The new Nokia N900 smartphone has passionate fans, as you can see from the comments on our hands-on article from two-weeks ago when it was released. The N900 is a Linux-powered smartphone that's a descendant of Nokia's awkward "Internet tablets," but arrives in a thoroughly pocketable size and shape, with a great Web browser and an open-source community raring to program for it. We got a few minutes with a Nokia rep who did a live demo of the device last night. Watch the video below to see the N900 in action.

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha told a financial analysts' conference today that he's in talks with carriers other than T-Mobile to sell the new Android-powered Cliq phone, according to the Dow Jones newswires.

This isn't a surprise - all cell-phone manufacturers are always in talks with all the carriers about everything, and if they aren't in talks, they want to be in talks.

But the timing and context of this announcement are very interesting indeed. When Motorola announced the Cliq last week, many observers thought they would announce two Android phones. The two phones were supposed to be the T-Mobile Cliq and a long-awaited Motorola Android phone for Verizon Wireless that pretty much everyone in the industry knows is coming.

Following their ill-timed introduction of the cute Palm Pixi smartphone, Palm decided to bring their new little WebOS phone and its five California-designed "artist backs" to New York Fashion Week at Bryant Park.

Palm's presence at Fashion Week is a marvelously-designed little booth that looks like the inside of one of the "artist backs," with five Pixis (Pixies?) on display and two Palm folks walking around doing demos. When I hung out there for a little while, the place wasn't empty, but it wasn't as busy as the McCafe next door where they were giving away free coffee.

It's a big week for Palm - really. Not only did they release the Pixi, their second WebOS phone, they rolled out a bunch of new apps into their App Catalog. Many more apps are coming soon, according to Palm product manager Phil McClendon.

We spent some quality time with the Pixi and came up with a full hands-on story, an 18-image slideshow of the new features (including the Pixi's Facebook app) and this video showing the new features. Check them out; the Pixi won't be available for a few months.

A powerful Windows Mobile business phone, the HTC Touch Pro2 is destined for all four major carriers here in the US. Sprint became the second carrier to announce it (after T-Mobile) today, and while their model is very similar to the one we reviewed for T-Mobile, it has a few twists.

For one thing, the Sprint Touch Pro2 is a combination CDMA/GSM device which runs on Sprint's 3G network here in the US, and 2G EDGE networks abroad. The device is also loaded with the usual proprietary Sprint software, including Sprint TV, Sprint's GPS solution, NFL and NASCAR apps and Sprint Music Store.

The Sprint Touch Pro2 will be available for $349.99 with a two-year contract and $100 rebate, the same as T-Mobile is charging. It will be available on Sept. 8, and we'll have a review soon.

Finally! Although Clearwire turned their WiMax network on in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland earlier this year, Sprint users couldn't have access to it up until now. That changed today as Sprint said those three cities are ready for Sprint 4G users to jump on board. They join Baltimore, the only city that had official Sprint WiMax service up until now. (We reviewed the service a while ago when it was called Xohm.)

Right now, there's only one device Sprint is selling for WiMax, the U300 USB modem. Clearwire is selling several different devices for their side of the network, including the Samsung Mondi Windows Mobile handheld and a bunch of modems.

A service plan combining WiMax and Sprint's national 3G service costs $69.99/month; if you just want to buy a day pass to the WiMax network, it's $10/day.

According to a Sprint press release, Sprint has several new 4G devices planned for 2009 and 2010, including a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops and a 4G phone. Back when Sprint 4G was known as Xohm, they already had a data card from Samsung and a bunch of laptops, but pulled them from the market when Sprint changed their strategy.

Also from the press release: Sprint plans to deploy Sprint 4G service in these additional markets in 2009: Chicago, IL; Dallas, Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, PA; Austin, Texas; Abilene, Texas; Amarillo, Texas; Boise, Idaho; Bellingham, Wash.; Charlotte, N.C.; Corpus Christi, Texas; Greensboro, N.C.; Honolulu, HI; Killeen-Temple, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Maui, Hawaii; Midland-Odessa, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; Salem, Ore.; San Antonio, Texas; Seattle, WA: Waco, Texas; and Wichita Falls, Texas. In 2010, Sprint expects to launch service in multiple markets, including Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

After months of rumors and speculation, Dell's Chinese smartphone has finally made its first public appearance. The Dell Mini 3i debuted at China Mobile's launch part for its new Application platform.

The phone features a 3.5-inch 360 x 640 screen, microSD slot, Bluetooth, and a 3MP camera. According to Engadget, the device doesn't have any built-in WiFi and relies on 2G GSM.

Not much more to see here. Move Along.

Is that Palm Pre in your pocket the latest cool new smartphone, or a really expensive tracking device? It's both! Close inspection of the device's webOS reveals that the phone uploads user locations (among other things), sending them back to Palm headquarters daily.

Said information is outlined in the company' Terms and Conditions, which reads, in part,

Palm and its Affiliates may collect, store, access, disclose, transmit, process, and otherwise use your location data (including real time geographic information) in accordance with Palm's privacy policy.

But, let's face it, Palm's not really alone in this. For better and worse, your phone knows where you are at all times--and so does your wireless carrier. Not that such a fact lets any company off the hook, but it certainly seems a fact of modern life--a scary, scary fact.

Details are arriving about two new Android handsets arriving from the Motorola camp for this holiday season. The Sholes and Morrison phones (both sound a bit like codenames) are reportedly set for Verizon and T-Mobile, respectively. In both cases the information was obtained by a site called "Android and Me" from leaks, predictions, and tipsters, so one may be advised to take the whole thing with a grain or two of salt.

The Verizon Sholes, according "predictions" from the site, features an OMAP3430 processor, a 5.0MP camera with autofocus and a video recorder, a microSD slot, and GPS navigation.

The T-Mobile Morrison, which is rumored for an October 21st release, features a Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 MHz processor, 256MB RAM, a microSDHC slot, and a 5MP camera, with 5.4x digital zoom.

If the specs are to be believed, Motorola's not messing around with its new found devotion to Google's operating system.

Motorola spent most of their quarterly analyst conference call today talking up the wonders of Android, and they didn't have a word about Windows Mobile. Not a word. The phrase "Windows Mobile" was not spoken during the whole discussion of their consumer mobile-phone business. Instead, you got quotes like this:

"The majority of our new devices will be smart phones, as we expand Android across a broader set of price points," Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said.

The conflation of "smart phone" with "Android" to the exclusion of Windows Mobile led me to ask for clarification from a Motorola spokeswoman. She said,

"For 2009, mobile devices primary strategy is Android. With that said, Windows Mobile is very important for our enterprise mobility business."

Motorola's enterprise mobility business, formerly known as Symbol, designs hard-core handhelds for big businesses. Is Motorola's line of consumer Windows Mobile phones, such as the Q9h, done with? I notice they didn't specifically say that, but it's really sounding like it.

Barnes & Noble customers have had access to paid Wi-Fi hotspots at individual outlets of the popular nationwide bookseller since 2005. The company announced yesterday that it has signed a strategic agreement with AT&T to implement free and unlimited access to all of its 777 stores' wireless networks.

This move seems to be intended, at least in part, to help support the company's ever-expanding eBook initiative. We reviewed Barnes & Noble's new eReader application last week, and this move seems like an excellent way to keep the company's enormous list of titles at the forefront of everyone's minds. Giving everyone with a wireless device instant access to preview and download over 700,000 eBook titles (including hundreds of thousands of additional public-domain selections from Google) is a terrific marketing tool.

And this strategy doesn't end there. Customers who opt in will also be able to receive special offers and useful information directly over the network. The company is currently suggesting such things as coupons to in-store cafés, information on book signings, and specific instructions on how to find new releases as being among the potential benefits for customers.

HTC and T-Mobile have finally unveiled the long-awaited Touch Pro2, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone with 3G and Wi-Fi radios. The Touch Pro2 will come in a mocha finish and sport a 3.6-inch WVGA (800-by-480) touch screen, which is 0.1 inches bigger than that other device from Cupertino. There's a revised, slide-out QWERTY keyboard--although the old one was quite good, at least if you avoided the Verizon version--along with a 3.2-megapixel camera and video recorder.

HTC also upgraded its beautiful-if-skin-deep TouchFLO 3D interface. The handset hooks into Microsoft Voice Command for playing music, making phone calls, and looking up calendar and contact information. Finally, a new Straight Talk app lets you respond to e-mail from a call, set up a conference call from group e-mail, and "turn any location into a conference room."

Here's hoping HTC and Microsoft did a better job of integrating TouchFLO with Windows Mobile than they did last time. If the two companies can pull it off, then it doesn't necessarily matter that Microsoft's creaky mobile OS is underneath the proceedings. The Touch Pro2 will hit T-Mobile stores and T-Mobile's online Web site on August 12th.