Here at BGR we love the underdog, so we are a little disappointed to have to tell you about the latest figures coming out of the T-Mobile camp. T-Mobile released their Q3 numbers today and suffered a net loss of 77,000 subscribers, with 140,000 customers packing up their number and shacking up with another carrier. Compare the loss with the 325,000 subscribers it gained in Q2 of this year or the 670,000 it gained in Q3 of last year, and, well ouch; it would appear as though T-Mo’s momentum might be slowing. The profits also shrunk a bit, in Q2 T-Mo posted a $425 million profit while in Q3 that number shrank to $417 million. So, will the new “Even More” plans, Android handsets, and new BlackBerry smartphones be enough to get T-Mobile back on track for Q4? Or will the comparatively meek holiday lineup make for a flat Q4? We’ll find out.Read

Our readers in both Europe and Asia have reason to smile this morning, as HTC has at long last announced that the highly anticipated successor to the Touch HD has finally begun shipping. Citizens in Europeans will be able to pick up the HD2 in the next few days while our Asian brothers and sisters will see a gradual rollout staring in a weeks time. As for the majority of our readers, Americans, HTC has formally confirmed what we reported one month ago when the device was first announced — the HD2 will be making its way to “a major US carrier” in early 2010. The only mystery is which carrier could HTC possibly be referring to. Hmm…

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We’ve been following T-Mobile’s Project Dark ever since it was a little twinkle in the eyes of Robert Dotson’s crew, but now the day has come for it all to become official. There are a lot of different options to chose from, but for simplicities sake we’re going to focus on the two biggies. Individuals will be able to get unlimited talk, texts and web for $99.99 with Even More (Contract) and $79.99 with Even More Plus (no contract). We admit that the plans aren’t anywhere near as good as we or anyone else had initially thought, and no doubt a lot of people who sign a contract aren’t going to be thrilled at paying a lot more than their contract-free counterparts, but hey, at least another major carrier has entered the unlimited business for the second time. Now where are those new handsets at?

Thanks, Achilles!

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T-Mobile UK has taken the Android love to the contract-deficient masses. The Huawei manufactured Pulse sports a 3.5″ touchscreen, 3G, WiFi, GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera, and 2G of memory — not bad for a prepaid ditty. The Pulse will set you back 176 quid across the pond, that’s about $292 for those of us still using the imperial system of measurement, and is on sale today. We love the idea of a fully featured handset on a pre-paid platform — we’re hoping the trend catches on.

[Via TalkAndroid]

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What not to do if you are a large company and have a secret project — ship a box full of relevant collateral to a retail locale with a stern looking label that reads “Don’t Open Until 10/25″. A new connect has come through with some pricing details on T-Mo’s Project Dark, and as usual, we’ve ripped it apart and deciphered it. Pics and pricing after the bounce.

Thanks, justfinethanku!

Individual Plan – No 2-year commitment

• 500 Minutes  – $30
• 500 + Unlimited Text – $40
• 500 + Unlimited Text  + Unlimited Web – $60
• 1000 Minutes – $40
• 1000 + Unlimited Text – $50
• 1000 +Unlimited Text  + Unlimited Web – $70
• Unlmited Talk – $50
• Unlimited Talk + Unlimited Text – $60
• Unlimited Talk +Unlimited Text  + Unlimited Web – $80

Family Plan – Includes 2-lines + 2-year commitment

• 750 Minutes – $60
• 750 + Unlimited Text – $80
• 750 + Unlimited Text + Unlimited Web – $140
• 1500 Minutes – $80
• 1500 + Unlimited Text – $100
• 1500 + Unlimited Text + Unlimited Web – $160
• Unlimited Minutes – $100
• Unlimited Talk + Unlimited Text – $120
• Unlimited Talk + Unlimited Text + Unlimited Web – $180

It’s always a lot of fun for us — and hopefully for you, the readers — any time we can run wild with pictures, news, and even reviews of an unannounced handset. Today, however, RIM spoiled our fun and formally announced the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Things like carriers, release dates and pricing have been withheld for the time being, but RIM has made a statement saying that we should all expect to see the BlackBerry 9700 go on sale “around the world beginning in November.” Spec wise, nothing has changed since our pre-release review, but just in case some of you forgot or weren’t paying a whole lot of attention, here’s a quick refresher on the critical specs:

• BlackBerry OS 5.0
• 624MHz CPU
• 256MB flash memory and support for microSD cards up to 32GB
• Quad-band UMTS/HSDPA (800/850/1900/2100 MHz) or tri-band UMTS/HSDPA (900/1700/2100 MHz)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UMA support (carrier dependent)
• A-GPS
• 2.44″ HVGA+ display
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash
• Optical trackpad
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP/AVCRP
• 1500 mAh battery
• 6 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby (3G)
• 109mm x 60mm x 14.1mm, 122g

In short, this is the BlackBerry device of your dreams. We’re expecting pretty much every single major GSM carrier on the planet to pick up the 9700 sooner or later, so we’ll be sure to keep the updates coming. As always, high res pics and a few other odds and ends are available after the jump.

UPDATE: AT&T, Rogers and T-Mobile have announced they will be carrying the Bold 9700 in the weeks ahead. AT&T and T-Mobile’s 9700 will go for $199.99 after a $100 MIR on 2-year deals while Rogers will be asking for $299.99 on a 3-year contract with a monthly minimum voice and data plan of $45. Bell and TELUS have yet to come forward with pricing but have confirmed they will be carrying the device.

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As we inch closer to the day when Project Dark is finally realized, we’re getting more news regarding what it is and what it definitely isn’t. In addition to what we’ve reported with network speed boosts, unlimited rate plans and new devices, we’re hearing that getting the device of your dreams is going to be easier than ever. It’s definitely an unconfirmed rumor right now and we’re working on getting more solid details for you guys, but apparently “Even More Plus” will give those who would otherwise qualify for FlexPay the option to finance a phone. It sounds crazy, right? Our sources tell us that the phones will not be subsidized and so there won’t be contracts for the devices, which means you pay the full retail price over the course of a set amount of time (up to 20 months is what we’re told). Not bad — for a $500 device over that time is just $25/month, as an example.

We’re also hearing that the “Most Affordable Unlimited Rate Plans” are going to include three tiers of unlimited options: unlimited voice, unlimited voice and text, and unlimited voice/text/data all priced at $40, $50 and $60, respectively. Again, none of this is completely confirmed, but it does jive with what we’ve been hearing in the past and the ad pictured above. With plans, pricing and financing like that, is it possible for T-Mobile to shoot its way out of 4th place and past Sprint for 3rd?

Oh Project Dark, you are a curious one. We here at BGR think we know what you’re all about, but it’s pretty hard to feel totally confident without some proof in the form of documents. Thankfully a leaked picture of some T-Mobile advertising which looks to be a part of Project Dark has emerged, and seems to more or less confirm what we’ve been saying for nearly a week. Right off the bat we noticed the tagline of “coverage you need, price you want and the handset you crave.” Gee, you think that could refer to a rapid 21Mbps HSPA roll-out, a $50 unlimited plan and handsets like the Behold II, Bold 9700, CLIQ and N900? We certainly do, but we’re more interested in something else. We’ve always thought that Project Dark had a single unlimited plan, but the mention of an “Even More” and “Even More Plus” rate plan has us a bit  confused. Sure, it makes sense and all to have a few different unlimited plans that offer up different things, but just what is it that the Plus plan includes? We haven’t a clue to be completely honest (although we are working on it), but perhaps — and this is nothing but us thinking aloud –  it could include some sort of long distance package that is meant to compete with AT&T’s GoPhone. Regardless, all will be solved soon (we’re hearing either this Sunday or the next), but for now we must tip our hats for T-Mobile for actually being able to keep its employees mouths shut. Bravo.

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These past two weeks have been one hell of an emotional roller coaster for Sidekick users, but it looks as if all isn’t lost as Roz Ho, Corporate Vice President of Premium Mobile Experiences for Microsoft posted this message on T-Mobile’s Sidekick forum:

We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those  Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage.  We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible.

We now believe that data loss affected a minority of Sidekick users.  If your Sidekick account was among those affected, please continue to log into these forums for the latest updates about when data restoration will begin, and any steps you may need to take. We will work with T-Mobile to post the next update on data restoration timing no later than Saturday.

So just what was the cause of this who debacle? Oh you know, just another one of those “system failures” caused by a mischievous data gnome that triggered a “data loss in the core database and the back-up.” Oh well, it happens. At least you’re likely to get getting your data, one months free service and a $100 gift card for the inconvenience. Or maybe not the last two parts?

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T-Mobile users that have grown accustomed to nothing but boring handsets might want to have a change of underwear on standby before reading any more, because it looks as if Magenta is actually going to offer a a handset of lust-worthy proportions.. According to TmoNews, its carrier namesake will offer the Snapdragon-powered HTC HD2 sometime in the near future, although it does not appear to be a part of Project Dark. We’re going to go and hit up some of our T-Mobile connects to see what they have to say on the matter, but in the meantime we suggest that those of you who are into it start praying that T-Mobile doesn’t ask for silly money if and/when it launches the HD2.

Thanks to everyone that send this in!

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There’s not too much to say so we’ll let T-Mobile do the talking…

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

We are thankful for your continued patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on preserving platform stability and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.  We have made significant progress this past weekend, restoring services to virtually every customer.  Microsoft/Danger has teams of experts in place who are working around-the-clock to ensure this stability is maintained.
Regarding those of you who have lost personal content, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger continue to do all we can to recover and return any lost information.  Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible.  We will continue to keep you updated on this front; we know how important this is to you.

In the event certain customers have experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content, T-Mobile will be sending these customers a $100 customer appreciation card.  This will be in addition to the free month of data service that already went to Sidekick data customers.  This card can be used towards T-Mobile products and services, or a customer’s T-Mobile bill.  For those who fall into this category, details will be sent out in the next 14 days – there is no action needed on the part of these customers.  We however remain hopeful that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered.

Sidekick customers can continue to visit T-Mobile Sidekick Forums (http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick) on a regular basis to access the latest updates, as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.  The Forums also offers tips and suggestions for rebuilding content on your device.

If you make your way onto T-Mobile’s website, you might end up shedding a single tear for what you find in the Sidekick section — they’re all labeled temporarily out of stock. T-Mobile is reportedly stopping the sales of Sidekick online and in some retail stores. We really can’t blame them after the massive outage that the Danger servers had followed by permanent loss of user data. We’re not sure if or when the Sidekick will be available again, but drastic times call for drastic measures. The last thing T-Mobile needs is more customers demanding refunds or trying to terminate contracts after losing valuable info on their phones. Is anyone shattered by this news, or are you feeling indifferent?

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Sorry to be the bearers of bad news for T-Mobile Sidekick customers that are still without data after nearly two weeks, but it appears that you’ve got little to no chance of ever getting any information you had stored on Danger’s servers back. Said T-Mobile today:

“Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger.”

Ouch. Can someone please check that Perez Hilton hasn’t had a heart attack? Just to clarify, there is a difference between no data access, which is now restored, and device data on handset. Because of this, T-Mobile urges you not to turn off your Sidekick or let its battery die.

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It seems as if those lovely now almost yearly launch parties are going to start happening pretty soon. T-Mobile has started sending out various invites to corporate customers (we’ve been sent two completely different-looking invites from two different connects) all describing a mythical new BlackBerry with Wi-Fi-enabled calling. Whatever could it be? The events we’re hearing about are on November 5th in NYC and we’ve been told that people attending will be taking home brand new BlackBerry 9700s. And they get breakfast, but no one cares about that.

UPDATE: We’ve been told the Los Angeles market launch event is on November 3rd.

Thanks FrankenBerry!

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding T-Mobile secret project, “Project Dark” or “Project Black” as others have referred to it. One of our connects hit us up to clarify what it exactly is (they called it Project Dark).

So, what is it exactly? Other sites have speculated that it’s not a new phone or promotion, but our connects briefing has given us a pretty clear understanding. First off, it is tied somewhat to handsets. Project Dark contains the launch of the T-Mobile BlackBerry 9700 as well as T-Mobile’s upcoming Android handsets like the Motorola CLIQ and Samsung Behold II. It also contains a very, very rapid expansion of T-Mobile’s 3G network, and we don’t mean UMTS. We’re talking 21Mbps HSPA, the same as what just launched in the Philadelphia market. We’ll keep digging but this is what we’ve got for you for now.

UPDATE: A few minutes after we first posted this story, a new T-Mobile connect came out of nowhere and sent us in quite a lot of new information. We have to caution that this information is not substantiated, but we feel that we owe it to our readers to share. Here it goes…

Project Dark is a pretty big thing for T-Mobile. Not only will employees be wearing new threads consisting of a black top and grey pants while they sell the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and two Nokia Nseries devices (the N900 and something else), but they’ll also be pushing something pretty amazing — a $50 all you can eat plan that includes voice, SMS, MMS and data. Apparently this plan will be called “Everything Unlimited” and is meant to represent T-Mobile’s new strategy which will essentially see it try and poach subs from various low-cost carriers. We’ve also been told that T-Mobile will be adopting a very Walmart slogan of “More for Less.” Okay, we’ve done our part, now what do you people think about this?

Look, we’ll be completely upfront like we always are: this is not confirmed. Since that’s out of the way, one of our new connects (whom we have reason to trust) has informed us that T-Mobile USA is gearing up to launch the BlackBerry 9700 on November 11th. Engadget’s announcement dates make sense, as does this launch date. If it all pans out you’ll be hearing about the BlackBerry 9700 for AT&T and T-Mobile come October 21st, and on November 11th, you’ll be able to mosey on down to your local T-Mobile shop and actually buy one for yourself. Or you can wait until you win a whole heap of them from BGR. Huh? We didn’t say anything…

Thanks, Carlo!

The Android devices keeping piling on for T-Mobile. This time, however, it’s a non-HTC device. So, if you’re a big fan of Samsung and Android, you’ll have a lot to look forward to with the Behold II. While the phone doesn’t look as flashy as some of the others, Samsung is adding its own touch to this device with the TouchWiz UI over Android, so we’ll have to see just how that stacks up against HTC’s Sense and Motorola’s MOTOBLUR. If anything it will at least look pretty on its 3.2″ AMOLED screen. TouchWiz for Android will have the same layout as before, but with an additional cube menu that features items like YouTube and the Amazon MP3 store. Other features include a 5MP camera with flash, 16GB memory expansion, AGPS, 3G and Wi-Fi though there’s no word on UMA capabilities. Pricing details or release date aren’t available just yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

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In case you’ve not heard by now, T-Mobile Sidekick users have been trying to live a normal life this weekend while suffering from the ill effects of what surely has to be the be all and end of all of mobile data outages. As it stands, it appears that every single Sidekick user across the country is unable to use any services that pass through Danger’s servers meaning the only thing they’re currently able to do is make calls and send text. Everything from email, IM and, perhaps worst of all, contacts are unavailable. Yesterday T-Mobile promised that it would have services up and running by late evening, but this obviously did not happen which is why our inboxes are being flooded by the suffering. We’re still waiting on an update from T-Mobile on this matter, but rest assured that we’ll let you know what’s going on just as soon as we hear.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

Remember the super-sized HTC Leo? Well, it’s now officially called the HTC Touch HD2 and it may be hitting the shelves of the European branches of T-Mobile sometime in the near future. A leaked document with glorious magenta coloring reveals the Touch HD2 as one of T-Mobile’s new handsets. No release date or pricing has been uncovered yet, but with Windows Mobile 6.5 and a slew of new 6.5-powered smartphones arriving next week, the Touch HD2 can’t be too far away. Are you ready for this 1GHz, 5 megapixel monster?

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Remember when we announced the Peek Pronto and how funny it was that anyone would even consider a messaging-only device? Who would possibly want that in the company of BlackBerrys and iPhones? Well, Amazon has struck up a deal that some may find to be pretty hard to pass up: lifetime service with no monthly payments. If you have it in you to fork over $300 for the Peek Pronto, you can enjoy a lifetime of email (Exchange mail included) and all the text messages you can handle. Assuming your Peek doesn’t get lost, stolen or broken, you really are set for life — though we’re not exactly sure what happens if Peek, umm, ends up going away.

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The wait is finally over: T-Mobile has just announced the Motorola CLIQ pre-order details as well as pricing. So, exactly when can you get your hands on Motorola’s come-back device? Presale orders start for existing customers on October 19 and goes through to November 1. The device will be hitting stores and be made available online the day after presales end — November 2. Unfortunately, those “free” rumors turned out to be, well, rumors as T-Mobile and Motorola are expecting $199 with a new contract and a data plan that starts at $24.99 per month (don’t forget data plans for smartphones are mandatory for T-Mobile, as if you’d buy this phone without one). With a 5MP camera, a nice UI and support for up to 32GB of memory expansion, it’s definitely a nice handset. We’re just not sure the pricing is correct… What do you guys (and girls) think?

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Motorola. Regardless of your brand loyalty, the aforementioned company changed the mobile landscape. Twice. First with the legendary StarTac and once again with the Motorola RAZR. Unfortunately, the RAZR by itself wasn’t enough to keep propelling Motorola’s mobile handset division forward for eternity. Here we are some five whole years later looking at what is Motorola’s most important product (and upcoming products) in recent memory. Enter the Motorola CLIQ. We’ve been fortunate enough to have one or two units of our own, even though there’s already been hands on sessions and a couple of reviews, we’re finally ready to tell you about it. We labeled this as a preview instead of a full review because we’re about two months out from launch. We’ll follow up to this post with findings from a unit T-Mobile sends us if there are any differences and additional thoughts.

Hardware:

Motorola really hasn’t been known as the most reliable company when it comes to manufacturing, but they’ve also previously dictated trends as far a cellular devices go. With that said, the Motorola CLIQ’s hardware isn’t a surprise to us. It seems decently solid, albeit a little cheap. Physically, buttons are spread nicely throughout the casing with a loud / vibrate ringer switch on the left side of the handset, volume bottoms below that, and a microUSB port just underneath that. On the right side there’s a power / lock and unlock button (one key for all three actions) followed by a two-stage camera shutter key. On the front of the device there’s a menu key, home key, and back key. Pretty simple and clean.

When you slide the display up to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard (the slide mechanism is very solid and fun to use), you get access to more Android-specific keys as well as a 5-way directional pad. There’s a dedicated search key and a back key, but what’s a really nice design touch is the alt key.

No, the alt key itself isn’t anything special, but when the backlight on the keyboard is active and you press the alt key, the alternate numbers and symbols on the keyboard independently light up. Very cool. (This doesn’t seem to be the case on the titanium version of the CLIQ).

Plus, who could forget to mention the glowing Motorola symbol on the back of the display? That’s right. It’s a blatant rip on Apple’s notebooks and we love it.

Screen

With a 3.1″ capacitive display, it’s a little tough to completely fall in love with the screen even though it’s one of the best as far as capacitive ones go. The smaller size of the display really affects usability and the on screen keyboard shows this issue the best — Motorola had to use even smaller on-screen keys for the keyboard. It’s plenty responsive but without multi-touch, it just feels primitive to say the least in some applications. The screen itself is definitely bright enough and pretty accurate in the color space, though it’s a little pixelated for our tastes.

OS:

Motorola did something pretty smart with their customizations — unlike HTC’s Sense UI, we don’t believe there’s a complete skin (extra process) running on top of the regular Android OS. Instead, Motorola uses widgets to display live information on the homescreen of the device and their other customizations seem to be OS-deep. This speeds up the entire phone dramatically. They even modified the Android homescreen to display 5 pages instead of 3, again, without having to run a process on top of the existing OS.

What’s not so good about the CLIQ’s software is that everything is disconnected and nothing really flows. For example, you can update your Facebook status, but there’s no way to see your previous statuses in one place, or even refresh the latest status manually. So, if your phone is powered off and you just updated your status from a computer let’s say, then powered the phone on, it shows your last update from the handset but not from the web. Not unless you let it refresh on it’s own schedule which can sometimes be never. The whole refreshing thing automatically is a little wonky, but again, that might just be not final software talking.

The Happenings application is a valiant effort to combine your social networks into a tidy timeline, but from our usage of it, it’s pretty clunky, slow, and lacking some features. What Motorola should have done is build more custom applications a la HTC’s Peep Twitter application because Happenings isn’t really cutting it when there are 500 updates. You can also forget about flicking through 500 updates in single view mode when you launch a friend’s update from the homescreen widget. The base concept here is awesome, it just needs some refining to make it usable in high-volume situations (read: lot of status updates/messages)

We think the execution is a little flawed for anyone with more than 20 friends total out of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. While trying to simplify their creation of widgets infused with status updates and linked contacts, Motorola in our opinion has made it even more difficult to manage your social life from this handset. Things like be able to manually refresh these updates and statuses, or even allow menu-based actions would be a plus. If you go into a single “happening” and press the menu key, nothing happens. No “reply”, “email”, “call” selectable options — nothing, even though that contact is in your address book and linked with all their other networks and contact information.

Another problem is how the CLIQ’s BLUR OS treats different forms of communication. For instance, Twitter isn’t like email. Mentions if anything are more a form of direct communication that I’m interested in, not direct messages. The CLIQ only has an inbox for direct messages and there’s no way to see aggregated Twitter mentions. I swear the people that created this phone barely use Twitter or Facebook for anything meaningful…

Thankfully there’s built-in Exchange support which will lovingly sync your mail, contacts, and calendars. Unfortunately, the fastest refresh internal is a whole 15 minutes and push email is no where to be found inside the Exchange program. Hopefully that’s because our unit might not be running final firmware, if it’s not, then well… yeah.

Maybe Motorola could have used the lock screen on the device to give previews of unread status updates, messages, notifications? There’s a ton of ways to properly integrate social services and while this is a decent attempt, its clunkiness we think will turn off any user looking to do more than lightly communicate with a select group of friends.

Phone:

Using the phone was surprisingly pleasant. There are no send/end keys on the device (physically, at least) and it’s a little different than what we’re used to for a Android phone. The built in voice dial/command function is absolutely brilliant and we fell in love with the virtual number pad. The phone app is one of the areas on here where you’ve got a lot of different options. Sorting by all calls, missed calls, outgoing calls, frequent called, recently called, and more are all some of the ways you can access your phone logs and contacts quickly and efficiently. In terms of incoming calls, you not only get the person’s name, number, and photo (if available), you also get their latest status update from whatever service that contact is linked. Sooo cool. We can’t believe no one has done this before (yes, we’re looking at HTC right now). In terms of actually using the phone to talk on, calls sounded pretty clear, though it wasn’t the best phone we’ve ever talked . Speakerphone was definitely loud and surprisingly clear with callers being able to hear us well, and we could hear them fine and have a normal conversation. Just as you’d expect from a phone…

Keyboard:

This is tough. Early reviews have said that the keyboard of the CLIQ was fantastic. We have to unfortunately disagree. It’s decent. Definitely usable, just not something we’d want to bang on all day and every day. The buttons are hard, cheap plastic, and while there is some tactile feedback when you press a single key, it doesn’t “bounce” back up and it’s a little unsettling.

The space bar on our unit has practically no feedback and since this is a sliding phone, the keyboard is sunk into the case which allows for the handset’s shell to rise slightly above the keyboard. The 5-way directional navigational pad suffers from the same common issues as the keyboard — not enough feedback. Childrens will have no problem with it, but anyone over the age of 12 might take issue to the keyboard. We’ll see.

UI:

While widgets are what spices up the homescreen of the CLIQ, Motorola also decided to blend contact information from all your different social networks together in a clean and useful live address book. Think of it as Synergy on the Pre, just executed a lot, lot more intuitively. For one, you can hide and view different networks if you don’t want to see every single Facebook friend or Twitter account you follow.

In terms of being intuitive, there a little UI work on here — Motorola has customized some default Android graphics and thrown on a custom color scheme, they’ve also overhauled the address book with a nice skin, but a lot of it is more application-centric.

We mean instead of there being an actual user interface on top of Android, there’s applications like Motorola’s unified inbox, inboxes for your social services like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc., widgets on the homescreen with popups, and things of that nature.

Something very cool about the Exchange email program, though, is that you actually have a font editor. You can bold, italicize, and completely format text. It’s really neat if not completely useless, but cool nonetheless.

Battery:

Not even joking when I say this — the Motorola CLIQ has possibly the worst battery life of any phone I’ve tested in recent memory with the current software. Maybe Motorola’s BLUR back-end isn’t optimized yet, maybe the phone software isn’t final, but this is ridiculously bad. Especially since it doesn’t even deliver your status updates when you want them, it just sits there pulling in data constantly updating in batches. I haven’t used the device as a primary device so I couldn’t give hard statistics on battery life when phone calling, but with on and off usage, it’s ridiculously bad. The battery itself looks to be 1390mAh for those that are interested.

Again, let’s hope the software isn’t prime time.

Conclusion:

The Motorola CLIQ isn’t a StarTac. It isn’t a RAZR. It’s a decent phone with a great concept. A concept that unfortunately wasn’t executed as well as it should have been when the entire industry is watching. We feel that the Motorola CLIQ’s appeal will be to the young teen market as opposed to consumers as a whole like other Android handsets. It’s only the first phone from Motorola and their new initiative, and they deserve credit for putting together something this unique and creative. Yet compared to something along the lines of HTC’s offerings, we don’t think many people are going to spring for a clunky Android handset regardless of price.

It’s annoyingly slow at times — really hope this isn’t final software — has very little user-customizable settings where you need them (something ironic for a handset that actually does offer a real attractive “connected lifestyle” concept) and has to be pretty low on the totem pole as far as market positioning is concerned. There’s the Motorola Sholes which is said to be extremely high-end with a fusion of aluminum and other metals launching on the Verizon network (as well as a Euro 3G unit we’re told) which is completely opposite of the CLIQ, and that interests us as far as what Motorola is up to.

Motorola was and still is one of our favorite tech companies. This is only their first handset since they did a little spring cleaning and it’s decent. I’m really hoping the software side of things dramatically improves as we get closer to a release, but with less than two months to go, I’m not sure it will happen. We know not everything you wanted to hear about was covered in this preview write-up, so hit us in the comments with any questions and we’ll update the post with answers. We’ve also reached out to Motorola’s PR team and are waiting to hear back from them to clarify some information like the software version and other fun stuff.

UPDATE: We’ve been informed this unit is definitely not running the final OS.

Windows Mobile fans take note — 30 new handsets powered by your mobile OS of choice will supposedly be debuting before you again sing a drunken version of Auld Lang Syne. Benjamin Tan, senior director of the GCR Mobile Team Unit at Microsoft China, let loose the rumor that an avalanche of new Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Acer, Toshiba, HP and more will be released in the waning months of 2009. Carriers who have jumped on board this Window Mobile bonanza include AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMO, Softbank Mobile,  SKT, Telstra and Telus. Bottom line: no matter where you are located or what you prefer in a smartphone, there will apparently be a Windows Phone to suit your needs in 2009.

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T-Mobile just kicked it up a notch and became the first carrier in the US to deploy HSPA+ on its 3G network. As we already knew, the nation’s number four carrier plans to offer HSPA+ as an interim upgrade while it begins the slow transition over to LTE. Currently, folks in the City of Brotherly Love are the fortunate few who can enjoy the 21 Mbps speeds that HSPA+ theoretically delivers. Only time will tell what kind of speeds we actually see on T-Mo’s HSPA+ network but one thing is practically guaranteed: it should be a hell of a lot faster than the carrier’s current 3G network. If you are not within the range of the twenty active HSPA+ cell towers now rocking in Philly, be patient as T-Mobile plans to expand the service to additional markets throughout 2010.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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If you’re a T-Mobile subscriber itching to get your hands on the latest and greatest, it looks like November 11th might be a date you want to jot down in your planner. Why, you ask? According to one of our ninjas, a T-Mobile higher-up has pegged November 11th as the tentative launch date for both the BlackBerry 9700 and the Motorola CLIQ. Wow. Have two more highly anticipated handsets ever launched with the same carrier on the same day? Now, to be crystal clear, this date is relayed to us as tentative so nothing is set in stone just yet. Where the CLIQ is concerned, the 11th definitely lines up well with the late-October pre-sale and the 9700 has been rumored to launch in November as well. On a related note, we’re hearing AT&T will launch the 9700 around the same time as T-mo, while Rogers will once again beat the US to the punch with a mid to late-October launch.

T-Mobile subscribers have a pretty solid new option today in the form of an affordable music-centric handset from Nokia. The latest addition to our Finnish friends’ XpressMusic line, the 5130 XM is an S40 feature phone with tween written all over it. Spec highlights include a music player with dedicated external controls, FM radio, a 2 megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth and microSD expansion. No, it won’t be knocking any socks off but as far as budget feature phones go, this little guy is a scrapper. Nokia’s 5130 XpressMusic is available immediately in two color combinations — black/red and pear white/aqua. On a 2-year contract, it’ll run you $29.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate in stores and online.

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Get those credit cards ready, Nokia fans. According to a notice reportedly sent out to several US distributors, Nokia’s first Maemo phone is scheduled to hit Nokia distribution centers on September 27th — just under two weeks from today. Assuming the communique is real and Nokia can manage to stay on target, we could see the N900 begin to ship to customers via distributors within the first few days of October. Though it’s not a surprise, the lofty $650 MSRP is sure to leave a sour taste in some mouths but if you want to be among the first to own a T-Mobile 3G-ready Maemo 5 handset, the early adopter tax is unavoidable. Hit the jump for the alleged notice to distributors.

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Thanks to one of our top ninjas, we’ve been able to score this shot of an internal T-Mobile PowerPoint clearly showing the Motorola CLIQ release date listed as October which further supports our previous story about a mid-October launch. Don’t get freaked out there isn’t a picture of the CLIQ in the PowerPoint but a placeholder instead — it was only publicly announced two days ago, and you know, things have a tendency to leak…

UPDATE: Sorry for the confusion. The slide above says November, but our guy says its older and provided it to us for information purposes. There is a newer internal slide that does show October.

While Motorola announced a “before-the-Holiday” release time frame for the Motorola CLIQ, we’ve been able to confirm that units will be shipping out to T-Mobile corporate stores, warehouses/fulfillment centers on or around September 29th. Do you know what that means? We’ve been told that the Motorola CLIQ will pop it’s head out for a mid-October launch on T-Mobile. We don’t have pricing details at the moment, but you can bet your bippy it will won’t be above $199 with a 2-year, possibly lower. We’re working on getting supporting materials, but this is pretty much a go!

Thoughts?