9to5Mac is reporting that Apple recently acquired a small Bluetooth headphone company based in San Francisco around two months ago. Their source has not disclosed a purchase price, and Wi-Gear as a company is no longer operational. Wi-Gear manufactured A2DP stereo headphones under the brand name iMuffs and even a Bluetooth adapter that enabled older iPod and iPhones to get in on the action. After some snooping, 9to5Mac found that the co-founder of Wi-Gear is now an iOS Bluetooth Engineer at Apple on LinkedIn, thus giving credibility to the story. It’s said that Apple plans to create and manufacture their own brand of Bluetooth headphones, though it isn’t clear whether this would be a replacement for the wired headset that comes with Apple’s music devices, or something like a stereo Bluetooth accessory. Maybe even a new Bluetooth headset to replace their less-than-stellar first go at it?

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Right on cue, HTC has announced its latest Android device in the Hero. With many of the Hero’s specs being the same as the Magic, the handset does manage to beat out the Magic with its 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, 3.5mm headphone jack (finally!!!), improved battery life and Adobe Flash support. But what makes the Hero really exciting is the fresh new GUI overlay. Much like with TouchFLO 3D for Windows Mobile, the new HTC Sense UI gives Android a much needed injection of style and functionality by allowing users to keep the content that matter to them — such as weather, contacts, photos, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and bookmarks — at their fingertips.

Another feature found within Sense is Scenes, which essentially allows users to switch from “work to weekend mode” (think of it as Modes on Nokia’s Eseries but sexier) and also helps organize emails, texts, photos, Facebook updates, call logs and more per contract entry much like Palm’s webOS. The Hero’s dedicated Search button features Spotlight-like search, meaning finding the contact, email, app, Tweet and more you’re looking for couldn’t be more simple. One last thing — the Hero is coated in Teflon that not only feels soft to the touch and thus easier to grip, but also protects the devices paint job from your greasy hands.

The Hero will be available next month in Europe with Asian availability coming in the later summer months (Orange UK has already announced it will be carrying the Hero in graphite for as low as £0 on contract this July). As for North Americans, well, we’re just going to have to wait for a little while longer. Hit the jump for the complete specs, some pics and a video.

• Android with HTC Sense
• 112mm x 56.2mm x 14.35mm, 135g
• Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz processor
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band 7.2Mbps HSPA/WCDMA
• 512 ROM / 288 RAM
• 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touchscreen
• 5.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus
• Gravity sensor
• Digital compass
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR + A2DP
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microSD
• 1350 mAh battery
• 420 minutes talktime / 750 hours standby (WCDMA)

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Life’s a bitch and so is karma, but AT&T is hoping to change that with the Motorola Karma QA1. A goofy looking dumb phone that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Somerset, the Karma is a media-centric device that has home screen access to both Facebook and MySpace as well as support for email, IM, MMS and threaded SMS. In terms of hardware, the quad-band EDGE/dual-band HSDPA Karma packs a sliding QWERTY keypad, 2.5-inch QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5mm headphone jack and 100MB of internal memory with microSDHC support (up to 16GB). The Karma will be available online and in AT&T stores on the 28th of this month for $79.99 on a 2-year deal after a $50 mail-in rebate. Any takers?

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We’ve already given the world its first peek and Verizon’s upcoming HTC Ozone, nailed down its scheduled availability of June 29th/July 13th and pegged its pricing at $49.99 after MIR, but we’re not done yet because two of our VZW ninjas just hit us up with the complete spec list for the device — and plenty more. Just as we suspected, the Ozone features EV-DO Rev. A connectivity in addition to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. We’re also pleased to report that the GPS chip is not shackled to VZ Navigator and that Verizon will allow users to use the device as a tethered modem (for a fee of course). Hit the jump for the rest of the specs along with a sizable Ozone deck.

Thanks, anonymous and indelus!

Features

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
• Dual-band 1xRTT/EV-DO Rev. A, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Pre-installed SIM Card w/ Global Support Kit
• Microsoft Office Mobile
• Adobe Reader LE PFT viewer
• Internet Explorer Mobile
• Windows Media Player Mobile
• 256MB ROM/128MB RAM
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• 2.4″ QVGA display w/ 24k color
• Full-QWERTY with 5-way navigation key
• 2 megapixel camera w/ auto-focus and video capture
• microSD slot (up to 16GB)
• Voice command, notes/recorder capable
• Speakerphone
• Security locking features
• MMS
• AOL, WLM, Yahoo! IM
• Wireless Sync capable
• ActiveSync capable (v4.5) and Windows Mobile Device Center
• Mobile Broadband Connect capable
• VZ Navigator capable
• Visual Voicemail capable
• Device Insurance available
• Hearing aid compatible = M3/T3

Specifications

• 4.5″ x 2.5″ x 0.5″
• 3.7 oz.
• 1500 mAh battery
• 290 minutes talk-time
• 324 hours standby
• Head: 1.03 W/Kg SAR

It looks like Nokia has something pretty interesting planned for the US market as an FCC filing has revealed a mysterious dual-sliding CDMA handset. Featuring what appears to be a 3 megapixel camera on the rear in addition to a microSD slot and 3.5mm headphones, the device supports EV-DO Rev. A connectivity along with Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP) and an FM transmitter. No word yet on whether or not this will be an S40 or S60 handset, but it does seem to have some of the physical hallmarks of an Nseries device. Unthinkable as it may be, we could be looking at the first Verizon-exclusive (or Sprint-exclusive?) Nseries handset. As with all things shrouded in secrecy, we’ll do our best to figure out just what this thing is all about. Hit the jump for two more images.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Motorola had plenty of handsets and accessories on display this year but the one that caught our eye, aside from the Evoke of course, was the MOTOROKR S305 Bluetooth stereo headset. Think of this headset as the S9-HD’s first cousin — Moto basically wanted an over-ear option for its customers with pricing and functionality that would position it well along side the in-ear S9 headset. The over-ear design also allows Moto to spread device controls out and really removes the need to ever touch your handset while listening to music. Power, rewind, fast forward, play/pause and a volume rocker are all spread across the right ear piece along with a send/end button and a mic; yep, the S305 is equipped to handle all of your Bluetooth calling needs to avoid the need to fumble for your phone when a call comes in. As far as sound goes, it’s difficult to judge the audio quality while standing in the middle of the CTIA show floor. The music we sampled sounded pretty clear and bright though, and the volume definitely gets loud enough to drown out most surrounding noise. Pricing for the ROKR S305 stereo headset will be between $40 – $70 and it is already shipping to distributors around the country. Hit the jump for more hands on images.