Debuting at this year’s MWC in Barcelona, Bitstream are bringing the Bolt mobile browser into public beta. Bolt offers full, a grown-up browsing experience including streaming videos. It will work on any Java (J2ME) enabled phone (there’s also a dedicated Blackberry version) and promises 25-50% faster page rendering than competing browsers, even on entry level phones.

The current closed beta is going to go public today, so starting this morning you should be able to can download it for free from www.boltbrowser.com

Getting some pre-MWC launch coverage, LG and Samsung both released information on new phone handsets today.

Starting with Samsung (because we’ve not talked about them yet) the Tocco Ultra Edition as it will be known in the UK (or Ultra Touch to the rest of the world) is a full touchscreen phone with slide out keypad.

The specification list is impressive: 8MP camera with LED flash and a 2.8” touchscreen (240×400 resolution) with an anti-scratch coating.

There’s a built in GPS for navigation or photo geo-tagging and the camera will record VGA video at 30FPS. You also get HSDPA 7.2Mbps (which translates into speedy mobile internet on supported networks)

Rounding off the specification is face detection and smile recognition on the camera, DivX multimedia playback and an FM Radio with DAB.

LG, meanwhile have been building on the success of last years Renoir with the KM900 Arena. We previewed it yesterday and still don’t have the full specification on that device, but we do know it’ll have Dolby and DivX enhanced multimedia playback, HSDPA 7.2, GPS and WiFi (the latter conspicuously absent from the Samsung spec list).  LG are also debuting a new 3D UI with the Arena, with a cube-based customisable homepage.

Click on the Arena picture (right) to get a high-res photo.

LG have announced a new flagship phone in the form of the “Arena”. Details are sketchy at the moment but if you believe the collective internet rumours, it’s a full touchscreen multimedia device with 5MP camera, Wifi and GPS. There’s also talk of HD video recording and a new interface dubbed “S-Class”.

The official launch will be at the upcoming Mobile World Congress so we should get more information then.

(via: LGBlog, Pocket lint, Tracy and Matt)

Blackberry’s are only available in the UK (on any provider) with a contract, tying you to £30-odd a month if you want one of the better smartphones out there. A recent announcement by Orange changes that arrangement as they’re set to offer the Pearl 8120 for £145 on a pay-as-you-go arrangement.

The full press release can be found over at Tracy and Matt’s blog.