Nokia 603 Symbian Belle NFC phone gets official

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Nokia 603 Symbian Belle NFC phone gets official

Nokia has officially unleashed the Nokia 603 Symbian Belle NFC phone. Last week we reported the rumored specifications and images, but Nokia has now unveiled the Nokia 603 which is coming in at a very affordable price point of around $274 or 200 Euro. Nokia are once again focusing on NFC capabilities built straight into the Nokia 603. Nokia said in its press release that “The Nokia 603 is designed to appeal to first time smartphone users and those upgrading from older products, particularly existing users of Nokia smartphones who will welcome a device that offers all the latest technology and features in a package that is still uniquely Nokia.”

“The Nokia 603 continues the renewal of our smartphone range with products that are uniquely matched to the needs of people around the world,” said Tuula Rytila, Senior Vice President of Nokia. “Whatever the price-point, our aim is to ensure all Nokia smartphones are crafted for use, have Nokia’s trusted quality, are better connected, and contain unexpected surprises like the ability to tap to pair and share with NFC.”

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Consumers want sub $399 smartphones with NFC & biometrics

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Juniper Research has published its next report in the Smartphone Evolution Strategies series and has found that consumers want sub $399 smartphone and features like NFC and biometrics

It’s no surprise that Samsung has launched two low cost NFC phones this week, or that Nokia launched three budget NFC phones last week, or even that BlackBerry added yet another low cost NFC phone to their portfolio of smartphone products early last week. According to Juniper Research, global shipments of smartphones are highest in the $151- $399 price range globally. These are unsubsidized prices direct from manufacturers and have seen a massive bump in market representation in the last year.

However, Juniper Research predicts that by 2016 the $151 – $399 price range will take the lion’s share of a 1 billion unit per annum smartphone market. That said, Juniper sees that the most intense competition within the smartphone category exists at the top echelons of devices that cost above $400. This leads the research company to state that the biggest opportunity for OEMs lays in the under $150 zone of smartphones from n0w through to 2016. But price isn’t everything as an increasingly savvy consumer asks for features like NFC, biometrics and 3D on smartphones.

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U.S. Files Antitrust Complaint to Block AT&T and T-Mobile Merger

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U.S. Files Antitrust Complaint to Block AT&T and T-Mobile Merger

This morning Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. government has sued to block AT&T‘s attempted acquisition of T-Mobile USA stating that the merger would “substantially lessen competition” in the mobile network operator market. AT&T Inc. proposed a $39 billion acquisition earlier this year and has faced challenges from Sprint stating that the deal is anti-competitive, and it now appears that the U.S. government agrees. In fact, Sprint’s CEO, Dan Hesse, testified before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, voicing opposition to the proposed takeover of T-Mobile by AT&T.

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Samsung Nexus Prime NFC phone outed by Samsung, by mistake

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Samsung Nexus Prime NFC phone confirmed by Samsung in cease and desist legal letter

Well, if there was any doubt left out there that the Samsung Nexus Prime, Google Android pure experience NFC phone, existed that appear to have all but melted. Rumors surrounding the existence of the Samsung Nexus Prime have been circulating for months now and with the expected launch of the next rendition of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, the likelihood of a new Google phone is high. Many rumors are just that, myths that in a Chinese whisper fashion roam from tech blog to tech blog and become bigger as they go. Even mainstream media gets involved with the speculation of mobile devices including well respected newspapers. It is up to the savvy reader to discern  fact from fiction and to always treat information with a pinch of salt until multiple sources begin to backup the original rumor. Whether that be in the form of photographs of phones, phone parts or confirmation of component orders that manufacturers have received, spotting a rumor that has some backbone isn’t hard. Do you know what is better than all of the previous list in confirming a rumor? When the OEM accidentally outs itself as has happened with the Samsung Nexus Prime NFC phone.

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Nokia Symbian Belle announced with NFC features

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Nokia Symbian Belle announced with NFC features for new Nokia 700, 701 and 600 plus many more Nokia smartphones

The Nokia news is coming hard and fast today, and joining Nokia’s new NFC phone is the latest, greatest and probably last rendition of the once mighty Symbian mobile OS. Nokia announced Symbian Belle today exactly as it promised on its Facebook page earlier this week. This new upgrade news comes just over one week after the Nokia C7 Astound, Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7 got access to Symbian Anna and the C7 had its NFC turned on for the first time. Nokia’s Symbian Belle builds on those strengths and then some, so let’s look at what’s new.

Nokia Symbian Belle features

The first thing to know is that many of the new features revolve around NFC. Not all the phones that will be eligible for the Symbian Belle upgrade will have an NFC chip installed so obviously won’t be able to benefit from that specific set of functions. First out of the gate is Symbian’s new 6 home screen setup which works very much like an iPhone’s different screens for you to store apps and widgets. The second new feature is the dynamic widgets which ships with live widgets for chat, email and social updates that are housed straight on one of those six new fancy home screens.

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Nokia announces three new NFC phones the Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 all toting Symbian Belle

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Nokia announces three new NFC phones the Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 all toting Symbian Belle

Nokia today trotted out not one, not two, but three new NFC phones. The Nokia 700, the Nokia 701 and the Nokia 600 are official and are all touting Symbian Belle and are all NFC smartphones. We have covered all of these NFC phones in our rumors over the last couple of months, but it’s great to see them all come to market with a bang. Whereas the specifications hadn’t altered much from the leaked roadmap we reported on a month or so ago, there are certainly more details available starting with the release date. Nokia has said that the NFC phones will be released in the third quarter and we have heard that it could be as soon as the next few days when we get some carrier details. These may be the last days of Symbian and a non-Microsoft Nokia, but it appears they are going out with a bang. So, without further ado let’s get down to the nitty gritty details you love.

Nokia 700 / Nokia Zeta NFC phone

Up until today, we have known the Nokia 700 as the Zeta. Nokia is claiming that the Nokia 700 NFC phone is the world’s most compact monoblock smartphone. With dimensions of only 50 cubic centimeters, weighing 96gm and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, it isn’t going to weigh you down or bulge your pockets.

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TazTag’s NFC tablet the TazPad is getting ready to launch (Exclusive)

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TazTag’s  NFC tablet, the TazPad, is getting ready to launch for as little as $400 in volume

Are you still looking for an enterprise NFC tablet for under $500? Read on. When AuthenTec’s press release hit the sphere this week announcing its biometric fingerprint scanners being built into TazTag’s TazPad, we didn’t cover it because quite frankly, it was old news. TazTag and its NFC tablet, TazPad were one of the first companies we covered in-depth here at NFC Rumors. We have to admit, we have a special place in our cold, cold hearts for them. However, that place was earned with their innovation and the way that the company addressed so many needed areas with their product.

TazPad quite literally has the best enterprise hardware specs of any tablet, let alone any NFC tablet in the space. When we say best hardware specifications, we aren’t talking about the processor or the RAM, we are not even referring to its Gingerbread OS because there are tablets that run newer versions of Android.

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Pick up the BlackBerry Curve 9350 NFC phone on Sprint for just $79.99

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Pick up the BlackBerry Curve 9350 NFC phone on Sprint for just $79.99

RIM trotted out some new NFC phones today, one being the BlackBerry Curve 9350. We already knew most of the specifications on this phone but it’s always nice when it gets official. We’ll get to the specs in a few, but wanted to let you know that the BlackBerry Curve 9350 NFC phone already has a home on Sprint and will be available on Friday, September 9th for a rather affordable $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. As smartphones go, the BlackBerry Curve 9350 isn’t going to attract those who want bleeding edge specifications and probably sits in the middle of the market. We were struck by how similar the hardware specifications are between the BlackBerry Curve 9350 and the Huawei Sonic are, aside from one being GSM and one being CDMA that is. The BlackBerry Curve 9350 has siblings that work with other networks but we will get to them in another post.

BlackBerry Curve 9350 NFC phone specifications

Other BlackBerry NFC phones have shipped with NFC turned off. The BlackBerry Curve 9350 on Sprint, however, is a functioning NFC phone.

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The Vodafone Footprint on NFC Progress

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Don’t know Vodafone? Here’s your introduction.

Here in the US, the Vodafone name and brand is not nearly as pervasive as it is in many other parts of the world, but that doesn’t mean that Vodafone doesn’t have its hand in the American pie. Are you a Verizon subscriber? Then you’re a Vodafone subscriber. As a major shareholder (45%) of Verizon, who has the largest number of mobile subscribers in the US,Vodafone can still make certain that its influence on the market is significant with or without the brand recognition.

If you have read any number of posts by our very own Seth, you’ll know that Vodafone is mentioned in every NFC joint venture and mobile partnership and plays a hefty hand in the future stakes of NFC. So, for those of us who didn’t grow up in the rest of the world – who is Vodafone and why should we be paying attention?

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NFC tablet brought to market in the form of the Sharp RW-T107

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NFC tablet brought to market in the form of the Sharp RW-T107 Gingerbread-toting tablet

Sharp Japan has just announced its first NFC tablet, the Sharp RW-T107. It runs on Android Gingerbread  and has an NFC chip built in. Sharp, a company who has long been associated with TVs and home entertainment systems, has recently been gearing up its product lines with phones and tablets galore. The new Sharp RW-T107 is likely to be a Japan-only slate at this point, as the company intends to manufacture 5000 units per month. However, now both TazTag and Sharp have NFC tablets in the wild which adds some more fuel to the fire to encourage other OEMs to get on board with their own NFC tablet devices. The Sharp RW-T107 has a 7-inch capacitive touch panel with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, which makes it a great size for consumers to carry about and for merchants to use as POS interfaces and we expect to see a lot of retailers take on NFC tablet devices in the next 12 months. Samsung is also reputed to be launching the Galaxy Tab, which is a 7-incher that will be announced on September 1st in Berlin. We will have to wait to see whether it, too, is an NFC tablet.

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Something big is coming according to Samsung

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Something big is coming, according to Samsung in its latest teaser videos

Samsung has released two teaser videos that suggest something big is coming and it will be announced at the IFA trade show in Berlin

What we are calling the season of smartphones is getting closer now. Apple, Google and a whole host of OEM manufacturers are getting ready to do battle for the holiday season. Multiple high-end phones are expected to be released between now and November with a glut expected at the end of September and early October. This fall is when Microsoft is also expected to enter the smartphone market proper, although they won’t have any NFC phones until next year. Now Samsung is releasing teaser videos suggesting that “something big is coming.” The videos suggest that whatever is coming, it will be announced on September 1st at the IFA trade show in Berlin, which is just three days after Samsung’s event to launch the Samsung Galaxy S II in the States. The promotional videos show people walking around with glowing objects that suggest that the 7-inch Galaxy Tab could be finally launching and yet there are also scenes where we see what appears to be a glowing phone. The other video simply shows people on a beach and really gives no clues as to what Samsung has in mind, apart from the fact it has an announcement and that the Berlin show is where it intends to share its secrets with the world.

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MasterCard PayPass Locator 2.0 Android app

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MasterCard PayPass Locator 2.0 Android app available on the Android app market

The NFC industry always seems to be worrying about how many merchants have NFC-enabled POS terminals. You could, in fact, be forgiven for thinking that there is barely anywhere you could use an NFC mobile wallet if there was one available in the United States. The reality is that there are thousands and thousands of locations around the world that already have the ability to take NFC mobile wallet and EMV contactless payments, but until recently knowing where you can wave to pay has been a matter of pot luck. If you have followed NFC payments at all, you will know that MasterCard has its own NFC mobile payments solution called PayPass. PayPass is not to be confused with MasterCard’s nemesis, Visa’s PayWave. PayPass is already available in hundreds, and if not thousands, of merchants in your area and MasterCard has recently launched an Android app to help you find every location globally. Handy, eh?

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What does the Google; Motorola acquisition mean for NFC

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What does the Google Motorola acquisition mean for NFC, consumers and partners?

On Monday, Google announced its plans to acquire Motorola Mobility and the media went wild. We ourselves read not one, not two, but more than three posts about the planned acquisition on many news and blog sites. We reported the news because it pertains to the future of NFC, and then we thought we would let the dust settle and allow the fervor to die down before we looked at the topic again. This last week around the web, headlines of partners going completely over to Microsoft’s WP7 platform and Google giving away free phones have been about. It is odd really – that we, the NFC Rumors site, chose not to get too much into the speculation, but with a small team and a lot of headlines to choose from we have to pick the subjects we tackle a little more carefully to ensure our readers get a rounded industry view of what’s happening in the NFC world with, of course, our liberal sprinkling of editorial opinion and healthy dose of out-and-out speculation. What we know for sure at the moment is that Google plans to purchase Motorola Mobility and that Motorola has accepted the offer. What we can also assume that one of the main reasons the deal made sense for Google was the treasure trove of patents that Motorola owns, which could potentially prevent many of the attacks Android is facing from Apple, Microsoft and a whole host of other companies.

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Narian Technologies NFC app suite review

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The good, the bad and the ugly of Narian Technologies’ suite of NFC-based retail and merchant apps

We told you earlier this week that we would be taking a closer look at Narian Technologies‘ new suite of NFC apps. Today, we took a spin through the suite with the CEO and in this post intend to share what we have learned. We have to be honest, the breadth of this project is pretty dense and communicating the vastness of what Narian is attempting to do needs to be abridged for a few reasons. As we mentioned, we conducted our research earlier today and when we were finished, left this article for some time to mull over all the possibilities, contingencies, its place in the market and threats to its success. The following represents our findings and to break it down a little, we are going to present it as an old fashioned “SWOT” analysis, without graphs.

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And the HP NFC pad is gone, Goodbye Palm, Goodbye

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And the HP NFC pad is gone, HP is dead, long live HP, goodbye Palm

Living in the post PC era is a matter of loss and gain. Once mighty giants like Palm have fallen or been seriously weakened and web brands have risen to rule the earth. We remember the days when HP and Dell ruled the computer markets with an iron fist, and you couldn’t imagine a time when Microsoft would ever own less than 95% of the operating system market. That was before the true advent of the social internet, the mobile internet and post PC devices. In the months and years since those times branding has been king, open source vs. closed source battles have reached fever pitch and patents have almost been more important than features. Welcome to the post PC era where the new giants roam and competition is global and fierce. Welcome to the post PC era where form is as important as function and support from bedroom developers can make or break even the biggest corporations. Welcome to the post PC era where even an institution like Motorola can no longer compete and hides under a web giant’s coat tails to survive, and RIM is reduced to a minor player held up by MNOs and Crackberry fans. Welcome to a tech industry where Darwinism has now killed Palm and left just a few competitors and MNOs to fight it out in what seems to be a battle which will end with an ultimate winner. For HP and Palm, goodbyes are so hard.

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Symbian Anna available for download brings NFC to Nokia C7 Astound

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Symbian Anna available for download brings NFC to C7 Astound

We reported that the C7 Astound would have its Symbian Anna NFC chip turned on some time ago. It’s taken its sweet time but Nokia today released its Symbian Anna update for the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7. We, however, are only interested in one of those phones and the new NFC capability that the update brings. The Nokia C7 / Astound has been the equivalent of a flightless bird since launch. It has the NXP NFC chip inside but that chip has been well and truly powered off until today. Owners of the Nokia C7 Astound can now start to enjoy some of the benefits that Symbian Anna and NFC have to offer inclusive of the NFC-enabled Angry Birds game. NFC tags have also become readable and writable as well as a whole host of other uses. What won’t be available is mobile payments. The Nokia C7 Astound doesn’t have a secure element built in, nor does it have support for any other form of secure element to be added. With other NFC phones, microSD and NFC SIM cards can be added but Nokia is championing NFC without payments at this time, and from what we have heard won’t change that stance until Windows Phone 8 is launched next year when Nokia is widely expected to launch NFC WP8 phones with NFC secure elements which will probably come from NXP.

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T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC phone $300 on contract!

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T-Mobile has made the official announcement that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC phone will launch for $299 after a $50 mail-in-rebate

We now have a date that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC phone will launch on T-Mobile US, which is August 31st. Before the celebrations begin, however, you should probably consider whether $350 minus a $50 mail-in-rebate is a little steep for your tastes or for that of your wallet. From what we are seeing around the interwebs, BlackBerry fans are not best pleased with the premium being charged for the pleasure of running a BlackBerry over T-Mobile’s network.

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Nokia’s NFC Wireless Music Receiver MD-20W sings its was through FCC

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Nokia’s NFC Wireless Music Receiver MD-20W sings its was through FCC

It’s been a while since we have heard anything about Nokia’s NFC peripherals that use NFC as a connection to speakers, headsets and HiFi systems. Today, however, we are seeing that a new model we hadn’t previously expected to make its way through the FCC, as reported on MyNokiaBlog. In fact, we had only heard of this model through Nokia Connection in Singapore. The Nokia NFC Wireless Music Receiver MD-20W is not the model we expected to see Stateside. Nokia unveiled the Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310 back when it announced the N9 NFC phone and nary a word has been heard about it since, aside from a few YouTube videos. From what we can tell, the MD-20W shares similar, if not the same, attributes and features as the MD-310 and what’s even more curious is that it has officially said that it won’t be launching the N9 in the United States.

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mpass: German mobile network operators launch NFC payments joint venture

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mpass: German mobile network operators launch NFC payments joint venture

Telefónica Germany, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have announced a joint venture under the brand mpass that will bring NFC payments to Germany in early 2012 using NFC stickers and then transition to NFC phones.

Another day, another European country announces a mobile network operator NFC payments joint venture – this time it’s called mpass and has been announced for Germany. Again, Vodafone, Telefónica and Deutsche Telekom (The Three Musketeers) have come together as they have with all other European joint ventures for NFC payments in Germany. Same old gang, same old mission – to control and own NFC payments in another European market and prevent rivals from entering the market. The three companies have signed a letter of understanding to combine their networks to form mpass, which will facilitate and act as a trusted service manager for all three networks. We are starting to wonder if we shouldn’t just write up a quick post for each European country now that doesn’t have a “joint venture” announced and just change the dates, because at this point, it really isn’t all new joint ventures or collaborations, it is merely three companies’ efforts to control the European continent’s NFC payments.

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Jiepang location based service goes NFC with help from UPM RFID

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China’s Jiepang SoLoCo location based service goes NFC with help from UPM RFID, with NFC payments to come

China is embracing NFC en masse lately. Just last week we heard about the HTC and China UnionPay partnership that will bring NFC payments to mainland China and today it’s the turn of Jiepang and its SoLoCo (social-local-mobile) LBS (location-based service), which just partnered with UPM RFID to bring NFC services through NFC tags. If you haven’t heard of Jiepang, it is China’s fastest-growing social LBS that has millions of users in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and has been in business just 13 months. Jiepang is growing like gangbusters and adds around 80,000 new users per month to its service and now has its eyes on growing beyond its current model and intends to use NFC to do it.  Jiepang has quickly cemented its status as China’s leading location-based service provider by developing user-friendly LBS applications for iPhone, Android and other mobile devices. Jiepang’s services let users announce their arrival at different venues, share tips, photos and comments with friends and followers, sync data with social networking profiles, and collect virtual badges and rewards by visiting special event pages for many of the world’s leading brands. However, Jiepang wants to move beyond and extend its services on top of its social networking and mobile marketing competencies and grow into the realm of NFC contactless payments with mobile apps – and they think UPM RFID might just have the solution for it to do just that.

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3GTV Networks brings NFC to the retail experience

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3GTV Networks brings NFC social check-ins, loyalty programs and marketing to the captive audience retail experience

3GTV Networks is adding NFC capabilities to its product offerings to retailers in the US. If you hadn’t heard of 3GTV Networks, you have now (profound, we know) and you are also likely to experience their unique form of TV marketing in retail stores you frequent in the near future, if you haven’t already. Captive audience marketing is expanding in leaps and bounds as the next frontier in relevant marketing to consumers who are ready to receive engaging content in otherwise laborious, mundane tasks. The old marketing adage was that a consumer needed to see a TV ad  three times before they would retain any information and seven times before they would act on it. However, with TVs pushing out ad content directly at point of purchase, these old metrics become irrelevant. 3GTV Networks is now taking this concept a step further by adding NFC capabilities to its in-store TV marketing and is utilizing social, loyalty and marketing features to engage and convert consumers at the point of purchase. It’s completely obvious and genius at the same time. When a consumer is looking at a product on the store shelf, the TV ad is both relevant and welcomed. At that point, a consumer may well want to learn more and give permission to be marketed to further. As a marketer, that gives you performance metrics, conversion metrics and contact details for further marketing. Job done.

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NFC comes to the Museum of London via Nokia

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The Museum of London gets NFC with help from Nokia

Something old, something new, that’s what you can expect to experience at the Museum of London from now on as NFC tag technology acts as a real world “read more” button on exhibits. Sometimes we sound like a broken record talking up how broad in scope the uses for NFC are, but on days like today when we see institutions carrying the gauntlet and putting their exhibits where their NFC phones are, it all becomes worthwhile. The London Museum has started to implement NFC tags to allow visitors with NFC capable phones to find out about exhibits and learn about what’s new and / or old.

Marketing Manager of the Museum of London, Vicky Lee shared, “NFC Technology has the potential to change how we interact with our visitors. By simply touching tags located throughout both our venues, visitors can delve deeper into London’s story in an immediate and engaging way, plus keep in touch with us by following the museum online.”

So, extended information, social engagement and a more immersive experience await visitors to the Museum of London from now on. Everyday we seem to have another announcement about a new NFC phone that is rumored, hitting a mobile network operator or is already on the market.

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Google snaps up Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion

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Google has just come to an agreement with Motorola Mobility to acquire the company for $12.5 billion

Google this morning announced that it has come to an agreement to purchase Motorola Mobility for the handsome sum of $12.5 billion. Yes, as of today Google is in the smartphone business and the proverbial cat has just been set among the pigeons. Motorola Mobility hasn’t exactly been doing so well. This last quarter, the company posted a loss of $56 million, and Google may just be the tonic the company needs to turn that situation around. It’s not all Skittles and beer though, according to Motorola’s CEO, Sanjay Jha, Motorola was planning to pull out its intellectual property portfolio and go to war after a string of suits have recently been brought against Android partner OEMs. So, legality appears to be the name of the game. Google will no doubt get Motorola’s IP and patents in the deal, which will strengthen its ability to protect its partners against the licensing claims of Microsoft and Apple.

To say Google has been embattled lately is an understatement. Microsoft and Apple have been gunning for the company in an attempt to slow down its Android mobile OS through its partners, and regulators are snooping around on the grounds of anti-competitive behavior. Patent trolls have been coming out of the woodwork by the day, trying get their cut of the pie. How does Google respond to this? Does it put together a war chest to battle with? No, it buys out a pretty major mobile phone OEM and shows support in its Android operating system, and gains some IP patents that may have just sorted out some of the IP battles once and for all. Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, brace for impact – you will need your lawyers at the ready!

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BlackBerry Bold NFCGate: NFC experience very poor [EXCLUSIVE]

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BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC software is half baked and has exceedingly bad performance

NFC Rumors has learned that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 has issues when it comes to its NFC capabilities. Our source who wishes to remain anonymous and who is close to the matter, told NFC Rumors that AT&T and Vodafone may be blocking NFC on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 for reasons other than or on top of the company’s individual joint venture plans. It was just yesterday that we reported that AT&T in the US and Vodafone in the UK were blocking NFC at the software level and that there was no apparent reason for the move. At the time, the evidence appeared to point at NFC wallet control as the reasoning behind the move but we have since learned the rabbit hole goes a whole lot deeper than that. We are about to completely reverse what we reported just yesterday. We have been told that mobile network operators have server concerns about the NFC performance of the BlackBerry Bold and Curve.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 NFC format and tag problems

Our source speaking about the BlackBerry Bold reported,”This would actually be protecting the consumer (and the NFC industry) from a really disappointing first experience with NFC.” So, what we can take from this is that the issue may be with the Blackberry Bold 9900, and the mobile network operators may, in fact, not want to have have an NFC phone with such poor capabilities defining what an NFC experience is. First impressions last, and it sounds as if the mobile network operators have higher standards than RIM in this area. Our source went on to explain further regarding the issues that could have contributed to the carrier’s decisions. As we remove our proverbial foot out of our mouths, it actually turns out that the carriers may well have been acting in the best interests of consumers after all.

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Samsung Galaxy S II launch event for the US happening on the 29th August

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Samsung Galaxy S II launch event for the US happening on the 29th August

Samsung has announced that it will be holding a press event that we have heard is for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II. The event is happening in New York City and other than that, they share very little other details. But now you will finally get definite answers to questions like – what will be the official names of the Samsung Galaxy S II for each carrier? Will there be the NFC version we saw come through the FCC, and if so, on what mobile network operators waves will we be able to use it? With there be a version of the Samsung Galaxy S II with a QWERTY keyboard that slides out?

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