Samsung's latest volley in the iPhone's general direction -- the Instinct -- had been promised for a June launch, but beyond that we hadn't gotten a specific date. That changes today with news that we should all be able to run our fingers over the Instinct's glossy front (and back, and sides, and wherever else you should choose to do so) starting on the 20th of the month. Availability in all channels won't be guaranteed initially, but that's when Sprint wants to at least start the flow of Instincts into the market for an as-yet-to-be-announced price -- so get ready to either speed from store to store in search of your new love on day zero, or just remain nude in front of your computer and scope it out on Sprint's website.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Well, it took longer than 15 days to reach a resolution, but apparently RIM is going to back down and allow the Indian government to monitor the Blackberry network in that country. What's worse, it appears that RIM was more interested in covering its own ass than protecting user data during the negotiations: the only concession the company received from the Indian government was a promise that it won't be held liable if there's a leak of users' personal information. Yeah, that ought to provide a sparkling incentive to keep things safe. There's no word on when monitoring might begin, but we've got a feeling privacy-loving Indians might suddenly be in the market for a new smartphone.

[Thanks, Rishab J.]

If you thought you were annoyed when one of the big wireless carriers locked up a phone you were after, you have no idea how frustrated small and rural wireless carriers are -- they've just filed a petition with FCC seeking to ban the practice. The 80 companies in the Rural Cellular Association serve small markets not well-covered by the big guys, like parts of New Mexico, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, and they say that carrier exclusivity deals not affect their bottom line, but also deprive consumers of desirable phones like the iPhone and upcoming Blackberry Bold. They've actually got a pretty good point: lots of rural customers can't purchase and use an iPhone without technically breaking the AT&T service agreement. We'll see how this one goes -- although we'd love nothing more than to use any phone we wanted on any carrier, there are plenty of reasons it won't happen, and exclusivity is the easiest way for carriers to differentiate themselves to consumers.

So word on the street (literally) is that a large number of people are queuing in line outside of Apple's flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York City (see above) -- keep in mind the Cube is open 24 hours a day. Our intrepid girl-on-the-scene reports that the group is more than 60-deep, though most people seem confused about what they're waiting for, while some believe they're actually camping out for a 3G iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple reps tell us they're crowd-controlling iPhone buyers because otherwise they would be "screaming" at employees and clogging up the store. See what happens when you get short on stock? More pics after the break.

[Thanks, Laura and Abiade]

Here's a nice little tidbit: word on the street is that the most recent version of the iPhone 2.0 beta has added a "Location Services" feature that encompasses what appears to be GPS-based Google Mapping, along with geotagging for the phone's camera app. Sure, even if these shots are legit, Apple is late to the party here -- other featurephone users have been geo-tagging their shots for years -- but that doesn't mean we can't condescendingly congratulate Apple for these "achievements" while simultaneously pinning screenshots to the fridge alongside that 3G preferences pane and the hand-traced picture of a turkey in crayon.

[Thanks, SuperSaf]

For the legions of developers anxious to use their talents to build for Palm (yes, all four of you), listen up. By partnering with DeviceAnywhere, Palm has opened up its Virtual Developer Lab, which enables devs to remotely access actual Treo / Centro handsets in order to test out software, capture screen shots / video of processes, create an audit trail through the capturing of keystrokes and share data / collaborate with colleagues online. If you're swearing up and down that this stuff isn't new, you're not (entirely) crazy -- DeviceAnywhere has been offering up this remote demo access on a variety of handsets for quite some time. Palm's just making the extra effort to ensure you and your three pals know about it.

[Via CNET]

Generally speaking, watch phones are rarely useful. Not so much because of lackluster hardware or incompatible drivers, but due to the fact that no one with any dignity will ever be caught wearing one. The CECT Wrist, however, actually isn't a ghastly looking device at all, and although it's far from being a Sea-Dweller, we can't help but give props for the semi-stylish design. Specs wise, the unit boasts GSM connectivity, a 1.3-inch color LCD, FM radio tuner, multimedia player, 1.3-megapixel camera, handsfree support (Bluetooth) and a battery good for 150 minutes of continuous yappin'. Not too terribly shabby for £150.13 ($293), wouldn't you agree?

[Via GizmoScene, thanks KC Kim]

It was simply inevitable: someone was going to lay the iPhone and BlackBerry Bold down beside one another, and if John Mayer won't stop sending himself emails long enough to do it, CrackBerry's sister site will. There's really nothing here that you couldn't put together yourself from checking out galleries and videos of each device separately, but feel free to humor your sick mind by glancing over the comparative images in the read link below or examining the vid waiting after the jump.

After some exhaustive research invested by one iSmashPhone, it seems like that now-infamous "Enable 3G" screen shot supposedly lifted from a recent iPhone firmware 2.0 beta was mocked up. The spirit of the shot mercifully lives on, though, seeing how the existence of the underlying preferences to support the enabling of 3G data has been independently verified in the code -- we just don't know exactly what form that preference is going to take in the user interface. Bottom line: fret not, there's still a 3G iPhone on the way, it's probably going to be here within mere weeks, and odds are you'll be able to control whether high speed is enabled, just like virtually every other 3G phone on the market. So if you're looking for a random reason to crack open a celebratory beer right now, well, there you have it. Drink responsibly.

We briefly mentioned using junk data to overwrite the iPhone's flash as a last-ditch method of securely clearing off your user data yesterday, and although we were half-joking, that's more or less your only option until Apple provides a proper secure erase feature. Security researcher Rich Mogull has helpfully laid out the steps for you, and they're basically what you'd expect: restore your iPhone, don't sync any personal data to it, and then manually transfer three different playlists large enough to fill the flash. Essentially you're doing a manual three-pass overwrite, which is pretty much exactly the long and tedious process it sounds like -- but we wouldn't dream of selling or giving away our iPhones (or any other phone with personal data on it) without struggling through it.

[Via Hack A Day]

RIM's hotly-anticipated BlackBerry Bold has only been received by a select few, but the fortunate folks over at Howard Chui managed to snag a pre-production unit and give it a good lookin' at. Aside from showering us with a plethora of snapshots from a variety of angles, we're also told that the plastic used "feels a little cheaper" than that on the 8800, outgoing sound quality "is terrific," incoming sound quality could use some work and reception seemed much improved from the 8800. We know, it's not a full-blown review or anything, but it's still apt to whet your appetite until the real deal shows up en masse.

It's finally, really happened. The Boy Genius has gotten his hands on pictures of a brand-spanking-new Palm device -- a heretofore unknown model called the Treo 850. As you can see in the above photo, this is a whole new look for the ailing smartphone maker, though it certainly bears a resemblance to the Centro and Treo 500. Apparently the Windows Mobile device will sport a 400MHz CPU and a 100MB of RAM, though other details are sketchy at the moment. Honestly, not a bad turn for Palm at all -- now if you can just whip up that new OS and some new form factors and...

According to the Boy Genius, it's not just iPhone users that will be getting / not getting the telco's WiFi on the house -- the company has plans to offer use of its hotspots for free to Laptop Connect and smartphone users. An internal memo from the provider appears to state that effective May 20th, anyone with a $60 or higher Laptop Connect plan will be able to take a ride on AT&T's networks in 17,000 locations, and the service will be extended to smartphone users later in the year. Of course, the company hasn't exactly wowed us with its rollout of this service for iPhone customers, so don't be surprised if nothing goes the way it's planned.

In a Harris Interactive survey of 2,030 US adults of whom, 1,778 have actually flown in an airplane, a full three quarters say that cellphone usage on airplanes should be restricted to "non-talking features." In other words, email, texting, and surfing the Web. That's a pretty significant majority seeing as how the EC has cleared the way for calls within European airspace. 69% of consumers agreed that if voice calls are permitted, a special "talking zone" should be established so that other passengers are not interrupted. While the survey reflects our own opinions, take note that the results benefit sites like Yahoo! Mobile, the very company which commissioned the survey. It's also worth highlighting a comment made by a certain Miss Teen, South Carolina who said, "That some US Americans should be unable to do so, because, uh, some-a people out there in our nation don't have cellphones, and such as, maps." Good point.

There's not much new to see in SanDisk's new Mobile Ultra line of memory cards other than some branding that's sure to confuse people at their local electronics shop, but we'll indulge the idea anyway. The cards come with USB adapters to make transfers to PC easier and are shipping in microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) flavors in 2, 4, and 8GB varieties. Prices range from $34.99 to $129.99 depending on the card type and capacity.