Best of SPE, 3 May 2009

Each week we break down the best of the Smartphone Experts Network for your reading pleasure. It’s possible you caught every single one of the 191 posts we published across our network this week, but we won’t hold everybody to that. Device leaks, device announcements, and site contests all await you here - so read on!

Android Central

While we’re pleased to see that the HTC Magic is becoming available in Europe, what really got us going is finally we know what’s coming from Samsung: the Android-powered Samsung I7500! Sincerely, this phone looks sweet. We’re also pretty excited to see that Motorola actually seems to be on the path to releasing Android handsets because of that Ironman device leak.

CrackBerry.com broke out the internet’s first live photos of the BlackBerry Curve 8520, aka the Gemini! With any luck, we’ll hear much much more about the BlackBerry Curve 8520 soon. They’re also gearing up for special coverage all week long of the WES 2009 conference — the biggest BlackBerry show of the year. There were plenty of one-million member giveaways — but the main contest including two prize packs with a BlackBerry Bold included is still open, so go enter!

The big news on the Nokia front this week: the upcoming Ovi Store will not support carrier billing in the US. This may actually be a good thing — app store models tend to work better with direct credit card billing. Also, don’t miss out on Matt’s appearance on the MobileViews podcast!

Can you say Palm Eos? The leaked device is a teeny tiny webOS device rumored for both AT&T and perhaps even Sprint. Meanwhile, in all the Eos hoopla you may have missed this excellent interview with MotionApps about the Classic PalmOS Emulator. We’ve also selected the finalists for our “What Would You Do for a Palm Pre” contest, so stay tuned for some crazy videos as we get closer to the Pre Launch!

Apple delivered iPhone 3.0 Beta 4, and the big news was on-device support for multiple iTunes App Store accounts. The bigger news was Apple hiring more and more graphics gurus, including from Microsoft’s Xbox team. Just what is Steve Jobs building in his basement?! An iPad media tablet and iPhone Lite for Verizon? Who really benefits from these rumors anyway?

Meanwhile iPhone Live! teased this weeks big announcement: TiPb’s Birthday Bash starts Thursday, and we’ll be giving away tons of accessories, app promo codes, gift certificates, and… unlocking the treasure chest for a very special grand prize! The action takes place in the TiPb Forums, so get on over there, register, and start posting NOW!

Checking in over at TreoCentral, Dieter spots a mystery device in the hands of CEO Ed Colligan on Palm’s bio page for Colligan. The device looks almost but not quite like a Treo Pro, and we get the feeling that it’s maybe a prototype of the Treo Pro.  In other news, version 3.0 (a major version upgrade) of the very popular SnapperMail is now available.  Plus, Dieter and Mike deliver another great PalmCast for us to listen in on, so be sure to tune in to Episode 64 if you haven’t yet. Mike and Dieter discuss the latest Palm Pre rumors, the new Palm Pre features we’re discovered, and the Sprint Treo Pro ROM issues floating around the TreoCentral Forums. Also, we learned about the Palm Eos, possibly headed to AT&T.

Last week was rumor week, with an Xperia X2 mention, Verizon getting some HTC love, Microsoft Pink persisting, the Touch Pro 2 and Snap going to Telus and the TP2 showing up at the FCC with T-Mobile’s 3G band.

And if you haven’t already, be sure to enter our contest to win either an AT&T Fuze or HTC Touch Dual.

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Best of SPE, 3 May 2009