Interpreting languages can be a real challenge. It’s especially difficult for frequent overseas travelers or those who converse with foreign clients over the phone. Google wants to make things easier with smartphone translator software that will instantly convert the words you speak from one language to another while on the phone.

They’ve been doing it for some time with text translation, and now speech-to-speech translation is possible with ‘high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition’ only. The idea is that the users phone would adapt to the user by learning their style of talking and make it easier to translate in real time.

[GW]

Like a Jawa in the Tatooine sun, apparently Motorola managed to sell a whole bunch of DROIDs over the weekend. According to analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech, they managed to move about 100,000 Droids during the opening weekend. Most stores moved at least half of their original shipments.

He also estimates that Motorola will sell one million Android-based phones in Q4 2009 alone (that includes the CLIQ). Looks like Motorola has something to celebrate.

You probably already know that your cellphone leaks radiation into you while you’re on the phone. Of course you do. Though we try not to think about it, it is worth knowing which cellphones have the highest and lowest radiation levels. To that end, the Environmental Working Group has launched a website that rates cellphones on radiation output.

Here are the highlights: Ranking high on the list (in other words these phones put out the lowest levels of radiation) are the Motorola RAZR V8, and AT&T’s Samsung Impression. In fact, Samsung holds several spots at the top of the list. On the other end of the spectrum, some phones that rated poorly are T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G and the Blackberry Curve 8830.

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 …

Acer entered the smartphone market just a few months ago, but sadly they’re now having problems with several U.S. carriers, which means we most likely won’t see any smartphones in the U.S. from the company until next year.

According to Acer’s PR people, they don’t have any phones planned for the U.S. until 2010 now. It sucks for those of us in the states because other countries are already getting their hands on the devices.

When you have several prototypes rejected by carriers here in America, it might be time to try China. And that’s just what Michael Dell is doing. Reuters is reporting that Dell is aiming to launch multiple smartphones in the Chinese market before 2010.

A pair of analysts are saying that the firm is working with Chi Mei Communications for the hardware, while China-based Red Office is engineering the OS. Apparently if the China rollout goes good, the US and Europe are on Dell’s list of next-up launch markets.

Verizon has now officially announced that RIM’s BlackBerry Storm 9530 will be available from Verizon wireless starting November 21. This smartphone is sure to be a hit as it’s BlackBerry’s first touchscreen (SurePress), and iPhone-competing device. It’s also the first device from Verizon set for Global 3G use.

The BlackBerry Storm is going for $199.99 with a two year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate and will come bundled with an external 8GB microSD card to make sure you can save all that media you’ll be downloading from the high speed connection.

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.

Here it is. RIM has finally taken the wraps off the Blackberry 9000 we’ve been hearing rumors about and officially launched the Blackberry Bold. Reportedly the latest smartphone from Research In Motion gets the “Bold” name from the exceptionally crisp and bright display that comes with it.

That display comes as a 480×320 pixel, 65,000 color VGA screen that according to Crave is better than anything else they have ever seen. The other most notable feature is the wireless connection options available on this guy. It’s a GSM 850/900/1800/1900 phone and has HSDPA/UMTS (850/1900/2100) support which has never before been available on a Blackberry, and apparently they’ve done it right without sacrificing battery life in the process. Let’s also not forget that the Blackberry Bold is also connected via Wi-Fi (a/b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS.

Verizon told us they would be getting the Blackberry Curve some time in May and they’ve come through on their promise. It’s now only a week into May and Verizon is already showing the Curve available on their site, priced at $219.99 with a two year contract and $100 online discount. This model doesn’t have the Wi-Fi or the pale gold color like we’ve seen at T-Mobile, but also comes a little bit cheaper.

Microsoft announced Monday that it is going to acquire Danger, software maker for the popular consumer-targeted Sidekick mobile device. Reportedly the purchase came after months of negotiations, with Danger receiving a number of different offers and Microsoft doubling their original offer to keep Danger out of others hands. That offer has been rumored to be as much as $500 million, but no official terms of the deal have been revealed.

While Microsoft has done well making software for smartphones the company mostly targets business users and fewer general consumers. The Sidekick from Danger is almost the opposite and is aimed at the younger consumer-based market in which Microsoft seems to be keen on getting into. Microsoft also recently made a $44.6 billion offer to Yahoo to help build a larger online, consumer-facing presence and could have Danger in mind to be part of that overall strategy, working against dominate competitive figures like Google and RIM.

Today Verizon Wireless announced that they are adding the Palm Treo 755p to their lineup of Palm smartphones, coming in their own new color of deep blue-green. The Treo 755p runs on the Palm OS and uses Verizon’s EV-DO high speed network to support Direct Push email and Verizon’s Wireless Sync.

The smartphone also comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera, mini-SD card slot, Pocket Tunes, Bluetooth support, Documents go Go for viewing Microsoft Office documents and PDFs. It supports editing Word and Excel files and comes with Google Maps for mobile ready to go out of the box. Verizon is pricing the 755p at $349.99 if you sign up for the two year contract, get an $100 online discount and get a $50 mail in rebate.

Here’s another release that just made it within its announced time constraints, launching on the last of the month. RIM and AT&T have announced the official release of the BlackBerry Curve, available through AT&T starting tomorrow, May 31st for a price of $199 with a two year contract and a mail in rebate, of course.

The BlackBerry Curve is the latest, smallest and lightest BlackBerry smart phone with a full QWERTY keyboard that RIM has produced. In fact, AT&T (through a predecessor company) was the first carrier to introduce a BlackBerry wireless solution back in ’99 and is now the first with the Curve. The features available in this phone combined with the price is almost enough to make a guy want to switch carriers.

Press Release

The BlackBerry Curve (aka the 8300) is the latest model that’s been added to the BlackBerry lineup of handheld devices from Research In Motion (RIM). The claim to fame for this new model lies in the combinations. The BlackBerry Curve sports a smaller size combined with a full QWERTY keyboard, and also packs in blend of features to serve both work and play.

The BlackBerry Curve is the smallest and lightest BlackBerry yet that has a full QWERTY keyboard. At only .6 inches thick, 2.4 inches wide and 4.2 inches tall, the device is almost the same size as the BlackBerry Pearl aside from being just a little bit wider to accommodate the QWERTY keyboard. The Curve also outweighs the Pearl by .7 ounces with a total weight of 3.9 ounces. The BlackBerry Pearl is the smallest BlackBerry device that …