For those who were green with envy of their iPhone brethren for their ability to purchase or rent and watch movies over WiFi or 3G on their devices, mSpot is looking to alleviate the sour spot for Windows phone, BlackBerry, Palm, and even iPhone owners--sorry Android fans, you're left out, at least for now. Windows phone users can begin to rent, stream, and watch movies from mSpot's catalog with the four leading US carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless) for $4.99 per flick on demand.

There is no app or program to download. Just visit mSpot.com/movies from your mobile browser and go through the process that way. At launch, films from Universal and Paramount will be available, and hopefully in due time mSpot will add more studios to their catalog.

For a dual-mode satellite and GSM/EDGE/HSPA offering, look no further than AT&T's relationship with satellite partner TerreStar. The promotional shot looks a lot like a Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional device in the form factor of the HP iPAQ K3. The device actually looks portable and useable, not like your father's satellite phone.

The specs disclosed include a 2.6-inch touchscreen display, WiFi, Bluetooth, front-facing QWERTY keyboard in a "a standard smartphone size and form factor."

The device is currently targeted at enterprise and government clients at this time and neither AT&T nor TerreStar are releasing pricing information. When you sign up, you will sign up for AT&T's voice and data plan service and use satellite networks to roam. No information is available on how costly the roaming charges will be. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that the service will go global, unless you intend on paying AT&T roaming charges as the device will only be available for use in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and in territorial coastal waters.

A consumer-oriented version is forthcoming of the Genus satellite phone will be forthcoming

Expect to be able to make calls even in remote wilderness locations when this device launches in the first quarter of 2010.

(via: PhoneScoop)

Another day and another round of the mythical tablet beast that Cupertino has in the labs and would purportedly announce in January 2010 for a release that same year. The new rounds of rumors come from iLounge site, which is reporting that the latest hardware prototype for the yet to be seen tablet device will feature a 10.7-inch screen increase the resolution to 720p. There will also be a 3G and non-3G model of the device, which is expected to be a larger version of the iPhone and also run the iPhone operating system along with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

However, in our checks with Synaptics, a leader in multitouch and capacitive screen displays, the firm has stated that 8-inch is the largest size that its 10-finger capable ClearPad screen display will come with.

Between now and when the rumored Tablet gets released, perhaps Synaptics and its competitors will be capable of mass producing multitouch screens that are larger than 10 inches, or they have something brewing in the labs that hasn't been announced yet. Either way, at this time, this is just speculation, as is the rumor of the Tablet.

If you're interested in tablet computing and need a portable OS, perhaps the capable Windows Mobile 6.5 Mangrove or the many ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC) devices out there that run the full version of Windows.

Read on to find out more about the latest round of

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The HTC Hero is said to have an oleophobic fingerprint resistive touch screen like the iPhone 3GS. The oleophobic coating is supposed to repel oils from your fingers thus reducing greasy fingerprints on the screen. Below are a few photos of the Sprint HTC Hero and the T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2. The Touch Pro2 is using its included screen protector while the HTC Hero is using only its fingerprint resistive touch screen. Both are illustrative of normal finger usage with no attempts to clean the screens.

Can you see any difference?

If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out our coverage of the Sprint HTC Hero in the US. In Europe, however, Tracy's and Matt's Blog examined the HTC Hero (international version) against the Samsung i7500 Galaxy and found that although the Samsung Android handset performed well, the HTC Hero edges out for the win.

Read on to find out what Tracy's and Matt's Blog discovered about the Samsung Android handset.

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Apple's 3.0 OS this past summer introduced push notifications, including push IM for those instant messaging developers that supported the protocol, as a balance and compromise between longer battery life and multi-tasking. Push on the iPhone was meant to ensure that users can get their messages delivered to them even if the application isn't running in the background, a means to conserve battery life. Now, Seven, a maker of push email services that has appeared on numerous devices through mobile operators and carriers, is announcing that they will be working with carriers to bring push instant messaging to the masses, supporting a number of different platforms--that includes Windows phones running Windows Mobile--and feature phones to bring AOL, Yahoo!, MSN Live, ICQ, and Google Talk messaging services to phones.

In comparison, traditional instant messaging clients on Windows Mobile devices required a constant internet connection. If you logged out or entered a no service zone, you would also log out of your IM service and not get notifications or messages delivered. With push IM, a constant connection is no longer needed.

According to Seven, the features are:

-- Desktop-like IM capabilities: the SEVEN Mobile IM user experience mirrors that of the desktop with functionality such as buddy lists, presence enablement, status updates, chat, and the ability to find and invite friends;

-- Fully certified and branded IM clients: the SEVEN Mobile IM application is branded to match the service provider’s identity; and, the certification process ensures reliability and a high quality of service;

-- An always-on user experience: the SEVEN Mobile IM client remains active in the background, and provides users with instant notification of status updates and incoming messages ― even when the device is busy with other tasks;

-- Smart, battery-saving notifications: with SEVEN’s push-based notifications, the device and the IM client are pinged only when new information needs to be delivered and helps to maximize battery life for the device.

The services will be demoed at the upcoming CTIA tradeshow in San Diego in October. In the interim, you can preview or sample the push IM services through the Seven portal, of which the original Touch Pro is supported--other devices may work though they may not be officially supported at this early stage.

(via: BusinessWire)

Toshiba's new T115 notebook will give many netbooks a run for their money. The new lightweight, ultra-portable notebook comes with power from its Intel® Pentium® processor SU4100 or Intel® Celeron® processor 7435 and delivers performance with a 9-hour battery and 11.6-inch display weighing in at just 3.5 pounds. The low $450 pricing of the T115 ($600 for the larger 13.3-inch T135 cousin) will make the Toshiba T115 notebook competitive against netbooks.

With the convergence of notebooks getting more portable and delivering more life on a single battery charge with netbooks that are gaining larger, usable screen and performance, the low cost PC market will be interesting to follow for mobile consumers. On one hand, smaller screened, low cost netbooks will compete with smartphones like Windows phone and mobile internet devices (MID) like the mobile internet tablet we saw this morning. On the hand hand, performance netbooks will get competition from low-cost ultra-portable notebooks that have seen huge price drops in the last few years.

Hit the link for the Toshiba press release.

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With Windows Marketplace for Mobile launching in exactly 1 short week, we're wondering what is a fair price you'd be willing to spend on a quality application that you can download, use, and pay hassle-free on your Windows Mobile device courtesy of Microsoft's new and forthcoming applications storefront.

Even with Marketplace's imminent announcement, there has been one software release announced today--SPB Mobile Shell 3.5--and that program is going for roughly $30. Quality Windows Mobile applications have traditionally sold in the range of $20-$30, including important utilities and games. With the iPhone App Store having launched, we saw massive price drops compared to programs for other platforms--like Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry--but we also saw the a large influx of lower quality applications as well.

With that in mind, how much are you willing to pay, on average, to get quality programs developed for your Windows phone with Windows Marketplace for Mobile scheduled to launch in one week? Now that Windows Mobile developers have a larger, massive distribution means via Microsoft (similar to iPhone developers), do you expect to see prices going lower than what they are today?

We unboxed the European version of the HTC Hero a while ago, but now the Sprint version is available and it looks quite different. We're also missing some accessories that were found in the other version. Also, what's with the Photoshop disaster on the box?