Latest phones and cell review

Looks like Samsung wants to get in on the goodness that is Iron Man 2, and hey, we don’t blame them. When you’ve got an advertising cash cow as the high-flying superhero, why wouldn’t you want to jump on board? Sure, they might’ve gone to a bit of an extreme with this one, but we imagine that considering its dashing good looks, that the Samsung Monte, Iron Man Edition, may just get picked up.

While we’ve shown you the Samsung Monte in the past, this one takes its cues obviously from the Iron Man franchise. The color scheme of the device doesn’t actually seem to match anything, but, we won’t hold that against them. So, what’s different? Nothing, really. The Samsung Monte Iron Man Edition is the same exact phone, physically. The only difference is the MicroSD card preloaded inside, which has the original Iron Man movie already on board. So, you can watch it anywhere you go, whenever you see fit.

The Samsung Monte features a 3-inch WQVGA LCD capacitive touchscreen, and has a 3.2MP camera on the back. It’s your standard touch-based feature phone, but includes things like GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth for good measure. It’s also featuring Samsung’s TouchWiz User Interface, but no surprise there. There’s a limited amount of the devices, and it goes on sale on May 1st, so if you’re interested, you may want to wake up early.

[via Pocket-Lint]

There’s no better way to make sure that you get a highly anticipated device than to pre-order it, and Best Buy up in Canada wants to make sure that you do just that with a few of their upcoming handsets. The BlackBerry Pearl 9100, the Motorola DEXT, and the Motorola QUENCH are all up for pre-order right now if you’re interested, and you really think that there’s going to be a line.

Both of the Motorola handsets are Android-based, and also feature the company’s MotoBLUR customized User Interface. As you’ve heard in the past, MotoBLUR is just another one of the social networking integration methodologies all of these companies are coming up with, with real-time streaming keeping you in the know at all times.

As for the BlackBerry Pearl 9100, or known as the Pearl 3G down South, that’s also up for pre-order. You can do the deed with any of the devices by going in store and dropping $50 to reserve your handset, in which case they’ll give you a call as to when they’re available. The DEXT is going to be released by Bell Mobility, and the QUENCH will hit Rogers. The BlackBerry is being pre-ordered for TELUS only right now, and that will probably go for $29.99.

[via Mobile Syrup]

So, the Nokia N8 features Symbian^3. It’s something that we’re very curious about, and we’re holding our final judgement until we get to see it in action in our own hands, but for now it doesn’t seem like the word on the street has the N8 being the next greatest device. But, if you have been transitioned to the idea of Symbian^3, then maybe you should take a crack at creating applications for it. After all, Nokia says it’s super simple.

The Symbian^3 web application development tool has had the sticker of ‘Beta’ on it for awhile now, but apparently now that the N8 is official, they’ve decided to let the rest of the world take a crack at it. Lee Williams, Executive Director, the entire application process is super simple, because its rooted in CSS, JavaScript, and HTML language, meaning that a developer of any caliber can jump in and start developing their own app for the platform.

You can go download the software for development purposes from the Symbian site if you’re interested, and we think you should give it a shot. After all, if you’re even remotely a fan of Symbian ^3, then it’s going to take a lot of strong developers out there to make it last in an apps-crazy world like today’s world. Full press release below.

Anyone Who Can Create a Webpage Can Now Create an App for Symbian^3

Symbian Announces New Web Application Development Tools

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Symbian today announced the availability of its web application development tools, making application development on the Symbian platform as easy as creating a webpage. These new tools open up application development to creators of any technical ability, providing access to consumers and device manufacturers within the world’s largest mobile market.

“Now anyone can create fantastic applications for devices such as the Nokia N8, the world’s first Symbian^3 device,” said Lee Williams, Executive Director of Symbian. “These Symbian web application development tools provide an ideal entry point for web developers targeting the vast, new development opportunities offered by the Symbian^3 platform and the wider mobile marketplace, where compelling applications are proving their ability to fuel communities.”

Using Symbian’s web application development tools, any existing web developer can simply apply all their existing skills with HTML, CSS and JavaScript but in a mobile context. By exploring just a few more JavaScript APIs, developers can directly access the deep device capabilities that ultimately produce truly engaging applications with mass appeal to the mobile consumer, such as contacts, camera, accelerometers and even location.

Although Symbian web applications can be created using any existing web development environment, the added value delivered by the tools environment provided by Symbian is in areas like mobile-specific application preview, debugging and deployment capabilities. These features further support the transition of desktop development skill into the mobile universe.

Williams added: “With these tools, web developers can leverage their existing expertise effectively to create powerful mobile applications. This, combined with the on-schedule release of Symbian^3, is further proof of our commitment to enabling innovation and empowering all developers, including web developers, to harness the rich capabilities of the Symbian platform.”

The new tools, which have recently come out of community beta and are available across all of the major platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux, can be accessed at:

http://developer.symbian.org/main/tools_and_kits/symbian3_developer/index.php.

Information about developing and contributing to the tools as an open source project is available from the package landing page, at: http://developer.symbian.org/main/source/packages/package/index.php?pk=263.

Odd. We had all but forgotten about LG’s Cookie Fresh touchscreen device, when out of nowhere it just pops up again. We probably even imagined that LG had managed to keep to their goal of a release last month, but apparently that’s not the case. The LG Cookie Fresh has just been reaffirmed for having a May release date, but still, we don’t know exactly when in May.

Let’s get the recap out of the way, shall we? The LG Cookie Fresh features a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen, a 2MP camera on the back, along with LG’s “cartoon User Interface.” Additionally, there’s support for MicroSD, and on the software side of things there’s an integrated Facebook application, and things called LiveSquares, which apparently puts an animated picture as an icon for a selected contact.

The Cookie Fresh is also rubber-trimmed, so we imagine that’s either going to scare some people off or attract them by the masses. The hardware will come in 16 different colors, whenever it launches, and we imagine that LG still plans to release it in up to 50 countries around the world by the end of the year. We’d like to tell them that launching it in the UK might be a good start, but apparently they’re off for a bank holiday. There’s no word on pricing, but we’ve still heard it will be ridiculously cheap when it launches on Vodafone, Virgin, and Tesco.

[via CNET UK]

Not just a big day for Waterloo’s Research In Motion. Today marks an incredible day for the company, as they have become the first smartphone-specific mobile phone manufacturer to break into the Top 5 list for global phone manufacturers. That’s right: a list that has, for years, been predominantly filled with feature phones and the like, has now been invaded by a company that creates no such thing. Times, oh they are a-changin’.

Today, the IDC released its coveted Top 5 list, along with its analysis of the market and its global impact. Of course, everyone just races to the good part: the top 5. If you were to do that yourself, you’d see that Nokia is still number one, with 107.8 million units sold in the first quarter of 2010. Second is Samsung, with 64.3 million units sold. Third, LG Electronics with an impressive 27.1 million units. Fourth, (and here’s the important part) Research In Motion with a wild 10.6 million units sold. And then rounding out the bottom is Sony Ericsson, with an estimated 10.5 million units sold in the first quarter of this year.

So, RIM just inched by, but it doesn’t matter the quantity. Just the fact that they did it at all. As it stands right now, RIM holds a 3.6 percent stake in the market share. While, comparatively, Nokia holds a 36.8 percent market share presence. Pretty impressive numbers, for both companies, but we can’t help but feel proud of Waterloo and this amazing accomplishment.

[via IDC]