a black face that (in our humblest of opinions) looks better than its European counterpart. Meanwhile, the N93 is the same ol' model Europe gets, lacking 850; caveat emptor for peeps with marginal 1900 coverage. Oddly, these handsets are both still listed as "coming soon" on Nokia USA's website, and rumor has it that they may never officially be released here outside the flagship facilities, so book your flights now, folks -- they say the Midwest and the East Coast are nice this time of year.

Both Motorola and Nokia have tried hard to play down the idea of a heated rivalry, despite the fact that they've both opened their first US stores within a month of each other and in the same city. We all like the idea of phone manufacturers scrapping head-to-head on the mean streets of Chicago, but from Motorola's perspective, it's probably for the best that we not call it a rivalry after all -- Nokia's effort wallops Destination Q soundly in every category. We'd go so far as to say it rivals Chicago's impressive Apple Store just a couple blocks north for style, clean design, and clever use of technology. But judge for yourself, and take a the tour with us as we take a look around after the break.

Taking a cue from other design-obsessed companies such as Apple and Sony, Nokia has announced plans to open a line of retail locations in the U.S. -- the first ones outside Russia and perhaps Finland that we're aware of -- and even better, will be offering models not available from carriers or traditional channels. The flagship store is set to open in Chicago on June 21, and will sell "virtually anything that could possibly be available in this market," according to a Nokia spokesperson, including such high-end handsets as the recently-launched N93 and N73 3.2 megapixel cameraphones, N91 4GB musicphone, and UMTS-enabled N80 smartphone (which happens to sport a three megapixel CCD as well). PC Mag's article on the upcoming stores, the second of which is scheduled to hit New York before the end of the year, also includes an update on the N91, which will apparently receive a key software upgrade sometime after launch that enables playback of DRM-protected content.

Update: Several readers have very kindly pointed out that Nokia has stores in much of Europe and Asia.