News

Sony Ericsson has announced the relaunch of its PlayNow Arena, which offers users quick access to mobile games, applications, and, more importantly, music.

It offers a catalog of 1 million music tracks from the major record labels, including Sony BMG, Warner Music, and EMI.

The Sony Ericsson PlayNow Arena's music will be sold DRM-free, meaning that they can be transferred and played back on any MP3 player, without restrictions. Pricing is roughly in line with other mobile music offerings. Tracks sold in Sweden, for example, will cost SEK9 (US$1.40). Sony Ericsson plans to expand PlayNow Arena to 5 million tracks and global availability by 2009.

A fuzzy image of a Verizon slide discussing the company's mobile email service shows that the carrier plans to launch several new handsets over the next few months, all of which will support its Mobile Email application. The unannounced Motorola VU30 Rapture appears to be the next to launch, on September 9th, followed by the Samsung U440, LG VX8360, Motorola V6c, and Nokia 7205 later in the year.

Verizon's Mobile Email application allows users to access their web-based email directly from their cell phone, with free alerts for incoming mail.

Sprint will release an update for Samsung Instinct. Notable improvements include an apparently more robust experience when browsing YouTube and BestBuy in the web browser, as well as overall system improvements that should reduce stuttering and choppy playback in the various multimedia features.

Motorola has officially released the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS upgrade for its Q 9h smartphone.

Before you pull the trigger, you must make a backup of all of your data and applications because this update will wipe your device clean.

Helio has closed all of its stores except for its New York based location as part of its effort to cut costs, something it is contractually required to do as part of its deal to be acquired by Virgin Mobile. RCR Wireless News spoke with Helio about the closings and was told that the NYC store is not scheduled to be closed at this point, but that Virgin can do with it as it sees fit once the acquisition is complete.

The piece says that Virgin's plan for Helio is to cut staff from 570 to just 200. Virgin is expecting the deal to close by the end of September.

AT&T has launched today the W350 Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson. The phone features a flip-down keypad cover with dedicated music playback keys, a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot for plenty of storage, a 1.3 megapixel camera and quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support for worldwide coverage.

The Sony Ericsson W350 Walkman is available in Ice Blue, Electric Black, or White, for free with a 2-year commitment after a $50 mail-in

AT&T announced the new CB630 Invision from LG. This candybar cell phone comes with a low-end 1.3 megapixel camera and support for AT&T's Video Share video calling service.

The LG CB630 Invision is said to be available in stores and online and pricing is set at $99.99 with a 2-year commitment, after $50 mail-in rebate.

After posting its Q2 financial and performance results, Alltel reported a 10% increasing from the Q2 last year. In spite of that, Alltel had a net loss of $69.9 million, which it blamed largely on expenses related to its merger with its private equity investors.

Verizon has launched another color in its stable of popular BlackBerry Curve devices, with this one designed to appeal to the farier gender.

This version of the Curve is otherwise identical to the other versions with a QVGA landscape display, QWERTY keyboard, speakerphone, microSDHC expansion slot, 2.0 megapixel camera with video recorder, GPS support through VZ Navigator, and Bluetooth with stereo audio support.

It is now available from Verizon Wireless for $129.99 after a new 2 year agreement before a further $50 instant discount bringing the total to $99.99.

Verizon Wireless has issued to all stores the LG Voyager V09 firmware update. Verizon is calling this a "refresh update" as it is one of the most significant firmware upgrades released for a Verizon Wireless phone to-date.

In many ways, the software update is as significant to Voyager, as the 2.0 upgrade to iPhone. The entire core operating system has been upgraded to match the newer LG Dare. Rhapsody music support has been added. Bugs have been fixed. And, the interface is now more responsive, with a consolidated Media Center, which more recent phones have used to replace the older Get it Now interface.

Most significant however, is the long-rumored addition of Visual Voicemail to the LG Voyager. However, despite past reports, the update is not free. While Verizon was correct that the download of Visual Voicemail is free, to activate it you must pay a fee of $2.99 per month for using the Visual Voicemail service on the Verizon network.

In related news, Verizon will be soon launch a Silver version of the Voyager, to compliment the existing Black version. The Voyager now sits between LG's two other high end phones, the lower-end enV2 (which lacks a touch screen), and the higher-end Dare (which trades its QWERTY keyboard for EV-DO Rev A and Bluetooth 2.1).