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Oh, hello Samsung Jack on AT&T.  You'll be available on May19th for $99 after contract?  Sounds good!  You're actually a big upgrade to the Blackjack II?  How's that?  Oh, we see:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Tri-band HSDPA (850/1900/2100) and Quadband Edge (850/900/1800/1900)
• aGPS
• 528 MHz processor, 256MB ROM/256MB RAM
• Display: 2.4 inches, 65k, TFT, Color, 320 x 240 pixels
• 5-way navigation with Turbo Scroll
• 3.2MP camera
• Dimensions: 4.4” L x 2.4 W x 0.5” D/Weight 3.6 oz.
• 1480 mAh battery - Talk Time: 7 hours/Stand-by Time: 12 days
• Connectivity options in Bluetooth 2.0 EDR and USB 2.0
• 16GB external memory support via microSD
• 3.5mm Headset Adapter
• An arguably better keyboard
• shorter than the BJII

Well, let's be fair, Jack, not all of those features are new.  But we're liking your looks and we're happy to see WiFi is in the mix.  Very happy to meet you.  Still no 3.5mm headset jack, Jack?  That's ok, we still think you look very svelte.  We're curious to hear about this "Turbo Scroll" thing too, do tell someday, ok?

What's that, you have a corporate-sponsored hands-on video?  Sure, we'll post it after the break. Anything for you, Jack.  A press release and a side shot too? Shucks, Jack, you bet.

(Update: Jack, you sly dog, the press release says you're upgradable to Windows Mobile 6.5.  We don't see a Windows Start flag button, though -- can you explain that one, Jack?)

Members of the Windows Mobile team got together after the first day of Microsoft's Tech-Ed conference in Los Angeles to talk application development and discuss the upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile. It's an interesting video, albeit 42 minutes long, and well worth a watch. For you busy bees, a couple of interesting points:

• Widgets will be exclusive to the Marketplace. Don't expect to be able to sideload widgets, because they have to be signed (read: certified), and that can only be done through the Marketplace certification process.
• A widget, for all intents and purposes, has the same status as an app. That includes counting toward the first five apps submitted for $99.
• Certification will give end users peace of mind that an app won't brick their phone.
• No Silverlight on Windows Mobile 6.5.
• They didn't get to do everything they wanted with Windows Mobile 6.5. Just ran out of time.
• Marketplace will launch in 55 nations, 29 of which will have for-pay stores as well as free apps.

Check out the entire Tech-Ed video here.

It's been more than a week since we first told you Microsoft had opened Windows Marketplace for Mobile to developers, brought you the first look at what's prohibited, and uncovered confirmation that Windows Mobile 6.5 will work on non-touchscreen devices.

Now, Microsoft officially has announced the Marketplace open for business on the Windows Mobile Team blog. Nothing new for the average user, however. No word on when the Marketplace (and thus Windows Mobile 6.5) will be available.

Mary Jo Foley lets us in on some possible info about this "Pink" stuff.  First, there's these reported specs for 'Chasis 1' which according to Foley "seems to be the the heart of the rumored “Pink” Microsoft phone and possibly other Windows Mobile 7 phones made by Microsoft partners".

In other words, Pink may be a prototype/demo unit/scaffold for developers to model their next-gen WM7 handsets on--so Microsoft is setting the bar on what the minimum requirements will be and what they envision the ideal handset would be like.  Sounds pretty plausible to our ears.  Now onto those rumored specs:

WM7 Chassis 1 Specification

Core requirements:
Processor: ARM v6+, L2 Cache, VFP, Open GL ES 2.0 graphics HW (QCOM 8k, Nvidia AP15/16* and TI 3430 all meet spec)
Memory: 256MB+ DRAM, 1G+ Flash (at least 512MB fast flash – 5MB/s unbuffered read @4K block size)
Display:  WVGA (800×480) or FWVGA (854×480) 3.5” or greater diagonal
Touch: Multi-touch required
Battery: Sufficient to meet Days of Use LTK requirements.
Controls: Start, Back, Send and End are required (soft controls allowed as long as they are always present).

Peripherals:
Camera: 3MP+, flash optional, 2nd camera optional (VGA resolution sufficient)
GPS: aGPS required
Sensors required: Light Sensor, Compass (3 axis, 5 degrees, 100 Hz sample rate), Accelerometer (3 axis, 2mg resolution, 100 Hz sample rate)
USB: High speed required, 20 MB/s transfer rate.
BlueTooth: BT2.1 required, must run MSFT BT stack, CSR BlueCore6 or later recommended.
Wi-Fi: 802.11B/G required, must run MSFT Native Wi-Fi stack, Atheros 6002 or Broadcomm 4325 recommended.
Connectors: Micro USB and 3.5mm Audio required.

Options:
FM tuner:  If tuner HW is present it will be detected and supported by the Media application.
Haptics
SD Card (Micro SD recommended)
DPAD, qwerty or 12/20 key keyboards all optional

So we have an addition of a compass (iPhone is rumored to get that too), microUSB, accelerometer, light sensors, required aGPS, there's that ol' Multi-touch and some high end processors on board.  Gone is also anything less than VGA for resolution, which is something we welcome.

There we have it...think this all sounds legit?  Can you (and the market) wait till 2010?

A little while ago we told you about ChangeSkin, a utility that brings additional customizations to SPB's Mobile Shell 2.0. Well, the developers over at ChangeSkin has updated the utility to make it compatible with Mobile Shell 3.0. Follow the break for all the info on the update and some screen shots.

Chances are this won't affect you whatsoever, but HTC has already released a ROM upgrade for the Asian variant of the Touch Diamond 2. This is especially interesting because the phone is just beginning to make it to market worldwide, and already we're seeing a major fix. This one involves the radio, which is what allows the phone to, ya know, be a phone. And that's pretty important.

The upgrade is free, but make sure you have an Asian version of the phone before trying anything. And we've said it before and we'll say it again: Back up yer schtuff before flashing anything.

HTC Touch Diamond 2 ROM upgrade [via XDA]

Mal and Dieter talk up two full weeks of Windows Mobile news and rumors.  What's up, T-Mobile and Verizon?  Plus - your questions.

• Download it directly with this link
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe directly to the Podcast feed with your favorite Podcatcher here
• Listen to it here with the flash player above.

We're not quite sure what's in store here, but the Samsung "Jack" has appeared on an AT&T rebate form, courtesy of the Boy Genius Report.

We know the Jack as the Canadian version of the i617 Blackjack II. The two phones are identical, except one just goes by "Jack." The one we see listed here is the i637 "Jack." We've actually seen the i637 before at the FCC, when we thought it might be the Propel Pro. (The Propel Pro turned out to be the i627.)

So, it looks like we might have a slightly updated Blackjack II on the way. What would you guys like to see fixed in one of the more popular Windows Mobile phones out there?

Woo boy, another browser has entered the fray. This one is called Mach5 and hails from Hong Kong and is currently available as a trial. It seems NetAcceler has eventual plans to charge for the browser sometime after May (when this demo expires).

Anyways, Mach5 is like a combo of Opera Mobile 9.5 and Skyfire in that it can render full sites and even do YouTube/media, all proxied through a remote server to compress the data.

From my experience, it's pretty darn good. Graphics are nice, options are plentiful (but not overwhelming) and speed is pretty fast. Watching a YouTube video opens a unique media player (see above) that goes full screen — very nice touch. Downsides? Like Skyfire, this thing will zap your battery, and reports from users say that it makes their devices hot as a microwaved burrito. On the plus side, it looks fantastic on VGA screens.

But don't count Skyfire out just yet. For one, Skyfire plans to remain free indefinitely, and two, look for v1.x coming soon with a slew of new features and improvements — so don't count it out just yet. Still, it's good to have some competition to keep the Skyfire team on its toes. Download/Register here and after the jump, check out a video demonstration.

[via PocketNow]

As you might have noticed, we're in full-on contest mode of late. Something about the spring air makes us want to give stuff away. Here's a quick wrap-up of what we and our sister sites have for ya. Act now, 'cause the contests are winding down:

• The iPhone Blog: It's TiPB's Birthday Bash, and Rene & Co. are having a monster giveaway. (Hey, we know some of you WinMo faithful are dabbling with an iPod Touch or – gasp! – an iPhone on the side. Happens to the best of us.) They're giving away a full-on factory unlocked 8GB iPhone 3G in your choice of 35 different color options courtesy of the awesome folks at ColorWare. And that's just the TiPB of the iceberg. Who wants free apps!?!?!?! Check out all of their contests here.
• WMExperts: We're giving away not one, but two phones. We've got an AT&T Fuze (aka the original HTC Touch Pro), as well as an HTC Touch Dual. Contest ends Monday, so get your entry in now.
• PreCentral.net: The pre-Palm Pre release contest is over, but there are still five $50 Amazon Gift Cards to be given to PreCentral.net Forum Members. How do you win one of those? Simply sign up as a member and score one "Thanked" post or Thank another user's post – in other words, it's quality, not quantity. Get the lowdown here.
• CrackBerry.com: Hey, when aren't these guys giving away something? They've got 100 themes from JC Designs and 50 copies of TweetGenius to give away. And you can bet there will be more coming up.

The feature list for the Firefox mobile browser is steadily growing. In addition to the (soon-to-be) standard Firefox 3.5 engine, we're also expecting to see:

• Weave: The all-remembering password/bookmark/tab/add-on/everything sync feature.
• Geolocation: Your browser can tell where you are.
• Gesture browsing: Possibly. We've seen a cool demonstration.

And now, we see a prototype that could bring automatic Web site logins to the mobile and desktop browsers via Weave sync. It'll handle OpenID, as well as normal username/password logins.

Of course, all of this is still in the early stages, and work on the Firefox mobile browser continues. Check out the demo video of the auto log-in.

Mozilla Labs blog via Lifehacker

We've been playing with a couple of early versions of the new Facebook application for Windows Mobile, and now the official release has arrived.

Here's what you'll get:

• The only Facebook app available that uploads video straight from your phone.
• You can get status updates, respond to friend requests and photo tags, create wall posts, send messages, update your profile pic – the usual stuff.
• The app also integrates with Windows Live, allowing you to share photos, updates, etc. with that service.
• The app also will also be available on Windows Mobile 6.5 "later this year." (Sorry, no dates leaked.)

You can download it directly here, or find out more at WindowsMobile.com/facebook. Windows Mobile 6 or 6.1 only, folks.