Late's better than never -- usually, anyway -- and a rumored release date finally stuck long enough for the BlackBerry Curve 8330 to make an appearance on Sprint's online store. In fact, as "mid-May" goes, May 9 is actually on the early side of things if you want to get technical about it, so we guess some kudos are actually due here. Sprint's asking $179.99 on contract with rebates for the pleasure of indulging in its latest mobile productivity tool, which you'll ironically be using to respond to emails during meetings that you're supposed to be listening in on. Funny how the world works, isn't it? [Source: Nextel]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The next time you get popped for a crime you didn't commit and end up in the Big House, you're going to be real glad NCIC Inmate Telephone Services rolled into existence. The greatest dream of felons everywhere has finally come to fruition: You can now make collect calls to cellphones while you're serving your time. And hey, this isn't just some minor advance -- no, this is "lightning in a bottle," arguably on par with the first moon landing, finding a cure for cancer, or hitting that crazy high note at the end of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." With a 20 percent call-completion rate, you don't have to defer your dreams -- rob a bank today, you'll definitely be able to make pricey collect calls to loved ones from jail! [Source: PRWeb]

[Image courtesy Celebrity Blackberry Sightings]

For those that need to be in the know about the very latest supposedly-leaked 3G iPhone shots that hit the web this week, we've got you covered -- but we're not convinced, especially of the device on the right. The shots on the left do at least seem to be crafted around those supposed size and shape leaks we saw the other day though, so bonus points there for playing into another current rumor to rack up a small bit of credibility. Still, in our best Rick James voice, Photoshop's a hell of a tool.

Read - Left four shots appear on Chinese phone forum
Read - Shot on the right from AppleInsider

If you're not in the habit of locking your keypad before throwing it in your pocket or purse, you've probably had it make a few calls without your knowledge. Accidental dialing is annoying, but usually just results in some long, boring voicemails of background noise, or, in a worst-case scenario, captures your off-key singing along with some Michael Buble song your car stereo.

But a recent unintentional voicemail turns out to be a different story, as it was left by Jeff Nolan, a soldier deployed in Afghanistan whose phone dialed his parents' home on Oregon on its own accord -- in the middle of a gunfight.

The nearly three-minute voicemail captures the sound of extended automatic gunfire, a bit of muffled profanity, and ends with a disturbing yell: "Incoming RPG!" Not exactly what you would want to hear coming from your son's phone! Thankfully, Jeff survived the battle, and his family has since posted the voicemail on YouTube for all to hear. [Source: KPTV, via Textually.org]

The latest round of rumors regarding the goings-on behind the scenes of Nokia's lofty Comes with Music paint a bleak picture for profitability -- but even scarier, they suggest that the company could be simply blown out if the initiative takes off. The Comes With Music plans to offer a year's worth of free music tracks to anyone who buys certain Nokia phones.

The problem stems from the claim that Nokia's deals with labels represent a huge gamble: The deals assume that buyers of Comes with Music-compatible phones won't download more than a certain number of songs, believed to be 35. Above that, Nokia is no longer covered by a flat fee and has to pay the wholesale per-song rate for each downloaded song above 35 for each consumer.

Clearly, either the rumor's wrong or Nokia seems to be betting against its own success here -- but the recent departure of a key exec involved with Comes with Music lends some credence to the latter. Maybe we don't speak for everyone here, but if we're paying a premium on our phone to earn a full year of all-you-can-eat tracks, you'd best believe we're taking full advantage. [Source: The Register via mocoNews]

A group of drug dealers at San Diego State University was rounded up by authorities Tuesday after the conclusion of a successful sting operation that included monitoring text messages advertising drug sales and price drops to "faithful customers."

One of the captured text messages was sent to an undercover drug enforcement agent. It said the drug dealing students were having a price special since they'd be going out of town on a trip to Las Vegas. (How's that for customer service?)

Many of those swept up by the year-long sting were members of a fraternity, Theta Chi, and some were even criminal justice and homeland security majors. The net result of the sting arrests and drug seizures? Two kilograms of cocaine, 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash. Of the 96 people arrested, 75 were students. Five other fraternities besides Theta Chi are also implicated.

Whatever happened to good old fashioned fraternity traditions like hazing and alcohol poisoning? The sting itself was launched after the fatal cocaine overdose of a student last May.

Here at Switched, we applaud small business people and entrepreneurs everywhere for using technology – such as text messaging – to improve customer service. Is there a group of college students out there who have put this kind of mobile tech to good use – or is this ring of drug dealers the only one that has tapped into the tech? [Source: MSNBC via Textually.org]

When the Pope arrived on our shores last month, much of the nation was subject to the pomp and fanfare that surrounded his every move. Now the Pope is making a trip Down Under for Sydney's World Youth Day next month, and those who can't watch him live (or online) will be able to follow the Pontiff via SMS.

The Pope (or one of his lackeys) will be sending "daily messages of inspiration" to the phones of thousands of Catholics during the event, which despite being called "World Youth Day," actually covers an entire week.

The Catholic church will also be setting up a social networking site similar to MySpace or Facebook, enabling believers to hook up -- and pray, of course. [Source: I4U/Reuters, via Textually.org]

We're all about reviews of products before they're released, but reviewing something before it's even been officially confirmed by a company is its own special brand of magnificent. Granted, these are more like the hands-on impressions of a self-confessed BlackBerry addict, who was willing to fork over $828 US on the off chance that the eBay auction the other day was actually legit. A week later Kevin of CrackBerry.com has the BlackBerry 9000 in hand and seems to be loving every minute of it.

Apparently the keyboard is better than the 8800 series, the OS4.6 is smooth, fast and pretty, and the 480 x 320 LCD is "awesome." And don't get Kevin started on 3G: the logo alone brought a tear to his eye -- we're clearly dealing with a bona fide fanboy here. That said, it's an encouraging sign to see all those leaked shots weren't just for show, there's a real-live performer behind the legend. Kevin's major caveat is the size and weight of the phone, compared to his Curve, but we're sure the $828 hole in his checking account will have him coming to terms with that drawback in the near future. He'll be posting more details and impressions as he goes. [Source: CrackBerry]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Here we are in London at the Soho Hotel with HTC, and we are among the first to see their new Diamond handset. While we thought we may see three new products in three different form factors, HTC Prez and CEO Peter Chou led-off the event by mentioning that they would be launching just one product today. He peppered his intro by talking about the Touch, so we were prepared to see an update on that product utilizing their TouchFLO tech.

The device has some pretty nice interface tech that they're calling TouchFLO 3D that heavily emphasizes one-touch browsing and single-finger dialing. They emphasized web accessibility, zoom-in navigation with "just one hand" and not too many fingers. As expected, the device is loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1, a VGA screen and HSDPA 7.2, among other nice specs.

Updates, specs, and pics after the break!

Expanded Coverage at Engadget:

• HTC Touch All Gussied Up and Official
• HTC Touch Diamond Hands-On
• A Little More on HTC's Touch Diamond

These days, every cell phone sold through a U.S. carrier contains within it a locator that enables emergency services to find you should you dial 911. Even if you have an older phone that lacks this feature, your cell phone carrier can still determine your location relatively accurately based on which cell towers your handset is hitting. During an emergency, that knowledge is comforting, but what if you just want to get away for awhile? That's the question on many minds as it's been revealed that providers are sharing that location info with police sans warrant.

It seems that so long as police indicate there is some sort of "exigent circumstance," in other words the risk of physical harm, then cell providers will give up the location of any of their customers to the police without a warning. All they need is some sort of written statement of those exigent circumstances and that's it, whether they be a mother who can't find her kid or a husband whose wife never returned home from work. The situation is different if that customer is involved in a criminal investigation, however. In that case, the police do indeed need a warrant, even if those circumstances still apply.

So, what do you think? Should the police be able to determine your location without any sort of legal proceedings, possibly saving your life if you were ever stranded on the side of the road? Or, should they need a warrant, leaving you on your own to find your way home? [Source: seattlepi, via fark]

We'd take this with half a tablespoon of salt for now, but The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint-Nextel Corp. is "seriously considering spinning off or selling its ailing Nextel unit." That's according to undisclosed people "familiar with the situation," though Sprint did decline to comment on whether it actually was considering a sale of Nextel. Also of note, Cyren Call is reportedly attempting to "assemble a consortium of investors to acquire Nextel as part of its plans to create a nationwide wireless network for public safety communications," and while it can't be confirmed, we are hearing that Sprint is "contemplating other possible buyers such as private equity firms."

Still, these same sources made clear that "no deal was imminent and that Sprint was preoccupied for the moment with other matters." It's no secret that the firm would be way more attractive to suitors (read: Deutsche Telekom) if the flagging Nextel division was detached from the deal, but we guess we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out. [Source: Wall Street Journal - Warning: read link requires subscription]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, image courtesy of Flickr]

Are you ready for an emergency? Have you got your "go" bag packed with all the items you need for a few days after a disaster, natural or otherwise?

We're not all doom and gloom here at Switched, but we do like being prepared, so when we saw a great round-up of emergency products that generate their own power, we couldn't resist a closer look. The folks at Unplggd have put together a list of top-notch solar powered gadgets that could keep you going when you're on the, um, go.

Here are some of our favorites from the list:

The Crank It Up! Dynamo Solar Radio has both a hand crank (old fashioned style) and solar power, so you can tune in to news when you need it, even without batteries or a power outlet.

Ignore the contradiction in the name of the Solar Flashlight, which drinks up power during the day so you can use the device to light your way at night. It also has a compass.

We were also intrigued by Innergy Power's Emergency Solar Power Kit, which stores power so you can plug in a cell phone, laptop or other device. [Source: Unplggd]

Virtually every smell-based tech that's come through the pipe has fizzled out in one way or another, but that checkered past isn't stopping Germany's ConVisual from partnering with the Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing to develop scent-delivery chips for cell phones.

The partnership has been running for eight years and just received a patent on the tech, and the goal now is to start building the chips into phones within the next two years. Initially, the chip is supposed to have 100 different smells on it, and ConVisual says bad smells are a possibility as users will be able to reject certain messages. That's certainly interesting, but we've got to say, we're not all that keen on the idea of people having even more ways to emit odors -- we'll stick with the non-smelly cellys, thanks much. [Source: The Local via EE TImes]

We know HTC's got a big announcement coming this Tuesday, and while we can't say for sure it's going to the Touch Diamond, if today's leaked images and specs are at all accurate we think they might have something big on their hands. Check it out:

• 2.8-inch VGA display
• WinMo 6.1 Pro
• WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0
• eGPS, FM tuner
• Quad-band HSDPA 7.2
• 4GB internal flash, microSD slot
• 528MHz CPU
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
• 10.7mm (0.47-inches) thick
• Supposedly also features an orientation sensor / accelerometer
  

Whether it's got a QWERTY keyboard could still be up for grabs, especially since that configuration might belong to the CDMA-based Raphael. Still, the it makes sense HTC wouldn't want the XPERIA X1 they made for Sony Ericsson to be their best engineered device on the market for long. We'll be watching this one closely. [Source: NewsMobile]

[Thanks, Kevin]

Chances are, you treat your iPhone better than you treat your children. You lavish it with attention, show it off to friends, and rub its underside when its battery is low. It sleeps next to you, and turning it on is your first order of business in the morning. So why not make it happy with some top-notch accessories? We've compiled a list of the best in every category -- and make your iPhone love you as much as you love it. Freak.



Best Case:

incase Slider

We've put quite a few cases on our iPhones, and there's a clear winner: incase's Slider ($34.99). It's ultra slim and made of quality, hardshell plastic -- something not the case with most of its competition (no pun intended), which quite drastically change the silhouette of the phone. On the inside are rubber guardrails, which provide shock absorption, and the bottom cover is removable, making it fit easily in most docks (the device is actually thin enough that it fit in all of our docks as-is). And then, of course, there are the looks: It's shiny, black or white Storm Trooper plastic that just looks awesome. It sounds crazy, but we like the way our iPhone looks more with the case on than without it. (And incase just released a black matte version if a more understated, non-Storm-Trooper look is more up your alley.)