Verizon users and CDMA iPhone wannabes, listen up: Pre-orders begin at 3am on February 3rd. Supplies are said to be limited. So once they’re out, they’re out. You’ll have to wait until the actual launch date of February 10th before you can wrap your mitts around one.
In other news: The same memo that leaked the 3am pre-order launch time also mentioned several prices for AT&T iPhone trade-ins:
If the above turns out to be true, that’s a pretty decent deal from a carrier. (As of course, eBay, Craigslist, etc. will net you far better re-sale prices for your aging iDevice.) If trade-ins aren’t kept solely to business customers and do in fact come to the masses, I can’t see how it wouldn’t be popular. AT&T, you better watch out!
The million dollar question: Will a device trade-in sway you from AT&T iPhone to Verizon iPhone?
Tags: iPhone pre-order smartphone Verizon
Despite constant denials by the company itself, the Facebook/self-branded smartphone rumor just won’t die. Today, business oriented City AM newspaper posted an article claiming to know inside information of two Facebook smartphones being unveiled at this years MWC. The phones will reportedly be built by HTC and run a customized version of Android. Facebook’s own Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos are said to be the top two minds behind the phones’ launch. 
You have to admire HyperMac, they sure are determined. After a brief legal battle with Apple last year concerning their HyperMac batteries for Apple products, the company came back with a new approach that required the purchase of stand alone adapters from Apple. At $40+ extra for a simple adapter, it wasn’t the best solution around. But when lawyers come on swift wings, you do what you have to. Today however, HyperMac is back with another solution that builds off of their previous DIY solution involving the MagSafe Airline adapter.. Introducing: the HyperJuice Magic Box.
Bakrie Telecom customers have some exciting news tonight â€" the Indonesian carrier has partnered with Bitstream, the makers of the fabulous Bolt mobile browser, to announce a partnership moving forward. “For the first time, Internet access can be done not only through smartphones but can also be enjoyed by phones in the mid-low end categoryâ€, says Erik Meijer, PT Bakrie Telecom deputy president director. Bitstream’s Bolt browser will be the go-to standard for Bakrie’s Esia line of services, which include EV-Do supporting phones such as the Nokia 6316 and Samsung Corby.
Weather apps on both Android and iOS are a dime a dozen these days. With that said, I happen to be a weather junkie on top of my usual gig as tech junkie. So when it comes to weather apps, I’ve been there and done that many times over. Though in all honesty, you don’t really need a stand alone app for such things. The mobile web is full of websites and portals from which you can get your weather information. And today, the non-app weather scene just got a bit more crowded with Google’s new Android and iOS app weather web app.
Nokia’s attempts to break through in the U.S. market are getting tougher by the day. First, the flagship Symbian^3-powered X7 destined for AT&T was nixed at the last second. And now, T-Mobile’s own C5-03 (Nuron 2 to some parts) appears to have been chopped as well. The big hurdle Nokia seems to be unable to overcome is the whole concept behind buddying up with cellular providers in order to get their hardware discounted. In many other parts of the world, phones are sold unlocked and free of contracts. But here in the U.S., we do things backwards. Complicating matters, Android devices and Apple’s own iPhone are updated at breakneck pace. 
For everyone worried that Motorola’s fabulous XOOM tablet would be marred by a rumored update that would bring the MotoBLUR UI â€" You can be at ease. It isn’t happening. Motorola confirmed the information with IntoMobile, stating that the Moto XOOM tablet was a Google Experience device and that it would showcase Android 3.0′s (Honeycomb) best traits and features.
Hands down the coolest Android device of 2011 is the Motorola Atrix. With the bleeding edge hardware and unique docking station that turns the phone into its own laptop, the certification above is certainly cause for celebration. Because once we start seeing the FCC’s paper trail blessing, public release can’t be too far behind. As awesome as the Atrix is, does anyone out there have a phone they’re even more excited for? It’s ok to put the Atrix down a few spots from #1, we won’t judge you.Via: Phandroid
The white iPhone may still be the unicorn phone of Apple’s lineup, but somehow this see-thru design on sale at mobile.uwants.com is much more lust worthy. Granted, Apple didn’t design the iPhone to look pretty without its clothes on, nor did they take into account light bleeding through to the back of the device sans stock case. But I can look past those small hiccups if the price is right. Gallery of naked iPhones after the jump…
If you happen to frequent Gadgetsteria often, you’ll know we have a borderline sick obsession with Angry Birds. It’s pretty much greater than sliced bread. We have the games, iPhone cases, plush toys, board games, and soon, cartoons. We’ve already heard several times that Rovio Mobile was planning to bring the birds and the pigs to the tv/computer screens around the world. And now after Rovio CEO Mikael Hed’s interview with British TV site C21media, we know that the reality of such a show is this much closer. Although in reality, the interview didn’t reveal any hard release dates or whether the Angry Birds cartoon would be in digital (read: online) only form or online + TV. But even then, news of the cartoon’s continual progress is promising and of course, exciting. Are you looking forward to Angry Birds cartoons as much as we are?Source: NYPVia: ElectricPig
Is Samsung charging for Android updates as we highlighted earlier, and thereby causing carriers to avoid Android 2.2 updates for Galaxy S devices? It’s hard saying at this point, though Samsung certainly denies the whole thing. Samsung sent a reply to PhoneScoop, stressing they aren’t artificially blocking any updates, and that more details on the very topic at hand would be coming soon. The reassurance is nice to hear, but after the Samsung Omnia II fiasco, “trust†isn’t exactly something Samsung has won over from me.
The chances of seeing a Windows Phone 7-powered Sony Ericsson device anytime soon look rather bleak, this according to a statement by SE’s acting head of global marketing, Steven Walker. Walker admits that SE is sticking with Android for now currently doesn’t have any Windows Phone 7 hardware in the pipeline, though the company as a whole is constantly monitoring WP7′s progress. 
A couple of weeks ago, former iOS jailbreaker and current PS3 hacker, George Hotz aka “Geohotâ€, released (in coordination with the fail0ver team) code to crack the PS3′s hardware and software encryption thus allowing home brew software to be installed and run. Sony naturally wasn’t all to happy, and just recently responded with a lawsuit asking for unspecified monetary damages as well as the complete removal of any and all traces of Geohot’s crack from the internet (good luck with that Sony). 
If you’re the type to jailbreak your iPhone and happen to be part of the developer program and the pre-release version of iOS, the latest version of PwnageTool is worth a look. Specifically, iPhone 4 users on running the recently released 4.3 beta can jailbreak their phones. The updated PwnageTool uses Geohot’s Limera1n boot-room based exploit to get the deed done. With that said, iPhone users wanting to preserve the baseband for unlock purposes need to hold off for now as this solution overwrites said baseband with a new one. 
While the biggest number of megapixels doesn’t always transfer to the greatest picture, there’s something to be said abou ta 16-megapixel sensor for a smartphone camera. Renesas Technology has announced a new sensor of theirs that could allow up to 16-megapixel image capture. On top of that, the chip is said to support high-speed continuous shooting at 15fps at 13 megapixels.
If you’re into the high-end portable audio scene, you’ve probably heard of Go-DAP before. They already have one successful battery + amp design on the market for the iPhone 3G/S. This week at CES, the company took the wraps off of their next generation of portable headphone amp and battery for the iPhone 4…The newly redesigned iPhone 4 specific Go-DAP features a 1,450mAh battery, OPA2338UA (Texas Instruments) pre-amp, TPA6130A (Texas Instruments) power-amp, signal to noise ratio of >= 95dB, z 
Several weeks back, we wrote about VLC’s Rémi Denis-Courmont letter to Apple (post was lost when Gadgetsteria server melted) in which he asked them to remove VLC from the iOS App Store because of discrepancies between Apple’s policies and VLC’s open source roots and accompanying rules. And today, many weeks later, Apple has complied. VLC is no longer visible in the App Store. Rémi isn’t sad, however, and even voices his lack of pity for iOS owners of VLC as well as the developers who created the VLC iOS app. Ouch.Via: Slashdot
If you want real multitasking on an iPhone, you’re only solution is to jailbreak and install an app such as Backgroundr. Though now there’s another for those who don’t necessarily want full-on multitasking, but extended native “multitaskingâ€/app switching as well. It’s called “Go Nativeâ€, and is a simple app which extends the iOS 4.x feature of simulated background running combined with the added battery benefits of Apple’s solution. With that said, the app doesn’t have any stand alone icon as it resides solely within the settings app â€" simple, quick, and easy. 
