LEAK: BLACKBERRY LONDON

The Verge posted a picture of a new Blackberry device codenamed London. According to sources close to RIM this is a real product that will be rolling out in Q3 of 2012. The London is rumored to be replacing the Colt, which was to be the first QNX based device from RIM. It has been said that RIM is having problems getting BBM and BES working on the new BBX devices, which is what is holding up the launch of London.

REPUBLIC WIRELESS LAUNCHES WITH $19 "UNLIMITED" PLAN

Republic Wireless went live on Tuesday with its impossibly cheap $19 unlimited talk, text and data plan, presenting a service that could potentially save some users a tremendous amount of money each month. “Newsflash: anything a cell network can do, the Internet can do better and cheaper,” Republic Wireless touts on its website. “So we think a truly smart smartphone should make a habit of using Wi-Fi for everything. Surfing. Texting. Sharing. And, yes, even talking.” Read on for more.

Thanks to software technology that offloads voice calling and SMS to Wi-Fi networks whenever possible, Republic Wireless uses Sprint’s cellular network only when Wi-Fi service is not available. When Wi-Fi connections are available, it uses UMA to pipe communications over the Internet.

Unfortunately, the term “unlimited” is apparently entirely unregulated in the wireless space, and Republic Wireless uses the term rather loosely. The carrier employs what it refers to as a “fair use threshold” that defines average monthly cellular service usage. Should a subscriber’s monthly usage regularly exceed that threshold by a significant amount, Republic Wireless will give said subscriber the boot.

“How much cellular usage is too much? It depends,” the carrier explains on its website. “Even assuming 0% wifi usage, for example, you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community’s fair use threshold. Everyone’s usage patterns will be different, but we’re confident you’ll be amazed at how little cellular you actually use when you have a phone that makes it easy to leverage the power of your Wi-Fi networks.”

The carrier’s FAQ continues,”What happens if I use more than the suggested guideline? First, you’ll be reminded of the guidelines and to what extent you’ve crossed the fair use threshold. We’ll provide you with tips for reducing your cellular footprint and plenty of opportunity to get back on track. When we contact you about your usage, we’ll let you know how much time you have to correct your problem.” If the problem isn’t corrected within the timeline specified, a subscriber’s service will be terminated.

Republic Wireless currently offers one smartphone, the Android Gingerbread-powered LG Optimus S, for $199.99 contract-free. The carrier has a “beta” label slapped on its service for the time being so outages may be an issue, and subscribers must establish at least one Wi-Fi connection before service can commence.

RUMOR: iPHONE 5 DELAYED UNTIL END OF YEAR OR NEXT YEAR DUE TO OVERHEATING PROCESSOR; NEW iPHONE STILL COMING IN FALL

Apple may have delayed the iPhone 5 launch until next year due to an overheating dual-core A5 chip, a new report from Sohu.com [translated] suggests. Rumor has it (and it’s purely a rumor right now) that Apple will instead launch the iPhone 5 later this year or early next when the A6 chip is available — or after it figures out the A5 overheating problems. Sohu.com also said Apple will instead introduce a slightly upgraded “iPhone 4S” device, with the same form factor as the iPhone 4, in September or October. The device is expected to feature an 8-megapixel camera, and it will also sport a faster dual-core processor, two specs that are on a par with earlier reports. With all the recent chatter surrounding a more significant iPhone update due later this year, it’s likely that Sohu.com is working with old intel in this instance.

HTC'S "FACEBOOK PHONE" UP FOR PRE-ORDER

AT&T on Monday announced pre-order availability of its first “Facebook Phone,” the HTC Status. Social butterflies on the nation’s No. 2 wireless carrier can pre-order the sleek smartphone for $49.99 on contract beginning immediately, and the phone will arrive in stores this Sunday, July 17th. Aimed squarely at young Facebook fanatics, the HTC Status features Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, a QWERTY keypad, a 5-megapixel camera and a dedicated Facebook sharing button. “We can’t wait to put the HTC Status in the hands of our young customers who will waste no time tapping into Facebook to update their friends,” said AT&T Senior VP of Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets Jeff Bradley in a statement. “We’re also really pleased to offer the hottest new smartphone at an affordable price to this important, socially savvy youth market.”

LEAK: NOKIA'S FIRST WINDOWS PHONE PHONE

A video just surfaced showing Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, foolishly asking a crowd of people to "put away their cameras" for the unveiling of something "super confidential," codenamed "Sea Ray." Naturally, a few people ignored the plea for "no pictures please" and, indeed, leaked the new device out to the blogosphere.

What is it? Why, it's Nokia's first Windows Phone. While it looks nearly identical to the just announced N9, the different LED placement on the back (in line with the same 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens) confirms it's a new device as does the additional hardware button (for shutter release, we presume) along the side. And the fact that it's running Windows Phone 7 Mango seals the deal.

BANK OF AMERICA TRIALING MOBILE WALLET PAYMENT PROGRAM

According to a BGRsource, Bank of America has started inviting select customers to trial its new Mobile Wallet payment service program based on NFC technology. This technology allows users to pay for purchases by waving their mobile phone in front of a receiver.

The program only works with BlackBerry smartphones at this point, and in order to make your existing phone NFC-capable, Bank of America is sending testers a new battery cover in addition to a microSD card. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 and 8530; BlackBerry Bold 9000, 9650 and 9700; and BlackBerry Tour 9630 are all supported devices. Payments can be made at any location where Mastercard’s PayPass is accepted, and the program will become active very shortly “this Spring.”

XPERIA PLAY COMING TO VERIZON

According to Wirefly Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, aka Playstation Phone, is coming to Verizon exclusively. On a page comparing the iPhone 4 to the Play, it states Verizon will be the carrier for the Play.

We expect to get the official lowdown on Sunday February 13th when Sony Ericsson has a press event at Mobile World Congress.

SPRINTS BIG ANNOUNCEMENT...DUAL SCREEN PHONE {YAWN}

Sprint promised us an "industry first" at its event today, and it might have delivered, maybe, sort of, possibly...ah who knows: check out the Kyocera Echo, the first dual-screen Android phone. That's right, dual-screen -- that's two 3.5-inch 480 x 800 displays which can be unfolded and used as a single 4.7-inch 960 x 800 surface. The screens are connected by a slick sliding liquid-metal hinge that Kyocera's filed several patents on -- the phone can be closed and used like a regular single-screen phone, unfolded all the way, or propped up into the faux-laptop configuration shown above. Under the hood there's a 1GHz second-gen Snapdragon running Android 2.2 -- we'll forgive the older software because Kyocera had to do extensive customization to add dual-screen support to seven core apps like the browser, email, and messaging. The seven optimized apps can be run on each screen individually so you can have the browser up top and email below, and several of them include useful full-dual-screen views as well. There's also a new dual-screen app manager, which is brought up by tapping the two screens simultaneously. Unfortunately, third party apps can't be run in any of the new modes and just fill the entire display for now

XPERIA PLAY COMING FEBRUARY 13TH

Sony Ericsson has officially acknowledged the Xperia Play, aka Playstation Phone, in a Super Bowl ad. According to the ad, the highly anticipated phone will be announced at an event on February 13th.

The Play has a 4-inch multi-touch 854 x 480 LCD display, single core 1Ghz processor coupled with an Adreno 205 GPU. It has 512MB of RAM and runs Android Gingerbread. The Xperia Play will have the usual Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11n and an FM transmitter. The Xperia Play is also a gaming machine and when the screen is slid up a PlayStation dual-shock style control is revealed. PSP Go games will be available.

LEAKED: HTC FLAGSHIP PHONE

The newest HTC flagship mobile phone was spotted in a Taipei train station. Not much is known about the device other than it has a arcing earpiece, a front facing camera surrounded with a chrome ring and runs Android.

RUMOR: FACEBOOK PHONE

BGR has received information from a tipster who apparently was part of a recent focus group for an upcoming device that appears to be a Facebook phone. Here are some features that may be part of the eventual Facebook handset based on questions asked at during the session:

• Location aware coupons: you pick main categories of interest. When you’re near any stores that fall into those categories, coupons are automatically pushed to your phone. Basically, it sounds like “Facebook Deals on steroids,” as our tipster elegantly phrased it.
• An always-on GPS service much like Google Latitude that would run in the background. The service would provide automatic “check-ins” and might share your location with friends.
• No local storage (or very little). Everything is cloud-based, including contacts, media, data, etc.
• Obviously the phone will include a camera, but everything will be uploaded automatically and stored in the cloud.
• A news ticker-style message notification system: all messages funnel into one mass inbox, sortable by type, but initially unfiltered. There will also be a ticker of some kind that reads off message content as it’s delivered, regardless of message type.

The handset itself wasn’t specifically referred to as a “Facebook phone,” though the tipster says they spent over an hour of the session talking about social media in addition to very specific things like “how many photos do you upload to Facebook a day”, and more.

PLAYSTATION PHONE - CLEAR PICTURE

Why the Playstation Phone was not announced at CES, the world may never know. But, thanks to a Chinese site, IT168, we have the clearest picture, above, of what it looks like.

IT168 says that the PSPhone has a 854 x 480 resolution screen sprawled across its 4-inch LCD display and comes equipped with specs similar to what we've heard from before: 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of ROM and running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. When IT168 ran Neocore the PSPhone posted a 59.1fps, which is impressive!

VIZIO UNVEILS VIA LINEUP AHEAD OF CES

Vizio built its name on low-end HDTVs. Now, it is expanding into other areas and using the same business philosophy...make it cheap enough and people will buy it. Just ahead of CES, Vizio has announced they will be jumping into the tablet, phone and media TV sectors with their new VIA lineup.

The Vizio tablet will be 8-inches while the phone will be 4-inches. Both will run Android and have WiFi N, GPS, MicroSD slot, dual cameras and HDMI output. The tablet, at least at this time, will not have 3G capabilities and it is unknown if the phone will be GSM or CDMA.

In addition, Vizio will be launching a line of TVs and Blu-ray players with Google TV built in. This won't be the standard Google TV either, apparently Vizio is creating its own interface built on top of the standard Google TV interface. It remains to be seen(at CES later this week) if Vizio will be able to pull it off.

KIN STUDIO CLOSING JANUARY 31ST; VERIZON OFFERS FREE PHONES

To the four people who purchased a Kin we have some bad news. The Kin Studio will permanently close on January 31, 2011. Users can still use the phone to make calls, text, email, browse the web and stream music via Zune Pass. However, the home screen will become dead and useless (think lazy zombie) with the last status update stuck on the screen. The online repository of pictures, contacts and videos will be deleted from the cloud server so back them up now.

Verizon Wireless is offering Kin users a free 3G phone of their choice until March 31, 2011. [WPCentral]

RUMOR: PLAYSTATION PHONE SET FOR 2011 MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS DEBUT

According to Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Bordberg, Sony Ericsson will be showing off a new gamer’s phone at MWC 2011.

If that wasn’t enough to make you suspect the phone he’s talking about was the PlayStation Phone, though, Nordberg then went on to say the following:

“I’m very glad that we work with a company like Sony, who actually knows how to [negotiate games rights]… Sony has an extremely strong offering in the gaming market, and that’s very interesting… Sony is of course a very strong brand, and why shouldn’t we use that? Gaming, including content, is a very interesting proposition."

Nordberg’s comments sure seem like he’s just itching to reveal the PlayStation Phone right then and there, but it’s still unknown what the actual capabilities of the PlayStation Phone will be. [Geek]

T-MOBILE'S SAMSUNG GALAXY TABLET TWEAKED TO MAKE PHONE CALLS

The resourceful folks over at xda-developers has managed to pour the phone.apk Android module into T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy tablet. Forum member Jyveafk has created a way to flash the device, using Odin3, to allow calling over T-Mobile's EDGE network. Basically, XDA members have turned the 7 inch Galaxy Tablet into a giant smartphone.

Of course, XDA cautions that the procedure is “for experienced flashers only.” [xda developers]

RUMOR: SAMSUNG FLAGSHIP PHONE COMING IN FEBRUARY

Here’s the good news: the slide below depicts a possible upcoming Samsung handset that would definitely knock some socks off. The nameless Android kit apparently sports Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), a 4.3-inch or 4.5-inch sAMOLED2 (Super AMOLED 2) display, an 8-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, DNLA, GPS, full HD video recording and playback, and a 1.2GHz processor. This beast of a device is reportedly due in February of next year, and will be Samsung’s flagship phone for the first half of 2011. Sound too good to be true? Well, it might be.

Here’s the bad news: the image shown next to the “Revolution in Design” heading on the slide does not depict the Samsung phone we just described. In fact, it’s not even a Samsung product. Instead, it’s an old Apiotek SkyPhone. While that doesn’t necessarily mean the slide is fake — trust us; weirder things have happened in authentic documents — were not exactly sure why someone on Samsung’s marketing team would have an image of an old Apiotek VoIP phone sitting on his or her computer, or why one would be intentionally yanked off the Internet when this slide was being assembled. [BGR]

WINDOWS PHONE 7 LAUNCHES IN US TODAY

The long anticipation is now over. Microsoft is releasing its newest mobile OS, Windows Phone 7 (WP7), in the US today. Microsoft has chosen AT&T as their launch partner and AT&T hasn't disappointed with 5 new phones. The list includes the HTC Surround, Samsung Focus and HTC HD7 are already available for purchase and the Dell Venue Pro is rumored to drop later today. The LG Quantum is also available for pre-order from AT&T starting today. Expect to pay $199.99 for any of the aforementioned Windows Phones, though better deals are available through the likes of Amazon.com, as is often the case. [BGR]

ENERGIZER Qi CHARGING MAT UNBOXED - WITH VIDEO

Even though the Engergizer Qi (pronounced 'chee') hasn't hit retail yet, a review gives us an overview and unbox of the device.  The Qi is a mat that will charge your mobile device.  Currently, you will need to place a sleeve on the mobile to allow it charge, but if Energizer can sell enough of these, eventually the sleeve portion will be built into the mobile device.

The Qi charging mat will retail for $89 and the sleeves, currently only for the iPhone 3G and up and the Blackberry Curve 8900, will sell for about $35. [Engadget]

RUMOR: FACEBOOK ANNOUNCING FACEBOOK PHONE ON WEDNESDAY

Facebook is holding a media event on Wednesday November 3rd.  It is rumored the much talked about (but not as much as the Verizon iPhone) Facebook Phone will be announced.  Other speculation is that the long awaited Facebook app for the iPad will finally debut as well as a Deals type of service through Places. [TechCrunch]