Each week we round up the best of the Smartphone Experts Network in a few pithy paragraphs designed for your reading pleasure. Everything from a new leaked Storm ROM to waiting on any number of new smartphones to finally arrive to a comprehensive look at iPhone 3.0 can be found here.
You'll want to stay tuned to the Smartphone Experts family of sites next week - we'll be live at the CTIA Wireless convention, bringing you all the latest from every manufacturer on all of our sites. Will Android finally have its coming out party? Will Palm finally tell us when the Pre is being released? Will the AT&T Nokia E71 ever get official? Whatever happens, we'll give you the scoop.
Read on for the Best of SPE!
Yes, everybody, Flash on Android is coming - let the party begin! If you're planning on picking up balloons, the Shop Savvy update will keep you apprised of local inventory. If you're wondering if your cell phone bill will eat into your balloon budget, T-Mobile's new account app can help with that. You won't be at the party alone, either, since 5% of the mobile web trafficshare now belongs to Android. If your flash party does get lonely, the new Palringo IM app will let you talk to your non-attending friends. We're still hoping Samsung will come to this Android party soon, too, so be sure to dress accordingly.
Another week, another "unofficial operating system" surfaces for the BlackBerry Storm. 4.7.0.113 is a numeral down from .114, but has been fairly well received by hardcore Storm users. On the application front, the popular Nobex Radio Companion saw a major update and Slingplayer Mobile for BlackBerry has finally moved out of beta and is now official. Next week's update should be exciting following CTIA, where it's fully expected that RIM will announce the BlackBerry App World and hopefully make official announce, not release, another device or two (CDMA Pearl Flip or BlackBerry 9630?!).
Our launch contest ended a few weeks ago and our Nokia N85 winner chimed in with his initial thoughts on the device and thanks for the contest. Nokia's free Exchange sync client, Mail for Exchange, was updated this week with some updates that include improved battery life, pictures in contacts, and more. I was all excited about the launch of the Nokia E71x on AT&T that was rumored for 24 March, but unfortunately the rumor mill was wrong and it may be another 8 to 10 weeks, if at all, before we see this device on AT&T. A couple more lucky folks were able to get hands-on with devices I can't wait to see including the Nokia E75 and Samsung OMNIA HD.
I was also getting a bit discouraged with Nokia here in the US with the lame Nokia 5800 launch and the non-appearance of the E71x. A Nokia 5800 NAM arrived on Friday and after several hours of setting it up and using it, my passion for Nokia devices was rekindled with a passion and I could almost care less whether or not carriers come out with full support for these awesome devices and this highly customizable platform.
Want to read some rumors on the Pre's potential release date? We have you covered, because they are flying in fast and furious. Taking a break from all that, we examined how voice and data will work on the Pre and mourned the imminent passing of webOS-alike TealOS. Interest in the Pre is holding steady and even Howard Stern wants a look -- plan on PreCentral.net bringing more Pre details next week at CTIA!
Previously on theiPhoneblog.com: Apple finally announced WWDC 2009 for June 8-12. Last year, WWDC gave us the iPhone 3G and MobileMe. Could Apple have new iPhone hardware ready again for this year? And could it have a "laptop-class" CPU?
Meanwhile, TiPb's got a massive iPhone 3.0 walkthrough for you, and a warning for non-developers thinking about trying it early. (Don't worry, though, we have 5 more must-have Jailbreak apps to keep you happy while you wait!). We also take a look at what 3.0 means for gamers and -- pay attention Kevin and Craig -- for business. Still, it would be nice if we could toggle connections faster, and something needs to be done about the notification system, okay Apple?
Over at TreoCentral, we heard about an odd story from DigiTimes reporting that "shipments of Palm's two smartphones will be delayed as Compal is waiting for Qualcomm's new chipset..". Not quite sure which two phones they're refering to, but the Pre sure isn't one of them since we heard that it is being manufactured by CMCS, not Compal. Dieter and Mike talked about the Pre and iPhone 3.0 in the latest PalmCast, Episode 62. We also heard that Palm brought down the ax on TealPoint Software's TealOS, the app that makes your Palm OS Treo/Centro look like it's running Palm's WebOS.
This week, WMExperts sported a bunch of browser news, with Silverlight's Deep Zoom browsing; getting inside IE6 on Mobile 6.5's hybrid nature and we learned that Opera 9.7 is coming and will support Flash and Ajax. In other news, Dell's on-again, off-again smartphone rumor is back on; and we've seen a couple of interesting alleged WM7 shots. Oh, and we saw just how powerful a Snapdragon platform can be.
Finally, we compared the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software to the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 release, and we talked to some developers to find out what they think about the upcoming Windows Marketplace and its pricing structure. (More on that soon, we're told.)
