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Sure 16GB microSDs are just launching now, but why not plan for the future? Like the way, way future.

Sandisk said that they are working and planning on launching a whopping 128GB version but not for another 3 years.

Which begs all sorts of questions like:

• Will microSD actually be relevant in 2011?
• What the heck will the mobile industry even look like in 2011?
• Why tease us so?

Well hey, best of luck to you Sandisk. If I'm still alive in 3 years, I look forward to porting my giant collection of NSFW materials to my WM8 device.

Mock up courtesy of wmpoweruser.com

Some bad news folks, word from CNet is that the much anticipated HTC Touch Pro which was set to be released on October 19th has been pushed back to the end of October/beginning of November.

Doesn't look to be anything serious in the way of problems outside of Sprint trying to make sure they have enough supply on launch.

Sprint expects to slightly delay launch of the Touch Pro by HTC to ensure we have adequate inventory in all channels before making the device commercially available. Customers can expect the device to become available in select national retailers by the end of the month and then in all Sprint sales channels including online at www.sprint.com and Sprint Stores by early November.

Upside? You have a few more weeks to save for the $299 (w/ 2 year agreement + MIR; $579 OTD) device! Might as well give Dieter's walk through vid with the Touch Pro another whirl too...

Thanks Inimical and Patrick for the heads up!

Trying to keep up with Skyfire's updates is becoming a little bit hard these days (no obvious change log, their help forum makes no mention and their Twitter is not that active).

All we can say is that version 8.0.7081 is out today and that it probably fixes some things ;-P

So if you are having problems or just want the latest and greatest, make sure you get the update. You need to login here and go through their cumbersome "send me and SMS" thingamajig--seriously guys, get an auto-update feature stat!

Dunno what Skyfire is? Check out Dieter's video walk-through right here.

Thanks chocmatic for the heads up!

We've mentioned that SPB Software was working on Mobile Shell 3.0.1 Beta and it appears that the Beta is now the current version. The update is free to those who have already purchased Mobile Shell 3.0 and all you need to do is go here, download the .cab file (trial version) and install it over Mobile Shell 3.0.

Version 3.0.1 makes minor additions and fixes issues discovered in version 3.0. Such modifications include:

• Saving unknown phone numbers from the call log has been added
• Showing/hiding SIM contacts has been added
• “Show Today” widget has been added
• “Remove All” option in call log added Performance of portrait/landscape switching has improved
• Some issues with “Edit Profile” dialog box on Treo devices has been fixed
• Contact matching in call log has improved
• Performance of hardware accelerated carousel has improved

In using Mobile Shell 3.0.1, the screen rotation from vertical to horizontal is almost instantaneous and the overall performance appears to have improved. Some users reported a power drain with version 3.0 but it doesn't seem to be present with 3.0.1.  Overall, the modifications included in 3.0.1 have made a very good application a little better.

So as we know, most 3g-enabled WM hardly have a surfeit of battery power, but we cope.

[rant] What is annoying though is when your Treo 800w hits 25% battery life and literally every freaking 10 minutes, turns on, vibrates and plays a noise to let you know you are getting low on battery.

First off, 25% isn't low...maybe 10% sure. Second, by turning on my device every 10 minutes, vibrating and playing a noise you are not only further killing my battery but you make me want to hurl my phone against the wall. [/rant]

So I found this little registry entry which does three things really...

Read on for this simple hack to make your Treo 800w less annoying! (I'll try to have a non-Treo related tip tomorrow)

Basically this system tweak will allow you to alter three things in regards to the "Low Battery" notification:

• allows you to alter the "Low Battery Message" to something a bit more funny
• set the threshold to whatever you want (maybe you think 2% is a bit low?)
• set the repeat interval, as 10 minutes is quite annoying...100 minutes is better

To do this, fire up your registry editor and go here:

HKLM\Software\Palm\BatteryIndicator\WarningLevel0

Change "Message" to anything you want i.e. my NSFW message above ;-). This is what is displayed in the popup bubble.

Change "Percent Range" to something more realistic. I went with "10,05" which means at 10% I get a notification and at 5% the device really becomes a pest with the red warning.

Alter "RepeatIntervalSeconds" to anything higher than "600" (10 minutes). I went with "6000" (100 minutes) as I don't really forget that much.

Now do a soft-reset (using software or wait 10 minutes to pull the battery) and you should be good to go!

Not to sound the alarm bells here, but a few users in our forums have been documenting what seems to be a production flaw with some Palm Treo Pros.

Specifically they note that even while "babying" their precious WM6.1 devices, hair-line fractures are occurring around various pressure points on the device. More accurately, around the flush buttons, ringer switch and near the volume controls on the sides.

For now we'll hedge that these are isolated production issues and not some wide-spread defect in either production or design. Even the iPhone 3G suffers from such issues as well. A bigger concern is whether or not customers are able to exchange their device if this occurs and it is after their 30 day trial period.

But how say you Treo Pro users? You notice anything of the sort? Sound off in our comments!

Thanks treopq and others.

No two ways about it, that's the HTC Dash 3G, aka the Snap and Maple, with T-Mobile's My Circle feature front and center. [via TmoNews]

The last we heard we were looking at a possible July 1 launch date for the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard phone. Still no word on pricing.

Earlier this year, we took a look at the Beta version of the mobile browser Skyfire for Windows Mobile Touch and non-Touch Screen phones.  We liked the potential Skyfire had but found it to be noticeably slower than the competition.  Well the developers over at Skyfire have been working diligently to iron out all the bugs on the mobile browser and today released Skyfire 1.0 for Windows Mobile Touch and non-Touch Screen phones.

According to Skyfire,

"Skyfire remains committed to providing everything the PC web has to offer in a mobile experience with blazing fast speeds. For the first time, consumers can use their phones to watch any web video and live events, stay connected with friends, share web pages instantly, and use the full-featured PC versions of their favorite websites. Skyfire is the only mobile browser to support popular web standards and plug-ins such as Flash 10, Silverlight 2, Ajax, Javascript and more, so the rich media on websites work on phones just like the PC. Known for its speed, Skyfire launches quickly and loads web pages quicker than other mobile browsers."

"Skyfire users can customize the start page with RSS feeds from their favorite websites. In addition, they can integrate their Facebook and Twitter accounts to import status updates and tweets, and easily publish their status to these networks. Skyfire is the only mobile browse to share and publish any web page to Facebook and Twitter networks with one click."

Follow the break for some screen shots and our impressions on the Skyfire 1.0.

So at this point we're ready to accept the fact that Windows Mobile 7 probably is further along than we thought. One recent slide leak by UX Evangelist shows it going to testers later this year, with a launch in April 2010.

Bolstering that argument are a couple more of those slides decoded by ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley, who dives into the architecture of future versions of Windows Mobile. The slides show what may be the next version of Windows CE, from which Windows Mobile is built. This new version of Win CE may prove to be "Cashmere" (named for a city in Washington state).

What's that mean to you, the end user? We point you to Slide No. 2: Built into Cashmere would be support for FlashLite (and beyond, Foley says, the Flash support currently built into the new versions of Internet Explorer). An improved connections manager (huzzah!), built-in Live Messenger (finally) and support for those non-touch gestures Foley previously wrote about would all be onboard.

So will all of this end up in Windows Mobile 7? Foley doesn't know for sure, and Microsoft isn't telling. If Cashmere isn't used to build Windows Mobile 7, it's possible, she says, that the "Chelan" version of Win CE is being prepped. And with it would come IE7 support, Silverlight (which it's been said before would be in the next version of Windows Mobile), better ActiveSync (um, yay), and a host of other features.

Basically what we have here are a bunch of possible future features spilled onto a table, albeit wrapped up in nice little packages. What exactly will make it into Windows Mobile 7 is still anybody's guess. But we've got a good look now at what the future may hold.

We'll admit we've grown a little tired of the whole "Zune phone" back and forth – is the Zune software coming to Windows Mobile? Will there be a full-on Zune phone? Someone says yes, someone says no. But it's looking more and more like we may be seeing much more of the Zune in the future.

And with that in mind, feast your eyes on the purported ZuneHD, as spied by wmpoweruser. And the reported specs are enough to make any WinMo fanboy foam at the mouth.

• Capacitive touchscreen (!)
• Multitouch OLED capacitive touchscreen (!!)
• Multitouch OLED capacitive touchscreen with a 16:9 aspect ratio (!!!)
• TV-out (and possibly HDMI)
• HD radio (as in FM tuner).
• 16- and 32-gig capacity.
• Multitouch-supported Internet browser.
• High-def media playback.
• Wireless sync.
• Rumors of a Tegra processor.

Anything there you wouldn't want to have in a Windows phone? And there's no mistaking the resemblance to a certain HTC touchscreen phone we're expecting real soon. As for the ZuneHD, WMPU speculates that we'll see it this fall and that it will also be available outside the United States.

The question still remains: Is this a sign of things to come for Windows Mobile 7? Sound off in the comments.

OK, it's been a couple of hours, so it's time for another AT&T Windows Mobile leak from Engadget. Now we've got a lower-end messenger, the LG HQ, which we got a look at back at Mobile World Congress.

There's the usual tri-band 3G and quad-band EDGE, Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard with a 2.4-inch 320x240 screen. The battery's a mere 1,100 mAh powering a Qualcomm 7225 processor. It's got a 2.0MP camera, sports Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, AGPS and has a MicroSD card. No WiFi on this puppy. July 6 is noted as a target availability, but we'll see how that holds up.

Two hotfixes for the Touch Diamond 2 in less than a week? That's it. Mine's going in the garbage.

Just kidding, folks. Stay out of my trash. Actually, we're more inclined to take the glass-half-full route here. Hotfixes mean HTC has acknowledged problems and has fixed them. Here's what's been addressed:

• Hotfix No. 1 (5-22-09): If you move to the Settings tab in TouchFLO, the top part of the item descriptions under Communications (WiFi, Bluetooth, phone, data) are slightly cut off. If this happens, please download this hotfix to solve the problem.
• Hotfix No. 2 (5-25-09): If you can’t dial out but can receive calls through the PCCW network when roaming in HK, please download this hotfix to solve the problem.

Obviously, these are for non-U.S. versions of the phone because, well, we don't yet have a U.S. version of the phone. (And note that the second fix only is necessary when you're in Hong Kong.) And as with all hotfixes, you'll have to re-apply them if you hard-reset your phone. Hopefully we'll see these baked into a ROM update at some point.

And speaking of fixes, a GPS fix also was released for non-U.S. versions of the Touch Pro. You can get it here.