Cell, Cell, Cell: Blackberry Storm Brewing

While cell industry watchers are probably most excited about tomorrow's debut of the first Google phone via T-Mobile (as covered last week)--which looks to be officially named the G1--there are some other new phones on the horizon that are sure to get your pulse pumping. First up is Blackberry, which may officially announce this week that it's joining the League of iPhone-killing Touchscreen Wannabes with the Storm (formerly the Thunder). Last week saw several hints and leaks, with marketing documents and data sheets making the rounds of the gadgetosphere culminating in Verizon publishing a splash page holder, where you can sign up for email updates. Aside from the touchscreen, there's not much that is known about the phone other than it will have a 3.2-megapixel camera, includes quad-band GSM connectivity for global roaming in addition to Verizon's dual-band CDMA connectivity, and will be compatible with Verizon's VZ Navigator direction service.

In other Blackberry news, RIM's first flip-phone model--the Pearl 8220 (formerly known as KickStart)--is coming soon to T-Mobile, but we might have to wait until November until AT&T releases the new Blackberry Bold (via The Boy Genius Report).

Another hotly anticipated phone is Nokia N96--the sequel to Nokia's hot-selling N95--is getting released in the UK this week, and unlocked models will be making their way to the U.S. as soon as the first week of October (be sure to check the Nokia N96 product page for shipping estimates). While it's not a gigantic leap from the N95, the N96 does bump up the memory to 16 GB (with microSD expansion), improves video playback, and includes TV output.

In other cell news...

• In other touchscreen news, HTC is getting touchier with the Touch HD, and CNet Asia has some photos comparing it in size to the HTC Touch Diamond/Pro models (via MobileCrunch). And Asus is joining the crowd with its more compact looking Glide, while it looks like the Windows Mobile 6.1-enabled Samsung Omnia will be coming to AT&T as the Mirage--perhaps as soon as next month.

  

• Good news for Palm, as the new Treo Pro looks to be picked up by AT&T for release by the end of the year. This should bring down its $500+ unlocked price tag down to a subsidized price of around $200 to $300.

• Frustrating news for Palm, as its new OS gets delayed once again.

• The gadgetosphere was running around like an excited toddler with a report that Apple might be returning to at-home activation of iPhones, which might point to the availability of a non-carrier model (i.e., unlocked). Both The Boy Genius Report and AppleInsider have clarified this to mean that current AT&T customers can pre-qualify for an iPhone 3G subsidy via the Web, after which a trip to either an AT&T or Apple store is required to get the device and have it activated by the friendly retail clerks.

• In conjunction with the release of the military-specced, PTT-capable Samsung Rugby (available in black and yellow), AT&T has reduced its push-to-talk service from $10 to $5 per month.

--Agen G.N. Schmitz