Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon Wireless and Samsung have unveiled two horizontal slider messaging phones. The Samsung Rogue (pictured) comes in a bronze and black color combination, and features a 3.1-inch WVGA (800-by-480-pixel) touch screen and a four-row QWERTY keyboard. It also has a 3-megapixel camera with a flash, built-in photo editing, a microSD slot, and an Office document and PDF viewer.

The lower-end Samsung Intensity trades the touch screen for a hardware numeric keypad and a smaller, 2.1-inch non-touch LCD. It also drops the camera to a 1.3-megapixel sensor, loses the built-in editing capabilities, and drops the PDF and document viewers. It’s available in charcoal gray (in stores and online) and flamingo red (online only).

The Rogue will cost $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100
mail-in rebate. The gray Intensity rings in at $29.99 with a contract
and after a $50 mail-in rebate, while the red Intensity is free online
with the same conditions.

Incidentally, the Rogue is the first phone to support Verizon’s new data plan pricing: $9.99 per month for 25MB or $19.99 per month for 75MB. This seems to be true on other feature phones already available on Verizon. For example, with the LG enV Touch, I no longer see an unlimited data plan for $19.99. (I’m waiting comment from Verizon and will update this post when it arrives.)

Shipments of organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens could increase eightfold by 2013, according to iSuppli, to over 240 million units–providing they can make the transition from passive matrix to active matrix technology.

OLEDs consume less power, offer higher contrast, a wider viewing angle, and very fast response time compared with regular LCDs.

Currently, OLED screens are found on cell phones, MP3 players, and even some flat panel TVs and digital TVs. Early screens could only display one or two colors, but manufacturers have made significant steps in the last year to bring the technology to much larger, full color panels. The report also mentioned the Nokia N85, an OLED-equipped smartphone with a 2.6-inch panel, as an example of the next wave of OLED devices.

Sony Ericsson has officially unveiled the Xperia X2, the successor to the company’s expensive, unlocked Xperia X1 smartphone.

The X2 will feature an 8.1-megapixel camera, a bundled 4GB microSD card, and yet another refreshed UI for Windows Mobile (though this time, it will be a 6.5 device) including 13 pre-loaded “panels,” according to a company blog post.

There’s also a slide-out, four-row QWERTY keyboard with decidedly computer-like keys, and a vertical strip of icons running along the bottom of the screen in landscape mode. In portrait mode, the band of icons shrinks in width but stays at the bottom.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 will hit “selected markets” later this year. Here’s hoping the UI is more seamless and less buggy this time around. I’d also hope for a much lower price, but if anyone is good at overcharging, it’s Sony.

Nokia has unveiled two new phones overseas that take advantage of the company’s Ovi media services.

The Nokia X6 is a touch screen phone with a 3.2-inch LCD, 32GB of internal storage, and a claimed battery life of 35 hours when listening to music. It supports Comes With Music–that neat music service we’re not getting in the U.S. all of a sudden–so users can load up on an unlimited number of tracks for the first year of ownership. The X6 also includes a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a TV-out, on-board video editing, and a desktop-page-capable Web browser with Flash Lite support.

Nokia also unveiled the X3, a Symbian Series 40 device with on-board access to the Ovi Store. It features a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 2.2-inch screen, stereo speakers, and a microSD card slot that works with 16GB cards. The home screen displays contacts, friends, and the current music track, and it features Bluetooth 2.1 support and a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack.

The X6 will hit European retail outlets later this year for EUR459. The X3 will go on sale around the same time for EUR115.

J.D. Power and Associates has released its 2009 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study, which measured call quality in six regions: Northeast; Mid-Atlantic; Southeast; North Central; Southwest; and West.

The study found that overall, wireless carriers have reduced the number of issues to four problems per 100 calls (PP100), down from 5 PP100 six months ago. In addition, failed connections are down to 3 PP100 (from 4 PP100), and audio issues like static declined from 3 PP100 to 2 PP100.

So who’s on top? Verizon Wireless ranked the highest in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Southwest regions. J.D. Power said that Verizon Wireless did “particularly well” in limiting dropped calls, failed initial connections, and late or failed voice mail or text messages.

The numbers varied wildly; for example, AT&T scored the worst in the northeast, with 16 PP100; Sprint had 15 PP100, T-Mobile had 14 PP100, and VZW had just 8 PP100.