The Nokia N900 is still on a pre-order basis, but that’s apparently not an issue with Amazon as they’ve further lowered its price to just $479.99.

This price is inclusive of a $50 mail-in rebate which previously stood at $560.

We’re not sure why they decided to drop the price of the Nokia N900 by almost a $100 even before its released, but hey, this is definitely good news for interested buyers.
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Excuse me for repeating a hoary old joke:

Two campers see a bear, and one immediately puts on his running shoes.
“You can’t outrun the bear,” the other says.
“I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you,” responds the other.

This succinctly describes the relationship when it comes to smartphones between Google (the camper with the running shoes), Microsoft (the other camper) and Apple (the bear).

I wrote an article in Monday’s Times about how Google’s Android operating system appears to be increasingly winning the loyalty of smartphone makers who had been using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. Neither Google nor Microsoft have proven they can slow the growth of the iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. But that probably isn’t Google’s motive.
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It’s time for round two.

AT&T’s iPhone and Verizon’s Blackberry Storm are ready to go head-to-head once again. In two days. The updated version of the first touchscreen Blackberry, the Blackberry Storm2, will be available Wednesday, Oct. 28.

For the eager, die-hard Blackberry fans, the Storm2 can be purchased at Verizon Wireless stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com. It will also be available through business sales channels on Oct. 28. The storm will retail at $179.99, after a $100 mail-in rebate, and requires the typical new two-year service agreement for a voice and data plan.

Now that the release date is so close, the big question remains: will the Storm2 accomplish what Verizon hoped the original Storm would do? When the Storm was unveiled in November of last year, the hope was to draw iPhone users from AT&T to Verizon with the reliable and trusted Research in Motion Blackberry name, but with touchscreen capabilities like the iPhone. The kinks in the SurePress technology (the tactile sense of actually pressing keys on the touchscreen) and lack of Wi-Fi were just a few of the reasons attributing to the phone’s lackluster performance.

The Storm2 is ready to tackle the iPhone once again with a improved SurePress technology, a 3.2 megapixel camera, background noise suppression technology, built-in GPS, battery with 5.5 hours of talk time, 3.25” high-resolution display, Wi-Fi, 256 MB of flash memory and 2 GB of onboard media storage, with a 16 GB memory card included. Will it live up to the task?

[Thanks: http://www.examiner.com]