LG KM555e Clubby sets record for most awesomely-named phone

Just when you thought the Corby’s title was secure, along comes Samsung’s archrival LG with the KM555e Clubby — a phone whose meaningless, perfectly trademarkable name knows no limits of awesomeness. Apart from built-in support for LG’s Music Club track download service, we’re not sure what makes this thing so “clubby” — it’s just a midrange full-touch dumbphone with a WQVGA display, 3 megapixel cam, and Dolby Mobile tech on board — but seriously, with a name like that, does it matter? We submit that it does not.

Russia gets mocha-edition HTC Hero, plastic flavor coming soon

Sure, you lament about this or that certain smartphone not coming to your wireless provider of choice, but imagine if that phone hadn’t even been released in your country. For those who are Russian and for whom That Certain Smartphone is the HTC Hero, your time is finally coming, and soon. HTC sent out devices to many members of the .RU press, but rather than providing functioning ones they received models made entirely of chocolate. Not entirely encouraging, but the company’s Cyrillic Twitter page (which has been responsible for creating a stir in the past ) is saying the phone is coming soon, as in the next few weeks, and HTC also created a Facebook fan page for the phone over the weekend. So, buckle up Russian readers; looks like you’re getting your Hero soon.

Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 makes jump to Windows Mobile 6.5

Filed under: Handsets , Software , ASUS , Windows Mobile Two years ago , the idea of a Garmin-developed smartphone running the latest Windows Mobile operating system was enough to generate spasms of anticipation across the internets. Oh how things have changed . Today the Garmin-ASUS team has announced a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for M20 owners currently stuck at 6.1. It’s also expanding the M20 theater of pain to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech, Turkey, and other markets by the end of 2009 — note the omission of North American and Western European countries. Fine by us, we’re perfectly happy to wait for the revamped Android handset running Google’s turn-by-turn Navigator..

Clearwire eyes global WiMAX roaming agreement, Kanye blurts out: ‘LTE is better!’

Filed under: Peripherals , WiMAX Pinky and the Brain were consulted, and you can rest assured they were both highly supportive of Clearwire’s latest initiative. Announced today in cooperation with Russia’s Yota and Japan’s UQ Communications , Clearwire has banged out a memorandum of understanding with the aforesaid WiMAX carriers that “identifies the objectives and activities each operator will perform towards the realization of establishing WiMAX roaming between the [two].” With translators in tow, the trio are hoping to define and institute the necessary processes that’ll ensure devices from each carrier works on the other’s network, and while American’s probably couldn’t care less about these two operators in particular, it’s the thought that counts. Just imagine — 4G global roaming at a decent price point.

LG GD900 Crystal gets handled, sent to swim with the fishes

Filed under: Handsets , LG It’s really a shame this isn’t an out of box feature, but some ingenious modder has graced LG’s GD900 Crystal phone — you know, the one with the gesture-based transparent keypad — with a custom water-resistant case that renders it perfect for swimming with the fishes. And so did they just that, dipping it into a fish tank. It’d make for one insanely hip charging dock, but we digress. Meanwhile in Russia, mobile@mail.ru has delivered some impressions on the device, with good words to say for the keypad’s gestures but lamenting it’s $899 suggested price tag, a figure higher than even the super sexy BL40 Chocolate.

Oh, by the way: August 4, 2009

Filed under: Handsets , Others , Samsung , Verizon Wireless , Symbian , Windows Mobile , GSM , EDGE , EV-DO , CDMA , Casio , iPhone OS Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile for Tuesday, August 4th, 2009: Following the G’zOne C731 Rock , Casio’s C741 Brigade for Verizon has nabbed FCC clearance . Not much is known about the phone — we can assume it’ll be ruggedized to one degree or another — but one interesting tidbit is the inclusion of VCAST TV support, something Verizon’s been getting lax on as of late. [Via PhoneArena ] Have you seen a white / silver Samsung i7500 Galaxy ? Now you have . [Thanks, Ruben W.] China’s regulatory peeps have had the good fortune of seeing a couple new Philips Xeniums in their midst, a K700 full touch model and an X501 candybar

Sluggish iPhone sales could lead to stiff fines for Russian operators

Filed under: Handsets , GSM , EDGE , Apple , iPhone OS See folks, this is the kind of mess you end up with after you gleefully do a deal with the devil. According to a roundup of reports over at Unwired View , three of Russia’s major mobile operators could be looking at massive (we’re talking hundreds of millions of bucks) fines if they can’t sell through their iPhone allotments, and unless a significant market shift happens within the next few months, that situation seems remarkably unlikely. We’re told that Vimpelcom pledged to sell 1.5 million iPhones within two years, while Megafon committed to 1 million and MTS the same. Today, just 900,000 iPhones have been imported to Russia, with over half entering the country via grey market channels; we’ll let you figure out the math there, but it ain’t pretty for Russia’s carriers

CellPhone Latest

• Droid 2 R2-D2 boot animation, live wallpapers leak out at light speed
• ARM reveals Eagle core as Cortex-A15, capable of quad-core computing at up to 2.5GHz
• T-Mobile G2 comes out from hiding, pre-orders begin later this month
• BlackBerry App World crosses the 10,000 app mark
• White HTC Desire and silver Wildfire make a special appearance in London
• Rogers gets real with Android 2.1 updates for HTC Magic+, Samsung Galaxy Spica
• TomTom offers free iPhone 4 adapter for Car Kit
• Mobilicity takes Rogers to task over Chatr, alleges it’s using a ‘flanker brand’
• Google Instant on a Motorola Droid 2, hands-on
• T-Mobile throws in up to three extra lines for free on family plans
• QuickPay announces ROAMpay credit card swiper for Android, BlackBerry, iOS
• iOS 4.1 is live, available to download right now
• Samsung Galaxy S keeps up global offensive with three Chinese launches
• Qualcomm: 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon devices to arrive at end of 2011, 1.2GHz in Q1
• Polish operator Mobyland jumps straight from 2G to LTE
• Qualcomm demos augmented reality app for digital photo frames (video)