PhoneTalk

The latest Symbian smartphone for T-Mobile, the Nokia Astound was recently announced at CTIA this month. The touchscreen cell phone sports a slick design and plenty of noteworthy features. It comes with an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash that has the ability to record 720p HD video, supports Adobe Flash Lite, and comes with 8GB of memory (you can add up to a 32GB microSD card). Additionally, the phone has the OVI store for downloading apps and comes preloaded with some games. If you're interested in e-mail support, this phone can handle most e-mail clients including Microsoft Exchange. Get a closer look at the Nokia Astound and see what comes in the box in the video below.

Nokia unveiled its latest Symbian-based smartphone for T-Mobile, the Nokia Astound. This cell phone definitely has a lot to offer, starting with its 3.5-inch capacitive AMOLED touchscreen (so it's viewable in direct sunlight), stainless-steel design, and slim profile. Like many other smartphones being announced recently, the Nokia Astound can also record 720p HD video using its integrated 8-megapixel camera. You can make this phone feel more like your own by customizing the three available home screens and by downloading purchased or free apps from the Nokia Ovi Store. To get you started, the Nokia Astound comes loaded with Twitter and Facebook clients, Fruit Ninja game, Ovi Maps, and Slacker radio. If you're interested in the Nokia Astound it will be available for T-Mobile customers April 6.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has arrived for AT&T and this 3G smartphone has a lot to offer. First off, it's a Symbian smartphone (this OS is widely popular abroad) and will let you do many of the things that many other smartphone OS' feature: support for multiple e-mail accounts, a built-in music player complete with a 3.5mm headset jack for listening to tunes, the ability to share the media on the cell phone with other DLNA-compliant home networked electronics, GPS, touchscreen (even has a stylus), and a spacious, vibrant 3.2-inch display. It has an 8.1-megapixel camera and can shoot videos in HD. You can then easily upload pictures and videos to sites like YouTube and Picassa. If you're near an AT&T Mobile HotSpot, you can log onto that WiFi network for even faster video streaming and web surfing. Oh, and it comes in a cool blue casing that gives it a bit more style.

The latest Symbian cell phone to arrive for T-Mobile is the Nokia E73 Mode, which looks a lot like the Nokia e71x. While it may look and feel a bit like its predecessor it has a few noteworthy updates including a 5-megapixel camera, support for WiFi calling, and comes with free OVI Maps. It's also a 3G cell phone, runs the latest Symbian OS, and has the OVI Store. The best feature about the OVI Store is that you can actually purchase an app directly from the Nokia cell phone and have the fee added to the T-Mobile monthly bill.

T-Mobile's Nokia Nuron has a lot to offer people new to the smartphone world. First, it's one of the few smartphones available that doesn't require a data plan. It also comes with plenty of fun and interesting apps. Case in point is the OVI Maps application that's included on the cell phone. Check out LetsTalk's Pat Connor takes test drive of OVI Maps in the video below.

T-Mobile unveiled the Nokia Nuron 5230 at CTIA. The Symbian smartphone has a lot going for it, including the fact that it doesn't require a data plan when you buy it. Get a closer look at the Nokia Nuron in this video taken at CTIA. Note: The blueish coloring is a result of the lighting effects at the Nokia booth. The cell phone is really white.

Walking the CTIA trade show floor you'll never know what you'll see. Here's one item I really didn't expect to see: a robot that could do things just by telling it to on Twitter. The concept was the result of the Nokia's global PUSH N900 competition held in October 2009, where entrants were asked to connect the Nokia N900 to something they love. Here's Command Niko one of the finalist shown at CTIA. It didn't win, but it's still a neat trick.

T-Mobile announced the Nokia 5230 Nuron will be available in the coming weeks. This Nokia smartphone will be the first Nokia cell phone in the US to come preloaded with the Ovi Store - Nokia's apps store. Even better, consumers will be able to buy apps on the cell phone and have purchases charged directly to the customer's T-Mobile bill. Also of note is the inclusion of Ovi Maps that offers free turn-by-turn directions. For more convenience, built into Ovi Maps are nearby places of interest such as movies, restaurants, and events compliments of Lonely Planet Guides. The Nokia cell phone will work on T-Mobile's 3G network, sport a full HTML web browser and a 3.2-inch touchscreen.

Today, AT&T announced that it will be adding Google's Android smartphones to its line-up. Among those mentioned were a Dell Mini 3 (this will be the first Dell smartphone to launch in the United States), a Motorola model running Blur, and a model from HTC. AT&T said it would be introducing 5 models this year. Additionally, the company said it would be offering two Palm Web OS smartphones in the first half of the year.

Speaking of smartphones let's not forget that it's applications that seem to interest users and just about every smartphone OS has its own app store. To help support that AT&T will be loading the corresponding app store on each smartphone making it easier to download apps.

We'll have more information on the cell phones mentioned at the AT&T press conference in our on-going CES coverage. In the meantime, below is the Dell Mini 3.

We asked our blog readers, "Of all the smartphone OS' available, which is the one that meets your needs best?" It was a close race, but out of 48 responses the BlackBerry Operating System (OS) seemed to be the smartphone OS of choice garnering 31% of the votes. Tied for second was Google's Android OS and the iPhone OS each getting 25% of votes. The OS that least met the needs of the PhoneTalk blog readers was Palm. There could be a few reasons for the responses such as BlackBerry has been at the game a lot longer and likely has more active smartphones in the market, while the latest Palm Web OS is fairly new just being released this year.

What's more interesting to me is the tie between Google's Android OS and Apple's iPhone. Does this mean that Android is giving the iPhone a run for its money? Hard to say, but let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Also, please voice your opinion in our latest poll, "How do you want to receive holiday greetings this year" featured in the right hand column. In the meantime, here's a recap of the survey results:

BlackBerry 31%

Google's Android 25%

iPhone 25%

Windows Mobile 13%

Symbian 4%

Palm 2%

That's the latest poll results!

The Nokia e71x is more than just a smartphone for work, it can also be a reliable shopping companion. Watch the video below to see what we mean.