What's this? Another usability study? A recent study found that the heralded Apple iPhone takes a back seat to the Motorola Q9h in SMS text messaging prowess, among other things. Good Housekeeping Research Institute took 11 QWERTY keyboard-packed handsets with subsidized (after 2-year contract) retail prices of $300 or less and pit them against the [...]

Our friends to the North will be happy to hear that Telus has followed through on rumors that they'll be launching a Canadian-flavored BlackBerry Curve 8330. The sleek, yet full-featured BlackBerry Curve 8330 offers BlackBerry fans a good dose of EVDO data, GPS, Bluetooth, and 2 megapixel camera. That is, when it finally launches on [...]

Boy Genius Reports is always getting the juicy scoop on upcoming handsets, and it looks like they've come through again. Their latest handset, a Motorola Q9, not only came to BGR toting a WiFi radio, but also boasts a verified Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard operating system running the show. And, the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard OS [...]

Sprint’s Motorola Q9c features a fully open GPS receiver - the first Windows Mobile smartphone to rock integrated GPS on Sprint’s network. The Moto Q9c’s “open” GPS means that the receiver’s COM ports are visible and accessible to external programs - not just the programs (like navigation software) that the carrier wants you to use. Applications like Google Maps and Microsoft Live Search are free to leverage the GPS receiver - the way it should be. Unfortunately, the GPS unit in the Motorola Q9c is set to acquire positional data from satellite only - making the device essentially a stand-alone GPS receiver. Sprint apparently didn’t think aGPS (assisted GPS), which uses cell-tower location information to help get a position-lock, was necessary on the Moto Q9c. Wouldn’t it be great if we could add aGPS location information to the Moto Q9c’s open GPS receiver? Of course it would. GPS and aGPS could work together to return a faster position-lock in most situations. Sprint Users ‘ member StarmanDX apparently saw the need to add some aGPS goodness to the Sprint Motorola Q9c. He’s come up with a cool little trick to get the Moto Q9c to take advantage of Sprint’s aGPS servers while maintaining that awesomely-open GPS receiver’s functionality. Keep reading to find out how to make your Motorola Q9c a better GPS performer. From WMExperts : Preliminaries One caveat: you need your MSL, which stands for “Master Subsidy Lock” and is a 6 digit code to program your phone. Remember when you called Sprint to activate your phone and they had your program in your number in that “special menu”? To get there you had to enter your MSL. Some of us tricksters now know to write that down for future use. But you probably haven’t done this, so here’s the trick: you need to call Sprint and get it. It’s technically not a big deal and are supposed to give it to you if you ask, after all it is your phone not theirs. So here are some things to say to the Sprint CSRs or better yet, try Tech Support:

• Just ask, sometimes they give it. Worked for me!
• Say you took your phone to a Sprint store and they need your MSL to reprogram part of the phone
• Tell them that you are trying to change your user name within the settings on your phone and the phone is requiring the MSL code
• Say you are developing application for the phone

Yeah, it’s a wee bit of a white lie, but it’s worth it. Now once you have that number, store it somewhere safe and remember to do this for all your WM devices in the future, you may never know when you need it. One other note before the actual hack: you have to trust the settings are saved. If you go back into this menu, it’ll all be erased, but once entered it’ll stay. So have faith that they stuck. And now for the trick and thanks again to StarmanDX! Enable aGPS Sprint assistance servers for Moto Q Q9c

• Dial ##073887*
• Hit Send/Green Key
• Enter your MSL
• Hit H (GPS Settings)
• Enter 68.28.31.49 for the IP address
• Enter 5017 for the port number
• Save/Exit

(ps Nope, I do not know how to do this for AT&T Q9h’s or Verizon’s Q9ms. Sorry, Sprint only!) [Via: WMExperts ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Blackberry Pearl 8130, Motorola Q9c, i335 on sale at SprintBrief: Sprint's Motorola Q2 with Palm OS - for sure not going to happenSprint GPS/Data Bundle - FinallyMore details leaked for Verizon's Motorola Q9 lineup - the Motorola Q9cMotorola updates MC70 EDA with GPS

Sure, HSDPA is great and all for on-th-go web-surfing, but with AT&T’s spotty 3G coverage, it’s not always the ideal option for getting your internet-fix. Unfortunately, AT&T isn’t to keen on giving its customers any WiFi connectivity that could drain the company’s coffers of data-revenue. Or are they? With the AT&T Tilt 8925 ( HTC Kaise r) holding up the WiFi-tip for the Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional-camp, we’ve got reason to believe that AT&T is working on bringing WiFi to the WinMo 6.0 Standard masses. Boy Genius got his hands on this AT&T-branded Motorola Q9 with WiFi clearly up and running. Is AT&T planning to put this WiFi-toting Motorola Q9 into production? Or is this some sort of cruel-joke from Big Blue? We’re hoping its the former rather than the latter. Oh, and what about all current Moto Q9 handsets already out in the wild? Are they just a firmware update away from getting their dormant WiFi hardware enabled? Suffice it to say, this image of a Motorola Q9 with WiFi poses more questions than it answers. [Via: BGR ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Motorola prepping super secret Nokia N95-fighting ELBA handset?Motorola may be prepping upgraded Motorola A1200 Ming for USMotorola Marco is a Z3 with WiFiAT&T launches teaser site for Motorola Q9h - The Q GlobalAT&T Goes Platinum On Motorola RAZR V3xx

The good news is that the new Samsung BlackJack II rocks a full-fledged SiRF III GPS receiver - none of that cell-tower signal triangulation stuff here. The bad news, unfortunately, is that the GPS hardware in the BlackJack II is locked-down to only work with the bundled TeleNav software (AT&T’s way of getting more TeleNav revenue). You see, there’s this driver, called GPS Intermediary Driver (GPSID), that Microsoft uses to serve as the communications middle-man between the GPS hardware and applications that need to access the hardware. While the GPSID driver seems to be configured to work with the TeleNav software and Windows Live Search, there’s no provision for any other application to make use of the SiRF III GPS module. Well, BlackJack 2 hopefuls will be glad to hear that the MoDaCo Smartphone GPS Activator will open up the GPS hardware on your Samsung BlackJack II (and probably the Motorola Q9h ) to a host of GPS-enabled applications. The MoDaCo hack will open up the COM4 port for GPS access, allowing you to use associate your favorite apps like Virtual Mobile Earth or Google Maps with the GPS unit. Turns out, the MoDaCo Smartphone GPS Activator also Application Unlocks your Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard handset. That means you can re-order the applications on your Start Menu - bonus! Oh, and if any Motorola Q9h owners out there want to give this utility a go, please drop us a line and let us know how it works. Over-The-Air install: Point your mobile browser to: http://modaco.com/gpsactivatorbj2 On-device CAB install: Run this CAB file from your handset: http://content.modaco.net/MoDaCo.SmartphoneGPSActivator.COM4.CAB Computer installation: Run this executable from your PC: http://content.modaco.net/Setup.MoDaCo.SmartphoneGPSActivator.COM4.EXE Props to Paul for this awesome hack! [Via: MoDaCo ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Samsung SGH-i617 BlackJack II confirmed with integrated GPS - available Black FridayBrief: Video unboxing of Samsung BlackJack IITeleNav GPS Navigator 5.2 released; Adds social networkingSamsung Updates Blackjack System SoftwareSamsung SGH-i617 is the BlackJack 2