Filed under: Cellphones

While Best Buy’s been selling mobiles (and holding out on Wii hopefuls) for some time now, the big blue retailer is diverting a bit more fundage towards the cause. Aside from continuing to offer phones and plans in typical stores, Best Buy is opening up a smattering of New York-based Mobile stores to handle your cellular needs (and probably hassle you for an extended warranty as well). While details about the store layout and initial offerings are a bit scant at this point, we do know that nine locales will be opening up in the Big Apple alone, with a red (as in, not black) PRODUCT (RED) RAZR being their “exclusive” offering. The stores will partner with Verizon Wireless, Amp’d Mobile, Sprint-Nextel, and Cingular, and should have a plethora of promotional goodies surrounding each and every door to snag your attention.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

We got a Treo here, everybody, the 680 to be exact. It is, as we all well know by now, going to go for $200 after two year service agreement (with unlimited data plan), and will be available as of Black Friday. Wii for the kids, Treo 680 for yourself. Decisions can be difficult to make, wouldn’t you say?

P.S. -It’s not without at least one review, either.

Read – Laptop, 4/5, “does the best job of making it simple to juggle voice calls, messaging, the Web, and PIM functions”

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Thar she blows. We’re not going to pretend like there’s any surprise left here — it’s the 8525 in all its tri-band UMTS / HSDPA glory, it was on Cingular’s page, and it looks like they’re about ready to go. Yep, all we’re waiting for is a price and release date. Yep, just gonna keep on waiting. Cingular?

[Thanks, JeShUa, Matt, and jetfxr]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Cellphones

Dear Palm,

Why is it that you have such a devil of a time keeping a lid on your product pipeline? It seems like in those precious few moments when your carriers aren’t leaking documents describing unreleased Treos, you’re doing it yourself. No bother; we already knew darned well Cingular would be getting a pair of new handsets from you, freshly freed of their pesky external antennas, in Palm OS and Windows Mobile flavors — we just wish you’d make it a little more challenging to scoop the deets sometimes. Anyway, you’ve got a crowd of Palm fanatics anxiously awaiting your 680 and 750 here in the US, so let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

Love,
Engadget

[Thanks, William and Jon]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Thanks to countless leaks over the last several months, one of the most anticlimactic smartphone releases in history has finally gone official. Palm has issued all the juicy details on their UK site, and… well, it’s pretty much exactly what we expected: internal antenna, quadband GSM with triband UMTS (lending itself to a Cingular release), and a superbly average 1.3-megapixel cam sitting atop Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition. The phone is still apparently in the pre-order phase, though Vodafone’s site is showing a price “From Free to £127.66″ (about $240) depending on contract — not bad considering what you get, but whether similar pricing will carry over to Cingular is another question entirely.

[Thanks, Wolwol and Camp]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

If you’re familiar with the Hermes and you know that it’s coming to Cingular ‘fore too long, these supposed renderings of Cingular’s variant (henceforth known as the 8525) should come with no surprises — except one, that is. Note that the Hermes’ front-facing cam is conspicuously missing here, allegedly removed at Cingular’s request since their video calling infrastructure isn’t quite ready for prime time. Of course, we would’ve preferred that they leave the cam in, disable it, and cut a new firmware down the road to re-enable it when video calling is live rather than ask HTC to cripple their hardware, but we’re sure the corporate suits had their reasons.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, Cingular, GSM, GPRS

If you’re a Cingular customer and you’ve been jonesin’ for a Z520a with push-to-talk, your phone has arrived. Sony Ericsson’s Z525a is about an incremental upgrade as an incremental upgrade can get, offering the addition of PTT and that’s about it. As we mentioned before, EDGE would’ve been welcome, but for 20 bucks on contract with a mail-in rebate, we guess we don’t have much room to grouse about it.

[Via phoneArena]

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Cingular releases its first HSDPA phone with the LG CU500 flip. The CU500 has a swiveling 1.3 megapixel camera, music keys, microSD, stereo Bluetooth and weighs 105 grams.

The phone has a pretty average talk time of 3.5 hours, but it’s the first phone to use the new HSDPA network, so quit complaining. But, the HSDPA is only available in select markets for now, so check your area before plopping down for the LG.

The phone isn’t on the Cingular website yet, but we’ll update when it is. – Jason Chen

Product Page [LG]

LG CU500 Launched for New Cingular 3G Service [Mobiledia via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

If you’ve had any lingering questions about Motorola’s RAZR successor, the KRZR — aka Canary, aka RAZR 2 — you might shuffle on over to the FCC’s site and have a look-see. All the good stuff on the GSM variant has gone live, with unfettered access to external and internal pics plus a draft user’s manual. The KRZR does get honest-to-goodness EDGE which’ll be a fun experience for original V3 owners making the switch — but as Pete pointed out, it’s basically a glossy, slimmed down RAZR, so don’t expect any juicy specs buried in the documents. If by chance you still find yourself mesmerized by all that blue, glossy goodness, look for the KRZR at your friendly local Cingular outlet come this fall.

[Thanks, Handset Freak]

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Filed under: Handsets, LG, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

The handset itself might not be anything spectacular in terms of specification, but one aspect of LG's CU500 clamshell makes it extraordinarily interesting: it's North America's first retail HSDPA handset. A little private investigation on our part (meaning we called a few stores) reveals that the phone officially drops in Cingular's 3G markets tomorrow, but several persistent individuals have managed to get stores in the Boston and Atlanta areas to part with their units a day early. HowardForums has a rather active thread heralding the news, which you can read after you give your local store a call, eh?

[Thanks, The Bullfrog]

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Filed under: Software, Cingular, Misc

The relatively young Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) consortium, a group dedicated to pontificating on the finer points of user interfaces and APIs for all things mobile, is welcoming a new member this week. Cingular has joined Hutchison, Orange, and SK Telecom -- among others -- to work on standardization initiatives that (theoretically) should bring about consistent user experiences and reduced costs for carriers and manufacturers. Verizon is not a member, so hopefully their much-maligned standard blood red UI won't be finding its way into OMTP's recommendations.

[Via RCR Wireless News]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Wireless

Palm's sieve-like reputation for keeping a lid on unreleased devices continues to the current round of Treos in the pipeline, and we're happy to feed the fire today with possible specs of the upcoming "Hollywood" accompanied by the obligatory hastily-snapped shot (blurred here to protect our valiant tipster). Though we still don't fully understand the relationship between this bad boy and Cingular's upcoming "Nitro" and "Lennon," it's said that we're looking at an antenna-less GSM Treo rocking Windows Mobile 5, 128MB of internal storage, and a 412MHz XScale core, all gussied up in a package "considerably lighter" than its 700w stablemate. If our source is accurate, all this goodness will drop sometime this September -- not a moment too soon for Treo fans on GSM carriers getting a little jealous of their CDMA brethren. Naturally, skepticism is in order here, but the engraving on the device lends some validity to the thought that it's a prototype, and this all lines up pretty nicely with Cingular's roadmap, no?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, GSM

Our friends over at Engaget Chinese showed us the Motorola C139 not too long ago, and now the palm-sized GoPhone is available on US shores from Cingular. Although embroiled in a few legal matters, Cingular isn’t missing the opportunity to boast about their affordable new offering. This dual-band GSM handset includes a minuscule 96 x 64 TFT screen, SMS-capability, games, monophonic ringtones, iTAP, and some simple tools such as a calculator and currency converter. How do you sell a phone in 2006 that lacks a built-in camera and can only store 100 contacts? Why, by offering a rock bottom price, of course. The C139 can be had for $39.99, and that includes a $10 pre-paid card (better talk quick!). While limited to being a pay-as-you-go device, the boon here is the tiny pricetag. The handset is available now through all major Cingular outlets to handle the basics.

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Filed under: Culture, Cingular

And now we take a moment to visit our “obvious corporate response” department, going back to the class action suit filed last week against Cingular alleging deterioration in the quality of AT&T Wireless’ legacy network following their acquisition. It seems Cingular is in staunch disagreement with the grievances, citing a laundry list of post-acquisition improvements in infrastructure totaling “nearly $10 billion.” Though we don’t have a lot of sympathy for TDMA users still trying to limp along with their prehistoric handsets, Cingular’s rebuttal appears to be peripheral to the case at best, bringing up catch phrases like “fewer dropped calls” and “improved churn.” Moreover, Cingular is talkin’ some smack back at the class action’s lead lawyer, saying “we are considering our options with respect to the false and misleading statements made to the media” — sounds like a countersuit in the making to us. Who knew TDMA could get folks so worked up years after its obsolescence?

[Thanks, Dave]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Wireless carriers in this country are no strangers to all manner of legal action, so it comes as little surprise to us to hear that we have a couple fresh lawsuits brewing of the class-action variety. In Cingular’s case, it seems a group of former AT&T Wireless customers are worked up over the degredation of AT&T’s legacy network following the merger, forcing many of them to either deal with the inferior reception, buy so-called “orange” phones and get on Cingular’s network proper — often incurring a transfer fee in addition to the cost of the phone, or leave Cingular entirely and pay the early-termination fee of $175. Verizon meanwhile is taking heat for covertly slapping some of its customers with their roadside assistance option starting in January 2004 at $2 / month, then later refusing refunds when folks got wise to the charge. We dream of one day achieving world peace between human- and carrier-kind — but in the meantime, good luck sticking it to the Man, folks.

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Filed under: Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Misc

Wireless carriers in this country are no strangers to all manner of legal action, so it comes as little surprise to us to hear that we have a couple fresh lawsuits brewing of the class-action variety. In Cingular's case, it seems a group of former AT&T Wireless customers are worked up over the degredation of AT&T's legacy network following the merger, forcing many of them to either deal with the inferior reception, buy so-called "orange" phones and get on Cingular's network proper -- often incurring a transfer fee in addition to the cost of the phone, or leave Cingular entirely and pay the early-termination fee of $175. Verizon meanwhile is taking heat for covertly slapping some of its customers with their roadside assistance option starting in January 2004 at $2 / month, then later refusing refunds when folks got wise to the charge. We dream of one day achieving world peace between human- and carrier-kind -- but in the meantime, good luck sticking it to the Man, folks.

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Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Palm OS, GSM

Alright, dear readers, proceed with caution. It’s with a healthy dose of skepticism that we present to you some slightly clearer pictures (allegedly straight off Cingular’s site) of Palm’s “Lennon” and “Nitro” GSM devices that our resident rumor MC, The Boy Genius, scooped for us not long ago. Now, we’ll plainly admit that these look pretty much like what we’d expect them to look like — but these would also be fairly trivial ‘Shops to throw together based off the 700w and 700p. Either way, if Palm’s track record is any indication, we can look forward to plenty more leaked shots in the near future to keep us occupied before (hopefully) a late-2006 release.

[Thanks, Jon]

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Filed under: Multimedia, Cingular

Cingular’s announced that it plans to launch a new service “within the next year” that’ll let users share videos while talking on their cellphone, something that you may remember was being tested earlier this year. Assuming Cingular hasn’t gone on a completely different route, the service will make use of what’s known as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (or IMS), which is a UMTS implementation of (SIP). It’s nifty to be sure, but we’re guessing Cingular will have to make the service really affordable for most people to be able to justify adding yet another expense to their monthly bill.

[Thanks, Mack S]

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Filed under: Handsets, LG, Cingular, GSM, GPRS

There are definitely LGs we'd rather see appear in Cingular's shipping lineup, but hey, the quad-band CG225 is free on contract after online rebate, has a VGA camera, dual color displays, and a speakerphone. The stub antenna is unfortunate, but all told the little clamshell doesn't look half bad -- and it's hard to complain about the price. Cheap backup phone, anyone?

[Via MobileTracker]

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Filed under: Cingular, HSDPA, UMTS

Cingular is going to let you roll VoIP over its 3G network, but they don't have to like it. That's the message Cingular CTO Kristin Rinne effectively gave this week, saying that they don't explicitly have a problem with folks running VoIP through their UMTS pipeline, but they'd rather have QoS and billing systems in place (naturally) beforehand. Since they don't, and data is data, let the Skypeing begin on that all-you-can-eat HSDPA plan of yours -- just don't be surprised if they suddenly try to nickel-and-dime you once their IMS implementation gets going.

[Via The Wireless Report]

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Filed under: Cingular, HSDPA, UMTS

Cingular Video, anyone? Just a few weeks after having Samsung ZX10s unceremoniously removed from stores, New Yorkers are getting some HSDPA love now that Cingular’s network has officially gone live. Yes, that means you can once again get your hands on the UMTS-only ZX10 — whether you’d want to is another story — but more importantly, Cingular’s 3G PC cards will keep your notebook clipping along at some reasonably healthy speeds, especially if you’re used to dealing with EDGE. Coverage is mainly limited to Manhattan and JFK right now, but a rapid expansion is promised through September of this year.

[Via The Wireless Report]

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Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

It’s a rough world out there, and no one should be without 3G nowadays — especially not anyone whose job requires them to carry a Panasonic CF-18, one of their iron-clad ToughBook class laptops strong enough to take a bullet (ok, maybe not really). Looks like Panny landed a deal with Cingular to incorporate HSDPA into the CF-18 by way of a Novatel Wireless Expedite EU730 UMTS / HSDPA card, presumably a Mini PCI add-on. Nope, it’s not the first shot the ToughBook has had at having 3G in its lifetime — and we assume it won’t be the last — but this does add Panasonic to the short list of HSDPA laptop makers, as well as to the growing list of companies offering help in the way of laptop-internal 3G while remaining relatively (though never entirely) carrier agnostic.

[Via The Wireless Report]

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For those Q fans in the audience, we've got some good news (especially if you haven't made the jump yet because that $200 price point is still a little high, or because you just can't bear the thought of switching to Verizon). Apparently Ron Garriques, Moto's Executive Vice President, Mobile Devices Business, told Bear Sterns that the Q's sales performance can be compared to the steep, successful initial launch of the RAZR, and that they not only hope to drop the price to $50 after carrier subsidy by the end of 2006, but they'll be launching a UMTS version when Verizon's exclusivity contract on the device ends (as we've been expecting). Yeah, that'd be the same UMTS version that it was supposed to be around from the get go. Still, we're assuming that exclusivity will last a good half year (quite literally a gadget lifetime to wait for us), after which time the UMTS Q will head to some mysterious, unknown network. Guess Ron wasn't too firm a believer in Moto's supposedly newly adopted announce-when-you-ship methodology, eh?

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Filed under: Handsets, LG, Samsung, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS

Built it, and they will come — even if they’re not invited. That’s the message Cingular is hearing loud and clear in some of its EDGE-only areas, where UMTS hasn’t yet launched but their mediocre first round of 3G handsets were being sold nonetheless. Curious consumers in the EDGE boondocks have picked up the handsets and discovered Cingular Video, a service that Cingular has specifically designed for UMTS speeds, leading to a barrage of support calls for absurdly poor frame rates. Cingular, apparently oblivious that this might happen, has reversed their decision to launch 3G handsets ahead of the network build-out and is offering an extended return policy through June 30 for customers who’ve already picked one up. To our untrained eyes, watching CNN Headline News at insane compression rates on a sub-QVGA display looks about as good at 5 fps as it does at 20 fps, but kudos to Cingular for trying to do the right thing.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

We're for charity auctions just as much as the next guy, but Jon Bon Jovi and Cingular have made it hard to throw our support behind this one -- the duo are offering a limited run of ten SGH-D807s afflicted with the proverbial double-whammy of unfortunate modifications: jewels and American Idol propaganda. The eBay auction stands to benefit Jon Bon's own 2nd Floor Youth Helpline, a hotline kiddies can call to talk to a "trained listener about day-to-day issues of concern." Besides the defaced D807, a winning bid will net you a "special-edition collectors' box" signed by Ryan Seacrest and Jon himself. Whether Chris Daughtry's departure from the show counts as an "issue of concern" for the hotline, we're not sure.

[Via Slashphone]

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