8×8 Virtual Office Mobile

8×8 Inc. has released 8×8 Virtual Office Mobile, a Wi-Fi-driven extension of the 8×8 Virtual Office VoIP business phone service customized for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

Available as a free download in the App Store, 8×8 Virtual Office Mobile enables subscribers to utilize their Virtual Office phone numbers and service remotely from within any Wi-Fi zone. Virtual Office Mobile essentially converts an iPhone or iPod Touch to a Virtual Office extension that offers unlimited inbound and outbound domestic calling as well as overseas calling at 8×8 international rates. Inbound calls to the Virtual Office extension can be retrieved from an 8×8 IP desktop phone, the 8×8 Virtual Office Pro unified communications portal or the iPhone/iPod Touch mobile handset. Outbound calls can be made directly through the mobile handset just as with any extension on the Virtual Office service. Users can also perform functions such as extension dialing, call transfers, three-way calling and voice mail notification and retrieval. www.8×8.com

BlackBerry Storm 2

The new BlackBerry Storm 2 from Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) is the second generation of RIM’s touchscreen smartphone. The update to Research In Motion Ltd.’s first touchscreen BlackBerry will cost $180 after an online discount or $100 mail-in rebate. It’s also available as part of a two-for-one program for family accounts.

The new model, with BlackBerry OS 5, significantly improves the BlackBerry touchscreen platform with new technology and new features, including a 3.25-inch, high-resolution display; 3.2MP camera with variable zoom, autofocus, flash and video recording; 256MB of Flash memory; 2GB of onboard memory storage and a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 16GB cards; background noise suppression technology; BlackBerry Desktop Manager for both PCs and Macs, and BlackBerry Media Sync for easily syncing iTunes and Windows Media Player; built-in GPS; and more.

The Storm 2 offers access to the BlackBerry App World for additional apps. The smartphone also adds Wi-Fi and a SIM card for overseas roaming. Additionally, the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone introduces a new SurePress technology based on an electronic system that provides the user with tactile feedback when the touchscreen is pressed. www.blackberry.com, www.verizonwireless.com

HTC HD2

T-Mobile USA Inc. and HTC announced the HTC HD2 is expected to be available for the first time in the United States exclusively from T-Mobile USA this spring. With its high-resolution, 4.3-inch capacitive touch display and high-powered features, the ultra-thin HTC HD2 phone delivers rich content. The HTC HD2 comes equipped with the 1 GHz Snapdragon by Qualcomm mobile processor and utilizes T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network. The HTC HD2 is the first Windows phone with HTC Sense, a software experience focused on putting people at the center by making their phones work in a more simple, natural and personal way. Users can view, zoom and resize Web sites, Microsoft Office files, PDF documents and pictures with a simple pinching motion. The large capacitive display makes it easy to read and reply to Outlook e-mails, edit a Word document or modify an Excel spreadsheet right from the HTC HD2. Additionally, the HTC HD2 delivers GPS functionality, a Web browser, and an advanced 5 MP auto-focus camera with dual LED flash for capturing images, even in dim conditions. www.htc.com, www.t-mobile.com

Mitel Mobile

Mitel announced the launch of Mitel Mobile, a wireless voice and data service designed for corporate customers. The service is fully integrated with Mitel’s unified communications and collaboration (UCC) applications and offers business customers the ability to work with a single vendor for all of their customer premise, wireline, wireless, voice and data communications needs. Additionally, by leveraging the features within its communications platforms, Mitel Communications Director (MCD) and Mitel Multi-Instance Communications Director (MICD), it enables voice and UCC features to be managed like data applications on a corporate server.

Customers using Mitel Mobile will receive similar coverage and benefits associated with any major wireless network services provider, with comparable service level agreements and device options, along with enterprise-wide bundling with wireline access and UCC features. This includes integration with employees’ desktop phones or local voice services. In addition, employees across the organization will be able to share wireless minutes. The network will cover up to 275 million users in North America and support wireless handsets, smartphones and wireless data cards as well as the provision for wireless backup of traditional wireline connectivity, providing for increased redundancy and business continuity. www.mitel.com

Motorola DROID

The DROID smartphone from Motorola Inc. debuted in November on the Verizon Wireless network. The smartphone, coming up against the BlackBerry Storm 2 and the iPhone, retails for $199.99 with a new, two-year customer agreement and a $100 mail-in rebate.

The DROID, the first commercial handset with Android 2.0 inside, offers some smartphone staples, like 3G, real Web browsing, voice-activated search, customizable screen, QWERTY keyboard and access to the Android Market applications store with its 12,000 offerings. It also has a 5 MP camera with video, voice recognition, an integrated messaging center, embedded Google applications like Maps, YouTube, Gmail and Google Talk, plus the Amazon MP3 store. As for service plans, Verizon’s nationwide voice plans begin at $39.99 for monthly access for 450 minutes, and an “Email and Web for Smartphone” plan goes for $29.99 for monthly access. www.motorola.com

Motorola Backflip

Building on the momentum of DROID, Motorola introduced a new Android-based smartphone, the Backflip, which sports a unique design that allows the user to fold its keyboard behind the 3.1-inch touchscreen. The company says that made it possible to create a larger-than-average keyboard. Another key feature of the Backflip is BACKTRACK, a touch panel located on the other side of the device, offering users a new way to scroll through the Web, texts, e-mails and news feeds without obscuring the home screen. In the reverse-flip, tabletop mode, one can listen to music or view videos hands free or use the digital picture frame mode to show off picture albums. The Backflip operates on MOTOBLUR, Motorola’s Android-powered content delivery service created to make phones more personal and socially smart. The solution syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more from sources such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, work and personal e-mail, and automatically delivers them to the home screen. Content is fed into easy-to-manage streams. www.motorola.com

Nexus One

Google Inc. launched its own branded mobile phone, along a consumer electronics-type storefront for the gadget. Google’s Web-based storefront offers consumers the HTC-built Nexus One with or without carrier service. An unlocked phone costs $529, but it’s also available with a T-Mobile USA contract for $179. Google plans to make it available with either Verizon Wireless or Vodafone plc this spring, with other carriers on the way. The unlocked version can run on any GSM network, but because of the frequencies supported within the phone, on AT&T it will run on EDGE, not 3G. Many of the Nexus One features are a product of its underlying software, Android OS 2.1. The gadget offers several software goodies, like a “flyaround” app that leverages 3D and Google Earth, voice recognition/dictation/search for every text field, auto-sync of pictures to Picasa, interactive wallpapers (streams ripple when touched) and built-in Google apps like maps and mail. Widgets can be scrolled through with a track ball type-touch interface.

The device runs on the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, has a touchscreen-only keyboard on its 3.7-inch AMOLED display, Wi-Fi, Stereo Bluetooth, GPS, an accelerometer, a compass and light and proximity detectors. www.google.com

nGenX, Wallace Wireless Pager App

nGenX Corp. announced a co-marketing agreement with Wallace Wireless for a hosted version of Wallace’s WIC Pager application, developed for the health care market. As a hosted solution, nGenX manages the implementation and daily support of the WIC Pager from its SAS 70, Type II certified data center which eliminates the need to purchase hardware or overburden an IT staff with the management of the paging solution. The WIC Pager solution replaces traditional pagers by integrating paging functionality into BlackBerry smartphones. The nGenX Hosted Messaging Bundle is HIPAA-capable and also includes Exchange e-mail and BlackBerry Enterprise Server management. With this tool, physicians and other health care personnel satisfy all their communications needs, including phone, e-mail, calendar, contacts, SMS and paging, with a single mobile device. www.ngenx.com, www.wallacewireless.com

Nokia N900

With the Linux-based Maemo platform and with multiple ways to connect to the Internet, the Nokia N900 enables users to be online as it happens with a powerful computer in the palm of their hands. Providing 32GB of storage and multiple options of connectivity including access for 3G data networks, users can access e-mail, Web sites, social communities, images, music and more. Additionally, with the ability to multitask several applications or Web browsers at once, users can surf several Web pages while listening to music while talking on instant message with friends — all at the same time. The device’s Web browser is based on Mozilla technology and also provides support for Adobe Flash 9.4 and gesture support within the Nokia N900 web browser. The Nokia N900 comes with a 5 MP camera, 3.5-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard and enables consumers the ability to personalize up to four different home screens as they wish. One can be work related with a calendar widget and contacts application while another can be favorite bookmarked Web pages while yet another can be set to show social networks. The Nokia N900 retails for $649. www.nokia.com

Samsung Moment

Samsung debuted its Android phone, Moment, available with Sprint for $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The Moment sports a 3.2MP camera and camcorder with several editing features, along with an up-to-32GB expandable memory, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard plus a touchscreen, an accelerometer and support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and Sprint’s EV-DO Rev. A network. The Moment joins the HTC Hero in Sprint’s Android line-up, and is Samsung’s second Android phone, along with the T-Mobile Behold II, due out soon. www.samsung.com