AT&T wants you to know that you don't need a smartphone just to get a rich, full web experience from your handset -- theoretically, anyway -- with the introduction of four new models from longtime partners Samsung and Pantech alongside a new featurephone browser. First up from Samsung comes the Flight (pictured left), billed as a "next-generation messaging device" on account of its full QWERTY portrait slide paired with a full touchscreen up top; it'll be available next month for $99.99 on contract after rebate -- that is, if you didn't buy it on Craigslist already. That silvery slate in the middle that's more likely to be catching your eye is the Mythic, rocking TouchWiz on a 3.3-inch display along with AT&T Mobile TV, making it a fitting successor to the Eternity and big brother to the Solstice; like the Flight, it swings onto retail next month, but you'll be paying a stiffer $199.99 on contract after $50 rebate.

Turning our attention to the Pantech side of the table, we've got the Reveal (pictured right) that lets you have it both ways with a numeric keypad up top twined with a QWERTY slider underneath. It's 3G-capable, AT&T Navigator-equipped, and available for your enjoyment on October 18 in red and blue. Finally, the Impact (not pictured) has an OLED touchscreen up front, but when the texting gets hot and heavy, the phone opens up to reveal a second display along with a QWERTY keyboard. It'll be available in pink and blue, though neither pricing nor availability are being announced just yet.

Gluing everything together is AT&T's new mobile browser, described as "a rich hybrid experience that gives you a HTML experience similar to your PC browser at home" that "works really well on a feature phone." Additionally, users visiting att.net from their PCs will be able to send bookmarks to their phones' mobile portals -- kind of a neat trick, especially when you're trying to minimize the number of URLs you have to mash out on an on-screen keyboard. Of course, featurephone browsers have a reputation for generally sucking, so considering that AT&T bills its new line of devices as "full web browsing phones," it'll be interesting to see how close they actually come to delivering on the claim; it's said the phones use "advanced data compression from Opera Software," which we're thinking is very likely some variation of Opera Turbo -- not a bad start.

Besides the very real possibility that the average person isn't all that into the idea of watching live television on a screen the size of a few fingernails, there are two totally quantifiable reasons that MediaFLO-based mobile TV services offered on AT&T and Verizon have yet to sell like gangbusters: poor device selection and wallet-busting pricing strategies. It's already been known that FLO looks to solve the first problem by creating accessories that can give more phones access to the signals -- and it turns out they're looking to knock down pricing, too, by bypassing its carrier partners' services and going straight to subscribers. FLO doesn't control how AT&T and Verizon price their services even though it's responsible for the common backbone that powers both of them, and it figures that if it can get service out of the door for under $10 a month on an annual plan, it has a better chance of succeeding than the $15 and higher that's being charged currently. Of course, $10 is still a lot to pay for non-on-demand programming on a really small handful of channels, but it's a step in the right direction.

[Via mocoNews]

FLO had promised that it would waste no time rolling out new markets just as soon as old analog TV spectrum started to free up, and sure enough, that's exactly what they're doing. Verizon -- whose VCAST TV service runs on FLO's backbone -- has officially announced expansion into the San Francisco, Cleveland, and Milwaukee markets, meaning the select few with a VCAST TV-capable phone (read: not the enV Touch) can start enjoying a handful of made-for-mobile boob tube channels in the new regions immediately -- provided they plunk down for the monthly fee ranging from $13 to $25. Just how badly do you wanna see Late Night from the warm glow of your phone, eh?

If we're using availability across AT&T's and Verizon's lineups as a benchmark, we'd venture to guess that FLO isn't doing terribly well -- but be that as it may, the Qualcomm subsidiary is rearing to expand its coverage just as soon as the remainder of the nation's analog television stations go dark on June 12. In fact, they're really, really serious about it: 15 new markets will go live the moment the analog signals turn off, adding Boston, Houston, Miami, and others, while another 24 will tack on by the end of the year. Existing live markets like Chicago and New York will enjoy expanded coverage, too, but the question remains -- where's FLO's meal ticket? More hardware helps, but it might ultimately take a transition to free services before mobile TV takes off.

Qualcomm's fledgling FLO TV service might be on to something this time. President Bill Stone's announced plans to offer mobile broadcast to phones via add-on peripherals, including an iPhone 3.0-compatible antenna /chip accessory that's currently in the works, although without an estimated release window (Business Insider suggests it'll be ready sometime next year). The company's also looking into accessorizing Windows Mobile phones, either with a plug-in or some device that connects over Wi-Fi / Bluetooth. Seeing as the latest comScore statistics say less than one percent of all phone users watch mobile broadcast TV, which at the moment has to come built-in, this could prove to be a boon for the service -- assuming Q or the carriers can do something about those excessive pricing plans or fierce competition from Sling.

[Via Electronista]

It turns out that MediaFLO's US network might not be as close to operating capacity as we'd thought, because AT&T wants to bring you live broadcasts of every single game of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship this month on its Mobile TV system -- and in order to do so, "up to four additional seasonal channels" will spring out of thin air to pick up the load. For non-basketball lovers, it's great news because no other programming will be killed off to accommodate it, and for basketball lovers, it's good news because... well, it's a lot of basketball we're talking about here. The special channels should spring to life on March 19 when the first round of the tournament kicks off.

You can only pimp a pricey, woefully underutilized multimedia network for so long before drawing the conclusion that there's probably something fundamentally wrong with your business model, and indeed, operators around the world have had nothing but trouble attracting subscribers to premium mobile TV services as they've launched over the past few years. The head of the FLO Forum -- the nonprofit group tasked with advocating MediaFLO -- is now acknowledging that mobile TV needs some free, ad-supported content in order to get off the ground (it's just too bad the key players couldn't have figured that out before launching two services in the States), noting that South Korea and Italy have seen some limited success going that route. People like free stuff, but it remains to be seen exactly how Qualcomm and others are going to be able to sell enough advertising space and combine it with enough compelling premium content to get some return on investment; nationwide mobile TV networks don't just build themselves, after all.

Qualcomm's opting for the "la la la la, I can't hear you!" approach to the EU's decision to roll deep with DVB-H, it seems, committing $16.3 million in the UK to scoop up about 40MHz worth of nationwide spectrum for testing its own MediaFLO there, seemingly in an effort to woo locals to FLO's benefits. To be clear, Qualcomm says that it won't go solo with a commercial launch -- it wants a business partner to do that, much as it uses Verizon and AT&T in the States -- but it seems like the company has no problem dumping a few quid into getting the rejected standard some time in the spotlight. The odds are certainly against it, but hey, you've gotta admire their commitment.

So we know that AT&T slipped its MediaFLO-based mobile TV launch from the end of 2007 out to early '08, but just how "early" are we talking? Well, "as early as possible," to be specific. That rather unhelpful statement is all that's coming out of AT&T for the moment regarding its go-live window for the service, saying that testing is going "very, very well" but that it wanted to take an extra timeout to "make sure the user experience is absolutely optimal." As far as we're concerned, those statements are in conflict with one another -- if they'd planned to launch in '07 and everything's going well, what the heck's the hold up? At any rate, when it does launch, it turns out that we'll be getting essentially the same lineup MediaFLO offers through Verizon's VCAST TV presently, featuring channels from Fox, NBC, ESPN, CBS, and MTV. That rubs us the wrong way considering that AT&T's original press release mentioned its intention to take advantage of advanced MediaFLO capabilities like datacasting and music, so to summarize: less functionality, later than originally expected. Everyone cool?

[Via mocoNews]

So here's the deal for AT&T's CU720 Shine: AT&T looks to be preparing the anticipated slider (or, at least it was anticipated like a year ago) for a Black Friday launch. The silvery model will launch first, with black and red both planned for early '08. The Vu -- alias Prada, alias CU920 -- is still on track for an early '08 launch, too, though LG and AT&T are apparently pushing hard to get it rolled out in December, presumably to catch some last-minute holiday sales. MediaFLO support is confirmed in this bad boy, meaning that glorious display should see a little more action than the Cellular Video and MobiTV options AT&T subscribers have today. Oh, and are you wondering how that name's pronounced? Turns out it's "view," not "voo." Thank goodness.

[Thanks, Kal-El]

DigiTimes is reporting that Qualcomm has openly expressed interest this month in setting up a joint venture in Taiwan to get the ball rolling on MediaFLO there. Having bagged two of four national carriers in the US (with the distinct possibility of bagging one or two more still in the cards), Qualcomm appears to be turning its attention to distant lands. As DigiTimes points out, the company has already set up a joint venture with Japan's KDDI (a CDMA carrier, unsurprisingly) to push its proprietary mobile TV tech in that country, so it seems like similar ventures elsewhere are a foregone conclusion. Noting that a joint venture could be either "financial or technological," Qualcomm already runs a MediaFLO-based trial in Taiwan that kicked off earlier this year, so we figure that it may be looking to get an infusion of local cash to take the service commercial -- especially considering that it'll be going up against a handful of recently-awarded DVB-H licenses in the country.

[Via mocoNews]

Yeah, MediaFLO support is cool and all, but the SCH-U620 definitely felt like the "me-too" handset at today's Verizon press event; it just couldn't hold a candle to the LG VX9400's drop-dead good looks. 'Course, it was quite a bit smaller than the LG, and folks partial to the conventional slider form factor will feel more at home on this one. As with the VX9400 (and the service itself), pricing and availability are to be announced at a later date. Click on for some more shots.

Wait wait wait, LG, let's be sure we have this straight: you've gone ahead and distributed pictures of the rumored 9400 with your CES press kit, but you make positively no mention of it in your press release. Didn't something just like this happen at CTIA with the VX8600? Either you've truly mastered the fine art of brilliant viral marketing, or you've accidentally announced yet another critical phone in Verizon's lineup early. Our money's on the latter. Anyhoo, here's the 9400 finally in all its blur-free glory, finally ushering in the age of mobile TV stateside. Though it's not branded as a Verizon release, we know from our candid shots that it's due up as a launch device for the imminent unveiling of Big Red's MediaFLO network -- possibly as soon as this afternoon at Verizon's press event. As always, we'll keep ya posted; in the mean time, check after the break for some more eye candy.

We have to hand it to 'em, T-Mobile's gotta be given some credit for doing their homework in the whole mobile TV biz. It turns out that their trial agreement with Hiwire really is just that -- a trial -- and success won't guarantee them T-Mobile's signature on the dotted line. Besides working with both Hiwire and Modeo, the States' number four carrier has now hooked up with Qualcomm's MediaFLO folks, too, giving them the trifecta (if you will) of mobile TV partnerships. Though Qualcomm is more strongly associated with CDMA, GSM carriers have no particular reason to shy away from MediaFLO since the TV system is disjoint from CDMA itself. So far, T-Mobile's been low-key about naming a winner, which makes sense: the Vegas-based Hiwire trial hasn't yet begun and the MediaFLO trial (location unknown) is apparently still underway.

[Via MocoNews]

Although we're sure MediaFLO holds plenty of promise as a downlink-only TV mobile TV delivery platform, the folks over at Qualcomm wouldn't be doing much of anything with the technology -- here in the US, anyway -- without the requisite bandwidth. Happily, that's one hurdle they can now put behind them, as the FCC has granted MediaFLO the right to broadcast on TV channels 54, 55, or 56 ahead of the digital TV transition scheduled to complete on February 17, 2009. The feds came to their decision (a wise one, if we do say so ourselves) after drawing the conclusion that FLO broadcasts would have little or no ill effect on existing TV or DTV broadcasts on those channels, opening the door for mobile TV goodness just as soon as everyone can get on the same page and get some equipment and content out the door. Of course, if we discover that our beloved PBS is starting to get snowy as a result of this newfangled FLO business, we'll be having a few choice words.

[Via The Wireless Report]