Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The Samsung Instinct has been a hot selling handset here in the US, and it would seem that it would only be smart to take advantage of that, and do it quickly. Bell Mobility and Samsung have just announced that the Instinct will be available in Canada beginning August 8.

The features are expected to be the same as the currently available Sprint version, of course, the UI will most likely be just a little less Sprint like. The Instinct is expected to retail for $149.95 with a three-year agreement and also be available for a no commitment price of $449.95.

Also in non-Canadian specific Instinct related news, it seems you can also now follow along with the Instinct on Twitter.

Via [mobilesyrup]

Earlier today we saw what AT&T has in store for use device-wise for the remainder of 2008 and now it is Verizon’s turn, and it looks just as exciting as the AT&T lineup.

Beginning in August, it looks like we can expect to see the UTStarcom TXT8010. Also coming in August is the Nokia 2605 Mirage and the Samsung SCH-U440 which are both expected to be released on the 8th, then the Motorola VU30 is expected in mid-August and the Samsung SCH-U430 is expected in late-August.

Moving on from there we also have the Samsung SCH-U310, Nokia 7205 Intrigue and Palm Treo 800w. Finally we also have the Motorola Blaze ZN4, which has no specific date, however it is expected sometime before September 22.

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I always love seeing what makes up the insides of my gadgets, but like many I am not willing to tear it open and actually find out because of the risk of damage. So its always fun to see the pictures when someone else does the work and takes the risk for you.

The Samsung Instinct has become the latest phone to get dissected. The work comes courtesy of Rapid Repair and they posted plenty of pictures as well as instructions, just in case you were feeling brave. Keep reading to check out a few of the images showing off the guts, then hit the Read link below to check out the full set.

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Sprint’s new 3G phone, the Samsung Instinct, has sold the fastest out of all Sprint’s 3G phones. Sprint has come out to say that this new 3G touchscreen phone is breaking records already in it’s first week of availability. Sprint nor Samsung expected the Instinct to be selling this much because Samsung has to start producing more of the Instinct just to meet the consumer demand. There are already shortages in select US locations, and if Sprint wishes to continue with this surge, they need to make sure they have enough phones. 

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Samsung Korea has launched two new portable media players, the P2 video player and the S3 DAP. Both of these new devices belong to the Samsung Yepp PMP series.

The Yepp P2 boasts of the following features; a 3-inch touchscreen display (which in PMP standard is relatively large), Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity and a choice of 4GB, 8GB or 16GB’s of storage capacity. The Yepp P2 will retail for around $249, $297 and $374 respectively.

The Yepp S3 DAP is actually a follow to the current Samsung K3 media player and it features enhanced video capabilities, Samsung’s Digital Natural Sound Engine 2.0, 3D sound, a 12 band equalizer, LED light effects, an FM radio, photo viewer, screen saver, alarm clock and a choice between a 2GB or 4GB storage capacity. The 2GB S3 will retail for around $86, while the 4GB model will retail for around $97.

No information yet as to when the P2 or S3 will be released internationally.

Via [I4U News]

Samsung has just announced a new contest, offering to give $20 to the first 1000 people who create a home movie and include a “Hollywood-style product placement” with the Instinct. The contest will officially begin on June 30 and all videos will have to be uploaded to YouTube to be entered. The winner of the contest, which is being called “Sell Out” will be given a $10,000 grand prize. Of, course they are not entirely clear on just what it will take to be the winner.

Read [InstinctThePhone]

I’ve been waiting for some kind of response from the big manufacturers to the iPhone.  Sure they’ve thrown some clones our way but nothing that puts them on the path to a true “iPhone killer”.  Today, they’ve shown they mean business by uniting the Symbian OS. 

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo have all joined forces to open up Symbian and work to encourage developers on the common platform.  By bringing together Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) they will create one open mobile platform.  And they are working with carriers and other telecom giants like AT&T, LG, Samsung, STMicro, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to widen the net of users and developers.

This is a relatively big deal.  To me, it says, “we get the idea that software is king.” To the world, it says, “this is how we move forward.” And a lot of weight moving forward it is.  Going open source and royalty free they hope to attract all the developers who have iPhones royalties in their eyes right now.

This is definitely a step in the right direction.  As my Econ professors used to say, “competition is a good thing.”

Read [Sony Ericsson]

A few weeks ago, there had been much more information released on the highly anticipated Samsung i900. However, at that time, it still wasn’t known which carrier would be selling this phone, but now, it is rumored that AT&T will be the carrier.

The Samsung i900 is set to come with AT&T Music, AT&T Video, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Mobile TV support. The other specs are going to be pretty much the same as they were when the information was first released a few weeks ago, but here is a mini recap; Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 5-megapixel camera, quad-band EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, a 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen display with a 240 x 400 resolution, Bluetooth and either 8GB or 16GB of storage. It is expected to be available during Q3 of 2008.

Of course, as of now, there has not been any official announcement, stay tuned for more information as it becomes available!

Via [BGR]

T-Mobile has just added two new offerings, the Nokia 6301 and the Samsung SGH-t339, both of which fully support T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home service.

Aside from supporting T-Mobile HotSpot @Home and myFaves, the Nokia 6301 also features a music player, stereo Bluetooth connectivity, a 2.0-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture, microSD slot, IM support for AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live, a speakerphone and FM radio. This tri-band (850/1800/1900) phone supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMA network. In addition, the Nokia 6301 sports a 240 x 320 pixels resolution TFT screen.

The Samsung SGH-t339 has almost all of the Nokia 6301 features except for its 1.3-megapixel camera and a smaller TFT screen at 176 x 220 pixels.

Both the Nokia 6301 and Samsung SGH-t339 will be available beginning today online and at all T-Mobile retail locations.

Read [Business Wire]

Samsung has unveiled their latest specialty handset, the gold plated edition SGH-D780 DuoS, which is a follow up to the standard (non limited edition) model that was released in May. The SGH-D780 is a dual GSM SIM capable handset that offers the ability to have and use both SIM cards at the same time. The SGH-D780 has triband GSM 900/1800/1900 GPRS/EDGE connectivity and features a 2.1-inch QVGA TFT display, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, FM radio and a microSD card slot. The handset also comes with a 1200 mAh battery. The gold plated SGH-D780 DuoS has also become the official handset of the Russian Olympic team.

Via [unwired view]