TCT Mobile Limited is getting some help from a woman's best friend for their new flip phone - the Alcatel Crystal A. No points for guessing where they get the name from as one can see possibly precious stones scattered on the front and back of the handset. Certainly not a bad complement to a classy evening outfit. Apart from its looks, it comes with an external display, camera, FM radio, support for multiple audio and video formats, memory expansion via microSD, Bluetooth, various applications and Java games.

Even wanted a phone that will let all your friends know that you’re Superman’s biggest fan? Well, one look at the N66 that is pictured here, and there will certainly be no doubt who your favorite superhero is. The giant “S” in the middle of the phone says it all.

It seems that Bell has agreed to take up Virgin’s stake in Virgin Mobile over in Canada. It was previously a 50-50 joint venture between Bell and Virgin, but Bell has agreed to cough up CAD $142m ($121m) and also agreed an exclusive, long-term licensing deal with Virgin to use the Virgin Mobile name. It certainly looks a little confusing for new subscribers, doesn’t it? Bell certainly looks like it’s intent on operating Virgin Mobile as a separate entity, though they might combine some retail efforts.

One of the things that we can’t wait to have on our mobile phones is Firefox Mobile, after all, we’re hoping that it bring what it did for desktop browsing to the mobile scene. Aside from the already known features such as geolocation and gesture browsing, it seems that Firefox Mobile will be getting automatic website login as well, via Weave sync. It will handle OpenID, along with the normal username/password login method.

You might have read the little disagreement that Vodafone and Telecom New Zealand had over the XT network that was supposed to be launched on May 13. Well, it looks like Telecom New Zealand has succumbed to the pressure and put off the launch until the end of the month as it resolved “technical issues” that might interfere with Vodafone’s network. If it works out fine, then well and good.

A glance at the T-Mobile Vairy Touch and you’ll be forgiven for thinking that it’s a HTC Touch. The good news is that this phone will only set you back about $75. While the device might physically look like a HTC Touch, the user interface is totally different. In terms of hardware, the touchscreen is reportedly quite good, albeit it takes quite a bit of pressure to activate, which is often a common problem with cheaper resistive displays. Would you pick one of these over a HTC device?

Telecom New Zealand might be excited at the prospect of launching their 3G network on Wednesday, but it seems like they’ve been hit with a rather interesting setback. Vodafone is claiming that Telecom’s new cells are wreaking havoc with its networks, thanks to radiation interfering with Vodafone’s allotted spectrum. The bad news is that, according to Vodafone, the carrier already knows that Telecom new this was going to happen, and the government had already warned them. Whatever the outcome, it certainly seems highly unlikely that the May 13th launch is still on.

Most of us have played games like Railroad Tycoon or Theme Hospital at some point in our lives. Now iPhone owners will be able to experience a similar thrill directly on their iPhone, thanks to the Lemonade Tycoon app, which is going for free. One of the rather confusing parts of the app is its tendency to ask you survey questions. Every now and then you’ll be presented with a general question, and we’re fairly sure that the information collected is sent somewhere to be processed. As long as you don’t provide information that is too detailed, it shouldn’t be too much a price to pay for a fun game.

Everybody loves the design of Apple’s iPhone/iPod touch, but if anybody was to come up with a design that might be possible to rival Apple’s baby, it would have to be Sony. It’s still a concept design, but we certainly like what we see. Designer Jaren Goh came up with the Sony Black Tribute, which if released, will certainly give the iPhone a good run for its money. It’s certainly a touchscreen, with an aluminum case, and 3.2-megapixel camera. Would you pick this over an iPhone if it became an actual retail item?

Barcelona-based Fractus S. A., which is a manufactuerer of internal antennas for mobile devices has filed an interesting copyright infringement suit against ten major cell phone manufacturers which include Samsung, LG, RIM, Pantech, Kyocera, Palm, HTC, Sharp, UTStarcom and Sanyo. The company alleges that said companies have violated nine of its patents that are related to antennas small enough to fit into cell phones but powerful enough to work on a wireless network. Fractus is an active supplier of antennas, shipping millions worldwide and owns 80 global patents, which includes 30 in the U.S.

TmoNews has managed to dig up information on some upcoming phones from T-Mobile. As listed in the leaked image, the T-Mobile Dash, Dash 3G and also the HTC Rhodium (HTC Touch Pro2) have been given a date. One more interesting thing to note is that T-Mobile will be offering visual voicemail, though there isn’t mention whether this feature will be available to Windows Mobile smartphones, so keep your fingers crossed.

Did you ever stop to wonder why the text messages you send are limited to 160 characters per message? Did you think that it was just some carrier-imposed restriction to milk more money out of us consumers? Well, there is actually quite a bit of history related to it, and it’s all thanks to a man called Friedhelm Hillebrand who lived in Germany. Basically he was the one who decided that 160 characters was enough to convey a message wirelessly. You can check out the whole write up here.