American wireless service provider giant Verizon Wireless is all set to offer the LG Chocolate 3 phone, July 13th onwards. While there are a handful of models available in the Chocolate range, Verizon will offer the clamshell styled LG phone. The latter is a music destination in itself. This particular model will support Verizon Wireless’ V CAST Music with Rhapsody subscription music service. Music lovers just keep your ears dewaxed for this one comes with a long list of cool features!

To begin with the phone has an in-built FM transmitter, a dedicated music key, preset sound effect equalizer and a music player that supports a wide range of music files like .mp3, .wma, .aac and .aac+ files. Wonderful! My doubts about playing unprotected sound files on my phone get washed away with this LG Chocolate 3 phone. I’m sure music maniacs around the world are sure going to love it. The phone comes in blue & black colors.

Besides, for the normal chaps, there are other routine features:
· An expandable memory up to 8 GB with microSD card.
· Bluetooth connectivity, Mobile Email- access MSN Hotmail, America Online and Yahoo! Accounts for active emailing.
· VZ Navigator – allows you to get audio-visual directions to plethora of destinations, get maps, share directions, locate your points of interest like theatres/art workshops, business locales etc.
· 2.0 megapixel cameras with 2x zoom for the photographer in you. Image editor also present – now zoom, crop or rotate your pics as per your likings.
· A media center- stay connected to latest happenings around the world plus download games, ringtones and wallpapers. Also, mobile IM capabilities present.

God, the list seems to be a long one! But the best feature is that LG Chocolate 3 allows to have its location shared with family members; courtesy- the Chaperone Web site. And hey, the Chaperone Parent application or Child Zone SMS alerts are also pretty handy! J Now, my dear friends this hottie can be picked from the shelves by shelling out 129.99 (includes $50 mail-in rebate & a new two-year customer agreement).

Via TechShout

‘Life’s Good’ with LG Decoy. The latest from the cell phone company is now available in U.S. stores at Verizon Wireless. Let me first quickly tell you about its features.

· Built in and detachable Bluetooth headset. The earpiece rides piggyback; is easy to charge; charges automatically on the headset when the latter is not being used.
· 5-way joystick like directional keyboard- gives feasibility to the user.
· 2.0MP camera and camcorder and Micro SD memory port.
· Price: $180 after $50 mail-in rebate and 2-year contract (includes the Bluetooth earpiece).
· The phone is a CDMA dual band, with a QVGA 240 x 320 pixel display.

The classic Decoy is a no fuss phone. The gadget’s USP being its detachable BT.

Good news for those who don’t want to change their habits – I’m referring to those who are in a habit of talking on cell phone while driving. Let’s hope with LG Decoy the number of such people who get ticketed decreases noticeably.

Also, it’s quite comfy as one-size- fits-all piece. Not much innovation in design though but when utility wins over design no body has a problem!

Via Gizmodo

What looks like an Apple iPhone but is more popular in terms of sales? It’s Sprint Nextel’s Samsung Instinct! This new touch-screen wireless phone is selling like hot cakes roping in more $’s than Apple’s iPhone. Instinct’s close resemblance to Apple’s most-talked about product is just one of the reasons for its soaring popularity. Stylish appearance after all pays is it for celebs or cell phones! Its dimensions are: 2.17-inch-by-4.57-inch-by-0.49-inch; 4.4 ounces of weight & 240-by-432 touch screen. The phone is broadband enabled as well. A few buttons on its sides control how loud the phone can be.

The most riveting feature is ofcourse that roomy display, 3inches+ diagonally, a large enough touch sensitive screen and on-screen buttons for those manicured fingers of yours! What’s more? The smart phone also has a voice dialing facility. Sprint users addicted to “visual voice mail” feature are happy to find it in Instinct too.

Who wouldn’t like to have such a delectable Instinct for self? There are other added capabilities as well like E-mail, web browsing, text/picture/video messaging, photography and video recording, digital music and video playback and a GPS navigation system as well. However the model has some limitations:

· Though one can scroll through ones contacts and recent-calls list with a swift flick of finger on Instinct; the phone lacks a search function.
· Instinct has limited Internet access owing to limited coverage of Sprint; Instinct lacks a WiFi receiver!
· It takes ages for full-size sites to open and get displayed on Instinct’s web browser.
· The email software on phone ignores web formatting in messages; can’t read PDFs.
· Instinct’s Internet TV service suffers from awful picture quality.

Despite all this, the phone is giving stiff competition to Apple. Simply because Sprint has devised some smart pricing plans. These plans come at: $69.99, $89.99 and $99.99 a month with unlimited calls and unlimited Internet use! So you can have a lot of text/picture/video messaging, navigation assistance, and Sprint’s online music and video feeds on your platter. Besides, Samsung Instinct is a fair compromise especially for those who purchase a smartphone for entertainment value. Atleast the sales reveals so!

Via WSJ

Australian mobile network giant Telstra is all set to offer the Apple iPhone 3G now. The company will launch the handsets in the coming month of July and is all set to become the third mobile carrier to offer the iPhone. Telstra has also announced its pricing details for the device. It has announced two-year plans starting with $30 dollars per month. Another plan costs $80 a month. The upfront costs for 8GB and 16GB handsets are $279 and $399 respectively. A $100 a month plan is also being worked out.

Facilities available with the fast 3G wireless technology include maps with GPS, support for features like Microsoft exchange etc. so that people can have access to a revolutionary phone, a fabulous internet device and a widescreen iPod in form of a single iPhone. As per David Moffat, consumer group managing director of Telstra, the 3GiPhone will run on the company’s Next G network. The company being a hugely popular network provider in Australia wishes to provide a superb iPhone 3G experience to its customers

(90%+ of Australian population). The news however is coming after making us wait for sometime due to the ongoing imbroglio with Apple over accessing Telstra’s content services via the handset. Still, I would say better late than never! J

Via SMH