In an interview with Reuters, Verizon Communications’ chief financial officer, Fran Shammo, reaffirmed several details about his company’s next iPhone offering. “Verizon’s [next iPhone] version will also work in as many countries as AT&T’s iPhone, which has global coverage,” writes Reuters, paraphrasing Mr. Shammo. The executive also noted that the inclusion of LTE in the next CDMA iDevice is not something Verizon has control over. “I think it’s a bigger iss...

A Verizon Wireless spokesperson has shed some light on the fate of the HTC Merge — an Android 2.2 handset first discovered last September. The device, which was officially announced by HTC in February, has fallen in and out of obscurity for months. Now, according to the latest report, users may finally get a chance to purchase the handset. Speaking with blog Phone Scoop, a Verizon representative explained, “The HTC Merge was approved for use on the Verizon Wireless network and is being sold by thi...

Here’s one straight out of left field. In a brief press release, HTC announced that its Merge handset — a device we thought was dead and buried – will be making its way to North America, via “multiple carriers,” sometime this spring. The Merge is most certainly going to land on Verizon Wireless and will compliment VZW’s global, Android handset lineup — which already consists of the DROID 2 Global and DROID Pro — quite nicely. The Merge isn’t the most p...

Earlier this morning, blog Droid-Life posted images of the Motorola DROID 2 World Edition. The pictures were, to be blunt, not all that interesting; the device looks nearly identical to the DROID 2 currently shipping. What is most interesting, however, is the fact that benchmarks from the DROID 2 WE indicate that the unit’s processor is clocked at 1.2 GHz. For those of you keeping score at home: that’s a full 200 megahertz higher than the model currently shipping. Pretty sultry stuff from the DROI...

We’ve just gotten wind of a vicious little rumor that we wanted to share. We’re hearing that Verizon Wireless will be slowly discontinuing the Motorola DROID 2 that it launched last month and will soon only be carrying the yet-to-be-launched DROID 2 World Edition. While the move makes complete sense — from a manufacturing and inventory perspective — it may rub those who ran out and purchased the original DROID 2, sans world capabilities, the wrong way (especially if they price it at $1...

It isn’t any surprise that Nokia will be releasing the Nokia N8 in the near future — Nokia World is being held September 14-15 in London after all — but this is the first time we’ve seen a hard date. Nokia’s senior communications manager, Tapani Kashinen, told Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti that the Nokia N8 could begin shipping as early as September 30th. The N8 is being billed as the company’s latest and greatest hardware technology wrapped in the Symbian operating system....

A BGR reader (and fellow blogger) by the name of Brian stumbled upon our post about a U.K. woman who bested the Guinness World Record for text messaging speed. The 27-year old, named Melissa Thompson, used a Samsung Galaxy S — with the SWYPE keyboard — and managed to squeeze out: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human”, in under 26 seconds. Brian — age 19 R...

A U.K. woman armed with a Samsung Galaxy S running the SWYPE keyboard has broken the Guinness World Record for text messaging. The 27-year old managed to swipe out the phrase: “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human,” in just under 26 seconds. The time bests the official record, held by a 24-year old American, by over nine seconds. As the Press Association reports, “Ms T...

Because the advent of Second Life just isn’t frightening enough, Sony made it known quite some time ago that it would be jumping into the virtual world game with its PlayStation Home product. PS Home has been in the wild in closed beta phase for a while now but it clearly can’t do enough damage among the socially awkward masses that way. As such, PlayStation owners can look forward to an open beta phase beginning some time this month. What’s more, it is now looking like potential users won&#...