Verizon announced a strategic relationship with Skype today at Mobile World Congree. This means that Verizon smartphones will be able to use Skype over 3G starting in March. According to Skype and Verizon, the perks of having Skype on your smartphone are:

• make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;
• call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;
• send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and
• remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

At launch, Skype will be available on the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.

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It has been just over a year since Palm unveiled webOS and the Palm Pre. Initially, the Pre was exclusive to Sprint and that led many consumers to be hesitant of purchasing the phone. However, at CES Palm outed their plan to bring a updated version of the Pre to a new carrier. At that moment, the Palm Pre Plus was born on Verizon Wireless.

The Palm Pre Plus brought a few hardware improvements over its Sprint counterpart. With double the internal memory, the Pre Plus should now be able to handle more tasks at once without a system slowdown. The device also seems to be a bit more sturdy.

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Last month at CES, Palm announced that webOS 1.4 would be available in February. They failed to announce an exact date, but sources are saying that it is coming on the 15th. In just four days Palm customers will be able to update their webOS phones to 1.4 and get some great new features that the devices have been missing. Our favorite webOS 1.4 feature? Flash 10 plug-in support. We have been dying to get Flash on our iPhone and BlackBerry, but it doesn’t seem like it is coming all that soon. Palm has beat them to the punch by adding it into webOS 1.4. Also coming along is video recording where users will be able to capture video, edit the video, and share the video on YouTuve, Facebook, email, or MMS right from the phone. webOS will be available as a over-the-air update.

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Palm released the Pre Plus on the Verizon Wireless network today. Customers can now go online or into stores and purchase the new phone. A few weeks ago we did a hands-on post when we got to play around with the phone at CES, but now we have one in our possession and we decided to unbox it for you. Check out the full video after the jump.

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Yesterday we brought you all the details from Palm’s keynote where they announced the pre plus and pixi plus. We got a chance to play with the Verizon-bound devices and snap some shots. Both the pre plus and pixi plus will be coming to Verizon on January 25th. Check out our images below!

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Today we attended the Palm keynote, where the company reviewed its success with webOS and announced some new products and services. The most exciting being the Palm pre plus and pixi plus. The Palm pre plus will have no navigation button, unlike its GSM counterpart. The pre plus will also have double the internal memory, 16GB of storage, and an inductive back cover for use with the Touchstone. The pixi plus will be thin and light weight, will have built-in wifi, and will have many color choices for back covers. Both of these webOS devices will be available on January 25th on Verizon Wireless.

The Google Nexus One phone is no secret to bloggers. Unlike Apple, Google did not seem to be very strict with its employees leaking information and pictures of the phone. However, today Google made the phone official with a press conference at its headquarters in California. The Nexus One will be running Android 2.1 as its operating system meaning it will have the latest version of Android. The phone is manufactured by HTC, however it is going to be sold through Google. The Nexus One has a 5 megapixel camera, a trackball, and a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen. The phone has GPS, Wi-Fi, a compass, and accelerometer.

The phone is available to customers today for $549 unlocked to T-Mobile’s bands (meaning no AT&T 3G). It is also available on T-Mobile with a two-year contract for $179. Google didn’t forget about the Verizon customers though, the Nexus ONe will be available on Verizon this Spring. It will also be available on Vodaphone in the future.

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Verizon Wireless has introduced the Samsung Omnia II on its network today. The Omnia II is a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone that runs Swype technology that allows for easy typing without even lifting a finger. With built-in Wi-Fi, the Omnia II allows for fast internet browsing at home or on Verizon’s network. The Omnia II has a 5 megapixel camera and a 3.7″ AMOLED display that allows for great pictures. The phone is available today for $199.99 with a two year contract.

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With the holiday season approaching fast, we at Smartphone Nation thought it would only be right to make a holiday gift guide to help you choose the perfect the gift. There have been many great phone launches this year; however, a few stuck out as superior. We have though of all major carriers when writing this review, so make sure to take carriers into consideration when making your choice.

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