Samsung S8500 Wave to cost 380 euro in Germany, ships in May

The Samsung S8500 Wave, the first phone with the new Bada OS and also the first with Samsung's Super AMOLED screen popped in a couple of German sites and ladies and gentlemen, we have a price and even a target availability date.

The Samsung S8500 Wave has a Cortex A8 CPU running at 1GHz and packs Samsung's home-brewed OS, Bada. Another mouth-watering feature is the 5MP camera that can capture 720p videos at 30 fps.

And of course, the screen. Yes, that screen. The Super AMOLED screen on the Samsung S8500 Wave is 3.3" big with WVGA resolution and the best viewing angles in the business. It also has the deep blacks typical for AMOLED and great sunlight legibility (not quite so typical for that technology).

For a more in-depth look at the Samsung S8500 Wave, you cancheck out our preview, complete with head-to-head video comparing the Wave screen to that of the iPhone and a few HD video samples.

As for the price - the German Amazon has the S8500 Wave at 430 euro (580 US dollars) and Geizhals lists four retailers that offer it as low as 379 euro (510 US dollars). Geizhals sets the shipping date sometime in May.

iPhone font created out of 540 apps and a love for the arcane (video)

No, we can't give you a clear reason why this particular chap did this particular thing, but good gravy, look at the pretty pictures! We've come across an iPhone-inspired font that looks to have been created by collating and color coding a vast collection of apps in order to properly represent the English alphabet. There's not much info given beyond the app count and the fact it required an architect with "too much free time" on his hands, but we're not going to begrudge a visual attraction when we can get one. You might be able to get the typography for yourself by contacting the author at the source link, or you can skip past the break to see it on video -- if you're careful enough you should be able to spot the world's greatest mobile app making a guest appearance.

Nokia Nuron for T-Mobile review

When the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was released a little more than a year ago, we thoroughly panned it in our review -- put simply, it felt undercooked and uncompetitive in a world where webOS, iPhone OS, and Android were all realities, regardless of Nokia's existing smartphone dominance through much of the world. More than a year later, we're now presented with the Nokia Nuron, a pretty close relative of that first S60 5th Edition device from back in the day; it's simply a carrier-branded version of the 5230, which itself is a lower-end variant of the 5800.

Despite its flaws, the 5800 has gone on to become a global success for Nokia -- but can the Nuron do the same in a market traditionally unfazed by Nokia's advances? More directly, has Nokia's first volley in the modern touchphone battle evolved enough to become a prime-time player in the States? Let's find out.

HTC Desire hits T-Mobile UK, black prototype spotted online

HTC's new flagship device is now almost certain to officially land on British shores ahead of its Sense-less elder brother, the Nexus One. T-Mobile's official online store is ready to take your order for the Desire right this minute, though it does come with the proviso that delivery may take up to seven days. That meshes almost perfectly with Amazon's April 1 delivery date, though the most exciting news might relate to pricing. At the high end, you can have the phone for free on £35 ($53) per month over two years -- nothing new there -- but at the £15 ($22) a month price point, you can have 300 minutes, 300 texts, unlimited (with an asterisk) internet and the Desire for £129 ($194). With Orange and Vodafone also confirmed as carriers, it's looking like a good time for Android lovers in the UK. In the meantime, a black prototype Desire has been spotted online, following swiftly in the footsteps of the silver Desire we saw setting Dutch hearts aflutter last week. It's not yet clear if or when it'll be making its way into retail, but the video awaits after the break in any case.

VS750 confirms LG's love for WinMo Classic, starts torrid new affair with Verizon

Sure, all the talk lately is about Windows Phone 7 Series and all the things it can and can't do. But, in the months between now and its release, companies still have to make money, and so LG has turned to Windows Mobile Classic 6.5 to drive its VS750. We first heard wind of this Verizon-bound machineback in December, and now it's been spied by Mr. Blurrycam over at PhoneArena, apparently due for a mid-April release. The QWERTY slider is intended as a world phone, and its list of wireless support certainly sounds comprehensive: CDMA 1x/EVDO Rev A. 800/1900MHz, and GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/190MHz and UMTS/HSDPA. Why, it'll even include plug adapters for Europe, Asia, and Australia right out of the box. It's fronted by a 3.2-inch 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen, backed by a 3.2 megapixel camera, sports WiFi and Bluetooth, a microSDHC slot and, if our eyes don't deceive us, its case has more than a passing resemblance to the prototype unveiled on The Engadget Show a few weeks back.

KTF wants everyone to Bubi Bubi (video)

Look, Korea has a unique tech culture unrivaled by anything we've experienced in the West. But when Korean carrier KTF coaxes us into a "bubi bubi" dance grind, well, we just have to stare. What is it about a dumbphone that could prompt such behavior? B-U-B-I after the break.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 finally arrives in UK, T-Mobile will deliver it within 10 days

At long last, the protracted wait for Sony Ericsson's first Android phone is coming to an end. T-Mobile's web store has this morning added the Xperia X10 to its stable of mobile devices, though it requests 10 days' worth of patience before getting the handsets out to their impatient new owners. Pricing is surprisingly higher than that associated with the HTC Desire -- the £15 per month two-year contract that nets you the Nexus One clone for £129 ($194) requires a steeper £191 ($287) for the X10. Mind you, with that delivery delay dragging you into April, you might want to hold out a tiny bit longer to see what propositions Vodafone may have in store for prospective purchasers of the X10.

Official: Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus for AT&T 'in the coming months'

Yes folks, it's finally really happened. Today Palm announced that its dynamic duo -- the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus -- will be making their way to AT&T's network "in the coming months." We won't bore you with too many details on the devices, since you can read our review of the non-Plus Sprint variations here andhere, and the Verizon versions right here. What we will tell you is that at an undisclosed time, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus can be yours for just $149.99 and a deep-discount $49.99 (with a $100 mail-in rebate and two-year contract), respectively. The Pre Plus will be similarly equipped to its Verizon counterpart (16GB of storage, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1), and the Pixi should look awfully familiar as well (8GB storage, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1), though AT&T will be offering a variation with a blue back plate (in addition to the standard black and other swappable covers). Both UMTS / HSDPA devices will support AT&T's new Address Book service as a Synergy sync option, and will have free auto-connect access to the carrier's WiFi +20,000 hotspots. We don't know when we'll get our hands on these guys, but Palm will be showing off the AT&T-ified versions of the handsets at the upcoming CTIA... which we will of course be attending. It should be interesting to see if hopping on AT&T's network will move the needlefor Palm, let's just hope those "coming months" are, you know... pretty soon. Full PR and one more pic after the break.

Dell Aero is AT&T's second Android phone

Looks like Dell's finally entering the modern US smartphone market with a renamed Mini 3 called the Aero for AT&T. There's some serious Android UI skinning going on here -- it looks like a riff on what we've seen on the Streak / Mini 5 -- but that's all we know specs-wise at the moment. To be honest, we're somewhat concerned that this custom UI skin will be built on top of Android 1.5 or 1.6 instead of 2.1, and that AT&T will mandate a Backflip-style app lockdown -- until we get some hard details all we have is this tiny pic and our usual hope for the future.

Samsung's Super AMOLED-packin' Wave S8500 priced in Germany: €429

Samsung's world-beater -- you know, that Wave S8500 that debuted back at Mobile World Congress -- was revealed without one of the most vital statistics, but that's being remedied today courtesy of a product listing over at Amazon's German portal. The Bada-equipped device, complete with a Super AMOLED display that's supposedly viewable in broad daylight, has found a €429 MSRP across the pond, which equates to around $579 using today's highly volatile exchange rates. Granted, that's a contract-free (read: unsubsidized) price, but we're still going to hold out for a late-night session with the new OS before pinging our importer. Plus, those funky European AC adapters do nothing at all for us. Sorry.

Motorola makes i1 official, melds Android and push-to-talk this summer on Sprint

Right on cue, just after the aptly-timed teaser poster, Motorola signs on just the right dotted lines to make its i1 push-to-talk Android handset official. Let's run through the specs quickly, shall we? A 3.1-inch HVGA (320 x 480) touchscren, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 4x zoom, WiFi, and microSD expansion -- no mention of the processor, so we'll have to find out on our own later. The OS version is 1.5 and, while there's oddly not a single mention in either the press release of fact sheet, given the official images and unofficial leaks, it's definitely got Motoblur. The browser of choice is Opera Mini 5 with support for Flash 8, and if you're worried about Mother Nature's wrath, the i1 meets Military 810F standards for handling averse weather conditions. iDEN lovers can pick up the call sometime this summer on Sprint, with price yet to be named.

Update: Motorola's just sent word that the i1 does not have Motoblur, despite the presence of the traditional green call / blue contacts buttons. That begs the question, then, of what exactly defines Motoblur here (is just the Happenings widget missing?), and what Android skin is on the i1 -- the press images here are definitely not showing vanilla 1.5. We're still awaiting a response to that, stay tuned.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review

Of the world's largest phone manufacturers, perhaps none has taken a more twisted road to smartphone ubiquity than Sony Ericsson. It began its journey back in the pre-joint venture Ericsson days by throwing its weight behind Symbian, a smartphone platform that would ultimately become the world's most popular -- but it made a fatal error in supporting the doomed UIQ flavor that never saw even a fraction of the support its S60 cousin did. UIQ's untimely (but predicted) collapse last year left the company nearly rudderless and ill-equipped to deal with competitors like Nokia, HTC, and Apple, all of whom had long since embraced other platforms -- all with fighting chances of market dominance.

Left without a platform to champion, Sony Ericsson would ultimately continue supporting Symbian through its involvement with the Symbian Foundation and phones like the Satio and Vivaz... and it would ramp up support for Windows Mobile with the Xperia X1 and X2... and it would bring Android into the fold with the X10, all within a few months of each other. All told, Sony Ericsson enters 2010 actively supporting three unrelated smartphone platforms, and comments by CEO Bert Norberg at MWC in February lead us to believe that they'd be happy to take on a fourth (or more) if the opportunity presented itself. It's an odd strategy to be sure, particularly for a company that's struggling mightily and shrinking its workforce more than any other top-five manufacturer. How it intends to effectively compete on three different fronts without spreading itself hopelessly thin, well... that remains a huge question mark.

That said, the Xperia X10 is perhaps the most promising of Sony Ericsson's confusing crop of modern smartphones, combining attractive hardware with killer specs, Android, and an intriguing custom skin. Does it hold its own against modern competitors like HTC's Nexus One and Desire? And more importantly, can it keep Sony Ericsson from going over the brink? Read on to find out.

Official: Apple now offering iPhones contract free (updated: not unlocked)

We heard from 9 to 5 Mac that Apple was due to begin selling a contract-free variant of the iPhone in the near future "at list price." And guess what happened when we inquired to an Apple store? That's right folks -- you can now pick one up for $499 (3G), $599, or $699 (3GS). We've confirmed this info at no less than five stores, so you should be hearing the same message at your local Appletorium. Given the current unfriendly climate between Apple and Google, this could be seen as nasty jab, though the devices are still carrier-locked to AT&T, so you're not being given much freedom... and it's certainly not much of a statement. In many parts of Europe (France and Poland, for example) you can pick up the carrier-unattached device (and we mean totally unlocked), but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

Update: We're getting mixed reports on the unlock status of these phones. One store says yes to the unlock, while others are saying they're still AT&T-locked devices being sold off contract. We're digging for more info on this now, so stay tuned.

Update 2: It's looking like those initial reports of unlocked devices are inaccurate. It sounds like these devices are still locked to AT&T -- so you're just looking at an off contract pricing scheme. Which is also totally lame.

Samsung to announce Galaxy S smartphone, content initiatives this week

We've just received a veritable cornucopia of information around Samsung's supposed announcements out at CTIA this week -- and seeing how this is the biggest wireless show the US has to offer, you might imagine that the reveals are fairly US-focused while still hanging onto some global relevance. Here's what we know:

• The company's so-called "Smart Life" philosophy for smartphone design and differentiation -- something we've heard referred to as S Life in the past, including here at CTIA -- will be formally introduced. It won't so much be a product or a smartphone platform (as far as we can tell) so much as an overarching strategy.
• A 1GHz applications processor will be announced as the "new standard" in Sammy's premium smartphone segment for 2010; in all likelihood, this is the Cortex A8-based core announced in the middle of last year.
• A huge content push will be announced (US market mercifully included) with full-length movies and shows that are "optimized" to take advantage of the company's new Super AMOLED displays. You'll also see some book and magazine deals get struck for straight-to-mobile delivery, but it sounds like we won't get the straight dope on how it'll all work (and who's involved, exactly) this week.
• Kicking off S Life from the hardware side will be the Galaxy S, Samsung's big phone announcement for the week. As far as we can tell, it'll be an Android device taking advantage of Super AMOLED and the company's homegrown 1GHz core -- and it'll be available in the US this year.

That's all we've got so far, but Sammy's mobile prez J.K. Shin has a keynote tomorrow morning along with an event immediately afterward, so we expect to get this fleshed out in the next day or so. Stay tuned!

LG Remarq combines QWERTY, not being mean to the environment in one package for Sprint

Looking for a little more Lucky Goldstar to go with your eco-friendly leanings on Sprint than theSamsung Reclaim can offer? No problem -- look no further than the newly-announced LG Remarq, featuring a form factor decidedly similar to Sammy's entry without straying from the recycled casing and packaging that made the older device so easy for Mother Nature to get behind. It's got a 1.3 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, IM capability, and microSD expansion up to 16GB to go along with a music player -- not mind-numbing specs by any stretch, but you'll only be paying a big, fat zero for it when it launches on May 9. Oh, and you'll be doing your little part to help the environment, too, which is really the only feature you should need to see on the spec sheet anyway -- right?

Motorola i1 first hands-on!

We're shmoozing with Motorola's team and Mike Rowe -- yes, the Dirty Jobs guy, who's been fittingly selected as the rugged i1's spokesperson -- and we're starting to get our first fleeting moments with Motorola's first Android-powered iDEN handset in the flesh. Believe it or not, it might be the best-feeling Android phone from Motorola to date, besting the CLIQ XT and Droid with a tasteful mix of black chrome and rubber around the edges; if it weren't for the lack of bona fide 3G, we could realistically see putting this in our pockets over, say, a myTouch 3G, Hero, or Behold II. We've been able to confirm that they've basically taken the UI look and feel introduced by Blur and subtracted... well, the things that actually make it Blur, namely the integration with Blur servers that brings social service aggregation into the fold. Will it appeal to the iDEN demographic? Hard to say, but Mr. Rowe certainly seems amped on it. Check out the gallery below!