Blackjacks Hang Up: Recall/Replacement Info

I usually take the time to bash AT&T at least once a week on this blog, but for once there's a problem that may not be there fault. Blackjack owners may have been pissed off at AT&T because of random dropped calls. Well it turns out that there may have been an issue with the Blackjack itself.

According to Samsung a number of Blackjacks made between November 2006 to February 2007 might have had a glitch, that hangs up when you're not ready. While Samsung has not issued a recall on the smartphones, they are offering an exchange program for certain owners, and Crunchgear has the dirty details.

Word has it that this issue has been corrected for newer models.

BlackJack II Officially Announced

The BlackJack II was officially announced today by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the CTIA 2007 in San Francisco. The new 3G Smartphone will have alot of new stuff and will be available at the end of the year for $149.99, of coarse with the stick up of a 2-year contract agreement with AT&T. The official spec looks like this:

• AT&T Video Share, the first service in the US that enables users to share live video over the wireless phones while on a voice call. BlackJack II is the first AT&T business-oriented smart device to feature Video Share.
• Built-in GPS, Support for location-based applications such as TeleNav GPS Navigator™.
• Global phone capabilities. Tri-band 3G UMTS/HSDPA and Quad-band EDGE/GPRS technology takes advantage of AT&T's industry-leading international wireless footprint for access to e-mail, the Web and other data applications in more than 135 countries—including Japan, South Korea and China—and customers can make or receive phone calls in more than 190 countries.
• An RSS Reader Client to compile syndicated Web content in a single location for easy viewing.
• Significant improvement in the standard battery capacity to get you through the day.
• A 2.0-megapixel camera with video-capture capabilities.
Increased standard memory.
• A louder and clearer speakerphone.

A big thanks to Gizmodo for this information. [AT&T]

Samsung i617 Is The New Blackjack 2?

The follow up to the successful Blackback smartphone has leaked its way out. The Blackjack II is masking as the Samsung i617, and most of the details are still unknown. But it is running Windows Mobile 6, has 2-megapixel camera, and 3G HSDPA, just for fun. Soul sucking AT&T most likely will get the exclusive rights to the phone, as they did for the first Blackjack.

No word on when it will be available, but it is rumored for sometime in Q4 2007.

[mobiledia via Gizmodo]