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Mobile Roundup, The Nokia, Pre, AT&T Edition

Another big week in the mobile world with the Palm Pixi being announced, the iPhone finally getting a date for MMS, and Motorola showing off its first Android phone. The busy week also means there were a few stories I couldn't get to, and I'll dissect them after the jump.

Nokia Twist and Plum

So, I shot a link of the Nokia Twist phone over to a friend of mine and his only response was, "WFT?" Yeah, it's definitely a unique design by our friends from Finland. The old-school swivel design highlights a solid feature phone that has a full QWERTY keyboard, HTML browser, EV-DO 3G, and a 3-megapixel camera. It'll be coming to Verizon later this month and will cost about $100 with a new two-year contract. I'm definitely not in the demographic for this device, but I also though I'd hate the Nokia Surge. I was delighted to learn it was a surprisingly solid device.

More importantly, both of these funky messaging handsets were brought out with a carrier, which means Nokia is doing a better job with their relationship building. I just hope this means higher-end handsets like the tantalizing N900 come over at a reasonable price.

Speaking of Nokia, they also announced today they acquired the social media company Plum for an undisclosed amount. It's a cloud-based social media enabler (whatever that means), and this smells like a talent acquisition because Plum only had 10 employees. Nokia has told me they're not going to be shy about snapping up companies if it can help their larger strategy of offering additional services. The Plum folk will be become part of Nokia Services unit.

AT&T Gives You The A-List

This was one of those neat announcements that got blown out of the water by a competitor a few days later. On Tuesday, AT&T said customers with a monthly plan of $60 or more would be able to make calls to five numbers that wouldn't deduct from their monthly allotment of minutes. The plan, called A-List, was a much-needed thank you to customers who've resisted the temptation of going to T-Mobile for their myFave calling feature, or Verizon's reputation for better network quality. On Thursday Sprint one-upped them by saying anyone with its Everything Data plans would receive free mobile-to-mobile calls to anyone on any network. I can't even remember the last time I went over my minutes because I use Skype, office phone, and texting more often, but Sprint's quietly becoming the best value for smartphone users. Ah well, the AT&T deal is still a nice treat.

Palm Rejects Pre App, Don't Expect An Uproar

When Apple rejects a program from its App Store, there's pandemonium – bloggers get into an uproar, and sometimes the government will also poke their nose into it. Somehow I don't think we'll get a heated reaction from Palm rejected a music-playing program from its App Catalog. According to PreCentral.net, the NaNPlayer wasn't allowed in because it uses private APIs that will change in a future release. Seems reasonable enough, but the developer told the publication:

Palm stated that they don't support music file indexing and consequently won't admit the app into the App Catalog. It doesn't seem to matter that the app is works just fine on the Pre and that it is substantially better than their pathetic stock music player in terms of features and performance.

It's an unfortunate incident, but there are understandable reasons why Palm would reject this. Fortunately, Palm has said it will keep a hands-off policy to the growing Pre home-brew community, so it may find some new life there.

Wrapping It Up

It was a short week, but it was jam-packed with news, and I see the next few weeks being very busy as the holidays are, unbelievably, just around the corner. Motorola already said they'll reveal a second Android device over the next couple weeks, and I'm dying to see what they do with the Sholes. I also think Research In Motion is poised to officially reveal its holiday lineup soon as well, so it should be interesting.

Is there any smartphone you're looking forward to? Drop a comment on this post, and don't hesitate to shoot me an e-mail at mperez@techweb, or tweet me @marinperez.

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