Join Dieter, Kevin, Rene, and Phil as they discuss CTIA and the other big news coming out of the smartphone world in the past few weeks.

• Download it directly with this link
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe directly to the Podcast feed with your favorite Podcatcher here
• Listen to it here with the player above

Show notes after the break.

• Phil Nickinson for WMExperts
• Rene Ritchie for The iPhone Blog
• Kevin Michaluk for CrackBerry.com
• and Dieter Bohn for PreCentral.net

WMExperts

• Snap! Hands-On Impressions, Video of the HTC Snap
• Marketplace Microsoft gives more marketplace details! Themes!, Upgrades to 6.5!
• Propel Pro Hands-on: Samsung Propel Pro

PreCentral.net

• Classic Classic PalmOS Emulator: Video Walkthrough
• SDK opened up a bit Web 2.0 Expo: Palm Reaches Out to Developers – Extends Invite to Apply for Early Access Program<
• Mojo Messaging Mojo Messaging Service for webOS: More than Just Push

CrackBerry.com

• App World Goes Live - http://crackberry.com/blackberry-app-world-goes-live
• Storm Discontinued - http://crackberry.com/blackberry-storm-officially-discontinued
• BlackBerry gets Shazam - http://crackberry.com/shazam-blackberry-app-world-surprise

The iPhone Blog

• Next Gen iPhone Taking Shape: 3.5mp camera, video recording, voice control, digital compass, and the leaks just keep on coming!
• Google Giveth Gmail and Gcal Goodness: New WebApps leverage advanced WebKit features
• (Google Voice Mobile App: looks pretty sweet as well)
• Music Prices Go Variable: iTunes changes to tiered music single pricing, but so does Amazon MP3 and Walmart.
• AT&T Cracking Down on iPhone users without iPhone 3G plans?

Nokia Experts

• Nokia E71x
• CTIA 09: Nokia release Point & Find beta for camera-enabled devices

Android Central

• Not big at CTIA -- again! -- what gives?

Credits

Special thanks to gmz for the song Parametaphoriquement, licensed under the Creative Commons at CCMixter.org

Dieter's on the floor at CTIA, and we're hoping he'll bring back a closer look, but in the meantime the fine folks at QuickOffice have just let us know that their new iPhone app, QuickOffice for iPhone will be available in the next few weeks, and will cost $19.99.

Quickoffice for iPhone has an intuitive user interface and supports comprehensive functionality including cut, copy and paste, font formatting, content selection and bullets within Word documents. Users can also leverage a wider keyboard to edit and create documents in landscape mode. Excel functionality includes extensive mathematical and statistical formulas.

Other useful features include file sharing capabilities via Wi-Fi desktop connectivity and access to one's MobileMe iDisk account. Editing is done with maintaining perfect data integrity, in addition to 'auto-save' to ensure none of your work is lost on-the-go.

We're guessing "next few weeks" means they'll be using a custom-made cut/copy paste implementation under iPhone 2.x, which means we're also guess there'll be a new version come iPhone 3.0 launch this "summer".

There have been other apps offering Excel editing in the paste, but Word editing is new for the iPhone (unless DocsToGo gets there first). Is it enough to get you over your document hurdle, or are there any power users still hungering for more?

TiPb is just one cog -- elegant and perfectly balanced though it may be -- of the mighty Smartphone Experts network, which also includes Android Central, CrackBerry.com, PreCentral.net, NokiaExperts, TreoCentral, and WMExperts. Editor-in-Chief Dieter Bohn is now on the ground, live an in-person at CTIA 2009 and will be bringing back all the news, for TiPb and almost all the other sites. Almost, because CrackBerry Kevin seems to have stowed away on the trip as well. We don't really expect any iPhone news other than the launch of apps like Skype, but if there is any, our daring duo will bring it home for us.

If you want to keep up with their adventures, keep your browsers tuned to the above sites, and follow them on the Twitter via @backlon and @crackberrykevin.

And if there's anything at the show you want them to check out, let them -- and us -- know!

UPDATE: Skype seems to be live now in the US App Store [iTunes Link]. If you find it in any other App Store's please let us know in the comments. [Thanks daveizzle for the tip!]

UPDATE 2: According to CBC News, Skype will NOT be available in Canada (though it will be everywhere else). The reason, a patent-license restrictions on Skype's end that they won't discuss. Apparently that means no iPhone Skype App for Canada and crippled Skype-to-Skype and IM only for the BlackBerry come may. Sort that out, will you Skype. Now? [via arcterex]

UPDATE 3: Important note for JAILBREAK users: if you're experiencing constant crashes, be sure to update MobileSubstrate via Cydia.

ORIGINAL post after the jump!

Skype for the iPhone (and second generation iPod touch), rumored last week by Om Malik, is now confirmed by the WSJ as coming to the iTunes App Store tomorrow.

Skype, the popular VoIP (voice over IP) service that sends telephone calls via the internet, will be WiFi only for calls, of course (carriers will protect their income by keeping it off 3G), but you can IM chat anywhere. How does it stack up to existing apps like Fring that already offer VoIP support? CNet, which has an early review up, quotes Skype a saying:

what the other apps use is a workaround that requires them to channel calls through a server and transcode audio, resulting in poorer-quality calls than Skype can do in its own app.

GigaOm seems pleased:

SkypeIn and SkypeOut, along with Skype Chat, are the key features of this new version of the Skype application. This is a native P2P application for the iPhone and the iPod touch. It allows group chats and conference calls and is tightly integrated with Apple’s Address Book.

Gizmodo, by contrast, thinks:

Third party apps like Fring picked up Skype's slack a long time ago, and lump in multiprotocol IMing, something which gives them a distinct advantage over this official client on the one-app-at-a-time-please iPhone.

[Thanks to John and Icebike for sending this in! And no, we'd have mentioned Om again anyway, even though it would be great if he'd yell at us over Twitter...]

Our own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn will be live at CTIA 2009, where the official announcement is expected, so if anything else breaks, he'll let us know. Meanwhile, anyone setting their alarm-clocks to download?