LG have revealed that they are planning to release a series of new luxury phones, including a new PRADA phone and another model which they hope will rival the Apple iPhone.

As reported from Slashgear, LG’s mobile business president, Ahn Seung-kwon hopes that the release of new models this year will see the company overtake Samsung and claim the number two cellphone maker in the world position.

No further details have been revealed on the iPhone rival handset, except that LG aim to push it out before the end of the year. We’ll keep you updated on that, as well as the new PRADA handset.

Let us know your thoughts on the news.

According to InformationWeek the recent release of the iPhone 3GS is a big factor in AT&T setting a new single-day sales record. The iPhone 3GS was released on AT&T on June 19th and set many different records for the company.

Not only was the iPhone 3GS a big factor in the reason that AT&T had their best ever sales day, but it was also a big contribution to the second largest traffic day that AT&T had ever seen. Another AT&T record that the iPhone was a big factor in was “the most transactions processed by its IT systems in a single day”.

The fact that AT&T had exclusivity for the iPhone 3GS is said to have brought the company thousands of new customers. Apple reported that more than a million iPhone 3GS handsets were sold within the first three days.

Check InformationWorld for full details.

If you have been keeping a close eye on the upcoming release of the 3G femtocell, you’ll want to know that it looks as if Sprint are winning the race ahead of AT&T to release the device first.

As reported from SlashGear, Sprint’s VP of device and technology development Mathew Oommen has gone on record and stated that they will be first to launch a 3G femtocell before the end of the year.

If the news is true, it means that Sprint customers will benefit from enhanced voice-call reception and EVDO Rev.A coverage.

We’ll let you know once pricing and release dates are revealed. Full story through the link.

It seems that Apple are having trouble containing explicit content on their App store, after recent reports that they have banned a second App in the same week for featuring explicit material.

As reported from Information Week, the latest App to be banned by Apple is called ‘BeautyMeter’. The App allows users to view user-submitted images of males and females and then rate them based on the image.

Apple has removed the App after it contained topless pictures of a 15 year old female, along with a similar app called ‘Hottest Girl’.

It seems like the problem could get out of hand in future if Apple don’t carefully moderate the Apps that they originally approve.

What are your thoughts on this?

According to the UK Newspaper the Guardian, the first network in the UK to offer the Palm Pre will be O2. Palm have stated that they will announce more details on July 7th. If this does turn out to be true it will be huge for O2 as they already have exclusivity for the Apple iPhone 3G S.

O2 have been rumoured to be the first UK supplier of the Palm Pre since back in May, apparently the UK network Vodafone were competing for the exclusive but seem to have missed out.

With O2 seemingly having exclusives to two of the most popular handsets available today this is sure to attract more customers, we will keep you updated as more news emerges.

Check out the full article on SlashGear.

The highly anticipated Samsung Omnia II (i8000) is said to be launching with Verizon later this month, now a video review has emerged on SlashGear, this video introduces you to most of the aspects of the handset, the video is 10 minutes long however if your thinking of getting the handset it is well worth watching. The video can be seen below.

The Omnia II comes with a 3.7 inch touchscreen along with a 5 megapixel camera. The screen is said to be better quality then the iPhone 3G S. The handsets runs Windows Mobile however the skin that has been used on the software has covered up.

Check out SlashGear for a more detailed look into the handset, which also includes photos and a video.

Since the release of Apple OS 3.0 on the whole reviews have been pretty good, however recently a vulnerability has been found that may allow an attacker to run unauthorized code with full access to the device. The vulnerability is said to be with SMS message handling, and Apple are said to be working on a fix.

Apple are doing their best to have a fix ready before 25th-30th of July, this is due to the Black Hat USA conference which takes place on these dates.

A security researcher named Charlie Miller is said to have found the security vulnerability and is said to present his findings during the Black Hat USA conference. This is not the first time Miller has found vulnerabilities with Apple software, last year he won awards for exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities in their Safari Web browser.

Check out InformationWeek for a more detailed look into the vulnerability.

Nokia Ovi Maps 3.0 is now live, but it seems that a number of users might find it hard to make the switch from Google Maps. IntoMobile explains how he would like to say how great they think Nokia Ovi Maps 3.0 is, but they do not find any reason to move away from Google Maps.

IntoMobile goes on to say that if you live in a nation that have expensive data plans and want turn-by-turn instructions, then the new Nokia Maps is for you as you can preload maps. If you do not fall into one of those categories, then you should just stick with Google Maps.

The problem with the new Nokia Maps is certain to annoy a number of users and the reason for this is simple, you will have to download the file on to your computer first so that you can install the application on to your phone. That file will only work on a PC, but if you have a Mac, chances are you have an iPhone anyway.

Nokia Ovi Store launched in May, and is the latest Application store to try and take on the might that is the Apple App Store.

With the BlackBerry Tour soon to become Verizons most popular handset, it seems that Verizon are not allowing customers who wish to upgrade their handsets to pre-order it, it is also stated that upgrades may be blocked after the phone’s release.

A Verizon customer service agent stated that only customers who have completely completed their contracts will be allowed to pre-order the Tour. Another customer service representative stated that even when your contract has completed you may not be able to upgrade to the Tour.

Although this report contains a lot of speculation it is still worrying that Verizon are giving out bad signals to their existing customers, and while I do understand that new handsets cost mobile networks a lot of money surely existing customers should have the same rights as new customers. As we find out more we will let you know.

Check out the full report on Gizmodo.

Are you on the Verizon network and hoping to upgrade to the BlackBerry Tour? We would love to hear your story.

In a very interesting story, it has been revealed that Apple have published a patent which reveals plans to release some sort of Karaoke application for the iPhone.

Head over to MacRumors to view a large picture of the image seen above. It is thought that Apple are looking into a SingStar type experience for users, which means both visual feedback on the iPhone as well as support for singing.

The Patent explains: The systems and methods for providing users with real-time feedback while they are singing on key/pitch and providing real-time feedback to the user while the karaoke song is being sung. The feedback will be positive feedback if user is on key/pitch and it will be negative feedback if user is off key/pitch.

Theres ‘a lot’ more info in the listing here. Let us know your initial thoughts on a possible karaoke app for the iPhone.

Following our recent posts regarding Google Voice there still seems to be some confusion as to what Google Voice is. Recently LifeHacker have posted a lengthy insight indicating the functions that Google Voice offers. We will touch on some of the details here but if you want a indepth look check out LifeHackers overview.

Google Voice acts as an interface which can be used to setup all sorts of call settings, it can be used for re-directing phone-calls, so in effect you can choose what callers get through to what number at what time. It can also connect more than one phone to your Google Voice number, this means you can receive a call on your Google Voice number which can trigger phones at different locations to ring.

Google Voice also hosts voicemail which can be accessed on any phone, it also offers a transcription service which converts voicemail into text, however this technology like many other voice recognition technology is said to be a bit temperamental.

Also if you receive annoying calls via your Google Voice number you can block numbers of your choice, obviously this does not help you if you are receiving calls direct to your landlines. Another useful aspect is if you run a business which has employees using company phones you can set up a system that allows calls go to some handsets at some times and other handsets at other times.

As you can see the potential of Google Voice is great and it is still very early days. Be sure to check out LifeHacker and Examiner for more details.

Most of you might consider the Motorola Aura to be a pricey phone. If so, you might be surprised to hear that Motorola are releasing a special Celestial Edition of the stylish phone.

As reported from Pocket-Lint, the Motorola Aura: Celestial Edition features a ‘moon themed’ design with video and other media content from NASA.

If you didn’t know, a Motorola radio transponder was used in Apollo 13’s journey to the moon, so the special edition Motorola Aura intends to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the moon landing.

Neil Armstrong will recieve the very first Motorola Aura: Celestial Edition. If you’re looking to pick one of the pricey handsets up, it will be available at the start of July.

We have news about another FCC release for you now, this time it’s the Samsung Gravity 2. Also known as the SGH-T469, the phone is expected to be released between July 15 to August 19th.

As reported from Phone Arena, the FCC listing has revealed some of the features that we can expect to see within the Gravity 2. These include a slide out QWERTY keyboard and support for the AWS 3G band.

We’ll keep you updated on futher news for the Samsung Gravity 2. For now though, head to the link above to check out the FCC listing.

Are you going to picking up this handset?

Good news if you’re a fan of Wattpad now, as the e-book application is now available for Android phones after successful ventures for Blackberry and the iPhone.

As IntoMobile reports, Wattpad has been refered to as the ‘YouTube for e-books’, due to its vast collection which lets users discover new books from a variety of well known publishers.

It’s clearly a winner with users as Wattpad reports that around 10,000 stories are published each month. Users are also able to share their own books and put them up for download for other users.

If you’re interested in this App, visit m.wattpad.com on your mobile’s browser to download.

We have now had just less than two weeks with the new Apple iPhone 3G S that came with the new iPhone OS 3.0 software update. One of the features they we have used the most is the new Voice Control, and with an update already being planned for the latest OS, how can Apple improve the Voice Control features.

According to Apple Insider, Apple has already started testing on iPhone OS 3.1, and there will be new Voice Control features. We reported in an earlier post that iPhone OS 3.1 will allow Voice Control to work with Bluetooth; this is certainly something that is needed.

There are a number of other improvements needed for Voice Control, let us know your thoughts on this in the comments area below. I have had some issues with voice control, I have tried many times to ask for a certain track by an artist, and it tries to call someone from my contacts list, hold on it could be my accent.

Another great feature would be Voice Control for opening up one of your apps, great if you have hundreds stored on your iPhone.

How would improve the Voice Control features?

Along with all recent iPhone 3.1 update, the 3.1 Software Development Kit has also been released and we have found some of the new features within it for you to check out.

As reported from TheiPhoneBlog, two main features that have been found is Non-destructive video editing. It now means that when users trim a video clip, it will no longer save over the original video clip, but instead give you the option to ‘Save As’.

Another main feature found in the SDK and sure to be a crowd pleaser, is that Voice Control now works with Bluetooth.

Smaller updates include a vibration when moving icons and an AT&T profile update to 4.2. Theres more details over at TheiPhoneBlog.

Yesterday we reported on the news about upcoming capacitive touchscreen handsets for Windows Mobile 6.5. Today, we have heard more news on an upcoming Nokia Internet Tablet phone and the debate has started on whether the phone will feature a capacitive or resistive touchscreen.

As this article over at IntoMobile suggests, the new Nokia Internet Tablet is due to be released before the end of the year. The author of the article has written his views on why Nokia should bring a capacitive touchscreen as compared to a resisitive one for the upcoming Internet Tablet.

Of course those issues about handwriting recognition pop up again, just like they did in our news story yesterday.

If you’re a fan of Nokia’s Tablet phones, head over to IntoMobile and let us know your views on the capacitive touchscreen.

If you are already a T-Mobile customer and are planning to pick up the new myTouch 3G handset, we have some good news for you. T-Mobile customers will be able to pre-order the phone before everyone else, according to recent reports.

According to TmoNews, existing customers should be recieving an email from T-Mobile informing them about Pre-order details for the new myTouch 3G.

The email states that T-Mobile customers will be able to pre-order the phone from July 8th - July 28th. If you do so, you’ll recieve the phone on the 3rd August, two days before the normal public launch.

Let us know what you plan to do.

If you’re the sort of person to use your iPhone a lot when travelling, you might want to take a look at this guide we have found. The National Geographic has compiled a list of the top twenty iPhone travel apps for you to read.

Our personal favourites include HearPlanet, which is a instant travel tour guide right inside your pocket. The app finds the nearest attractions and then reads a wikipedia entry for the attraction out aloud. The app costs $5.99.

Other essential apps include Google Earth, The Weather Finder and Wi-Fi Finder. Best of all, all these useful apps are free.

If you have an iPhone and are planning a trip soon, you should definately take a look at this guide. Let us know your favourite travel apps.

It’s been a few months since we last heard any news from Toshiba’s Windows Mobile powered TG01 handset. Well we can now inform you that a release date has now been confirmed for the UK.

As reported from SlashGear, the Toshiba TG01 is set to be released on July 9th in the UK, with releases in Germany and Japan to follow shortly after.

Features include a 4.1-inch WVGA 800 x 480 touchscreen, Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon chipset, 3G UMTS/HSPA, WiFi and A-GPS.

It has also been reported that the TG01 will be compatible with an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 once it is released.

Theres more details through the link, including a video demo.