Portable Electronics Ltd // Technology you can carry.

Yes, that fateful day is upon us, the Samsung Fascinate has made its debut on Verizon's online store pages, and it's arrived with a quite unusual (for a top tier handset) sweetener. When buying one Fascinate, you're given the option to obtain a second one for free. Well, the hardware would be free, you'd need two-year commitments on both phones with a minimum monthly data plan of $29.99 a piece, but it's still the nicest thing Verizon's done for us since it started throwing out free Pixi Pluses with purchases of Palm's webOS handsets. You should also bear in mind your initial outlay here is a quite lofty $400, with two separate $100 mail-in rebates bringing the cost down. So it's free in pecuniary terms, but probably not free of headaches.

[Thanks, Mike]

Verizon sweetens Samsung Fascinate deal with Buy One Get One Free offer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seemed like a bit of a stretch from the beginning, but it looks like India's $35 Android tablet is intent on proving the skeptics wrong -- the Indian government has just announced that it's awarded the manufacturing contract to HCL Technologies (makers of the once world's cheapest laptop), and that the first batch of tablets are slated to be available by January 10th. That initial run will reportedly only include the 7-inch model that we've been seeing all along, but there's also apparently 5-inch and 9-inch versions planned for launch at a later date. We also presume that the tablet is still hanging onto that $35 price tag (for university students, at least), but that key detail is curiously absent from this latest announcement.

India's $35 Android tablet reportedly on track for January launch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several new close-ups of the T-Mobile G2 keyboard have appeared online thanks to fan-site His and Hers Android. The new pics give a better look at the three Quick Keys, which allow users to setup custom macro shortcuts.

The Quick Keys were first discovered by our friends at Android Guys, but this is the best look we have seen yet. According to the leaked G2 build, the Quick Keys are used to “quickly access super useful Google shortcuts and other applications that may take multiple steps to access”.

T-Mobile’s G2 is still rumored for a Sept. 29th launch for $199 with 2-year contract, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets pushed back another week. We have the CTIA trade show coming up Oct. 6-8th and T-Mobile has booth, so they could use that event to finally launch their first HSPA+ handset.

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• T-Mobile unveils the G2, pre-orders begin this month
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Three has put the Galaxy S up on their online store for pre-orders only, and expect stock to ship within two weeks. It is currently priced on the $59 promo cap, and includes $50 credit if you order online.

Update: Vodafone have launched it on their site also, for the same price as Three.

As for plans below the $59 cap:

• $49 - $10/m repayment
• $39 - $10/m repayment
• $29 - $14/m repayment

Have you pre-ordered yet? Let us know in the comments.

O2 was all set to release Android 2.2 for the HTC Desire today. Many UK Desire owners were pretty excited, and with good reason. They were finally scheduled to get some Froyo! O2 began to roll it out in stages today, but according to our friends over at AndroidSpin, O2 has pulled the update after numerous reports of devices freezing after upgrading. We haven't been able to confirm anything yet, but from the look of things, something went wrong with the Desire 2.2 update. We'll keep you in the loop about any further information.

Has anyone had a Desire which suffered this fate? Let us know.

Sources TechRadar AndroidSpin

O2 Releases, Then Pulls Desire 2.2 Froyo Update originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

I'm severely disappointed in Verizon and Samsung. The Samsung Fascinate, Big Red's version of the Galaxy S, has been reviewed by the folks over at Engadget. They were quick to point out that the search widget is BING, not Google Search. It does make sense to a certain degree, as there's a Bing app only available to Verizon customers. Apparently, Big Red would rather use a Microsoft search engine on a Google-powered device. A bit odd if you ask me.

We've seen this before, of course, in the Motorola Backflip, which uses Yahoo Search. That was also a disappointment. But I digress. This probably isn't a deal breaker for most people, and some won't even notice the difference. I guess I just prefer Google folks!

Is this a deal breaker for any of you?

UPDATE: More bad news.  According to Engadget, there is no way to change the search engine to Google.  You are stuck with Bing.  Hopefully we will have something in the market. We will have to wait and see on this.

Source Engadget

Samsung Fascinate Uses Bing Instead of Google Search (Updated) originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

We know the Dell Streak is rumored to be getting  Froyo, but for now, Streak users will have to settle for Eclair. The UK  Streak, the one that operates on the O2 network, is in the process of receiving Android 2.1, we're being told. Don't worry, the Streak is probably still getting 2.2, but for now, at least you won't be stuck on 1.6 anymore. No official word on Froyo, but we'll keep you updated.

Any O2 users gotten 2.1 yet?

Source TechTree

UK Dell Streak Gets Some Android 2.1 To Gnaw On originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

Navigation device manufacturer Rydeen Mobile Electronics announced a seven-inch, Android-based tablet called the & gPad GCOM701& at last weekend's IFA show in Berlin. Also at the show, Foryoudigital demonstrated its five-inch, Android-powered MX10, and Enspert announced that it built the & Identity Tab& Android tablet recently released by Korean carrier KT....(author unknown)

Earlier this year reports surfaced that Motorola was working on a smartphone with a 2 GHz processor, but one of our tipsters is now telling us that quote was taken out of context and they are actually going to be using the dual-core Tegra 2 processor from NVIDIA.

The original information came from ConceivablyTech that quoted Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha as saying his company would deliver a smartphone with a 2 GHz processor and NVIDIA Tegra-based graphics. We doubted that report since no 2 GHz mobile processors had been announced, but CNET confirmed the remark (with Moto spokeswoman Juli Bruda) that Jha promised such a device to his Chicago audience in June.

Now we have evidence that LG and Samsung are likely to launch dual-core smartphones this year and you can bet that Motorola will have a competing product for the holiday shopping season. Both dual-core processors coming in Q4 are ARM Cortex-A9 based and feature two cores running at 1 GHz each. We believe that two, 1 GHz cores was wrongly interpreted as a single-core 2 GHz processor and that’s how the original rumor took root.

Motorola has been using processors from Texas Instruments for their Droid lineup of phones, but it doesn’t sound like TI will have their dual-core OMAP4 ready in time for a Q4 launch. Even if the OMAP4 were to ship on-time, it only features a PowerVR SGX540 GPU (same as Samsung’s Hummingbird) and both NVIDIA and Samsung are promisng 5x the graphics performance from their new dual-core offerings (vs the previous generation single-core processors).

Unless there is some magical processor we have never heard of, then Motorola’s choices for a dual-core processor are limited to offerings from NVIDIA (Tegra 2), Samsung (Orion), TI (OMAP4), and Qualcomm (QSD8672). Both the Tegra 2 and Orion will be available this year, but Samsung is keeping their Orion CPU limited to “select customers” (aka Samsung Mobile). TI and Qualcomm are saying the will ship their dual-core CPUs in Q4, but we do not expect to see them in products till 2011.

Therefore, the original report that Motorola would have a phone with NVIDIA graphics makes sense if they decided to use the Tegra 2.

To add more fuel to the fire, we keep hearing Motorola and NVIDIA are working directly with Google on the next update for Android, codenamed Gingerbread. We were unsure if that would be ready in time for Q4, but you have to remember how Motorola pulled some strings and gained exclusive early access to Android 2.0 on the Verizon Droid.

We can see that NVIDIA is currently working on the Tegra 2 kernel which is up to version 2.6.35 (Android 2.2 is using 2.6.32) from the Android Open Source Project site. The commits are starting to come more frequently and a quick search shows several people with @motorola.com emails who are contributing. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in kernel development, but Motorola has employees working on something Tegra 2 related.

Motorola still plans to move 12 to 14 million smartphones in 2010 and that means they are banking on a huge Q4. Will a Tegra 2 smartphone under the Verizon Droid branding be enough to hit their numbers? Let us know if it sounds plausible or if you think I’m full of it.

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Related Posts

• LG to deliver first dual-core Android smartphones in Q4
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• Motorola Droid successor coming to Verizon later this year

As Android continues to make its way to every carrier on every continent, sometimes it’s not the biggest named, or highest-profile device that makes its debut for a particular carrier. In the case of Wind Mobile, word that the Milestone XT720 from Motorola would be launching on the network has come and gone for a little while now, but thanks to a sneaked image of internal training, where the XT720 is obviously showcased, we can safely say the phone is coming.

Wind Mobile’s first Android outing, the Huawei U8100, wasn’t the huge Android device that everyone wanted (or expected), so to see the XT720 making its presence known is very good. Word has it that the Milestone-named variant will be launching some time by the end of September, but there’s no kind of confirmation on that quite yet. Pricing is missing, too, but that’s no surprise at all. But, hey, if you’re on Wind Mobile right now, at least you know it’s coming, so your Android offering is about to get a lot more worthwhile.

[via IntoMobile]

)

Look out Google, you may have a new, unlikely challenger.(author unknown)

We just did a quick look at the calendar for the next few weeks and realized we'll be in attendance for at least four events.  If you are planning to attend any of the following shows and festivities, we encourage you to look us up.  We love to meet fans and spend time chatting our favorite mobile platform.  Otherwise, if you are not able to make it, you can watch our coverage from your PC and (hopefully Android) smart phone!  The next few weeks and months will be very exciting in the world of Android and hope you'll consider us for your news.

• APPnation Conference, September 13 & 14 - Conference designed for smaller developer teams to help gain exposure.  Inaugural event takes place in San Francisco with speakers such as WSJ, GetJar, ESPN, Pandora and more.
• HTC , September 15 - Rumors peg this London event as being Android related in at least some capacity.  Look for the announcement of the HTC Desire HD.
• Samsung Mobile Event, September 16 - Announcement of Samsung's latest Android-powered device and official unveiling of Samsung’s Media Hub.
• Big Android Barbecue - October 2 & 3 - Fan fest designed to foster and grow Android's community.  Celebrate two years of Android phones with AndroidGuys, AndroidAndMe, AndroidSwag, and TheDroidGuy.  Lots of sponsors, giveaways, and goodies.  Special guests include...

AndroidGuys Coming to an Event Near You originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

We saw it this weekend for a fleeting moment, but thankfully one handy reader sent us copies of the product page for HP's Photosmart eStation C510, which we can now confirm is the Zeus / Zeen printer and detachable tablet combination we caught wind of back in early August -- and we've got some more details. Bad news first: as of a month ago, the Gmail app was missing and there was no support for Android Market, meaning the Zeen might not be an official "with Google" Android tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. (The product page conspicuously lacks any mention of the OS, so we're thinking Android might simply be the hidden-away base layer for the TouchSmart UI, making this thing super boring.) It does have the default Android browser and at least some custom apps for printing pictures from Facebook, Yahoo, and Snapfish preloaded, but we don't know about anything else. Major bummer, but we're told it shouldn't be too hard for the community at large to root the sucker. Beta testing begins this month, so that all might change before the projected September 20th release. Here's what else we know so far:

• The Zeen is a capacitive tablet running HP's TouchSmart skin on top of Android 2.1 -- it won't get shifted to webOS, and it's not clear if it'll get upped to Froyo before launch given the development time required. It has capacitive touch buttons, an SD card slot, video support, and at least some prototypes have cameras with a special webcam app installed.
• We're told TouchSmart will be locked in, but we don't know how deep that'll go -- right now the standard Android homescreen is still accessible. That's supposedly going away, so don't get your hopes up for any native Gmail / Angry Birds use.
• E-reading is a major focus, and the Zeen has "significant" integration with the Barnes & Noble Nook bookstore and ecosystem. Makes sense, as the Nook itself is based on Android, and being able to print e-books from the Zeen would be a huge differentiator -- and a great way for HP to sell more ink.
• The touchscreen is apparently not very accurate at all, and we're told the overall experience is far less satisfying than a competent Android phone. Don't expect this to replace your Droid Incredible for all at-home use.
• The Zeen will come in two configurations: a $399 bundle with a new printer called Zeus and as a standalone unit for an unknown price. The Zeus has its own "basic" control setup, but when the Zeen is docked it provides a rich interface to the printing functions -- presumably a web-connected interface like the one HP's been moving towards with other printers. (Note: the product page listed $399.99 but provided no indication what price the Zeen might go for solo.)
• Ship date is an estimated September 20th but due to some testing issues this may be pushed back.

Until HP comes clean and inks out the details for all the world to see, check out the product page in pictorial format below.

Gallery: HP lists Photosmart eStation C510 ('Zeus / Zeen') product page

Exclusive: HP Photosmart eStation C510 is Android-powered Zeus / Zeen, may not run Gmail or Market apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android lovers who are in the market for a new HD TV might want to hold off just a little bit longer. Samsung, the top TV maker in the U.S. at nearly 20% market share, is considering Android for its line of televisions. Speaking to reporters earlier today, Samsung exec Yoon Boo Keun said the company is "reviewing" the possibility of adding Android's features to its sets.  Some of you may recall that Samsung was rumored to be considering Android as far back as April.

Samsung, as a whole, appears to be falling more in love with the platform by the day. After a few early mis-steps with the Behold II and initial Galaxy phones, Samsung has gone full steam with the Galaxy S handset and Galaxy Tab. Meshing Android with their popular line of televisions seems to be the logical next step.

Samsung would join a short list of companies involved in Android-based Google TV's. Currently, the only other major players are Sony and Logitech.

Bloomberg: Samsung “Reviewing” Android-Based TVs originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

My new favorite Twitter app is my6sense. It's also my new favorite Facebook app. And my new favorite Google Reader app, and my new favorite Google Buzz app. My6sense pulls content from all those streams together, along with other content on topics you choose, and, based on what you read and share, learns to serve you the content you'll likely be most interested in. Their press release puts it best:

"Unlike other applications, which rely on editorial input, social referrals, or popularity, the my6sense smart reader application intuitively senses what's important to each user and prioritizes content for everyone as an individual — making content consumption seamless, efficient, and most importantly, personally relevant."

An iOS version has been available for some time, but be assured, this is no clone. It feels like a true Android app, makes use of the native "Share" intent and includes a widget. My6sense is free and hits the Android Market this morning. Go snap it up and let us know what you think!

Update: The Android masses have temporarily brought my6sense's servers to their knees, causing server errors within the app. Says something about how our numbers are growing, doesn't it? The folks at my6sense are aware of the issue, and working to fix it.

The full press release is below.

my6sense launches the world’s most intelligent personalized stream reader for Android
Company expands reach of “Digital Intuition” app to deliver the ultimate social and news content experience.

TEL AVIV, September 2 2010 – my6sense, developers of the world’s first personalized stream reader that uses 'Digital Intuition' technology, announced the launch of its Android app, aimed to revolutionize the way we receive and discover content. Extending the reach of the popular program to the world’s fastest-growing mobile platform, my6sense is also the first company to add ranking support for Google’s social sharing network, Buzz. The free Android application is available immediately for download at the Android marketplace.

Unlike other applications, which rely on editorial input, social referrals, or popularity, the my6sense smart reader application intuitively senses what's important to each user and prioritizes content for everyone as an individual — making content consumption seamless, efficient, and most importantly, personally relevant.

Using the company’s leading ‘Digital Intuition’ ranking technology and equipped with rich, intuitive features, the new app transforms users’ social and news streams into a powerful and unique content discovery experience.

One of the major features that enhance this approach to more efficient contentis a dashboard widgetwhich dynamically surfaces users’ most valuable informationnuggets. This gives users ‘Instant Intuition’ – immediate access to view their most-relevant content and updates directly on the home screen of their Android device.

Additional killer features include: a main channel displaying the user’s most important updates and content from all sources (news, RSS, blogs and social streams), streams of personalized top content which users can view with just one click from Social Networks such as Facebook and Twitter, fresh content packages from a wide array of topics and a search tool. On top of that, users can share items directly from the app, and there is no limit to the number of feed subscriptions one can have – as my6sense’s intelligent personalization engine can take on the challenge of information overload, surfacing the very best and most relevant content.

Moreover, my6sense is delighted to announce that the application offers support for Google’s new social network, Buzz, leveraging the service’s powerful API. The result is the first application in the world to prioritize Google Buzz entries, doing so in a clean and intuitive way for the mobile device.

As the world of information morphs from a web of static pages to real-time streams, my6sense's groundbreaking digital intuition technology tames the vast amount of information cluttering news feeds and social sites. The application’s hyper-personalized streams allow users to focus on the content they want to see, at the right time and in the right context. The company has enjoyed significant success with its iPhone application, and is excited to join the millions of smartphone users who have made Android their choice for mobile computing.

"my6sense’s digital intuition technology discovers the finest nuances of your preferences and behavior — and makes sure the right updates, ideas, insights, and news will find you when you want them most," said Barak Hachamov, Founder & Chairman, my6sense. "Android customers have made their platform choice to avoid limits on what they can or cannot do with their phone, and we too want to avoid limiting your experience to traditional streams based on time or simplistic filters."

Personalization is claimed these days by few content curation tools and social streams. The majority of these tools base their rankings almost entirely on global and socially-local popularity of the information. Instead, my6sense views various popularity factors as only one piece of a very complicated puzzle that forms individual preferences of each one of us. In fact, the importance of popularity may significantly vary between the users, and even for the same user in different contexts. Focusing on true personalization of information delivery, my6sense intelligently (and transparently) considers each user's natural information consumption behavior to truly understand what and in what context that user would like to see first.  As a result, the personal "Digital Intuition" agent of each user at my6sense learns to mimic the human ranking function of its owner, providing him with an enhanced content experience.

In addition to the company’s new Android application and existing iPhone application, my6sense recently announced their Attention API. The API allows developers to harness my6sense as a customization engine, personalizing their content stream for their users. The new wave of social recommendation feed readers, for example, could offer hyper-personalization. Two companies leveraging my6sense’s personalization service include a business social networking site in the UK and the largest mobile operator in Israel.

Download This: my6sense originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

UPDATE: It seems there is an overwhelming amount of requests to my6sense’s servers, causing users to have trouble downloading the application. my6sense is aware of the issue, and hopefully you should be able to download my6sense shortly.

With the rapid expansion of the internet over the last few decades, we now have a tremendous amount of information readily available at our fingertips. With 24/7 RSS feeds, news blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., we are constantly being overloaded with information. One company is attempting to streamline the way we consume this content by providing an innovative new way to customize our content according to our viewing behavior.

You’ve probably never heard of my6sense. This is probably for good reason as until now, their smarter RSS reader has only been available on that fruity company that shall remain nameless. At about 11am EST this morning, my6sense went live on the Android market. So what exactly is my6sense, you ask? And why does it matter?

On the surface, my6sense is a way to streamline your feed so that your Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz all appear within the same stream that can be sorted by either relevance or time of posting. Below the surface however lies something my6sense calls “Digital Intuition,” which continually learns about your viewing behavior while you are viewing content in the my6sense application. my6sense then uses this learning to customize your content so that ultimately what shows up at the top of your feed are only the things you were likely to click on already.

How they accomplish this continually learning AI is somewhat of a mystery to me, though my6sense is willing to bet it’s a mystery to you as well. On the main screen of their homepage, there’s a box entitled “What the hell is Digital Intuition?” in which they encourage users who think they have my6sense’s Digital Intuition process figured out to send an email with a description or video to the applications creators. This is a pretty confident message on the part of my6sense, but reviews of the iPhone application posted on their website (from prominent sources nonetheless) seem to suggest that my6sense is really onto something with their Digital Intuition process.

So how well does my6sense actually work? Honestly, I have no idea, as I’ve only been using my6sense for a little over an hour. The beauty of my6sense is that it gets better and better the more you use it, so it’s a bit too soon to tell. You can be sure I will post a full review in a week or two once I get a better feel for my6sense. For now, I encourage you all to try it right along with me and let us know what you think in the comments.

my6sense is now available on the Android market for the low low price of free. At launch it will only support 1.6+, but will be adding support for 1.5 devices in coming weeks.  For more information on the app, head over to my6sense’s website.

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Angry Birds. The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake! Dish out revenge on the greedy pigs who stole their eggs. Use the unique powers of each bird to destroy the pigs’ fortresses. Angry Birds features challenging physics-based gameplay that requires logic, skill, and force to crush the enemy.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Very fun, challenging and addictive game which makes it so popular
• Really smooth game graphics and game play

Cons

• Although in “Beta” some HTC Evo & HTC Incredible owners are getting “Forced Closed” errors

Features:

Angry Birds is one of the most popular games for iPhone and has made  it’s way to Android with a “Beta” label. Your objective is to sling up to five angry birds at a loosely made structure with pigs inside and destroy it all giving the birds their vengeance. Get bonus points for destroying it all with birds left over, else if you don’t destroy it all and use all your birds you fail the round.

Video: Angry Birds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNNzRyd1xz0

Fun Factor & Addictive:

What makes this game a hit is how easily it becomes addictive and can have you spending hours figuring out best possible ways to destroy the structures in the least possible slings.

Graphics:

Angry Birds on Android has the same super smooth graphics and game play as on iPhone. The stages can be panned around to get a better idea of where you need to strike, merge that with fluid parallax movement and vibrant vector graphics and you’ve got a lively winner!

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

Angry Birds features background sound effect snickers, which sound familiar to Gizmo and Gremlin tauts from the classic Steven Spielberg movies, that can be toggled.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(4.3 out of 5)

Should you Download Angry Birds? Yes! Definitely check out this highly fun and addictive game!

This content was originally posted at AndroidTapp.com

Samsung Electronics said it could equip some of its future HDTVs with Google TV services according to a report from Bloomberg. We knew Samsung was bullish on connected TVs, but they have been pushing their own Smart TV platform and recently announced a €500,000 dev contest to build support for their TV app store.

Sony Electronics is the exclusive HDTV partner for the Google TV launch and we expect their Internet TV will be the only set you can purchase this holidays. If Samsung were to enter the race, we don’t think it would happen till mid 2011 when the Google TV source code is released and support for the Android Market is added.

We have seen Samsung experiment with multiple operating systems on their smartphones (Android, Bada, WP7), so it sounds like they are open to trying new things with TVs as well. I guess when you are the world’s largest television maker, you can afford to take a few chances.

Look for Samsung to continue developing their own open operating systems for phones and TVs, but this news makes you think Android will become the primary OS for their portfolio of connected devices (smartphones, tablets, and TVs).

LG also recently confirmed they will have their own version of Google TV. This means that the top 3 TV makers have all indicated support for Google TV (before its official launch this fall). When you think about the other companies already committed to promoting Google TV at launch (Intel, Best Buy, Logitech, Adobe, Dish Network, Sony) I think we can safely say that Google will rule the world of smart TVs in 2011.

RSS feed brought to you by the Android and Me Store

Related Posts

• What kind of CPU and GPU will your first Google TV have?
• Samsung provides a closer look at the 7-inch Galaxy Tab
• Samsung’s dual-core CPU Orion coming to Galaxy this year?
• First look at the Sony Internet TV
• The Samsung Tab gets a price, pre-orders, and launch date

Tempted by the Samsung Fascinate – which Verizon has just confirmed will be hitting virtual shelves tomorrow priced at $199.99 – and want to know if it’s worth your while?  Over at SlashGear the Fascinate has been put through its paces in a full review, and shapes up rather nicely.

In the Fascinate’s favor is its Super AMOLED display, 1GHz Hummingbird processor and a great 5-megapixel camera with LED flash that can shoot 720p HD video.  On the downside there’s Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 UI, which is an acquired taste, and occasional stalling when moving between apps.

We won’t spoil the conclusion, so if you’ve $200 burning a hole in your pocket and a desire to find out how the Samsung Fascinate compares to the DROID X, DROID 2 and other Android handsets, head over to SlashGear now.

Samsung Fascinate unboxing:

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Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate, one of the Samsung Galaxy S family, has been given an official price tag and release date.  In fact, the Super AMOLED smartphone has two dates: it’ll go up for sale online on Wednesday September 8th, and then in Verizon stores on Thursday September 9th.

Either way it will be priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement and a $100 mail-in rebate.  The smartphone has EVDO Rev.A, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera and 3G hotspot functionality.

[via SlashGear]

Press Release:

Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ Smartphone, Available Tomorrow on the Verizon Wireless Network

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ smartphone exclusively from Verizon, will be available online on Sept. 8 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 9 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.
Powered by Android 2.1™, the Fascinate refines customers’ social networking experiences with its Super AMOLED™ Screen Technology, advanced touch screen capabilities, Samsung 1 GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application Processor, and virtual QWERTY keyboard featuring SWYPE technology. Additionally, the Fascinate comes pre-loaded with Amazon’s Kindle for Android app, and it boasts an array of accessories, including:
Charging Cradle – Doubles as a phone charger and includes a micro USB wall adapter so customers can view movies, display digital photos, and listen to music. It can also be used as a desktop speakerphone to make hands-free calls, and it comes preloaded with the Samsung “Desk Home” application, which allows customers to switch brightness levels from day to night and provides one-touch access to Samsung Widgets and Bing Voice Search. The charging cradle is available for $29.99.
Car Dock – Attachable to the windshield or dashboard, the car dock displays turn-by-turn GPS navigation instructions, rotates freely between landscape and portrait modes, and features a preloaded Samsung “Car Home” application, giving customers access to everything the “Desk Home” app can do while on the go. The car dock is available for $39.99.
Backup Battery Charging System – Includes a 1500 mAH battery, battery charger and Y-cable for charging a phone and spare battery simultaneously. It is available for $39.99.

Pricing and Plan Information
Verizon Wireless customers who purchase the Samsung Fascinate will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Samsung Fascinate customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan (beginning at $39.99 monthly access) and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan (beginning at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access). For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

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