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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Most of you will be aware that as it stands, the Palm Pre is only available for CDMA networks, which is very disappointing for those of you who are waiting for the Pre to support GSM. The good news though, is that a GSM enabled Pre has been spotted, courtesy of some new pictures that have surfaced over in Vietnam.

As UberGizmo reports, the CDMA-only Pre means that everyone in Europe and most other parts of the world are patiently waiting for news on a GSM release.

These recent pictures though, have indicated that the release of a GSM enabled Pre isn’t too far off after all. We’ll keep you updated when further details are released.

Emulation fans will be well aware of a certain ZodTTD and some of his projects to date. His latest one however, psx4all on the Palm Pre has really got everyone talking.

As Engadget reports, he has even posted up a video for everyone to check out. The video shows him running PS1 game Wipeout XL with a 320×240 software scaled display.

There is no sound for the Pre version of psx4all as of yet, but ZodTTD has pointed out that the phone requires Pulse Audio and it’s something he is working on.

He also thinks that the Palm Pre has the edge over the iPhone in terms of software performance, so it will be interesting to hear what you iPhone owners think of that.

Check his official website for full details. The video is below, let us know your thoughts.

We recently informed you of the July 12th release date for the BlackBerry Tour 9630 on Verizon. Well, we now have a confirmed release date for the same phone on Bell’s network.

According to BGR, the Bell BlackBerry Tour 9630 will be released on July 17th. The phone will be priced at $699.95 and as you can see from the image above, the details are set to be confirmed even though Bell themselves are yet to officially announce the phone.

Some features include: High resolution screen, 3.2 MP camera with flash and autofocus, GPS Nav & BlackBerry Maps and full HTML internet browsing.

Head over to BGR for a full list of details and features for the Blackberry Tour 9630.

A few days ago we revealed the news about a firmware update that was scheduled to hit the Nokia N97 on 1st July. Well we can now reveal that the update is live today and should be available to download throughout the day.

As NokiaExperts reports though, the update is thought to be coming to variants to begin with, with a possible release for everyone else soon after.

Over on the Nokia Conversations Twitter Blog, nothing has changed since yesterday and still states that the update is coming today.

Do you have a Nokia N97? Let us know if you’ve already started your firmware update.

Rumors are circulating that suggest that a major smartphone builder is currently developing a handset which will use NVIDIA’s Tegra platform, this handset will be capable of decoding 720p video.

This details of the handset are still very vague but it is said to be available before 2010 and should be available from AT&T and T-mobile for around $199. From what people have been saying although the phone has great processing capabilities the battery life is not affected greatly, whether this is true or not is hard to say.

Currently the iPhone 3GS has more advanced 3D power then most phones but does does not play 720P, some high end phones such as the Samsung i8910 can play 720p but are extremely more expensive. Therefore there is a lot of room in the market for a 720p capable hanset that is not extremely expensive.

As more details emerge we will keep you posted, be sure to check out Engadget for the original announcement.

It has been quite a while since we last heard any news about the Windows Mobile enabled Satellite Phone from Terrestar, but we now have a confirmed release date for those that are interested.

As reported from IntoMobile, Terrestar Networks will launch their first satellite today and if the launch is successful after that, the phone will be released on AT&T shortly after.

Pricing for the phone is set to be around the $700 mark and will be sold primarily to local and federal government officials, due to it’s extended network coverage.

We’ll keep you updated when a release for retail stores is announced.

We recently told you about the release of Apple’s new iPhone availability tool, which lets you see what stock levels of the iPhone are like, before you head out to a store and buy one. We have learnt that demand for the new iPhone 3GS remains high and is currently out-pacing supply levels.

As reported from IntoMobile, Apple have struggled to maintain stocks level for some models of their new iPhone 3GS in California. The availability tool has revealed that the white 16GB iPhone 3GS is proving to be the fastest selling model thoughout many iPhone stores in California.

It’s bad news for those of you living near the Beverly Center in Los Angeles though, as the availability tool indicates that Apple have sold out of all iPhone 3GS models completely.

More through the link.

Following on from our recent post about the possibility of a return for backwards compatibility in future firmware updates, it has been revealed that PS3 consoles with firmware 2.10 and higher ‘already’ has the ability for PS2 emulation on it.

According to TheSixthAxis, consoles with 2.10 firmware and higher has PS2 games running on ‘100% software emulation, but performance and compatibility remains very poor as Sony apparantly has the feature ‘deactivated’.

Its interesting that all these backwards compatibility stories seems to be coming thick and fast at the moment. Perhaps a return isn’t too far off after all.

Full story in the link above.