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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.

WMExperts reader Anthony loved his Windows phone. And, truth be told, he still has love for the platform. So when he jumped ship to BlackBerry, he just had to let us know why.

So after the break, a round robin from Anthony, just a regular guy.

As we mentioned earlier, Palm (in a a nice turnabout) put a support page up noting an update to enable voice over Bluetooth, a feature which was expected but absent on the new flagship Palm device.

Lo and behold, the update is out now and ready for the download. Reports from our forums report it working well over a variety of headsets, though YMMV.

Let us know in the comments how it's working for you and which headset.

Download here!

thanks rmackay

OK, we're starting to get the feeling that work on Windows Mobile 7 may be a little farther along than we — OK, at least some of us — believed. What we have here, again from UX Evangelist, is a "Release to Testers" roadmap reportedly from a presentation less than two weeks old.

Also interesting but not too surprising is that Live Search, Windows Live, My Phone and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile all will make the leap to Windows Mobile 7, which if we're reading this right, would come after the second half of 2009, or in 2010, in other words.

Of course, there's that "All dates are subject to change" disclaimer at the bottom, which should go without saying.

A few days ago SBSH released a teaser video for their newest application, SBSH GoNews Touch, and today the software developer officially released the news reader.

GoNews Touch will let you subscribe to your favorite RSS channels, update them (manually or on a schedule) and swipe your way around them. We were able to test drive the beta versions of GoNews and found it to be a simple, straightforward application to keep up on the latest news, sports, financial news or any other of your favorite RSS feed.

Follow the break for a few more screen shots and a product tour video.

Wondering what you may have missed this week in the smartphone world? The Best of SPE is here to ease your mind and get you caught up.

Sure enough, that's an HTC Touch Diamond 2 for $589.99 at Newegg. [via] But before you go dropping that much jing, do notice our awesome Photoshop skills, which have highlighted the data transfer section of the specs. That's right, there's no U.S. 3G. (Yes, it'll still work on GPRS and EDGE. And as you read in our review, they work just fine.) Also, we didn't notice any "Shipping on xxxx" disclaimers, but ...

So if you're hoping for the full-fledged U.S. version of the phone, you're just gonna have to keep on waiting a little while longer.

Microsoft has clarified a Computer World story from earlier this week (and to which we linked) about being able to load apps purchased from Windows Marketplace for Mobile onto as many as five phones. The five phones remains true. But you'd better be the owner of those five phones.

According to an excerpt of the Marketplace's unreleased terms of the service provided to Computerworld by Microsoft's public relations gency, [sic] "You may install and use one copy of the Application on up to five (5) mobile devices you personally own or control and which are affiliated with the Windows Live ID associated with your Windows Marketplace for Mobile account. You may not install or use a copy of the Application on a device you do not own or control."

Hey, that's about how we read it the first time. Did anyone really think the old days of beaming apps between Palm devices would return?

And in slightly related news, there's a lone Tweet floating around [via] from a participant at WebDU in Australia stating that the Marketplace "will open for sales come November." The timing seems close. That would give Microsoft a little rest after the expected launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, which we're still hoping to see by October.

Of course, take that one, single, solitary Tweet with a grain of salt. Not like Twitter has ever led us astray, right?