Motorola Blaze: Verizon’s Next Touch Screen

The LG Dare came out less than a week ago but Verizon Wireless already has another all-touch screen device ready to battle the likes of the Dare, Voyager and Glyde… introducing the Motorola Blaze.

BGR describes the phone as, “A Ming crossed with a PEBL crossed with a RAZR 2.” Hmmm.. interesting. We’ve got (rumored) specs and pictures to give you a better idea:

Pictures:

[Via BGR]

SE Paris & BeiBei Get PooPooed

Sony Ericsson’s June 17th announcement included 5 new phones but the absence of the phones dubbed Paris and BeiBei were mysteriously missing from the lineup. Now we know why… they have been cancelled.

According to the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog, Sony Ericsson may have shelved the two phones because of overwhelming criticism from reviewers, mentioning Mobile-Review.com specifically. Apparently sticks and stones may break your bones but words will cancel phone launches.

Here are some of the scathing comments from Mobile-Review:

  • honestly speaking, this line-up has come out flat-out clumsy
  • It seems to be that over at Sony Ericsson they believe they can stand up to Nokia and without putting much thought into it they keep releasing direct rivals to the latter’s solutions.
  • Since there is the Sony Ericsson G900 out there that comes with UIQ 3.0 (which should seem no different from the 3.3 release to the average user), a better camera (5 Mpix), slightly bigger casing and, more importantly, a comparable price tag (it will by the time the G702 arrives), we are not sure why they would need to bring a slew of similar phones to the market and put them up against one another without own product portfolio.
  • I’m sincerely disappointed, and it’s not the first time by the way, by the strategy Sony Ericsson is currently applying – it’s a dead-end for this particular maker, period.

    • To sum it up, people felt like the Paris and BeiBei were just crappier versions of the Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber Shot and that these crappier versions didn’t offer enough differentiation, and pricetag difference, to be worthy of their own release.

    I guess Sony Ericsson agreed with the criticisms and decided to cut their losses.

    [Via USEB]

    Rumored: BlackBerry Meteor, Javelin, Kickstart, Thunder, Seawolf, Aurora

    We already knew about the BlackBerry Thunder. The Kickstart, Javelin and Meteor have been mentioned/rumored before as upcoming BlackBerry phones. But today, we see the possibility of even more phones making their way to the market:

    XML documents have been uncovered that point to the BlackBerry Seawolf and BlackBerry Aurora getting added to the mix. However, a note that tags the Aurora in the 8100 seriers and gives it the same ID as the Thunder/Storm/Whatever… hints that it may have been left in the dust.

    If the rumors are true - and they likely are considering they’re coming from the Boy Genius who has been right on almost every BB Rumor in recent memory - you’ll have a much better selection of Blackberries than you ever imagined:

    Here are screenshots of the the “tip-off” images:

    (coming soon… upload problems)

    [Via BGR]

    Real Pictures of the BlackBerry Thunder!

    Rumors of the BlackBerry Thunder have been spreading like wildfire ever since the BGR dropped news on the upcoming and unannounced device. He created a “mockup” of what HE thought the device would look like, many people confusing it for official pictures.

    Now the BGR has the REAL pictures and he wasn’t far off. Emblazoned with a Verizon Wireless logo, the phone is rumored to be a lifetime exclusive on Verizon’s network.

    Just when you thought the weekend was slipping away with nothing notable happening… The phone has all the buttons we expected… Send, Menu, Escape and End with a few odds and ends here and there. It looks as beautiful as we thought it would, but a few questions remain. Mainly:

    1. Is BlackBerry capable of putting out a highly competitive product with the BlackBerry Thunder since it is their first ever attempt at creating a touchscreen? Or, can we expect it to have flaws that the BlackBerry brand can’t overcome?
    2. We want one… when does it come out?

    It’s amazing how one guy got the scoop on EVERYTHING for this phone… finding the rumors before anyone else, announcing them, making an oh-so-accurate mock-up, disputing claims of others that it didn’t exist and now releasing these.

    Big props to the Boy Genius Report!

    Verizon Plots to Purchase Alltel

    The rumors have circulated before without action, but according to CNBC, Verizon is on the verge of acquiring the 5th largest Wireless Carrier in the United States (Alltel) for $27 Billion Dollars.

    The current American Mobile market looks like this:

    The purchase of Alltel would allow VZW to hurdle above AT&T as the #1 American mobile carrier with nearly 10 million more subscribers - a huge margin.

    The move would further consolidate what is already a race with limited horses. In the past few years AT&T and Cingular merged (well, kind of) and Sprint bought Nextel. In addition to Verizon buying Alltel, rumors have persisted that T-Mobile is interested in the possible purchase of Sprint.

    If both deals happened, the market would look like this (estimated):

    Will this consolidation be good or bad for consumers? Well, while the mobile carriers are consolidating we’re seeing mobile software opening, thanks in part to Google’s Android. But with all this change, where is the wireless industry heading?

    We’ll keep you posted.

    Samsung i900 is I-Want-It Worthy

    There have been a lot of phone rumors dropping where, with one look of the phone, you think, “I want it.” The Samsung i900 definitely fits into that category. Scroll down for pictures.

    Speculation on Specifications (say it 10 times):

    Not too shabby, eh? Not at all… and those pics you’ve been waiting for:

    [Via NaviGadget]

    T-Mobileload Dropping June through August

    We’re always excited to hear about announcements of new handsets - but 16?!??!

    Some fairly credible documents have popped up that suggest an outrageous pace of handsets for release in the upcoming months. Here are the releases as announced by TMoNews.com:

    Note that 3 of the 16 are missing. The rumor mill can only do so much chugging - stop being greedy! In fact, some of these might be a bit off base. Other solid sources suggest that the BlackBerry Bold will come out on T-Mobile in September, which would make this rumor inaccurate.

    It is a rumor and it is subject to flexibility, not to mention complete inaccuracy, but there is good reason to believe that T-Mobile will indeed go on a release spree.

    The Boy Genius followed through, giving us extensive details on five of the 16:

    Not only that, he came through with internal infosheets. If our T-Mobile fans aren’t satisfied with today’s news, they must be looking for an anouncement that T-Mobile phones will be offering freaking time travel by December.

    Here are the infosheets:

    [Via TMoNews, BGR]

    Christian Dior Phone - $5,000

    For only $5,000 a Christian Dior Branded phone could be yours. Personally, if we had $5,000 to drop for the fun of it, we’d be much more likely to scoop a big screen TV, Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 with a handful of sick games and lock ourselves indoors for a few days.

    Then again, if you have the $5,000 to drop, you likely have everything else you want anyways. The Christian Dior phone is for the type of people that have so much money they don’t know what to do with it.

    The details are few as of now - it will have a touchscreen and all that jazz - but the cool part, for women at least, is that the “My Dior” phone will come with a mini-me. Clip it to your handbag and when your phone rings, no need to rummage around in order to pull it out!

    The single guys are laughing right now, “how lame.” But the girls, and the guys who have ever been asked by their girlfriend to find something in their handbag, understand that this is actually quite practical and helpful.

    But is it worth $5,000? If your answer is “yes” and you plan on buying the phone, please consider hitting the “contact” link at the top of this page and donating a large sum of money to MobileRoar since you have no problem throwing your money around like Floyd Mayweather:

    [Via Crave]

    Rumor Mill: Blackberry 9000 Gets a BOLD Name

    A couple reliable sources (Crackberry, BGR) are speculating that the name of the much awaited (and awaited, and awaited) Blackberry 9000 could be the Blackberry BOLD. Or is it Bold, Bold or BOLD?

    Kevin Michaluk from Crackberry.com initially “broke” the news and is determined that the phone will go by the name BOLD. His evidence?

    The BGR is a little more skeptical, saying, “the domain, which was purchased from a shady-looking comnpany in Canada, currently has text link ads on it. Not a good sign.”

    Either way, there are two things we ARE sure about.

    1. The Blackberry whatever-ya-wanna-call-it 9000 is almost guaranteed to kick some mobile booty.
    2. Most people seem diabolically opposed to the name Bold.

    We kind of like the name… and would you rather have a sweet name for a crappy device or  crap name for a sweet device? That’s what we thought…