Sony Ericsson is about to bust out a new Walkman phone and it’s what has been floating around then net, the Rika. It’s now been given a more recognizable Sony Ericsson model name, the Walkman W705 phone, and it looks to be you average slider phone albeit a little more stylish with the brushed metal finish. It’s got a 2.4-inch display, 3.2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP), WiFi, and aGPS. It’s scheduled to be announced later in the month, but will go on sale in February 2009. I guess Sony Ericsson hasn’t gotten over their habit announcing products months ahead of its release, and considering that the W705 isn’t exactly what you would consider a stellar device, I reckon people will eventually forget about this one after it’s announced. At least Sony Ericsson fanboys has something definite to look foward to next year. Congratulations to them.

[semc blog via bgr]

Those looking to get a BlackBerry Bold or Storm might just want to exercise a little patience as we’ve found out that RIM is already hard at work at some juicy new products. Based on what BGR was able to gather from two independent sources, RIM’s got a new baby that features a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, 1GB RAM and a “near HD quality” display. It’s rumored to look like a combination of the Storm and Bold molded into one device which could mean a touchscreen, QWERTY-equipped phone in the not so distant future. Likewise, it was also revealed that a Storm 2 is already in production so it might be a good decision to skip out on the 1st gen Storm since 2nd gen devices are likely to be better than the 1st one. So, got enough EQ to wait things out or are you waiting for something more significant and definite to hold off your insatiable desire to buy a new BlackBerry phone?

[bgr via cellphones etc]

Based on some of the specs found on the internet, it comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, 128MB RAM, 1GB on board memory, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5mm jack, speaker phone, proximity sensor, accelerometer, 1400 mAh battery equivalent to 15 days of standby and 5.5 hours of talk time, and of course, a very reasonably sized 3.26-inch touch sensitive 360×480 184ppi display to work your fingers on. It likewise supports SMS, MMS, microSD cards, MS Word and PowerPoint files, and cut/copy & paste which the other more popular touchscreen phone sorely lacks. As far as connectivity goes, you won’t have a problem with its dual-band 800/1900MHz CDMA/EV-DO Rev A, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, and 2100MHz HSDPA compatible. No WiFi support here, but I guess these bevy of features is reason enough to forgo that missing option though I personally believe it would have made the Storm a killer device if RIM had included it. Anyway, with or without it, the Storm still looks like impressive.

Sound pretty enticing and can’t wait for it to be released? We feel the same way, but with Vodafone, Verizon, Telus and Bell all making their respective announcements, it probably won’t be too long now before it hits the market.

[blackberry storm]

However, that also doesn’t mean that whatever is release in China won’t leak out to other neighboring countries as well. Oh well, 2009 isn’t that far away and we’ll probably hear more news as to what HTC’s plans are for the G1 as far as world domination is concerned.

[talk android via engadgetmobile]

Even though the successor to the Viewty has already been launched, that’s not stopping LG from releasing a new white version of the 5-megapixel Viewty. Unfortunately, it’s only available in Korea, but I’m sure your local importer will be queuing up pretty soon for this baby as the white Viewty sure looks sweet. So I guess this means that we won’t be seeing the demise of the Viewty anytime soon even if the Renoir, its successor, has already been revealed to the public.

[unwiredview via bgr]

More after the break.

Similarly, HTC has also released new colored variations of their Touch Diamond phone. They’ve already recently revelaed a white version, but now, they’ve decided to include the rest of the remaining colors in the color wheel. You can now chalk up blue, red, yellow, orange, violet, purple, and brown to the list of HTC Touch Diamond colors to choose from aside from the original black and new white version. No word though on where these colorful Touch Diamonds will become available, but with the huge market base and following of HTC, I won’t be surprised if it’ll be released worldwide.

Our initial excitement and jubilation over the release of Nokia’s first full-touchscreen device the 5800 XpressMusic phone came to a screeching halt as news broke out that it will only be released in 7 countries in 2008. Other countries such as the US, Australia, and other more developed markets will get their fair share of the Nokia 5800 in 2009. When exactly is anybody’s guess which makes it even harder to accept such a disappointing revelation. Based on the report, they’re targeting emerging markets first since it is there where Nokia has a greater advantage.

My question is, why not hit both emerging and mature markets at the same time so you can get more mileage across a specific given amount of time? That, for me, makes more sense than just limiting its release to certain regions. Let’s hope they rethink their current disposition on this matter, and maybe we can get our hands on one before 2008 comes to a close.

[reuters via engadgetmobile]

Though the iPhone may have the edge in design and aesthetics, the BlackBerry Storm does have something that iPhone owners have been craving for for years; cut, copy & paste functionality. So, how does one go about performing such a task on the Storm? It’s simple. Just place one finger at the beginning of the area where you to copy and then slide over the text with another finger to highlight the entry. After that, go to Menu, select Copy, and all you have left to do is to just Paste it. I’m not too sure if this function is available in Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic phone, and if it’s not, then this is the first time cut, copy and paste has been incorporated into a full-touchscreen device other than Windows Mobile-based phone. Maybe this will serve as an example for Apple on how they can likewise implement the whole cut, copy & paste feature on their iPhone. Unless, of course, they really have no intentions of integrating such a function on their mobile phone, then that would just be a crying shame.

[via bgr]

[cellpassion via engadget]

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is officially scheduled to be available this quarter. Price tag for the S60 5th Edition touchscreen phone is an affordable €279 ($392). Specs include the 3.2-inch 640 x 360 (resistive) touchscreen with stylus input, a 3.2 MP autofocus Carl Zeiss lens and LED flash, WiFi, HSDPA (North American), GPS and 8GB of storage with microSD to extend memory capacity up to 16GB. Comes With Music service will get on board next year.

If the touchscreen S60 5th Edition is faster than most S60 phones, this phone is destined to rock.

[via engadget]

Since the release of the iPhone, it’s been raining touchscreen phones all of a sudden, and it looks like we won’t be seeing any slowdown anytime soon as LG is set to release the KP500. It’s their alternative to the more expensive touchscreen-enabled devices out in the market today though they have yet to disclose its exact amount. It features a 3-inch display, 3-megapixel camera, motion sensor and black, brown, gold and silver variants to choose from. If even has its own TouchFLO-like UI spruce things up a bit.

[unwired view via engadgetmobile]

Video after the break.

It actually looks like a re-designed LG Renoir, and though its full specs have yet to be known, LG might have found a way to carve its own niche in the whole touchscreen phone segment of the market. If you can’t beat them, then offer a low-cost alternative that doesn’t cut back too much on features and functionality. I guess we’ll know soon enough if it is indeed worth your money and attention as it goes on sale in Europe in a month’s time.