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Italian Police were cracking down on organized crime in Naples a while back and stumbled across a .22 caliber Mobile Phone Gun… yes, an actual working phone gun. Something you would see in a James Bond flick. To fire the mobile pistol all the user needs to do is hit the 5 to 8 buttons and the bullets come firing through the antenna. See the video here

The ongoing saga of the Nokia E71 into Canada gets stranger by the day.

First it was supposed to be launched by Fido until Rogers pulled it from their line-up. Then it was launched but nobody knew anything at the stores or at Customer Service. Finally we found a friendly Rogers rep who gave us details yesterday that the E71 is available for $99.99 on a 3-year contract with a minimum $45 Voice and Data plan.

However, a quick peep into the local Rogers Plus store today proudly had the Nokia E71 on display for an incredible promo price of $49.99 on a 3-year contract with a minimum $45 Voice and Data plan. This is by far the most dramatic unofficially released device Rogers has ever made available!

Regardless – the E71 is a great smartphone. Probably the best Nokia has ever put out. Incredible in the hand with a weight of 127 grams and only 10mm thin.

The display says:
“The thinnest Smartphone in the Rogers Line-up”
“3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus, second camera for video calling”
“3G/HSPA”
“Embedded Nokia Maps”
“Dual profile and e-mail for business and personal use.”

More here on Rogers.

From my knowledge this is the first sign of any BlackBerry Storm advertisement by Bell.

The ad shows the Curve 8830, Pearl 8130 and the Storm as “coming soon” still. However, what is kinda odd is they are directly competing with Rogers 3G network as the ad says “It’s only logical that a 3G network 10x larger than Rogers reached as far as Vucan”.  I guess because Rogers is doing their big BlackBerry push now… I would think they would want to compete against Telus with the Storm. However, not my company.

An interesting article in the Toronto Metro newspaper reports that TELUS and BCE could possibly merge into one organization and control about 60% of the wireless market in Canada. This news comes from investors in BCE looking for another plan as the $52 billion buy out might fall through.

John Henderson, an analyst at Scotia Capital said “We believe Telus remains very interested in entering merger discussions”. However, Telus spokesperson declined to comment.

Looking for a basic phone that barely has a camera? Check out the latest price reduction over at Koodo Mobile. They have knocked $25 off the price for the Samsung U410. This comes loaded with a wicked 0.3 megapixel camera, speakerphone and voice dialing. Honestly – it’s a good phone to make calls and the price is certainly affordable. This comes in Red and Black and can be yours for 50 bucks.

If you have been waiting for a great deal for the LG KEYBO to come, Besy Buy is your best friend then. You can get not 1, but 2 Telus LG Keybo’s at Best Buy for $49.99 on a 3-year plan. Plus they are giving your an additional $200 in gift cards. The only way this is good is if you like the KEYBO and know somebody who wants the same phone.

Fresh off the heals of little brother Future Shop, Best Buy moves in and shows the unreleased TELUS BlackBerry Storm at $299.99 on a 3-year plan.

No date is shown on their advertisemtent but the Future Shop ad said “Estimated release date of December 18, 2008″, and an outright price of $649.99.

More shortly… this Storm is coming soon. Very soon.

From the looks of things Rogers seems to have quietly launched the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (otherwise known as the Javelin).

According to BGR the 8900 has started to ship and fill sales channels with price plans are $179 on a 3 year with voice and data of $45 or more, $549 for 1-year or month to month, $524 on a 2-year with no data, $499 on a 2-year with data and $499 on a 3-year with no data.

When we reviewed an unreleased 8900 we found out that it was UMA capable (Rogers Talkspot) and also comes with WiFi, GPS and a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus.

More info soon and we’ll see when Rogers officially releases this.

** UPDATE** BBNews: “Here’s the deal, it looks like the brand new Curve is out-of-stock for new activations. However, we have confirmed that those who are due for a Hardware upgrade have purchased the device already for $179.00. Rogers couldn’t tell me when they’ll have more 8900’s in stock for us regular folks, but if you’re due for an upgrade give them a call and let us know how it went below. We were told 3-5 shipping days.”

**UPDATE** – We have now seen this at Rogers for $49.99. Visit this link for more info.

After a long haul into Canada, the Nokia E71 is now available at Rogers Wireless for new customers or existing customers on a hardware upgrade for $99.99 (with a minimum voice and data plan of $45 a month).

The Nokia E71 was originally to be released through Fido until the dog was told to settle down. When I called Rogers none of the Customer Service reps new about the device or when it would be available. If you call you have to be disciplined to find a good rep who’ll give you the correct info. I originally was given $349.99 on a 3-year plan, $374.99 on a 2-year plan, $524.99 on a 1-year plan and a wacked outright price for $749.99… then I asked for the promo price (which drops it down to $99.99).

This is not on the Rogers site yet but will be shortly. In addition, we were sent this link by a Hofo member with additional details by Treatz who started the story.

Telus has jumped into the contest ring and put a BlackBerry Storm contest together on their microsite. You have a chance to win 1 of 10 BlackBerry Storm smartphones if you enter your info and sign up for updates. The contest goes until January 6th, 2009. In addition, Telus has put an approximate value of the Storm at $650.

I went to the Toronto Eaton Centre and found a glorious scene. A full on display of BlackBerry Storms in action. Check out the video here

Also, CTV is holding a contest where you can win a trip to the actual Launch party of the Storm with Stars performing (this is between December 11-13th)