With BlackBerry World set to kick off early next month, you can expect BlackBerry-related leaks to keep rolling in hot and heavy for the next few weeks. We’ve already exclusively handled RIM’s upcoming flagship smartphones — the BlackBerry Bold Touch, the BlackBerry Torch 2 and the BlackBerry Touch (Monaco/Monza) — but there are plenty more goodies just waiting to be unearthed. Expected to launch alongside BlackBerry OS 6.1, screenshots of BlackBerry Messenger have been posted to a BlackBerry ...

Skype announced Thursday that it will acquire mobile video software and service provider Qik. Unconfirmed rumors suggest the deal will be worth approximately $100 million. Qik specializes in mobile video broadcasting and video calling services, the latter being an area that Skype has been particularly interested in lately. Qik emerged among a group of similar services but broke out in 2010 thanks to carrier and manufacturer deals that helped net the service 4.4 million new subscribers over the course of the ...

Our friends over at Facebook were nice enough to hook us up with an invite to the initial roll-out of the company’s new messaging service announced this week. We’ve been messing around with the system for a few hours and thought we would put together some initial impressions for those who are interested or curious. Hit the jump and let’s get to it. (more…)

It seems like every single Android user that’s moved from their iPhone or BlackBerry handset is saying the same thing: Google Talk is great, but our other Instant Messaging options are terrible. There’s also a good chance they’re actually asking for Beejive IM by name, and today, that will finally change. Set to debut in the Android Market later this afternoon, Beejive IM for Android will come out swinging at $9.99. I’ve been using it in beta form and now final form for weeks, and here...

This morning, Yahoo! announced the release of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger app for Android. Available for download in the Market, the Yahoo! apps provide a tad more functionality to those Android users who aren’t “with Google” like their phone’s OS may be. Hit the jump for the full press release. (more…)

Some huge news this evening in the world of prepaid mobiles as Sprint has announced its new strategies for Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. With some 60 million Americans using prepaid mobiles, Sprint feels the time is right to make an all-out assault on the market. Said Sprint’s Dan Schulman: “This is the year that prepaid moves to the forefront of the wireless industry. In the first quarter of 2010, more than half of the mobile gross additions in the U.S. selected prepaid, and we predict that ap...

While Google isn’t the type to shake in its booties at the sight of a smaller competitor with a rival product, we’ve spent a bit of time playing with a service the Goog might be wise to keep its eye on: Virtual Phone Numbers by 3jam. The company just announced the public beta availability of this new service today and we have to be honest with you, it wipes the floor with Google Voice in a lot of ways. Of course it falls short in some areas as well, but since it’s a brand new beta we’r...

It’s not a T-Mobile myTouch 3G (aka the dumbest name in marketing history), but Samsung is going to take care of that feature-phone segment with a new 3G handset — or at least try to. The Samsung Highlight will be available this month if you’re interested. It’ll retail for $150 after rebates and here are the official specs: Large touch-screen display, thin-profile designAvailable in two colors options: fire and ice 3 megapixel camera with 3x digital zoom and video capture Stereo Blueto...

You heard that right, folks. People complaining that Apple’s very-much-delayed push notification service might be delayed again can all relax — Beejive 3.0, the fantastic new version with push support will be going live in about an hour or so from now.We exclusively gave you a look at Beejive for iPhone almost a year ago, and you have to give us some credit — we called it the best IM application for the iPhone, and were we right? Now think about push notifications and a whole slew of other a...

Today Verizon took the wraps off of three devices we feel like we already know all too well. Starting off with the successor to the Voyager, the evV TOUCH features a 3-inch touchscreen display on the exterior, a non-touch 3-inch display on the interior, full-QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera with a Schneider Kreuznach lens and auto-focus, 3.5mm headphone jack and the ability to view Microsoft Office documents from a microSD card. The enV 3 features a full-QWERTY keypad as well, but it has a 2.6-inch externa...

We’ve just received this little nugget from one of our ninjas about an upcoming handset for T-Mobile, the Samsung T349. While the device itself is nothing too fancy, it is nonetheless a pretty interesting device in that T-Mobile has describes it internally as a “20-key messaging phone.” Despite the blurriness of the image above, we are able to see that the entry-level T349 indeed features a keypad much like the SureType keypads found on the BlackBerry Pearl and Pearl Flip. Specs are as follo...

Palringo first launched its instant messaging app for the iPhone back in July and for six months it has been one of the best options available for IM on the iPhone. The app is sleek and functional, marrying text IM, picture messaging and PTT-like vocal messaging with a multi-platform solution that covers all of the major chat services. Oh, and it’s all free. Today, Palringo announced a new build that adds some great new functionality to its already-capable app revolving around Location Based Services (L...

Fringers, start your updating. The Israeli mobile comms company has just announced the release of a new version of its popular application that brings Last.fm streaming and friend-monitoring to the fring app. Users can now enjoy custom streaming radio stations while chatting with friends without ever having to leave the fring application. All of your favorite types of Last.fm stations are available and Love/Ban functions are supported as well. Sweet! For the time being, Last.fm via fring is not available on t...

Not long ago, a story ran around the blogosphere pitching the idea that Apple should take the piles of cash it’s sitting on and use it to revolutionize the banking industry. Sure, “iBank” is an interesting concept but there’s one major rub: Apple knows nothing about banking. Apple is a computer company, a digital service company, a hardware manufacturer, a software company and many other things, but it is by no means a bank. The time, new hires, training and investment it would take to...