Samsung's a manufacturer of many smartphone platforms, and odds are good you can find at least one of 'em you like -- between S60 (for now, anyway), WinMo, and Android, they've pretty much got the major bases covered. Say you're the particularly picky type, though, and you want your full-touch widget experience delivered sans the open operating system for some odd reason. Well, turns out Samsung has that angle figured out perhaps better than any other company out there -- and Rogers is adding yet another one to the lineup this week with the introduction of the Forever with a WQVGA LCD (no AMOLED here, sorry), 3.6Mbps HSDPA, a 2 megapixel camera, and naturally, TouchWiz. Interested parties are welcome to sign on the dotted line to the tune of CAD $79.99 (about $77) on a three-year deal, so... you know, you'd better be darn sure you're not going to have the urge to install any third-party apps designed to simulate bodily noises over the next three dozen months.

Qualcomm has spent an awful lot of time over the past few years dealing with lawsuits and nastygrams, but it looks as if things will be totally different in the new decade. Just months after Qualcomm and Broadcom settled their differences, the European Commission has agreed to drop a four-year antitrust investigation without levying the first fine or absolving the company. The reason? The entity stated that "companies that objected to Qualcomm's pricing for its technology have all withdrawn their complaints or are planning to withdraw them." Sounds like a reasonable reason to let bygones be bygones, no?

Amazon is continuing its fabulous tradition of making carriers look like money-grubbing jerks this week with a solid deal on Samsung's Android-powered Moment for Sprint, which can now be yours for $79.99 on contract. That's versus a considerably more finance-destroying $179.99 figure if you were to walk into a brick-and-mortar Sprint store -- and even bests Best Buy's deal by $20. Considering that OLED display and the fact that the Sammy's core clips along at 10 times the megahertz of Amazon's price, $80 out-of-pocket sounds pretty reasonable. Unfortunately, Android 1.5 doesn't sound as reasonable these days -- so here's hoping that 2.0 trickles down to this sucker on the double.

[Thanks, Ron]

When Microsoft finally launched Windows Mobile 6.5 earlier this year, there may have been lots of fanfare, but there was little honest excitement. After a tepid showing at MWC in Barcelona followed by the proper launch this October, no one was exactly up in arms over the OS, though support from the big M's partners was characteristically plentiful. Still, there was nary a ray of light to be seen in the otherwise bleak and basic landscape of handset offerings... until the HD2 came along. In August of this year, HTC showed off what seemed to be one of the few Windows Mobile devices capable of generating honest enthusiasm. The massive, full touchscreen device boasts impressive specs: a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a generous 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive WVGA touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and lots of other bells and whistles. But the centerpiece here isn't the hardware, it's HTC's totally revamped user interface, Sense, which doesn't just hide Windows Mobile 6.5 -- it all but zaps it out of existence. Sadly for Microsoft, that's the most enticing part of this equation. So, is the HD2's new face enough to quell the bad vibes of Windows Mobile and make the platform seem viable again, or is that a challenge which takes more than just a coat of paint? We've taken a hard look at the phone... so read on to find out.

We think there's probably a really good reason why landscape QWERTY handsets don't hinge in reverse, but hey, everyone gets a little wild and crazy once in a while, right? Cellpassion has discovered that Moto has recently secured rights to the "Backflip" name in Europe, which would dovetail nicely with that allegedly leaked image of the upcoming Motus a few days back -- we hadn't really considered it the first time around, but on second look, we can imagine how this wouldn't be your average mechanism here. Sadly, the latest rumors have this thing based on Android 1.5 when it hits next quarter, suggesting that Motorola's having a hell of a time updating BLUR for newer builds -- and that could be a huge sticking point for 'em going forward.

The iPhone keyboard (or the lack thereof) has been a polarizing point for many, and while we've seen a workaround or two in our day, we've yet to see a solution to the lack of tactility as beautifully simple as this. 4iThumbs is a screen overlay that adds minuscule bumps on your iPhone display -- bumps that correspond to where the keys are when using the vertical keyboard. 'Course, these things are apt to bug you when using the horizontal keyboard (or no keyboard at all), but we're guessing the heavy texters in the crowd won't mind. Have a look at the videos below the break for a better idea of what you're about to get yourself into. Oh, and be sure to pick up a pair of Awethumbs while you're at it -- we hear these two go great together.

Update: A horizontal version is available, hooray!

Following Vodafone's lead, France's SFR has now become the second network operator in Europe to launch femtocell service for its signal-strapped customers. The Ubiquisys-sourced unit is being sold under the SFR Home 3G brand and runs €199 ($300), so you'd better really need a couple extra bars before you take the plunge -- though the good news is that they're not laying down any arbitrary restrictions requiring you to use it with SFR's DSL service. Coincidentally, SFR is minority-owned by Vodafone, so the move makes some sense -- so whether femtocells take off in Europe among any carriers without Voda interest remains to be seen.

Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole "cloud" agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should have been. Today, both Palm and Sprint have issued a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote:

"We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device."

Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we're pretty certain we're being forced to stay on the manual backup bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

[Thanks, Mike]

Canada's Bell and Telus are going hog wild with handset selection since the launch of their new Rogers-matching (if not beating) 21Mbps HSPA network -- one need look no further than the launch of the LG BL40 for evidence of that -- but there's at least one glaring issue: Bell's yet to launch an Android set. That puts 'em at a distinct disadvantage against Telus, which already has an HSDPA 860 / 1900 cut of the HTC Hero on shelves -- but it looks like that won't be an issue for long. A scanned poster that's apparently already up in Bell stores has turned up on the ever-reliable interwebs this week clearly showing Samsung's Galaxy posing alongside the already-launched Omnia II and Impact; the carrier doesn't do us the favor of mentioning a date here, but it can't be long -- wouldn't want to lose the Google lovers to Telus and Rogers, right?

Love to tinker and tweak your smartphone? Find running beta apps a challenge, not a burden? Then you'll be happy to hear that Nokia's N900 running Maemo 5 is now shipping in the US, a week later than the press release suggested. This Cortex-A8 phone with 32GB of on-board storage is ripe with potential and the perfect holiday gift for grandma as long as she's comfortable dropping into the X Terminal for the occasional "rm -R /home/user/.microfeed" command. It's still listed for $649 unlocked from Nokia direct though that price will be dropping soon enough.

[Thanks, Alex]

So we know the iPhone has been slumming it and selling itself on Walmart shelves in the US for a while now, but it's retained a somewhat more dignified cachet over here in Europe. Until today, that is. Just "in time for Christmas," British retailer Tesco will make it possible for you to buy your socks, no-frills groceries, and shiny smartphone all in the same place. You'll still be riding O2's network, thanks to the Tesco Mobile service, but the department store chain is likely to price its contracts more aggressively, as it already has a £30 per month plan that includes unlimited calls, texts, and web surfing. Maybe there's something to this whole "competition" thing after all then, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We don't know what exactly China Mobile is putting in its manufacturer partners' tea during contract negotiations, but considering how rapidly China's largest carrier has grown its OPhone line into the most desirable single-network lineup of Android handsets in the world, we'd strongly recommend they continue to do it. Rumors of an LG entry back in August have now come to fruition in the form of the GW880, a full touch handset launching this month featuring a solid 3.5-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, and support for a pair of pretty important homegrown standards -- TD-SCDMA for 3G and CMMB for mobile TV tuning. For comparison, LG's only other announced Android phone -- the GW620 Eve for global distribution -- steps down to a HVGA display, so yeah, if you'll excuse us, we've got a Mandarin lesson in a couple minutes.

There's just something about Sciphone's Android-based handset, the N21, that we can't get enough of. This KIRF-tastic little dude has attitude in droves, to go with its clunky exterior. The 3-inch touchscreener boasts a 5 megapixel cam, WiFi, and an onscreen keyboard -- not to mention what looks like a killer stylus experience. In the video (which is after the break), you can check out the many and varied features of this looker of a device.

Wireless networks in the States have a storied history of throwing fits over each others' "most" and "best" claims -- and now they're really getting into it up north, too, seeing how Telus just lit up a shiny new 21Mbps HSPA network that seems to be matching or besting Rogers' existing infrastructure in many ways. As is all too often the case, the spat has ended up down in the court system where Telus is bellyaching that Rogers' claims of running "Canada's most reliable" and "fastest" airwaves have been invalid as of November 5, when its competing hardware went live (funny -- and telling -- that it didn't bother levying any complaints back in the CDMA days). Anyhow, a judge has just ruled -- apparently after analyzing paperwork filed by both sides -- that "the present network technology is at least equivalent between Rogers and Telus," invalidating Rogers' reliability claim. Rogers isn't too happy about this (though they've tiptoed away from speed claims in their latest advertising, smartly) and intends to appeal with new courtroom drama getting ready to roll on Friday. So, we turn it over to our Canadian readers: who's really offering the best service right now in the trenches?

Folks, today might be the day when you start to notice how ancient our smartphones have become, even if they only came out in last few months. Blame Else (formerly Emblaze Mobile) for its confusingly-named First Else, a phone "built from scratch" over the last two years and now powered by Access Linux Platform (ALP) 3.0 -- a mobile OS thought to have quietly died out since our last sighting in February. Until today's London launch event, the last we heard of this Israeli company was from October's Access Day in Japan where it previewed the Else Intuition OS, which we like to think of as inspired by Minority Report. While it's still too early to tell whether the First Else -- launching in Q2 next year -- will dodge the path of doom, we were already overwhelmed by the excellence of the device's user experience, both from its presentation and from our exclusive hands-on opportunity. Do read on to find out how Else is doing it right.

Nokia's just confirmed on its official blog that the X6 will hit shelves in Finland and the UK starting next week, with other countries to follow soon after. After hearing a while back that the touchscreen, Comes With Music-lover would be shipping around November 12th -- well, we didn't want to falsely get anyone's hopes up again. But now that the word is official, we can all sit back and behold the beauty that is the X6 -- with its 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, and 32GB of onboard memory. The S60 (that's the 5th edition) device will be available in Nokia stores this Friday, retailing for £449 (about $742) free of contract.

Looks like Verizon's addicted to the sweet taste of success: following its victory over AT&T regarding the Map For That ads, Big Red's complaining to the The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus about Sprint's "America's most dependable 3G network" tagline. Verizon says that a recent Nielsen survey shows its network drops fewer calls than Sprint's, and for now the bureaucrats agree -- the board's asked Sprint to stop airing the ads. For its part, Sprint says one study doesn't tell the whole tale, and it's going to keep showing the ads while it appeals to the National Advertising Review Board. In other news, Verizon's lawyers were seen heading to the local BMW dealership late last night, following a run-in with Sprint's attorneys at the Mercedes-Benz showroom.

Glowing red cyborg eyes, bombs dropped from stealth fighters, emotionless calls of "DRRROOOIIID" every time you get a text message -- it's enough to scare yesterday's lunch out of anyone. Verizon's no-holds-barred advertising campaign for the Motorola Droid has been so hellishly frightening overwhelmingly successful, in fact, that it appears to be paying dividends either directly or indirectly against Moto's biggest rivals. YouGov's BrandIndex -- an ongoing survey measuring brand loyalty through some secret-sauce methodology that only analysts would fully comprehend -- shows a marked spike in Moto's score in the critical adult male category, while Apple and RIM have taken hits over the same period. These numbers look terribly volatile over a relative short span, so we're not going to be rushing to any conclusions -- but by any measure, it's pretty wild to see Moto go from a has-been to besting the bulletproof cult of iPhone in just a few short weeks. In the long term, it'll be interesting to see just how deeply Moto's and Apple's carrier relationships are factoring into public sentiment; after all, momentum's certainly on Verizon's side right now.