Jeez – after hearing about the Bold for over 3 months, it’s hard to believe this thing still hasn’t touched down in North America.

Only 2 more days to wait, according to Canada’s Rogers Wireless. Those of us south of Saskatchewan are still on hold until AT&T pushes it out the door, but everyone on the other side of the border will be able to pick one up on August 21st. No price has been officially outed yet, but all rumors are pointing at $399 on a 3 year contract.

[Via Mobile Crunch]

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ZDNet Australia certainly seems to tink so. According to the site, Global Bank HSBC is considering ridding themselves of their reliance on the BlackBerry, opting instead to transition their workers to iPhones. If this goes through, it could result in a bulk order of up to 200,000 iPhone units which would most likely rank as the highest mass purchases of the handset to date. The fact that a company like HSBC is even considering the iPhone is testament to robust new Enterprise features in the new 2.0 firmware. The move would be a massive boon to Apple, both in terms of sheer sales as well as public perception, and could conceiveably convince other firms to consider a similar move. While we certainly won’t see the BlackBerry disappear any time soon, RIM might want to consider pushing out the Bold before the end of the decade, as product delays like this can’t do much to bolster confidence in the firm’s desire and ability to keep up with the times.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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Yep, this has Nseries event written all over it. Awkwardly secretive, selective audience, decent budget; when it comes to making bloggers feel special Nokia will always be the king. This coming Monday at 3:00 am EST Nokia will be holding a private online event that will showcase two upcoming Nokia handsets a week ahead of the official public Nokia announcement. The online shindig will will cover all the details about these two new handsets and will likely involve a couple of product managers to field some inquiries. Now we’re not betting men here at BGR but if we had to venture a guess as to which handsets will be announced it would have to be the N79 and the N85. The N79 as you recall is a bit of an ugly duckling, mildly reminiscent of the N82. Specs are pretty much unknown at this point beyond a 2.4 inch QVGA screen, a 5 megapixel camera and Feature Pack 2. The N85 on the other hand, is pretty much an open book at this point after having passed through the FCC recently. Tri-band WCDMA, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, integrated FM Transmitter and GPS and dual-slide form factor a la N95 cover the highlights. We’d like to think that the 5800 XpressMusic might be announced in place of one of the aforementioned handsets but it’s likely not in the cards. Some day…

[Via Boy Genius]

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Got your hands on a shiny new iPhone 3G? If you answered yes, you’re one of the lucky ones. For those of you that didn’t pick up the new handset during the last week, you could be in for a long hard journey. According to industry analyst Gene Munster, the current iPhone shortage could persist through mid-August, crushing the dreams of would-be iPhone 3G owners everywhere. Herman Munster dropped word that initial demand for the handset outstripped Apple’s estimates, resulting in a supply shortage that is causing problems across the U.S. Things should even out before too long, but if you’ve had your sights set on a getting one within the next 3-4 weeks, you might want to consider camping out at your local AT&T or Apple store. Make that Apple store, since we all know AT&T stores selling iPhones are totally like 1,800 of Steve Jobs’ red-headed step childs. They’re good from some iPhone cases but that’s about it. Sorry, folks!

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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If there’s ever been two devices so closely pitted against each other, it would be none other than the BlackBerry Bold and the iPhone 3G. Heck, people we’re even putting the original iPhone against the Bold. We’re going to break down each device piece by piece and give you an unbiased comparison of both. We’ll give you our personal opinion at the end, but besides that, we’re going to be completely accurate and fair. Hopefully this will help you make up your mind on what phone you’re going to get. You know, if the Bold is ever released, and the iPhone 3G is ever in stock. Hit the jump for the craziness!

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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Alright, so I’ve got me a set of iPhone back covers from JAVOedge and I’m saying to myself … self, how can I best give a review of these things? I mean lets be honest (with myself) there’s not a whole lot you can say to make something like a case (or half of one) into a multipage, super long review like you can with say something like the iPhone itself. So, I say to myself … why not just do a quick look at the back covers and then plaster a ton of images up so the people can look and talk to themselves about it?

So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got a bunch of pictures taken with the various back covers (I’ve got 7 of em) and I’m just going to lay them out there for you see. First though I’m going to subject you to my thoughts about the covers…

[Via JustAnotheriPhoneBlog]

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Finally, pictures of the touchscreen BlackBerry Thunder in action. BlackBerry Sync has a pair for us: One showing the music player (which will have an integrated carrier music store, but hopefully not Verizon’s UI, ugh) and another apparently recording a video. It’s definitely super polished, as we’d expect from a phone BlackBerry’s ballsy enough to call “Apple killer.” Hit the link for another picture!

[Via Gizmodo]

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LG and Samsung just love throwing down the touchscreen gauntlet on American carriers lately — one only need look at the Dare, Instinct, Vu, Voyager, and Glyde to figure that much out. Thing is, none of those devices really fall into the smartphone bucket, much less the coveted “superphone” one. That might just be where the recently-announced Samsung Omnia comes into play, though, which is now rumored to be destined for AT&T with a gaggle of features in tow: Windows Mobile 6.1, 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA, at least 8GB of internal storage, and support for AT&T Mobile TV. If it turns out to be true, that’s got to steam LG, who’s presently sitting atop the AT&T Mobile TV food chain with the Vu — but hey, if that means they’re going to set to work with another range-topper above this one, we’re all for it.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

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Apple marring the form factor of the iPhone to create a mutant with a slide-out keyboard just to please business users sounds about as far out there as it gets, but that’s exactly what the Reg is suggesting. According to their reports (unclear whether it’s from “inside Cupertino” or “inside mobile operators” ’cause of their wording), “whether or not [Steve Jobs] ever makes it work, he is already trying to make a ’slide-out’ keyboard for a corporate version of the iPhone.” If this thing ever came to light, it would be way next year and not aimed at consumers. We’re going to say this is unlikely—as much as Apple might want to crib marketshare from BlackBerry and Co. (which rests in part on the keyboard), we just don’t see Apple making hardware just for business users, especially potentially bulky, less than aesthetically perfect hardware. (Though Apple would obviously pretty it up.) Besides, you do get used to the keyboard—though driving while texting your mom isn’t as easy.

[Via Gizmodo]

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