PhoneLon

Starting today, you can buy the magical and revolutionary iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G at your favorite Apple Retail Store or from the Apple Online Store with free delivery to your door.

Today Apple releases the iPad 3G. The difference between the iPad and the iPad 3G are the 3G version has a cell phone chip in it and can connect to cell networks for internet. The iPad 3G also has GPS. In the US the carrier compatible with the iPad 3G is AT&T. Their pricing plans for data are $14.99 for 250MB usable for 30 days, or $29.99 for unlimited data usable for 30 days. These plans also include the free use of AT&T’s 20,000 Wifi hotspots. If you’re wondering which plan is better for you, check out this article by arstechnica which explains how one plan might work better for you.

- Apple is closing stores from 4-5pm to prepare for the launch.
- Phone calls and text messaging are not supported although VOIP apps like Skype are.
- Preorders over the web should be delivered to your home today.
- No contract: The data plans automatically renew every 30 days but can be canceled with no penalty
- For billing purposes, AT&T will assign you a “fake” mobile number.
- Data usage is tracked on device through Settings>Cellular Data
- When using the 250MB plan you will receive popup notifications when you hit 200MB, 225MB, and 250MB.
- Switching from plan to plan restarts your 30 day plan
… [visit site to read more]

With new additions to the Bold, Curve and Storm families over the past 6 months, BlackBerry Pearl fans were crying out for some new hardware and RIM have duly obliged with the announcement of the BlackBerry Pearl 9105 smartphone. The Pearl marks a first for the Canadian as it is the first BlackBerry phone to feature a traditional alpha-numeric keypad and also moves away from the trackball that gave previous Pearl’s their name in favour of the new optical trackpad. Is this a step too far or can the Pearl 9105 retain its BlackBerry-ness?

Despite the new style keypad, the Pearl 9105 is still unmistakably a BlackBerry. The keypad is that of a traditional phone so each key represents multiple letters with several taps required to get to certain letters in the alphabet. In addition to this, the 9105 boasts BlackBerry’s predictive text SureType technology that learns the words you use most to save time whilst typing. The departure away from QWERTY and semi QWERTY keyboards allows the Pearl 9105 to sport a more compact form factor; the phone measures a svelte 108 x 50 x 13.3 mm and tips the scales at just 93.6 g.

At this point you may be asking what exactly BlackBerry have stripped out to make room for this compact design. Well, we’re pleased to tell you that the Pearl 9105 is a fully fledged BlackBerry smartphone. Chat with friends with BlackBerry Messenger and receive real time delivery reports and even notification when your message has been read. Sync your Pearl with iTunes and carry all your music with you using expandable memory (microSD up to 32GB) and enjoy up to 30 hours of music playback with the long lasting removable battery.

Enhance your BlackBerry Pearl 9105 Smartphone with downloadable apps from BlackBerry App World and enjoy a more intuitive experience with BlackBerry Super Apps, Apps with deeper integration with the native apps on the phone allowing you to sync your calendar with Facebook and receive notifications on Ebay! Best of all, like any smartphone worth its salt, the Pearl is perfectly capable of multi-tasking and can manage multiple apps with ease thanks to BlackBerry OS’s dashboard interface.

The Pearl 9105 is ready for high speed web browsing thanks to HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity and is also a competent mapping device with GPS and BlackBerry Maps pre-installed. Combine this stunning feature set with BlackBerry’s tried and tested push email service, document editing and an excellent built in organiser and the Pearl 9105 becomes the perfect tool for work and play. Expected to launch in June, click here to register for updates and keep an eye on the blog and we’ll let you know as soon as the BlackBerry Pearl 9105 is available to pre-order.

The powerful HTC Desire is the ultimate smartphone with a stunning touchscreen, the latest Android OS and much more but for those looking to hop on the Android bandwagon on O2, you’re out of luck; O2 won’t be getting the Desire in store until at least mid May. But fear not, mobiles.co.uk are on hand to satisfy your O2 Android needs; the HTC Desire is now available on O2 at Mobiles.co.uk and in stock for the Bank Holiday Weekend!

Running on Android v 2.1, the Desire has a range of apps available to download from the Android Market. Add shortcuts to the multiple home screens for easy access to your favourite features and access Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail.

Other features of the HTC Desire include a 3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen with multi-touch, a 1GHz processor which allows for faster speeds even when running multiple applications at once and a 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash.

What’s more, O2 offer some great deals on the Desire; 900 minutes and unlimited texts for only ?35 a month with 7 months free, and other great tariffs which offer a free Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and other great consoles are available.

Check out our full range of great deals for the Desire on O2 and grab yours today.

In a statement today on Apple.com, Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the company’s position on Flash: “I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads.”

Nokia have officially lifted the lid on their next flagship smartphone and for once, the internet rumour mill appears to have hit the nail on the head in terms of specifications and even the name of the device. Leaked as the Nokia N8-, it seems the whole industry had all assumed a second digit would be added to the name in keeping with Nseries tradition but it seems Nokia were looking to buck the trend and have officially unveiled the Nokia N8.

Reading the list of features for the Nokia N8 is like reading a Nokia fans wish list. First and foremost, the N8 is a touchscreen device with a traditional candy bar form factor. Sporting a 3.5 inch AMOLED display, Nokia are clearly very confident in the touchscreen experience on the N8 as they have opted not to include a slide out QWERTY keyboard (as seen in the N900 and N97 Mini). The display uses capacitive technology which enables multi-touch (!) so the N8 will feature pinch to zoom in maps, the web browser and more. We’ll reserve judgement till we get hands on with the N8 but this easily looks set to become the best touchscreen Nokia ever released.

With the N8, Nokia clearly had their sights set on breaking boundaries. The phone is Nokia’s first to feature HD video capture and a 12 Megapixel camera (and the first phone to combine both). Video is captured in 720p HD and the N8 also boasts an HDMI port for connecting to an HD ready TV and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound for audio quality to match the excellent visuals. The N8 also includes an intuitive built-in editing suite letting users edit videos and add images, text, music and transitions. Equally impressive is the still image capture thanks to the built in 12 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, powerful Xenon flash and large lens that rivals those found in compact digital cameras. Whether its HD Video or still photography you’re after, the N8 has got you covered.

As good as the feature set of the N8 is, this simply isn’t enough if it’s running on an out of date operating system. Symbian as a touchscreen OS as we know it has had its day and, truth be told, there are so many competing (and better) operating systems out there. Equally, Nokia’s new OS MeeGo (or Maemo as it was) is too rough around the edges for a mainstream device, so what do Nokia do instead? Choose the N8 to relaunch Symbian of course! The N8 is running the all new Symbian ^3 operating system which offers multiple home screens that can be customised with apps and widgets (ala’ Android). The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture in the platform takes full advantage of the Nokia N8’s hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface and Symbian ^3 also benefits from greater memory management allowing for faster and smoother multi-tasking. We’ll save our in depth look at Symbian ^3 for another day but it certainly does look promising and a far cry from what we’re used to on touchscreen Nokia phones.

The N8 comes with all the trimmings you’d expect from a flagship smartphone; HSDPA and Wi-Fi, 16GB memory plus expandable (microSD), GPS with Nokia’s free voice guided SatNav (Ovi Maps), ARM 11 680 MHz processor and much much more. Whether they can reign in all these features and deliver a user friendly phone to match the headline grabbing spec sheet remains to be seen but at the very least Nokia have got off to a very promising start. Slated for a Q3 2010 launch, click here to register for updates for the Nokia N8 and keep an eye on the Blog for more info.

We could just leave it there as the title is fairly self explanatory but we’ll elaborate. Remember a couple of weeks ago when we reported that Palm were up for sale? Well, turns out the rumours were right on the money save for one tiny detail. Palm’s suitors. Forget HTC and Lenovo (the two most heavily linked) and laugh off rumours of Apple, RIM (BlackBerry), Nokia and many more. Yesterday the news landed via a press release that Palm had been acquired by IT giant HP (Hewlett-Packard).

The deal, which is set to complete by the 31st of July, sees HP purchasing Palm for around $1.2 billion dollars and HP have revealed they hope to keep much the same infrastructure as currently in place, including Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein. The merger will bring much needed financial support to the ailing smartphone manufacturer whilst at the same time giving HP a more formidable foot in the door (currently, they only offer a select range of Windows Mobile powered smartphones).

Commenting on the merger, HP’s Executive Vice President, personal systems division, said “Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices”. Those last four words, “multiple mobile connected devices”, hint that HP plan to use WebOS in much more than just smartphones. Could we see the eagerly anticipated WebOS Tablet actually make its way in to the realms of reality? We wouldn’t bet against it.

Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein added “We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS. We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”

For those Palm fans disappointed that it wasn’t HTC or one of the other big mobile manufacturers who took the plunge with Palm, don’t be, in many ways HP really are the best candidate. Palm needed someone who would fully support WebOS (easily one of the best operating systems on the market), offer the financial clout to produce hardware that can match the excellent software and not just absorb Palm for their numerous patents. Make no mistake, HP sees WebOS for the crowning glory that it is and plan to get it in as many customers hands as possible. If Palm were after a company with a shed load of money and little to no presence in the smartphone market, HP are the perfect fit. It certainly will be an exciting few months ahead for Palm and HP and we eagerly await the first releases under this partnership. Keep em peeled on the Blog for all the latest developments.

Apple today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 7 through June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. The five-day conference includes the first ever iPad development sessions and hands-on working labs for iPhone OS 4, as well as Mac OS X core technology labs.

Apple have today announced the date for this years Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and also potentially revealed when we’ll catch our first (official) glimpses of the next iPhone. That’s right, Apple have announced that this years WWDC will be kicking off on the 7th of June in San Francisco and running for five days. The event is a chance for Apple to meet with key iPhone, iPad and Mac OSX developers and discuss upcoming releases, both hardware and software related.

Whilst there is no official mention of any product announcements at this years WWDC (nor any mention of a keynotes speech from Apple CEO Steve Jobs), it was a similar scenario at last years event where we were first introduced to the iPhone 3GS. This coupled with the recent “leaks” and supposed iPhone 4G sightings all hint at something very big on the horizon. Historically, the latest iPhone has always been announced in the Summer with a full launch the following month so, providing Apple are sticking to that tried and tested method, we can expect a new iPhone (the iPhone 4G or iPhone HD, place your bets) to debut this summer.

Whatever is (or isn’t revealed) at this years WWDC, we’ll be on hand to give you all the gory details. Make sure you keep an eye on the Blog for all the latest news and be sure to point your browsers our way on the 7th of June for our live coverage of the event.

The Nokia E72 has a lot of admirers out there, chief amongst them is this very blogger. From the stunning design which utilises the best available materials and puts them in a stylish, pocketable device, through to the best in class feature set and industry leading free SatNav offer, there’s countless reasons to love the E72.

Nokia clearly share this love, releasing a software update for their flagship Eseries device that plans to tweak the E72 and offer even more to new and existing owners. The E72 was one of the first in line to get in on Nokia’s free SatNav forever promotion, serving up free voice guided navigation with no subscription needed. The software update updates your phone to the latest version of Ovi maps with updated points of interest and events with Lonely Planet and Michelin listings.

Aside from navigation, the E72 is all about email and the software update recognises this by offering improved overall performance in your Email account, Calendar and Contacts. The built in web browser also gets some minor bug fixes and enhancements with the most exciting of these being that the E72 can now tune in to internet radio stations.

For existing owners of the E72, simply hit up the Nokia Software Updater in your phone and get downloading. Not got an E72 and want to know what all the fuss is about? Click here to check out our Nokia E72 product page and find out more about the phone, our amazing deals and what other E72 owners think of the device.