Following a long a grueling battle that forced the company to bury its now-defunct “next generation” home entertainment media tech, Toshiba was left bleeding worse than a naked cheerleader in an axe murderer flick. It’s been just over a year since we all attended HD DVD’s $1 billion funeral and now it appears that Toshiba is done grieving. A year is enough time, right? According to the the Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun, the beaten electronics giant plans to join the dark side and issue a Blu-ray player by year’s end. It’s first BD offering will reportedly play DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs, though the price point is still unknown. Tosh is supposedly considering a Blu-ray recorder as well but no time line was specified so odds are we won’t see it this year. The move makes sense of course — Toshiba has to keep up with the times and 1080p is hotter than Hansel right now. It’s going to have to sell a whole lot of players to make up for that $1 billion it lost in the format war, however. Best of luck to you, Tosh.

[Via HD-Report]

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Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff fed some figures to the Wall Street Journal this morning and to say they speak volumes for the effectiveness of both RIM and Apple’s strategies is a gross understatement. Two companies, 3 percent of the global cell phone market, 35 percent of the operating profits. Sheesh. It’s no mystery that both companies have hit the industry hard of late but if this statistic doesn’t speak volumes for the success both have been experiencing, we don’t know what does. While Apple’s next handset release is about a year away, the company continues to bring its iPhone 3GS to new markets where it has yet to receive anything but an enthusiastic welcome. RIM on the other hand, has several highly anticipated devices still to come this year including the Storm 2, Bold 9020 (Onyx) and the Magnum. In a nut shell, both companies are well positioned to push that number up toward the 40 percent mark and possibly beyond before the year is out.

Beyond the dynamic duo that is RIM and Apple, Nokia is the only other player represented on the chart above showing a profit share that outreaches its market share and it still owns the lion’s share of each. As we reaffirmed last week however, all is not peachy up in Finland these days. And then we find Samsung and LG, two companies that combine to make up over 30 percent of the global cell phone market but only about 20 percent of the profits. Last and unfortunately least, there’s Motorola. Ouch, Moto.

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Feet feeling a bit cold this afternoon, BlackBerry fans? Don’t worry, that’s just hell freezing over thanks to an announcement from RIM earlier this afternoon. No, seriously. By way of its Inside BlackBerry blog, RIM has put the world on notice — BlackBerry Desktop Manager is coming to OS X in September. Wooo! A quick rundown of highlighted features:

• Sync your iTunes playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks [if Apple doesn't find a way to kill it, of course]
• Add/Remove applications
• Update your device when new software becomes available
• Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption (security is #1 as always…)
• Manage multiple devices

We’re sure RIM will leave a bit of functionality out of its initial Mac builds but at least Mac users won’t have to bother with Fusion/Parallels/etc every time they fish a new leaked OS out of the swamp. Hit the read link to register for updates on DM for Mac.

[Via Inside BlackBerry]

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While the address book is hardly one of the BlackBerry OS’ weakest links, it’s also pretty ordinary as far as we’re concerned. On a device that lends itself to communications more so than any other there’s plenty more that RIM could be doing in the space. As such, it’s understandable that many are excited for Xobni’s forthcoming BlackBerry offering, which we briefly checked out a couple of months ago. Xobni knocked it out of the park with its Outlook offering and while we have high hopes for it’s BlackBerry app as well, it looks like another company has swooped in with a beta app that aims to tackle the same problem.

Sensobi, currently in private beta, labels its offering “a better address book for your BlackBerry.” That tag line is relatively mild but the company’s potential affect on the way you communicate most definitely is not. The app takes a completely different approach to contacts compared to the BlackBerry address book by providing easy access to communication history. By selecting a contact, you can quickly see a call and email log encompassing all recent conversations. In other words, you can prep for a call in a fraction of the time it took before. Using a ranking system, Sensobi will also let you know when there’s a contact you should get in touch with. Then there’s one of our favorite features, which brings your active contacts — contacts with whom you’ve communicated in the last 30 days — to the top of the list and provides a preview of your most recent exchange (see the top right image above).

Seeing is believing however, and “private beta” means nothing to BGR readers… At least the ones who act fast. The Sensobi team has set up a special invite link for you guys and it’s good for 200 downloads. So what are you waiting for? Hit the read link to get in on the action and let us know what you think.

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More from HTC this morning as the W-Fi Alliance strikes again. Wi-Fi Alliance revelations are a bit of a mixed blessing actually. On one hand, we learn of the existence of a potentially sweet new handset. On the other hand, we pretty much get no details about said device. Such is the case with the HTC “MEGA 100 Series”. Odd name aside, all we know about HTC’s forthcoming phone is that, well, it’s a phone and it has Wi-Fi 802.11b/g on board. Great. The rest is a mystery for the time being, though unsubstantiated speculation suggests it could be a Touch 3G-like handset running Windows Mobile 6.5. We shall see.

[Via Cellpassion]

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The internet is abuzz this morning with the rumor that a new clamshell smartphone is coming soon from HTC. Evidence of the handset, codenamed LEO, is said to have been found within a TouchFLO 3D 2.5 “Manilla” ROM. Its purported specs include a full-QWERTY keypad, external QVGA display, internal 16:9 WVGA display, support for OpenGL 2.0 and a Snapdragon processor. Mmm, Snapdragon. This rumor is pretty messy though, because there is every possibility that the Leo is actually the Omni — a device long rumored to be the successor of the HTC Universal, a Pocket PC that made its retail debut in late 2005. After all, when one thinks about it, the thought of HTC dropping a device it was rumored to be working on very early in 2007 just seems, well, so un-HTC.

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From the moment we first caught a glimpse of it to the day it was announced some nine months later, we always felt LG would have no trouble hawiking Cookies. Today the South Korean company confirmed our suspicions and announced that over 5 million of the devices have been sold. It’s a very impressive feat to sell five million devices, but LG Mobile Communications President and CEO Skott Ahn thinks the device also known as the KP500 has yet to fully reach its potential:

Achieving five million units in sales in only nine months is proof that we’re on track with our goal to make Cookie a phone that’s loved by everyone. Our strategy to provide a full touch screen phone at an affordable price has succeeded beyond our original expectations. If the current trend continues, we expect to see Cookie hit sales of 10 million by the end of this year.

So what does the class think about the Cookie reaching the 10 million sold mark; a realistic and achievable goal or insincere corporate bravado?

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We have to be perfectly honest with you — it’s been a long time since any of us bothered to play with our Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. A really long time. The handset was a bit dated before it even came to market and it has been a tiny bit difficult to keep caring about it. It’s definitely a milestone device though — Nokia’s first S60 5th Edition phone and a sign that that company is in fact trying to keep up with the times, to some extent — so we feel obligated to cover it once in a while. Like now: Nokia Malaysia reportedly held a meet and greet recently at which several tasty tidbits regarding the 5800 XM were revealed. Long story short, a bunch of the neat little features found in the 5530 XM are supposedly headed to the 5800 XM in a new firmware update due out some time in the future. Notables:

• Kinetic scrolling
• Improved camera performance
• Enhanced home screen (like the N97)
• Improved response time

So if you’re still enjoying your 5800 XM but you’ve been waiting for these improvements to make your life whole again, hopefully this rumor will pan out sooner rather than later.

[Via Cell Addict]

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Now before you get too excited about the bevy of rumored handsets listed below, we want to be extra clear in stating that this is rumor. A definite rumor. A steaming pile of rumor. And so on. While the source of this list has proven somewhat reliable in the past, it is also a bit loose at times with tipster-sourced information. Ok, enough with the disclaimer… Feast your eyes on a laundry list of low and mid-range handsets (and the Storm 2) reportedly headed to Verizon in the near future:

• LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 - Full touchscreen, might be like the BL40
• BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 - October-November release
• Nokia Shade 2705 - Replaces the Mirage 2605
• Nokia Twist 7705 - This might be the swivel-style phone that has been rumored for months.
• Palm Treo 800W - “Even though this was released for Sprint last year, Verizon may not have it out until February 2010.”
• Motorola Entice (or Harmony) W766 - Replaces the W755
• Samsung Rogue U960 - Replaces the Glyde U940, expected in August
• Samsung U450 - Verizon Mobile TV-compatible
• Samsung Strut U440 - QWERTY handset
• Samsung Omnia-II i920 - Due out by Christmas

And a few PTT handsets to boot:

• Motorola V860
• Samsung Convoy U640
• Casio Rock C731
• Casio Brigade C741

Sweet. Happy Sunday everyone.

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Well apparently that Finnish blog Puhelinvertailu opened up the flood gates as a bunch of people spent their Saturdays nights/Sunday mornings combing through Finland’s trademark database for anything Nokia-related. Much of what was found, such as a laundry list of trademarked handset names, falls into the “who cares?” category. Yes, Nokia trademarks names like Exx and Nxx so it can use them down the road. There were a few trademarks of interest uncovered however, namely a trademark for “Xseries” — meaning we now have two possible names for new lines of Nokia handsets. If we had to wager a guess: Cseries will encompass handsets that would have previously fallen into various numbered ranges (ie boring) and Xseries will cover Nokia’s upcoming line of Maemo 5-powered handsets (ie not boring). Again, that’s just speculation of course. Trademark miners managed to dig up mention of some other possibly-interesting tidbits as well, such as “Nokia Money”, a potential new platform for mobile financial transactions, and Booklet, a possible name for Nokia’s upcoming line of netbooks/smartbooks. Hopefully at least some of the products behind these trademarks will be covered by whatever Nokia plans to unveil at Nokia World.

Thanks, CanisMajor!

Read (Xseries)
Read (Nokia Money, Booklet, etc)

In case you still need convincing that a new Storm is on the horizon and Big Red-bound, Verizon just initiated a price drop for the BlackBerry Storm 9530 once again. This time, the clickable touchsreen-touting handset lands at $99.99 on a 2-year deal. Come to think of it, we’re pretty sure the Tour being $199.99 has more to do with the Storm’s price drop than Verizon’s hopes of gradually burning through inventory over the next few months until the Storm 2 drops, but that’s beside the point. Bottom line: the cheapest BlackBerry ever is now actually cheap.

Thanks, VZW!

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To be perfectly honest, it’s hard to know whether or not we actually care about the possibility of LG’s upcoming GD910 watch phone touching down in the US. If the pricing comes in as high as had been rumored a few months ago — $1,500 or more — then the answer is most definitely no. If LG can manage to simmer down a bit and hit a more realistic price point… Well, it might be fun to play with for a minute. Whether or not the GD910 will officially hit US soil is still an unknown but its stroll through the FCC halls at least makes it a much more likely possibility. As far as frequencies covered in the FCC documents, don’t get too excited. GSM/GPRS/EDGE 1900 is all we’ve got so far but it still looks like there are still a bunch of documents that haven’t been released yet so maybe LG will surprise us with some US 3G. And maybe not. Hit the jump for the label as found with the patent app.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

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Now this is some news we’re most definitely not happy to report. Back in February we told you about Syncplicity, an awesome sync solution that, in our opinion, is far superior to any competing product. In a nutshell, Syncplicity allows users to mirror any folder on a computer (in two clicks) with an always-in-sync online copy, “in the cloud”. Folders can also by synced across computers and shared with anyone in just a few clicks. Syncplicity had just opened its Mac beta when we covered it and since then it has become a staple on every system that hits BGR HQ. Unfortunately, bad news struck our inbox this past Thursday that will change all that:

Our engineering team has recently completed a ground-up analysis of the Mac beta client and the investigation found some issues which require some major changes in the client. Because of this, we’ve decided to pull back the Mac client beta until which point the engineering team has time to make some major changes. We intend to reassess our engineering schedule early next year.

Unfortunately, this does mean that as of July 31st, you will no longer be able to use Syncplicity with a Mac computer.

We truly strive to have Beta software become Final Release software. In the case, we felt the Mac beta client didn’t meet our standards for quality. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you, and I thank you for participating in the trial period.

If you have any questions or concerns, I invite you to email me at macbeta@syncplicity.com.

The line, “We intend to reassess our engineering schedule early next year” has us particularly worried as it leads us to believe the company won’t even begin serious work on the Mac client until some time in 2010. Ouch. While Syncplicity’s Windows solution will remain alive and well and we’ll continue to use it on our Windows boxes, it looks like Mac is down for the count until some time next year. If you’re a Syncplicity user with a Mac, make sure you have everything in order so you’re not blindsided when the lights go out two weeks from now on July 31st.

Verizon is adding another broadband data card to its lineup with the Novatel PC770 2-in-1 wireless card. The PC770 will work with both ExpressCard slots or PC peripheral interface slots making it plenty more versatile than your average card. Like any respectable data card these days, it will feature EVDO Rev. A for a speedy connection but it also sports a few tweaks to allow for simultaneous high speed uploads and downloads. If you’re wondering how much the PC770 is going to set you back, it’s $99.99 after mail-in rebate and a 2-year contract — pretty standard fare these days for data cards. It will launch August 2nd so you might want to hold off on any lesser data cards you might have had in mind until then.

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Interesting, very interesting. We are all familiar with the branding nightmare that is Nokia’s higher-end line of phones. Eseries for business, Nseries for fun — but even fanboy blogs seem to have a tough time remembering how to spell the brands. E-series, N Series, E-Series, n series and so on. These lines have been around for long enough however, that Nokia is basically stuck with them at this point. As a matter of fact, it may even be expanding. By way of the Finnish blog Puhelinvertailu, it looks like Nokia filed a trademark application for “Cseries” back in April of this year. The new series, assuming Nokia does in fact get the trademark and make use of this new branding, could be for a number of things. We could see some of Nokia’s numbered phones, maybe the Symbian-powered models, move over to Cseries. Or perhaps we’ll see an entirely new line of Maemo devices bearing the Cseries name; we never did understand why Nokia slapped an “N” on its last two tablets. Speculation aside for the time being, the “E” in “Eseries” stands for Enterprise and the “N” in “Nseries” stand for, umm, eNtertainment? Not enterprise? Nokia? Whatever — the question here is what will the “C” in “Cseries” stand for if Nokia does in fact bring it to market?

[Via Puhelinvertailu]

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A sometimes overlooked feature that has been made incredibly simple on the iPhone is the ability to subscribe to a variety of calendars. Many are familiar with CalDAV as it adds a quick and easy way to keep your iPhone or iPod touch in sync with your Google Calendar, but did you know you can also add a wide range of publicly available calendar subscriptions in a matter of seconds? One of the more common subscriptions is the US holidays calendar but you can also quickly and easily add TV show schedules, network premier schedules, sports team schedules, movie releases, concert tour schedules and plenty more to your iPhone calendar. Hit the jump to find out how.

The easiest way to add calendar subscriptions is to start by finding a good directory. There are a few decent ones out there but for the purposes of this quick how-to we’ll use iCal World (another popular one is iCalShare). Simply pull the site up in Safari on your iPhone and have a look through the various available subscriptions. When you find one you like — yep, you guessed it — click on it.

Provided the link is alive of course, Safari will ask you’d like to subscribe to the calendar in a pop up message. Tap “Subscribe” and your iPhone will do just that. Once you see a confirmation message you’re good to go, and you can even tap “View Events” in the pop up to see your new events in the Calendar app.

As with most things, there is a “but” involved. You’ll find that many of the calendars you try to subscribe to are no longer maintained. As such, it can take a bit of searching to find what you’re looking for. Once you do find it though, adding the subscription to your iPhone couldn’t be easier.

If there is one thing hardcore BlackBerry users live and die by it’s definitely BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM. We gave you guys a preview of the upcoming version of BBM a little over a month ago and our inbox has been blowing up ever since. Fortunately for everyone now, BBM 5.0 has been leaked and appears to be available on most new BlackBerrys from OS 4.5 through OS 5.1. Don’t let us keep you waiting, hit the read link for direct downloads to BlackBerry Messenger 5.0!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Sometimes it takes a little while for everyone to get with the times but better late than never, we say. The still unreleased HTC Touch Pro2 for Telus will be featuring, amongst a host of other awesome specs, a 3.5mm headphone jack (ditching the USB one that came with an adapter) as revealed by an early video review. Hopefully this will be a new and permanent trend for all future HTC devices. The touchscreen/QWERTY hybrid will also be home to Windows Mobile 6.1 with HTC’s famous TouchFlo 3D UI, a 3.2 megapixel shooter, Wi-Fi and a pivoting screen much like the AT&T Tilt of yesteryear. This is definitely a worthy successor to the original Touch Pro/Fuze, so if you’re in the market for a new device on TELUS you might not want to pass this one up. Hit the jump for the video reviews.

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Following a tumultuous start, it looks like Sprint’s troubles with stocking and delivering BlackBerry Tour units are almost over. A series of three posts from Sprint’s twitter account suggest two shipments from RIM should allow the carrier to catch up with “strong demand”. One shipment apparently arrived this week and a second is scheduled for delivery early next week. Those who still haven’t been able to get their hands on RIM’s latest handset will hopefully accept Sprint’s apologies and sit tight for just a short while longer. We’re still not sure why the Tour was listed as in stock earlier this week when customers received backorder notices immediately after placing orders, but our guess is we’ll never know exactly what went wrong. The bottom line is these two Tour shipments should take care of everyone still waiting to snag a unit.

Take that, FCC. Just as big brother starts to turn up the heat and examine wireless carrier exclusivity deals more thoroughly, Verizon Wireless has announced a new policy. Moving forward, any device Verizon negotiates exclusivity for will be a VZW exclusive for no more than six months — at least where carriers with less than 500,000 subscribers are concerned. Our guess: Verizon crunched some numbers and determined that sales drop off significantly enough after six months that it can throw tiny carriers a bone after that period of time — and it can use this move to look like the good guy. Big Red CEO Lowell McAdams had this to say:

Any new exclusively arrangement we enter with handset makers will last no longer than six months – for all manufacturers and all devices… Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design. This new approach is fair to all sides.

There you have it folks. If a tiny regional carrier is currently your home you should be getting your hands on new devices a bit more promptly now. If you’re on Sprint and are hoping for a hot new Verizon exclusive however, you’ll likely still have a while to wait.

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It isn’t exactly a secret that LG has at least a few Android handsets in the works. We must admit however, we’re still pretty excited to learn that the GW620 Eve may be the first LG device to run Android if only because it means an official unveiling might not be too far off. The evidence to support this claim is a handset profile for the phone that references the Android browser. Specs are still very much up in the air as the handset is not yet official, but as it stands we’re looking at an HVGA touchscreen display, full-QWERTY keypad, Wi-Fi and UMTS/HSDPA connectivity. In other words, it’s pretty much the same as every other Android handset coming down the pipe.

[Via NewMobile]

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Symbian-loving photogs are officially on notice… Nokia has just announced that its first 8 megapixel offering is now on its way to the US. That’s right, the N86 8MP will be hitting store shelves within the next few weeks and if you have a hankering for S60 3rd Edition FP2 and more pixels than you can shake a stick at, this little guy might be just what the doctor ordered. Of course the camera isn’t the only focus here, though for many it will be hard to get past an 8 megapixel shooter with a shutter speed of up to 1/1000 of a second, an f-stop range of 2.4-4.8 and a wide-angle lens. Once you do however, you’ll find a 2.6-inch AMOLED QVGA display, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band UMTS, 8GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi and aGPS with Nokia Maps 3.0 pre-installed and plenty more. There is some bad news to report as well unfortunately — despite being announced at €375 abroad (about $530 at today’s exchange rate, $474 when announced), the NAM N86 8MP is going to run you $558. If photography is your game however, that’s hardly a tall order for an unlocked top-of-the-line camera phone. Anyone in?

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U.S. Cellular subscribers have plenty to be excited about this morning as we’re pointed to a brand new rebate sheet about to take affect. In short, your current hit or miss selection of handsets is about to get a whole lot more hit and a whole lot less miss. Highlights:

• HTC Touch Pro2
• Blackberry Tour
• HTC Snap
• Motorola W845
• Motorola Crush
• LG UX310 (replaces the UX300)
• LG UX700

We already scooped the UX700 back in June but the highlights here have to be the always-sexy HTC Touch Pro2 and the ever-popular BlackBerry Tour 9630. As for when all these new phones might drop, we all know that a rebate sheet is hardly a solid time line — especially considering the validity period of this particular rebate sheet is 07/17/2009 - 11/12/2009. Unfortunately the only safe bet is to say all these handsets will be on store shelves at some point before the holidays. Hit the jump to check out the sheet in its entirety.

Thanks, TW!

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Whether or not you’re a Nokia fan, a Symbian fan or a smartphone fan in general, there’s really no denying that Nokia’s E71 is one of the sexiest phones to ever hit the market at this point. It’s thin, sexy, functional, versatile and solid as a rock. When it comes to slim QWERTY handsets in fact, there’s probably only one we can think of that might be even sexier — the Nokia E72. As it turns out, the North American (NAM) variant of said beauty just made its way through the halls of the FCC and has been given the all-clear from the powers that be. To refresh your memory specs-wise, you’re looking at 10.2Mbps HSDPA (not in the US, of course), an integrated compass, S60 3rd Edition FP2 and a 5 megapixel camera. Need we say more? Considering the E72 is now through the FCC’s testing process we can safely make two assumptions: 1. It’s bound to hit store shelves pretty soon. 2. Nokia and AT&T should have a deal for the E72x worked out some time in 2015. Hit the jump for a few more pics.

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If you own a BlackBerry and haven’t yet heard of Slacker, you clearly haven’t been paying attention. The spunky Internet radio provider is making headlines again today and VZW-branded Storm owners should take note — Big Red has announced a new deal to get Slacker on your handset whether you like it or not. But why wouldn’t you like it? Slacker streams custom genre or artist-based stations directly to your handset, computer or Slacker portable device and keeps things fresh with a library of over 4 million songs. A free version of the service plays an occasional ad and only allows users to skip up to five songs per hour, while a paid subscription option removes both annoyances and adds a few more features. Over the next few days the app will be pushed out to VZW Storms OTA and unlike prior versions, the app will give users the option to purchase tracks they hear through the V CAST music store. Ahh, it all makes sense now. Congrats to the Slacker folks on a pretty huge coup and congrats to Big Red for adding even more functionality and value to its Storm.

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Have you been feeling left out lately, Samsung Omnia owners? You know deep down that your sexy Windows Mobile-powered touchscreen handset is a gem, but waiting around for Verizon to unlock the GPS is definitely trying your patience. Just when you were about to lose hope however, Verizon is finally ready to push out the update you’ve been waiting for. Yup, GPS lock is about to become a thing of the past. The update is all set to be pushed out within the hour so sit tight. Woo! We’re not sure what other fixes/features are included in this update but the important thing is that the big one is covered. Keep checking for that update and let us know how it goes!

UPDATE: It looks like the update is now live and ready to rock as of just before 4pm. Get moving people…

While the world waits with bated breath to see what will become of Symbian in the hands of the Symbian Foundation, another Nokia-owned OS is the talk of the town today: Maemo. Maemo has a home on only three devices that are currently available — the Nokia 770, Nokia N800 and Nokia N810 Internet Tablets. These MIDs haven’t been very well received by consumers so we find it a bit curious that China-based electronics house Optima would choose to go a similar route. The OP5-E does boast much better specs than Nokia’s Tablet trio however: 5.6 x 2.9 x 0.69 inch frame, 806MHz Marvell PXA320 CPU, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, microSDHC support, 4.3-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, GPS, EV-DO, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a 2600 mAh battery. The saving grace may very well be the fact that this MID is said to have phone and SMS functionality coming in the future, likely meaning it will be upgradable to Maemo 5. Maemo fans looking for a new fix might be interested in checking it out but we’re holding out for Maemo 5 and the seemingly sexy N900 before we bother playing with Maemo again. Hit the jump for more shots.

[Via Pocketables]

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Following a rough morning for our friends in Finland, things are looking even worse just to the west. Sony Ericsson’s Q2 2009 was, in short, a disaster. To start, it shipped just over half the handsets it did a year ago — 13.8 million compared to 24.4 million in Q2 2008. That figure is also down from 14.5 in Q1 2009. Sales were down to €1.7 billion from €2.8 billion a year ago and where income is concerned, SE lost €213 million in the quarter. Sheesh. The silver lining on this incredibly dark cloud is that Q1 saw the company lose €293 million so at least the bleeding has slowed a bit. Dick Komiyama, President of Sony Ericsson, had this to say:

As expected, the second quarter was challenging and we still believe the remainder of the year will be difficult for Sony Ericsson. Our focus remains on bringing the company back to profitability and growth as quickly as possible, and our performance is starting to improve due to our cost reduction activities. The new product portfolio that integrates communications, entertainment and social media applications should contribute to healthier topline development when shipments start later this year. We remain confident that the actions we are taking will further improve our financial situation and strengthen Sony Ericsson’s competitiveness.

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Well hello there, LG BL40. Don’t you look all pretty and nice in the flesh, just like we thought you would. Some people think you look more like some sort of fancy universal remote control than a high-end cellphone, but they just don’t get you like we do. We understand your thin frame and 21:9 aspect ratio-rocking 4-inch touchscreen display makes you quite imposing, but there’s no need to dismiss you just because you look different. You’re not the smartest phone on the block and you might only have 335MB of internal memory, but a little bit of Ginkgo Biloba and a microSD card should do the trick. By the way, would you mind telling us a little bit more about your friend, BL42? She’s pretty damn cute and we’d love to get to know a bit more about her and her 5 megapixel shooter… Hit the jump for more shots.

[Via Eng]

Read - BL40
Read - BL42

Developers, start your engines. It’s been a long time coming but Palm’s Mojo SDK — the Software Development Kit that facilitates application development on the webOS platform — is finally ready for prime time. Having previously been available only to a select group of partners, many have been openly disappointed with Palm for taking so long to allow open access to the SDK. From a consumer standpoint, that’s the reason Pre owners have all of 30 apps to choose from in the App Catalog right now. Skimpy selection is soon to be a thing of the past however, as we presume developers will hit this SDK faster than you can say, “please keep farting apps off my Pre.” The bad news: Palm still won’t be accepting developer submissions until the fall.

[Via The Official Palm Blog]

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