The folks at LG will be releasing the oddly shaped LG Optimus Vu soon, it having a 4 x 3 ratio to appear very similar to a cracker. Motorola has dropped two monsters upon us, one of them the Motorola MOTOLUXE for the mid range and the other the fourth in a generation. That’s right, it’s the DROID 4 from Motorola complete with a side-lit keyboard to keep you QWERTY fans happy all night long! Meanwhile Samsung will have no presence at MWC 2012 as they play the low-key card.

All Android devices of the future will be working with Google Chrome if they wish, but none will have Flash integrated as per the plan. There’s one gigantic mother of the lens out there this morning for your camera fans once more, the Sony SAL500F40G 500mm super-zoom from the streets of heaven, sent down to bring you so close to the action that you’ll think you’re inside your subject. Another device looking to get you in close with the action is Logitech’s Touch Mouse M600 and the HP TouchPad finally has some Android code from the manufacturers to make all you hackers happy.

There’s also an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p Full HD video recording, 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot, along with Mirror Mode for outputting the display on a TV. Plug in that way, and you can access the full Firefox browser and use the multi-window Webtop app; you can also dock the DROID 4 with the Lapdock 100 or Lapdock 500 Pro.

Despite the specs, the DROID 4 by Motorola is only 1/2-inch thick. It has mobile hotspot support for up to eight WiFi-tethered devices, and MotoCast for streaming multimedia and documents from your home or work computer.

The Verizon DROID 4 by Motorola will go on sale “in the coming weeks”; the carrier is yet to announce pricing, though we’re guessing it’ll be $200-250 with a new, two-year agreement.

Samsung throws in a QWERTY remote control for operating the inTouch, navigating its menu and your Skype contacts list, and searching for URLs and YouTube videos. Still image recording is supported, and there’s weather information and Google News too.

A USB port allows you to hook up a digital camera or memory card, and view photos stored on that too; alternatively you can upload them, through the inTouch, to YouTube, Flickr and other sites. Connectivity with a TV is via a single HDMI cable.

The Samsung inTouch SNH-5010N will go on sale in March, priced at $199.99. Considering how much Cisco was asking for its Umi system, that seems like something of a bargain to us.

Needless to say, your humble narrator has used this keyboard in the past and each time a new keyboard is tested, SwiftKey is certainly one of the best to beat. What this new investment will do, says TouchType, is help them to increase their worldwide presence, especially in the USA and Asia, and will strengthen their commercial, executive, and technical teams. As far as how this will improve your app experience – plans are now in place (not that they weren’t before) to improve the capabilities and features of all SwiftKey products and the Fluency program that makes the whole speech prediction function in the keyboard do its thing.

More important than any of this, mind you, is the following quote from TouchType CEO Jon Reynolds (pictured in the main photo above aside TouchType CTO Ben Medlock), which notes how they’ve secured manufacturer deals to have SwiftKey pre-installed on future devices:

“We’ve seen tremendous consumer adoption of our SwiftKey keyboards on Android, and have secured significant OEM deals to pre-­‐install our technology. While SwiftKey has already received widespread praise, we’re always striving to improve our products in response to our customers’ needs. We’re also planning to enter new vertical markets in the New Year, where faster and more accurate text entry can drive significant benefits.” – Reynolds

Check out our review and update [SwiftKey portal] for all the information you might need on the apps you’re about to download if you’ve never tried them before. Then look to 2012 (or perhaps even 2011) to see a whole line of Android devices with SwiftKey on them right out of the box! Go for the cyan on black!

You may remember from earlier this morning a release of some information on a couple of Motorola tablets by the name of XyBoard – wild in both name an shape. Well that wasn’t all CNET saw, folks, there’s another device from that same release, and it goes by the name of DROID 4. Get your pants out of a bind, folks, this is the first dual-core QWERTY on LTE, and it’s got those nice Motorola corners!

Once you’ve slide the keyboard in and out a few thousand times, you’ll also notice that you’ve got an 8 megapixel camera on the back capable of 1080p video recording, a front-facing camera for video chat, and enough room inside to store at least a few full-length movies and a couple apps too at 16GB internal memory. You’ll be working with 1GB of RAM, a 4-inch qHD display, and a brand new chassis fitting right in with the rest of the newest Motorola smartphone and tablet line. It’s all in the corners I tell you!

SO for those of you that need a QWERTY keyboard, this is more than likely going to be your best choice if you’re also a lover of the LTE network Verizon provides. We’ve got a review of an alternate device along those lines by the name of Samsung Stratosphere, but you’d be well to note that while that device only has a single-core processor, the DROID 4 has at least twice the power with its own dual-core. The choice is clear, make it now! Or forever learn how to stop using the QWERTY keyboards because they are so, so aesthetically displeasing it makes me have a mental breakdown.

Before we go into the photos and the dropping of the knowledge on why you should or should not purchase this device in detail, have a peek at this hands-on look at the DoubleTime aside several other Android devices – compare and contrast time!

Hardware

This little stormtrooper of the device has the oddest set of design cues, starting with the fact that it’s got pink accents on the physical Android menu buttons. Very strange choice by Samsung if I do say so myself. There’s a silvery plastic bar above the keys, Samsung and AT&T logos on the front, earpiece, and both proximity and light sensors. The device opens up like a clamshell the long way and sits at either a 135 or 180 degree angle when opened. Inside you’ll find the second of two 320 x 480 pixel displays on one side, a full QWERTY keyboard on the other side with what you’ll find is the reason for the pink accents on the outside: pink accents on the inside.

So thought it may be politically incorrect of me to assume that this device is aimed at the feminine ladies and gentlemen amongst us, I must say that a Star Wars fan looking for the perfect smartphone to go with his or her stormtrooper outfit should think twice about choosing the DoubleTime. That is of course unless they’re one of those fancy pink-painted troops, then this is the device for you!

Otherwise the device is certainly cute, and dare I say it does feel relatively tough despite its mainly plastic chassis. One thing is certain, the whole rig is streets ahead of the Samsung Gravity Smart, a rather irritably low-quality device currently housed at T-Mobile. It just feels like Samsung put a bit more effort into the DoubleTime, if you know what I mean.

Software

You’ll be running Android 2.2 Froyo with essentially no changes made from its original form – the only additions that either the manufacturer OR the carrier has made is a couple of AT&T applications that appear on the vast majority of the handsets released by them. Samsung has essentially abstained from adding anything in the way of software here, so it’s basically all Google. That means just two screens of apps out of the box with all the more space for you to fill the device up with your own apps from the Android Market.

Inside you’ll also find a 600 MHz single-core processor from Qualcomm that may seem quick to you if you’ve never so much as laid a hand on a smartphone before, but not so perfectly hot if you’re moving from any other Android, BlackBerry, or Symbian device. I won’t even mention iPhone because everyone knows that there’s essentially just one model, and it only goes one speed: quick. You’ll be able to play quite a few basic games on this device and yes, stream some video, but you’ll primarily want to stick to things like social media, web browsing, texting, and calling. Call quality is just fine, by the way. Gone are the days of tin-can calls and bad reception, no worries here.

Camera

Not many nice things can be said about the camera here, especially since there’s only one and it’s a mere 3.2 megapixels, so I won’t say much at all. Instead here are a couple of examples of what you’ll end up capturing with this shooter which sits at 320 x 280 pixels for video and wont afford you much more than OK photos for your wallpaper on the device itself. Don’t expect many keepers here, is what I’m saying.

Battery

The battery should give you around 8 hours regardless of if you’re using the outside or the inside display since they’re essentially the same exact thing for drain and you can only have one on at a time. If you decide you want to watch video streaming from the internet with YouTube or any of the few streaming video apps available for the now-old Android 2.2 Froyo like Netflix – get ready for the death drop in battery time. We’re talking less than 2 hours, a couple of TV shows if you’re lucky.

That said, normal activity like texting your pals, updating Facebook and Google+, and playing a tiny game or two will give you enough battery life that you’ll only have to charge it when you go to sleep and again when you’re in the car.

Wrap-Up

While this smartphone is far and away, not even in the same ballpark, basically not even the same sport as the top tier smartphones also made by Samsung such as the Galaxy S II or even the top of middle-tier devices like the Samsung Captivate Glide (also pictured below), it does hold some sway in its own lower level of internet-capable handsets. This device looks rather unique with its mostly white and black chassis and pink accents, and the double touch displays are certainly a nice touch.

Get this phone if you’re the type of person who only plans on using this first-timer smartphone for email and Facebook posting. If you plan on racking up the data with a more costly plan per month, do yourself a favor and spend a bit more money at the outset so you don’t end up crying when you’re dropping loads of cash per month on a device that’s nowhere near the quality that the data costs should provide.

The T-Mobile myTouch and myTouch Q share very similar specs with each running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz processor along with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and front-facing camera. The myTouch features a 3.8-inch display and relies on the Swipe virtual keyboard, while the myTouch Q features a smaller 3.5-inch display, but has the addition of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Both smartphones will ship with the Netflix app pre-installed as well as integrated T-Mobile TV capabilities. The two devices will be available online starting November 2, priced at $79.99 each after a mail-in rebate and with a new two-year service agreement. Starting November 9, they’ll both head to T-Mobile stores.

[via TMoNews]

Hardware

This is a device that someone who seeks only the 4G LTE Verizon connection speed and absolutely cannot live without a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from under the display will be picking up. Samsung makes a 4.3-inch device running on 4G LTE with the same amount of pixels and the same screen technology as well – no QWERTY, but four physical buttons below the display – that’s the DROID CHARGE – it essentially has the same 1GHz processor as well. So which is best? Whichever one you want the most, of course.

The Samsung Stratosphere is a rather bulky device at 14mm thick, and the back of the device’s full-body battery cover, though formed rather nicely, is a hard plastic that makes the entire device a bit slippery to hold. Once the keyboard is slid out, and it does slide out nicely mind you, you’ll have no trouble hanging on for some physical typing and navigating with the up/down/left/right keys.

So what you’ve got here is a real competition between the Stratosphere and the Pantech Breakout if you want two devices that cost nearly the same. You’ve got the same 800 x 480 display at 4-inches (without Super AMOLED) and another 5-megapixel camera, a 1GHz processor (from Qualcomm this time) and some rather unique looking physical buttons. Pantech also provides a rather unique look at Android with their own user interface, this compared to the TouchWiz you’ll see in the hands-on look at the Stratosphere here makes for an interesting one to one:

Again take a look at the Pantech Breakout in our full review of the device from a few weeks ago. There are of course some other more expensive and higher-end choices for LTE if you feel like dropping a few more bucks: LG Revolution, HTC ThunderBolt (the first LTE smartphone,) and the DROID BIONIC, currently the only dual-core processor toting LTE device. Also of course you could go full blast with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus that’ll be out next month.

Software

Samsung runs a user interface over stock Android that’s called TouchWiz. This iteration of TouchWiz is not the most advanced of all Samsung devices released thus far, that’d be the Galaxy S II here in the USA, but it’s fairly decent. It’s slick, customizable to a degree, and has that ever-so-enjoyable puzzle unlock that you may have heard of if you’ve ever seen TouchWiz in action before. What it consists of is a set of puzzle pieces running across your screen, each of them corresponding to a phone call you’ve had, a message, or any number of alerts, including a simple path to your homescreen – the rest, when pulled and placed in the correct open puzzle piece hole, lead to the corresponding app.

Inside you’ll also find not one, but two docking modes, first one that works with your basic desk dock here:

Then another that works with an automobile dock:

Both work rather well and set you up for a perfectly legit mini version of what you get with the DROID RAZR (another LTE dual-core device coming to Verizon soon) in its desktop mode. There are a few enterprise features in the software pack here that includes what Verizon calls the “most comprehensive mobile implementation” of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), B2B-enabled connectivity services, and some Sybase Afaria for remote device management as well. Need a BlackBerry alternative for your home business? This may well be it.

Camera

The camera on the front of the device is capable of a fairly standard 1.3 megapixels of quality that you’ll basically just be using for video chat, while the back of the device’s 5 megapixel camera can also record 720p quality video. Have a peek at a video recorded at top quality here, a photo at top quality as well, and a couple more photos in the gallery at the bottom of this post – you’ll know em because they’ll be the only ones that don’t contain the phone itself as an image in them.

Battery

Like several Samsung devices we’ve seen very recently, Galaxy S II devices included, the standby time on this smartphone appears to be pretty good. It’s certainly not the best handler of battery on earth, (that’s still the Galaxy S II, for those of you counting,) but it’s pretty good. Have a peek at this example of a normal medium-use day of the device here:

Connection Speed

One of the biggest selling points on this device will be the connection speed, as it’s one of less than 10 devices on the market today to be able to connect at Verizon’s 4G LTE speeds. Have a peek here at some speed tests done here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where LTE speeds are real:

Wrap-Up

This device represents a unique choice, as all good smartphones should. Again, this is the only 4G LTE device on the market with a full QWERTY keyboard on it, and it’s the second of two Samsung smartphones on the market today running on that same network. This device is neither the most powerful nor the most sleek device in any category, but it DOES have a keyboard, I assure you. Have a peek at the video and the photos above and below, and you tell me: will you slide with LTE?

This device has the ability to work with Direct Connect, what the first carrier of this device calls its gold-standard push-to-talk capabilities, and meets military standard 810G for dust, shock, solar radiation, vibration, low pressure, and temperatures of all kinds. The display is made of Corning Gorilla Glass – only diamonds, more Gorilla Glass, or really sharp puppy teeth can bust it. What we’ve got to ask here is of Motorola – is this combined with the Motorola DROID RAZR the start of a tough lineup throughout the future?

Because check it out if you haven’t already: the DROID RAZR is made of mostly metal, Kevlar plating and Gorilla Glass on the front. It’s both super thin and nearly indestructible for your day to day activities – and here comes to the Admiral, a device we first heard about several weeks ago in name only, now we see that it’s not only inexpensive, its tough as nails! This look like a device you might pick up?

If this is your first BlackBerry, you should know that not all BlackBerries come in one one black berry color – this 9360 comes in either black or a lovely merlot. You’ll get a 2.4-inch display, a full QWERTY keypad, the classic BlackBerry setup with the display sitting to the north of the keypad, the full device in a portrait configuration. You’ll also find that this keypad is one of the most comfortable to use in BlackBerry history, the spacing and the curvature of the setup optimized for your fingers to tap tap tap away on. You’ll get your ever-present navigation track-pad and four BlackBerry menu buttons as well, no worries!

Inside you’ll find the latest release of BBM BlackBerry Messenger, this version now connected to a range of other apps including the now ultra-popular Foursquare, all this through a new BBM Connected app. On the back of the device you’ll find a 5-megapixel camera with flash as well. A simple device with essential bits all around.

This BlackBerry, the Curve 9360, will be available in an exclusive pre-sale for T-Mobile business customers beginning the same day this post is posted, September 21, 2011. The black color finish will be available nationwide starting on September 28th, while the merlot color finish will be released on October 12th. This device will cost $79.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate card, all this attached to a 2-year service agreement and qualifying classic voice and data plan.

Can you barely contain yourself?!

AndroidGuys caught a quick glance at the clips before they were set to private and noted that the file names indicated that one phone was an all-touch device while the other included a QWERTY keyboard. It’s believed that the devices will be called the T-Mobile myTouch by LG and the T-Mobile myTouch Q by LG.

Currently, T-Mobile has the myTouch 4G Slide from HTC, which launched back in July. These two new myTouch devices may be the codenamed LG Maxx and Maxx Q devices referenced in the leaked T-Mobile roadmap, which indicates that they should be launching in early November.

Motorola has just announced a new Android smartphone called the Motorola Pro+. This handset runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and sports a portrait QWERTY—a form factor that says it’s going after the BlackBerry-toting business crowd. The device is set to launch in Europe and Asia in October and could land on T-Mobile here in the states.

The Motorola Pro+ is powered by a 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM. It features a 3.1-inch 480×640 touchscreen protected by Gorilla Glass and sports a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash. And although the phone has only been confirmed for Europe and Asia, it does come in two variants, one of which supports 14.4Mbps HSPA on AWS, hinting that it may be heading to T-Mobile.

Portrait-oriented full physical QWERTY smartphones for Android are less common than the popular full touchscreen handsets, but the form factor proves to still be popular for business users that require lots of typing, texting, and sending emails while on the go. Samsung will also be offering a portrait QWERTY Android smartphone for business users as revealed by their recent naming scheme revision.

[via Motorola]

The Pre 3 was to be one of two webOS smartphones from HP, the other being the pint-sized Veer. It sports a form factor similar to its Palm Pre and Pre 2 predecessors with a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard that’s also the largest of the Pre series. It has a 3.6-inch 480×800 display, a 5-megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, and a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor.

In Europe it’s currently retailing for 349 euros ($505) in France and 299 pounds ($490) in the UK. But much like the fire sale for the HP TouchPad, the Pre 3 is set to get a tremendous discount. The unlocked version will go on sale for $75 unlocked, although exactly when the sale will kick off has not yet been confirmed.

And although the phone will not launch in the US, the unlocked version from Europe can still work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks but will face 3G limitations due to lack of support for the appropriate network bands.

[via PCMag]

The BlackBerry Torch 2 is listed as model number RDM71UW in the FCC documents where it’s shown to support GSM 850 an 1900 bands along with WCDMA bands II and V. This confirms that the device will be heading to AT&T, which isn’t too surprising since its predecessor was also carried by AT&T. However, there’s no mention as to whether the device will support HSPA+ or have NFC.

Images and specs for the device have turned up before, including a hands-on video. It’s said to be a big improvement on the original BlackBerry Torch, now with a 3.2-inch touchscreen display that has a 640×480 resolution, running on a 1.2GHz processor with 768MB RAM, 8GB internal memory, and a 5-megapixel camera.

[via Engadget]

Although no official announcements have been made on the device, leaks over the past few months have revealed that the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide has some pretty slick features for those desiring a device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The handset is expected to have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual LED flash.

It should come running Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense on top. Images have leaked of the device in the wild and those that had a chance to play with it say that the keyboard is “amazing” and the phone is “surprisingly fast.” It’s also said to be big heavier than the T-Mobile G2 while the keyboard has a similar feel.

[via Android Community]

What you’re going to get here is one touch to share, that being the Facebook button’s ability to instantly share essentially whatever you’ve got on your screen at the time to your Facebook wall. There’s also the ability to “instantly” share photos as you’re taking them, a long-press of the button checks you in with Facebook Places (GPS-style,) and of course you’ve got the latest version of HTC’s own custom user interface for Android, HTC Sense, to keep you company as well. With HTC Sense your lockscreen becomes a launch pad for whatever apps you like – just drag them to the ring and poof! You’re there.

Because HTC is attentive to such things as phone calls on a phone – believe it or not – they’ve also integrated such things as your friend’s profile pic (from Facebook or whatever you’ve assigned to them with the device itself) showing up when you get a phone call from them. If it’s their birthday, you’ll get a notification about that as well. No more excuses! You’ve got a VGA camera up front, a 5-megapixel camera on the back, and a full special effects suite built in to the phone for editing before uploading to Facebook again. Fun!

You’ll get a 2.6-inch touchscreen here with 480×320 pixel resolution, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the most advanced handset-based Android on the market, and 512 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM. Connections are along Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900, your processor is a MSM7227 800 MHz chipset, and you’ve got a generous 1250 mAh battery backing you up for all-day working. Look for us to get you a full AT&T version review and hands-on with this device soon!

The Motorola Theory features a high-finish premium design, 1.3-megapixel camera, and a 2.4-inch QVGA display. It also offers threaded messaging, web and email access, and Bluetooth.

The device is slated to launch on June 7 for a very affordable $79.99, excluding taxes. It will be available starting at Boost Mobile’s retail stores and select independent wireless dealers across the country. By late June, the Theory will roll out to major retail outlets nationwide.

The Motorola Clutch i475 has the same candy-bar styling as its predecessor but features an improved QWERTY keyboard to enhance instant communication and has a easy to grip more rugged exterior. The device also supports threaded messaging, Bluetooth, web and email access, VGA camera, and GPS.

It is the first of three new devices to come from Motorola and is available now for $99.99. You can find them at Boost Mobile retail stores, major retail outlets nationwide, as well as at independent wireless dealers.

The device will feature a full size QWERTY keyboard with its Mobile Docking Station. The tablet itself is a 10.1-inch device with a 1280×800 capacitive touch screen and will run Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) with ASUS’s new MyWave overlay and will feature the company’s WaveShare network media sharing system. MyWave looks very slick, and running on Honeycomb, it seemed incredibly responsive.

The device will sport two onboard cameras: one 1.2MP Video Camera on the front, and a 5MP auto-focus camera on the back. Communications and ports include Wireless N, Bluetooth, HDMI, USB and a built in card reader. With its NVIDIA Tegra 2, it is being promoted as “twice the performance while being even thinner than the iPad.”

You can pick up a ASUS Transformer for $399-$699 when it ships in April of this year.

[Update: New tipsters have apparently confirmed that both the Turtle and the Pure (aka the Sharp PB10ZU and the PB20ZU) will be available, and are likely to launch in late April 2010.  The production names are still not finalized, but the UI shares some of Windows Phone 7's appearance along with "some sort of UI skin/more of a social-networking edge".]

Gizmodo are only sharing one tiny graphic – the one you see above – because their hoard apparently came from someone working with Microsoft and they want to protect their identity.  Still, they’re asking us to believe that the rest is legitimate even if we can’t see it; the documents are supposedly only days old, and discuss the launch as if it’s imminent.

The smartphone runs an OS other than Windows Phone 7 but also seems to include some sort of app platform; it’s unclear what the basis of that platform might be.  There are also no specifications of the Turtle device, nor any indication of what its commercial name might be.  Still, if the timescales they’re talking about pan out, we shouldn’t have too long to wait.

The ENT ET-M43A is what it’s officially called, and unfortunately we don’t have a catchy nickname for it yet, but we’ll get right on that. Specs wise, this thing is packing a 624MHz Intel XScale PXA300 processor, paired with WiFi a/b/g, an SDHC card slot for expanding that memory you probably desperately need, and USB 2.0 connectivity. There’s a physical QWERTY keyboard, but as the images show us, there’s obviously a soft sort as well, just in case you want to take it easy on that sliding action.

There isn’t any 3G connectivity though, so if that’s something you need in your day-to-day, this MID isn’t going to get lucky enough to get your hands on it. Though, there was something strange about this device, and even now it’s somewhat disheartening. Right there, in the image right above this, you can see at the bottom left of the keyboard that infamous “flag” key, that shows up on nearly every Windows Mobile device out there. So, was this thing originally optimized for the WinMo platform, or does that thing have some kind of significance within this MID’s Android OS? No word on that as of yet. But, we’re sure we’ll find out soon enough.

[via Gadget Mix]

See, there’s some confusion regarding the WiFi Alliance’s website, and the fact that the TG02 they have listed, isn’t necessarily the TG02 we were expecting. It looks like the TG02 is a clamshell phone, though the pictures we saw of it back in April don’t reflect that at all. And what makes it even more confusing, is the fact that the WiFi Alliance’s recent certification shows that the TG02 has a model number of TM5-E01. It’s strange, considering that phone has already cleared the FCC months ago, and while the statistics showed a clamshell phone, the pictures clearly showed a TG01-inspired handset.

There’s obviously nothing official regarding the TG02, or whatever phone has cleared the WiFi Alliance, and the confusion is pretty bad. Diving further into the TM5-E01 ordeal, other sites like Tweakers.net, has it that the TG02 is based on the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, featuring only a 3″ touchscreen internal display and a 0.8″ inch external screen. A full QWERTY keyboard comes for the ride, too. So, what should we expect? Or will it be like the TG01 and never see these shores?

[via UnWired View]

We’ve already seen the review, and our excitement only piqued when we started to see images of the TouchPro 2 showing off a 3.5mm headphone jack, but now it seems we may have something to frown about.  T-Mobile is looking to have the TouchPro 2 very soon, and they’re banking on the fact it’s business sense, Windows Mobile platform, and tilting capabilities will attract you to spend quite a bit of money. Based on the image we’re seeing of a T-Mobile price sheet, the TouchPro2 will sell for a hefty $549.99 off-contract, and $349.99 on a new two-year contract.  There isn’t any word on a mail-in rebate at this point, but let’s hope T-Mobile lets one slip through.

And if you don’t want to go for a two-year contract, then go ahead and pick the phone up for $399.99 on a one-year contract.

[via Tmo News]

The next bit of information is the entire business sales guide for the Palm Pre. The guide covers everything from an overview of the Pre as it pertains to business customers to the guiding questions the sales staff must ask to determine if the Pre is right for a business user. We also learned that the battery will give the Pre a 5-hour talk time for users. That’s some good information to know.

June 6th can’t come soon enough for at least one of the Staff members here at SlashGear (me). I’ll be camped out for the Pre bringing you exciting play-by-play news of the Pre’s release, knowing full well that the limited supply of Pre phones could result in a frenzied struggle to snag the device. We’ll also be out at the Pre launch party in Hollywood to bring you some great coverage from that event as well, so make sure you check back here on June 3rd and 6th!

Video demo after the cut

Physical changes to the UX390 are scant.  Out went the standard hard-drive, to be replaced by a 32GB SSD, while the stock network card – which maxes out at g-band wireless – was replaced by an 802.11n card for faster connections to perrin21′s Airport Extreme.

The end result is a (large) pocket-sized portable Mac UMPC, which can smoothly run not only OS X but Boxee and Front Row.  Until Apple roll out their Media Pad, this could be the next-best thing.

[via UMPC Portal]

The Acer Tempo will run Windows Mobile 6.1 and will be one of several smartphones that the computer manufacturer is releasing. The Tempo will feature a full QWERTY keyboard, touchscreens and HSDPA. The screen is a 3.8″ WVGA.

We saw the Acer smartphones at Mobile World Congress, and the Tempo family consists of four different models, the DX900, X960, F900 and M900. Check out the listing here.

[Thanks to Drew for the Tip!]

The new Sidekick will also take advantage of T-Mobile’s developing 3G network, offering much faster browsing speeds than the previous generation Sidekick. This will come in handy for the social-network loving users who will advantage from the “Communities” section of the LX, which will feature one-click links to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter via an optimized application screen. These applications will also push notifications directly on the homescreen of the Sidekick, letting the user know if they have any events from their friends on their networks.

The camera will offer a new multimedia experience that will allow users to upload video straight to YouTube and share with their friends. The original Sidekick established itself early on as a social-networking and texting giant, and was one of the first consumer-grade phones to feature a full QWERTY keyboard. Hitting shelves on May 13th for $199 with a 2-year contract. Here’s the full specifications:

Integrated social networking application bundle includes Facebook, MySpace and Twitter
· High-speed Web browsing with 3G support
· Built-in GPS support with Live Search
· 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash
· Ability to record, play and share videos
o Share recorded videos via e-mail and upload videos to social networking sites
o Watch videos on YouTube via the web browser or on MySpace
· Carbon or orchid finish
· Music player with streaming audio and streaming RTSP video
· 3.2-inch F-WVGA screen with high-definition LCD technology with 854×480 resolution
· Support for personal e-mail, SMS, MMS, instant messaging (IM)
o Clients include AOL® Instant Messenger, Windows Live and Yahoo!® Messenger
· Iconic swivel design and full QWERTY keyboard (manufactured by Sharp)
· Intuitive user interface with Quick Find to search across all applications
· Network Address Book
· Included 1GB microSD™ memory card
· Bluetooth® 2.0 with A2DP supports stereo Bluetooth and Bluetooth file transfer to other Bluetooth devices including photo printers
· Dimensions: 5.1 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches; 5.7 ounces
· Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE worldphone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
· Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA (AWS Band IV & Band I)
· 1250 mAh Lithium Ion battery
· Battery: 3G — 3 hours talk time, 6 days standby; 2G — 5.5 hours talk time, 8 days standby
· Software and services provided by Danger, a Microsoft subsidiary.
· Shortly following launch, T-Mobile plans to make available Exchange Active Sync support via the Sidekick Download Catalog so customers can stay virtually connected to work.