The Bold is still stealing the overwhelming majority of RIM's spotlight at the moment for a handful of pretty good reasons: one, it's actually been announced; two, it's 3G; and three, it falls in line with the traditional (and loved) BlackBerry form factor. Lurking in the shadows, though, is the KickStart, RIM's very first flip phone, and a device that could end up making a huge splash if it actually manages to launch at the sub-$50 price point that's been making the rounds on the rumor circuit. CrackBerry got a way-early peek at the 8220 version of the device, which follows RIM's typical naming convention by packing WiFi while an 8210 will hold up the GPS side of things (seriously, RIM, how hard can it be to do both?), and overall it seems that the R&D team did its homework from the quick impressions. The SureType keyboard is huge and apparently quite easy to use without making the phone excessively large, though the trackball rests deeper in the shell making it a bit trickier to operate -- you win some, you lose some. The QVGA display is said to be just shy of Bold quality (which is a compliment, considering the killer screen on the Bold), and it's always hard to argue with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Come on, T-Mobile, let's make this happen.

Sure, Apple alleges to have flipped over a million iPhone 3Gs at this point, but what does that mean? The devil's in the details, as always; yes, true, the first one took 74 days to reach that same milestone, but it was available in less than one-twentieth the number of countries and an even smaller fraction of carriers. Hell, the very definition of "sale" is under scrutiny here, with some suggesting that Apple's making reference to the number of phones it's sold to its carrier partners, not end users -- a metric that would make sense from Cupertino's perspective since Apple's payday technically ends there. We have some metrics on hand here that paint an interesting picture of the iPhone 3G launch that might be a little different than what you expect; head on over to Engadget Mobile for the scoop.

A heaping handful of fresh alleged screen shots of S60 Touch's user interface are floating around, apparently yoinked off the platform's PC-based theme editor -- not as cool as if they'd been lifted from a Tube, granted, but still good enough to give us some clutch insight into where Nokia's taking this thing. As revolutionary as the move to touch control might be for S60 as a platform, the UI looks shockingly evolutionary so far; in fact, to the untrained eye, there are portions that are virtually indistinguishable from S60 revs of yore. That's good news (we suppose) for S60 diehards who aren't interested in learning a new paradigm -- and we're all for the VGA support here -- but it's bad news for anyone who was planning on having their noodles positively baked by Espoo's engineering manpower and massive R&D budget. Let's all just hold off on the negativity until Nokia gives us something official to ogle; for the time being, though, our boring UI-dar is definitely on high alert.

[Via Symbian Freak, thanks Misha]

Okay, so maybe there are more than just four lost souls who are jonesing for Willcom's D4 MID, and if you're waving your hands frantically in a futile attempt to express your love for said device, you can reportedly expect to see one headed your way soon. For everyone else who has yet to make up their mind, head on past the break for an unboxing video that's sure to sway your decision meter one way or the other.

[Via Wow-Pow]

Saying that Samsung's new BlackJack IIs are pink and blue is really only telling part of the story. Unlike the originals, the stylish new models feature contrasting white fronts with color-coordinated keys and fancy designs on the back -- perfect for that fashion-conscious Windows Mobile nerd in your life (if that's not an oxymoron, we don't know what is). Collect the whole set now for $99.99 a pop on contract.

Generally speaking, Oppo has stuck to its bread-and-butter: decently stylish PMPs and a well-received family of upscaling DVD players, respectively. Now, however, we're seeing a trio of concepts which allude to a future unit (or three) boasting gaming functionality. Unfortunately, details beyond that are few and far between, and we're not even certain of their place of origin. In other words, don't bet on seeing these hit shelves in the foreseeable future, but keep your fingers crossed that they do anyway.

[Thanks, Raz]

Feeling a little left out after yesterday's Mac-based Pwnage Tool festivities, Windows users? Fret not, because the ever-vigilant, ever-studious hacking community has managed to come up with a series of steps to get you back on your feet again with a fully pwned first-gen handset. The whole shebang isn't necessarily for the most casual jailbreakers -- let's just say it isn't quite as straightforward as the Mac procedure yet -- but it'll allegedly get you going if you're starting with an iPhone running 1.1.4 (there are additional steps if you jumped the gun on 2.0, you impatient son of a gun, you -- think of it as penance). As always, exercise extreme caution, understand that this could cause your iPhone to spontaneously combust into a useless pile of metal, plastic, and ash, and let us know how it goes in comments.

[Thanks, Z-]

We're guessing the naming scheme here was quite intentional, though we'll be the first to say Bandai's Smart Berry has very, very little in common with RIM's stockpile of handsets. Nevertheless, this "mobile communicator" joins the small crowd of other tween-centric chat handhelds with wireless capabilities that enable four of these things to talk to one another "for email, chat and online games within a 10-meter diameter." For whatever reason, messages are limited to 64 characters (and you thought SMS was bad...), and in case that little tidbit grows increasingly frustrating, there's a virtual pet on board to take your mind to a more blissful place. Sure, we can see younger gals being entertained by this for a few weeks or so, but the ¥10,290 ($96) price tag just seems a bit outrageous, particularly when you consider the lack of a color screen. Yeah, for real.

It's not that Electro Box's miShake PMP looks especially like anything else we've seen, but it sure takes an awful lot of cues from, shall we say, more popular brands. We won't even bother explaining the miShake name, but what is important to note is the 2.4-inch touchscreen, "explosive external loudspeaker," 4GB of internal memory, miniSD expansion slot and support for a multitude of audio / video file formats. Oh, and don't even bother fiddling through that questionable user interface to change tracks -- just give it a good jerk (you know, like Sony's Shake control) to hear the next jam begin abruptly. So much merriment for just £119.95 ($240).

[Via Pocket-lint]

It's a common problem, really. You're eager to get Windows 3.1 back into your life, but you've no N810 to install it on. Good news retro software aficionados -- said internet tablet has just tumbled to $299.99 (at CompUSA, at least), a full $90 less than the price we cheered over in March. Yeah, that 800 x 480 resolution display, VGA camera and full QWERTY keyboard is more attainable than ever, but with the possibility of a bombastic successor just around the bend, would it pay off even more to wait? The world may never know (although that's highly unlikely).

[Thanks, Vamsi]

After seeing Android all lit up on Nokia's N810 internet tablet, seeing this antiquate piece of software on there just seems... wrong. Still, we can't deny that we're a huge fan of the work, and to be frank, we'd highly recommend anyone with a fair amount of spare time give it a whirl just for nostalgia's sake. Wait, is that a tear we see forming? You softy.

[Via PDAToday, thanks Bill]

Alright, can someone help us out with a little primer on German law here? California-based sipgate offers up a VoIP client for the iPhone that -- for the moment, anyway -- requires a jailbroken handset to run. It goes about its business on WiFi airwaves, so from the carrier's perspective, no harm, no foul, right? Not so much. T-Mobile Germany takes issue with the app, claiming that it's enticing its iPhone users to jailbreak -- a violation of its contract terms. Furthermore, the contract disallows VoIP of any kind, WiFI or otherwise, which pretty much makes sipgate public enemy number one in T-Mob's eyes. They've gone ahead and sent out a nasty little cease 'n desist, which sipgate says it plans to fight all the way through the court system if that's how T-Mobile wants to roll; meanwhile, it's still providing service and says that "for the time being [its] users are safe." Fight the good fight, guys.

[Via TUAW]

The saga of the Meizu M8 is one of the more entertaining dramas in the phone biz these days, owing partly to the endless delays and tweaks, granted -- but owing much more to the truly masterful ripping of the iPhone's industrial design. Unfortunately, there's been very little actual bite to follow up the bark coming out of the Meizu camp, and it looks like we might get a real taste of this thing for the first time as soon as next month. A post on Meizu's website, seemingly from none other than CEO J. Wong himself, claims that a first cut of the M8 will arrive next month -- along with plenty more pictures and details -- but it'll be a somewhat neutered rendition that features just 128MB of RAM and zero flash. October will bring the real deal, a 256MB baddie that rocks 8GB of storage for 2180 yuan, which works out to about $320. Meanwhile, pictures have surfaced of the latest prototype floating around Meizu's labs, looking both as slick and as litigation-prone as ever. Bring these stateside, Mr. Wong, and we'll be the very first to sign up -- just don't be surprised if Apple is right behind us.

[Via Electronista]

Read - August for 128MB model, October for 256MB / 8GB?
Read - Prototype M8 in the wild

Believe it or not, JATY is far from being the first gadget maker to think of stuffing a breathalyzer into something completely unrelated (like a wristwatch), but this do-it-all navigator really has included everything save for the kitchen sink (and an N64 emulator, but you get the point). Specs wise, you're looking at a 7-inch touchscreen, 533MHz CPU, WinCE 5.0, 64MB of NAND Flash / SDRAM, an SD expansion slot, built-in GPS / T-DMB receivers, USB connectivity, integrated speakers and support for MP3, WMV, OGG, AC3, MPEG1/2/4, DivX, XviD, AVI and JPG formats (just to name a few). Chances are you'll never see this on US soil, so you're looking at a flight to Seoul in addition to ₩296,000 ($294) in order to procure one.

[Via Tech Digest]

Take this one with plenty of salt, but CrunchGear has it that not one, not three, but exactly two new Kindle models are destined to go on sale to the adoring indifferent public within the next 6 to 12 months. Reportedly, the first model is simply a revamped version of the existing Kindle with a smaller form factor, the same sized screen and an "improved interface." The second new version will purportedly be shaped like a 8.5- x 11-inch sheet of paper and should land early next year. Both Kindles will be available in a variety of hues, though pricing information remains a mystery. Hang tight bookworms, we've still got awhile yet before figuring out just how legitimate this is.

[Via The Boy Genius Report]