Wednesday means that your week is just about half over, but here at BGR, our work is never done. Our ninjas know that that they can never rest, and hump day is no exception. So what do we have here: how about a little Best Buy info for your viewing pleasure? One of our anonymous buddies has uncovered some info that all you Danger and RIM fans might enjoy - like a few new handsets coming your way this month from Best Buy. First, the Sidekick Gecco and limited edition Sidekick LX Tony Hawk will both be making their way to the retail giant later this month, both on T-Mobile. Inventory will be received on Sunday July 27 to be exact. On the same day, Best Buy will also be receiving what is labeled as the BlackBerry Curve Sunset; a new color of Curve for those of you you like to be a bit different. The carrier for the new Curve isn’t clear but T-Mobile is likely a safe guess. Hit the jump for more pics and a clearer view of some more stock that Best Buy will be receiving at the end of the month.

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Chock this one up to the rumor mill for the time being, but word on the street is that Sprint is getting set to increase data costs for new and old customers alike. According to the SprintUsers site, the carrier will be axing their current standalone Vision and Power Vision plans, which start at $15/month, in favor of mandatory Everything plans that begin at $69/month. Sure, the new plans include voice minutes, Sprint TV, GPS nav, and more, but for anyone that was signed up for a simple data-only plan, this will represent a significant cost hike. What’s worse, we’re hearing word that SERO subscribers could be affected, which means that anyone on the current $30 all-in plan could see another $39 on their bill starting next month. Yipes! Again, treat this with caution right now, but if Sprint starts forcibly migrating existing customers to a higher rate plan, we’re pretty sure some heads will roll.

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Looking for your AT&T fix for the remainder of 2008? We’ve got you covered. The carrier has a number of exciting new handsets planned for the coming months, which should be good news for both the carrier and consumers. Everyone loves selection, right? Right. First up, AT&T is planning to release the BlackBerry Curve 8320 (yeah, we’re scratching our heads too), and the BlackBerry Bold by the end of Q3. On the Windows Mobile side of things, AT&T is planning to drop the Samsung BlackJack III, which should see Windows Mobile 6.1, a 528 MHz processor, 3MP camera, aGPS, and more. Look for a new Pantech Duo sporting Windows Mobile 6.1, GPS, HSDPA, and a 528MHz processor. They also alluded to an HTC Tilt replacement, tentatively dubbed the Tilt II, which should feature a Qualcomm 528 MHz processor, aGPS, HSDPA, 256MB ROM/ 128MB, and more. Touch Pro anyone? Expect to see all three of those by Q4 of this year. Excited yet? Yeah, we thought so, but why stop here. AT&T is also planning a slew of Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades for existing handsets. The current Pantech Duo should see 6.1 by October, while the BlackJack II, Moto Q9h, and AT&T Tilt will get the royal treatment by July.

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It’s Friday afternoon, it’s Summer and you’re itching to get home. We know, we know; it can be hard to keep focused. Since you’re spending your time this afternoon on BGR instead of working - as well you should - we figured we’d give you a nice little tidbit to take home with you this weekend. As if a sweet Nokia N78 NAM giveaway isn’t enough! How about a little something from one of our Apple ninjas? Would that do the trick? We just received unconfirmed word that Apple is going to be shaking things up a bit when it comes to iPhone 3G distribution here in the US. By shake up, we mean that Apple has supposedly secured deals with both Best Buy and Radio Shack to sell the iPhone 3G in their stores. Best Buy already offers other Apple products so this would hardly be a stretch. Again, this is definitely still tagged with “rumor status” but it comes from a ninja who has definitely done well for us in the past. No word if this will start from the July 11th launch date, or possible be a couple weeks / months out. Unlike you, our ninja can now go home and start enjoying his weekend a bit early.

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Check this out. New reports are coming in that a very interesting memo is currently circulating internally at AT&T. Said memo reportedly lists a variety of features that will supposedly be included on the upcoming iPhone 3G. Among them is an exciting new service that - get this - allows you to send SMS-like messages that include multimedia attachments. Imagine! The service, cleverly named Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) supposedly allows users to attach one or more image, audio file or even video and deliver the message along with text. The recipient of the message will then see and / or hear the multimedia on his or her mobile. Nutty. None of this is confirmed as of yet, but how sweet would it be if a mobile phone had functionality like this?! Oh Apple, you’ve done it again! Next thing you know we’ll find out that Apple has figured out a way to copy text from one place and paste it to another. Ok, that’s just crazy talk.

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If this one turns out to be true, it looks like the Windows Mobile faithful might finally have access to T-Mobile’s UMA network. According to the DigiTimes, the T-Mobile Shadow II will sport Hotspot@Home compatibility, allowing users to make voice calls over their existing Wi-Fi network. Hotspot@Home has been available for quite some time, but has yet to make the jump to the Windows Mobile platform. Unfortunately, DigiTimes is also reporting that the device won’t launch until sometime during Q4 of this year, which is a bit later than we initially anticipated. Can we wait that long for the debut of this HTC-soured device? Probably not, but we’ll take our chances.

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This one strikes us as a bit fishy, especially considering the impending arrival of the Palm Treo 800w, but word on the street is that the aging Treo 700wx is set to receive a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade. Great news, but even more suspicious is that the upgrade specifically mentions WM 6.0, leaving out any trace of the current generation WM 6.1 version that is currently making the rounds. The rumor also conspicuously leaves out any mention of an update for Sprint users, referring only to a Verizon rollout. We suppose time will tell all, but until we actually see this thing hit the streets, we’re remaining skeptical. In the meantime, it looks like if you don’t to wait, you can unofficially get Windows Mobile 6.0 running on your Treo 700wx.

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Rumor though this may be, we wouldn’t be too surprised to see the Samsung i788 hitting AT&T sometime in the near future. The handset is essentially a Blackjack III, sporting a form factor that will be more than familiar to current Blackjack I and II owners. The i788 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device, complete with touch screen, HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, Samsung’s bizarro optical mouse pointer, and more. Unfortunately, it appears to retain the current Blackjack’s keyboard layout, which ranks as one of our least favorite amongst current generation QWERTY handsets. Even so, we can imagine more than a few people jumping at the gate to get their hands on one of these bad boys. No promises that this will actually land AT&T, but recent reports of carrier-branded versions of the handset in the wild lend credence to the possibility. Time will tell.

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The origins of the image aboveare somewhat a mystery at this point but it has become a topic of interest none the less. Why, you might ask? It appears to be an advertisement for a German phone shop boasting a wide selection of trendy handsets from what we can tell from our loose translation. Ok, fair enough. The ad does feature the just-announced E71 among the other featured handsets, but that’s not the interesting part either. What’s that in the bottom right corner? The 5800! Nokia’s upcoming “Tube” handset featuring the revised S60 Touch UI is most definitely not yet official but there it is sitting pretty. Several posts are focusing on the fact that it’s labeled with “XpressMusic” as the handset we’ve seen in the past has carried the new XpressMedia moniker. Meh, it’s probably a typo. What interests us is that the image of the device itself looks pretty official and sits among other official press images. Does this mean that Nokia is already circulating official shots to select partners and this shop accidentally let it run a bit early? Oops! We’ve known that this puppy was scheduled for a 2H 2008 release since the middle of last year but embargoed official images could mean that the official announcement could come sooner rather than later.

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While the upcoming 4.00 firmware update for Sony’s PSP isn’t the sea change we’d expect from a .00 software release, it certainly adds an attractive feature to the mix. The handheld gaming device will now be endowed with a native Google Search client, allowing you to search the web to your heart’s content, storing up to 20 searches in your device’s history in the process. Great, but what about, you know, more features? The addition of Google Search is certainly appealing, but with something as momentous as firmware version 4.0 hitting the table, we’d sort of expect a bit more excitement. This is still relegated to the rumor pile, so we suppose Sony might have a bit more up their sleeves for the official release, but until we hear anything to the contrary we’ll remain just a bit disappointed.

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According to recent reports from iPhone Atlas, AT&T will not be offering a tethering plan for the iPhone 3G. Tethering of course, is the process whereby a handset is connected to a computer via cable or bluetooth so that the computer can make use of the handset’s data connectivity. Preventing tethering with the iPhone 3G is a pretty ridiculous move when considering that the rest of AT&T’s 3G arsenal can be used to tether. It’s a travesty, right? Wrong. Theorectically this issue shouldn’t be a big one at all. After all, tethering is sooooo 2004. Now that Apple has finally caught up to its competitors in terms of opening the OS X mobile platform to third-party development, lack of tethering should be remedied rather quickly. Just as apps like JoikuSpot Light and WalkingHotSpot transform an S60 handset into a pocketable WiFi hotspot, developers will likely attack this territory on the iPhone as well. Why bother with tethering when you can make use of WiFi and create multiple WEP / WPA-secured connections with a single device? Developers, the gauntlet has been laid.

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Take this for what you will, but one of our ninjas tipped us off to an iPhone ad currently being Portugal by wireless carrier Optimus, which is a subsidiary of Orange. According to the ad, Optimus is going to be offering the iPhone 3G with a monthly tariff on both post and pre-paid accounts. Yep, you read that one correctly. While AT&T has explicitly said that they will not be offering the new iPhone 3G with any sort of pre-paid options, it looks like other carriers are reserving the option to provide the handset without a lengthy contract. The ad doesn’t give any indication as to what we might expect the unsubsidized pricing to be, but we’re working hard to dig up that info. Unfortunately, we’re not expecting any miracles here on the US side of things, as AT&T has been very explicit about the contractual requirements of the iPhone agreements. Remember when the rest of the world was madly trying to import American iPhones? Things might be going the other way this time around.

Thanks, António!

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While the world waited with baited breath to tune in for every last word from the Apple keynote, live shots of three little Nokias crept out into the wild. The timing is very interesting. Perhaps even more interesting is the coincidence that two completely different sets of live N85 photos found their way onto the internet on the same day. Hmmmm. Is Nokia planting a few seeds in an effort to steal some of the limelight? We may never know. Regardless, pictured above from left to right you’ll find the N85, 5800 XpressMedia (which we’ve already seen plenty of) and N79. The N85, which is labeled N00 as all Nseries handsets are in the early prototype phase, is a dual slide a la N95 / N96. Think of it as the N96’s little cousin. Little is known about it at this point but from the images found on the read link we can see a 5 megapixel Zeiss camera with a sliding lens cover and dual LED flash. Odd that the lens cover on the picture of the two N85s together has different text than the picture of the solo N85. Next in line is the 5800 XpressMedia aka Tube. We’ve told you plenty about it already and there’s really no additional info to be learned from the photos. Lastly, the N79 (also marked N00) is a big variation from the design cues we’ve seen coming out of Finland lately. It does bear some resemblance to the N81 though, so perhaps it’s an offspring. Whatever the case may be, the keypad looks pretty smooth and the handset is definitely unique. What do you guys think?

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Al Gore has been spotted in the VIP area at the WWDC keynote address. Logical conclusion: the rumored solar power for the new iPhone must be confirmed. Ok, so we’re probably completely full of it, but we have heard that Mr. Gore won’t go within 30 feet of anything that doesn’t draw its juice from a renewable energy source. Any bets on whether Gore will be invited up on stage to participate?

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MacRumors got sent a bunch of images of images. How do you like that one? They appear to depict the new 3G iPhone, and what’s the 3G iPhone got in store for us supposedly? IChat over 3G and Wi-Fi, a 32GB model, front-facing camera, MMS, video recording, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Supposedly. BGR buddy Ryan from Engadget and myself aren’t too convinced, though. Thoughts?

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Maybe so, maybe not. According to an Australian Apple fan site, an unnamed Australian reseller was the proud recipient of the box you see above. Apple shipped the package with the following warning script:

SUBJECT TO TERMS OF NDA DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TUESDAY JUNE 10TH, 2008

Yeah, sure…you get a mysterious package from Apple 4 days before WWDC and you don’t open it. Right. The Australian site believes that the box contains a promotional iPhone intended for display immediately following Steve Jobs’ keynote next Monday. We’ll wait to call this one until the Australian reseller decides to bite the bullet and open the package on camera, but real or fake, we’re gonna see some 3G iPhone love within the week. We can feel it.

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The Samsung i770 may be the talk of the town at the moment, but it looks like the current i760 might be getting a little bit of love before it gets phased out. Rumor has it that the i760 will be the recipient of a fresh Windows Mobile 6.1 update sometime this month. Carriers are beginning to roll out the 6.1 updates in earnest, so this seems entirely plausible, though we don’t have any specifics in terms of an actual date. We’re still betting on the upcoming i770 as the real prize in Verizon’s future lineup, but this should hold you over until you can get your hands on the new model.

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We admit, this seems a bit unlikely, but TUAW is reporting that the next iteration of Apple’s OS X operating system could debut as early as next week. According to the site, Apple is preparing to seed developers with an early version of the new OS. 10.6 will reportedly focus “solely on security and stability”, with little to no emphasis placed on groundbreaking new features. The early seeding would apparently place 10.6 on track for a January ‘09 public launch, concurrent with Apple’s annual Macworld Expo. This will be Apple’s first Intel-only operating system, placing another nail in the PowerPC coffin.

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Any Verizon customers out there getting close to an upgrade and curious as to what smartphones might be coming to the carrier this Summer? Look no further as Engadget Mobile has gotten their hands on some internal slides that contain info you may find of interest. Hit the read link and dig through the slides for all the VZW info you can sink your teeth into, some of interest and some not. We took particular note of the following: Q3 will bring with it two new smartphones that some will love and some will hate. Either way, you can only work with what they give you in CDMA land. The appetizer is the Treo 800w, a WiFi-bearing Palm smartphone that should be making its way to Sprint as well. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, VZ Navigator and a craptastic 1.3 megapixel camera are among the notable specs. As a main course, the GSM-bearing Samsung i770 qwerty smartphone running Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 is sure to please those who get their declining-dollar on out of the country and hate having to leave their CDMA unit behind. The i770 also packs a less craptastic 2 megapixel camera, WiFi, bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and some more goodies. Other info that can be had in the slides includes Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade details for the XV6800 and Samsung i760, PTT details, specs and images of the upcoming Motorola V750 and Casio G’zOne C711 and more.

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Cewebrity Digg boy Kevin Rose has built an empire from the ground up, no question. Legions of fans get as excited for Diggnation as your girl got for the Sex and the City movie (our condolences for the loss of your manhood if you were dragged out to it). If it’s all the same though we’ll stick to our brokers for investment direction, thanks Kevin. Rose does love to dish an iPhone rumor here and there though, and a couple of things he tossed out in a quickie Seesmic video recently have piqued our interest. Well, not really, but maybe they’ll pique your interest. First off, Rose states that the 3G iPhone will be available next week. We’ve long since thought June 9th to be the official announcement date but according to Kev-o you can have your cake and eat it too. Secondly, rumors flew around for a while that the new 3G iPhone may be subsidized by AT&T and available for a measly $200 with a 2-year contract. According to Rose however, the 3G iPhone will come in around the current iPhone price point and the low-end iPhone (does he mean the current 3G-less model or a new low-end model? Your guess is as good as ours) will be subsidized and available at the $200 mark. Hmm.

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Details are a tad shaky right now as the original leak source for these two upcoming handsets has removed all info from the site, but it looks like Nokia will be taking aim at the fairer sex once again with two sexy S40 handsets. What’s the source you might ask? Nokia’s Polish site. Oops! It seems Nokia’s Polish webmaster has a bit of an itchy trigger finger and the info on two new handsets was up just long enough to get snagged. The two handsets, Nokia 7510 Supernova and Nokia 7xxx Supernova (the second handset is being reported as 7610 but this is unlikely as Nokia has already has a discontinued handset bearing those numbers) look to be focusing on style with functionality that won’t interest the Nseries crowd, but really isn’t too shabby. Along the same vein as Nokia’s L’Amour series, these handsets will get the job done and bring out the hazel in your eyes at the same time. Specs as follows:

Nokia 7510 Supernova

• Weight: 124 g
• Dimensions: 92 x 46 x 17 mm
• Display: QVGA 16m colors, external monochrome 128×160 display
• Network: Quad-band GSM / EDGE
• Memory: 27 MB internal, microSD support
• Operating System: S40 (with active themes)
• Camera: 2 megapixel with LED flash and 4x digital zoom; QCIF video recording at 15 FPS
• Talktime: 3 days standby and 300 hours of talktime
• Internet: OSS internet browser
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0
• FM radio with RDS
• 2.5 mm jack
• Xpress on covers

Nokia 7xxx Supernova:

• Weight: 99 g
• Dimensions: 98×48×15 mm
• Display: QVGA 16m color display
• Network: Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• Talktime: 5.4 days standby and 300 hours talktime
• Storage: 64 MB internal, microSD support
• Operating System: S40
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and 8x digital zoom; VGA 30 FPS video recording
• Bluetooth 2.0
• FM radio with RDS

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We’re so confused…Engadget picked up this photo from HorizonWireless and they claim it to be a picture of the BlackBerry Thunder. Ah, come on, guys, you don’t remember the Thunder? In all seriousness, we’re just not sure about the legitimacy surrounding the above photo snap. It does look like our render, though, just as it was described to us. Thoughts?

UPDATE: We’ve been told the photo above is actually real, except it’s just the housing for the unit…

[Via Engadget]

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As you can see, we didn’t really take this seriously. One has to wonder though, with the 5th Ave Apple store actually being closed right now, does it give this tip some credibility? We can’t imagine an iPhone being released tomorrow without hearing anything more, but we figured we’d post this for informational purposes. Thoughts?

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In move that would be very welcome over here in the States, it looks like Orange France might be offering incentives to attract current iPhone owners to the next generation device. Apparently, the company is offering current iPhone owners a new 3G iphone for 50 Euros if they trade in their old device. Current users wishing to upgrade and hold on to their current handset can expect “generous subsidies”. Orange hasn’t released any official statement on the matter, so we’re not sure how widespread the incentive program may be, but if any other global iPhone carriers want to jump on the subsidy bandwagon, we’d be all for it.

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Back on Wednesday we told you about AT&T’s plans to drastically improve its HSPA coverage by the end of June. Needless to say, the move is related to the impending release of the 3G iPhone that we all hate hearing about. If you recall, EDGE speeds more than doubled just prior to the release of the first iPhone so the timing of these HSPA upgrades only make sense. But wait, why is AT&T so keen on stressing the addition of HSUPA with speeds up to 800 Kbps? Clearly it has something to do with the upcoming 3G iPhone, but what could eat up so much bandwidth in that direction? Ahhh, how about video calling? Rumors surfaced a while back that the new iPhone will sport a front-facing camera and 1 + 1 = 2 last we checked. This people, will be the true test of Apple fanboyism - if it’s true of course. Video calling has been around forever and it has hardly been the rage that many thought it would be years ago. If Apple can manage to get people not only excited about video calling, but also actually using video calling, then Stevie really can do anything…

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We love our gadgets as much, if not more, than the next guy, but this has to be one of the most ridiculous things we’ve seen in quite some time. There’s currently a massive line forming in front of the 5th Avenue Flagship Apple Store. According to reports on the ground, the crowd is forming in anticipation of the new 2nd Generation iPhone launch. Cool, but aren’t you guys a bit early? Yeah. We thought so. While the 3G iPhone is certainly coming soon, there’s nothing whatsoever to indicate that today is the drop date. Sure, Apple might drop a huge surprise on us, but we’re guessing that the 60-some-odd folks in line are either casualties of a successful prank, foreigners looking for a “true American experience”, or just plain confused. Sheep mentality is a funny thing, folks. 

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Let the games begin. Or should we say, let the games continue? It has long since been predicted that WWDC will bring with it an official announcement and introduce the world to the next-generation iPhone that we’ve all been waiting for. New word comes from “sources close to the 3G iPhone launch” that June 9th, the first day of WWDC, will in fact be the day that the Jobsinator announces the new iPhone. We know what you’re thinking; “A 3G iPhone… I had no idea!” Hard to believe, we know. In terms of a launch schedule, the US might have access to the reincarnation of the Jesus phone a week or two before most other regions but the scheduling should be pretty close. There’s also word that the policy shackles in terms of pricing and other restrictions will likely escape the new model and carriers will be able to subsidize the handset, at least to an extent. Speculate all you want; at this point we’re seemingly less than four weeks away from Apple’s big day. We hope you called June 9th in the contest post so you have a chance of scoring yourself some free 3G iPhone love!

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We’re really not sure that this one has any weight to it all, but word is buzzing around the Symbian blogosphere in response to an assertion that S60 may be looking to TAT to help it modernize the UI. The rumors began in a forum and so far there hasn’t been much if any evidence to support this theory, but it would certainly be in line with the direction that S60 needs to go. Not that TAT’s Kastor UI is anything overly special, but this would go a long way in showing us that Nokia does in fact know that the look and movement of S60 is a bit antiquated. If the Kastor UI does make it to the S60 platform in one way or another, expect heavy customization as the UI shown in the screenshots above (and in this video) are hardly reminiscent of Nokia’s look or feel at all. It shows a great deal of potential though; Kastor’s smooth movement and focus on movement and transitions would go a great way to modernize the user’s experience with S60. We have heard that a lot of work has been going into this area of the user experience lately, but only time will tell. Note that the video in the post linked below is a mash up of the core Kastor UI and parts of TAT’s customized UI framework called Cascades. It is unclear if the rumor encompasses just Kastor or Cascades as well but we assume since the article makes no mention of Cascades, it was included by mistake.

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Last month we all got a nice taste of Samsung leak love when some initial details about the L870 made the rounds. To refresh your memory, it looks hot. A Symbian slider running the latest version of S60 with a metal face, 3 megapixel camera and a quad band GSM radio (or so we thought). We also knew that this puppy was going to be nice and fit, sporting dimensions of 102 × 50 x 13.55 mm. Now it’s looking like the L870 will also be home to an interactive directional pad, a front-facing secondary camera and some more goodies although the quad band radio looks like it will now be tri band alongside 2100 UMTS. Some more specs:

• Tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900), 2100 UMTS, 3.6Mbs HSDPA connectivity
• Symbian 9.3 S60 3.2 OS
• 2.3″ 260K color QVGA 240 × 320 pixel display
• 3 megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera for video calls
• FM radio with RDS
• USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0
• microSDHC support

Typical Samsung. Take the juicy handsets and make sure that GSM 850 and US-compatible UMTS is omitted. Other regions can expect to see this Soul-like smartphone announced next month at Communic Asia or even sooner. For the rest of us here in the US it looks like it pretty much doesn’t matter anymore.

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