July 3 - 11:10am EDT   A leaked image and some scarce information indicates Canadian wireless provider Bell will soon get a new handset from Samsung, so for only known by its Link nickname. A low-quality cropped photo of the handset found in a Thursday MobileSyrup report suggests it will be a vertical QWERTY slider. Some are comparing it to a European Samsung model, the C6620. [full story]

June 30 - 1:35pm EDT   After today's earlier news of the BlackBerry Tour smartphone coming to Verizon, two more sources have reported the device will soon be offered at another US provider, Alltel, as well as Canada's Bell. While no specifics are known about the Alltel release other than the photos that reveal Alltel branding on the phone, the Bell release of the new BlackBerry has been supported with more specific pricing details. [full story]

June 30 - 7:55am EDT   Palm may have sold as many as 300,000 Pre phones in less than a month on sale, according to a investor's note by Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. He estimates that about 120,000 Pres were available on launch day but that these sold out within days and that about 15,000 examples of the multi-touch phone are being made every day, leading to the final estimate for the month. As many as 1 million phones could reach Sprint by the end of the first quarter of sales, which for Palm finishes at the end of August. [full story]

June 25 - 7:40am EDT   Telus could leap on the iPhone almost as soon as it has a network ready to support the device, a rumor floated today suggests. A historically reliable source of leaks on Howard Forums claims a Telus executive has said the carrier will pick up rights for the iPhone almost immediately after its HSPA-based network goes live in October and could support the handset. As Telus doesn't have a GSM network, the iPhone would have to use the new 3G service for both calling and data. [full story]

June 22 - 6:05pm EDT   Bell Mobility on Monday announced it is now offering the Ovation U760 Micro Modem from Novatel Wireless, giving users access to the largest 3G data network in Canada. At just over two inches long, the U760 is the smallest EVDO USB modem and features a microSD memory card slot to hold up to 8GB of data and double as a USB flash drive. [full story]

June 16 - 7:20am EDT   Ending a degree of speculation, Research in Motion on Tuesday launched the BlackBerry Tour 9630. The smartphone is the first modern QWERTY keyboard device for CDMA networks and inherits the overall design of the Curve 8900, including its larger 2.44-inch 480x360 screen, but the keys of the Bold. It's also the second 3G world roaming phone for these networks in recent months and has both CDMA and EVDO Revision A for North American carriers but GSM and EDGE for the Americas as well as HSPA for European 3G services. [full story]

June 12 - 7:45am EDT   Palm's budget Eos smartphone is rumored today to be on hold due to worries over Pre sales. The Centro replacement, nicknamed "Pixie," is said by contacts in Asia to still be under development but that its actual launch is frozen until Palm has "better visibility" of how well the Pre and other existing phones are selling. Leaks have suggested the Eos would ship in the fall and thus have the delay coming a few months before launch. [full story]

June 10 - 4:05pm EDT   Canadian wireless, Internet and cable provider Bell has recently announced it will be closing down its short-lived Bell Video Store, an online movie delivery service that lets users download movies to rent and watch over a 48-hour period or download to own. The company is e-mailing notices to users of the service and informing visitors to the website, notifying them of the service's shut-down on July 15th, though they will no longer be able to rent or download new content after June 15th. [full story]

June 3 - 2:20pm EDT   RIM's BlackBerry Tour is now known to be headed to Canada and has had its specifications confirmed through a late leak. Now due for Bell, a brochure for the smartphone obtained by BGR has both CDMA and EVDO for the carrier's own network but also quad-band GSM and EDGE for basic use in the US; in a conscious decision to limit 3G roaming in the US, though, it would have just 2,100MHz HSPA and so would only support 3G on European networks like Vodafone's. [full story]

May 27 - 2:50pm EDT   Telus' planned HSPA 3G network could go live on a national scale earlier than hinted earlier, an additional tip indicated today. Besides supporting the claim that the Canadian provider's new network should have an informal launch in Vancouver on September 2nd, the BGR source now has HSPA ready for the "majority" of the population in October. Previous unofficial timetables would have had the technology active only by early 2010. [full story]

May 15 - 1:35pm EDT   The conversion of Bell and Telus to HSPA networks is likely to have started earlier than expected based on sources. An engineer within Telus tells BGR that both Bell and Telus will informally launch their networks in the fall, with Telus' at a minimum being ready for September 2nd. The initial rollout will focus on southern British Columbia and is meant to have the network ready by the time the Vancouver Olympics begin in February 2010. [full story]

May 8 - 10:00am EDT   Bell this morning became the first carrier anywhere to pick up the Samsung Vice messaging slider. The handset aims directly at the mid-range with a 2-megapixel camera, EVDO-based 3G, assisted GPS and an emphasis on quick access to social networking to take advantage of the QWERTY keyboard. Visual customization is also considered important, though Samsung unusually opts for decals instead of faceplates. [full story]

May 7 - 8:50am EDT   Bell on Thursday said it had bought up the remaining stakes in Virgin Mobile Canada, taking complete control of the prepay-heavy carrier. The takeover is mutual and is labeled by Bell as part of its attempt to take the lead in the Canadian cellphone market. The Virgin label will continue to exist separate from Bell but will reportedly have streamlined operations, including a shared network and the ability to get the same phones as Bell. [full story]

May 6 - 9:20am EDT   Bell on Wednesday became the first Canadian carrier to say it would offer the Palm Pre. The phone is identical to the American version and has the same 3.1-inch multi-touch display, 3-megapixel camera, 3G over EVDO Revision A, GPS and Wi-Fi as the model destined for Sprint. No mention has been made as to whether the phone will include any special apps or other unique features for the carrier. [full story]

May 5 - 3:15pm EDT   Canadian carrier Rogers is likely to follow Bell and Telus in beginning to charge for incoming text messages outside of its normal plans. A tip sent to BGR says Rogers will start notifying customers today that, as of July 7th, it will charge 15 cents per incoming message for customers that aren't already signed up to a bundle that includes SMS. The changes don't affect Fido customers or incoming messages from Twitter, which were restored to the service today and are free until the end of the year. [full story]