Canadian mobile network TELUS announced the immediate availability of the Motorola BACKFLIP today.  The BACKFLIP is one of the more interesting smartphones on the market today.  The BACKFLIP features a unique reverse hinge QWERTY keypad design with a BACKTRACK navigation pad on the reverse.  In addition to this unique keyboard the BACKFLIP also sports a 3.1 inch HVGA capacitive display, 5 megapixel camera, WiFi, A-GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, 512MB of internal memory, microSD support and MOTOBLUR atop Android 1.5 easily placing it among the top of the line when it comes to texter friendly Android devices.  The price for this device on the TELUS network is $249.99 without a data plan and a more reasonable $99.99 with a data plan and three year contract.

The Motorola BACKFLIP has been one of the better selling mobile devices in recent years.  With its unique QWERTY keyboard the BACKFLIP is a very popular device amongst the mass texters.  The ability to quickly and easily send text messages makes this Motorola device one of the best in its category.  Throw in the fact that this device sports a 5 megapixel camera, WiFI, GPS, Android 1.5 and microSD support and you have one of the best smart phones on the market.

It really comes as a shock to me that TELUS did not already have the BACKFLIP by Motorola on its network.  The Motorola BACKFLIP is just another Android device that TELUS is adding to its ever growing lineup of Android smartphones. This particular mobile device has been one of the most popular ones for Motorola, in addition to the Milestone,  in other parts of the world since it was released.  I am quite certain that many TELUS customers are going to enjoy the BACKFLIP and of the features that come with this smartphone.

A day after RIM chief Mike Lazaridis made the official announcement that BlackBerry would be coming out with a white BlackBerry Bold Nokia followed suit with their own announcement of a pale hued E72.  Coming with a skinned UI to match the externals the new handset is being announced alongside a firmware update that will improve Ovi Maps, social networking integration and allow for location sharing through Facebook.  Internet radio of an unspecified variety has been included as well along with general performance and stability improvements.

Seeing as how the E7x series from Nokia is the closest competitor to the BlackBerry businessphone line it would make perfect sense that Nokia would come out with a white colored device on the heels of RIM’s announcement yesterday.  The E7x series from Nokia is strikingly similar to many of BlackBerry’s devices that are targeted for the business crowd.  This updated color is just a small part of the enhancements that Nokia made to their E7x series.  The various updates included with the new firmware is sure to make the Nokia E7x series that much more enjoyable for the consumer.  Much needed improvements to Ovi Maps and enhanced social networking integration will make these mobile devices from Nokia that much more appealing to mobile phone consumers.

Many of the updates to the firmware that Nokia has just implemented were well overdue.  Many of the updates surrounding Facebook will certainly be a nice addition to this business minded cell phone.  While the E7x series will continue to cater to the business professional it will now include more features that will also allow this device to be used in one’s personal life to keep up with the various social networking websites that are becoming so popular these days.

Apple has recently acquired Siri, a company that makes a virtual assistant app.  Siri was inspired by Darpa’s CALO – the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes – project.  While Siri was initially designed to help streamline military personnel’s activities the consumer app now focuses on helping your find things like restaurants, hotels, businesses and even utilizes speech recognition tools.  This app is essentially a smart search app and has people speculating about the direction that Apple might be taking.  Many industry experts feel that this acquisition is leading Apple into Google territory.

While the terms of the acquisition are not known Business Insider guesses the deal could be worth $100 to $200 million.  A deal of that magnitude would definitely signal a commitment to this new type of technology for Apple.  The technology that Siri can bring to the table for Apple’s various consumer electronics will certainly enhance the user experience of iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad users.

This recent announcement is one of the more exciting announcements to come from the mobile device world this week.  It certainly does appear that Apple is looking to make a leap into the mobile app department and this acquisition of the start up company Siri will certainly go a long way in making that a successful transition.  With the technology Siri has created Apple will be able to add a lot of cool search features into various apps and make their mobile devices truly GPS user friendly.  It will be very handy if you were able to speak into your iPhone and ask your personal assistant app where the nearest coffee shop was and quickly receive directions to several different options that you can walk to.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Andy Rubin the VP of Engineering at Google, finally put to rest all of the rumors that have been flying around the internet and confirmed that the upcoming Android 2.2 release known as “Froyo” will include support for Adobe Flash.  Flash for Android was first demonstrated back in November 2008 on the T-Mobile G1 and ever since the Android community has been waiting with bated breath for this feature to be included on their handheld devices.  While Rubin was more than willing to share information about the Adobe Flash feature he was less than willing to mention a launch date for Android 2.2.  This leaves Android fans still in the dark about when they will actually see this highly anticipated feature added to their devices. The latest guesstimates from industry gurus put the release of Android 2.2 on the market some time during the month of May.

One of the most highly anticipated features is finally set to come to Android phones.  Smartphone users have been wishing and waiting for the day when their mobile devices would include Adobe Flash so that they can enjoy streaming content on their mobile devices.  While Adobe has had their own reasons for not releasing their product to the masses over mobile devices it sounds as if they are have finally caved to the wants and desires of their customers and will be launching their product in the next Android release. 

This newest feature that is set to hit the Android market is going to be one of the biggest in recent memory.  The addition of Adobe Flash to your mobile device is going to change the way we view content and interact with our Android powered smartphones.  I can not wait to see how well Flash players will work on these devices and just how popular they will become.

While many users of the iPhone have been enjoying Sirius’ XM radio for a while now it will soon be an issue of the past as Sirius has recently announced that their XM radio subscription will be coming to Android devices, like the Nexus One “soon.”

While Sirius is not giving any specific dates on when you can expect this service to be available on your Android device a sign up page that went live recently promises that it will be “available soon.”  The application itself will be free but you will need a monthly SiriusXM subscription to continue to use the app after your 7 day trial is up.

One downside to this announcement is for those people who are hoping to use this app to get their fix of Howard Stern, Major League Baseball play by play, NFL play by play and NASCAR radio.  These programs will not be available on the Android devices due to “contractual rights things.”  This certainly does lower the appeal of this app and signing up for the SiriusXM subscription it is not going to diminish my excitement completely.

Having the ability to play SiriusXM radio wherever you go is a definite appeal to getting an Android device and SiriusXM subscription.  If you are a huge music buff this could be a real treat and a great way to stay in contact with your favorite tunes.  Having the ability to tune into SiriusXM radio will make your Android device much more than just a cell phone and portable MP3 player.  You will now have access to thousands and thousands of songs on your mobile device, such as the HTC Hero, anywhere in the world.  I know for myself I will be downloading this app as soon as it becomes available in the Android market place.

BlackBerry is at it again with some more great news for their mobile device consumers like BlackBerry Bold 9700.  RIM’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis recently announced that the company’s next platform, which is being called BlackBerry 6, will be available “in the next calendar quarter,” which can be assumed as the third quarter of 2010.  While there was no video preview of the platform at BlackBerry’s most recent event the demo they did have showed a touchscreen interface and with the assistance of a follow up question from the audience it was confirmed BlackBerry 6 will be available for both touch and non-touch devices.

Lazaridis also mentioned that the company’s all-new WebKit-based browser is part and parcel with BlackBerry 6 pointing out that the rendering engine will have implications throughout the platform and the apps that run on it not just the browser alone.  In other words you should not be expecting a release of WebKit browser for OS 5 based devices.

While it is RIM’s intention to for every device in the RIM portfolio to eventually run BlackBerry 6 not every device on the market today will be upgradeable.  Lazaridis says they will do their best but he is not making any guarantees, so check and see if it will be available for your BlackBerry Curve.

With the recent improvements made by RIM and their OS 5.0 release I am very eager to see what features BlackBerry 6 is set to include.  OS 5 was a major upgrade to the earlier operating systems BlackBerry was employing so it will be very exciting to see what BlackBerry 6 will look like.  The idea of having a touchscreen on my BlackBerry is very thrilling to say the least.  It sounds like BlackBerry is really making some strides to catch up with other smartphones on the market today.

In a rather seemingly interesting move mobile device manufacturer Motorola has decided to remove Google’s locations services from their mobile devices in favor of those from Skyhook.  Motorola states that they are proudly become the “first Android device maker to abandon Google for its location services.”  The device maker is set to add Skyhook’s GPS, WiFi and cellular location to the “vast majority” of its phone models, like the Motorola Milestone.  This news apparently has developers giddy as the Skyhook technology is hardcoded into the OS which means every single app can reap the benefits.

It is still unclear why Motorola would want to distance itself from Google like this by using Skyhook’s technology to power all of the GPS, WiFi and cellular location for their mobile devices.  It will be interesting to see what sorts of apps developers will be able to come up with now that they will have access to all of this GPS technology.  I am sure there are some really cool features that they will be able to add to many different apps.

Also, it would be intriguing to see how consumers react to Motorola’s Android devices when they are lacking the familiar Google technology.  Many consumers have become accustomed to these various technologies so it will be interesting to see how they react to the new Motorola devices.  Ultimately if smartphone consumers do like the way that these features function on these various new Motorola phones it would be pretty hard for the mobile device manufacturer to continue making these devices.  While I think this could be a good thing for the Android market and really push device makers to enhance their products like the Motorola Cliq and include new features when new devices are released I will be sitting back and seeing just how good Skyhook’s technology really is first.

Following the recent official announcement of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G Canadian carriers Telus and Rogers have announced that they will be carrying the Pearl 3G in the coming months.  The Telus announcement reads:
Starting in May, this smartphone will be available from TELUS in pink and in black for as little as $29.99 on a three-year plan. For more information about the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone, please visit www.blackberry.com/pearl3

While the Rogers announcement was a bit more non-committal as far as dates go:
Pricing and availability will be announced in the coming weeks. For additional information about Rogers’ lineup of BlackBerry smartphones, please visit www.rogers.com. For more information about the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100, please visit www.blackberry.com/pearl3G
Also, in addition to these two networks Bell Canada has also announced that they will be carrying the new BlackBerry device:
Bell Mobility will carry the device is May and it will operate on our HSPA network.

All of this sounds like great news for Canadian BlackBerry fans.  The eagerness of these three wireless networks to carry the new Pearl 3G is a great sign for how popular they expect this device to become.  With the past success of older Pearl models it is no wonder that these three Canadian wireless networks are so eager to announce they will be carrying the device as soon as possible.  Undoubtedly this new Pearl 3G will bring new customers to their wireless networks and keep some of their old customers happy as well.  The Pearl 3G is expected to become one of BlackBerry’s most popular smartphones and has a line of specifications that are sure to rival many other mobile devices on the market today.

It appears that more and more evidence is starting to mount that the next iPhone will feature support for video chat.  Multiple references have been discovered in the latest iPhone OS 4 beta code.  It looks there have been several mentions of one on one and group video chats within an iChat app for the new iPhone OS.  Apple already has three different servers set up to handle the load for this service but they are currently only accessible through Apple’s intranet.

Also found within the build were mentions to chat rooms and moderation which the website 9to5mac.com speculates will be used for a new Game Center.  As is always the case just because something is included in the pre-release software is no guarantee that it will be included when the final product is launched.  But since there has been instances of several well connected people eluding to the fact that video chat appeared to be on the horizon this looks like just another bit of evidence that something along the lines of an iChat app is on the way.

With each passing day the iPhone OS 4 is creating more and more buzz.  It looks like there are going to be a lot more updates and upgrades included in this latest OS release for the iPhone than initially expected.  The big buzz generated by the upcoming release of the iPhone OS 4 was the ability for users to multitask and run several apps at the same time.  Now throw in the ability to stage one on one or group video conferences and it sounds like the iPhone OS 4 is set to be one of the best smartphone operating systems on the market today.

For all of the BlackBerry users who are also avid Twitterers you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that there is a new Twitter app for BlackBerry devices that was recently released into public beta.  With the first release of the Twitter app for BlackBerry many users complained about several controls and features associated with the app.  It looks like the developers took your concerns into consideration and have a large list of new features that are available with this latest release.
Notifications of New Tweets and @Replies/Mentions
• When an @reply/mention is received, the user will be notified with a splat on the BlackBerry home screen ribbon as well as the application icon
• Users will also be notified of new tweets in the BlackBerry Messages list
Twitter Lists Functionality
• Comprehensive option to build a list of Twitter users on any subject
• Ability to add members to the list and view subscribers of the lists
• Users can also view other users’ lists
Profile Editing
• Users can edit their own Twitter profile from the application
• Users can also change their profile image from the application
Personalization Settings
• Users can customize the look of the application with the ability to:
• Show/hide the navigation bar and tweetbox
• Change the font/style to their own preferred choice
Enlarged Avatar (Profile Picture) Viewing
Users can click on a Twitter profile image and it will be enlarged for better viewing abilities.

These new features build on Twitter for BlackBerry’s strengths at its original preview launch:
• Push Notifications for Direct Messages
• Timeline Support
• Following & Followers
• Posting, Sending, Deleting, Replying and Re-Tweeting Tweets
• User/Saved/Keyword/Proximity Search
• Tweet Photos/Links
• Trending Topics
• Seamless integration into core BlackBerry Applications
• URL Shortening
• Auto Update