Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

No kidding, right?  I think maybe everyone but Nokia saw it coming.  Or maybe they did too…just not at this drastic of a level. 

According to the popular market research firm Canalys, Nokia’s market share dropped down to 38.9 percent in the third quarter; which is down from 51.4 just a year earlier.  On the other hand, Apple jumped to 17.3 percent, and RIM increased to 15.2 the same quarter.

Canalys credits some of the Apple and RIM increases to new phones and new marketing strategies.  In a statement, the firm said “"The introduction of the iPhone 3G in July and Apple’s expansion into many more countries helped propel the vendor to second place globally.“  Continued.

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So RIM said they couldn’t put together a BlackBerry Flip with a full QWERTY keyboard.  LG said, “We can.” 

Take a look at the LG Lotus that will be available on the Sprint network.  It’s a flip phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and an odd square form factor. 

What else does it do outside of being a texting machine?  The Lotus comes with GPS navigation, music player (which works with the Sprint Music Store), Bluetooth, and a 2.0MP camera that also does video.  LG claims over 5 hours of talk time and the phone weighs in at 3.7 ounces.

You can pick one up in black or purple at $149.99 if you grab it alongside a

two year contract. 

Flashy product page: [LG Lotus]

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After finding out I was on crack this week, I was reminded of some information I had on BlackBerries.  As you know, Research in Motion (“RIM”) is releasing their Pearl 8220, the first BlackBerry with a clamshell design.  Gadgetell got a chance to speak to RIM and found out that the keyboard on a clamshell BlackBerry will probably never be a full keyboard.

According to RIM, the clamshell format precludes the usage of a full keyboard.  The form factor would become very strange and users just wouldn’t go for it.  That does not necessarily mean that there are not other form factors that RIM could choose like a slider or even a Sidekick-style format. 

If you want a full keyboard and clamshell form factor, just get that out of your head.  It’s just not happening. 

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Motorola has added three new music phones to its MOTOROKR lineup, the EM30 candybar, the EM28 clamshell and EM25 slider phone. All three are geared for music lovers who can’t live without their mobile phones. Here’s a quick rundown of the specs and features of each of these new ROKR handsets.

First up we the ROKR EM30 candybar, which is equipped with Motorola’s ModeShift technology for illuminating the phone’s keyboards when shifting from phone to music mode. Aside from these, it also features an FM Radio in addition to its media player functionality, a 2-megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, text-to-speech recognition, support for Microsoft music ecosystem, airplane mode, CrystalTalk technology, a microSD storage card slot and Windows Media Player 11 support. The ROKR EM30 is a quad band GPRS/EDGE class 12 phone which can give out 360 minutes of talktime and 300 hours of standby time.

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So, we saw the hands-on review come in for RIM’s first venture into the clamshell market and things continue to seem to be pretty promising, that is assuming the price is close to the rumored $49. Now to add a little more tease, the team over at CrackBerry have released a nice (and thorough) 9-minute video of the Kickstart 8220 in action.

Of course caught in the action is the heart of the handset, the OS 4.6, but they also demonstrate some other goodies to include the web browsing, trackball, display, and the large SureType keyboard. Initially, I was not all that excited to see RIM venture into the clameshell style market, but after seeing this in action and shown next to the Pearl, all I can say is that the Pearl had better watch out, because the Kickstart looks very nice.

Continue on to check out the video…

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Motorola’s latest clamshell has just been spotted on the FCC website, and this one is certainly nothing to get over-excited about. The low-end offering, which is being called “Ischia” is almost screaming why bother.

The Motorola “Ischia” offers the very basic Bluetooth and EDGE support, but lacks any GSM 850 support. While nothing official has been announced, this model may as well have pre-paid written on it.

Based on the image, it does appear to have a dedicated music, and email button, however that is far from enough to win any support over for this particular handset.

Read [FCC] Via [EngadgetMobile]

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Here you go, another unconfirmed mobile handset making it’s FCC appearance. This time its from Motorola, and its the new clamshell styled phone called the Motorola Vegas (VE20). Word on the street is that the VE20 Vegas will be released on Sprint’s CDMA network. Furthermore, the new clamshell phone will be another budget-minded phone and sport the traditional clamshell look and feel. In fact, from what we can see from the leak photos, the VE20 looks to be a hybrid of a RAZR and KRZR models. The VE20 sports a plastic finish with brushed aluminum black.

The FCC site didn’t give that much information regarding this new Motorola phone, except from some obvious features such as a microSD card slot, a 2-megapixel camera with no flash, and touch sensitive keys. As for the other features, we will just have to wait for the official announcement from Motorola which would probably be released in a couple of weeks.

Via [IntoMobile] Via [PhoneArena]

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Some more information has been leaking about in regards to the upcoming BlackBerry Kickstart and thankfully this time it was not another set of blurry images. Instead its some speculation based on just how much RIM is planning to charge for this little clamshell BlackBerry.

We have already heard that it was headed to T-Mobile and it looks like it will land there in September, but the latest information is calling for this to be a very affordable handset. Coming in at just $49.99 with a two-year agreement. Which assuming this is accurate would have it even less expensive than the popular and low-cost Palm Centro. At that price I think that RIM could have a winner on their hands.

Via [CrackBerry] Image [http://blog.berryshack.com/blog/content/new-leaked-blackberry-kickstart-pictures]

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Even after all the Sony Ericsson handsets that were recently launched, they still have some in the works. Thanks to a recent FCC listing, we now have at least some of the details on a new clamshell style 3G-capable handset that will be heading to T-Mobile, the TM506.

Typical with the FCC leaks, all of the details have not been given, in this case it was notably the camera specs that were left to remain a mystery, but aside from that we are quite pleased with what was revealed.

The TM506 offers tri-band GSM (850/1800/1900MHz) support as well as being capable of taking advantage of T-Mobile’s AWS (1700MHz) 3G network. Other features include a built-in GPS receiver, Bluetooth, a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot and an (albeit small) external display.

While the pricing and availability have not been released it is expected to be available shortly. Lets just hope they release it in a few more color varieties aside from the pictured green, because that is sure to be a color that is either loved or hated. Keep reading for a few more images of the TM506…

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While I am not 100% convinced that this is a nice looking flip, its certainly nice enough looking in the pictures to intrigue me enough to want to get my hands on one and play around a bit.

The Kickstart, also know as the BlackBerry 9100 will feature a SureType style keyboard, along with a trackball similar to what is found on the Pearl, as well as what appears to be a large internal display and an external display. Also contrary to previous reports that the Kickstart would not feature a camera, the images certainly show off what appears to be a lens. It is expected to be available with T-Mobile this September. Keep reading to check out a few more images of the BlackBerry Kickstart…

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