Samsung i8700 put through 13-minute video exposé

You know how those Korean electronics makers are. One does something -- such as a Windows Phone 7 leak -- and the other has to go and try to match or better the feat. Samsung has today easily outdone LG, whose Optimus 7 only revealed some press pics, with a thorough video exposition of its i8700 WP7 handset. We're hearing references to this phone being called the Omnia 7, which makes sense, but is at present not something we've been able to verify. So what might you enjoy in this video treat? It's mostly a jog through now familiar territory, though we do get to witness the phone taking a picture --

Nokia N8 going on general sale October 22, available online October 15

Been waiting for the N8 but weren't sure enough about buying it to get into the pre-order queue? Well, Nokia must have found your lack of faith disturbing as it's now stiffing those who didn't pre-order its all-new handset with another couple of weeks of waiting. Those without Nokia logos tattooed on their lower backs will finally be able to purchase the N8 on October 15 -- but only via Nokia's own web store -- before a general release hits the UK and presumably most of the rest of Europe on October 22 (slightly later than the promised October 1 landing date). The distribution is indeed wide, however,

HTC grows profits in Q3 to $360 million, revenues rise to $2.45b

It's good to see that HTC's omnipresence in the smartphone market is paying off in nicely growing financial figures as well. Having reported $268 million in profit for Q2, the Taiwanese company is today touting a $360 million tally for the period between July and September 2010. Android is again fingered as the chief catalyst for this growth, which is best illustrated by comparing numbers to last year, when HTC managed to pull in $184 million during Q3, or almost exactly half of this year's haul. Total revenues were also appropriately inflated, up to $2.45 billion, and analysts seem in agreement that HTC's future is looking rosy. So long as the G2 hiccups remain an isolated incident, that should indeed be the case.

Samsung Galaxy S sales surpass five million, world domination plans still on track

Believe it or not, Samsung is only now getting around to introducing its Galaxy S handset to the fine isle of Japan. Its announcement of a late October availability for the home of CEATEC was also accompanied by the little note that the rest of the world has already bought up five million units of its multivariate Galaxy S phone family. More than two million of those sales have been notched up in the US and over one million can be found in Samsung's home field of South Korea. Or could be found if they actually had working GPS units. Zing!

Hack improves Nokia N8's image and video quality, puts a hurting on your memory card (video)

Clearly a lot of folks out there are pretty passionate about the quality of their cameraphone pics. So too is cellphone modder hyperX, who is developing some custom tweaks to improve the quality of the stills and vids coming out of Nokia's latest darling. First is a hack to enable 720p30 video, a slight improvement over the 720p25 default. That's demonstrated after the break, along with a continuous autofocus mod. More notable, however, is a tweak to enable nearly uncompressed images. Stock JPEGs coming from the camera clock in around 2MB, but the example image he's provided (on the other end of that source link) is a rather heftier 11MB -- truly a hack that won't do your memory card any favors, but it'll sure make those pixels shine. Sadly without back-to-back before and after images we can't say for sure what kind of tangible improvement this makes, but we hear if you ask nicely he'll let you try it out for yourself.



Motorola is 'open' to developing Windows Phone 7 devices, but only if the OS proves compelling

In case you somehow missed it, Microsoft lodged a complaint with the ITC on Friday, alleging Motorola's Android smartphones infringed on nine of its precious patents. You might imagine that'd sting the pride of Moto's chief exec Sanjay Jha, but nothing could be further from the truth. Describing such turf wars over intellectual property as "part of business," Sanjay explains that his company is willing to work with Microsoft on developing a handset based around its new OS, so long as the offering is "compelling." He notes that the first call he received upon becoming co-CEO and handset division chief back in 2008 was from none other than Steve Ballmer, but Microsoft's failure to deliver a new OS in '09 is what compelled him to go the Android route (we doubt he regrets doing it, mind you!).

T-Mobile finally brings Android into the WiFi calling game

Eschewing the femtocells that most of its competitors have embraced, T-Mobile USA has long touted WiFi calling as the answer for augmenting its cellular network -- problem is, they've generally done a poor job of rolling it out to a wide variety of handsets. Notably absent from the compatibility list so far, Android is finally being welcomed to the club today -- as rumored -- with the recently-announced myTouch and Motorola Defy among the first models to nab the feature. Though availability on currently-sold phones hasn't been announced, T-Mobile does say that WiFi calling is "anticipated to be available on a growing selection of T-Mobile's Android-powered smartphones in the coming months," so we'll go on record hoping we see a few upgrades in the works (G2, we're looking straight at you). Follow the break for the carrier's full press release.