The N97 that Nokia unveiled way last December is hitting stores tomorrow afternoon. Well, at least hitting the Nokia flagship stores in New York and Chicago. If you’re not already in line at one of these two places you might have some luck online as Amazon appears to have some in stock and we would imagine (or at least hope for the sake of all you that pre-ordered) that they will start shipping today or tomorrow as well.

This release from Nokia comes right on the heals of the new and improved iPhone 3Gs announcement and adds some healthy competition to Apple’s reigning smartphone champion. The N97 sports not only a wide touchscreen display but also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to add some ease and speed to your mobile …

Samsung and T-Mobile officially let slip yesterday word of an upcoming 8-megapixel digital camera mobile. It is the new Memoir (SGH-t929) and there’s no official word yet on pricing or availability.

The Samsung Memoir, said the two companies, is designed to look and feel like a regular digital camera. It has a built-in flash, 16x digital zoom and five shooting modes. It is also said to be easy to share photos taken on it with others via direct postings to popular online photo sharing Web sites.

There’s nothing worse then a driver who is too busy running their mouth on a cellphone and not paying attention to the road. Or the other cars. Teenage drivers in particular love to get distracted by their mobile phones. Well, University of Utah engineers have designed a wireless car key device that stops users from talking on their cell phone or sending text messages while behind the wheel.

Each driver of a car will have a separate key device. When the key is extended from the device, it emits a signal that puts the teenagers phone in “Driving Mode,” so that they can’t use it and kill you. In driving mode the phone will display a stop sign and hopefully the death loving teen will get in the habit of leaving the phone alone while driving.

According to some recently discovered fine print in the Android Market terms of service, it appears Apple is not the only one implementing a remote kill switch for applications on their phone. In this case however Google has openly stated that they may “discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement”, and in such cases they reserve the right to “…remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion”.

This all comes after somewhat of an uproar when a developer happened upon a feature that allows Apple to remotely remove applications from the iPhone. This type of remote kill feature is meant to help with security and privacy in the event that some malicious application finds its way onto your mobile device, but many find it a little intrusive since it certainly does not give you free reign to run whatever applications you would like on your Google phone with Android.

Verizon Wireless, besides announcing the Samsung Sway, also unveiled this week two new Motorola handsets and a Bluetooth headset. These new devices are the the Motorola Rapture VU30 and the MOTO VU204 as well as the MOTOPURE H15 Universal Bluetooth Headset. Pricing for these devices is around $130, $30 and $100, respectively.

The Rapture VU30 is the more advanced of the two new mobiles. It comes in a clamshell design Verizon says has a touch-sensitive external display. It does the usual Verizon music services and can also capture digital pictures, offering a dedicated shutter button for the 2.0 megapixel camera. Memory is expandable up to 8GB and you can get turn-by-turn audible driving directions.

Boost Mobile unveiled today it latest mobile phone from Motorola. It is the old school looking i776, which you’ll find pricing around $100.

The Motorola i776 is Boost’s smallest flip phone with a digital camera (VGA). It comes compatible with Boost’s walkie-talkie service and is also GPS enabled.

Verizon Wireless today unveiled a new slim slider phone designed for them by Samsung. It is called the Samsung Sway and you’ll find it pricing around $70 after rebate and contract.

The Samsung Sway offers your typical array of media and lifestyle features to make it more than just a mobile. It includes being a MP3 player which can be loaded with music via a USB cable, a 2.0-megapixel digital camera with video recording and digital zoom and Bluetooth support.

One of a slew of new mobile phones announced by Sprint this week is the very hip looking LG Lotus. It will be available in October for around $150 with a two-year contract.

The LG Lotus is described as being a full QWERTY flip phone with a squarish shape and two color options – purple or black. It is one of the first Sprint phones to support the mobile carrier’s new One Click feature. One Click allows you to personalize the home screen of the Lotus “by selecting and organizing features and content such as text messaging, Google search, Sprint Navigation, email, favorite Web sites, music, and call log” so they can be included in the display. One sees all of this information through a customizable carousel-style menu.

Nokia released several new Nseries mobiles this week. The Nokia N79 is one of these and it’s coming to Europe this October – no specific American release information was made available.

The Nokia N79, according to its maker, offers up quite a lot of features for the multimedia inclined. This include, in a nutshell, “integrated navigation, music with FM transmitter, high-speed connectivity, superior web browsing, at least 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games and an advanced 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.” It also combines 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi wireless support.

Verizon recently slipped a new mobile phone into its line up with no fanfare which targets messaging hounds. It is called the Blitz and pricing is around $70 after discounts and such.

The Verizon Wireless Blitz offers up a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and compact design. The screen size is 2.2-inches while the built-in digital camera is 1.3-megapixels and can be accessed with a dedicated camera key. Other features include a hands-free speakerphone, a built-in music player, Bluetooth support and expandable memory up to 4GB via a microSD memory card slot.

Verizon [via MobileBurn]

Nokia said today it would be adding a new XpressMusic mobile phone to Nokia 5610 XpressMusic and you’ll find it pricing around $100 after rebates and such.

The Nokia 5160 XpressMusic, available in red and white color choices, is a music slider phone with aluminum side panels and a 2.2-inch color display. It offers up to 22 hours of music playback and a memory capacity for up to 3,000 songs on an optional 4GB microSD card. It also has a built-in 3.2-megapixel 3.2 digital camera.

Samsung on Friday announced a new horizontal-slider design handset which it is debuting through cellular provider MetroPCS. It is called the Samsung Messager (SCH-r450) and it prices around $200.

The Samsung Messager (SCH-r450) is designed for those who like to message as they go, be it text, email or IM. It includes a QWERTY keyboard and support for messaging services. There’s also built-in MP3 playback and an external micro SD card slot.

Verizon Wireless has decided two of its more popular  BlackBerry smartphones are deserving of a new body color as college students get ready to return to school this fall. The cell phone company is unveiling pink versions of the BlackBerry Curve 8330 and BlackBerry Pearl 8130, priced at around $100 and $80, respectively.

Verizon had this to say about the features of these two phones: “The BlackBerry Curve 8330 is the smallest and lightest full-QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone, which makes the handset a natural fit for fashion-savvy students who need to manage their responsibilities at school, while staying connected to their family and friends. Additionally, students traveling off campus can take advantage of Verizon Wireless’ VZ Navigator(SM) service on their BlackBerry Curve to access maps, audible turn-by-turn navigation and information on more than 14 million points of interest.

Mobile phone manufacturer LG Electronics is poised to be among the first to bring Dolby sound to handsets set for release on the global market. The electronics company and Dolby inked a deal which would bring “Dolby Mobile” to into high-end multimedia phones towards the end of the year.

Dolby Mobile is described as an audio processing technology platform optimized for mobile applications. Key features of this platform include surround sound, bass boost, restoration of high-frequency effects and mono-to-stereo conversion.

LG/Dolby Agreement

Nokia is now debuting here in the United States a new, very slim QWERTY smartphone. It is called the E71 and pricing is set around $500.

The Nokia E71 is just 0.39-inches thin, reportedly making it the slimmest QWERTY device currently on the market. It sports a stainless steel design and large screen, among other hardware features. It also includes integrated GPS and a built-in 3.2-megapixel digital camera.