It's hard enough for Motorola's handset division to go about its business these days without losing talent, but losing executives to Apple's iPhone team? That's just a straight-up slap in the face, and Moto's not gonna take it lying down. The We Generation has filed suit against Michael Fenger, the dude running its handset business for the EMEA market for six years until March this year, when he quit to take up a posh job as Apple's veep of global iPhone sales. That isn't a problem in itself -- businessfolk switch teams all the time -- but it seems Mr. Fenger had an agreement in place not to work for a competitor inside of two years following his departure. Moto claims he "was privy to the pricing, margins, customer initiatives, allocation of resources, product development, multiyear product, business and talent planning and strategies being used by Motorola" (not to say that data's worth much more than the paper it's written on these days) and wants over a million bucks back plus a court order banning him from working for Cupertino for those promised two years retroactively to March 31; non-compete clauses generally aren't valid in California, but since this one was executed in Illinois and the case is filed in Chicago, they've got a shot here. Note to current execs still out there in Schaumburg: better start righting that ship you're on, because you ain't getting on a more buoyant one without a fight.

[Via CNET]

Alright, can someone help us out with a little primer on German law here? California-based sipgate offers up a VoIP client for the iPhone that -- for the moment, anyway -- requires a jailbroken handset to run. It goes about its business on WiFi airwaves, so from the carrier's perspective, no harm, no foul, right? Not so much. T-Mobile Germany takes issue with the app, claiming that it's enticing its iPhone users to jailbreak -- a violation of its contract terms. Furthermore, the contract disallows VoIP of any kind, WiFI or otherwise, which pretty much makes sipgate public enemy number one in T-Mob's eyes. They've gone ahead and sent out a nasty little cease 'n desist, which sipgate says it plans to fight all the way through the court system if that's how T-Mobile wants to roll; meanwhile, it's still providing service and says that "for the time being [its] users are safe." Fight the good fight, guys.

[Via TUAW]

Never before have we dealt with so much naming drama leading up to a new Sidekick's release. Gekko, Gecco, Aspen, Sidekick 2008, the list of candidates goes on, and we finally have a winner: Sidekick 2008 it is! The name comes courtesy of some new internal documentation for T-Mobile reps, which also reveals that the low-end piece will be available come July 30 (seemingly putting the kibosh on Best Buy's July 27 date) with interchangeable shells, a 2 megapixel cam, and a 2.6-inch WQVGA display that'll definitely be a nice bump up from the iD's specs.

The saga of the Meizu M8 is one of the more entertaining dramas in the phone biz these days, owing partly to the endless delays and tweaks, granted -- but owing much more to the truly masterful ripping of the iPhone's industrial design. Unfortunately, there's been very little actual bite to follow up the bark coming out of the Meizu camp, and it looks like we might get a real taste of this thing for the first time as soon as next month. A post on Meizu's website, seemingly from none other than CEO J. Wong himself, claims that a first cut of the M8 will arrive next month -- along with plenty more pictures and details -- but it'll be a somewhat neutered rendition that features just 128MB of RAM and zero flash. October will bring the real deal, a 256MB baddie that rocks 8GB of storage for 2180 yuan, which works out to about $320. Meanwhile, pictures have surfaced of the latest prototype floating around Meizu's labs, looking both as slick and as litigation-prone as ever. Bring these stateside, Mr. Wong, and we'll be the very first to sign up -- just don't be surprised if Apple is right behind us.

[Via Electronista]

Read - August for 128MB model, October for 256MB / 8GB?
Read - Prototype M8 in the wild

Notice that your freshly-purchased N75 smells more like a week-old head of cabbage than a bundle of brand new plastic, glue, and circuitry? That's gross, and no, we don't want to touch it (seriously, get that thing away from us). Turns out you may not be alone, though -- a new class-action suit filed in federal court alleges that CommClub, an independent retailer in California, was selling used Nokias for AT&T's network as brand new devices. For whatever reason, AT&T and Nokia are also named as defendants in the suit, though we're not sure exactly what role they played in CommClub's potentially nefarious dealings; at any rate, the class is looking to bring home some bacon for "injuries" suffered as a result of the bait-and-switch. You're going to go smell your N75 now, aren't you?

Tech firms seem to have this uncanny ability to significantly boost functionality while significantly reducing cost with each new generation of a product -- and you'll never believe this, but it looks like Apple is no exception. The teardown and bean-counting experts over at iSuppli are at it again with the iPhone 3G, finding that the whole kit and kaboodle tallies up to just $174.33 (give or take) for the 8GB model in material and manufacturing costs. That works out to about $53 less than iSuppli's estimate for the original 8GB model back in June of last year, an amount saved in part by moving to a single 10-layer circuit board (versus a pair of 6-layer boards). The firm figures Apple's shelling out about $50 in royalties for each iPhone 3G that rolls off the assembly line, leading to a grand total of $224.33 in costs. Offset that with a healthy AT&T subsidy, and all told, we're looking at something like a 55 percent margin to help Steve finance his next round of black turtlenecks.

[Via AppleInsider]

Some particularly juicy rumors die hard, and this one certainly qualifies: CNBC is reporting that SK Telecom is looking to hook up with some private equity firms to buy out Sprint Nextel, though a deal is "not imminent." This one's been making the rounds since last year, though it's possible that SKT sees some new impetus for making a break into the US market now that it's sold off its share in Helio -- and buying the third largest carrier in the country would certainly qualify as "making a break." It's claimed that SKT's only interested in completing a friendly deal -- no crazy hostile takeovers here -- and some of Sprint's board members aren't keen on the idea at this point, so it's definitely a hit-or-miss proposition. If this all means we can get even half of Korea's domestic hardware on US airwaves, then hey, no complaints on this end.

Update: The Wall Street Journal is now suggesting that Sprint and SKT are investigating some sort of joint venture -- not a full-on acquisition -- that would see the lovebirds work together on handsets and services. Possible, but we're curious to know what exactly Sprint brings to the table in that equation. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Boy Genius has landed a BlackBerry Bold -- RIM's big, splashy push into the brave new world of HSDPA -- in production hardware trim, and it looks like the rougher users out there might need a quick lesson in fragile handling if they want to get in on the action when it launches around the world in the next few weeks. The screen is said to be absolutely beautiful (as it should be at 480 x 320), and there's a much improved browser to take advantage of that extra real estate; unfortunately, the whole package apparently scratches up with ridiculous ease, so it's anybody's guess just how long you'll be able to actually see the screen before it's awash in damage. Just remember: keys in one pocket, BlackBerry in the other. Interested parties would do themselves a favor by clicking through to the full review -- the cat knows his BlackBerrys, and he's really gone to town this time around.

Craziest thing, Apple apparently launched some sort of device being loosely coined as a "cellular telephone" last Friday. The darned thing makes calls, keeps track of contacts, and even receives messages -- all right from your pocket! Wild, sci-fi caliber stuff, that. We're catching up on the latest iPhone 3G buzz, and here's what we've got going on at the moment:

• Jonny Gladwell, better known as the first iPhone 3G owner in the world thanks to his perfect storm of location (New Zealand) and line position (first), has been outed as a plant for New Zealand's Yellow Pages. Turns out the guy was hired by the directory service to see if he could "survive" the brutal multi-day sitting experience using nothing but -- you guessed it -- the Yellow Pages to get by. Ironic that you don't need a friggin' Yellow Pages when you have an iPhone, isn't it? Hmm, Jonny?
• Portelligent has sacrificed an iPhone 3G to conduct perhaps the most thorough teardown thus far, finding some incremental improvements, largely to accomodate 3G and bring the design in line with the iPod touch, while carrying over a good deal of componentry that had no reason to be upgraded. Infineon and Toshiba had big wins here in the radio and flash memory departments, respectively.
• AIM acts as a conduit for sending text messages by allowing users to add phone numbers as "buddies." The iPhone has an AIM client. See where we're going with this? Yep, it's a cheesy way to avoid shelling out for a text messaging plan, if you want to go to the trouble of using AIM in place of the native SMS app.
• The plot thickens in the yellow screen issue. As we'd mentioned yesterday, Apple claims the warmer color temperature seen in the iPhone 3G was a purposeful attempt to make things prettier and sharper -- but now, Ars Technica reports that forcing an update in iTunes from the 3G's shipping firmware of 5A345 to the ever-so-slightly newer 5A347 pushes things a little bit back toward the blue end of the spectrum. So what's it gonna be, Apple?

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in!]

Yeah, we know pixel count doesn't equal picture quality -- but like it or not, it looks like 8 megapixels are poised to become the new 5 megapixels in the upper echelon of the cameraphone world this year. Samsung's never a company to shy away from a challenge like that, and sure enough, details are emerging on a so-called i8510 smartphone that features S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, FM radio, GPS, WiFi, and a whopping 16GB of internal storage -- not to mention a microSD slot that can take you up to 24GB. Oh, and there's the little matter of that camera, which features an dual LED flash and 120fps video capture at QVGA resolution. Add in DivX and DLNA certification, and we're kind of at a loss to figure out what's missing here. Boundless, unchecked hype, maybe? No word on a release date here just yet.

[Via mobil.cz]

So many of you are probably still in your jammies, reveling in the afterglow of yesterday's purchase, repeatedly opening Maps on your glossy new iPhone 3G and watching in exaggerated wonderment as your location is determined with frightening speed and accuracy. Others might be standing in a line snaking hundreds of bodies long into your friendly local Apple Store, reading this post from the comfort of your Motorola RAZR V3 and realizing that these are some of the last moments you'll be using a physical keypad. Still others are bemused by the fuss -- but whatever your stance on the phone, it's pretty hard to ignore the buzz that's floating around in the aftermath of day zero. Here are some of the goings-on we're tracking:

• The masses of humanity continue to collect. Massive stock shortages don't seem to be an issue (yet), but patience is not a virtue we hold dear to our hearts, so we really can't blame these people.
• Some buyers are reporting a yellow tint to their screens -- probably not enough to notice without another unit side-by-side for comparison, but real nonetheless. Of course, the first iPhone suffered from the occasional crappy backlight, bum touchscreen, or negative black, so we wouldn't be surprised if a few lame displays made it out of the factory floor for this model as well; we're following up with Apple on this and we should have more for you later today.
• We took the iPhone 3G on a decent drive around New York, and found its tracking to be impeccable. In a situation where we might have veered off the path following Google Maps directions, the blue blip kept us right on track. Despite what you've read (we're looking at you, Mr. Pogue), we see no technical reason that the aGPS can't provide turn-by-turn directions, provided there's software to take advantage of it.
• There are some complaints floating around about 3G reception, but it's been just fine on our review units around the world so far. How's it treating you out in [your location here]?
• iphone-dev has a video up of BootNeuter going about its business on a first-gen iPhone that's been upgraded to firmware 2.0, and the process is looking as slick and painless as ever. Unlockers who haven't shelled out for the 3G, commence your salivating.
• MobileMe seems like it's up for the moment, but don't breathe too hard lest you bring the whole thing down again.

Update: We just spoke with Bob Borchers, senior director of product marketing for the iPhone, and he had some very interesting info regarding the "yellow screen" phenomenon we've been hearing about. According to Bob (and Apple), the screen's color temperature has been purposely altered on the new iPhone to produce warmer, more natural tones, sharper images, and deeper blacks. The company says that 1st gen iPhone screens appeared colder and less defined, and they made some adjustments for the new models. In our opinion, what he says is right on -- the screens do look better on the iPhone 3G versus the older variety. What do you guys think?

We'd heard that the latest incarnation of the Chocolate series from LG on Verizon would be launching next Monday, but we've got some great news to close out the week, fans: you'll be able to plunk down your cash a full day early. It turns out that the Chocolate 3 will actually be launching this Sunday, July 13 for the expected $129.99 after rebate, featuring a 2 megapixel cam, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, and an in-your-face set of external music controls, all in your choice of black or light blue. Just add an 8GB microSD card and the Rhapsody tie-in, and you've got yourself a little musical powerhouse here.

Well, looky here! Not happy with the Touch Dual or Touch Pro, you saucy CDMA lovers, you? Try this one on for size then: the last piece in HTC's EV-DO puzzle for 2008 has now hit the FCC, the Touch Diamond -- and though only Telus has managed to announce it so far, we're feeling good about plenty of other carriers on the CDMA train recognizing the importance of this device and signing on before too long. We see test reports for WiFi, too, though we imagine it'll be at carriers' discretion to disable it if they're so inclined. Let's get a move on, Sprint. You too, Verizon, don't think we don't see you whistling over there in the corner.

A number of shots have surfaced of an upcoming Sidekick that we've alternately known as the Gekko and Gecco, but the rumor du jour on the naming front is that we'll actually be calling it "Sidekick 2008" by the time it launches (later this month if we're lucky). The grainy photography shows a device looking roughly like what we expect the new model to look like -- but more interestingly, it shows the phone wearing a variety of different shells, some of which rock as much bedazzlement as a Swarovski one-off. Pretty cool. Oh, and don't bother trying to go to sidekick.com.shells -- we did, and it isn't online yet.

[Via Hiptop 3]

Very rarely does a Palm handset go fully under the radar all the way through to the official announcement (if ever?), and now that we have a user's manual, we can pretty much declare the impending Treo 800w fully, completely, and utterly scooped. This is definitely the real deal, too, coming straight off Sprint's site -- not to say anyone would go to the trouble of faking their own -- and unveils no real surprises that we can see. The usual Windows Mobile 6.1 interface with Palm customizations, conservative styling (we're being generous there), and typical array of Sprint add-ons like Sprint TV are going to make this a safe, easy choice for the well-starched suit in your life, and that's about it. Not to say we have a problem with well-starched suits; Engadget corporate policy requires that we wear them at all times, actually. [Warning: PDF link]

[Thanks, Josh]