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Vodafone’s just got a tiny, minor, insignificant announcement to make this morning: it’s signed with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten markets, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy (so much for Telecom Italia), India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Expect the phone later this year — that’s all we know for now. Score one (or ten?) for Voda.

[Thanks, iB3nji]

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Here we are in London at the Soho Hotel with HTC, and we are among the first to see their new Diamond handset. While we thought we may see three new products in three different form factors, HTC Prez and CEO Peter Chou led-off the event by mentioning that they would be launching just “one” product today. He peppered his intro by talking about the Touch, so we were prepared to see an update on that product utilizing their TouchFLO tech.

The device has some pretty nice interface tech that they’re calling TouchFLO 3D, with elements similar to Apple’s CoverFlow swipe tech. They emphasized web accessibility and zoom-in navigation with “just one hand” and not too many fingers, a clear swipe at the iPhone.

As expected, the Diamond is loaded with prettiness and specs, including (coming as we get them, so refresh for more, including pics!):

Quad-band HSDPA 7.2

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Microsoft has quite a bit in store for the Zune faithful with its new Zune version 2.5 software update. The high points are the new Zune Card integration and the addition of TV show downloads on Zune Marketplace, but much-requested features like gapless playback, improved syncing controls, meta data editing, auto playlists and other tweaks have also been included. On the marketing front, Microsoft is really pushing the Zune Pass going forward, and will be launching a new TV commercial to help plug it. Subscribers will particularly benefit from the new Zune Card sharing, which lets you automatically score copies of your pal’s favorite songs, artists and recent plays — non-subscribers can view that Zune Card info, but will have to buy the tracks if they want to have a listen. Unfortunately, news on the video store front isn’t so compelling: Microsoft is only adding TV shows at this point, no movies, and there’s no way to pull video you’ve bought on your 360 over to your Zune. There’s no reason Microsoft can’t close this loop and turn some scattered media offerings into a compelling ecosystem, but until then we suppose we’ll have to thank our lucky stars that we can shell out 160 MS Points ($2.00) for TV shows we can watch for free online. The 2.5 Spring Update is a free download and should be available nowish.
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Vodafone’s just got a tiny, minor, insignificant announcement to make this morning: it’s signed with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten markets, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy (so much for Telecom Italia), India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Expect the phone later this year — that’s all we know for now. Score one (or ten?) for Voda.

[Thanks, iB3nji]

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It’s not a surprise, but it’s still overwhelmingly refreshing to see Sony Ericsson finally (and we do mean finally) bringing some 3G action onto AT&T. The “a” variant of the glossy, colorful Z750 clamshell will be hitting AT&T in an official capacity come early April, featuring an OLED external display cleverly concealed by the phone’s translucent shell, a 2 megapixel camera and media player both backed up with Memory Stick Micro M2 expansion, stereo Bluetooth, and of course, that lovely HSDPA 850 / 1900 that’s eluded Sony Ericsson’s AT&T offerings for far, far too long. Look for it to go out the door for $49.99 after a $100 rebate.

Well, here are three that we didn’t see coming or anything — Verizon has officially announced the Motorola Q9c, LG enV(2), and HTC-sourced XV6900 today, all for April availability. The Moto Q9c is a more business-savvy version of the consumer-focused Q9m that was launched on Verizon late last year, with the carrier playing up the new model’s VZ Navigator support, Windows Mobile 6 Standard load (yippee?), and — unfortunately for those whose companies distrust photography — a 1.3 megapixel camera. This one will launch for $249.99 after rebate on a two-year plan.

Next up we have the enV(2) — a phone we mistakenly identified previously as the enV2 because we just never could’ve seen those bonus parenthesis coming — which succeeds the wildly popular enV and injects a fresh dose of industrial design. Features include a 2 megapixel cam, 2.4 inch internal display accompanied by a smaller screen up front that’s just big enough for doing calling duty, microSD slot, and the flip-up QWERTY keyboard the enV series is famous for. It’ll run $129.99 after rebate on contract when it launches next month.

Finally, the XV6900 brings Verizon in line with Sprint’s Touch, though in a far paler shade. It features the full host of Windows Mobile 6 Professional goodies alongside a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, Bluetooth, and HTC’s TouchFLO interface. Like the others, it’s slated for April availability and will run $349.99 on contract after $50 rebate.

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We’ve been debating whether or not this is a real photo or an expert rendering, but if it is a photoshopped image of a BMW M1 prototype, then it is very convincing. According to FreshTarmac.com, this photo was taken in a hangar in Spain. It shows a sleek two-door, probably mid-engined coupe with attributes of the new M3 incorporated into its design, especially the front fenders and hood. With BMW introducing the M1 Hommage Concept at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este last week, we hope this means that is already considering a production version. Come on BMW, build it! Thanks for the tip, John!
[Source: FreshTarmac.com]

It seemed like it would never happen, but the impossible has occurred: Apple’s iPhone is coming to Canada. The news was quietly slipped into telecom giant Rogers’ latest earnings report, with the simple statement that the company was “thrilled to announce” a “deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year.” Apparently, lips are sealed on all other details, but we’ll keep you posted as news gets our way.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Well, that’s that! Microsoft has officially pulled its bid for Yahoo! — inflated for good measure this weekend by another $5 billion — after the company did “not move toward accepting [the] offer”, asking again for even more, another $4 bil (totaling $9b more than the original offer). In a letter from Ballmer to Yang, he states that Microsoft also won’t be looking at its option for a hostile takeover, stating that Yahoo! likely “would take steps that would make [it] undesirable as an acquisition”; Ballmer then goes on to make a few backhanded criticisms of Yahoo’s possible new partnerships with Google (which is no surprise). Good night, Microhoo, the monstrous, hamstrung, lumbering mega-merger that might have been.

Update: Yahoo! makes its pubic response here. Yang sums it up: “With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus…” etc. Alright then.

Ready to have your brain blown out through the top of your head? Look above — you’re staring at the heretofore unseen BlackBerry clamshell, the Kickstart. The Boy Genius snagged a handful of photos of the device (which apparently he’s known about for “a while”), and has decided to share his good fortune with the rest of the world. The phone sports a Pearl-esque keyboard, typical trackball navigation, and apparently utilizes both an internal and external LCD screen. No word on specs, carriers, or a release date, but BGR is saying this puppy is due before the end of the year. You’ll know more when we know more!

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