After weeks of hand-wringing, we've finally settled on a winner of our contest for LG's uber-limited $1,500 Iron Man edition Shine! We asked you to send in pictures of the busted-up pieces of garbage you call "phones," and holy cow, did we get some doozies.

Without further adieu, our winner, Mark H., comes to us from Novato, California. Here's his story:

"I need a new phone as you can see. I have had this Nokia phone since 2001. I'm in the military service and my friends make fun of my old phone and now they're really on me since my phone was run over by a car and I use electrical tape to keep the faceplate together. I don't get paid enough by the service to buy a nice new phone."

Congratulations, Mark! Even if this relic were in perfect condition, it'd still be time for an upgrade. Let's try to keep this one a little less scuffed, because that solid gold battery cover definitely does not live up to the "Iron Man" name. Follow the break for some honorable mentions -- you guys made it really hard to choose!

Oh sure, you love gadgets -- but do you have the chops to write about them? We'd love to know if you think you do, because we're looking to actually pay people to do this stuff. Professional writing experience isn't necessary (though it doesn't hurt), but what we really care about is that you can write skillfully about gadgets with wit, concision, and authority. And being obsessed with Engadget is good, too. Sound like a dream come true? Head over to the main site for the lowdown!

Word on the street is that Google just busted out a live demo of the oft-rumored HTC Dream doing its Android-flavored thing at the company's I/O conference in San Francisco. Reports tell us that the device is a roughly 3-inch by 5-inch touchscreen phone with a slider keyboard. Not a lot is known right now, though apparently the device packs an accelerometer which allows you to tilt the unit to scroll across Google Maps or Street View. A video is on the way, so stay tuned for more information (and images) as we get them.

Update: Video after the break!

Read - Android demoed at Google IO
Read - Screenshots: Google's Android comes to life

If ever there were an LG Shine to live up to its lofty name, this would definitely be it. We'd like to introduce you to the Iron Man phone -- presented here by our boy Robert Downey, Jr. -- based on the Shine slider as sold by AT&T. Unlike the garden-variety Shine, the Iron Man edition trades up to a deep red case with gold plated highlights and a solid 18K gold battery cover to commemorate the launch of the film in style. That's plenty enough element 79 to give this thing some serious heft. We're not bragging, though -- we want you to have it.

The phone is valued at a princely $1,500; twenty are being given away by LG directly -- we've got the twenty first. How do you pry it out of our hands? Easy: we want to see just how nasty, disgusting, and close to complete breakdown your current face candy is. Send us a pic and tell us a little bit about your poor, dilapidated phone and the long journey it's taken to its current state of disrepair. We'll pick the saddest entry and let you retire that terrible thing for something just a little flashier.

One word of advice though: don't bother breaking your phone or taking a photo of your dad's Dynatac or something, that's not what we're looking for.

Check out the gallery to see shots of the very Iron Man phone that could be yours, and don't forget to enter. Good luck!

The rules (yeah, there are always rules)

• Send us your original photo. If we find your picture elsewhere on the internet, you will so be disqualified. Don't test us here, we've seen every picture of every phone. Ever.
• Email submissions to contests [at] engadget [dawt] com with the subject "I am Iron Man!" And for the love of our inbox, please keep your images 1MB or under, ok?
  
• You may only enter this contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc.
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Entries must be in by 11:59PM EDT, Sunday, May 18th. After that, give us some time to sort through the entries and pick out the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it).

According to Nokia chief designer Alastair Curtis, Nokia will be offering several -- nay, a "lot" -- more products in the US very soon. "In the next few months," Curtis promised, "operators will carry a lot of new products from us." While Nokia controls 40% of the worldwide handset market, they only have a 10% share in the United States. It seems they're not happy with that and want a bigger piece of the American pie. Bring it on, Nokia. We're ready to see these phones from you, say, in the form of an E71 or Tube?

Our best friends at T-Mobile are getting set to roll out 3G in New York soon -- real soon, as was previously expected. New York will launch on May 1, to be exact, according to TmoNews.com. That's, like, tomorrow. The leaked document promises T-Mobile customers the "great call quality they've come to expect...and more network availability". The rest of the network will be rolled out in 2008 to 20 markets, including Los Angeles, Detroit, San Diego, Austin, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Miami, and several more. As TmoNews.com points out, New Jersey and Long Island are mysteriously off the list. View all the launch cities after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It seemed like it would never happen, but the impossible has occurred: Apple's iPhone is coming to Canada. The news was quietly slipped into telecom giant Rogers' latest earnings report, with the simple statement that the company was "thrilled to announce" a "deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year." Apparently, lips are sealed on all other details, but we'll keep you posted as news gets our way.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It's been well over a year since our last big redesign, which in gadget time means our last design was unveiled circa original Walkman. So we're freshening up the whole joint -- all seven sites -- with a brand new design. Oh, and we're also adding an eighth site to the Engadget network: Switched!

Our latest addition, Switched will be dishing out features for those with a more casual interest in tech, as well as highlighting fresh, hand-picked tech news from our network of sister sites. So expect to see hot stories from Engadget classic, Mobile, HD, TUAW, and Download Squad running over there, as well as news from other geeky Weblogs, Inc. sites like Joystiq, Xbox 360 Fanboy, and Wii Fanboy.

As for Engadget's new design, we went through and really cleaned up the joint, yanking out old modules and ads wherever possible. You might spot our new and improved photo gallery browsing and updated looks on things like comments and polls, but it's hardest to miss the new rotating carousel over on the right. Keep an eye on that thing, it's where we'll be plugging in our biggest stories and must-see features.

Of course, launching eight sites at the same time is bound to cause a few problems, so please tap that first adopter attitude and bear with us as we squish bugs and tweak styles. And definitely hit us up in comments to let us know what you think (or if you see anything wonky)!

P.S. -Big ups to the gang that worked tirelessly to make this happen: Matt, Mark, Erik, Gavin, Celly, Alex, Christoph, Charlie, Marty, and the rest of the crew!

After yesterday's very real and not-at-all-fake story about Deutsche Telekom demanding Engadget discontinue using the color magenta, and today being what it is, we're putting up some new wallpaper on all the Engadget sites and ever so slightly tweaking Engadget Mobile's logo. We hope you approve!

P.S. -In a related side note, our old pals at Phone Scoop pinged us earlier this morning to let us know they've gone magenta for the day in an act of solidarity. Much love, Phone Scoop! Oh, and now so did Phone Arena, Fitch, and GearBits! Also, myself and some other eds are in on the action.

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, and it seems that we may have finally pushed 'em over the deep end. The FCC's site is down at the moment, so we're afraid we won't be able to bring you your regularly-scheduled document extravaganza this evening; stay tuned, though, because we'll be back in action just as soon as the feds are!

It looks like Android will have more than just its openness and pretty face to show to the world soon. According to a report from Reuters, LG has officially set a time-table for bringing a Google-powered handset to market (and obviously not the phone above). "We will bring it out late in 2008 or early 2009," said Chang Ma, the company's vice president for marketing strategy. The plan sounds shockingly close to competitor Samsung's scheme for a rollout of the Linux phone in early 2009. Clearly, companies are doing more than just putting pen to paper on the platform -- let's just hope those minor kinks get straightened out before the new year.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? Seems like just yesterday we were all fake-typing away on our paper Qs (oh, come on, don't act like you didn't make one, too) and dreaming of a 3G future. Two years later, we're already talking about 4G trials, the original Motorola Q feels like a fading memory while its maker teeters on the brink of a similar fate, and thanks to a wireless industry that never fails to keep us on our toes, we're as obsessed and excited about cellphones as we ever have been before. Yeah, we're giving ourselves a little pat on the back for making it through our teething years, but let's be honest: Engadget Mobile owes the entirety of its success to its brilliant competition for keeping us sharp, its ever-supportive parents, and more than anything, its awesome readership (that's you, people!). Here's to another two years of killer mobile coverage, yeah?

Whew, it was quite a day for cellphones at the Mobile World Congress, and there's more to come this week -- but if you haven't been watching Engadget Mobile (where the full coverage is being posted) or are just getting up to speed, here's everything that's gone down.

Sony Ericsson

• The Sony Ericsson W980
• Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 QWERTY with Windows Mobile and HSUPA
• Sony Ericsson's G700 and G900: "touchscreen organizers"
• Two for the Cyber-shot crowd: Sony Ericsson intros C702 and C902
• The Sony Ericsson Z770: "your life in a clamshell"
• First live photo of Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1
• Video: Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 "Panel Interface"
• No wonder Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 is so good: HTC makes it
• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 does a good job looking pretty at launch event
• Sony Ericsson ties up with Microsoft for Windows Mobile devices

HTC

• HTC P3470 is only EDGE, but has GPS
• HTC Advantage X7510: now upgraded with 16GB flash memory

Nokia

• The Nokia 6220 classic, all 5 megapixels of it
• The Nokia N78, in European and North American flavors
• The Nokia N96 redefines "high-end"
• The Nokia 6210 Navigator
• Nokia goes public with Maps 2.0 beta, plans Series 40 version
• Nokia CEO: No plans for Windows Mobile, S60 touch-screen launch in 2H 2008

Sad, lonely Moto

• Motorola's pathetic MWC showing: Z6w, W161, and W181
• LG says it has no plans to buy Motorola's cellphone biz

Everybody else

• Samsung's F480 Armani (without the Armani), Dual Touch Chic G400 flip and F400 B&O slider
• NVIDIA shows off APX 2500 cellphone applications processor
• Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's world-beating XPERIA X1
• Samsung hauls a load into Mobile World Congress
• First pics of CDMA BlackBerry Curve 8330 surface
• What's an iPhone? 14.3m Windows Mobile phones sold in the past six months alone
• LG gets official with the KF700, KF600, and KF510

More after the break.

With all the hubbub over Android at Mobile World Congress this year (and in the world, in general), it only makes sense that other Linux-based contenders would step into the light. The LiMo Foundation -- a consortium of some pretty major players -- has announced plans for an official SDK in the second half of the year which will cover native, Java, and WebKit development. The software, dubbed the R1 LiMo Platform, will pull together existing APIs and development tools into a more cohesive whole, with ACCESS taking the lead on the native side, Aplix heading up Java development, and Motorola fleshing out the WebKit tools. There are 18 LiMo-powered handsets on display at Mobile World Congress this year, with seven vendors using the platform -- including Samsung and LG -- and the group says it's just added nine new companies to the team. The creation of a cohesive platform should bolster the consortium's position in the market. Says CCS Insight's Ben Wood, "To have a credible platform, a more detailed operating system framework is likely to be required."

Read - LiMo Foundation Announces SDK Strategy
Read - LG, Samsung bet on new mobile Linux platform

We know some of you have had problems leaving comments and replying to others' comments this weekend, and rest assured, we feel your pain -- a post without comments is like a day without air for us, don't you know. At this point, everything should be patched up, but drop us a line if you see anything fishy, alright? Kthx!