And it's out. The BlackBerry Storm2 just made its first official carrier appearance with Vodafone. The promising followup to the much maligned BlackBerry Storm will be free on pay-monthly contracts from £35 on up. Specs include a 3.25-inch 360 x 480 pixel capacitive SurePress (new and improved) touchscreen display, 802.11b/g WiFi and 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA data, 256MB of flash memory (double that of the original Storm), 2GB of onboard memory with microSDHC expansion, 3.5-mm standard headset jack, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, built-in GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and 1400mAh battery giving about 6 hours of 3G talk. BlackBerry OS 5 too, of course, when it lands on October 15th in the UK, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Spain -- France, Italy, and South Africa in time for Christmas.

Update: Now on official RIM page too with a detailed comparison against the original Storm.
[Thanks, James]

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Unlimited music services have been met with generally mixed reaction around the world, but Sony Ericsson's still interested in getting down in the trenches and duking it out with Nokia for supremacy in a battle of Comes With Music versus PlayNow Plus. The company is now taking its service to Holland through a partnership with T-Mobile's local outpost, launching on the W995 slider for €9.95 a month (about $14.50) when paired with an internet plan (starting at €9.95) on a two-year deal. The good news is that they're chucking in the first six months of service for free, but the bad news is that it's not entirely clear what happens to your downloaded music when you cancel the subscription -- odds are it vanishes into thin air, but we'll stay optimistic until it launches next month and we hear the details.

Huawei's been talking up its impending play for a share of the Android pie for most of this year, but where's the beef? There's nothing in the market just yet, but that might be about to change with details on a so-called "Pulse" for some of T-Mobile's European networks in the coming months. The Chinese manufacturer specializes in the value segment -- a side effect of its brand not really commanding any premium outside Asia -- and the Pulse could be a big winner there thanks to an unlocked price said to be around €250 ($356). That's an impressively low figure in light of the supposed 3.5-inch display, full HSPA, GPS (of course), WiFi, and an HVGA display like all proper Android sets of the moment. Dutch site tweakers.net says this is all confirmed by way of a retailer that pegs the device for T-Mobile Netherlands in early October, which means the Heros and Galaxys of the world have precious little time to capitalize before these guys swoop in and undercut 'em all by a few bucks.

Talks had apparently been going on for a while to start a Blyk-branded Dutch MVNO, but to better align with its revised business strategy, the company is switching up its strategy and working with Vodafone to use its existing infrastructure exclusively. With the new plan, Blyk will be responsible strictly for the ad delivery technology, but either way, the result is pretty much the same: young'uns in the Netherlands will be able to get some voice minutes and texts every month in exchange for being delivered targeted advertising on their phones. The company claims that an "overwhelming" number of carriers in Europe and Asia are asking Blyk to take over their mobile advertising businesses entirely, so it seems the start-up could have a very successful future despite the slow start it's gotten with its own-branded MVNO in UK. We're still not sure we'd be willing to get blasted with frighteningly well-targeted ads (robots, console emulators, pizza joints, you know the drill) in exchange for a pittance in minutes, but for teens just getting their start, it could still be a power play.

Alright, move along folks, nothing to see here. Remember that Palm Pre support page that showed up on Dutch provider Hi's website? Seems like that'd indicative a possible future collaboration, but according to a spokesman for KPN (of which Hi is a part), it's all a misunderstanding. While not meant for public viewing at this time, the page in question was apparently intended to explain what settings you'd need for using a Hi SIM card, whether you got the device from them or via another provider. Still seems fishy, if you ask us. Of course, he added the company is very interested in the Pre (as if we thought otherwise), but that nothing's been announced at this time anywhere in Europe. Let's just hope that rumored UK announcement pans out this week, and maybe the rest of the continent will follow suit.

[Thanks, Wesley]

The GSM version of Palm's Pre looks all set for a UK announcement next week on O2. Now we get this, a Pre spotted on the support site for Dutch carrier Hi in The Netherlands. Fine, but what you may not know is that O2 and Hi (part of KPN) are also deeply intertwined with Telefonica -- O2 being owned by Telefonica and KPN being an "integrated carrier" with a long history of Telefonica courtship rumors. So, putting two and two together might equal a September launch if that previous Telefonica rumor was true.

[Via Tweakers, thanks Harm H.]

You know what's a better name than myTouch 3G? Well, just about anything -- but we especially like the name that T-Mobile Netherlands has allegedly chosen for its next Android phone, the simple, elegant "G1 Touch." We don't know what phone this'll be, necessarily -- the G1 trademark is owned by T-Mobile, so technically, we suppose this could even be a non-HTC device -- but odds are this is the local market's version of the HTC Magic that's now been launched on a number of carriers around the world. We can all agree this is a pretty good name, yeah?

We're thinking that HTC's Touch Diamond2 and Pro2 will be available all over the place by the time 2009 draws to a close, but if you want to be one of the first kids on the block to get in on that action, T-Mobile's European outposts are a good place to start looking. The carrier announced at MWC last week that Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK will all bet getting a version of the Diamond2 -- the MDA Compact V -- "by" June, while the Pro2 variant -- the MDA Vario V -- will launch more definitively "in" June. As usual, T-Mobile has chosen to customize its models a bit versus the standard fare that HTC is offering; opinions on the new look will vary, but if they're the first to launch, we think we can overlook some design niggles.

[Via the::unwired]

So far the G1 has only been available in the US and UK, but it looks like T-Mo's about to take Android international -- we're told the HTC-made handset will hit the Netherlands, Austria, and the Czech Republic on January 30, Germany on February 2, and Poland a bit later. No detailed pricing information, but it's confirmed that Germans will be able to score a G1 for just €1 ($1.33) with a two-year contract. Hopefully we'll see that pricing make its way Stateside soon -- although the G1 is currently doing quite well at $179, $1 sounds even better.

[Via TalkAndroid]

Nokia's Indian division recently announced that its customers there would be able to snatch up N96s of their own starting in September, so it comes as no surprise that European carriers are starting to confirm September release windows, too. Dutch carrier KPN, specifically, has announced that the N96 will start to flow its way in just a few tantalizingly short weeks -- September 15, to be exact -- while other carriers will have to wait an additional month until October 15 to get in on the action. One month isn't much of an exclusivity period, but when it comes to Nokia's most anticipated phone of the last few months (Tube notwithstanding), we're sure KPN will take what it can get.

[Via Mobile Phone Helpdesk]

A little easier on the pocketbook than the nearly $600 Movistar's asking for in Chile? Yeah, we'd say so. The BlackBerry Bold has now launched on KPN in the Netherlands, where it apparently takes nothing more than a €36.25 per month (about $54) plan on a two-year agreement to skirt any and all charges for the handset itself. Heck, even on a mere €26.75 monthly deal, you're still only shelling out €99.95 for the phone, which works out to something like $148 -- dirt cheap for a phone of the Bold's capability. AT&T's pricing on the other hand... well, we really don't know yet what they plan on charging for the pleasure, but something tells us we're going to need a Heineken or three to get over the sticker shock. A trip to Amsterdam wouldn't hurt, either, come to think of it.

[Thanks, hellejoep]

We know the wait's hard, guys, but look at it this way: one wait is actually ending -- the wait for an official waiting list -- while another is beginning. T-Mobile Netherlands customers are now welcome to put their name down to express interest in the lovely MDA Compact IV, T-Mobile's branded version of the HTC Touch Diamond WinMo superphone. There doesn't seem to be any indication here as to exactly when the retail floodgates are going to open up over there in Amsterdam, but it's a start.

[Thanks, Yoeri]

Ok ok, we hear you tipsters, iPhone now official for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia "later this year" thanks to a deal between Apple and TeliaSonera. At this point, only The Netherlands seems to be out of the loop in Europe.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Last we heard from the seemingly endless Nokia / Qualcomm kvetch-fest, the former company was soliciting the ITC's help in barring US Qualcomm chip imports, but for those wishing on their lucky stars that this spat would simply vanish into the night, we've got marginally good news. Apparently, a trio of judges in a Dutch court ruled that it didn't have jurisdiction to rule on the phone maker's claims outside of The Netherlands, thus, the patent-licensing case against Qualcomm was dismissed. Aside from claiming that its "jurisdiction was limited," the court also stated that Nokia's gripe was "too broad to give a reasoned decision." Of note, a German court also dismissed the case just last month on "similar grounds," but if you were counting on Nokia to just take the news in stride, we doubt you'll be pleased to hear that it's already "considering if it will appeal the decision."