T-Mobile myTouch 3G ‘1.2′ in the wild, Fender not the only one that can play this game

If you thought you’d have to submit to the reality of owning a faux woodgrain-themed myTouch to get in on that all-important 3.5mm headphone jack, think again — the myTouch 3G “1.2″ that’s been making the rounds on the rumor circuit recently has just been snapped, it seems, and it’s exactly what you’d expect: a Fender Limited Edition minus the Fender branding and with a return to the solid colored-shells of old.

Amazon MP3 swings open doors to UK in Android 2.1

Direct access to Amazon’s MP3 store from Android is old hat for American customers — it’s been preloaded on the time-weathered G1 since day one — but it’s still a foreign concept for users in a host of other countries, notably the UK where they’ve been enjoying Google’s platform for nearly as long as the Yankees have. That looks poised to change, though, with the introduction of Android 2.1 now that Brits running Nexus Ones have played around with their handsets long enough to discover that the Amazon MP3 app is preloaded and quoting prices in — yes, you guessed it — pounds sterling. There’s yet to be official word from Amazon on the matter so it’s unclear whether pre-2.1 phones will ultimately be able to get in on the action — but in the meantime, anyone desperate for access had better cobble up the quid for a Nexus import.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Games Edition goes on sale in US, puts the hurt on boredom

Sure, Nokia’s 5530 XpressMusic has been on sale across the States for months now, but here’s the thing: if you bust it out of the box and try to use it literally the second you get the package in the mail, you’ll find yourself facing a depression-inducing lack of entertainment. It’s a nightmarish reality facing thousands of buyers, but Nokia’s closing the gap with the release of the 5530 Games Edition, which — yes, that’s right — includes a bunch of games preloaded.

iHome’s iHome+Sleep app ready to lull you into (and out of) a slumber

iHome has taken a momentary break from its endless onslaught of iPod dock-equipped alarm clocks to whip up a little app that plays nice with said clocks. Of course, alarm clocks and sleep go hand-in-hand, so it makes sense that the so-called iHome+Sleep app for iPhone and iPod touch would basically amount to a fancy alarm management system when paired with any of the company’s “app-enhanced” models, complete with social network integration for letting all your friends and enemies what kind of tunes you’re waking and falling asleep to. You can set multiple recurring alarms with different playlists, get a variety of vital stats on your slumber, keep tabs on the weather situation, and generally keep your nightstand looking cooler than average

AT&T messes with plans in wake of Verizon’s moves, slashes unlimited voice pricing

Sprint’s talking about it , but AT&T’s straight-up doing something about Verizon’s plan adjustments this morning with a series of its own tweaks this afternoon. Starting Monday, January 18 (conveniently the same day that Verizon’s changes go live), unlimited talk will run $69.99 on individual plans, a nice little cut of $30 against the $99.99 the carrier charges today; family unlimited, meanwhile, comes in at $119.99. Unlimited talk and text costs another $20 on top of unlimited talk alone — no change from the current add-on pricing.

Samsung Moment gets a firmware update, convenience not included

Taking your phone into a service center for a firmware update is so 1999, but Samsung apparently didn’t get the memo, because Sprint just announced that you’ll need to head into one of the carrier’s stores with a repair facility to get your Moment re-upped. Of course, the good news here is that the Moment’s getting an update, period — it improves AGPS and battery life, among other things — but the bad news is that it bucks Android’s trend of magically updating over thin air and doesn’t include the promised 2.1 core . Presumably that stuff is yet to come, and happily, Sprint says that “the ability to download the update directly on your Moment will be available in the near future.” Let’s just pray this is the first and last time you need to put on pants and leave the house this year

‘Rann’ does not show media in bad light: RGV

Verma, popularly known as RGV, says that his latest venture is not about media-bashing because it is not a singular entity, but a system. “I expose the media by showing its true colours…the pressures, problems and complexities in running a 24 hour news channel.” Bachchan who portrays Vijay Harshvardhan Malik, a media baron, says ‘Rann’ does not portray the media in bad light. “It also not preachy of what the media should or should not do.

FCC backs off talk of forcefully reclaiming spectrum from TV broadcasters

Rest easy, broadcasters: your hard-earned spectrum is safe, at least for the moment. The FCC’s full-court press to round up additional spectrum for wireless broadband services had led it to suggest reclaiming some spectrum from broadcasters in recent months — a move that would arguably make sense considering the ever-shrinking importance of over-the-air television and the availability of more efficient broadcast methods — was met with considerable resistance from the broadcast industry, ultimately leading it to back off the message this week.

T-Mobile’s Touch Pro2 and Dash 3G signed up for WinMo 6.5 updates this month

So far, it seems like manufacturers (well, HTC and a couple others, anyhow) are staying on the ball about upgrading recent handsets to WinMo 6.5 , and the next deserving pair comes from none other than T-Mobile USA — the Dash 3G and Touch Pro2 . Of course, the unbranded versions of both of these handsets (the Dash 3G goes by Snap internationally, you may recall) were quite literally the first pre-6.5 devices anywhere to get updated way back in October , so you could make the argument that the American cousins are already way, way behind the curve.

Indonesia’s Smart Telecom deploys world’s first commercial EV-DO Rev. B network

You might think that the world’s network operators have already sworn off EV-DO’s development path as they move forward on 4G deployments, but that’s not quite the case: Smart Telecom — in the Indonesian isle of Bali, of all places — has just secured its spot in history as the world’s first carrier to roll out EV-DO Rev. B .

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