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Well, following up on our earlier post about those fancy-schmancy new HTC devices reportedly heading to Sprint, some much wanted specs have since come out.

Paul over at MoDaCo not only has the quite lovely features but also their launch names:

  • HTC Diamond = HTC Touch Diamond
  • HTC Raphael = HTC Touch Pro
  • HTC Titanium = HTC Touch Dual Pro

That latter one we haven’t heard much about but evidently it’s the updated version of the current Touch Dual, which makes sense if they are refreshing the regular Touch. The Titanium/Touch Dual Pro is speculated to have that current slider dial pad but otherwise keeps the Touch Pro’s specs.

And what are those specs for the Touch Pro (Raphael) and Touch Diamond? Lets just say please make sure you are currently sitting down before you click that "read more" link!

Now it's unclear if all of these specs will be in the CDMA versions, as features like FM radio can be disabled, etc. But here is what we know about the Touch Diamond & Raphael:

  • Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
  • Qualcomm MSM 7201A @ 528MHz
  • 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM
  • 7.2MB HSDPA / HSUPA (rev A EVDO for Sprint versions)
  • 2.8" VGA screen
  • WiFi
  • Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
  • eGPS
  • 3.1MP Camera with flash
  • Forward facing camera
  • 4GB internal flash storage (Diamond only) - Samsung MoviNAND
  • TV out (Raphael only)
  • Orientation sensor (a-la-iPhone)
  • FM Radio
  • microSD expansion
  • 900mAh battery (!!!)
  • Diamond: 51x99x10.7mm
  • Raphael: 51x99x17mm

What is eGPS you ask? Talk about cutting edge, this stuff was just officially announced by the UK company CSR in February. Basically it’s like aGPS but better. Way better. (In fairness, Qualcomm has their gpsOneXTRA to compete)

A typical eGPS push-to-fix will be available in less than 4 seconds, accurate to within 10 meters and require the equivalent power of less than 1 second of handset talk time.

It works indoors, when the device is powered down, uses less battery, acquires the sat signal faster and works globally. Holla! And did you see that mention of 4gb internal flash storage on the HTC Diamond (but not Raphael?)

We guess the only downside is possibly that wimpy 900mah (!) battery though with such new technology, it’s a bit premature to suggest that these will necessarily be battery hogs. Lets hope not!

Oh and yeah…there will be GSM versions of all of these too, in fact they may be coming out very soon ;-)

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Well here's a little gem...

We're hearing from a tipster that AT&T is getting not only ready to finally launch their Tilt ROM update, but a little something called the HTC Fuze.

What's the HTC Fuze you ask?

We have very strong reason to believe it's that AT&T branded Touch Pro device...

Look for this device sooner rather than later ;-)

Thanks to the tipster for "fuze"!

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6

Palm Treo 800w - Noooooo disassemble!

Maybe you're the kind of person who just has to know how things work. Maybe you like picking the wings off flies. Or maybe you broke your Palm Treo Pro 800w and actually want to try to fix it yourself.

There's a disassembly (and, thus, reassembly) guide over at MyTreo.net. Among the tools you'll need: A Torx T5 screwdriver, Philips screwdriver, a small flathead screwdriver and a pair of big brass ones that would make ol' Chester Nimitz stand up and applaud.

Update: Yeah, yeah. It's an 800w. Photo label/link/sleep FAIL. Sorry 'bout that.

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Sprint Touch Pro 2 spotted, may drop mid-June

We've been hands-on with the unbranded HTC Touch Pro 2. We've seen it with T-Mobile markings. And now we're seeing it in its Sprint CDMA finest. User bigchico68 over at SprintUsers [via Engadget] got some time with it during an in-store demo. He says it should be available in mid-June, and says the Snap is on for July (that doesn't quite add up with what we've previously heard, but these things happen).

Not sure about the color scheme on the keyboard — the stock HTC look is much sexier, IOHO. But to each his own.

Couple of more pics after the break, including a new look at the back case.

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Review: Resco Keyboard Pro ver 5.22

 

There are all kinds of WM users.   Everyone has their own perfect way to use their mobile phone to do what they personally like to do best. Some like to send 386 text messages an hour, each with less than 4 characters each… while others tend to need to write mostly long emails. Some phones have hardware keyboards, while others do not. Because of these reasons, many WM users will often times throw everyone into two groups of WM users… those who love to use a hardware keyboard, and those who love to use a software keyboard.

If I had to lump myself into one of these two groups, I would honestly have a foot in each camp. Because of my work I tend to have to write long emails quite a bit. When this happens, I slide out my hardware keyboard on my Sprint Mogul phone and type away. But when I send a quick text or need to type only two keywords to do a Google search, I will use a software keyboard.But have you tried to use the standard WM software keyboard without a stylus? If you haven’t, don’t even try it. It is just an exercise in frustration of hitting the wrong keys.   This is what led me to try Resco’s Keyboard Pro version 5.22 (I know the Resco website still says ver 5.21, but 5.22 is the latest). They promise that it is one handed finger friendly. After using it exclusively for several months now, I am ready to give my opinion on this claim… 
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Microsoft opens Marketplace developer forums

The buzz is starting to grow among developers as we continue to wait for the official launch of Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and with it the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5.

The Microsoft Developers Network has opened developers forums, and the chatter is growing. Threads so far include "Do you have to use Microsoft's Development Tools?", "Wishlist for Windows Mobile Marketplace", "When can we expect a WM 6.5 SDK?", and a slew of others.

Most end users probably won't get too much out of it, but it's an interesting look at what goes on behind the scenes.

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LG, Acer added to WinMo 6.5 upgrade list

It's still kind of a mystery as to what future phones will launch with Windows Mobile 6.5, and which current ones will be upgraded. We already know that the HTC Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2 should get it, and we're pretty sure the Toshiba TG01 will.

And now a blog from the Microsoft MVP community is adding to that list. Nuno Luz, aka The Windows Phone Guy, says the LG HQ and Eigen will be upgraded, as will four unnamed Acer phones.

Missing from Nuno's list is the Samsung Jack, which also will get an upgrade, according to last week's announcement press release. Speaking of the Jack, it was supposed to be available today but as of this writing isn't on AT&T's (main) Web site, and the two stores I called in my town were negative for Jack. We'll track that down. (Update: It's on the business site, we're told.)

Do note that we haven't had an official announcement about the release of Windows Mobile 6.5, but the Dev Team noted the other day that it's done and ready to go.

Thanks to fellow WMExpert Tim for the heads up!

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Here we go, folks. We've combed through a mountain of entries (sorry it took so long) as we look to give away an AT&T Fuze and HTC Touch Dual. And we've learned a lot about you. Namely:

  • You guys need to be more careful in the bathroom.
  • Some people just don't get that water and phones don't mix.
  • Yes, the dog can eat it.
  • A bunch of you shouldn't be allowed outdoors. Period.

That said, all of the entries were great, and we had a heck of a time narrowing them down. But narrow we did. After the break, the winners, and their stories.

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Microsoft My Phone now an open beta

That little maintenance outage Microsoft My Phone underwent? Turns out it was an update to the Web portal. And alongside that will come an update to the phone client.

Oh, and the service is moving to an open beta. From the My Phone Team blog [via]:

With today’s release, we’re opening the beta to all users -- no more waiting list or promotional codes!

Can't put it any more plainly than that. So if you're looking for a way to sync your contacts, photos, text messages and more to the cloud and didn't get in on the closed beta, head on over to myphone.microsoft.com and give it a shot.

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Touch Diamond 2 in a U.K. TV spot

This isn't the first time we've seen HTC featured in a television commercial, nor is it nearly as cool as the Prince of Darkness pimping Windows Mobile, but what we have here is flowers and futbol and a bunch of the Touch Diamond 2.

Via Mobile Tech Addicts

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Samsung GT-I8000 spotted

Back in February the WiFi Alliance outed a future Samsung Windows Mobile phone, the GT-i8000, which was sporting Windows Mobile 6.1. And that's about all that was known about it.

And we don't know too much more today, except that it's GSM-bound. The Unwired spied the above shot at the Global Certification Forum, which shows the radio frequencies it'll support. OK, that's not entirely true. As you can see, it'll have HSDPA, MMS and video telephony. Fairly standard stuff these days, huh?

Gentlemen, start your speculating engines.

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Ozzy Finally Steps up to a Smartphone

We'd seen Ozzy Osborne fiddling around with previous Samsung offerings - but they were featurephones.  Well now he's finally stepped up and gotten himself a real phone -- the Samsung Jack.  Said phone should be hitting AT&T's website for sale tomorrow -- anybody out there planning on joining Ozzy?

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Expect My Phone outages today

For all you users of Microsoft's My Phone sync service, things may be a little spotty today.

The My Phone service will be not be available on May 18 to enable deployment of a service upgrade.  During this maintenance period, you will be unable to access the My Phone web site or to sync your phone with the service.  We apologize for any inconvenience.

Hang in there, folks. This, too, shall pass.

Via LiveSide

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One burning question about Windows Marketplace for Mobile has been whether you will be able to purchase an app and use it on more than one phone. Granted, most people don't have a desk drawer full of Windows phones, but it's not unheard of to have a few in a household.

Computerworld reports via a Tech-Ed session that phones will have to be registered with the Marketplace, via Microsoft's Live ID system. But doing so will allow you to install an up on as many as five phones with a single purchase.

This is far from unheard of. You can purchase and load apps onto as many iPhones and iPod Touches as you want, provided that they're all under the same iTunes account. No biggie.

Even for Windows Mobile, it's not that huge a step. Most apps – not all – employ only a basic protection scheme. They're either limited in function under a "trial" basis or time out after a specified amount of time. (Kinoma Play is the first exception that comes to mind. It reports home to the mothership if you load it onto another phone.) But in most cases you can load the same app on a number of phones, provided you have the registration code.

The Marketplace will change that, which should please developers. And provided the authorizing of multiple phones is smooth and seamless, we're all for it. Devs deserve to be paid for their work.

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AT&T Samsung Epix unboxing

Remember the Blackjack III/Mirage/Samsung i788/AT&T Epix? The Boy Genius has gone and gotten his hands on one.

His first thought? This thing is fat. Not phat, not pfat, FAT. "Probably the thickest phone in their lineup," he says.

What else do we get?

  • An actual model name. i907, which a launch sheet originally leaked to BGR called the Mirage and said was is to be released Oct. 23. (Will it and the AT&T Fuze make it on time?)
  • Windows 6.1 Professional with haptic feedback.
  • That optical mouse Dieter cough loves so much.
  • GSM bands of 850, 1900 and 2100Mhz represented.
  • GPS.

BGR says the screen leaves much to be desired. Head on over, check out his gallery, and see for yourself. Well played, sir.

Edit: Fixed Fuze release date to Oct. 23 sted Oct. 2. What? You were squinting, too.

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WMExperts Podcast Episode 56


Malatesta and Dieter discuss the Samsung Jack, the latest Windows Mobile rumors, and the happenings at TechEd 2009. Listen in!

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Best of SPE, 17 May 2009

Each week we bring you the Best of SPE and this week is no exception. From Android to Windows Mobile and everything in between, we've got your smartphone news fix right here.

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Another Tech-Ed video: Making the UI better

Probably one of the larger complaints about Windows Mobile is how it's lacking a bit of the shiny. In other words, the user interface could use a little sexing up. In this session from Tech-Ed, Andy Wigley and Andrej Radinger talk a little about what developers can do to spruce things up.

Actually, we're being coy. The name of this video is " //--> Can Windows Mobile UIs Look as Good as the iPhone? Yes, They Can!" And the description:

True, the standard controls in the Visual Studio Toolbox look a bit 'Windows 95-ish', but armed with some fairly simple programming techniques, a little knowledge of how controls get painted on the screen and the skills of a decent graphic artist, Windows Mobile developers can create applications that look great--and enjoy the far superior productivity that developing with the .NET Compact Framework gives you.

Interesting stuff. Give it a look-see here.

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Dashwire gets $1.6 million in new funding

Looks like Microsoft's going to continue to have some fairly major competition in the cloud. Dashwire, the popular sync service and a direct competitor to Microsoft's beta My Phone service, recently secured $1.6 million in funding. Dashwire syncs contacts, pictures and other PIM data to the cloud and can upload photos to various online services.

Said Dashwire founder and CEO Ford Davidson:

“We’re growing our business right now. We will hire a few more developers. We’ll have some new things released later in the year, and we’re cranking away on it.”

So we'll be looking for more from Dashwire in the future. Currently it runs on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, and BlackBerry and Android clients reportedly are in the works.

Xconomy via mocoNews

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Work on the Firefox mobile browser — aka Fennec — has been marching steadily ahead, and the team has released an official Alpha build. The highlights:

  • New Add-Ons Manager
  • New Downloads Manager
  • New CSS based theme
  • TraceMonkey, Mozilla's new JavaScript engine
  • jemalloc, the memory management library used by Mozillla.
  • Faster application start-up time
  • Faster panning
  • Faster zooming
  • Initial implementation of bookmark folders and bookmark editing

Just like with the pre-Alpha and nightly build versions, this was built and tested on an HTC Touch Pro, so there's where you're likely to have the most success. That said, this is Alpha, and bugs are likely.

Says Mozilla's Brad Lassey (read our interview with him here) in his blog:

It is not yet recommended to use this release for daily browsing tasks. Certain performance problems will become immediately apparent to the user. Panning has a noticeable delay between the user first touching the page and the page moving. We are certain that other less obvious bugs exist and we invite you to help bring them to light. You can find detailed information on how to file a good bug in bugzilla , our bug tracking system, here .

So remember, folks. This isn't a finished version, but a pretty big step in the process. Get your download on here (or here directly from your phone), and let us know in the comments how it works for you.

Update: Video of the Alpha release after the break.

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We know there's a special breed of people out there who don't like touching the screen of their phones and instead stick to a stylus. (We're looking at you, Mal!) But what if Microsoft's trying to go one further in Windows Mobile 7 and make it so that you don't have to touch the phone at all?

ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley has uncovered slides from a January 2008 internal Microsoft presentation that showed "non-touch" technology. Basically you'd put the phone on a flat surface and wave your hand over it in various motions to make it trigger various actions. (These are not the droids you're looking for.)

"But, Phil," you say, "who cares about slides from January 2008? That's, like, a year and a half ago!" As Ms. Foley explains, the mock-ups in the slides have cameras in the top corner of the phone, not unlike the Zune HD mock-ups we've seen. And remember that the Zune hardware team is now part of the Windows Mobile team. And remember that touch (and specifically multi-touch) will play a big part in WM7.

She also notes that the phone is seen interacting with other devices – slide projectors, gaming consoles and the like – which is right in line with where MS is moving things.

Will any of this actually make it into Windows Mobile 7, which we're expecting to be announced next year? Who knows. But if it turns out to be true, we'll all have to stop worrying about Microsoft thinking outside the box.

Non-touch: Still on the Windows Mobile 7 Feature List?

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SideSight: Multitouch on Steroids

We all know from the leaked info on WM7 that multitouch (already hardware capable on some HTC devices) is going to be a big part of the UI.

Word is MicroSoft is going beyond just aping the iPhone though and adding some further functionality, to wit: SideSight, as demonstrated above and described below

In this research project, dubbed SideSight, infrared sensors on the side of the device allow a user to, say, rotate an image, by making a gesture to the side of the device.

We have to admit, devices next year are going to be might-tee funky, between shaking them, touching them and in some cases...not touching them.

At least our Jedi-envy will finally be appeased by the tech gods!

Source: Cnet via SolSie

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Samsung Jack likely a U.S.-only phone

Bad news for those of you outside the United States who were hoping to get your hands on the Samsung Jack. It looks like it's going to be a U.S.-only phone.

Says Samsung Austria to TamsWMS:

Like the Propel Pro, you are looking at yet another US-only handset. This means that Samsung Austria has no pictures or samples…

The good news: There's always the HTC Snap for some Windows Mobile Standard fun.

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Our guesses for 'Project Charlie'

So three mysterious AT&T devices bound for AT&T have appeared in Best Buy's computer system. They're dubbed "Project Charlie," and that's all we know.

Is it possibly they're Windows Mobile phones? Sure. We're expecting new stuff from HTC — the Touch Diamond 2, Touch Pro 2 and the Snap — in the coming months. But HTC stuff generally doesn't get cloaked in that much secrecy.

The Phone Arena tipster thinks it could be placeholders for a possible upcoming iPhone, and that's probably a good guess. Us? We're hoping for a personally branded phone from one of our favorite Charlies.

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Spare Touch Pro battery takes its revenge

Look. We don't know PPCGeeks user kidmet. He's probably a pretty cool cat. But we can't imagine it'd be too much fun to ride around in his back pocket all day. We'd just assplode.

And that's exactly what his spare Touch Pro battery apparently did.

I walked into my house early this week to the smell of burning. I couldn't find where it was coming from. Last night as I was gathering my laundry I noticed a burn through the back of my jeans. A HUGE hole. I had a spare Touch Pro battery in my back pocket. It had expanded and obviously started a fire in my jeans. They were in a clothes pile and buried, so I assume that there wasn't enough oxygen to start a fire.

We don't know if this was an OEM battery or if it was straight from HTC. But we're glad your butt's OK, kidmet, and we're glad this isn't an everyday occurrence.

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