In Store: Samsung a737

In stores now, Samsung a737, this hip little slider slid in today. Covered earlier, this phone is a deal at $50. Blue only right now, but the rest should be coming soon. Didn't get too much time to play with it, but seems like a pretty solid phone. One gripe though, playing with some of Samsung's other a7x7's that have had brilliant screens, this one seems almost lacking. 18 bit color and 176x220 (same as the D807) sounds a lot better than it looks. No big surprises here, although it does come with a headphone adapter, ( Thanks AT&T!). On a side note, RadioShack apparently will have an exclusive on the red a737.

Update: Orange and green are in!
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In Store: Motorola Q9 Global

Fresh in store now the Motorola Q9 Global. 1st impressions are quite nice, unboxing reveals the regular data device assortment of USB cables, house charger and CD. Also included is a headphone adapter (Yea!), an adapter to use your old Motorola charger with your new micro USB device, and both a normal capacity and high capacity battery. The flat front and buttons make for a much sexier look than the previous Q and is a dream to carry. The extended battery makes it feel very reminisent of the old starcom flips with the wart of a battery sticking out. More soon after a bit more playing. Pricing $299.99 (After $50 rebate with unl. data or personal PDA Plan) or $499 no contract.

Opinion: The begining of the end

Friday Sprint announced, due to a class action lawsuit, it would begin to unlock phones on customer request, also that they would accept other providers phones to be used on their network. Phone News had the best article if you want to read on about the details.

This marks the beginning of the end of the cell phone giants restrictive practices (hopefully). Because once one company starts this, the rest are soon to follow. This along with prorated Early Termination fees on AT&T and Verizon means that consumers are going to have more choices. Now they can cancel their contract, pay a smaller ETF, and take their handset to another carrier. Take a look at Europe who has a much more open cell system than we do (I.E. providers in some countries have to sell both locked and unlocked phones), but also in Europe they pay through the nose to use their phones. Could increasing rates be the good ol' US of A's fate? Hopefully not, but if the giants are provoked, they'll fight back. Cell phone companies will find a way to recoup their costs.

Confirmed: Sony z750

Engadget snatched these photos of Sony's next phone, the z750. AT&T has this on their internal price lists as $99.99 (after some sort of rebate naturally) and should be hitting shelves before the end of this year. It'll have a 2 MP camera, bluetooth, a OLED external display, HSDPA and will support AT&T's much prized Video Share. Click over to engadget for some more pictures.

Rumored: Nokia N95

This is a phone I'm excited to talk about, the N95 has been a hot button topic for high end phones that we don't have yet (minus unlocked). Apparently at the opening of the Nokia Theatre in L.A. there were quite a few AT&T branded N95s floating around. Now either AT&T is doing some extensive testing on this phone, or they're toying with us. Apparently if (which is not a word used often) AT&T was to launch the N95 we would be seeing a Q1 launch with a limited quantity in store, with the option to special order. Pricing is also rumored to be around $350 after a 2 year.

Confirmed: (Again) UTStarcom 5700

The folks over at Phone News were on their feet on this one. The UTStarcom booth "accidentally" put up a banner for the 5700, destined for AT&T at CTIA. They were fortunate enough to snag some pictures of the banner, but didn't manage to pry anything out of UTStarcom about it. Thanks for the info guys!

Software: Facebook Blackberry App.

RIM and Blackberry announced today that Facebook mobile for Blackberry is now available. It will take advantage of Blackberry's push setup to deliver it's information (for near instantaneous poking action!). Check it out at www.blackberry.com/facebook/mobiledownload

Confirmed: U-Verse Launch St. Louis

AT&T's revolutionary U-Verse has been confirmed for St. Louis for quite some time now. After years of fighting local government on AT&T's ability to put in new VRAD's to support the bandwidth, and other legal loopholes, AT&T is ready for launch. The launch date is still a lot of speculation, but according to two sources there is at least one tester for U-Verse in St. Louis. Most people that are in the loop for U-verse may have the ability to pre-order starting late November. The phase one launch for U-verse may be December 12th. I heard a rumor that theses dates might just be friends and family for AT&T, but that's probably not the case. Hopefully it comes soon, I don't think I can watch another Matlock episode...

Confirmed: Samsung A737

AT&T will be launching a new Samsung Slider into it's lineup this holiday season. The Samsung A737 will be sold for $49.99 (after $50 mail in) and will come in 3 colors; blue, orange and lime. Specs seem to look as follows, HSDPA, 1.3 MP camera, A2DP, Video Share (AT&T really thinks that's going to catch on don't they?). Hopefully this holds up a bit better than the D807, because these will sell like crazy, especially with some nice color choices for consumers.

Confirmed: LG CU515

LG released it's LG CU515 last night, destined to be for AT&T. Internal AT&T docucments place it at $69.99 (After a $50 MIR of course). It should be a pretty close replacement of the cu400, with 1.3 MP camera, monochrome external display, MicroSD and PTT. It adds video share, and hopefully better reception. 2 color choices should be available as well. No word on when it hits, but should be before black Friday.

Update: In stores now, with low quality phone shots to prove!