Mail-in rebates are a hassle. Fiscally, they’re just as good as cash, but the mental overhead in dealing with mail-in rebate forms and whatnot is just more than some people want to deal with. Those people are likely going to be headed to a Best Buy or RadioShack retailer to pick up their Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, where the Sprint (NYSE: S) retail partners are offering instant rebates on the Palm Pre. But, Sprint is apparently mulling the option of replacing the $100 Palm Pre mail-in rebate with the instant variety – or so goes the rumor from PalmGoon.

The rumor comes from one of PalmGoon’s Sprint sources, and is said to be a minor discussion within Sprint. But, as PreCentral notes, Sprint stores have already been stocked with Palm Pre forms that confirm the Palm Pre’s mail-in rebate.

Still, the move would make sense. Sprint would presumably want to attract more customers to its stores (and away from its partners), where it makes a killing on accessory-sales (like Palm Pre cases and the TouchStone dock). And, it seems Palm has changed their website to reflect the Palm Pre’s $199.99 retail price as being ” “after rebate and service agreement,” where before it referred to “mail-in rebate and service agreement.”

[Via: PalmGoon]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Palm Pre hitting Best Buy for $200 sans rebate!
• LG Rumor 2 and Motorola Stature i9 Arrive at Sprint
• Sprint launches LG Rumor in green for St. Patrick’s Day
• Palm Pre demo units showing up in Sprint stores!
• Palm Pre slated to be announced on May 19th?

Share this:

Popularity: unranked [?]

Don’t go wetting your pants just yet, but it seems some alleged next-generation iPhone screenshots have surfaced on UMPCFever.com. The spy-shots show the next-generation iPhone’s digital compass in action, it’s auto-focus camera with a user-selectable focus reticle, the CPU activity log, and even a sample pic to show off the new iPhone’s camera quality.

Notice the battery meter in the top right is now accompanied by a percent-remaining readout. And, in one of the pictures, we can barely make out what looks like a unique iPhone earpiece. It’s hard to say, but we may be eyeing a new earpiece/speaker design that belongs to the unreleased iPhone. Would it be too much to ask for well lit spy pics?

There’s really nothing in these pictures that would indicate that they’re fakes, but then again, there’s nothing to indicate that they’re real. iPhone leaks are still iPhone leaks, and in Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s tight-lipped world of product launches, we’ll take whatever we can get.

[Via: TheiPhoneBlog]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• More 3G iPhone photos emerge?
• iPhone case maker shows off 3G iPhone’s new look
• Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 will make your iPhone 3G’s camera better!
• 3G iPhone casing images show new design
• Apple to allow carriers to subsidize iPhone

Share this:

Popularity: unranked [?]

And we’re continuing with our “this week in fake devices” series. Today we’re dealing with Chinese “versions” of designer phones, which usually cost a small fortune. Without further ado, here are the contenders:

• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Gucci phone – an attempt to merge Moto Aura with the famous designer produced a fugly device.
• Christian Dior – on the first glance this clone looks like one of hi-tech Japanese clamshell phones, but the specs aren’t there.
• VERTUFK9 – fake Rolex phone, which borrows some lines from Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Vertu handsets.
• VERTUA16 – all-touchscreen Vertu phone? I don’t think so. If there is such thing, we would be all over it.
• New Mobiado phone? – Nah, it’s just a poor attempt to make something similar. High-end precious materials are not there, and the same goes for quality.

When it comes to fake devices “keeping your enemy closer” doesn’t work. Grab the real thing, instead.

[Via: JampBLOG]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Vertu Ferrari phone gets its fake counterpart, again
• LG shows off Rolex concept phone
• There’s no such thing as Lamborghini Vertu phone!
• Vertu Ferrari cloned
• This week in fake Nokia devices: E99, N66 Superman, N86, N100 iPhone, 5900 XM

Share this:

Popularity: 1% [?]

LouderVoice, Europe’s popular consumer reviews website, has recently launched the mobile application for Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s Android platform.

Aside from allowing users to access all the content from loudervoice.com website, the application also features reviews from their partners and clients — including Roomex’s hotel, Puddleducks’ outdoor clothing, Klipsch’ audio products and Bubble Brothers’ wine reviews. Moreover, it’s important to add that LouderVoice for Android takes advantage of HTC Dream/Magic’s location capabilities (GPS), to give users the reviews they need for where they are right now…

Interested? Look for it under the “Lifestyle” section of the Android Market and take it from there.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Last.fm brings streaming internet radio to Android and T-Mobile G1
• Android Market Coming to Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and More
• Review2Buy partner with WRO for mobile service
• Android Market to be Updated for Extra European Localization
• MapQuest’s mobile website optimized for Android web browser

Share this:

Popularity: unranked [?]

Ever wondered what’s Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) procedure for approving all those games and applications for its AppStore. Here’s how Joy of Tech sees the process. It’s hilarious, but unfortunately there’s some truth in it…

[Via: JustAnotherIphoneBlog]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Latest Apple AppStore figures are out: 100 million+ downloads, 3,000+ apps
• Microsoft announces Windows Marketplace fees for developers
• Majority of iPhone applications in AppStore will be free
• Apple’s slow iPhone app turn-around discouraging new iPhone developers
• Gecko to bring AppStore kind of experience to Windows Mobile

Share this:

Popularity: unranked [?]

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Adobe have released an updated version of Flash Lite for Symbian S60 5th Edition. Owners of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic can upgrade their Flash Lite player to version 3.1 from the “App update” utility. It’s 700k heavy download, so you may want to be in a hotspot prior to pushing the “update” button — or forget that part if you’re on an unlimited mobile data plan.

Once downloaded, Flash Lite 3.1 installs without a restart, and as a result Flash performance on web pages is way smoother. To put it in other words – there’s no reason not to update!

[Via: AllAboutSymbian]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Flash Lite for S60 – documents
• Flash Lite for S60 – documents
• Verizon Wireless – redefining what it means to be “unlimited”
• Flash Lite 2.1 for Symbian released
• Nokia now supports Flash Lite on nearly 20 devices

Share this:

Popularity: 2% [?]

Incoming search terms for the article:

• flash lite 3 1 released for symbian s60 5th edition
• download flash lite 3 1 player symbian s60 5th
• flash lite 3 1 released for symbian s60 5th
• flash lite 3 1 s60 5rd

AT&T (NYSE: T) has recently announced that it is preparing to expand its portfolio of embedded 3G mini laptops during the summer, and make them available in its stores nationwide and through other national retailers.

Among the manufacturers which netbooks and mini laptops will hit AT&T store shelves are those made by Acer, Dell and Lenovo (OTCPK: LNVGY). The carrier said that their move is the answer to the growing demand for such devices. According to IDC, mini laptop shipments could reach 22 million by the end of this year.

Moreover, AT&T’s initial test of netbook sales from April 2008 proved as a success, hence by expanding the portfolio of available devices, they hope to boost sales even more.

Pricing and availability of the new devices will be announced at a later date…

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Dell and AT&T team up on $99 Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook offer!
• Nokia Q108: Net sales up 28% year on year, 115.5 million units shipped
• Fun Fact: In Q406 Nokia sold more than a million phones a day
• Nokia: Demand for handsets in China to increase 15% in 2008
• BlackBerry Storm is a Netbook, Apparently

Share this:

Popularity: unranked [?]

Symbian Foundation has recently scored a new member. It’s Open Kernel Labs, which is provider of embedded virtualization software for mobile phones and broadband internet devices. The idea behind their move is to “support the growing demand for mobile devices that are virtualized with OKL4, and rely on the Symbian operating system (OS).”

Commenting on the announcement, OK Labs’ CEO Steve Subar said: “The partnership with Symbian reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering superior technology to the mobile device market. The combination of the most widely used Smartphone OS, Symbian, and OKL4, the most widely used open source embedded virtualization solution, brings an unprecedented degree of integration and collaboration to mobile application developers, device OEMs and network operators.”

For the record, OKL4 is the only commercially deployed embedded virtualization solution for mobile phones, with shipments approaching 250 million units in 2008…

[Via: SymbianFreak]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Fun Fact: In Q406 Nokia sold more than a million phones a day
• Smartphones market growth remains 55%
• Smartphone shipments continue to grow, despite dwindling cellphone sales
• 15.9m Symbian smartphones shipped in Q1 2007; 20 million Symbian smartphone shipments in Japan
• 11.70m Symbian OS shipments in Q1 2006

Share this:

Popularity: unranked [?]