Features include a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, 3.2MP camera and an 800MHz processor. Release is slated for November 1 with a $US179.99 price tag after a two-year service agreement, $US50 instant rebate and $US100 mail-in-rebate. Stay tuned for a hands on.

Samsung’s First Android-Powered Phone,
Samsung Moment™ with Google, Coming Soon to America’s Most Dependable 3G Network

Available Nov. 1, Samsung Moment from Sprint features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, brilliant display screen and premium Web experience;
Pre-registration for Samsung Moment begins today at www.sprint.com/moment

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., and DALLAS – Oct. 7, 2009 – Sprint (NYSE: S) and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the number one mobile phone provider in the United States1, today announced the upcoming availability of Samsung Moment, Samsung’s first U.S. handset integrating the open and innovative Android™ platform with the high-speed connectivity of America’s most dependable 3G network2 (EVDO Rev. A.) and the best value in wireless with the Any Mobile, AnytimeSM calling feature.

Samsung Moment represents a new generation of portable Internet access devices and provides access to built-in Google™ mobile services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™ and YouTube™, as well as thousands of applications available in Android Market™. Samsung Moment also offers the first Sprint 3.2-inch AMOLED touch-screen, creating crisper colors and wider viewing angles than other display screens. Samsung Moment is powered by an 800 MHz processor, making this device one of the fastest wireless phones available today.

Beginning Nov. 1, customers can purchase Samsung Moment through all Sprint channels including Web (www.sprint.com), Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) and our national retail partners. Retail pricing will be $179.99 (excluding taxes) after a $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in-rebate with a two-year service agreement. Pre-registration for this phone begins today at www.sprint.com/moment.

“Sprint is thrilled to add the powerful and sophisticated Samsung Moment to our growing portfolio of Android devices,” said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president of product development for Sprint. “This is the second Android product that will be available from Sprint this holiday season. With a full QWERTY keyboard, Samsung Moment allows customers to easily access the thousands of applications available in the Android Market. The excitement around Android products confirms Sprint’s decision several years ago to be a charter member of the Open Handset Alliance and lead the Open revolution.”

“The launch of Samsung Moment is an exciting realization of our commitment to providing consumers open, powerful and versatile devices,” said Omar Khan, senior vice president of strategy and product management for Samsung Mobile. “With the combination of the Android platform, applications, Web browser and a powerful 800 MHz processor, the user experience options are unlimited.”

Leveraging a library of applications
As charter members of the Open Handset Alliance™, Sprint and Samsung are closely aligned with the Android community. Through Android Market, Samsung Moment users can download thousands of applications, widgets and games on their phone. Pandora®, ShopSavvyTM, TwitterTM, ShazamTM, amazon.com®, USA Today®, Flixster®, PacManTM, CraigslistCheckerTM, and MySpaceTM Mobile are among the countless well-liked applications already available on Android Market. Additionally, customers can access Sprint Navigation and Sprint exclusive applications NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM already preinstalled on the device. Samsung Moment is a perfect solution for anyone who wants the freedom to stay connected on-the-go and enjoy a PC-like experience.

In addition, Sprint recently launched new tools on its developer Web site designed to make it easy for developers to create innovative applications for the Sprint Android-powered devices – http://developer.sprint.com/android. The enhancements will give developers access to Sprint products and services, including location-based services, messaging and geofencing through the Sprint Developer Sandbox. Developers using the site and tools will easily be able to create and test applications for the Android platform on the Sprint network.

Application developers will have a chance to learn more about Android at Sprint’s ninth annual developer conference this fall. The Sprint Open Developer Conference, Oct. 26-28 in Santa Clara, Calif., is open to all attendees and will feature information through speaker sessions and coding camps on developing applications for a range of platforms, including Android. For details, go to http://developer.sprint.com/devcon2009.

“The Samsung Moment and the Android platform are helping Sprint drive openness and innovation,” said Andy Rubin, vice president of mobile platforms at Google. “With the Samsung Moment’s built-in suite of Google mobile services, along with thousands of applications on Android Market, Sprint customers can enjoy a unique mobile experience.”

Samsung Moment offers simple device navigation through an optical joystick located just below the expansive display. It features Wi-Fi capability, integrated GPS navigation and accelerometer. Additional features include:

* 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus
* Stereo Bluetooth® 2.0 wireless technology
* Expandable memory up to 32GB
* Sprint TV® with live and on-demand programming
* NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM
* Easy access to social networking sites, including Facebook®, Flickr® and TwitterTM
* Media player with 3.5-millimeter headphone jack
* Visual voice mail for quick and easy access to specific voice mail messages
* Access to personal and corporate email through Active Sync

Customers who purchase the new Samsung Moment can also take advantage of Sprint’s newly announced Any Mobile, Anytime feature, which gives customers on the Sprint network unlimited calling to ANY wireless customer in the United States on any carrier anytime by selecting Sprint’s EverythingSM Data plans. This device requires activation on a pricing plan offering unlimited data, which includes the Everything Data and Simply Everything Plans.

The Simply Everything plan provides nationwide unlimited calling, unlimited text and unlimited data, including email, social networking, Web browsing, GPS navigation, Sprint TV, streaming music, NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, for only $99.99 per month. That’s a savings of $1,200 over two years vs. a comparable AT&T iPhone® plan3. Sprint Everything Data plans with unlimited messaging and data start at just $69.99 for 450 minutes with unlimited night and weekend calling starting at 7 p.m. (All price plans exclude surcharges and taxes.)

Both Everything Data and Simply Everything plans are available to existing customers without extending the service agreement. New lines of service require a two-year service agreement.

The Sprint 3G Network is faster in more places than AT&T’s 3G network4, and Sprint has more than 20 times the coverage of T-Mobile’s current 3G network5, based on square miles. Since 2006, Sprint has invested almost $17 billion in capital to continue improving and expanding network performance.

Sprint is also the first national carrier to test, launch and market 4G technology. Separate from its 3G investment, Sprint has announced plans to extend its 4G leadership by launching the next-generation service in numerous markets in 2009, including the recently launched markets of Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore.

Sprint is the only wireless carrier to offer Ready Now service with trained retail associates to work one-on-one with customers to personalize their Samsung Moment, set up features and demonstrate how it works before the customer leaves the store. Customers have the choice of sitting down with a Sprint retail associate at the time of purchase or they can schedule an appointment for a later time at www.sprint.com/storelocator.

To the chagrin of devoted hard QWERTY enthusiast, and to the joy of people who think it’s dumb to have to slide out an entire keypad just to type the letters “OK”, the Pre got its first onscreen keyboard last week. One problem! The installation process was complicated, dangerous and intimidating so I recommended most Pre-ers wait for a simple installer.

Well, the Pre keyboard hack is scary no more, and actually available as an app now, thanks to WebOS Internals. Full guide at [PreThinking]

The Hunt and Peck keyboard features a one-button switch between alphabetical and QWERTY, and helpfully lists both letters on each key so you can get even more confused than you undoubtedly are already. It also maps certain irritating acronyms to the function keys, so even though you’ve never seen a keyboard before, you can type LOL and ROFL with ease, and more confusion. It costs $US30, if you’re looking for a keyboard for one of those feral children raised by wolves or, more probably, you want to play a prank on somebody by switching all their keys around. [Oh Gizmo!]

Don’t miss a tweet, email or online update with the Nokia 6760 slide

Nokia today announced the Nokia 6760 slide, a messaging optimised device with a sliding QWERTY keypad.

Ideal for individuals who want to stay connected when they are out and about, the Nokia 6760 slide offers fast and easy access to favourite social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter as well as email accounts from Ovi Mail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail and thousands of other email providers.

Setting up an existing email on the Nokia 6760 slide is simple. Only the email address and password are required. Push email is available through Nokia Messaging. Instant Messaging no longer needs to be confined to a computer as the Nokia 6760 slide also offers access to instant messaging solutions from Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger.

In addition to great messaging options, features like the inbuilt A-GPS module together with the 3D

landmarks and the terrain maps give a greater dimension to the Nokia 6760 slide.

At the end of the day, the Nokia 6760 slide is a great multi-tasker – you can tweet, email, IM, share online, browse the web, listen to music, all at the same time. And it makes phone calls too!

The Nokia 6760 slide will be available during the third quarter of 2009.

It’s a half-baked idea, of course, which is why we’re only seeing it in a patent and not in actual hardware. Unless the half-keyboards were incredibly strong, the whole device would feel like it’s itching to break into pieces, and wouldn’t it have to be twice as thick as standard QWERTY sliders to accommodate double the amount of hardware? So it’s just a patent, and it’ll almost certainly stay that way. But at least somebody’s trying to figure out a way to keep hardware keyboards alive. [Reg Hardware]

What Lenovo has done sounds like a smaller deal than it actually is: on the T400 series, the delete and escape keys are about twice as large as normal, taking an odd, long vertical form. As anyone who has used international keyboards can attest, even a little layout or proportion change can throw your typing off. Now why in the world would Lenovo go and do that? USA Today explains:

In designing the new ThinkPad, [Lenovo] installed keystroke-tracking software on about 30 employees’ computers (They volunteered). On average, they used the “Escape” and “Delete” keys 700 times per week, yet those were the only “outboard” keys, or non-letter keys, that hadn’t been enlarged.

As you can see, this is probably a practical change. The most fascinating thing about this kind of change, though, is how rare it is. Nearly everything about modern keyboards harks back to the early days of the typewriter, from letter spacing to key layout. This anecdote from the article sums up the problem fairly succinctly:

Tom Hardy, who designed the original IBM PC of 1981, said companies have tried many times to change the sizes of keys. That first PC had a smaller “Shift” key than IBM’s popular Selectric typewriter did, and it was placed in a different spot, in part because the industry didn’t think computers would replace typewriters for high-volume typing tasks. IBM reversed course with the next version to quiet the outcry from skilled touch-typists.

When we’re all living on Mars, our spacepods will still have Model Ms. [USA Today]

I’m not sure how much overlap there is between the BMX and technophile crowds, but at just $US10, I like to think even the surliest curb-hopper could appreciate a QWERTY (well, QWGTSU, really) handlebar grip. $10. [Gadget Lab]

The U750 is your standard free-on-contract feature phone—except for one thing: when the dual-flip-action display is rotated and folded into landscape mode, the keypad buttons switch assignments (and looks!) to create a QWERTY layout. Witchcraft!

Rather than just stamping two decals on each button like it did with the same-shaped U740, Samsung opted to put some kind of display technology into its keypad. But what? Phonearena optimistically speculates that they keys could be e-ink, but that’s and expensive and unlikely possibility. Plus, the folding design makes e-ink’s power-saving properties more or less pointless, since they keypad will only be in use when the phone is engaged. Theories?

Badged with the Alias2 carrier name, this little weirdo is coming to Verizon at some point in the near future. [Phoneareana]

The tipster claims the phone will have a 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, 3-megapixel cam (w/geotagging), and will use Sammy’s TouchWiz UI. And apparently it will be here by the end of the March. For a dumbphone, I like what I see so far. [PhoneDog via Engadget]

Not much! That’s what we know. But there is this, from the Esato forums (via Phonearena), whence the included image was leaked:

Speculations point out that it will not be a smart phone but target people that are addicted to messaging and social networks.

Sounds like every other mobile phone on the block right now, no? So I guess we’ll see if Sony Ericsson has something up their sleeve this week at MWC, aside from big bulky QWERTYs on their smartphones. Maybe it’s super cheap? For now, rumour or no, consider me agnostic on the issue. [Esato via Slashphone, Phonearena]