Smartphones

Well that was a neat little progression: Early suspicions, followed by a purported internal leak, capped with an official announcement. T-Mobile will be adding the BlackBerry Curve 8900 to their lineup come February.

The press release doesn't get any more specific than that, but seems to lend authority to the previous leak, which indicated that the 18th would be the day. [BGR]

At least that's what the CrackBerry folks who got their hands on the latest Storm OS seem to think anyway. Install at your own risk (unofficial update), but the changes appear to be pretty solid.

Just to be clear again: Update OS 4.7.0.85 is unofficial at this point, so proceed with caution. That said, sources at CrackBerry indicate this evening that this release might have the chops to get official approval by Verizon. Eventually.

I haven't played with the OS too much just yet, but it definitely feels much improved, even over 4.7.0.83 which leaked on the 19th. Some bugs have been fixed, the accelerometer action is definitely quicker and typing feels a bit more responsive.

Says Crackberry poster Kevin Michaluk, "This is what the Storm should have launched with. Definitely worth an install if you're a 9530 Storm owner."

Not necessarily a ringing endorsement of what the phone came equipped with thus far, but it sounds like RIM is on top of things after the fact. Very Apple iPhone 3G of them, don't you think? [CrackBerry via CrunchGear]

Verizon Wireless indicated in regulatory filings that it plans to close its acquisition of Alltel on Friday, January 9. Verizon is paying $5.9 billion for Alltel, as well as taking on $22.9 billion of debt. The acquisition will make ...
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The T-Mobile G1's lack of battery life has always been a concern, especially after we learned about its data roaming issues. Seido's new battery combats this problem without the need for a new cover.

The 1400mAh battery adds an additional 400mAh over the OEM version, which should earn you an extra hour or so of talk time. And, as mentioned, it does not take up any additional space, so no replacement battery door is necessary. On the downside, it will set you back $43—which may be a bit more than the casual user is willing to spend. [Seido]

It's likely to be one of those defensive patents, but RIM's patent application for a fold-out smartphone keyboard forgets why you might want a fold-out keyboard.

Because while Blackberries are historically known for excellent emailing on huge keyboards, their newer SureType (two letters per key) system has turned off many users to smaller models like the Pearl.

But then you see this new patent mockup and you think, ooh, foldout keyboard! Death to SureType! Full QWERTY on the Blackberry Pearl! Unicorns live!

And then you realize that RIM's mockup doesn't add more buttons, it just puts two letters on each key. SureType just gets bigger. [US Patent Office via Engadget Mobile]

Interphone researchers are conducting the largest-ever study investigating if cellphones cause cancer, examining studies from 6,400 tumors in patients from 13 countries. Final results are expected in early 2009, but the preliminary ones are badbadbad.

Israeli researchers in the study found that regular cellphones users are a whopping 50 percent more likely than non-users to get brain tumors. Another Interphone study looking at the UK and Scandinavia found a 40 percent greater tumor risk in people who've used cellphones for over 10 years, though on the bright side, nothing scary for people who've used them for less than a decade.

The final results of Interphone's study are highly anticipated as the first study to provide close to a definitive answer on the cellphone cancer question, since as PopSci notes, most of the other studies "have been statistically useless," since they didn't survey enough people and looked at too many that had less than 10 years of cellphone use under the belt, which is how long it takes brain cancer to develop "in most cases."

PopSci's assessment of the gravity of the situation is close to spot-on—definitive proof that cellphones cause cancer would probably be the along the same lines as discovering that tobacco causes cancer, but you know, huger, since almost everyone uses a cellphone, from pre-schoolers to grandmas. I guess it's a good thing I rarely use my iPhone for talking. How would you react if cellphones definitely caused cancer? [Pop Sci]

Today Samsung introduced a pico projector accessory for mobile phones. The MBP200 is powered by a miniaturized version of the same imaging technology found in DLP HDTVs It connects to mobile phones and laptops via Texas Instruments' DLP pico ...
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Sony Ericsson's upcoming C510 (Kate) Cybershot phone has been floating around for a while now, but these images from Daily Mobile represent the first decent look at it.

In case you missed it, here is a rundown of the features:

•3.2 MP AF camera and LED
•Face detection
•Smile shutter
•Auto rotation when viewing
•Cyber-shot™ UI 2.0
•3.2 MP AF camera
•Active lens cover
•2.2” QVGA display
•QVGA video
•Picture light
•160 MB in-built memory
•Dedicated shutter key
•Illuminated imaging shortcut keys
•Face detection, Photo fix
•Direct blog short cut key
•Smile shutter
•Illumination by different theme/mode
•Print service Snapfish
•Blue illuminated imaging short cuts
•Download and upload to YouTube

It doesn't appear to be a huge jump from the K770 series, apart from a bigger screen and a bump up in internal memory. Still, it should be a decent lower-end Cybershot handset when it is released in February. [Daily Mobile]

There are currently two unlocked warranty-free Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen handsets available at Amazon right now for $590. Want? Then go! [Amazon]

I hope you guys learned as much reading Giz Explains this year as I did writing them. Here are the best, the ones explaining stuff you absolutely must know.

• Every Video Format You Need to Know: Do you download video from the internets? Read this! It also has delicious pancakes.

• Why HD Video Downloads Aren't Very High Def: You're downloading and watching more video than ever online, so you should know the dirty secrets about the video quality that services like Apple TV call HD.

• How to Buy an HDTV Like a Pro: Combine this super-servicey edition of Giz Explains with our complete how-to-buy-an-HDTV follow-up, and you'll hear Best Buy employees' knees knock every time you pull into the parking lot.

An Illustrated Guide to Every Stupid Cable You Need: Our first illustrated guide to something with an infinitely stupid number of permutations, our picto-guide to cables and ports covers essentially every major kind you'll come across in today's tangly, not-quite-wireless world—except Apple's Mini DisplayPort, but, uh, screw that.

• Everything You Wanted to Know About DRM: An extensive catalog of every major type of DRM known to man, and just how each one makes watching movies, listening to music or playing games more of a pain in the ass than it should be, including hits like "Why can't you play music from the iTunes Store on a Zune?" and "Did my rental download just go away?"

• Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives: From every stupid connector to why they die and you're left cursing and pulling your hair out to its rhythmic, mocking clicking, this covers it all.

• An Illustrated Guide to Smartphone OSes: A basic rundown of every smartphone OS, from the iPhone to Windows Mobile, with pictures, because we love pictures.

• An Illustrated Guide to Every Stupid Memory Card You Need: You could try to actually keep up with every stupid spin on plastic cards with memory jammed inside of them, or you could bookmark our sweet guide.

There is, of course, more where all that came from. If there's something we didn't get around to explaining this year that you're dying to know, hit us up with your pressing query at tips@gizmodo.com with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.