It looks like Motorola and Verizon are getting ready to take a third crack at the Q9 form factor, following up the Q9m and Q9c -- and this time around, there's a little something extra in store. On top of the EV-DO Rev. A radio, the so-called "Napoleon" (codename, of course) features GSM, because -- surprise, surprise -- businesspeople who use Windows Mobile devices tend to do just a bit of traveling. It looks like Moto has taken this opportunity to give the Q9 meme a little nip-tuck job, too, with a rounded body and a tastefully-applied ring of chrome around the top edge. They've even tossed in a fingerprint scanner for good measure, a tip o' the hat to the suits who'll undoubtedly populate the upper 90 percent of this sucker's client base. No word on a release date or price, but can we cautiously submit a thumbs-up for the design direction here?

The Verizon version of the Treo 755p from Palm is the latest of the world's 755p's to be graced with a firmware update -- or as Palm describes it, a "tune-up." There's very little detail to go on here, with the support page for the new binary simply saying that it "improves the phone application, stability and device usability." Hey, that's good enough for us -- and if you own an affected device, it's probably good enough for you, too.

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Anyone remotely familiar with the HTC or Sprint Touch will feel right at home with Verizon's version, the XV6900. The XV6900 isn't content to just fall in line and play "me too," though -- Big Red decided to go with a blindingly glossy white finish, bucking the soft-touch black used as a staple of the Touch line, and that could be a boon or a bust depending on who you are and how you intend to use the device.

The tenets of HTC's TouchFLO interface are totally preserved from the other Touches we know and love, and thankfully, Verizon went easy with the application of bright red to the UI elements. Physically, the XV6900 is just ever-so-slightly larger than its GSM cousin -- not enough for the average person to ever notice in the course of regular use -- and the addition of 3G data is more than enough to make up for that slight difference as far as we're concerned. One thing that struck us was how much better the XV6900's display was over the original's; the overwhelming improvement in contrast is pretty striking, although to be fair, we would've never noticed had we not had them side by side. Check out the full gallery below.

Verizon chief Ivan Seidenberg gave a particularly candid interview with the Financial Times recently, revealing that he'd like to see Verizon take full control of Verizon Wireless -- a joint venture with Vodafone in which Verizon holds 55 percent -- given that Verizon is "doing 100 percent of the work." Zing! Despite saying that Voda's "been a great partner," the bulk of the conversation makes it sound like relations are definitely strained between the two telecom giants, and Seidenberg thinks that once bigwig Arun Sarin hands over the Vodafone reigns to Vittorio Colao next month, "maybe he'll want to do something different." You know, "different" as in "sell off $60 billion worth of Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications." Also interesting is Seidenberg's revelation that Sarin wanted Verizon to snap up Alltel last year before it sold to private equity firms, but thanks to Verizon's majority on the VZW board, they were able to put the kibosh on the plan, apparently over concerns that they'd end up in a nasty bidding war. Alas, all's well that ends well, we suppose.

[Via mocoNews]

While you're waiting for LG's very latest Chocolate to show up in Verizon stores next month, have a gander at some high-quality shots of the clamshell -- which we understand is not actually edible, by the by. The Chocolate 3 will be available in both black and blue (to start, anyway, though we wouldn't be surprised to see a few more over the course of the phone's lifespan) and features a full gigabyte of internal storage for the tunes in addition to the standard microSD slot. That's one heck of a secondary display there, isn't it?

There's nothing quite like leaked information on a phone expected to be given away for free on contract to get the blood pumping, is there? It turns out that the freshly FCC-approved SCH-u430 from Samsung will end up replacing the lowly u410, offering the same VGA camera and 160 x 128 primary display as its predecessor but enjoying a restyled shell that should at least get an occasional glance from passers-by in the Verizon store. Or maybe not -- there always seem to be at least a few models available for free after rebates and whatnot, and we're struggling to see what would attract anyone to this particular model. Brand loyalty or that trick analog clock display, perhaps? No word on official pricing (geez, it better be free) or an availability date yet.

Training materials from Verizon break down the nitty gritty on just what makes its new EV-DO Rev. A-based push-to-talk network better than the outgoing 1xRTT-based system, and apart from a totally unnecessary cameo by the "Can you hear me now?" guy, it's pretty enlightening. First, we learn that users will now be able to rock 500 individual contacts, 100 group contacts, and 50 contacts per group, up from 150, 50, and 20, respectively. As we've known, it'll also support presence, meaning callers will know whether you're available to annoy everyone around you before they hit the button. The slides on the two launch devices -- the Motorola V750 Adventure and Casio G'zOne Boulder -- don't reveal much new information, but we do see here that the black / silver version of the Boulder will be available with or without a camera for companies that like to clamp down on those sorts of things. See the rest after the break.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Alright, so here's one more picture we dug up -- turns out black won't be the only color available for Casio's latest piece of Verizon kit, the Boulder. Multiple color options for a G'zOne aren't unprecedented, but what is unprecedented is for the second color option to be straight-up wild, and in the Boulder's case, we'd say that this shade of orange certainly qualifies as "wild." We've also learned that the phone clocks in at 2.02 x 3.94 x 0.91 inches, making it close to a quarter-inch thinner than the Type-S it replaces. It'll feature a 1.3 megapixel camera -- a modest spec bump -- and, of course, EV-DO Rev. A-based push-to-talk services. Shouldn't be but a few more weeks, months, or years before we can start dropping these into pools and throwing them against brick walls ourselves.

Verizon's G'zOne devices from Casio seems to attract a small but fiercely loyal following, mainly on account of their everything-proof shells (let's be honest, we don't think it's the VGA camera that's been drawing 'em in). Rugged and PTT go hand-in-hand -- just ask Nextel -- so it's great news that the next G'zOne will be supporting Verizon's new EV-DO Rev. A-based push-to-talk infrastructure out of the box. We've managed to score a couple pieces of miscellany pertaining to the so-called Boulder, most importantly a diagram pointing out some of the phone's distinctive features. Just how distinctive are we talking about here? Well, if you look for another phone in Verizon's lineup with a screw-lock battery cover and charging contacts outside of the G'zOne series, we guarantee you're not going to find one. One difference between the Boulder and its Casio brethren, though, is that we're told this one looks "significantly slimmer." Another shot shows the back of the real, actual phone; no renders this time, we promise -- check it out after the break.

Details are still trickling in on this whole visual voicemail sitch on Big Red, but we're starting to wrap our noodle around it. In addition to the four devices we've already mentioned -- the Voyager refresh, Chocolate 3, Blaze, and Utopia -- it turns out that none other than the mighty BlackBerry Thunder will be among the first devices to benefit from sooper dooper 22nd century high-tech voicemail management.

We've also learned that it's actually the Vu30 (little close to the LG Vu, eh, guys?) that's being called the Motorola Utopia, while the Blaze will be some heretofore unknown touchscreen device -- pretty uncommon by Moto standards, particularly in the States where we don't get to benefit from the MING series' awesomeness. As always, we'll roll out more info as we get it.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as they say -- and along those same lines, we've found that a phone in the hand is worth two in the press release. We're sure impatient Dare hopefuls would agree with that sentiment; it's all well and good that Verizon has gone official with the thing, but when can we plunk down cash? The carrier's initial statement of "later this month" was a little vague, and fortunately, the interwebs are starting to come to the rescue with rumors that online availability will kick off on June 26 with in-store and telesales following on come July 3. That gives Instinct owners at least a few days to gloat, so enjoy it while you can, boys and girls.

[Via phoneArena]

Jump on the bandwagon much, Verizon? We're just bustin' your chops, guys -- we know it's hard to avoid jumping on the bandwagon when Sprint and AT&T (by way of Apple, of course) are starting to hustle hard with the visual voicemail trend. We've caught wind that VVM is actually shockingly close to launching on a handful of Verizon devices; the current target is late July to early August. That's the good news. The bad news, though, is that it'll run $1.99 on top of your regular plan pricing, which feels like a bit of a rip when the crosstown competitors are doing it at no additional charge. The feature will take the form of a BREW download that can be snagged and provisioned by the customer in the field without any customer service intervention, and will launch on specific devices.

The first four to get hooked up will be the LG Chocolate 3, the "Voyager Refresh" (it's unclear whether this is a hardware or firmware update to the present-day Voyager), and from Motorola, the "Blaze" and "Utopia." We're not sure what those two are, either, but the rugged V750 may be the Utopia, and deductive reasoning suggests that the VU30 could be the Blaze.

[Thanks, HTCKid]

The Decoy, that glossy gray slider from LG that looks totally normal until you flip it on its front and realize there's a full-fledged Bluetooth headset hitching a ride on back, is now available for purchase from Verizon. The $179.99 you're shelling out on contract after rebates might seem a little pricey, but when you consider that you don't have to spend any extra for a handsfree, that takes a bit of the edge off.

[Thanks, lucas]

Come on, T-Mobile, all we need is you to get on board now and that'll make a perfect Yahtzee! for Palm with its surprise hit, the Centro. Thanks to Verizon's expected announcement today, the top three US carriers now carry the diminutive Garnet device, which Palm actually says is "off to the strongest start of any smartphone in Palm's history" -- quite a statement, considering the Treo line's rich tradition. The Centro is also the first Palm phone to be eligible for the big V's "unlimited" E-mail and Web for Smartphone plan, which runs you a thrifty $29.99. After the full, delicious menu of rebates and discounts have been applied, Verizon's version will run the same $99 on contract that the boys and girls on Sprint and AT&T pay, and we can look for it to be available through all retail channels starting tomorrow.

Update: Palm also has a brand new Facebook app launching with this phone (which will be available for the AT&T and Sprint models as well).

Last time we saw the i770, it was looking pretty raw -- but things move quickly in this crazy industry we're all following so closely, and it seems like Samsung might be settling on a final production look for its latest WinMo gift to Verizon (with more than just a little input from the latter, no doubt). We've been slipped this grainy picture of a device that our contact believes to be a more recent version of the i770, though he's not positive. It certainly looks the part, and the red shell tells us that Verizon's probably going to put at least a half-hearted effort into playing up the personal sales of this one in the same vein as AT&T's BlackJack II. It's no VX9700 in the looks department, but outside of the X1 and a couple HTCs, what Windows Mobile device is?

[Thanks, HTCKid]