Continuing its recent trend of putting out slide-out feature phones with QWERTY keyboards, Samsung has revealed the SPH-m570 Restore, an eco-friendly handset destined for provider Sprint’s lineup in the United States.

An attractive slider, especially given its price, the Samsung Restore features a two megapixel camera, integrated Bluetooth and full media playback capabilities, including access to the Sprint Music Store. Available in both midnight black and limeade green, the Restore will utilize Sprint’s popular One Click interface.

The “eco-friendly” tag being floated in regards to the Restore makes reference to the recycled materials used during manufacture: the phone’s casing is made from 27 percent post-consumer recycled plastics, the phone itself is 84 percent recyclable and the packaging, 100 percent recyclable itself, is made from 70 percent post consumer waste.

No release date has yet been set but Sprint did say that they expect the phone to be released this summer at an expected retail price of $49.99 following a $50 mail-in rebate.

Samsung has announced its latest Google Android-powered smartphone, intended for the Korean market as a follow-up the Samsung Haptic Beam – the Samsung W9600 Beam.

With a custom Samsung interface integrated over Google Android 2.1, the W9600 Beam offers an array of high-end multimedia features including a five megapixel camera and a projector for displaying everything from presentations to movies, all packed into a relatively slim 56mm x 116mm x 15.7mm form factor. The 11GB of internal memory can be upgraded to 16GB via the microSD card slot.

Samsung is being tight-lipped as far as exact release details go but stay tuned for more on the Samsung W9600 Beam!

Samsung has announced its latest stylish candybar phone, the S5350 Shark; this marks the first unveiled device of the three coming in Samsung’s “Shark” line.

Focused on multimedia and social networking, the S5350 measures in at a slim 115.2mm x 46.7mm x 11.9mm with a sleek look and a fully customizable GUI with a focus on delivering quick access to chat apps such as AIM and Google Talk, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and a full suite of multimedia tools.

Other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot, built-in FM radio tuner and Bluetooth 2.0. Wireless functionality is HSDPA 3G on 900MHz and 2100MHz with full GSM coverage. Pricing and availability details have yet to be released.

Mobile phone manufacturer Samsung wrapped up its week at CES 2010 with the announcement of its new March For a Million Phones program, a green effort aimed at recycling phones.

Striving for the recycling of one million handsets during 2010 in the United States alone, Samsung’s Telecommunications Chief Marketing Officer Paul Golden introduced the program in Las Vegas on Friday. The company promises that the recycling effort will include any and all handsets, not just those manufactured by Samsung, though the company has suggested that it could begin offering recycling bags and pre-paid mailing packages for its own devices.

Golden suggested that major sponsorship was on the way for the program, enabling a wider education program that will see programs instituted in schools and major places of business along with intake bins located at every event throughout the year that Samsung associates itself with.

Here’s hoping that this effort helps to set a new trend in the mobile industry this year with the aim of reducing or even eliminating harmful e-waste.

Samsung has agreed to settle with camera-manufacturer Kodak in a suit that saw Samsung accused of infringing on two of Kodak’s camera patents. Samsung will pay an undisclosed amount to the plaintiff and the companies will sign a cross-licensing agreement to avoid similar trouble in the future.

An American International Trade Commission judge ruled last week that Samsung had indeed violated Kodak’s patents, setting the stage for today’s settlement. While in-court details have been kept to a minimum, the patents in question reportedly related to capture and preview, data storage and image compression.

LG settled a similar case with Kodak earlier this month.

Samsung has announced the coming launch of the S5150 Diva Folder, a very stylish clamshell handset shown as the latest addition to Samsung’s 2010 lineup and aimed directly at women.

The phone sports a silver embossed cover with a small illuminated LED screen secretly placed, offering the time and latest notifications. The style-related features continue with the included firmware with features such as a wish-list application for creating and maintaining shopping lists and one-touch “etiquette mode” to silence the phone instantly. Multimedia features include a 3.2 megapixel camera with including photo retouching software, basic multimedia playback and microSD slot along with Bluetooth for wireless headphones and handsets.

The Samsung S5150 Diva folder will go one sale in some European countries in January 2010 with Southeastern Asia and China to follow later in the year; pricing information has yet to be released.

Samsung has announced that they are developing a new mobile operating system for their entire lineup, from feature phones to smartphones. Dubbed Bada, Samsung promises a simple and intuitive user experience through a smooth graphical interface with original design. An app store is planned for future release, allowing third-party developers to write new apps for the Bada OS.

Bada is planned for release next month with the launch of the first Bada-powered handset coming in Q1 2010.

Owners of the Samsung Jack on the American AT&T network will be receiving a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 over the next few days, adding new features, functionality and stability to the popular Samsung smartphone.

New functionality includes access to the Windows Marketplace app store and a major browser upgrade with Internet Explorer 6 Mobile; this latest Microsoft mobile browser offers new support for Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.

The Samsung Jack OS update will also allow users with access to AT&T’s nationwide WiFi hotspots and the Vlingo service for Windows mobile, allowing users to perform many tasks, such as making phone calls and sending text messages and emails, with their voice alone.

The Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade for the Samsung Jack from AT&T can be downloaded from the Samsung website.

Samsung has just informed us that the Windows Mobile 6.5 update for the Samsung Jack smartphone for AT&T is now freely available for downloading. The Windows Mobile 6.5 update will add new functionality to the Jack, including access to the Windows Marketplace application store, and the new Internet Explorer Mobile 6 web browser, with Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support. The update will also provide users with access to AT&T’s WiFi hotspots as well as the Vlingo for Windows Mobile, which lets user carry out many different tasks on the phone, such as sending an email message or calling a friend, with nothing but their voice.

The Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade can be downloaded from Samsung’s website.

Samsung has been busy this week as they unveiled several new technologies for smartphone devices aimed at increasing performance in all areas while decreasing power consumption and size. The showings have all taken place during the Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum currently taking place in Taipei, Taiwan.

The three technologies causing much buzz this week include the new ARM CORTEXT A8 1 GHz processor aimed at both smartphones and netbooks with the ability to increase battery life while also allowing for better performance. The processors come pre-equipped with 1080p HD codecs, 3D graphics engines and the potential for HDMI output, nicely accenting the 512MB PRAM that Samsung claims will extend battery life by more than 20 percent.

The Touch Embedded DDI technology showcased yesterday is a chip that integrates capacitive touch into any mobile display driver, again offering the ability to consume less power while performing tasks more quickly. Given the potential reduction in form factor, this should also reduce costs for manufacturers.

The final eye-catcher is the S5K4EA 5.0 megapixel image sensor featuring 1.4 micron pixel technology for enhanced photography, This sensor will offer the ability to brighten shadows and drastically reduce blurring while also adding support for 30 FPS HD 1080p video recording.

Samsung Apps, the official mobile application storefront for Windows Mobile-powered Samsung handsets, has been launched for users in the United Kingdom, Italy and France with the Omnia i900.

While the usability is limited by both region and the fact that there are only 300 apps available for now but Samsung has plans to provide the service to users of the Omnia II and OmniaLITE devices in more than 30 countries with the addition of more than 2,000 apps by the end of the year.

Purchasing is currently limited to credit card but phone billing payment options will be available soon. Samsung also noted that users of handsets from the company not running Windows Mobile will also soon be supported.