For some reason, we're quite taken with the Peek email-only handheld, and Gadling's followup review of the love-it-or-hate-it device mostly reinforces that positive impression. The squared-off, Ideo-designed unit did its one task admirably well, sending and receiving emails using T-Mobile's network with only slight delay, and the OS is minimal and easy to use. Sure, at $99 and $20/mo it's still way too expensive for the typical gadget nerd who's already packing a phone data plan and maybe a data card as well, but if you're trying to keep things on the prepaid tip or looking to get a Luddite friend or relative on the mobile email bandwagon, the Peek is certainly worth a second, uh, peek.

Rumors of the XPERIA X1 being delayed to 2009 have been floating around forever, and the chatter's only gotten louder at IFA -- to the point where Sony Ericsson's been forced into damage-control mode for a second time, telling Reuters that "there is absolutely no delay" and that the company's first WinMo phone is "on target" to "roll out in Q4." That's not quite the "second half of 2008" SE's been saying since the X1 was announced, but it's still in the window -- and given the half-baked nature of the devices we got to play with at IFA, we'd say taking a little extra time to get things right isn't the worst idea in the world, even it means missing that rumored October Vodafone release date.

[Via WM Power User]

Ooh, Qualcomm you been naughty. You might remember that last year Qualcomm was banned from selling various 3G chips that infringed on Broadcom's patents, but the big Q apparently believes that being in trouble is a fake idea, because it kept right on doing it -- to the point where a judge yesterday found the company in contempt for violating the injunction and ordered it to pay up gross profits from sales of its QChat push-to-talk tech to Broadcom. The court gave Qualcom 30 days to figure out how much it owes -- Sprint's paid over $93M to use the tech since last December, so it's not going to be peanuts. Qualcomm says it'll immediately comply, but is planning on appealing the order, so we'll how this all goes down.

HTC is keeping the S740 under wraps at IFA, but the crafty folks at newmobile managed to score some time with the new QWERTY slider, and it looks pretty decent. Thinner than the Touch Pro, the keyboard is basically the same, with the same sort of stealth-look backplate as the Diamond. No motion sensor, so the display only rotates when the slide is open, but that's really all we know -- the unit wasn't running a production-ready version of Windows Mobile, so impressions are a little up in the air. Hit the read link for more shots.

[Via Coolsmartphone]

Android's gaining a head of steam as it heads towards release -- Google just posted up some details on the upstart OS's app distribution system, Android Market. Just like Apple's iPhone App Store, Android Market will run on Android phones like the HTC Dream and allow users to browse and install apps, as well as comment on and rate apps they've already purchased. (Somewhat terrifyingly, Google describes the rating and comment-system as "similar to YouTube," but we're hoping the reference is to user-generated ratings in general and not the grammar and language catastrophe that is YouTube comments.) Unlike Apple's store, however, Android Market will be open to all -- Google wants devs to "have an open and unobstructed environment" for their apps, and it'll only take three steps (register, upload, describe) to put content on the service. The first Android handsets will come with a beta version of Market that supports free downloads only, but a version that has app sales, versioning, and other features will arrive soon after launch -- given the number of mediocre apps that have somehow passed Apple's vetting process, it'll be interesting to see what shows up in Google's store with no filters at all. More screenshots after the break.

[Via Mobile Burn]

Apple's iPhone 3G ads paint a pretty cheery picture of the device in action, but just as many of you have noted, the omission of Flash and Java means there's a big difference between what the "the real internet" and what's on the iPhone -- enough so that the UK's Advertising Standards Authority has pulled one of Apple's latest ads from the airwaves because it claims "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone." At least two people complained to the ASA that the ad was misleading because sites that use Flash and Java don't work on the iPhone, and the board agreed, saying that "We concluded that the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone" because "viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a web site normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website." If we had to guess, we'd say this decision is more likely to prompt Apple to be more careful with its ads in the future rather than ever bring Flash or Java to the iPhone, but you know Adobe is feeling pretty smug right about now. Check the ad after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Still no baseband unlock, but if you've been dying to feel the marginal improvements of iPhone OS 2.0.2 while still rocking those crazy homebrew apps, the Dev Team has come through again with PwnageTool 2.0.3. A new Windows version of the QuickPwn tool is also out, with a Mac version to follow within the week -- you know the drill, if you're brave enough to update let us know how it goes in comments.

[Thanks, David]

Sigh. We're still stoked about phones with built-in projectors, but we're not at all okay with the first commercially-available unit being the nasty Epoq EGP-PP01 iPhone clone -- yet we've got to hand it to China King for being the first out the gate with a handset that'll beam a 30-inch VGA image on the wall for two hours off the built-in battery. Of course, that doesn't mean we think anyone should actually drop $550 on this uninspired piece, but if you've absolutely got to show off your witty texting banter to the entire bar, this is your only option.

PS.- Please don't be that guy.

[Via About Projectors]

We saw a couple versions of the iControlPad iPhone gamepad surface back in May, but it looks like the clever add-on is getting close to reality -- check out these case prototypes that just popped up. Yeah, it's not, uh, small -- good thing the target price is under $30. Touch Arcade also has some other pictures of another iPhone gaming accessory that looks like it slides open, check it out at the read link.

Nokia promised us two new handsets today, and just as we heard last week, it's the N85 and N79. Not a lot of surprises with the N85 since it popped in the FCC database a couple weeks ago and started appearing in the wild: 2.6-inch AMOLED screen, GPS, five megapixel cam, N-Gage compatibility, 8GB of microSDHC storage, WiFi, and a 28-hour music playback battery life. The N79 replaces the N78, similarly bumping the cam to the big five em-pees with a dual-LED flash, GPS, 4GB microSDHC storage, WiFi, swappable back covers, and a 24-hour music playback battery life. Should be out in the UK as of next month, but we're hoping to see these hit our fair shores posthaste. N79 pictured after the break.

[Via Electronista]

We're hoping beyond hope that Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 is actually nearing a launch date, but astute reader Kingsley just pointed out to us that SE's US web site no longer lists silver as an available color choice, only Solid Black. That's notable only because we've only mostly seen silver editions of the X1 until now, but a limited color palette's not going to stop us from snapping this one up as soon as it hits -- what about you?

The iPhone 3G hits 20 more countries tomorrow, and while we doubt the hype will match the craziness of launch day, that's not stopping Orange from trying to re-create the madness in Poland -- it's hiring "dozens" of actors to line up at 20 stores around the country to "drum up interest." Yeah, that's just sad -- especially since there aren't any real customers in line at Polish T-Mobile stores, which is also carrying the phone. Good luck selling phones to your own actors, fools -- when will these companies ever learn?

PS.- That's a pic from launch day in Chicago -- any Polish readers have a shot of the actors for us? Send 'em in!

Update: Yep, there they are, from appleblog.pl -- and check a video after the break from Gazeta.

[Thanks to GreenToad and Yorick_Rise]

Now that the BlackBerry Bold's made its official North American debut, there's a lot of talk about a video Mobile Computer did of the Bold getting blown away browsing head to head with an iPhone 3G over WiFi -- but there's a slight problem there: the Bold was actually using 3G and EDGE. Yeah, that's not a fair fight -- and given how flaky the iPhone 3G's data speeds can be, it actually reflects quite well on the Bold. Head to head on WiFi, the Bold does seem a tick slower, but we'll let you judge that for yourselves -- videos after the break.

Read - BGR browser vid
Read - Mobile Computer browser vid

Sure, we've seen John Mayer's, done a hands-on, read reviews, gotten release dates and even listened to the painful Stewart Copeland-provided soundtrack, but today's the BlackBerry Bold's big coming out party on Rogers, and it can be all yours for just CA$399 plus a 3 year voice / data service plan totalling more than CA$45 a month. We should be seeing more countries come online later this week -- anyone taking the plunge?

The New York Times has a little puff piece on Palm to accompany the launch of the Treo Pro today, and buried between the fawning references to Jon Rubenstein's former gig at Apple and how that's affected his management style ("He made them redesign the battery panel on the back so it didn't squeak. And he asked for fixes to the software so it would lock up less frequently." -- solid work, homey) there's a little tidbit about how Palm OS II and a single new device to run the new software will arrive in the "first half of next year." Two things interesting about that: first, that's a much wider timeframe than the "early 2009" window we've been hearing for a while and could signal even more delays, and second, it's a little odd that Palm is going to debut the new OS on just one device. Launching on a single device is pretty Apple-esque, so we'll cut Rubes some slack on that, even if we don't think it's the best idea -- but at this point the only real info we're hearing about Palm OS II is news of delays, and that's not exactly out of the Jobs playbook -- remember, real artists ship.