Hey folks, we know a few of you readers out there have been wondering about this slick new phone from Samsung and T-Mobile, and there’s some good news. Last month, we mentioned that the Samsung Gravity for T-Mobile was coming out November 17, and some commenters were chiming in today asking if this slide-out QWERTY is available (it’s not on the website yet). Our confirmations say the Gravity is now in stores, but not on display, so you can go in and purchase one today! Here’s a little recap for those of you who missed out on details last month:

• Pull out QWERTY keyboard
• Aqua with white or Lime with Gray finish
• Web-enabled
• Multiple messaging options (text messaging, picture messaging, video messaging)
• Built-in email clients including AOL, AIM and Yahoo! as well as easy access to popular POP3 email such as Gmail
• AOL®, ICQ, Windows Live®, and Yahoo!® Instant Messenger
• Bluetooth® wireless technology
• microSD™ (up to 4 GB) expansion memory
• Advanced speech recognition
• Music and video player
• Speakerphone
• Personal organizer (calendar, calculator, currency converter, notepad, to-do list)
• Dimensions: 4.53” x 2.07” x 0.70”; 4.3 ounces
• Display: 176 x 220 Pixels, 262K TFT
• Internal memory: 60MB
• Standard Lithium Ion Battery: up to 6 hours usage time; or up to 300 hours standby time

That is some killer battery life, eh? You can text and email for days without a worry. The phone comes in two color options: Lime with gray (pictured) and Aqua with white (we don’t know why they chose the color of the selector to precede the actual color of the whole phone). Grab yours today for $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two year contract!

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We just got word that T-Mobile will be holding Customer Delight Day tomorrow - that’s November 15! What does this mean? Well, it means free minutes for you T-Mobile subscribers. Here’s how it works:

T-Mobile’s Customer Delight Day

Saturday, November 15

At your local T-Mobile Store:

Drop in and be rewarded!

* Get 100 FREE bonus minutes just for stopping by — a $40 value
* Get 200 FREE bonus minutes if you bring a friend — an $80 value
* Refer a customer to T-Mobile and get a $25 credit on your next bill
* Sign up for T-Mobile @Home and get the first month free — a $10 value!

Limited time offer. Participating locations only. See store for details. Offers are valid for qualified T-Mobile postpaid and FlexPay customers who are in good standing. Limit one offer per qualifying line. Offers can not be redeemed for cash or other value. Referral Credit Offer: The referred customer must activate a qualifying T-Mobile voice data postpaid or FlexPay plan at a participating T-Mobile store. The credit may take up to 2 billing cycles to appear on the referring customer’s bill. T-Mobile @Home Offer: Qualifying rate plan, credit approval and two-year agreement required. $10 monthly fee will be credited to account. The credit may take up to two billing cycles to appear.

After calling and confirming this ourselves, all you have to do is come in and grab a flier, sign your name in the sign-in sheet and the 100 minutes are yours. If you bring in and refer a friend, you receive 200 bonus minutes. Not a bad deal, eh? Handing out free minutes is definitely not a bad way to get current and new customers to come into the store and check things out. So, if you get the chance to briefly do so, pop into your local T-Mobile tomorrow for this offer!

[Thanks, Dallas Maverick!]

For those of you getting antsy for the Curve 8900 / Javelin, it’s just a small matter of time now. Earlier today, we mentioned that this new Berry has already hit Germany and we’re now getting word that it has gotten the seal of approval from the FCC. We already know it’s going to be hitting both AT&T and T-Mobile, so none of you GSM folks have to feel left out that one is getting a sweet device and the other isn’t (Bold). Exactly when it’s coming isn’t for certain, but rumor has it that T-Mobile is hoping to get the 8900 out as early as Black Friday. We’d say you shouldn’t keep your hopes up that high, but at least take some comfort in knowing you should be getting it before AT&T does. Our first impressions of this device have been really good so far so we’ll keep you guys updated!

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Ever since the Samsung M8800 Pixon was first announced, we hoped it would find its way to the US somehow. To refresh your memory, the Pixon is basically a fully loaded 8 megapixel digital camera that just so happens to have a phone on board as well. Here in the US we’ve gotten pretty used to seeing gems like this pass us by but as it turns out, we may have jumped the gun in assuming that Samsung’s sexy 8 megapixel shooter would be passing us by as usual. According to a new rumor, Samsung will be bringing the Pixon, rebranded as the T929 Leica, to the US by way of T-Mobile. Rumors had been starting to surface and now a little hint might have been uncovered by way of Best Buy’s website. It looks like the retailer may have accidentally included the T929 on the list of handsets compatible with a replacement lithium ion battery that indeed fits the Pixon. Oops. Let’s hope that if this rumor does turn out to be true, Samsung manages to tweak this puppy a bit and work some 1700 MHz 3G love in there…

[Via Cellphone Signal]

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According to a T-Mobile spokesperson, T-Mobile is suspending the sale of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic handset and recalling the entire 5610 inventory, including floor demos and literature, from all stores and warehouses. The issue appears to be a manufacturing problem that affects the display. Nokia has now fixed the error in the current crop of 5610s but the T-Mobile’s supply were all manufactured prior to the fix and still have the design flaw. Unfortunately, at this point, there is no word as to whether the 5610 will return to T-Mobile’s lineup. Anyone whose phone experiences any problems can bring their defective 5610 into a store and get a Nokia 6301 or 5310 as a replacement. Depending on which replacement model was selected, customers will also get a $50 or $25 credit. Kudos to T-Mobile for not turning a blind eye and actually pulling a defective phone but really, T-Mobile, the replacements you offer could include at least one of those hot new handsets hitting your this holiday season.

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It looks like Samsung has a busy schedule coming up here in the US and while it goes without saying that we’ll be missing out on the cream of Samsung’s crop, there are definitely a few gems in store from our South Korean pals. AT&T, Alltel, Verizon and T-mobile are all covered here while Sprint is omitted. As such, we can probably expect a few additions to the list as 2009 rolls around. So let’s see what we’ve got here…

T-Mobile:

• Behold T919

AT&T:

• SGH-A777
• Eternity A867

Alltel:

• SCH-R600 Hue II

Verizon Wireless:

• Saga I770
• OMNIA I910
• Renown U810

That’s a whole lot of Samsung right there. The upcoming T919, announced earlier today, and A867 are particularly sexy and will both sport TouchWiz along with 5 megapixel cameras which is a nice little clarification from initial reports. Following all of these press shots, we should see time lines emerge in the not so distant future.

[Via IntoMobile]

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Yeah, you read that one correctly. In addition to announcing a slew of new handsets, the carrier is getting set to unleash a digital picture frame that displays images sent to it via MMS. Dubbed the T-Mobile cameo, the frame is manufactured by Parrot, Inc, and should provide the carrier with a unique new market niche…or a complete disaster depending on how you look at it. If you’re interested, the cameo should be available “in the coming weeks”. Other entries for the holiday season include the Samsung Behold, which features a full touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, Samsung’s Touch-Wiz interface, and 3G data. This bad boy should be available on the 10th of November for the oh-so-reasonable price of $149.99 on a 2-year bid. The Samsung Gravity sports a full slide-out QWERTY keypad, 1.3 megapixel camera, and little else, and will be offered (as predicted) on the 17th of November  for $49.99 with a 2-year contract. T-Mobz also re-iterated the current availability of the MOTOZINE ZN5. The company is also offering its free companion flight promo again for anyone activating a new line of service with a 2-year contract.

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If you’ve been holding out on getting a T-Mobile G1 in hopes that the Samsung T919, or “Behold,” will be coming soon, it looks like it might be coming much sooner rather than later. Making an appearance on the My T-Mobile site, the Behold is apparently for all you stylish fashionistas out there trying to make a statement with your phone. What could be more appropriate with this sexy 5 megapixel touchscreen phone? T-Mobile customers are finally getting another touchscreen device, and what’s more, the Behold will be utilizing the fresh 3G network from the boys in pink! Other features include a QWERTY keypad in landscape mode for all your messaging needs, assisted GPS, video recording and playback, and Bluetooth support. We’re not quite sure why T-Mobile would break out such an awesome phone without Wi-Fi and UMA, but we suppose they’re taking little steps at first - long, patience-testing steps. Either way, this could be a nice little alternative for you folks looking for something different from T-Mobile.

Thanks, Shawn!

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T-Mobile USA announced their Q3 results today, and while they are nothing to write home about, one can certainly forgive them given the current economic climate. Having added 670,000 new users in Q3, the total number of T-Mobile subs now stands at 32.1 million. Sadly for T-Mobile, the new customers aren’t bringing much money to T-Mobile which led to a dismal 0.7%  increase of revenue over Q2 to $5.51 billion. In terms of ARPU, things stayed very much the same at $52 blended and $55 contract, though these numbers are down $1 and $2 respectively from the same time last year.

With sales of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip being way below what analysts expected, the high costs of implementing a 3G network, and the terrible outlook for the world economy, it’s anyone’s guess as to what T-Mobile’s books will look like in three months time. Hang in there, T-Mo. You’ve got some badass phones on the way!

You can check out the entire press release after the jump.

T-MOBILE USA REPORTS THIRD QUARTER 2008 RESULTS

BELLEVUE, Wash., November 6, 2008 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile USA) today reported third quarter 2008 results.  At the end of the quarter, T-Mobile USA had 32.1 million customers, adding 670,000 net new customers during the third quarter, and OIBDA of $1.53 billion, up 8% compared to the third quarter of 2007.

“In the quarter, T-Mobile took giant steps forward in driving new innovations to meet the pressing needs of our customers,” said Robert Dotson, President and CEO, T-Mobile USA.  “We introduced our customers to the T-Mobile @Home® landline replacement service at a time when saving money is a top priority for American households.  We also established our new nationwide high-speed 3G services, which will cover 120 cities by the end of November.  This network introduction was accompanied by the unveiling of the T-Mobile G1 with Google, the world’s first device built on the fully open Android operating platform giving consumers access to some of the most innovative mobile applications to ever come to market.  These and other innovations are helping us aggressively compete as we debut new and craved-for services that truly meet customer needs and inspire greater long term loyalty to our brand.”

“T-Mobile USA continues to be one of the strong growth drivers for Deutsche Telekom,” said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Telekom.  “With the introduction of its 3G network in the U.S. and the successful launch of the T-Mobile G1 with Google, T-Mobile USA is now in an excellent position to further leverage the enormous potential of mobile data in its market.”

Customers

In the third quarter of 2008, T-Mobile USA added 670,000 net new customers, up from 668,000 in the second quarter of 2008, and down from 857,000 in the third quarter of 2007.
The number of net new customer additions was consistent sequentially, despite higher gross customer additions.  This is primarily due to higher contract churn, as explained below.  Gross customer additions were higher both sequentially and compared to the third quarter of 2007.  This is a reflection of successful products such as myFavessm, FlexPaysm – an innovative hybrid plan that combines elements of traditional postpaid and prepaid plans, and T-Mobile @Home, a landline replacement product that was launched at the beginning of the third quarter of 2008.
Contract customer net additions decreased in the third quarter of 2008 making up almost 44% of customer growth, down from 80% in the second quarter of 2008 and 65% in the third quarter of 2007.
Prepaid net additions were 377,000 in the third quarter of 2008, up from 143,000 in the second quarter of 2008 and 300,000 in the third quarter of 2007.  The sequential increase in prepaid net customer additions was due to improved prepaid churn and higher reseller net customer additions.  The majority of prepaid net additions in the third quarter of 2008 were FlexPay no-contract customers, which typically have a higher ARPU than legacy prepaid customers, as discussed below.
myFaves continues to be very popular with our customers. At the end of the third quarter of 2008 there were over 7 million myFaves customers, up from 6.5 million at the end of the second quarter of 2008 and 3.5 million in the third quarter of 2007.
Contract customers comprised 83% of T-Mobile USA’s total customer base at September 30, 2008.  T-Mobile USA ended the quarter with 32.1 million customers.

Churn

Contract customer churn was 2.4% in the third quarter of 2008, up from 1.9% in the second quarter of 2008 and 2.0% in the third quarter of 2007.
The sequential increase in contract churn was primarily due to the continued impact of customers coming to the anniversary of their two-year contract that was first introduced in April 2006.  The second quarter of 2008 was the first quarter these two-year contracts could have expired.  Competitive pressure also contributed to the sequential increase in contract churn.
Blended churn, including both contract and prepaid customers, was 3.0% in the third quarter of 2008, up from 2.7% in the second quarter of 2008 and 2.9% in the third quarter of 2007.

OIBDA and Net Income

T-Mobile USA reported OIBDA of $1.53 billion in the third quarter of 2008, down from $1.58 billion in the second quarter of 2008 and up from the $1.41 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
The sequential decrease in OIBDA was primarily due to higher customer acquisition costs, as commissions expense increased due to volumes, and higher general and administrative costs.
OIBDA margin was 31% in the third quarter of 2008, down from 32% in the second quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2007.
Net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $442 million, down from the $452 million in the second quarter of 2008 and $526 million in the third quarter of 2007.

Revenue

Service revenues (as defined in Note 1 to the Selected Data, below) were $4.91 billion in the third quarter of 2008, up from $4.85 billion in the second quarter of 2008, and $4.33 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
The increase in service revenues year over year was primarily due to the growth in contract customers, including the impact of the SunCom Wireless acquisition.
Total revenues, including service, equipment, and other revenues were $5.51 billion in the third quarter of 2008, slightly up from $5.47 billion in the second quarter of 2008 and $4.89 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
The acquisition of SunCom, and its second full quarter consolidation in T-Mobile USA’s results, contributed $192 million to total revenues in the third quarter.

ARPU

Blended Average Revenue Per User (“ARPU” as defined in note 1 to the Selected Data, below) was $52 in the third quarter of 2008, consistent with $52 in the second quarter and down from $53 in the third quarter of 2007.
Contract ARPU was $55 in the third quarter of 2008, consistent with the second quarter of 2008 and down from $57 in the third quarter of 2007.
The decrease in contract ARPU year over year was primarily due to lower usage based revenues from contract customers.
Prepaid ARPU was $24 in the third quarter of 2008, up from $23 in the second quarter of 2008 and $18 in the third quarter of 2007.
The increase in prepaid ARPU is due to the success of higher ARPU of FlexPay no-contract compared to legacy prepaid products.
Data services revenue (as defined in Note 1 to the Selected Data, below) was $850 million in the third quarter of 2008, representing 17.3% of blended ARPU, or $8.90 per customer, compared with 16.6% of blended ARPU, or $8.60 per customer in the second quarter of 2008, and 15.4% of blended ARPU, or $8.10 per customer in the third quarter of 2007. Data services revenue increased 28% year over year.
Growth in messaging revenue continued to be the most significant driver of data ARPU, as customers continue to move towards purchasing plans that include messaging, including our unlimited voice and data plans.  The total number of messages on the T-Mobile USA network increased to almost 49 billion in the third quarter of 2008, compared to 41 billion in the second quarter of 2008 and 21 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
Strong GPRS / EDGE access and usage through continued growth in converged device users was another significant driver for increased data revenues.

CPGA and CCPU

The average cost of acquiring a customer, Cost Per Gross Add (“CPGA” as defined in note 4 to the Selected Data, below) was $290 in the third quarter of 2008, down from $320 in the second quarter of 2008 and up from $280 in the third quarter of 2007.
The decrease in CPGA compared to the second quarter of 2008 is primarily due to higher gross customer additions, in particular lower advertising expense per customer.
Excluding the impact of SunCom, T-Mobile USA’s CPGA in the third quarter of 2008 would have been $280, consistent with the third quarter of 2007
The average cash cost of serving customers, Cash Cost Per User (“CCPU” as defined in note 3 to the Selected Data, below), was $25 per customer per month in the third quarter of 2008, consistent with the second  quarter of 2008 and lower than CCPU of $26 in the third quarter of 2007.
The decrease in CCPU in the third quarter of 2008 versus the third quarter of 2007 is primarily due to lower network costs per customer, driven by lower roaming expense per customer.

Capital Expenditures

Cash capital expenditures (see note 7 to the Selected Data below) were $956 million in the third quarter of 2008, compared with $1,062 million in the second quarter of 2008 and $500 million in the third quarter of 2007.
The year over year increase in capital expenditures is primarily due to the build out of T-Mobile USA’s 3G (UMTS / HSDPA) network as well as cash payment timing differences.
T-Mobile USA continued its commitment to improve coverage in the third quarter of 2008, adding approximately 900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE new cell sites, bringing the total number of cell sites at the end of the quarter to 42,900.
T-Mobile USA ended the quarter with 14,700 3G capable cell sites (included in the 42,900 total cell sites above).

Stick Together Highlights
On September 5, 2008, T-Mobile USA launched the T-Mobile products and services in the previously branded SunCom markets, including Puerto Rico.  Additionally, all major SunCom systems have been integrated into T-Mobile USA as of the end of the third quarter of 2008.
On October 17, 2008, T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced that it continues to aggressively expand its third-generation (3G) wireless broadband service in more than 120 major cities by the end of November.  On October 30, 2008, T-Mobile added Washington D.C. as the latest major population center to benefit from T-Mobile’s 3G service.
On September 23, T-Mobile USA announced the launch of the world’s first Android™-powered mobile phone in partnership with Google. Available in the fourth quarter 2008 only for T-Mobile customers in the USA, the T-Mobile G1 combines full touch-screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard with a mobile Web experience.
In order to provide more options to customers, on October 8, T-Mobile began offering postpaid month-to-month rate plans without a requirement for customers to sign an annual contract. All postpaid rate plans including single line, FamilyTime, and myFaves are available under this new service option.
In August, T-Mobile USA launched the feature of Family AllowancesSM which allows parents to give their family members an upfront monthly wireless allowance that works on all the phones T-Mobile offers – virtually eliminating the worry of surprise overages.

We know it’s on its way and that and should be released in Germany within the month but for those eagerly awaiting the release of BlackBerry 8900 Curve in the Americas - with a particular emphasis placed upon the Bold-less souls of T-Mobile - the latest Curve-related gaffe is a bit more than careless and cruel. Rogers has listed the 8900 on its games download site which is a peculiar and presumed error since it doesn’t even list the 8220 Pearl Flip which was announced on the 4th of this month. Perhaps someone made an error and meant to list the 8220, but the fact still remains that the yet to be official 8900 is in the web system and that is a good sign for consumers. As for possible release dates, rumors are flying around that T-Mobile USA is hoping to have the 8900 ready to cash in on what will surely be a Black Friday for the ages while Rogers is a lot more up in the air with a launch just after T-Mobile or in very early 2009.

There hasn’t been much doubt about Motorola’s MOTOZINE ZN5 hitting T-Mobile, but official confirmations are always a nice thing, no? Starting today, at select T-Mobile corporate locations and online, you’ll be able to pickup a Motorola ZN5 for yourself. A 5 megapixel camera phone is going to seriously hurt those pocket though, right? Normally we’d say yes, but T-Mobile looks to have subsidized the crap out of this thing (or Motorola’s just happy they have a carrier who’s willing to take their goods) as it’s going for only $99 on a 2-year agreement. Not bad at all we say. Here’s a quick spec refresher for you:

• 5 megapixel auto-focus Kodak camera with Xenon flash
• Wi-Fi
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• 350MB of internal memory, microSD expandable up to 4GB
• 3.5mm headset jack
• FM Radio
• TV-Out
• Stereo Bluetooth
• Built-in Kodak EasyShare software for instant Wi-Fi uploading to the web

We’ve given Moto their fair share of public beatings in the past, but we’re actually pretty impressed with the price-point here. We think this thing is going to fly off the shelves. What say you?

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T-Mobile customers who have pre-bought the G1 may notice that their data connection suddenly stops working. D’oh! Don’t panic there is nothing wrong with your G1, this is a problem on T-Mobile’s end. Remember that free week of data that you all got when you pre-bought your G1? When that week is over, T-Mobile is turning off the free data and not turning on the paid data for your plan. A quick call to customer service will re-enable the data plan and fix the problem. You can also login to your account and manually add the data plan back on if you prefer to deal with a computer instead of a human. Nothing major, just a heads up for you all G1 owners.  We wouldn’t want your data to go belly up at an inopportune time and have you throw your G1 out the window.

[via Phandroid]

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According to the fine folks over at Engadget, Wal-Mart might be poised to pick up the T-Mobile G1 in the very near future. The deal would involve the top 10 stores in every regional market gaining the privilege of hawking the very first Android handset to the masses. If all goes according to plan, we could see the phones hit shelves as early as November 24th at a discounted price of $148.88. This doesn’t represent a huge savings over the current T-Mobile retail ticket, but might provide enough of a financial incentive to bring some new folks into the fold. The 24th is still quite a ways away, so we’ll spend the next month or so pondering the wisdom of providing a $31.11 discount on a piece of electronics.

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A group of security researchers uncovered a security flaw in the web browser portion of Android that runs on the G1. According to researcher, Charles A. Miller the flaw could be exploited when a G1 user is tricked into visiting a malicious Web site. Malicious code on the website could then use this exploit to install software on the G1 that may, among other things, log keystrokes. Google has acknowledged the security flaw and points out that the sandbox-nature of Android limits the damage to a single application. Unlike other smartphones (read: iPhone) and PCs, this security flaw only affects the web browser and will not compromise any other portions of the phone. Google has already patched the open-source version of Android and is currently working with T-Mobile and HTC to get the security patch out to current T-Mobile customers. Hooray for OTA software upgrades as G1 owners now just need to wait for T-Mobile to push the patch out to their phone! Happy and soon-to-be-safe Android browsing!

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Word is out on the T-Mobile forums that POP3/IMAP email on the G1 is a big fail. People are reporting that they experience connection errors 95% of the time they check their email, email is not sending or sending as null, and forget about receiving — not happening. The problem looks to be across the board and is not tied any single email provider. Some people report that resetting the phone will re-establish the email connection for a single time before it fails again. Not surprisingly, Gmail is reported to be working just fine. A T-Mobile representative has responded on the forum and said that “This is being reported” and “will be researched with a high priority.” He also noted that this is not the first time they have seen a similar problem,

“We used to see similar errors and symptoms with the old MyEmail service and the new Consumer Email Client.  Those are found on regular phones, but do encounter issues when there are more than 100 e-mails on the POP server or when there are emails with relatively large attachments.”

He asked any G1 user with email issues for additional information to help T-Mobile troubleshoot this problem. Starting off with glitches in a major feature like email is not good and a lot of hate will be poured upon T-Mobile is they don’t resolve this issue quickly. We know that several BGR readers out there are rocking G1’s, so what’s the deal with your email? Does it work or is it major fail? Chime in and let us know. Ours is as shady as a dark alley in Pakistan…

Thanks, Kyle!

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Nuance, the company behind Dragon Naturally Speaking, is developing a new mobile product called Open Voice Search. Similar to Vlingo and Microsoft’s TellMe, Open Voice Search allows users to interact with their phone through voice commands. This isn’t the archaic “Say a Command” voice commands that we know and love. In one application of the technology, Open Voice Search allows users to search the Internet by speaking into their phone. The Open Voice Search program transmits the spoken phrase to Nuance’s voice recognition servers which, in turn, translate the voice signal into text. The text string is submitted to an unnamed search engine (Google?) and the search results are then sent back to the handset as a list of web results. Excellent! Nuance recently demoed its new technology with two unreleased handsets, one for T-Mobile and one for Verizon Wireless. In the T-Mobile demonstration, a Samsung handset was used to access Madonna ringtones via voice commands while the Verizon Wireless handset utilized spoken commands to retrieve driving directions from VZ Navigator. Nuance would not confirm contracts with either carrier but it probably wouldn’t be demoing technology on a carrier-branded handset if there wasn’t some type of agreement at least in the works. Consider the demo an indirect announcement of some slick new handsets that will, in some shape and form, integrate this Open Voice Search technology.

[via RCR Wireless]

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Android is upon us! The HTC G1 is now officially available in T-Mobile stores across the country. We already know that tons of internet pre-orders have been filled early but today is the day that you can walk into your local T-Mobile store and snag one right off the shelf (well, actually it became available last night in some locations). So how is the release being received? Are hoards of eager soon-to-be Android junkies lining up to get their G1 on? Yes and no, it would seem. There is definitely quite a bit of fanfare in certain areas. The image above for example, shows a line of about 150 people outside of a San Francisco store waiting eagerly to purchase the world’s first Android offering courtesy of HTC. There’s even a guy on stilts, umm, entertaining them. The Market Street store in San Fran was actually the first location to make the G1 available and it celebrated by handing out “I was the first to get it” t-shirts, a free 4 GB memory card for the first 100 G1 buyers and a raffle where the winner got $1,000 and a free G1. Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, not all locations saw the hoopla Market Street enjoyed. Sure, there are a few modest groups convening at various locations but we have plenty of emails and comments detailing a much different scene at tons of T-Mobile locations. Many describe empty stores and even an employee sitting “with his feet literally up on a desk.” Ouch. News that pre-order sales were not quite as fantastic as many had initially thought emerged last week and a generally lukewarm reception nation-wide might be an indicator that customer anticipation isn’t quite what it was hoped to be. Then again, HTC and T-Mobile aren’t the hype machine Apple is, so we would expect a more gradual sales curve compared to the mobs resulting from the iPhone 3G launch. Whatever the case, if you’ve been jonesing for an Android fix but wanted to check the G1 out in person as opposed to pre-ordering one online, get off your couch and head down to your local T-Mobile store. It sounds like they could use the company. If you want to know a bit more about the Market Street shindig, hit the read link.

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Not bashing them… just wondering, really. Didn’t they announce the MySpace application release would coincide with the release of the T-Mobile BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220? Anyone care?

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Look, let’s be honest for a second, ok? The T-Mobile G1 is hot. Now, we had our issues with it and we have a feeling the general public will as well, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is T-Mobile’s most anticipated handset. If you live in San Francisco (or are mentally unstable enough to drive long distances to get to San Francisco), you’ll be pleased as punch to know that T-Mobile’s offering you the opportunity to swipe a G1 early. Starting tomorrow at 6PM PT, the T-Mobile San Francisco store at 3rd and Market St. will be selling G1s. You’ll want to get there a little before 6PM though. As usual, “supplies are limited.” Don’t fret if you can’t make it, because on Wednesday, all T-Mobile stores in a 3G coverage area will be opening at 8AM local time to quench your Android-loving needs. Just make sure if you end up breaking through the glass in excitement, you send in pictures. Thanks.

It’s been a long time comin’ but it’s finally here: Your Curve 8320 on T-Mobile can now have its OS updated via T-Mobile’s website. W00t! For a device that is supposed to be an “email powerhouse,” it’s amazing that it has lacked html support for so long. Well, now it can finally start living up to its reputation for being an email sanctuary with this new update. Other key features include:

• Video recording and HTML e-mail formatting
• Attachment download and editing
• myFaves 1.5 (NO idea what this is)
• Enhancements and stability improvements to Wireless Network interaction, UMA, Messaging, Media Player, Web Browser, Phone application, Bluetooth Technology, and more.
• GSM/Edge Toggle

So, if you TMO users were feeling a little jilted with the lack of Bold coming or still waiting for the Curve 8900, your phone may feel a little better or at least refreshed with this sweet new update.

[Via Tmonews]

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UPS just came knockin’. We’re wondering if everyone who pre-ordered a G1 is getting theirs/or got theirs already? Hit us up in the comments, and also let us know your first impressions!

We’re sure there are a few more handsets to come from T-Mobile this holiday season, but we just got word that the boys in pink have special promotion planned as well. Dubbed Free Companion Flight 2008, T-Mobile has a special treat in store for new and existing customers alike. Here’s how it works:

When someone activates, renews or migrates to a new 2-year service agreement between November 19th and December 24th, he or she will be eligible to receive a Free Companion Flight, ie one free round trip flight, when an additional ticket is purchased at the full fare price through a special T-Mobile website (www.FlyWithT-Mobile.com - not yet live). 112 origins and 110 destinations will be covered by the promotion and they will be spread throughout the cities detailed on the image seen above.

Of course there are some restrictions involved but nothing too crazy. Essentially everyone is eligible as long as they’re not on a business / corporate account. Postpaid, FlexPay Annual Contract, Take Control, SmartAccess and KidConnect accounts are all fair game and each account is eligible for up to five free companion flights. Sweet!

Thanks Gman!

This weekend shouldn’t be all about AT&T, right? How about some T-Mobile holiday love? Motorola announced the MOTOZINE ZN5 back in June and since then we’ve heard some rumblings about the 5 megapixel shooter possibly coming to T-Mobile here in the US. Rumblings confirmed. Word just came in that T-Mobile will be dropping the MOTOZINE ZN5 on November 3, just in time for the holidays. Sure the ZN5 might not be quite as exciting as some of the other news we’ve gotten this weekend but as far as camera phones go, this is no slouch. 5 megapixels, a xenon flash, on-device photo editing courtesy of Kodak Perfect Touch, EasyShare integration and a dedicated one-click Simple Share key make this handset a mobile photog’s dream. Spec refresher:

• 5.0 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and video capture
• High resolution landscape screen
• CrystalTalk technology
• ModeShift technology
• 150 MB of available memory, 1 GB microSD card included
• Simplified sharing and editing via Kodak applications
• Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• WiFi
• Microsoft Windows Media Player 11
• Integrated FM radio
• MegaTones and HiFi ringers
• myFaves capability
• Photo caller ID
• Video capture and playback
• Video messaging
• Voice recorder

Hit the jump for five more marketing slides.

Thanks Gman!

The fourth largest carrier in the US (behind AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) is in the midst of putting up a big fight against the FCC. T-Mobile, along with the support of AT&T and CTIA, contends that the AWS-3 spectrum the FCC is auctioning off will interfere with the AWS-1 spectrum that T-Mobile uses. If startup M2Z networks wins the auction, it plans to use the space to make mobile WiMax nationally available - and free. The FCC asserts that the technology available will override any possible interference between the two spectra and thinks the auction should go on as planned. Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile’s VP of regulatory affairs responded to the decision to proceed with the auction by saying, “We’re disappointed with those results obviously. The commission takes all this time and effort and lo and behold, they come up with the exact same results they came up with in May.” Ham went on to say,  “Obviously the chairman made up his mind but there are four other commissioners.” Burn! Ham certainly sounds a little upset, however M2Z claims that Ham, along with everyone else trying to prevent the AWS-3 auction, is just trying to block them from providing a free service. Of course Ham adds that T-Mobile is too busy competing with the big boys, making the effective blockage of M2Z of little or no importance. All they’re concerned about is the AWS interference. T-Mobile says that using a technique called “asymmetrical pairing” would avoid any AWS-3 interference but M2Z has yet to acknowledge or comment on that. We find that to be a little odd and may put M2Z’s intentions into question. It would seem as though T-Mobile is totally cool with whatever M2Z wants to do so long as they take measures against interfering with T-Mobile’s line of business. We’ll wait for the auction to see what comes of it.

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When you sit down and compare Android to the various mobile platforms, the lack of Outlook/Exchange sync support is one of Android’s most notable deficiencies. Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, S60 and even the iPhone support Microsoft Exchange but not Android. Stepping up to address at least part of this shortcoming in Android are Wrike and Intermedia. These two small companies have collaborated and produced ContactSync, a  wireless tool that will sync your phone contacts with the contacts on your Exchange server. This is a relatively basic application at this point offering only one-way syncing from your Exchange server down to your phone. Future versions will be expanded to include full two-way syncing that will merge and not duplicate contacts. We know it won’t knock your socks off as the ultimate Exchange sync tool that propels Android over the top, but you have to give it credit for being an admirable start. Once the G1 is in the hands of the people and demand for Exchange support increases, we expect developers, like Wrike and Intermedia, to step up and give us the full two-way Exchange tool for which will be clamoring.

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Well, it seems many of our readers had been scratching their heads regarding the ridiculous number of G1s that T-Mobile allegedly sold during pre-orders. If you compare those numbers to the iPhone sales for their first weekend, there is a big discrepancy. The iPhone 3G hit a million during its first weekend, but it was launched in 20 different countries. For the G1 to hit those numbers where pre-orders are available to T-Mobile customers only is, well, a little ridiculous. You also have to consider the fact that everyone and their mother knew the iPhone was coming a little over a month before it was released - has your mother even heard of the G1?

The astronomically ludicrous number was formulated by a mathematician at The Motley Fool by taking a little speculation, adding some basic arithmetic, and then setting the blogosphere ablaze. T-Mobile and Google were probably grinning ear-to-ear when they saw this news burning the Internet like an uncontrolled wildfire. Unfortunately, the numbers are PROBABLY closer to 200k - 300k in terms of actual pre-order sales, and that is a BIG maybe.

Information Week decided to contact the folks over at The Motley Fool and this is what they came up with:

I contacted Anders Bylund, the author of the original Motley Fool article that hundreds of stories are citing. I was curious as to how he got these figures and he gave me his rationale.

He cited a Cens.com article that said, “according to industry insiders, T-Mobile is planning to order a total of between 1.5 million and 2 million units of G1 with HTC in the near future, including 400,000 to 500,000 to be sold in the fourth quarter of this year.”

Then, Bylund cited T-Mobile selling out of pre-order units, and tripling the number of phones initially available. He then tripled the 500,000 number to get 1.5 million.

There you have it, folks. A likely miscalculation sent everybody nuts about just how well the G1 was really doing. Don’t get us wrong, the G1 is probably selling like hot cakes and it’s a new device with a platform we really like, but it seems that it’s not going to be dethroning the current champ of best first week sales.

[Via InformationWeek]

Sure, we hit up the press event and got some early hands on action, but there’s nothing like a really solid review, right? We’ve been using the T-Mobile G1 for around a week and we’ve literally combed through the entire device. So much so that we split up the sections piece by piece and separated it into hardware and software. If you’ve got a G1 on the way or are passionately considering scoopin’ one up, you are out of luck they are all sold out might want to take a gander at what we’ve put together.

Hardware:

The hardware part is a little tricky. The phone has supposedly been in development for years, yet we can’t get beyond the feeling that this device is a little bit too prematurely at the prime-time stage. The black model especially just looks like a prototype in a couple areas. One being the four physical buttons on the banana end of the handset. Those are send, home, back and end/power. While the tactile feedback of those buttons is fine, you often times try and select one, and it doesn’t register anything. That’s because of the small size and physical surroundings if you will. They are basically flush with the case, thus making it difficult sometimes to accurately push one of them.

The screen is very crisp and actually offers the second best touch-screen experience ever, yes, compared to the iPhone at number one. For all you Storm lovers, we haven’t officially reviewed the Storm yet so that is why it’s not in this list if it did in fact make it on. It’s a capacitive screen which means that force isn’t necessary. Essentially the touch panel registers the minute electrical pulses in your fingers instead of looking for an actual physical touch input. That works great and we’re happy to say the screen has a high-quality feel all around. It’s not glass, rather a very hard plastic which we love using.

Now onto the probably one of the G1’s biggest features — keyboard time! There are two parts to this; the keyboard is better than most, but not quite perfect. The reason is that the keys are about 1-2mm too flush with the case. There is a bunch of room under the flip, and we really would have loved to see HTC jump up the ‘board a little bit. If they could, they probably would, so it’s most likely not their fault, but that would have made for one of the nicest QWERTY typing experiences to come along in a pretty long time. The layout is completely fine and you won’t have any trouble navigating at all. That includes a very clean white backlighting on the keys and the actual hard/soft plastic feel the physical keys have.

When you take the battery cover off the G1, the first thing you might see is the vibrate mechanism. It’s actually the first time we’ve ever seen one exposed on a mobile device and it gives off a weird vibrate feeling. It’s sort of a rough ass vibrate that makes you feel like the phone is going to explode. Ok, well maybe not that bad, but we guess a stronger vibrate is better than a weak one? That’s what she said.

The speakers are another big important feature of the G1 as this is pretty much a consumer-targeted phone. The placement is again, (noticing a trend here?) flush with the casing. There’s a tiny raised dot which theoretically would help divert sound off a flat surface when resting your phone on, but it honestly does little to remedy the muffled sound you’ll get. The actual speakers are pretty decent when not on a flat surface, but we had trouble hearing alert sounds when the phone wasn’t right next to us or when it was in a pocket.

The camera isn’t all too bad, but for some reason we were expecting more out of a 3 megapixel + camera. Performance even in daylight didn’t work out too well for us, and pictures never got that sharp and crisp look we were looking forward to. Forgot about low-light performance. Without a flash, that’s a non-starter.

Now, onto the actual flip mechanism… it works very well. HTC has made this thing really durable and it slides out with ease, and the same goes for closing it. It’s pretty violent (read: not smooth) but we don’t have any qualms about it. Put it like this… if people are experiencing hardware problems with the G1, we highly doubt it will be with the flip assembly.

Summing up the hardware bit, we’ve just got to get this out of the way; WHY IN THE HELL IS THE DAMN THING ANGLED AT THE BOTTOM LIKE A BANANA? Can someone please enlighten us? This does absolutely nothing for the handset, it just makes its more difficult to hold and carry in a pocket or something else. It really annoys the crap out of us that it isn’t just flat. Heck, everything on the device is flat — buttons, camera, speakers — why not keep in the tradition of flatness?

Software:

There’s no real task manager. Sure, you hold the home button and get a recent list of open apps, and you can install a 3rd party program that makes it easier to switch applications with shortcut keys, but still, sometimes you just want to completely close something. In all fairness, the G1 and specifically Android does a pretty decent job at managing memory, but we have run into a couple “wait for application to respond or close” errors while putting the phone through it’s paces.

We realize this is just the beginning and we’ve got more hope in the platform itself than we ever had before, but for something that was being cooked up for so long, and something practically started by the Sidekick king himself, we can’t understand why there are so many general inconsistencies and non-existent functions.

For instance, the device has an LED in the earpiece to designate charging status (orange for charging, green for full), yet that can’t be used as a notification light for missed events. There’s no keyboard options like key repeat rate, delay, no trackball sensitivity options, and worst of all, when you set a lock for the device, there’s no timeout option! Let’s repeat this. When you set a lock password for the phone, which isn’t a password at all, it’s a specific drawing on the screen which is pretty cool yet highly insecure, the phone will lock and require a password each and every time the screen goes off. For people who the screen set to a 15 second or 30 second timeout, that means you’ll have to unlock the phone by pressing the power button, the menu button, and then drawing your pass-phrase on the screen every single time. Absolutely ridiculous we say.

We’ll explain the inconsistencies for you so you know what to expect and get an idea for how we say the phone is definitely v1. In maps, you can press menu + z to bring up the zoom keys, but you can’t do that in any other application like the web browser, for instance. Just plain stupid. Android could be at least 40% better if all these inconsistencies were addressed and actually let you do more with less, instead of making you work harder to get to the same place.

What about an on-screen keyboard? You’re out of luck. It’s way stupid in our opinion that you can’t pull up a T9 layout and fire off some quick 4 or 5 letter word to a friend in an SMS. You are forced to slide the phone open, and bang out your sentences using the physical keyboard. This can get extremely tiring seeing as there’s practically no way to send off a quick message when it’s closed. Heck, we would have ever appreciated some canned pre-loaded responses. That would have probably held us over for a bit, but nope, there’s no way to basically enter any information other than dialing a number when the phone is closed.

Let’s look at Wi-Fi on the G1… it works pretty well most of the time, but we have run into a couple occasions of the phone staying connected to a much weaker saved network rather than switching to a stronger saved one. The biggest issue you’ll run into using Wi-Fi on here is that it absolutely murders the battery. Even when the phone is locked your battery is dying rather quickly. You’d be lucky to get around three hours of semi-rough usage with Wi-Fi. On the other hand, if Wi-Fi is off, the battery life should really impress you. It’s got a 1150mAh battery which is definitely decent and should power you though the day. We were just a little depressed about the Wi-Fi situation as our Bold and iPhone are both on Wi-Fi and have no issues whatsoever, especially when they are just in standby mode.

Phone calling is pretty straightforward here, and the speakerphone sounds great when it’s not obstructed. The interface is clean and is one of the areas where the G1 looks really, really polished. It’s semi-iPhone like with a swap call button, merge call button, speakerphone button, and keypad button. Call quality was also very good with the G1 in our limited calling tests.

One of favorite applications on the G1 is the SMS app. It’s just very natural to use and makes texting seem fun again. You could think of it as a unified MMS/SMS inbox since everything that is sent to you will show up in message threads in that application. It’s very natural and logical to have such a clean interface where text messages along with photo messages, audio, voice notes, and slides all are seen in one conversation. Big ups to Google for that one, we likes. But what about email? We’re sad to report that emailing is probably one of the worst things the G1 does. It’s clunky, slow, and unresponsive if you are on EDGE. Plus shortcuts are pretty much non-existent.

But, if we go back to the whole unity thing for a second, we’re just not sure why Sidekick king failed to address the issues of inconsistencies and a general lack of usability in some areas, while adding great features in others. Unless we’re seriously missing something, and we doubt we are, there’s no way to instantly flip in between messages, or anything like that. On a Sidekick you have the left and right shoulder buttons to flip through conversations in an application and that applied to every application; IM, SMS, email, even the web browser. But there’s nothing like it here. What’s the point of having 4 dedicated hardware buttons and a full keyboard when there’s basically no shortcuts? It really hinders the overall user experience and will cause people a lot of unnecessary headaches.

Speaking of instant messaging, how is it? As far as smartphones go, it’s one of the worst experiences we’ve had. Google Talk is the best out of AIM, Yahoo, Live Messenger and Gtalk (no surprises there, right?) but it’s still not that good. Reconnects rarely worked for us, we would get signed in and out for no reason, you can’t hide offline buddies, and while you can press menu + space to flip between conversations, the whole thing is clunky at best. So, how are the rest? They work over SMS, people. Utter. Fail. One of the stupidest things we’ve seen in a long, long time. Now, there’s been some debate over AIM and the other clients using data or SMS, but even if they don’t use SMS they are still horrible. Messages take forever to come in, you have very limited options in terms of communicating (read: text only, no media), and again, reconnects aren’t smooth. This should be the “killer app” on the G1 out of the box. Yes, there will be 3rd party solutions, but that doesn’t negate the fact that so many things are just unpolished and rushed here.

There’s the whole theory that basically anything can be added by a 3rd party developer, and for the most part that’s true. We’ve seen applications wonderfully throw themselves in the mix on the phone, and that was incredibly refreshing to see. But, when you have a base package and are leaving a lot of what makes an OS great (intuitiveness, cohesion, user-interface, consistency, and polish) to 3rd party developers, that’s probably not the smartest idea. Why? Well, you might like green and your friend likes blue. Someone might like a putrid mix of green blue and yellow, too. Just because what one developer thinks is the right way to craft a UI for something doesn’t mean another one will feel the same way. That’s going to be the biggest uphill battle for Android in our opinion. Forget about the corporate market for a second, think about how fluid the iPhone is. Heck, think about how consistent a BlackBerry is? Since your first BlackBerry up until now, did you ever have to look at it twice, or did you instantly know what you were doing? Now take the fact that nothing is seamless across even Google’s own OS applications, and let’s now throw in about 5 different form-factors, and 15 different hardware configurations, and 3 different navigational configurations. See what we’re getting at?

How in the world could someone perfect the Android experience across that broad range of hardware when even the first unit doesn’t do that? In the meantime, we think the up-and-coming mobile consumer/prosumer will love the G1 as long as they know what it is. It’s not a BlackBerry, it’s not a Sidekick. You could think of it as the adult Sidekick though, and that, my friends, is what people have been waiting for, for a very long time.

T-Mobile customers, we hope you’re ready for some solid Android love. Word on the street is that Santa will be showing up a bit early for many people who pre-ordered the HTC G1. In fact, several people have reported their handsets have already shipped and are scheduled for delivery this Friday, the 17th. In other words, a full five days ahead of the scheduled delivery date. In this day and age that’s almost unheard of so we have to nod our heads to T-Mobile on a job well done. If you pre-ordered a G1, hit the UPS site ASAP and let us know if yours is on its way. For everyone else, we’re getting pretty close to go time so don’t despair.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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A sweet little Samsung is coming to T-Mobile in the form of the Gravity T459. This slider phone should be a nice alternative for messaging freaks who don’t want to shell out for (or be seen with) a Sidekick or a more expensive QWERTY keypad device. The phone is packed with your standard features and then some, including a music player, ability to sync with PC (for easier transfer of songs and data), web2go and it’s MyFaves capable. The GSM/EDGE phone comes in Lime with Gray (as shown) and Aqua with White. Hit the jump for full specs and additional images!

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The BlackBerry 8220 Pearl Flip - it’s truly a smartphone that you’re going to love or hate without any middle ground. But hate it or love it it’s finally now available on good ole’ T-Mobile USA. Available today in Black for $149.99 on a 2-year contract, the Pearl Flip is going to take the cell phone market for 13-year old girls by storm. And if black isn’t your thing, (no, we’re not playing the race card) you’ll be able to buy the red version come October 20th. You already know the specs by now, but to freshen your memory, the Pearl Flip’s got a 2 megapixel shooter, Wi-Fi with Hotspot@Home support, a SureType keyboard, and that oh-so-old-yet-2008 flip design.

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