Rejoice QWERTY fans! Sprint has just made HTC’s EVO Shift 4G official and the company’s 16th 4G capable device. The Shift, which will be available on January 9th for $149.99, will pack a 3.7-inch display, full QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, hotspot capabilities, and Android 2.2. The price mentioned above reflects a $100 mail-in rebate and all purchasers will be subject to the $10 monthly tariff imposed on all Sprint 4G smartphone owners. Hit the jump for the full press release.

We’re hearing that pre-orders will start at Best Buy Mobile this Friday, January 7th, with Reward Zone members getting pre-order availability one day earlier: Thursday, January 6th.

Sprint’s 4G Leadership Extends into 2011 with Introduction of Second Generation of Industry-Leading 4G-Capable Devices

HTC EVO Shift 4G with slide-out QWERTY available exclusively from Sprint on Jan. 9 for $149.99

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As the first national wireless carrier to launch 4G in 2008, Sprint (NYSE:S) wrapped up 2010 with a lead in 4G wireless device innovations. Further extending that lead, the company today introduced the upcoming availability of two products in Sprint’s second generation of 4G-capable devices: HTC EVO Shift™ 4G and MiFi® 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot by Novatel Wireless. With these two devices, Sprint has now introduced 17 4G-capable devices for consumers and business, including three phones, a 4G netbook and notebook from Dell, numerous USB modem options, and several mobile hotspots and routers.

“Our proven leadership as a 4G pioneer has allowed our customers to enjoy 4G from Sprint first, and these new products exemplify Sprint’s commitment to put industry-leading performance and capabilities in the hands of our customers.”
“Sprint will continue to set the bar for feature-rich and customer-friendly 4G devices into 2011,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “Our proven leadership as a 4G pioneer has allowed our customers to enjoy 4G from Sprint first, and these new products exemplify Sprint’s commitment to put industry-leading performance and capabilities in the hands of our customers.”

A Feature-Rich 4G Phone with QWERTY

As the 16th 4G-capable device from Sprint, HTC EVO Shift follows in the footsteps of the award-winning HTC EVO™ 4G, bringing customers an attractive, compact design and an impressive list of features with the addition of a sliding QWERTY keyboard. Beyond the highly acclaimed HTC Sense user experience, HTC EVO Shift also boasts the power of 4G, Android 2.2™, a 5MP camera, 720p HD camcorder and a 3.6-inch capacitive touchscreen display with pinch-to-zoom capability.

Additional key features include:

• HD Video Recording
• Wi-Fi®
• Sprint Mobile Hotspot (supporting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices)
• Android Market™ with access to more than 100,000 apps
• Messaging – Personal and business e-mail, IM and text messaging
• Social Networking Integration – Facebook®, Twitter™, Flickr® and more
• Visual Voicemail
• Google™ Mobile Services, including YouTube™, Gmail™, Google Talk™, Google Voice™ and Google Maps™
• GPS Navigation
• Stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology
• microSD slot (supporting up to 32GB memory card)

The Web browser on HTC EVO Shift is optimized for convenient mobile use and a full Internet experience with functions like pinch-to-zoom and automatically reflowing text. Adobe Flash technology ensures that rich Internet content, such as embedded video and animation, are displayed the way they are meant to be seen. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard makes staying in touch with friends and family through messaging and social networking quick and easy.Priced at the lowest cost at launch for any current 4G phone, HTC EVO Shift will be just $149.99 (excluding taxes) after a $100 mail-in rebate and activation on a new two-year service agreement (or eligible upgrade), and activation on a data plan with the required $10 Premium Data Add-On. It will be available in all Sprint retail channels, including www.sprint.com and 1-800-Sprint, on Jan. 9. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/shift.

Today, Adobe announced the release of its Flash Player 10.2 beta software via its Labs website. The new bits aim to shore-up the speed and efficiency of the internet video player. As Adobe explains:

Flash Player 10.2 beta introduces a number of enhancements we’re excited to share, including Stage Video, a new API that delivers best-in-class, high performance video playback across platforms. The new beta also includes Internet Explorer 9 hardware acceleration support previewed earlier (in Flash Player “Square”), enhanced text rendering, and two popular requests from the community: a native custom mouse cursors API and support for full screen playback with multiple monitors.

As you can see from the above statement, the new player will support GPU acceleration when used in conjunction with the Internet Explorer 9 web browser. Adobe boasts that with its new Stage Video API and GPU acceleration the have “seen laptops play smooth 1080p HD video with just over 0% CPU usage.” Hit the read link to grab the new goodies.

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It looks like video of the yet-to-be-released Internet Explorer 9 has surfaced on the web. The browser, which is scheduled to launch in beta next week, is seen sporting a new, cleaner user interface and scoring a 95 out of 100 on the Acid 3 browser test. We’ve got the 77 second video for you after the break, let us know if Microsoft’s latest iteration of IE is conjuring up thoughts about cheating on Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.

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Well, it isn’t like we didn’t know this was coming. Putting the cart before the horse, Verizon Wireless has begun running Samsung Fascinate commercials with the tagline, “available Sept. 9 at Verizon.” The advert-delivered news comes before an official press release. The device will retail for $199 and will be available in two short days. We should see an official note from Verizon Wireless later today; we’ll update this article once it becomes available.

UPDATE: Official press release is after the break. The device will be available in stores on the 9th and online on the 8th.

Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ Smartphone, Available Tomorrow on the Verizon Wireless Network

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ smartphone exclusively from Verizon, will be available online on Sept. 8 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 9 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.
Powered by Android 2.1™, the Fascinate refines customers’ social networking experiences with its Super AMOLED™ Screen Technology, advanced touch screen capabilities, Samsung 1 GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application Processor, and virtual QWERTY keyboard featuring SWYPE technology. Additionally, the Fascinate comes pre-loaded with Amazon’s Kindle for Android app, and it boasts an array of accessories, including:

• Charging Cradle – Doubles as a phone charger and includes a micro USB wall adapter so customers can view movies, display digital photos, and listen to music. It can also be used as a desktop speakerphone to make hands-free calls, and it comes preloaded with the Samsung “Desk Home” application, which allows customers to switch brightness levels from day to night and provides one-touch access to Samsung Widgets and Bing Voice Search. The charging cradle is available for $29.99.
• Car Dock – Attachable to the windshield or dashboard, the car dock displays turn-by-turn GPS navigation instructions, rotates freely between landscape and portrait modes, and features a preloaded Samsung “Car Home” application, giving customers access to everything the “Desk Home” app can do while on the go. The car dock is available for $39.99.
• Backup Battery Charging System – Includes a 1500 mAH battery, battery charger and Y-cable for charging a phone and spare battery simultaneously. It is available for $39.99.

Pricing and Plan Information

Verizon Wireless customers who purchase the Samsung Fascinate will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Samsung Fascinate customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan (beginning at $39.99 monthly access) and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan (beginning at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access).

For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

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Things we know: Microsoft has an Internet Explorer event scheduled for September 15th, Microsoft has released four developer previews of Internet Explorer 9, IE 9 beta is set to launch in September and in all likelihood will be unveiled at the 9/15 gathering. Things we don’t know: what IE 9′s interface will look like. However, thanks to Microsoft’s Russian press site, we may have a better idea of what we are in-store for. ZDNet found the screen shot above sitting on the Redmond software giant’s Russian web site. The screen capture shows a sleeker, less cluttered, dare we say more mature, version of IE. The shot depicts a unified search and address bar and the Russian site said the whole look and feel of the browser has been simplified. When contacted for comment, the company had this to say: “Microsoft is encouraged by the early enthusiasm around Internet Explorer 9; we have nothing further to share about Internet Explorer 9 at this time.” Guess we’ll just have to wait until the 15th.

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Looks like what we reported turned out to be true — social networking sharing (sending information to Facebook and Twitter as well as app organization). Apple’s iTunes 9 is now officially official and there’s some great features in here. Application organization for iPhone/iPod touch apps, home sharing which will share your entire iTunes content on up to five machines, support for iTunes LP (referred to as project Cocktail in the past) and much more. It’s available now.

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Ready for round 2, ladies and gents? A tipster just dropped a new handful of iTunes 9 screenshots in our inbox and while their authenticity cannot be confirmed, they’re certainly worth mentioning. Earlier this month we scooped a whole bunch of info surrounding the imminent release of iTunes 9 and this new round of screenshots, allegedly of an early iTunes 9 beta, may help support some of the info we exclusively detailed. The first notable feature depicted in the new shots is the Facebook integration. The images show the ability to create a new playlist and then share it on Facebook. The Facebook entry that subsequently appears on the user’s FB wall will include an iTunes link, presumably pointing to the shared playlist found on an iTunes page. Up next… How about some third-party device support? Yeah, very un-Apple but maybe Jobs & Co. have decided to turn over a new leaf. Again, these shots are not confirmed but the wait won’t be much longer — all will be revealed in early September when Apple holds its music event. Hit the jump for the images along with a screenshot of Facebook displaying a shared iTunes playlist.

Thanks, nicuk!

Now before we get into these screen caps our disclaimer must be made explicitly clear: This is superduperultramegaturbo rumor/skeptical status. Right then. A German blogger claims to have dug up a hand full of iTunes 9 screenshots while sifting through a Chinese Apple forum. Yeah, we know — did you not read our disclaimer? For those of you who are late to the party, we exclusively scooped a handful of features said to be coming to the next version of iTunes and then followed up this morning with some tasty new info. Should these screenshots be authentic, they definitely firm up several of the items we listed including Last.fm integration and some kind of integration with Facebook and Twitter as shown in the first screenshot below (social playlists?). Hit the jump for the rest of the shots and a bigger version of the image above.

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Our same source is back at it again and we have some further clarification on the iTunes 9 rumor we posted a couple days ago. We really have to take this information at face value, but again felt it was worthy enough to be published. Here’s some of what was just told to us about iTunes and something else entirely:

• The social networking integration that we reported iTunes 9 would have seems to be part of a bigger social networking push by Apple. We’ve been informed that Apple has plans to tie iTunes 9 into a “Social” application that they plan to release in the future. It was said that the application (separate from iTunes) will be similar to Yahoo’s OneConnect offering and consolidate all your social networking services. (iPhone application? Desktop app? Wasn’t clarified to us).
• The application will allow you to broadcast what music you’re currently listening to, allow you to share your music with people on your network, connect with your friend’s friends (no clue on that one), and update all of your statuses at the same time. ITunes 9 will let you broadcast music statuses as well.
• As far as the iTunes application organization feature, we’ve been told it allow you to sort your applications alphabetically, by genre, date added, and of course, custom arrangement.

That’s all what we have for now. Again, this isn’t confirmed and some of it seems a little far-fetched, but let’s see what happens here. It’s going to get interesting

Thanks, Lindsey!

We’ve just received a tip from a pretty reliable source that detailed for us some of iTunes 9′s upcoming features and they’re pretty exciting.

One of the new additions to iTunes is said to include Blu-ray support which lines up nicely with a recent Apple Insider report about Apple integrating Blu-ray into their new iMac line-up. Something else that will most likely make a bunch of people happy is that we’ve been told iTunes 9 will finally include the ability to visually organize and arrange your iPhone and iPod touch applications. Something that wasn’t so clearly described was some kind of Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm integration. Maybe broadcasting what song you’re playing to your friends?

Let’s see how this pans out. Even though we weren’t given a timeframe on a possible release, that yearly Apple iPod event around the September timeframe would most likely be a reasonable place to expect this sort of announcement we believe.

Thanks, Lindsey!

Dell announced on Thursday that it is adding two new colors and three new Tristan Eaton designs to its Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12 netbooks. The new colors include Cherry Red and the very feminine Pretty Pink. Dell also licensed the work of Tristan Eaton, avant garde toy designer, to produce three exclusive images that will adorn the outer casings of the Inspiron Minis. Eaton’s designs include “The Muse,” a blend of colorful patterns and the female form as well as “Stickers 1” and “Stickers 2,” which emulate the landscape of stickers you might see covering the bottom of a skateboard, the walls of CBGB’s or a lamppost in New York. Both “The Muse” and “Stickers 1″ will be available in two color schemes. Hit the jump for a quick look at the colorful new Minis.

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