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Mobile users over in the UK can already buy the brand new Samsung Jet, which was announced by Sammy yesterday, alongside Omnia II, Omnia Pro and others.

Also known as Samsung S8000 Cubic, Samsung Jet can be found only via Vodafone for the moment (the exclusivity will expire in two weeks).

The largest British carrier offers the Jet even for free, but only on contract. If you’re willing to sign a 2-yr agreement, you have to pay £20 monthly to get the phone free of charge. 18-month agreements require £25 plans, while the 12-month ones require £40 plans.

Presented by Samsung as “smarter than a smartphone”, the Jet has some pretty cool features, including:

• 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with 480 x 800 pixels and 16 million colors
• TouchWiz 2.0 UI
• 800MHz processor
• GPS
• Wi-Fi
• 5MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash
• 2GB / 8GB / 16GB of internal memory
• MicroSD card support

You can buy the Samsung Jet online, from Vodafone UK’s website.

Via Pocket-lint

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Verizon’s customers who often travel abroad should be happy to find out that the largest North American carrier has announced the USB1000 Global Modem (manufactured by Novatel Wireless), which features EV-DO Rev A and HSPA, thus being able to provide high-speed data connectivity both inside and outside the US.

The USB1000 Global Modem will be available from Verizon starting tomorrow, June 19 – the same day when AT&T and Apple are launching the iPhone 3G S.

With a 2-yr contract agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate, the USB1000 costs $149.99.

Verizon offers the USB1000 together with the GlobalAccess plan, available in two options: monthly or pay-per-use.

The monthly GlobalAccess plan can be used in 31 select destinations and costs $129.99 for 100MB, or $219.99 for 200MB per month (5GB allowance in the US and Canada is included).

Via Verizon

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If you think that Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon QSD2850 chipset (packed in Toshiba’s TG01) is impressive, wait until you hear about the new 1.3GHz QSD8650A chipset.

Announced today by Qualcomm, the 1.3GHz QSD8650A chipset comes to expand the Snapdragon family, bringing not only 30% more speed, but also a 2D graphics accelerator and an improved 3D graphics core.

What’s even cooler is that the QSD8650A requires 30% less power than the previous Snapdragon chipsets, and it only consumes 10 milliwats when in stand-by.

The new 45nm chipset supports WXGA (1280 x 720 pixels) displays and Adobe Flash, thus being suitable for next-gen smartphones and smartbooks. The chipset also features GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, mobile TV (DVB-H, MediaFLO, ISDB-T) and high-def video recording/playback.

(Toshiba TG01)

The 1.3GHz Snapdragon QSD2850 chipset from Qualcomm is scheduled for sampling sometime before the end of 2009.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm has re-affirmed its plans to power more than 30 Snapdragon-based devices from more than 15 manufacturers. All these products should be released by the end of 2009.

Via Press release

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Announced at the same time with Sony Ericsson Idou (which is now called Satio), the Sony Ericsson W995 will be launched in the US this summer, as Sony Ericsson W995a.

The W995a should be available starting July 6, with “pre-sale items available on or about 06/29/2009.”

Unfortunately, the Walkman flagship phone has a pretty steep price: it will retail for $599.99, unlocked.

Apparently, there won’t be any US carrier to offer the handset, so if you really want it you’ll have no choice but to buy it at this price.

In case you don’t know them yet, the specs of Sony Ericsson W995a include:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Tri-band UMTS/HSPA connectivity (850/1800/1900 MHz)
• 2.6 inch QVGA scratch-resistant display
• 8.1MP autofocus camera with LED flash, smile shutter
• A-GPS
• Wi-Fi
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• 8GB M2 memory card
• 3.8 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches
• 4.0 ounces

Customers can pre-order the Sony Ericsson W995a as of now, via Sony Style.

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Samsung’s first commercially available solar-powered phone will not be the Blue Earth (announced in February), but the new E1107 Crest Solar candybar.

Unveiled today, Samsung E1107 Crest Solar is a low-end phone targeted at emerging markets.

The handset has a 800 mAh battery that can be charged in the usual way, as well as thanks to the solar panel featured on the back case. Samsung says that 1 hour under the sun can provide 5 to 10 minutes of extra talk-time.

When it comes to design, Samsung E1107 Crest Solar resembles the E1100 model:

Solar panel aside, the E1107 offers:

• Dual-band GSM connectivity (900/1800 MHz)
• 1.52 inch CSTN display with 128 x 128 pixels and 65K colors
• FM Radio
• MP3 ringtones
• Built-in flashlight
• Mobile Tracker

Samsung E1107 Crest Solar will be available starting this month, in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Europe and Latin America.

In India, the phone is called Samsung Solar Guru and costs only 2,799 INR ($59) unlocked.

Via Samsung Hub, Mobile Burn

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Not long after announcing that Windows Mobile 6.5 is complete, Microsoft has now released the WM 6.5 SDK (software development kit).

The SDK allows developers to not only test Windows Mobile 6.5, but also to start developing apps for the new OS.

The WM 6.5 SDK comes with a new set of APIs (application programming interfaces) which “enable application developers to take advantage of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 touch gesture framework.”

From the Emulator Images that are made available, we know that Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard supports only QVGA displays, while Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional supports the following resolutions: QVGA, WQVGA, VGA and WVGA. Well, that’s actually not a surprise.

To download the Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK and see the Instructions / Required software, head on over to Microsoft’s official website.

Via IntoMobile

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NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile carrier, announced the unveiling of a new brand in India, established with the purpose of offering GSM services across the country.

Created in collaboration with Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), the new brand is called Tata DoCoMo.

It will launch its services sometime later this month, first in southern India. By the end of 2009, Tata DoCoMo intends to provide services nationwide.

Details about the phones and data plans that the new brand will offer are not known. However, since the phones are GSM, they’ll surely be different than the devices currently offered by TTSL via its CDMA brand Tata Indicom.

As of 2008, NTT DoCoMo owns 26% of Tata Teleservices. The Japanese company said it would “bring to India the various products and services that we offer in Japan – such as i-mode, LBS and mobile payment.”

Even more, DoCoMo will work with Tata “on future technologies like 3G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE).”

Via Press release and Press release (PDF link)

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North America’s former no.1 mobile carrier, the big-and-blue AT&T, has announced it wants to upgrade its 3G network to HSPA, which should offer data transfer speeds of up to 7.2Mbps (double the current 3.6Mbps speed).

The carrier said that network upgrades are planed to begin later this month, although they will be completed only in 2011.

2011 is also the year when AT&T plans to deploy LTE, following trials that are scheduled for 2010.

AT&T further said that it’s “enhancing its mobile broadband coverage by nearly doubling the wireless spectrum dedicated to 3G in most metropolitan areas.”

Moreover, thousands of cell site backhaul connections will be added, in order to support the upcoming HSPA and LTE broadband speeds.

New HSPA 7.2-compatible devices (including smartphones and laptop cards) will be introduced by AT&T later this year – I guess that Apple’s new iPhone will be among those mentioned devices.

Via Press release

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We told ya just after Palm Pre launched that it was likely to go for $199 on contract when it finally ships.

And we told you one more thing then – that due to the shortage of the custom displays there will be pretty few Palm Pres available in the beginning, so you should expect shortages for the first few months.

Well now this small detail has been confirmed by none other then Sprint CEO himself.

According to Reuters, during investor conference Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said:

“We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while,” Hesse said according to a Thomson Reuters transcript. “We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”

Well, since our source was correct in everything else,   he’s probably correct on how many Pres Palm has stocked for launch and Q3. And that’s 200K units.

Considering that some of them are likely to go to Europe and Canada for Q3 launch, there really won’t be too many Pres out there before the Christmas season shipments arrive.

So if you really want one soon, you better try and get it in the first few days.

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Although Android 1.5 isn’t yet available for everyone, Sony Ericsson already talks about Android 2.0.

According to ePrice, Peter Ang, SE’s vice president of marketing, said that the company’s first handset to run on Google’s OS will come with Android 2.0, as well as with “Sony Ericsson’s unique style” – a new UI perhaps, to run on top of Android?

No time frame was given for the release of the Sony Ericsson Android 2.0 smartphone, but this should happen “in the near future”. So if the promised phone gets to be released before the end of 2009, this means Android 2.0 will also be out by then, right?

Apart from developing Android handsets, Sony Ericsson will also continue to make Windows Mobile and Symbian phones (for example, the 12MP Idou has Symbian on board, while the X2 will probably come with WM 6.5).

Via SlashPhone

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