The rumors are true, folks. There's actually a Windows Phone here at the IFA conference in Berlin, Germany. It's the LG Optimus 7, aka the GW910 aka the Panther. It's not a full production unit just yet, and it was on hand really to show off DLNA media sharing -- which lets you wirelessly pipe video, photos and the like from your phone to your TV. Photos and video after the break.

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HTC has tweeted that Peeps is back up and running. Actually, according to Twitter it's been up and running for a few days.

Earlier this week everything went dark due to a problem when Twitter changed their authentication protocol.  It's nice to see that the conflict wasn't too hard to resolve.  Now that everything is up and running again, we can sit back, enjoy the weekend and tweet about our favorite College football team. War Eagle!

update: Might have spoken too soon based on the first few comments.  It appears that some devices might be up and running while WinMo is still down.

Verizon Wireless is now offering pre-paid monthly data plans without the need for service contracts. This includes a $30 pre-paid unlimited plan and a $10 pre-paid 25mb plan (anything over 25mb will cost you $.20 per MB).

The limitation is that these pre-paid data plans are only for 3G enabled phones and the list of eligible phones doesn't include any Windows Phones. On the list you have Blackberry devices, Palm devices, and Android devices but not a single Windows Phone.

The tiered data plans are similar to what AT&T moved to back in June and you can find all the fine print on these new plans over at Verizon.

While the new data plans might make smart phones more attractive, the lack of any Windows Phones being eligible gives us pause. We have seen indications that Verizon's existing Windows Phones may be short lived and there seems to be a lack of interest from Verizon on Windows Phone 7.

Could the new data plans be just another sign that Verizon will be dropping Microsoft completely from it's lineup? Or are we reading too much into this on a slow news day?

via: Android Central

When it's a slow news day and you have a quote from an official at a company, you can quickly make a mountain out of a molehill.

In an interview with Reuters, Samsung was quoted as saying

We are prioritizing our Android platform. Android is very open and flexible, and there is a consumer demand for it

Translation: Android is selling very well for us, we're going to continue to do that. We're not sure when it became news that a company who is having success with a 2+ year old mobile OS decided they will continue that path, but evidently that's the case.

Of course, the other half of the non-news news is what YH Lee, head of marketing at Samsung Mobile said about the upcoming Windows Phone 7, namely that "There is still some professional, specialized demand there", which is also not so controversial. Sure, it's not hurling accolades either, if anything it is sort of vacuous marketing speak that dominates 90% of business dialog.

Samsung is, for the first time in a long time, making big strides in the smartphone market, actually challenging HTC with their Android offerings (specifically the Galaxy S series). All of those silly iPhone knock offs that Sprint and other had, their mediocre Windows Mobile offerings, etc. never really paid them and now we're supposed to feign surprise that they want to keep with this Android thing? Feh.

And what of Windows Phone 7? It's an unreleased OS, not tested in the finicky, volatile market. Despite how good it may or may not be, how much money MS throws behind it, there are no guarantees and to think Samsung would put everything behind it and not the current money-maker Android is just bizarre. If WP7 is popular, Samsung will no doubt "prioritize" it. You know, follow the money.

This is capitalism 101, not news people.

[Reuters]

Windows Phone 7 may not have cut/paste yet but it will have a fart piano!

We've seen snippets of applications under development for Microsoft's new operating system and this one definitely stands out. Developed by Herm's Software the fart piano delivers tunes in an assortment of tones including the short fart, the escape, the bubbly, the beans and the wet one.

Herm's Software already offers a variety of light-hearted applications for Windows Mobile phones.  It was only a matter of time before their influence was seen (or should I say heard) with Windows Phone 7.

via: Mobility Digest

Twisconapps has released a handy SMS message utility, msgCleaner, that helps clean up some of the clutter in your inbox.  The app is available for $1.99 over at the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

If you've done any amount of texting you know that deleting messages can be tedious. msgCleaner will automatically delete old messages in one clean sweep. msgCleaner can be filtered to protect messages from key contacts or held in certain folders.

The layout of msgCleaner is straight forward. From the main screen you can clean up the messaging folders immediately, modify any cleaning rules you have established, manually clear specific folders, and manually delete messages individually. Settings include setting a cleaning schedule, set the maximum age of a message (one second to two hours), as well as identifying folders, contacts, and messages to exclude from the cleaning process.

In using msgCleaner over the past few days, it has made cleaning out all the automated notifications I get. The only nit I have with the application is that in filtering out contacts, there is no shortcuts to advance through the contacts. The only way to navigate through your contact list is to touch scroll. It would be nice if there were alphabetical tabs or a keyboard to advance through the contact list quicker.

All in all, msgCleaner is a very handy utility for your Windows Phone. If you are a heavy texter, msgCleaner will save you a considerable amount of time deleting old and unwanted text messages. msgCleaner is running $1.99 and is available over at the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Windows Phone 7 is, likely, just over a month away from hitting the store shelves in Europe and just over two months away from seeing the light of day in the States . We've seen manufacturer devices, app development, and (obviously) development of the OS itself over the past several months.

The one thing we haven't seen much from is the wireless providers. Who's getting what and how much is going to cost us when it gets there? While the "how much" is well in the shadows right now, we do have some idea on the "who" with respect to wireless providers. Here's how we see it breaking down.

AT&T: Billed as one of the "premiere launch partners", AT&T appears to be in a position to offer the largest selection of Windows Phone 7 devices. We've heard rumors of HTC (T8788 or HD7?), Samsung (Cetus), and LG (C900 and GW910) devices headed to AT&T. Our count shows as many as four Windows Phone 7 devices hitting AT&T's shelves this Fall.  Unless something changes over the next two months, AT&T will be at the forefront of Windows Phone 7.

T-Mobile: We are confident that T-Mobile will have a Windows Phone 7 device on the shelf at some point and the HTC Schubert has been quietly rumored to be that device. 

Verizon: Verizon and Microsoft may not be on good speaking terms these days after the KIN adventure. Rumors are that Verizon is simply not interested in Windows Phone 7 and a leaked "end of life" report has Verizon removing any existing Windows Phones from their line-up by March of 2011. Coupled with the signs that Verizon doesn't have any Windows Phones on their2010/2011 product road map, we won't be shocked if Verizon shifts their smartphone focus from Windows Phones to Android or Blackberry.

Sprint:  Listed as a launch partner when Windows Phone 7 was announced back in February (but that was a non-binding agreement), Sprint could go either way with Windows Phone 7.  They could keep everything under wraps and surprise everyone with a Windows Phone 7 or simply taking a "wait and see" approach (as they did with Android). Fared Adib, Sprint's Vice President of Product Development did say back in February, "Sprint and Microsoft have had a 15-year-plus relationship together. And we believe that the Windows Phone 7 Series will continue that relationship into a new decade." Our guess, Sprint will let Microsoft work out the kinks with Windows Phone 7 and eventually have a Windows Phone 7 device in their line up.  Maybe the Dell Streak Lightning?

Granted all this is speculation and the carriers still have plenty of time to throw in a few twists before Windows Phone 7 hits the shelves. 

We still have the nagging questions of "when will the carriers get these phones?" and "how much will they cost?". The OS was just released to manufacturers and best guess is still seeing mid-to-early November for availability. Pricing points are still anyone's guess. 

Well, this one snuck under our radar.

Sprint released an software update for the HTC Snap last month. Last month being July.

The software provides several enhancements to the Snap including resolving issues where the Snap gets stuck in vibrate mode and does not save ringtone settings.

You can download the software update over at HTC's Support Site. Thanks goes out to member Palm_forlackofchoice for alerting us to this update.

Okay, we think we understand what Warnygo is and coming for Windows Phone 7 soon, and we'll try to explain it.

Basically it's a way to send out "alerts" based on certain categories and using geolcation. Some of those categories are:

• Accidents
• Actors
• Weather alerts
• etc.

So lets say you're in midtown Manhattan and you notice a building is on fire or something really important happening, you can send a "warny" out and people using the same network and in the area will get the notification/alert on their device. You can also subscribe to your favorite "zones" or areas of interest, for example if you want to follow any "warnies" in your hometown while you are away.

It's like a localized Twitter feed which you don't have to subscribe to or follow. We can totally see this taking "social networking" to another level (and even have socio-political implications). The big question though is will it catch on? (Anyone who has tried Google's lame 'Open Spot' will know how lonely this can be) Too early to tell, but it's an interesting idea and coming to WP7 soon.

See the video of the app in action after the jump.

[via Twitter]

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