The Samsung Vibrant is up for grabs today on T-Mobile USA’s website. The new Super AMOLED Galaxy S Android smartphone was originally set for a July 21 launch date. The phone, which comes bundled with the movie Avatar on a 2GB MicroSD card, sells for $199 with a two-year contract.

The Vibrant ships running Android 2.1. Additional specs include a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, 16GB storage, 8-megapixel camera with auto focus, digital zoom and 720p video capture. The phone also includes an FM radio, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, digital compass and GPS.

The Vibrant is one variation of the Galaxy S line from Samsung. Similar variants have been announced for AT&T (Captivate), Sprint (Epic 4G) and Verizon Wireless (Fascinate).

The Vibrant launch comes as Motorola and Verizon Wireless today launched their new Droid offering, the Motorola Droid X.

The Droid X, Motorola’s follow-up to the original Motorola Droid, lands on shelves today. The new phone is available online and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

The Droid X features a 4.3-inch touchscreen, 8-megapixel camera, HDMI output, 3G Mobile hot spot capabilities and comes standard with 8 GB of memory expandable up to 32GB via microSDHC card. The Droid X runs Android 2.1 (Eclaire), but will receive an OTA update to Android version 2.2 (Froyo) later this summer.

An update supporting Flash 10.1 also will be delivered OTA in the near future.

Customers can take advantage of the 4.3-inch high-resolution screen on Droid X for viewing the latest movies from Blockbuster On Demand presented by V Cast Video.

Customers who choose to add the optional 3G Mobile HotSpot service to their Droid X will pay $20 per month for the service. The 32GB SanDisk microSDHC card is available for $99.99 when purchased along with the new Droid X or for $149.99 when purchased separately.

Verizon is allowing customers who have contracts ending by Dec. 31, 2010, to upgrade to Droid X without penalty.

The Droid X enters the summer smartphone fray with strong competition from other OEMs, most notably the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint, Apple’s iPhone 4 and the Galaxy S devices from Samsung.

Germany’s T-Mobile, or Deutsche Telekom, has made the first voice call over LTE using VoLGA technology.

The Voice over LTE via Generic Access specification was developed to provide operators an alternative to CS Fallback. VoLGA supporters argue Circuit Switch Fallback is an inadequate solution to handle voice over LTE networks, despite the technology’s backing from the 3GPP.

“The VoLGA test shows how operators could quickly and easily provide next-generation voice services, re-using their existing core networks,” said Uwe Janssen, senior vice president of core networks at Deutsche Telekom, in a press release. “At the same time, this serves as a first step to prepare networks for the industry-agreed mid- and long-term solution for voice over LTE that will be based on IMS.”

The test marks a vote of confidence on the part of Deutsche Telekom that it intends to move ahead with the controversial technology, which is not supported by the 3GPP standards body. So far, Deutsche Telekom is the only operator to openly support VoLGA.

The calls were made between a test system installed at Deutsche Telekom Headquarters in Bonn, Germany, based on a VoLGA implementation of Kineto Wireless and an independent system from Alcatel-Lucent, installed in their test center in Stuttgart, Germany. Both VoLGA-based Voice over LTE systems support inbound and outbound voice calling and SMS messaging between LTE-enabled devices and standard mobile and fixed telephones.

“Voice calling is an essential service for mobile operators. This demonstration is a key milestone towards establishing a future-proof ecosystem and shows a cost efficient way for using voice over LTE”, Janssen said.

VoLGA is purported to be a long-term interim solution before carriers migrate to IMS as a permanent method of handling voice over LTE networks. The alternative interim technology, CS Fallback, routes calls over legacy networks.

In a white paper commissioned by VoLGA supporter Kineto Wireless, analyst Dean Bubley called CS Fallback “dying if not already dead.”

“Charting a course on LTE, without understanding exactly when IMS telephony will arrive or how much it will cost, and without a viable alternative, is quite risky,” he said. “VoLGA supports all the standard mobile telephony capabilities in Deutsche Telekom’s network today, as well as all the value-added intelligent network capabilities like prepaid, local number portability, toll free calling and many more.”