The Wirelessinfo Blog

Garmin has announced that their G60 Nuviphone, which we previewed at Mobile World Congress in February, will be delayed.

Samsung announced the I7500 today, a touchscreen smartphone that will run Google's Android operating system. It will have a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, 5-megapixel camera, and 8GB of internal storage. It will be a quad-band GSM device with 3G connectivity, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0. A microSD expansion slot will be able to boost storage capacity up to 32GB. It will be available in Europe in June. Pricing for the I7500 has not yet been announced.

Blackberry's first touchscreen device and bold competitor to the iPhone will be available from Verizon for $199 starting November 21. The Storm features a 3.25" hi-resolution display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, 1GB of internal memory, an internal motion sensor, and both quad-band GSM and CDMA radios, including 3G data on both network standards. The famous Blackberry messaging capability is present, along with the ability to edit Microsoft Office documents on the device, and turn-by-turn GPS with Verizon's VZ Navigator software.

Blackberrys are often the weapon of choice of business users to communicate and stay organized, deployed by the thousands at companies around the world. They've traditionally been a bit short on multimedia capabilities and the fun factor, things the Storm looks to address. But will the Storm stand up to the iPhone 3G and other well-rounded and highly-capable smartphones? We've got our test unit in hand and are working on our in-depth review and scientific testing as you read this. While you wait for that, we've got some first impressions for you...

The T-Mobile G1 is finally out - it went on sale today at T-Mobile stores in the U.S. and is priced at $179 with a 2-year contract. The G1 has a 3.2-inch touchscreen with 320 x 480 resolution and a slide-out QWERTY. It also features a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The G1 runs the Android operating system developed by Google, and it's currently the only phone available running this OS.

We waited in a short line this morning at a local T-Mobile store to get one (we were in 2nd out of 4 people at the time the store opened) and met an Android developer, a woman purchasing a G1 for her son as a birthday gift, and a Google employee on the Android team while waiting. We'll put the G1 through our thorough testing to see how it does, and our first impressions are relatively favorable overall - it feels good in the hand, if a little too heavy, and the OS is pretty responsive, though not entirely intuitive or refined. We are definitely excited to see the first iteration of a new smartphone platform.

While the G1 has not been marketed as an "iPhone killer" specifically, the comparison inevitably comes to mind, and the iPhone 3G will be among the comparison phones we'll use as we go through our testing, and you'll be able to see the blow-by-blow results in our full review soon.

Acer has announced plans to release a Windows mobile 6 Smartphone by the end of the year, or possibly next year. The company, which recently acquired E-10 has said that E-10 will no longer make PDAs in order to focus exclusively on creating smart phones. We look forward to seeing their first model…whenever that happens.

The Samsung Ace from Sprint is basically the CDMA version of the Blackjack, which has been available from AT&T for awhile now. The Ace lacks the updates we saw on the Blackjack II (review)like the two megapixel camera, but it's not identical to the original Blackjack either. In particular the phone seems to have addressed one of the biggest issues of the original BlackJack: the D-Pad. On the Blackjack the D-Pad was flush with the surrounding buttons, which led to constant mistaken presses. On the Ace the D-Pad has been raised above the surrounding buttons, although it still seems a little on the small side.

The QWERTY keyboard on the Ace is also different, with each key sloping above and below a center peak. The keys are spaced more closely together than the original Blackjack. In our initial use of the keyboard we found that they were too close together, leading to mistaken presses. We also found the feel of the keyboard to be a little strange. We'll see how we do in our actual words per minute test after we've spent some more time with the handset, but one of the things we liked about the original Blackjack was that the keys were comfortably spaced. Check out our gallery of photos after the jump and expect the full review in a week or so.

Verizon has announced it’s Spring Lineup of handsets. Those making the list include the BlackBerry Curve 8330, LG enV2, WV6900, Motorola Q9c, and the Samsung Alias.