It’s been years and years, but the phone is finally official ladies and gentlemen. That’s right, announced earlier today by Verizon, the iPhone will be coming to Big Red’s network starting February 3rd for existing subscribers. To celebrate this huge occasion, we’re going to be giving away a brand new Verizon iPhone to one of our readers — you’ll be FaceTime calling, 5 megapixel photo taking, and iPod listening in no time! Here are the rules:

• To enter, just leave a comment telling us why you so badly want a Verizon iPhone
• If you’re on Facebook, like our Facebook page
• If you’re on Twitter, follow us on Twitter
• That’s it!
• The contest will run until Wednesday, January 19th at 11:59PM ET

Good luck!

Sony thinks their Google TV-enabled Internet TV product is the future of home television. We covered the announcement and played with the product a little bit at the press event, but there isn’t anything like getting up close and personal with something in your own environment. Your TV, your sofa, your own install and set up. Read on for our thoughts on Sony’s Internet TV Blu-ray player, and whether or not we think the future is here!

Set Up

Once we furiously ripped open the packaging that Sony lovingly messengered over to our apartment, we got to work. The Blu-ray player came with a power brick, power cord, remote, AA batteries, HDMI cable (looks to be 3 ft), and dual IR blaster cable. The way the video chain should work is, you’re effectively putting the Internet TV in the middle. That way, it can take the incoming video, do its dirty work and overlay menus, applications and more on top of the video content. So, video out of the DVR or cable box into the Internet TV, and then simply out of the Internet TV into the TV directly, or into your receiver if you have one.

Once that is done, you’ll most likely want to hook up the IR blaster so that the Internet TV remote will be able to control your DVR / cable box in addition to the Internet TV itself. If you’re in the advanced segment of the population and would like to make use of a custom remote set up (Crestron, Control4, Philips Pronto), it looks like it’s going to be a pretty challenging task for the time being.

After physically plugging in the unit, you’re ready for the software side of things.

During the set up, we were asked to define the size of our TV by pushing a black overlay to the edges of the screen. We were then asked to identify our cable provider, verify channel lineups, verify the IR blaster commands were working properly, and configure our Internet connection (we chose Wi-Fi). After we went through that process, our unit alerted us to a software update that would take around 10-15 minutes to download and install. Being the adventurous bunch we are, we decided to go ahead. After the software update was downloaded and installed, our unit rebooted. Unfortunately, our setup settings — that we had just went through which took around 10 minutes — were not saved. Kind of a bummer, and not exactly the best first impression. It’s also not the end of the world, though.

Usage

There are a couple main buttons to help you navigate Google TV. You have the home button, back button, and a 5-way directional pad. This is grossly, grossly oversimplifying the included Sony remote, but we’ll get into that a little bit later. After pressing the home button, you’re presented a cleanly-organized home menu. You have main categories on the left like Bookmarks, Applications, Most Visited, Queue, and more. After highlighting one of those, you are presented with either a thumbnail or a list view of the contents on the right.

But, you don’t have to visit the home menu much to be honest. This is Google we’re talking about… just search! Hitting the dedicated search button on the keyboard brings up a familiar search box. Just type whatever you’re looking for, local to the device or not, and you’ll get back search results almost instantly. Populated search results include upcoming TV programs matching the entered text, local items like apps, search results from YouTube and of course Google search. This lets you bounce around pretty quickly and it works very, very well.

In addition to the search bar, there is a window icon to the right. This holds all the open windows (pages, apps, whatever) and you can flip through all of them pretty effortlessly. Yes, this is a form of multitasking. What’s very cool is that you’re able to stream a song from your favorite station on Pandora while checking out a recipe on Foodnetwork.com while watching TV in Dual view mode (think Picture-in-picture for you oldies). It’s definitely intense, but it’s definitely up our alley.

Something that’s very frustrating about this first generation product though, is that unless you’re a DISH TV subscriber, Google TV doesn’t integrate fully with your DVR. For instance, we have a Verizon FIOS DVR, and Google TV can’t communicate with the box besides sending simple IR commands. This means that when we search for something in Google TV and find the program listing (which very slyly displays the upcoming time and date) we can’t set it to record. We have to manually set that up on the DVR. No season guides, no recording of current or future programs — nada. It’s a very half baked approach and makes the two different video devices feel very separate in this regard.

Browser

The browser is good enough to justify being here, but in all honesty, it’s just not fast enough to be useful for us. That’s not to say family or friends of ours wouldn’t enjoy using it, but it definitely lacks the polish and speed that we were hoping to see. Scrolling is choppy instead of being fluid, as it should be. And then, Hulu is blocked. Online content from ABC, NBC, as well as CBS is blocked as well. Scrolling the on-screen cursor below the cut off the display should scroll the page down with it in our opinion, but you have to use the physical down key to “scroll” (more like push pages around), and like we said, it’s not fluid. There’s no kinetic scrolling , and again, it’s just usable enough at this point to make it worth using. We’re not sure if it’s a hardware or software issue (we’d guess a bit of both, though hardware would make more sense).

Remote

The remote is oddly usable, but also annoying and complicated. There are 102 buttons on this thing and half of them don’t even need to be there. Seriously, it’s uber-confusing to use at first, and even once you get used to it, you still aren’t friends with the remote. Sony said they took inspiration from the Dual Shock PS3 controller, and while it shows, the simple fact is that the Dual Shock controller is infinitely more comfortable to hold and use.

The optical joystick on the right of the remote performs decently, though it’s not as sensitive or as quick as we’d like. It always feels like the system is processing the mouse’s movements and then catching up. It doesn’t feel slow per se — it just doesn’t feel very natural, quick, or what we’d expect in a 2010 device. Once you configure the keyboard settings, things get a little better though. But, what’s a little confusing is adjusting the keyboard settings adjusts the entire button settings for the remote, not just the keyboard or letters. For instance, key repeat delay and repeat rate. Normally things for just a keyboard right? Not in this case. After playing with some settings we found the directional arrows completely flipping out on us when we were controlling the program guide on FIOS. Paging through channels was erratic, and worse, would duplicate or even triplicate our commands. We dialed back the repeat rate and upped the delay a bit and things were fixed, but it’s just something you shouldn’t necessarily have to muck with or worry about.

There are even two triggers on the right and left of the remote to be used by your index fingers. Zoom and scroll. You hold them down while scrolling with the optical joystick and they perform the intended functions.

Some of the Blu-ray buttons on here really could have been sub-buttons to clean up the clutter, and the remote is really intimidating for people just wanting to lay back and watch some World Series while browsing www.mlbtraderumors.com.

All in all, if you have an Android handset, using the upcoming remote app will probably turn out to be a much more enjoyable and relaxing experience.

Conclusion

It’s hard to justify a $399 TV enhancement device in almost any scenario. Unfortunately, while most of the time we loved using Google TV on Sony’s Internet TV Blu-ray player, we can’t at this point think of much of a reason you’d want this. Again, it’s definitely cool and it definitely does help transform the TV viewing experience, but we’d be much more open to a Sony Internet TV with built-in Google TV. That’s a no-brainer and a separate device is pretty hard to swallow. Making matters worse, we already had a 3D Sony Blu-ray player and it is kind of disappointing that this box doesn’t play back 3D Blu-ray films. There is no way to justify having two Blu-ray players in the same room, and it’s a choice we had hoped we wouldn’t have to make. (Spoiler: we decided on the Internet TV Blu-ray player)

Our new Sony TV has most of what Google TV offers minus a browser. It has Netflix built in, Hulu Plus, Internet widgets like Twitter, stocks, news, and Wi-Fi out of the box.  Most new TVs have a lot of this functionality already, and a separate item at $399 isn’t that appealing. Would we prefer the Google TV experience to what Sony offers natively? Absolutely. And that’s a very, very good thing.

Another thing Google TV has against it is the target market for the product. For instance, we’re sitting here watching our TV with Google TV while typing this review on our MacBook Air with our iPhone 4 sitting next to us on the left, our BlackBerry 9700 to our right and our Motorola DROID X in our laptop bag. Are we the norm in this case? We’d like to think so, but sadly no. However, we do think many, many people will either have a laptop, smartphone, or iPad-like device with them all, most, or some of the time while watching TV. It’s these usage scenarios that complicate the usefulness of Google’s initiative in our mind. It’s great that there is a browser on my TV, but it’s kind of slow to scroll, a little slow to load, and well, I’m still not sure why we need it.

Once Google TV matures (typical Google, right), we have no doubt that this will be a major step forward for the Television industry and consumers. It will be second nature to have a browser everywhere you turn and the cost will be absorbed by the TV you purchase since it will be built in. You will get access to the entire world, all your information at your fingertips without lifting your lazy butt off of the sofa — and we think that’s magical.

Click on over to our Sony Internet TV Blu-ray player gallery!

We’re at T-Mobile’s intimate myTouch event right now (we’re currently snuggling up with all four colors — white, black, red and purple), and here are our first-hand impressions:

• It feels good in the hand. The device is pretty slim, has a slight Android chin at the bottom, and all in all seems to be very solidly-built.
• The screen is beautiful, sharp and bright — but not as good as an AMOLED in our opinion.
• It rocks the myTouch UI that first appeared with the myTouch Slide, though it seems a bit more refined now.
• We’re currently watching Vincent from SlashGear and Sascha from PC Magazine try to establish a video call. It was unsuccessful at first, but it seems like they’re having way too much fun now that it’s working. Never mind, Sascha is yelling at the phone now.
• Watching a demo of the phone streaming video to a TV set was pretty cool. After some quick initial buffering, movies, photos and YouTube played effortlessly on the HDTV.

We’re pretty excited for the launch of the new myTouch. It’s packed with features and it nicely compliments T-Mobile’s stock Android G2 device as a younger-focused counterpart. Hit the jump for our full gallery, ok?

Click on over to our T-Mobile myTouch hands on gallery!

We don’t have too much information, but here is what we do know… one of our Motorola sources has confirmed to us that AT&T will be getting one of the hottest devices out of Schaumburg, IL in a little while. We have been told the Motorola Olympus (we’re assuming that is the code name) will be a 4″ tablet style Android device but use a display that is “beautiful,” and will “step it up in resolution.” The phone is also “powered by NVidia.”

Our source promises it’s the finest Android handset to hit AT&T, and from the limited specs we have received, we’re inclined to believe them.

Now, we realize that this isn’t a shot of the actual handset’s release date, but hey, people have to get their cases on launch day, too! One of our Sprint sources sent us in a photo of the HTC Knight’s accessory list sheet, and the case for the HTC handset is set to launch on January 6th. We have also been told there is a good chance the phone will come to market as the HTC Speedy. No, we’re not kidding. Plus, do you know what day January 6th is, friends? It’s the first day of CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. Yeah, we’d pretty much guarantee this release date now. The HTC Speedy was pictured earlier in the day if you’re interested in seeing what it looks like.

We just received a shot of an internal AT&T memo detailing the carrier’s intention to start transitioning to LTE-capable SIM cards. AT&T has started preparing employees for a new SIM card that will be used for LTE handsets and devices, all except the iPhone 4 since that uses a microSIM card. AT&T tells employees to verify the SIM card is correct by checking the SKU on the card even though the new LTE cards are visibly different, just to be safe we’re assuming. It also appears there will be up to “eight different SIMs” during the transition, so verifying the SKU might be the only way to go. Well, it’s a start, no?

We just scored a brand new Apple MacBook Air 11″ laptop at the 5th Ave store, and well, how could we not report back what we think of it? For starters, and this has probably been said already, but you really need to see this in person to appreciate how absolutely slim and compact this thing is. Our major concern has to be the processor, as this wasn’t a built-to-order unit it’s only rockin’ a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM — not the slowest thing out there, but obviously on the slower end of the spectrum. We’re happy to say in our very limited use of the computer so far, we haven’t been frustrated or annoyed by the speed. There will most likely be a different story to be told after we push it to the limits, but for a computer that’s not meant to be subjected to torture every second of the day, we could see ourselves carrying this and not our 15″ MacBook Pro. In terms of the 11.6″ display, we have to say that we’re loving it. So far. We have some great photos of the new MacBook Air in our gallery, and have some comparison photos to the 13″ previous generation Air as well as our 15″ MacBook Pro.

Click on over to our MacBook Air hands on gallery!

One of our solid Apple sources has just let us know some pretty interesting (and exciting) information surrounding Apple’s upcoming iPhone devices. For starters, we have been told that iPhone model 3,2 — what everyone is assuming to be the Verizon (or at least CDMA-compatible) phone — just hit the “AP” testing stage. This is the very last stage before retail release; final hardware, almost final software. Here is the odd thing, though… the iPhone 3,2 unit, we have been exclusively told, contains a SIM card slot. This is interesting for a multitude of reasons, and presents several different scenarios:

• The iPhone 3,2 could be the mythical CDMA + GSM/HSPA device that would support Verizon, AT&T, and the other current worldwide iPhone 4 carriers frequencies. The mid-cycle refresh would bring an updated antenna design for the current iPhone 4 and bring CDMA-compatibility; essentially, Verizon Wireless subscribers would have the same device as AT&T subscribers.
• The iPhone 3,2 could be a CDMA-capable iPhone that houses a SIM card for global roaming capabilities; though that certainly seems more complicated than just having one single glove that would fit both hands.
• One last possibility that the iPhone model 3,2 would simply be a slightly different design that doesn’t suffer from the same antenna attenuation as the current model; though that would be a little disappointing.

As far as the next generation iPhone 5, our source has also indicated to us that device has hit the “EVT” stage in the development cycle. The “EVT” stage is the engineering verification test phase, before the “DVT” phase.

We had a chance to get up close and personal with Sony’s latest TV set and sister Blu-ray player. Here are our first thoughts:

• We haven’t seen Logitech’s Revue Google TV device in person, but the Sony experience looks similar to it. Sony told us that the only Sony customization was a recommended channel area, so for you purists out there, it looks like this is a really clean Google offering.
• We caught some lag when hopping menu to menu and typing when using the remote sometimes took a second or two to catch up but all in all, the Intel Atom-powered TV seemed pretty zippy.
• Speaking of the remote, we’re completely torn about it. Andrew loves it, but I couldn’t care much for it. The size is definitely intriguing as it is way smaller in person than we expected it to be. Also, the feel is right — pretty light without feeling inexpensively cheap. However, the myriad of buttons sort of confuses us, especially when a bunch of them don’t serve a purpose 90% of the time in what we’d imagine would be your daily use. I’ll use my Android handset to control my Google TV device as opposed to a manufacturer remote, you can believe that. Last thing about the remote… no backlight! So sad.
• The picture in picture capability is practically the selling point here… if you’re a multitasker, you’re going to love with PIP on. It’s pretty amazing that you can have that picture window of the current TV show or recording you’re watching open on the screen and at the same time browse a website, check something on Google Maps, search for a program to record, and more.
• The range in sizes and price is pretty spectacular. At a cost of $1,399 for the 46″ edge-lit LED model is practically a steal — and the time to market is also delicious as the sets and Blu-ray player will be available this weekend.

All in all, this wasn’t something we didn’t expect, yet we’re incredibly excited for Sony to pioneer this new category of TV entertainment. Let’s see if they can knock it out of the park…

Click on over to our Sony Internet TV with Google TV gallery!

Hey, hey! We’re here at Sony’s GoogleTV event ready to see what the two companies have in-store for us. Hit the break for the live blogging action.

5:25 PM: We’re here and seated waiting for Sony to start the event. The event ambiance is pretty rockin’ — super clean, white sofas, white leather wrapped bar — nuts.

5:28 PM: Almost there, folks.

5:34 PM: Sony Exec is on stage talking about the world’s first HDTV powered by Google TV. Today is the launch of Sony Internet TV. “It puts you in the driver’s seat and let’s you continuously search for content across multiple sources.” Sony internet TV offers a progrssive internet experience with infinite posibilties.

5:35 PM: We’re ver proud to be the pioneers of this new category. Presale for Sony Internet TV products is now available through SonyStyle.com. Today we’re launching two solutions. Sony Internet TV and Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc player.

5:36 PM: what’s an Internet TV experience without an intuitive and comfortable remote. Based on the leaked photos and this photo, well, we’ll leave the judgment up to you.

5:38 PM: You never need to boot up the laptop. It’s as easy as browsing from your PC, but it’s on your large screen. Sony introduced cutting edge. Sony delivers the full internet based internet experience directly on your living room. In n effort to grow our television business we will continue to combine our hardware expertise, and now the Android OS to create compelling and attractive TV experiences.

5:39 PM: Mike Abary, SV of Sony’s Home Division is now on TV demoing the product. Here is Sony’s first Internet TV. And, it looks like a TV! “The world’s first TV powered by Google TV. In the history of consumer eleectronics this is a pretty big one, and we’re proud to be a pioneer of this entertainment category. We are creating the new TV revoluton.”

5:42 PM: “Watching regular TV with regular apps is so 2009″

5:42 PM: Time spent watching TV while on the PC is up 10%. Time is right for the new revolution. Hardware info now… four models ranging from 32″-46″ in price from $599-$1,399. Also, if you just bought a new TV, there is a Blu-ray integrated box for $399. We’re incorporating components in CE devices that you wouldn’t normally see. They have to perform to capture the content on the internet. We have an Intel Atom processor as well a 8GB of storage. Mike is talking about the remote now, or what Sony likes to call, “a unique remote.” The design of this remove control is beautiful. It belongs in the living room. See how it feels, it feels natural. We’ve incorporated design elements from other successful remote controllers in the Sony remote portflio.

5:45 PM: Some design elements were borrowed from the PS3. There is a full QWERTY keyboard, and when you’re searching on TV, you need input. There is a mouse function built in, control your DVR and Blu-ray player, single remote for all of the functions that are necessary in the living room.

5:46 PM: Ease of use for the consumer. Software and services: it incorporated the Google TV platform and the Chrome browser. Search is a function of these unique products, and while search is available on other products, not lke this. Search across your DVR, TV, and across the web. The TV is fully personalized b bookmarking your favorites.

5:47 PM: Apps are important. There are some installed out of the box. CNBC, Netflix, Napster, NBA, etc. Other competitors that have closed access to the internet

5:49 PM: They are now walking us through the new product — demo time! He’s showing Food Network and how he’s watching live TV, and he doesn’t want to watch what’s on Food Network. He wants to watch Man Vs. Food, his favorite show. He hits the search button on the remote, types in man v. food, and showing the results.

5:54 PM: Demo is over, he hopped around from live TV to Google Maps, to the browser, and even sent a Tweet.

5:55 PM: The people that care about this product is the same audience that’s already using a PC and TV.

5:55 PM: Preorder now, available in Sony Style stores this weekend. This is the only Internet TV with Google TV available for the holidays.

6:03 PM: We’re checking out the TVs and devices — stay tuned for our hands on post!

Mercedes-Benz is on an environmentally conscious tear as of late, launching two hybrid vehicles last year, and now an entirely zero emission fuel cell car this December. We were given an opportunity to test drive the new F-Cell vehicle in Manhattan and learn more about the car. For starters, when thinking about what Mercedes has done with this specific vehicle, it’s mind blowing in itself. A non-combustion engine car that is powered off of hydrogen with zero emissions. Did you ever think you’d see the day? As a car lover, just hopping into the driver’s seat of the F-Cell was an experience. Zipping around downtown New York City in the car was… just like driving a gas-powered vehicle, except, there was no noise. I’ve driven dual-mode hybrid cars before, and I have gotten used to not hearing an engine at some times, but no engine sound at all? Borderline ghostly. While the B-Class-based F-Cell has an all electric motor rated at 136 horsepower and 214 pounds of torque, it definitely didn’t feel underpowered. Plus, once we got over the sound of no sound from the engine, there wasn’t much to complain about. It’s the first fuel-cell car from Mercedes, and while it’s not exactly the most luxurious or stylish model in their lineup, neither is a Prius. Being powered 100% by hydrogen lends itself to one main issue: finding a hydrogen refueling station. Now, there are a couple around the NYC area (White Plains, NY, Wallingford, CT, Bronx, NY), but when the F-Cell touches down in December for consumer leasing, it’s going to be heading to the state of California — mostly Los Angeles and San Francisco where there are plenty of hydrogen stations. You might notice how we said leasing and not purchasing, and that’s because the car will only be offered by way of a lease, and while Mercedes wouldn’t confirm pricing information to us, we’ve heard it will run around $550-$750/month. Definitely on the higher end of the spectrum, but for a car that literally emits water instead of toxic sludge — representing the future of the automotive industry — all we can say is, sign us up.

Click on over to our Mercedes-Benz F-Cell vehicle gallery!

9:27 AM: We’re here, and the party is just about to start. The house is packed and the music is bumping. Let’s do this thing!

Hit the jump for out live blog of the event.

9:28 AM: Just a few more minutes…

9:40 AM: Here we go. Steve Ballmer is on stage.

9:41 AM: “We wanted the Windows Phone 7 operating system to be wonderful on a range of different devices.”

9:42 AM: “For both consumers and developers.”

9:42 AM: “We wanted the phone to be wonderfully yours. I can represent ‘me’ in this device”

9:43 AM: Emphasis on the ability to personalize the device.

9:43 AM: “…Always delightful… Wonderflly mine.” is slogan we’re seeing on the screen.

9:44 AM: “We’ll have 9 phones available in U.S. when the phone ships in November.”

9:44 AM: “Dell, HTC, HP, Samsung, and Dell.”

9:44 AM: “Full touch-screen devices, full QWERTY devices, ruggedized devices, large devices, small devices.”

9:45 AM: “We think it is important to have consistant delight but give people a set of choices.”

9:46 AM: 60 operators will offer Windows Phone 7 around the world.

9:47 AM: Ralph de la Vega (CEO of AT&T) in now on stage.

9:48 AM: “The user experience we have seen on Windows Phone 7 is unlike anything evern seen.”

9:48 AM: “The user interface is fun, fast, and personal.”

9:49 AM: “Beginning on November 8, Windows will be the cornerstone of our smartphone platform. We’ll launch three phones.”

9:49 AM: LG Quantam 1.3 GHz Snapdragon processor. Full QWERTY keyboard. DLNA support. $199 with contract.

9:50 AM: HTC Surround. Media and game enthusiasts. 3.8-inch touchscreen, 1 GHz Snapdragon, 2 Dolby surround sound speakers. Full touch-screen, kickstand. $199.99 with contract.

9:51 AM: Samsung Focus. 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 8 GB on-board storage. Thinnest WP7 phone in U.S. $199.99 with contract.

9:52 AM: Focus will launch on the 8th of November. Others shortly after.

9:52 AM: AT&T U-Verse TV will come to smartphone. Can watch shows like Mad Men on your mobile. Will offer service for non-AT&T U-Verse subscribers for a small monthly fee.

9:54 AM: Mr. de la Vega has left the stage. Joe Belifiore, from Microsoft, is on-stage to give us a demo.

9:55 AM: We’re getting a walkthrough of panels, soft-keys, and general phone interface.

9:57 AM: We’re seeing a logo for Twitter… looks like there will be an official Twitter application upon WP7 launch.

10:00 AM: Seeing demo of camera’s ability to wake and shoot images quickly via dedicated photo button. Camera button activates camera (even if phone is sleeping) and two-clicks shares images.

10:02 AM: Outlook integration with other office application and document types looks very slick.

10:05 AM: Text entry and correction on full-touchscreen devices also looks really easy and intuitive.

10:07 AM: Outlook for WP7 integrates maps for meeting navigation.

10:08 AM: Service also supports Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, Exchange…

10:09 AM: Zooming in close enough on a map (using pinch-to-zoom) will cause the map to automatically switch to satellite view for easier navigation.

10:10 AM: Microsoft is — obviously — using Bing to power all their maps and search functions.

10:13 AM: “Instant Answers” feature will give you one-click answers to questions. Holding “Start” button will allow you to ask (using your voice) a question that will be uploaded to Bing. Example was “Alaska Flight 7″ and Bing service returned the flight time. No typing required. Think Google Voice Actions.

10:15 AM: Going over “hubs” now. Six Windows Phone hubs that revolve around common tasks.

10:17 AM: Hubs tasks are viewed by swiping left and right on the phone from within a tile.

10:17 AM: Recently called, social networking… we’ve seen it all before.

10:18 AM: Pictures hub will automatically select backgrounds, integrates social networking images, can add comments from pictures hub without launching a separate program.

10:20 AM: Talking about the Office hub now. Can view documents saved on phone, SharePoint access, can add multiple SharePoint services.

10:20 AM: OneNote is also included in Office Hub.

10:21 AM: Can use free OneNote web-companion to edit and view notes from phone on the desktop.

10:22 AM: Moved onto Music and Videos Hub.

10:22 AM: Acces to Zune library. Music, videos access.

10:22 AM: Shows “history” of recently listened to artists and playlists.

10:22 AM: New Podcasts are shown with album art.

10:23 AM: Third-party applications can integrate into Music and Video hub. iHeartRadio, Pandora, Slacker, etc. You can see what online stations you’ve been listening to.

10:29 AM: We’re onto the “Games” hub.

10:29 AM: Xbox Live integration, friend invites, social gaming…

10:30 AM: Seing demo of avatar customizations.

10:31 AM: Games we’re seeing: Elo & Milo (made using XNA) and exclusive to AT&T.

10:33 AM: “We will have EA available as a launch partner and they will have a suite of games avialable upon launch.”

10:34 AM: Seeing Sims demo.

10:34 AM: “Out phones support an update mechanism that allows all the phones to get the updates at the same time.”

10:35 AM: Copy and Paste coming in early 2011. Thanks to “feedback from customers.”

10:35 AM: Stevie B is back on stage.

10:35 AM: Seeing a video showing OEM makers waxing-poetic about how awesome WP7 is.

10:38 AM: Video cameos by HTC, Samsung, and LG.

10:39 AM: That’s all she wrote! We’re going to get some hands-on time.

One of our solid Sprint guys just shot us over this slide on the upcoming BlackBerry Oxford, the device we first showed the world, and the big news? A release date and price! Here is the breakdown: the BlackBerry Oxford (maybe “Style” wasn’t stylish enough?) is indeed a Sprint exclusive, and is set to launch on October 31st in the color Seattle grey. There will be a purple model being released in the near future, or as Sprint likes to put it, it’s “coming soon”. The BlackBerry 6-powered flip device will run you only $99.99 with a two year agreement after $100 mail-in-rebate. Not a bad price for a 5 megapixel-toting, full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi and GPS capable EV-DO Rev. A device, right? So let’s hear it — yay or nay on the Oxford, guys?

Here is what we have just found out… AT&T recently modified their early upgrade program for smartphones, and due to smartphones becoming “increasingly more sophisticated” — and the cost of the devices increasing — AT&T has increased their $75 early upgrade fee to $200. That means a BlackBerry Bold 9700 that would have cost you $275 will now cost you $399. Quick messaging and basic phones are not subjected to the new change. AT&T told employees that, “This change to our exception pricing is necessary to maintain our ability to provide customers with the best selection of devices and maintain our leadership in the Smartphone category.” And hey, with Verizon charging a $350 ETF for advanced devices, it was only a matter of time before AT&T started exploring their options.