If you're one of the many, many BlackBerry Storm buyers who cleaned out inventories at Verizon stores on Friday, all that time spent waiting in the cold just became a bit more worthwhile. Online orders are being subject to shipping delays and, while you might think this is just another case of holiday supply versus demand, many are calling shenanigans. Supposedly the Storm was set to launch with OS version 4.7.0.82, but due to a last-minute security glitch every last handset had to be downgraded to .65 -- a surely time-consuming task that resulted in many fewer handsets in-store and online for release. Right now Verizon is indicating that orders placed before noon on November 21 should ship on the 25th, those received after noon will ship on December 5, and anything received on November 22 or later will not ship before December 15. That's close enough to a certain major holiday to make BlackBerry-loving kids of all ages nervous. If a Storm is high on your Christmas list you might just want to plan a few extra good deeds on your schedule to boost your placement on the "nice" list -- nobody wants a 7100i in their stocking.

Now that the baby boomer generation is booming louder than ever and the geriatric set is quickly growing larger, Doro is hoping to grow its market share by coming to the States. A mainstay in the European market, the company focuses on producing overly simplistic mobiles that ditch cutting edge features in favor of easy-to-use interfaces. The GSM-compatible HandleEasy 330gsm and HandleEasy 326i gsm have arrived on US soil courtesy of Centennial Wireless, and both should be the easiest phone you've ever had the opportunity to use. Unfortunately, there's no mention of a price for either, but we can't imagine 'em being too pricey.

It sounds like your camera phone's video capabilities may get exponentially more awesome in the near future. Aptina -- a division of Micron that manufactures one out of every three sensors for mobile phone cameras -- has announced the high resolution 5 megapixel MT9P013. There are better sensors out there already, but this one will also be able to record 720p HD video at 60 frames per second, and 5-megapixel video at 15fps. The sensor is going into production in January of 2009, according to Aptina, so it shouldn't be too long before we start seeing much better quality amateur films out there in the world.

[Via SlashGear]

Guess what? You'll be able to use Velocity's weak-sauce 83 without any strongly-worded objection from the boys and girls at the Federal Communications Commission! Okay, okay, maybe that's not fair -- with WiFi and GPS, it does its job at the bottom end of Velocity's lineup -- it's just that when you compare it to the 103 and the 111, it comes up a little short (ahem, QVGA display, EDGE radio, we're looking at you guys). We're not really feeling that gnurled back, either -- especially in light of the FCC lab's less-than-stellar photography skills -- but if it floats your boat and you're stationed stateside, you can start to feel a little less illegal now.

They're apparently not for sale yet -- stores don't even know what the pricing situation is -- but Verizon has starting shipping Samsung Omnias to at least some of its stores. For anyone not needing the global...um, "globalness" of the Saga or the QWERTY-ness of the upcoming Touch Pro, the Omnia certainly makes for an interesting option -- espeically in light of the TouchWiz support and the 5-megapixel cam. With units in stores now, it can't be long until we can actually buy these, can it?

We don't have official confirmation of this yet, but we're hearing from all over that Verizon's launch of the BlackBerry Storm has so far been a raging success -- from what we can tell, it's sold out nearly everywhere, and the online store is buckling under the load of thousands of eager buyers. Sounds like RIM's on track for a hit -- any of you have any luck scoring a Storm today? How'd it go? Digging the SurePress screen? Hit us up in comments!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

If the BlackBerry Storm's $199.99 retail price on contract after rebate isn't sitting particularly well with you, there's an alternative you may want to investigate. LetsTalk, purveyors of the free Bold, have outdone themselves with a rebate-laden $99 Storm; granted, the catch is that you've got to sign up for a plan package of $69.99 or higher, but let's be honest -- plenty of Storm buyers are going to be doing just that anyway.

[Via BlackBerryNews]

Not that we've any reason to be shocked here, but Samsung's Omnia is indeed coming to Verizon Wireless. 'Course, most everyone with any remote affiliation to Big Red is frenzied over that other phone today, but those with a soft spot for Windows Mobile 6.1 may want to give this one a bit of attention. You know the highlight specs by now -- a 5-megapixel camera / camcorder, full HTML browser and an expansive touchscreen -- but the nitty-gritty details are still being withheld. As of now, the link on Samsung's website tunnels straight to an error page, forcing us to be content with the knowledge that somehow, someday, this phone is destined for a life on VZW's shelves. Enlarged screengrab is after the jump.

Think you need to go all-in on a postpaid contract to get the best crap a carrier has to offer? Well, quite often you do -- but not on Vodafone in the UK, where its recently-announced Christmas lineup contains perfectly decent fare like the Samsung Steel and Omnia for £80 and £400, respectively. Granted, that's a little (okay, a lot) more than you'll pay on contract, but at least the options are there, right? Those two comprise part of a monstrous 16-phone lineup announced to lead Vodafone through the holiday sales rush, which includes the high-horsepower Sony Ericsson C905 and X1, the Nokia N96 16GB, and the BlackBerry Storm on contract, among a host of others. Voda sweetens the pot for buyers of the Samsung G600, Nokia 6500 Classic, and Sony Ericsson K770i by throwing in a digital photo frame, which particularly comes in handy with the G600's respectable 5-megapixel resolution. All told, the lineup's a little overwhelming, but if we had to choose between an overwhelming lineup and an anemic (read: American) one, you know which one we're picking ten times out of ten.

You've read the review, now Verizon's BlackBerry Storm is available for purchase for $200 on two-year contract. Really, what's left to say -- you're either ready to pull the trigger or not.

[Thanks, JR]

It's here. Google Street View and over the air Podcast downloads from iTunes. Yup, public transit and walking directions too and the ability to share your location via email. Bug fixes, Safari enhancements, the ability to toggle auto-text correction, and plenty more... just like we heard in the pre-rumor run-up. Now get outta here, your iTunes update awaits.

Update: Added some screenshots of the most notable new features after the break. The Street View implementation seems solid though we miss the compass feature found on T-Mobile's G1. Also, the real-estate saved by moving the Google search field next to the URL field in Mobile Safari is a welcome and obvious change. As to auto-correction, well, that's personal taste. Tipster Vizcaya also noticed that Apple added a new option to rate an App when you delete it from your phone. You can also view multiple screenshots of applications available in the App Store.

Update 2: The other big update, Podcast downloads, works just as you'd hope and should further promote the spontaneous isolation we all crave. A few shots of that added after the break.

[Thanks Gustavo and badburro]

If there were two entities we just couldn't do without, they'd certainly be the FCC and Bluetooth SIG. The latest handset to be revealed courtesy of the latter is Motorola's QA4 Halo, and thanks to a particularly insightful individual over at HoFo, we've even got a few purported details to pore over. We're told to expect a 2.8-inch 400 x 240 resolution (touchscreen?) display, a 2-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, USB 2.0, a CDMA / EV-DO radio, customizable widgets, Bluetooth 2.0 and a built-in accelerometer. Alright Moto, the secret's out -- how's about an official release?

[Via CellPassion]

We spied LG's Prada II strutting its stuff in some fancy photos yesterday, and here we are just over twenty-four hours later with a gossip-worthy video spectacular of the luxury house's second foray into handset branding. The lucky gent in the film beautifully demonstrates how the Bluetooth-enabled watch can perform such wonders as silence your ringer and retrieve text messages, all without laying a finger on the touchscreen, slider keyboard-boasting phone. We're pretty sure that you'll agree the video of the device is "not long enough," but just do what we did: watch it twice in a row (while lounging by the pool in a diamond tiara sipping a martini) after the break.