Isaiah's Tech

There's a rumour going around that RIM plans to release the BlackBerry 9800 in the UK. Apparently, the smartphone is going to be hitting Vodafone in September / October, but it's just a rumour coming from BBLeaks right now. BBLeaks has also mentioned that Telefonica, Orange, T-Mobile UK, and O2 are currently testing the device as well, so people in Europe will likely be able to get their hands on this smartphone in the next couple of months.

[CrackBerry]

Some carriers and manufacturers just won't give up on LiMo. It has just been announced that four top global carriers will be launching phones based on LiMo by the end of this year. This includes Orange, Telefonica (O2 / Movistar), Verizon, and SK Telecom. Of course, we don't know if they'll all get the same phone or one for each carrier so we'll have to wait. We'll be keeping an eye on this one - just a bit.

[Engadget Mobile]

It looks like O2 Telefonica is ready to get their MID on really soon. Apparently, they'll be launching the Dell Streak / Mini 5 sometime next month (June). AT&T should also be getting this MID as well, but it'll be later on in the Summer time. Of course, we'll have to play the waiting game now.

[Engadget]

It looks like HP Compaq Airlife 100 smartbook is about to become available exclusively in Europe right now for €229 ($302 USD) thanks to Telefonica. They'll be launching this smartbook in the middle of May and you'll need a €48 ($63 USD) monthly plan if you want to get it. The other plan is getting the smartbook for €299 ($395 USD) and you'll only have to pay €39 ($52 USD). The Airlife 100 smartbook won't be hitting the US if you trust HP's word.

[Engadget]

Like Germany via O2, Spain will also be getting the Palm Pre via Telefonica. This handset is expected to launch exactly a week from today - on October 14th. It'll be available for free if you're a new customer. You can check out more information about it here.

[Boy Genius]

The rumoured Motorola CLIQ is now official and it's headed to T-Mobile in Q4 of this year. At Motorola's event earlier today, they announced this Android-based phone. The CLIQ will be launched as the DEXT overseas and it'll be hitting Orange, Telefonica, and America Movil. Anyways, the CLIQ / DEXT has: a 3.1-inch touchscreen display with a 320 x 480 resolution, 3G / WiFi 802.11 b/g support, a 5MP camera that can record 25fps video, Stereo Bluetooth, aGPS support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 512MB of ROM, a microSDHC card slot, 256MB of RAM, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and will be available in Winter White and Titanium colours. This handset will be running Motorola's own customized version of Google's mobile OS, called MOTOBLUR, which you'll find below. You can check out the CLIQ on T-Mobile's official website here.

So, this MOTOBLUR - formerly rumoured to be just Blur - will be Motorola's way of customizing Android - since it's open-source and all. Engadget said it best: "It's built around social networking, and it features live widgets that integrate Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, MySpace, Yahoo, Last.fm and more. Like Palm's Synergy, Blur aggregates all your contacts into a single address book, but it shows you recent status updates along with photos when contacts all you -- very slick. There's also remote wipe and GPS tracking like MobileMe." Don't forget to watch the short video of the CLIQ below. Have fun watching it do nothing.



Motorola Cliq: Engadget
Official Specs: Phandroid
Video of the Cliq: Engadget
MOTOBLUR: Engadget