We're still not entirely sure why Samsung feels the need to launch its own mobile operating system while still cranking out Android and Windows Mobile devices, but it seems like things are going full steam ahead: a spokesperson told CNET Asia today that a Bada phone would arrive in the first half of 2010. Sure, that sounds like a long time off, but really it's just six months after the big Bada SDK reveal in December, so we'll have to see if that's enough time for developers to sort things out and release any apps.

[Thanks, Siobhan]

We've been saying all along that we'd love nothing more than to see someone throw a 3G chip into Creative's Zii Egg and sell it as a pretty strong smartphone, but so far we've been hit with little to no indication of interested parties making that happen. So when we spot phrases like "Zii Optimized Android Phone platform" and "the line-up of devices on display includes a Mobile Phone platform" on an informational site for the ZiiLABS Showcase happening early December in China, our interested are definitely piqued. The event is geared towards companies who'd like to use the Plaszma platform for their products, and with any luck, some debonair decision-maker will give Zii phone a chance.

[Via myCreative Fansite; thanks, Kyle]

webOS 1.3.1 was always destined to come alongside the launch of the Pixi, but it's surprised us by showing its face a day early. No app catalog bombshells here, but there are a slew of more minor fixes and updates that should make users experience a great deal smoother. Is this the update that finally unlocks access to the GPU and provides the speed boost Pre owners are waiting for / advances the iTunes chess match another step? We'll let you know once our unit reboots, for now here are a few highlights from Palm's list of changes:

Update: Downloaded, applied and rebooted. iTunes still isn't spotting our Pre as a device to sync with, and at least for the moment there's no great speed increases to speak of, but we have noticed a few more key tweaks that owners are sure to like -- setting a specific ringtone for text messages is exactly what we've been looking for.

• Yahoo! now appears as a Calendar/Contacts/instant messaging synchronization account.
• You can forward a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Forward.
• A new option is available for restarting the phone: press and hold power > Power > Restart. The prior restart method (Device Info > Reset Options > Restart) is still available.
• Widescreen videos (including YouTube) now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.
• You can select a unique ringtone for new message alerts: Open Messaging > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Sound > Ringtone.
• While listening to a song with album art displayed, you can tap the screen below the art to display a playback slider. Dragging the slider jumps forward or backward in the song.

With a name like HiPhone, it has to be good, right? Totally. The outfit famous for knocking off RIM's BlackBerry Storm in impressive fashion is back, this time with a psychedelic mishmash that could make even the most hardened soul chuckle once or twice. The F320 is -- as you can so clearly see above -- a terribly funny combination of iPod nano and rotary phone, and while we wouldn't trust the specifications for a minute, we're told that it's a dual-band GSM handset with a built-in multimedia player, FM tuner, camera, 2.6-inch touchscreen and Bluetooth. There's no mention of a price (unless you're willing to commit to buying a few hundred), but trust us, it's better that way.

[Via PMP Today]

After what seemed like a full lifetime of waiting, Acer's recently-launched neoTouch S200 is finally making its way into some reviewing hands. The fine young cannibals over at Phone Arena have just given it the head to toe treatment, and we have to say, we're glad they've done the dirty work for us. This WinMo 6.5 handset, according to their impressions, seems to be a not fully baked affair -- sluggishness and random crashing are both reported, as is a rather serious sounding call quality issue. The battery also seems to be inadequate for a workday, coming in at around five hours. Overall, the phone suffers from software optimization problems more than hardware issues. The one ray of light in all this is of course that 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, which can multitask and handle several things at once without flinching -- but it's rather hard to get pumped about it in the face of all that sadness. Hit the read link for the full, exhaustive review.

Remember the good old days with your virtual pets on your keyring? Well, how about an injection of life that actually roams around inside your phone? Some dude in China had this exact idea -- probably inspired by the waterproof LG GD900 Crystal in a fish tank -- and popped open the hollow keypad of his own Crystal, slapped in two unfortunate little neon tetras, squeezed in some water and snap! There's no mention on how long the poor things can survive in there for, but chances are PETA will be after your backside well before something goes wrong. We also went through the warranty paperwork, and honestly, we think this gentleman might be in a fishy area here. Video of the mod after the break, if you dare.

Intel just announced a new version of Moblin designed for phones, running on an Atom-based phone. The interface has been redesigned for handheld usage, and there's a lot of widget-based social networking integration, as well as a panels-based navigation system that allows you to flip through multiple running applications. There's no hard date on when this might ship, but it was demoed running on a MID -- which we'll be scoring the show floor trying to find just as soon as the keynote is over.

Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg isn't too upbeat on the future of landlines, telling the audience at a Goldman Sachs investor conference today that the company is just not interested in telephones connected with wires. The chief exec of one of the nation's biggest telecommunications firms continued with his gospel, saying his "thinking has matured" and that trying to predict when the dwindling landline business will plateau is akin to "the dog chasing the bus." He says the new way of thinking is "liberating," but of course, endeavors like the Hub technically don't count as landlines to the company since it'sVoIP, and the coupled with its continued success as the largest cellular provider in terms of subscriber base, yeah, we're sure it's not too tough a pill to swallow. So how abut ramping up FiOS installations just a wee bit faster, eh Ivan?

In an all-too brief teaser at a press conference across the pond, Archos decided to give a few more details and a teaser pic of the Android phone it announced back in February. According to the slide, it's got a 4.3-inch touchscreen with 854 x 480 resolution, a 1GHz ARM processor -- likely comparable to Archos 5, but pretty powerful considering what all other Android phones have so far arrived with -- and a 10mm-thick shell. Size and specs-wise, it matches up quite handily to the Snapdragon- and Windows Mobile-powered Toshiba TG01, although that one's already taking up retail shelf space, and it looks like we'll be waiting for some of those infamous Archos leaks if we want any more information the phone tablet in the near future.

The new Nokia N900 is only a week old, but it's already being put to some interesting uses -- like this nifty little video wall commissioned by Nokia at the onedotzero adventures in motion festival in London. A custom Maemo 5 app sends messages to the display, and then the phone's accelerometer can be used to control the animation. Sure, it's not the most super-original phone+art installation we've ever seen, but it's certainly quite pretty -- check the video after the break.

Electronics and small, potentially lethal bouts of combustion go together like peas in a pod, but you know phones -- they're always branching out, conquering new markets, getting smarter, and doing things they've never done before. Take the common exploding battery, for instance; what happens when that trick gets played out? One creative option would be to find the closest source of natural gas and ignite it from afar, which is what one New York gentleman's Sony Ericsson (a classic P910i, we believe) has taken to doing. It seems that the phone somehow triggers the burners on his Magic Chef range to ignite when it's called -- in fact, they don't just light up, they go straight to the hellish "HI" setting, as the appliance's display is eager to point out -- and other phones tested have incited similar effects. For its part, Maytag (Magic Chef's parent company) says "this situation is highly unusual," so we wouldn't freak out about setting our phones on unlit ranges just yet -- unless you've already got a healthy fear of burning your $500 phone to a crisp for other unrelated reasons.

[Via Yahoo! Tech]

Alright, you know how Dell's seemingly been going through hell and high water for years now to try to bring a smartphone or two to market? China's been a special focus of this clandestine effort, and we've got some new information here -- possibly. Chinese site NetEase is reporting on an email supposedly received by developers on China Mobile's Mobile Market mailing list, discussing a handful of S60, WinMo, and Android-based Open Mobile System (OMS) devices that the carrier would really love devs to concentrate on as Mobile Market goes live and tries to gain some footing. Most of the content is mundane, but there's a section for an OMS device called the Dell "mini 3i," a name that would certainly fall right in line with Dell's branding -- but there are a couple issues here. First, the phone is said to operate on China Mobile's legacy GSM network, not the homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G tech that the carrier is working diligently to deploy right now; it seems illogical at best for Dell to get into the game with a phone that's immediately walloped by Lenovo with its 3G-capable O1 as the first volley of OMS phones comes to market over the coming weeks. Secondly there's absolutely zero discussion about the supposed email on OMS' official forums, which seems odd if the email's real. To its credit, the claimed 640 x 360 -- that's a perfect 16:9, if you can't be bothered to get out your graphing calculator -- sounds about right to match the rumored shot we've seen floating around lately, but we're still staying guarded on this one until we hear something official from the folks in Austin or Hong Kong.

[Via Cloned In China]

We haven't heard a peep about this from anywhere else, but the inimitable Michael Arrington at TechCrunch says Dell's gearing up to launch that long-rumored smartphone in China "within days." Don't get too excited, though: even Mike says the evidence is "thin," and we doubt anything Dell eventually brings out in China will have much bearing on the rest of the world, since the Chinese government requires quite a bit of product customization for the domestic market. Still, we'll see what happens -- and if Dell manages to produce something a little more interesting than its previous efforts.

[Via TrustedReviews]

Okay, so maybe there's not literally any text penciled in on these drawings, but if you've been looking for multiple angles of Motorola's sure-to-be-forthcoming Morrison, these are about as good as it gets. Not surprisingly, the design here seems pretty conventional; for all intents and purposes, it's just a QWERTY-packin', full touchscreen slider smartphone with all the makings of a sub-$100 (on contract) Android offering. Hit the read link if you're eager for more, and go on grab another handful of patience while you're at it.