HTC Thunderbolt Gingerbread Update Brings New Desk Mode – Official Dock Required

Aside from the usual Gingerbread goodies, The HTC Thunderbolt over-the-air update (rolling out now) had a few other Sense goodies bundled with it as well. As you can see from the above image, once the T-Bolt is nestled comfortably in its dock, the HTC activates an all new “Desk Mode” and viola — landscape Sense. This is a great surprise for those lucky Thunderbolt owners lucky enough to grab the official HTC dock from Verizon when it debuted back in June.

Desk Mode actually displays content a little different than when in portrait mode making Sense look a little more like a tablet UI. You may have noticed the transparent Friend Stream Widget and the Clock widget is now smaller and in the upper corner instead of smack in the middle of the screen.

While the new Desk Mode is only available while the device is docked, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before some ROM developers crack the feature to work sans dock.

Nokia Lumia 800, the Windows Phone that you've been waiting for

Finally, here it is. The flagship device Nokia is counting on to bring a smile to our phone-loving faces, a sigh of relief to its shareholders, and a twinkle to the eyes of Finnish tax collectors everywhere. And, guess what? This heavily leaked handset might just live up to our high expectations.

From the outside, the Lumia 800 is very similar to the beloved N9. Dubbed the “first real Windows Phone,” this device is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU and is sculpted from the same 12.1mm (0.48-inch) thick piece of durable polycarbonate plastic, with tapered edges on the top and bottom to give it that industrial look and make it feel thinner than it really is.

If you're familiar with the N9 you'll know the basics of the story here, a polycarbonate shell that feels very nice in the hand and, perhaps more importantly, won't show scratches as clearly as painted metal or plastic exteriors. That baby blue you see? It's that same color all the way through to the core — there's no paint here to chip or scratch.

Sitting at the top of the device is Nokia's logo, just above the company's curved ClearBlack AMOLED (800 x 480) display, with a Carl Zeiss optics-enhanced lens around back. This is Gorilla Glass, so hopefully it being exposed in this way won't danger its visual purity.  The Lumia 800 also packs 16GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and 25GB of free SkyDrive space, and features Nokia Drive, Nokia Music and ESPN Sports Hub baked into its OS. As for that OS, it's all about a fresh beginning: those bold squares you see on the screen are, of course, the sleek live tiles of Windows Phone Mango.

Up top, doors flip open to reveal the micro-USB charger port and the SIM slot, doors that fit so well you'd barely know they're there. A 3.5mm headphone jack is up on the top as well. That's really about all there are for ports. The right side of the phone is adorned with a volume rocker and power button, and the left is completely bare — just super sleek, curved polycarbonate. There's a speaker right there on the bottom as well.

The eight megapixel camera, meanwhile, packs an f/2.2 aperture, and is designed specifically for low-light environments. It seems pretty similar to what you'll find in the N9, and according to Nokia, it's simply a shooter that works for “ordinary people, under ordinary circumstances.” You'll also find quad-band GSM support, with HSDPA download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps.

Now, for the basics: the Lumia 800 is priced at €420, or about $585. It's already up for pre-order now, and is scheduled to roll out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, beginning in November. It'll make its way to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and will hit “further markets” sometime next year.

Overall the Lumia 800 looks quite incredible — this is some impressive hardware — but will Nokia's latest flagship help drive some serious Windows Mobile market share?

LG Prada K2 leaked

Luxury handsets are dime a dozen – most of them are also priced out of reach for the average layperson, but that does not mean we are unable to afford flagship models from most handset manufacturers. I don't suppose that high on the list of many users would be the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy S2 from Samsung as well as HTC's range of high end models, but what about LG? Yes, the South Korean consumer electronics company does have its fair share of smartphones, although their foray into this market is not as detailed as its competitors. Still, this has not stopped the house of Prada from teaming up with LG, where their latest release would be the LG Prada K2.

Images of it have already leaked out online, where it is known as the LG Prada P940 above, although the final version might end up looking different since what you see above could very well just be an experimental design. Running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread right out of the box, this will be the first model among the LG Prada range to do so. We do not know just when will it roll out, but a release before the year is over is definitely on the cards.

As for other hardware specifications, you will be able to enjoy at second-generation 4.3″ NOVA display that is said to boast 1,000 nits of brightness, an 8-megapixel camera at the back, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 16GB ROM, and a 21Mbps HSPA+ radio. How much do you think this puppy will cost?

Mobilicity Releases Nokia 500

Mobilicity has decided to launch the Nokia 500 Symbian Anna smartphone in Canada. The phone features a 1GHz processor with a 3.2-inch (640×360) touchscreen display, a 5-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity. You can also create a mobile hotspot with this smartphone. Folks in Canada are able to buy the Nokia 500 for $169.99 outright. [MobileSyrup]

Nokia Lumia 800 unboxed: we shed some light on what's inside

We managed to grab enough time with the Lumia 800's retail innards here at Nokia World, revealing some welcome extras including a flexible rubberized case for that affectionate lump of polycarbonate. The requisite data cable, power adapter and headset are all accounted for inside the packaging, which is covered in shots of this dark, not-so-mysterious phone. It's all a bit more vibrant than the packaging of its other 2011 phone, but is still coated in that unmistakable Nokia blue. We expect to get our excitable digits on a review model very - very - soon, but until then check out more shots of what we can expect to get alongside Nokia's premier Windows Phone handset.

Nokia Lumia 710 shows up at Nokia USA's website

Announced yesterday alongside the Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 might become the company's first Windows Phone Mango handset to be released in the US.

The 710 has appeared over at Nokia USA's official website as "coming soon." There are no specific details on when to expect the handset Stateside, though. However, Nokia did say that it would bring Windows Phone devices to the US in early 2012, so that's when the 710 will likely be available.

The Nokia Lumia 710 features a 3.7 inch WVGA ClearBlack display, 1.4GHz processor, Wi-Fi, GPS, Nokia Drive, 5MP camera with LED flash, 720p video recording, and 8GB of internal memory.

In Europe, the handset will cost €270 before taxes and subsidies. That's about $378 - which means the smartphone could be offered by a US carrier for under $100 on contract. Of course, we don't know what America carrier is interested to offer the Lumia 710 yet. Maybe Verizon, since it had staff present at Nokia World. We'll see.

Nokia releases new Screen Reader app

In an attempt to make smartphones more usable for the visually impaired, Nokia has announced a new Screen Reader app just for that purpose. Called Screen Reader, the app is designed to help blind people or those who have trouble reading things on their phones. Nokia Screen Reader is an app that basically converts any screen content into speech.

Screen Reader can be used to aid with texting, calling, browsing the internet, accessing call lists and contacts, and managing the calendar. In addition to helping the blind “see”, Screen Reader can also be used by people with working vision but don't have time to look at their screens i.e. joggers or drivers, who want to stay updated while focusing on something else that's more important (keeping their eyes on the road).

Nokia Screen Reader is available from the Nokia Store for free in the brand new accessibility section of the store. It will be available before the end of the year for the C5 5 MP, Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 with Symbian Belle.

Windows Phone Apollo launching mid 2012 according to Nokia's VP

With Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 (or Mango) update still in the process of being completely rolled out, there are talks about its successor, Apollo. Not much is known about the Apollo update yet, but if we were to take Nokia's Executive VP for Location and Commerce, Michael Halbherr's word for it, we could be seeing the Apollo update launch in the middle of 2012. He has claimed that the update will be a "very different game" to Mango, reconfirming that the Apollo update could very well be Windows Phone 8.

The features are not known at this point in time, but it looks like Halbherr is pushing Microsoft to integrate NFC into the operating system, as well as making the Windows Phone platform more friendly with Nokia's Navteq mapping platform. We're not sure if Nokia will be receiving any special treatment from Microsoft with regards to Windows Phone, but given that Nokia has pretty much put all of their eggs into the proverbial basket, we're not surprised to see Nokia so excited and gunning for Windows Phone.

Motorola DROID4 photos leaked

Fans of slideout QWERTY keyboard smartphones, it looks as though photos of the Motorola DROID4 (or better known by its codename, "Maserati") has been leaked. The device itself doesn't look too shabby and is reminiscent of Motorola's current design philosophy which seems to favor tapered edges.

In terms of specs, it is said to feature a 4" display (rumored to be Super AMOLED), an illuminated slideout QWERTY keyboard, 4G LTE connectivity, a camera that's capable of recording 1080p HD video, a front facing camera, HDMI out and will run on Android's Gingerbread 2.3.5. No word on processor, but the good folks down at DroidLife seem to think that it should at the very least run on the same 1.2GHz OMAP4430 processor that's found on the Droid RAZR. Unfortunately there is no word on pricing or release date at the moment.

Verizon Motorola Droid 4 smiles for the camera, has its specs leaked too

Rather unexpectedly, the upcoming Motorola Droid 4 for Verizon has been leaked today. Unexpected because its predecessor, the Droid 3, isn't really that old, and while we always enjoy new toys, Motorola may be pushing it by updating its phones so fast. There probably will be many unhappy Droid 3 customers who signed a two-year contract to get that only a few months before its successor arrives on the market.

That said, we don't really know yet just when the Droid 4 will become available. But it does seem to be finished, more or less, so we're guessing that it will happen soon.

Yes, what you see above is the Droid 4. Its styling borrows heavily from the recently launched Droid RAZR, and it certainly looks like that device was the one to introduce Moto's new design aesthetic.

But the pictures aren't the whole story, for some of the Droid 4′s specs have been leaked too. It will come with 4G LTE support, a 4-inch touchscreen (possibly of the Super AMOLED variety), a 5-row keyboard, a non-removable battery, 1080p HD video recording (so the camera may be an 8 MP unit), a secondary front-facing camera, and HDMI out. There's no word on the processor, but it has to be at least the dual-core 1.2 GHz one found inside the Droid RAZR.

As for pricing, expect it to be more expensive than previous keyboard-touting Droids, because of the addition of 4G LTE support (and we all know how Verizon loves to overprice its LTE devices).

Now that the ice was broken and we have the first leak about the Droid 4, expect many more to follow. And we'll be here to cover all of them for your convenience.