Mobile Phone News

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Vodafone, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

Remember that mysterious LG KS500 we spotted slouching at the FCC’s main desk back in August? No? It’s all good — Vodafone is apparently looking to remind you by introducing the definitely so-so slider with its own logo. Obviously, there’s still a great chance we North Americans see this one over in this place in due time, but whatever ends up happening, this in this place handset boasts tri-band GSM connectivity, dual-band UMTS / HSDPA support, a QVGA display, 3-megapixel camera, 100MB of built-in memory, a microSD card slot, aGPS and an optical touchpad that should make navigating through menus a bit more enjoyable. No mention of a price just yet, but it ought to start filtering out in some form or fashion in Q4.

[Via GSMHelpDesk]

LG’s optical touchpad-packin’ KS500 official in Vodafone garb originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Sprint, Windows Mobile, CDMA

We heard last week when Sprint launched the HTC Touch Pro at “chosen national retailers” that the device would be available online on November 2nd. Well, it’s November 2nd, and they’ve kept their promise. The base retail price of the QWERTY smartphone is $579.99, but an “instant savings” of $180 combined with a $100 mail-in-rebate brings the price down to palatable $299.99 (with a 2-year agreement, needless to say). Of course, if you’re really starved for human contact, you could continuously head over to a Sprint store and buy one in person, too.

Update: Had a little trouble with those read links — all fixed at this time.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC Touch Pro at this time available for purchase online, as promised originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Misc

To be honest, we were surprised that we didn’t hear this number along with the other doom and gloom professed during Motorola’s Q3 earnings call, but the writing was very clearly on the wall. As part of the mentioned $800 million expenditure cut planned for 2009, 3,000 (more) of Moto’s employees will be looking for work elsewhere. According to an unnamed spokeswoman, a “little over two-thirds of those layoffs [will be] in the handset division.” And just think — if Moto would only use all those hands to get an Android-powered phone out before “entirely too long from at this time,” maybe these cuts wouldn’t even be necessary. Maybe.

Motorola to layoff 3,000 employees, most of ‘em in handset division originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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