We weren’t too positive about that last one as it was from a new source, but this new image comes from a pretty credible connect of ours and it seems to be more reasonable. Here’s what we’ve got for you this time:

iMacs starting at $1098, iPod nanos starting at $138, iPod touch starting at $178, MacBook Pros starting at $1098, Apple TVs starting at $208, Airport Express starting at $88, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard going for $64 each, and a whole lot more! Again, we’re feeling pretty confident about this one and everything looks like it’s in the realm of what Apple would normally do for Black Friday.

P.S. Also note that the Black Friday deals are only on Apple’s Online store, not retail stores.

Thanks, Lindsey!

We’ve just received a full spec list for the very blurry Motorola Motus and it’s pretty interesting. Why, you ask? Besides AT&T 3G support, the specs are pretty similar if not identical to the Motorola CLIQ. Our connect didn’t flat out tell us that the handset would be hitting AT&T, but hey, we can dream right? Here are the full specifications for the Motorola Motus:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100MHz)
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
• 256MB RAM
• aGPS
• Wi-Fi
• 3.1″ capacitive 480×320 display
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Weight: 133g
• 1400mAh battery
• microSD slot
• Qualcomm MSM 7201A CPU
• MOTOBLUR

Last but not least, we’ve been told the Motus is not a slider but a unique “flip” phone. That’s all we’ve got for now, but we’ll keep you updated as always.

Thanks, Daddy G.!

If there was ever a contest for blurriest photos taken post-haste, this image of a Motorola CLIQ look-alike, rumored to be called Motus, takes the cake. There isn’t much to be said or gathered about the Motus so far, except that it looks like a CLIQ with a flat keyboard and no D-pad for navigation. Said to be coming out in Q1 2010, rumors also peg this device as packing Android 1.6 and a 5 megapixel camera, so it’s not as if anything terribly special is going on. Unfortunately, the image is far too blurry to really make out the left side of the keyboard and what the bright yellow spot is. Maybe image stabilization should be standard on camera phones now.

Thanks, Vitala!

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We can file this one under rumor of a rumor — you’ve been warned — so please, proceed with caution. DigiTimes is reporting that Apple’s yet to be announced tablet device will be delayed until the second half of 2010 due to a last minute design change, specifically, the use of a 9.7″ OLED LG display. The report goes onto say that the delay is a strategic move by Apple due to the current cost of the OLED panels, which currently wholesale for around $500 a pop. The price of LG’s panels are expected to drop significantly in late 2010 as they revamp their production line with newer equipment. The report is oozing with speculation on release dates, price, manufacturer, and potential future models, so we’ll let you check out the dirt for yourself.

[Via Gizmodo]

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One of our connects just hit us up with some intriguing Apple information. According to them, what you see detailed above is a shot of Apple’s yearly Black Friday deals. It’s reported to be something Apple will email out shortly. This time around, it looks as if Apple will be offering up to 30% off on all iPods (Update: excluding iPhone and iPod shuffle, sorry), up to 25% off Macs, and up to 15% off all accessories as well as Apple software and hardware. The deal is only good for the day of November 27th and if that’s not good enough, “select” Apple stores will open at 6AM. This is unconfirmed but it doesn’t seem too unrealistic. Thoughts?

Well, what do we have here? The Washington Post is reporting it has reliable intel indicating that Google’s much hyped Chrome OS will be released for download within the next 7 days. Ba-zing. The piece is a little light on fact and high on speculation about the unveiling, and we encourage you guys continue with the speculation in the comments. Would a Chrome OS powered netbook motivate any of you to jump in the market? Or is the thought of a cloud-centric OS a little to much to swallow right now?Read

When we first heard of Microsoft’s Project Natal, our immediate thoughts were about public availability. Sadly, it looks like this hot new hardware is going to marinate for another year before it becomes available to the public in November 2010. Microsoft’s plan is to release the camera unit, which registers body movement so that you are the controller, along with 14 games ready to go. The camera is rumored to cost somewhere between $50 to $80 (and it might actually include those 14 games for that price), which isn’t bad for what Microsoft is trying to accomplish — impulse buys. Why is it going to take so long to release a product that has already been demoed at E3? Well, the 14 compatible games are still being developed and Microsoft is trying to crank out 5 million camera units for launch. And just like refreshing gadgets with new color options, additional hardware and new ways to interface with games will keep the Xbox 360 from becoming outdated any time soon. Hit the jump for a demo ad.

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In case you haven’t heard, the other day Samsung announced Bada, a new open source platform it hopes will enable its handsets to better compete with the likes of the iPhone and the entire Android line-up. Set to arrive in Q1 2010, not much is known about Bada other than that it features an intuitive touchscreen-based UI and will, for the most part, take the place of all Symbian S60 handsets offered by the Korean company. The handsets that will debut running Bada are also a mystery, but our Dutch friends over at Mobile Phone Helpdesk Europe were sent in a tip, and the handset you see rendered above could be amongst the very first. The fact anyone with the slightest Photoshop skills could whip this up aside, let’s assume for a minute what we’re looking at is real. Are you feeling it or not?

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A year ago Sony Ericsson’s prominence was dropping faster than Kirstie Alley could pound back Quarter Pounders, but its most recent offerings have been successful in generating buzz in a way that the Japanese-Swedish phone maker hasn’t experienced in quite some time. Fast forward to today where pictures of the companies second Symbian S60 device have leaked out by way of Russia and again we have some buzz, this time about how its 8.1 megapixel camera might be able to record videos at resolutions up to 720p. It’s codenamed Kurara and is said to have a 3.5″ AMOLED display, but other than that we really don’t know anything about it, other than it’s likely to come sometime within the next 6 months. More pictures are available after the break.

Thanks to everyone that send this in!

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Are you thinking about jumping on the new Storm2 BOGO deal, selling one on eBay and canceling a line? Well, we already made it pretty clear that doing so really isn’t all that profitable, but just in case you were thinking of pulling something similar to this in the future, we’re hearing Verizon is stepping it up in the ETF department. The rumor is, that starting November 15, Verizon is going to raise its ETF for high-end phones, such as the Storm2 and Droid, to $350. The ETF would then decrease by $5/mo. We haven’t confirmed it yet, but it certainly makes sense because of how easy it is to rip a carrier off by purchasing a new smartphone on contract, canceling the line, paying the termination fee and selling the phone for twice or three times what you paid.  If it pans out, we really can’t blame Verizon for trying to recover the subsidies they’d lose on early contract terminations. Scammers beware!

One of our really solid connects just had some information for us and we think you’re going to love it. With the Motorola DROID being Verizon’s hot handset at the moment, you’d figure that the Moto would be it for a while, right? Well, if our guy is right, we could soon be bombarded with a lot more handsets. Apparently if the DROID launch/sales go really well, (it probably will) Verizon will push up handset releases and practically aim for the smartphone crown. Were talking HTC Passion, Motorola Calgary, Curve2, etc.

Apparently the Curve2 or HTC Passion / Dragon will launch on Black Friday, “whatever is ready first.” The second device would be used in a holiday push around mid-December. I asked why Verizon wouldn’t space this out more and he/she said “best network, best smartphones campaign.” Fair enough.

There are also some handsets coming soon that we “don’t know about,” apparently. Could all four Android devices really launch on Verizon before the end of the year, or really close to it? Plus a couple BlackBerrys, and some other stuff that hasn’t surfaced yet? It seems a little crazy, but hey, more power to them.

UPDATE: We’ve also been told that Verizon will release 15 new phones, mostly smartphones, starting with the BlackBerry Storm2 and continuing into the end of December.

We were just hit up by a new Verizon connect and it looks like the LG Chocolate Touch is on the horizon. We’re told that retail stores should be receiving stock within the next two weeks, which makes sense since it was featured in Verizon’s Holiday Lineup list. In case you missed the details, the Chocolate Touch will pack a 3.2 megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. 0 (they couldn’t get with the times and get Rev. A?), Visual Voicemail and VZ Navigator. We’re not sure how we feel about the design, especially with LG offerings like the BL20 and BL40, you’d think this fresh new touch screen wouldn’t look like it was designed in the late 90s. It also looks like it’s packing the same tired OS which will look even more dead once Droid/s hit the scene, but with the right pricing we think this could do well with those who aren’t looking for full-featured smartphones. Hit the jump for a shot of the back.

From Gmail to YouTube and from Voice to Maps, it seems there is hardly a service that Google isn’t in the business of providing. So we hope you can understand our somewhat lack of shock when we learned of the rumor that Google is on the cusp of releasing its own music service to be known as Google Audio. At the moment very little is know, but the big question seems to be focused on whether or not Google Audio — if it is indeed real — will provide streaming or downloadable music as it currently offers in China. Can we get an Amen for both?

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If there’s one thing us bloggers hate, it’s a mystery, but we’re going to have to get past that for this one as pictures said to be of an unannounced and unknown HTC Android device have found their way onto the internet. Sadly any details beyond those we can spot with our own eyes are nowhere to be found, but unless our peepers have deceived us, we’re certain we’re looking at a WVGA display, camera of unknown megapixels with flash, trackball and touch-sensitive menu keys. So what say you, people? Any thoughts/wishes as to what we’re looking at here? Three larger pics after the jump.

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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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We just got a heads up from one of our Northern connects that has to do with Bell, and let’s just say we think Bell subscribers are going to be thrilled with what we have to report. How does Bell’s entire lineup of devices for their HSPA network launch sound? We also grabbed pricing for y’all, too! The following prices are prices with 36 month contracts following by full retail pricing.

Thanks, J!

LG Xenon: $89.95, $289.95

Samsung Impact: $79.95, $279.95

Samsung Omnia 2: $349.95, $549.95

Apple iPhone 3G 8GB $399.95, $599.95 — probably $149 after in store rebates

Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB: $499.95, $699.95 — probably $199 after in store rebates

Apple iPhone 3GS 32GB: $599.95, $799.95 — probably $299 after in store rebates

BlackBerry Bold 9000: $399.95, $599.95 — probably $149-$199 after in store rebates

BlackBerry 9700: $399.95, $599.95 — probably $249 after in store rebates

Nokia 2730: $29.95, $119.95

Nokia 6350: $49.95, $249.95

There’s also 3 Novatel HSPA data cards launching, two will be HSPA+ 21Mbps compatible and one will be HSPA 7.2Mbps compatible.

The upcoming Canadian wireless entrant WIND has been pretty secretive about its plans other than the fact it wants to shake things up, but thanks to a tipster within the company, we might have just found out the handsets it will be launching its 3G network with. The first is the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the second is the HTC Snap, the third is the Huawei U8220, and the fourth is an unknown QWERTY slider from Samsung. Other than that, it’s alleged that WIND will start off with three n0-contract price plans, have no SAF, not charge clients for features like caller ID and voicemail as well as not bill for intra-Provincial long distance and all dealerships will be outfitted with Microsoft’s Surface. Sounds nice to us, but what do you think, Canada?

Thanks, Fil!

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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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We were sent in some snaps of the Motorola Sholes / Droid / Your face, and although they’re not full resolution, it’s still better than nothing, eh? We’ve been told from a separate source that the ROM on the phone is moving at break-neck speed with new builds almost daily. Maybe in time for that October 30th launch?

P.S. Do you think the Motorola Sholes will be a Verizon World Edition handset?

Thanks, Chuck!

While it’s certainly not much to go on, The Guardian is reporting that the BlackBerry Storm 9520 aka Storm2 will be announced this week by Vodafone UK. Specifics are scarce and it is not entirely clear as to when consumers will actually be able to actually purchase the next-gen Storm, but at the moment we’re more interested in another matter. You see, The Guardian seems to think that Vodafone subs will be able to walk away with a new Storm for free on all tariffs over  £30 ($47.40 USD). Now, whether or not these contracts are for the standard 18 months or painfully long (for the UK) 24 month affair might be an issue for some, but the fact remains that Vodafone seems to be clearly targeting O2 and its much more expensive Palm Pre.

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Uh oh. We’re slowly moving across the board here… First with a rumored T-Mobile launch date, now we have a Rogers one for you guys. One of our Northern connects just let us know that Rogers’ BlackBerry 9700 launch is currently pegged for October 26th. We don’t have pricing information, but imagine it will run around $299 with a three-year agreement. Not confirmed, of course, but hey, besides Christmas not much is.

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?

Your mileage may vary, but it appears that Sprint’s telesales has begun offering up the HTC Hero a few days ahead of schedule. We called telesales ourselves to check out the matter and were told that we could order up some Android goodness tonight for $279.99 on a 2-year before a $100 MIR. We’ve already given you our thoughts on the device and if you can deal with a little bit of lag here and there, it’s off to the races starting right now.

Thanks, JayTV and everyone else who hit us up!

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!

Apparently when Dell went from carrier to carrier offering offering to make them handsets they weren’t as unsuccessful as we thought, for the Wall Street Journal has it on good authority that AT&T has commissioned Dell (where have we heard this before?) to make them an Android handset. Specifics are lacking at this point in time, but the device is reputed to be somewhat similar to the Mini 3i that Dell recently launched with China Mobile, in that it will have a “touch screen instead of a keypad as well as a tiny camera.” Alrighty. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some Dell and AT&T ninjas to lean on for some intel.

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One of our ninjas hit us up to let us know that the official version of BlackBerry Messenger 5 will drop tomorrow for Verizon Wireless customers. CrackBerry reported this yesterday and we can 100% confirm it. Our information was specific to Verizon Wireless but we’d imagine it’s a BlackBerry-wide release. All BlackBerry handsets running OS 4.5 or above will be eligible for the upgrade, too. Most of you are probably running leaked builds already, but the launch of the official version means that your not-so-cool friends will have it as well.

We just got a tip that the phone pictured in Eric Schmidt’s hands is actually Verizon’s version of the HTC Hero and it will be called the HTC Hero (not confirmed). As you can see, there’s a couple hardware modifications and one big one is that the buttons below the screen are, as we’re told, not physical, but touch-sensitive buttons. Look for it to drop in November on Big Red.

UPDATE: We’ve doubled confirmed this — check for the HTC Hero (or a different name) in November on Verizon! P.S. We have been told “It’s awesome.”

Not super excited about the November launch of Bell’s HSPA network? Fair enough, but we think you’ll change your mind once we tell you what The Globe and Mail is reporting: both Bell and TELUS are going to be selling the Apple iPhone next month. Apple, Bell and TELUS declined to speak to the matter when asked, but the fact remains that not only does this make sense considering the fact exclusivity deals are already starting to fizzle out in the UK, but for the simple fact that if The Globe and Mail says its going to happen you can confidently bet your bottom dollar that it will happen 99 times out of 100. If not, we’re going cancel our subscription for our Canadian office. Rogers, we are awaiting emails from your PR people.

Thanks, Scott, and everyone else who sent this one in!

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Before you get too excited, sometimes Best Buy simply inputs incorrect dates into their systems when loading SKUs. What is incredibly interesting, besides the fact they’ve gone through the trouble to conceal these product names, is that in our leaked Holiday Playbook, Best Buy mentioned that October 25th would be a “key date for handsets entering our assortment.” Sounds pretty nice, right? We’ve been told the price range for the five handsets in here (full retail Best Buy pricing) is $249-$599. Five models though? We’d say BlackBerry 8520 in white, BlackBerry Storm 2, BlackBerry 9700, BlackBerry Bold in white, and maybe BlackBerry Curve 2 for Verizon, but this shows that all of them are for AT&T? Larger shot after the break!

Thanks, Jon!

UPDATE: As one of our commenters points out, SKU 65057 shows in AT&T’s systems as the Nokia 6350 and the 65050 shows as the Garmin Nuvifone.