Hasta La Gadget!

Boy Genius Report, ground zero for all cell phone rumors, is reporting that the BlackBerry Storm 2–RIM’s followup to its wonky iPhone-like device–is due “around October 25th.”

The information comes from a leaked Best Buy product inventory shot, which has dummy units for the upcoming smartphone arriving at the big box retailer on that date. The real devices reportedly are set to arrive in stores just before the dummy units.

A separate rumor has the Storm 2 priced at $599 with no contract at Best Buy.

AT&T and TerreStar on Wednesday jointly launched the Genus, a Windows Mobile smartphone that will connect to AT&T’s network, and, when out of range, can connect to the TerreStar satellite network.

The phone looks virtually identical to the Electrobit reference design that debuted in April, which is based on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and a 2.6-inch 320-by-240 touchscreen.

One caveat, however: although our earlier story claims that the phone does not need an external antenna, that’s not totally true: if you’re traveling outside the continental 48 states, you will.  The coverage area also formally includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Genus will launch in the first quarter of 2010 for an unspecified amount for enterprise and government customers. A consumer version is also planned, to launch sometime later in the future.

TerreStar successfully completed in-orbit testing on its TerreStar-1 satellite in mid-August, and is currently completing its integration with its ground-based beam forming system and its IP network. That also implies that the satellite capabilities won’t work on the other side of the globe in China, for example.

AT&T said that its monthly invoice will include the customer’s cellular voice
and data service charges, the satellite network access subscription
feature charge and the satellite voice and data roaming charges.

The phone will use GSM/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA. In conjunction with Windows Mobile, users will have 100 Mbytes of memory available, with microSD support for additional storage. Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and vanilla GPS. There are also some interesting extras: a light sensor, a 2.5-mm stereo headphone jack, a SIM connector, and a 3.0-Mpixel camera. Finally, TerreStar claims that the phone will include a VOIP app, an interesting addition.

Potential customers should be warned that using the satellite capabilities to place calls will have a disastrous effect on battery life, however: talk time will be up to 5 hours using GSM, but only 1.3 hours via satellite. Likewise, standby times will be between 150 to 170 hours with GSM, and between 34 to 40 hours with satellite. Presumably, there’s an option to turn the satellite radio off when not in use.

Motorola on Tuesday finally revealed the pricing and release details for its eagerly anticipated first foray into the world of Google Android: The Motorola Cliq will debut on T-Mobile on November 2 for new customers, but existing customers can sign up as early as Oct. 19.

The forthcoming handset, which was first announced earlier this month at the GigaOm conference in San Francisco, will be priced at $199.99 with a two-year T-Mobile contract. Voice plans for the phone begin at $29.99. Data plans start at $24.99. “[T]he CLIQ’s total cost of ownership over the course of a two year contract stacks up well vs. the competition,” writes T-Mobile in a press release issued today.

The touchscreen smartphone is built around Motorola’s Motoblur OS, a skinned version of Google Android. The software is largely centered around social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Motorola is widely expected to launch a second Android handset early next month. Codenamed Sholes, the device is rumored to be the first Verizon handset to utilize Google’s open OS.

Hey guys, it’s the Motorola Sholes! The rumored handset was conspicuously absent from Motorola’s recent GigaOm event, when the company rolled out its first Android handset, the Cliq, for T-Mobile. We heard talk of another handset “coming soon,” but we got the distinct feeling that Verizon users were getting the hardware shaft once again, when the much rumored smartphone never surfaced.

The Sholes A855 is back, albeit in veiled form, by way of the FCC site. The phone passed the organization’s testing, revealing a little bit on the feature side in the process, including EVDO Rev A and include Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. Information beyond that is scarce, though the phone is rumored to be arriving next month carrying the new, cooler “Tao” moniker.

Love the iPhone, but hate the network it’s tied to? Good news–if you live in the United Kingdom. British fans of the Apple handset will
soon get another choice for the phone, which is set to arrive for Orange
U.K. later this year, making it the second carrier to offer the device,
after O2.

The carrier has yet to offer a concrete arrival date or pricing plan for the iPhone 3GS. O2 has had exclusive domain over the phone in the UK for roughly two years, and the carrier doesn’t seem particularly excited at the prospect of competition, a recent statement reflects the its firm belief in its own awesomeness:

We’re proud that we’ve been able to offer an exclusive iPhone deal to our 20 million customers for the last two years. We always knew that iPhone exclusivity was for a limited period of time, but our relationship with Apple continues and will be an ongoing success. We have over 1million iPhone customers and they remain very important to us.