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Behold, Motorola's White Whale, otherwise known as a Q9h with WiFi. We know these things exist, albeit in very rare numbers, and a treat when we see one in the wild. This one comes to us from EverythingQ member racingxtsy, who says the phone was bought on Craigslist.

What we've got here is what for all intents and purposes on the outside appears to be a "stock" unlocked Q9h with AT&T branding running on Canada's Rogers network. GPS apparently wasn't sacrificed for the WiFi capability. One difference between it and the WiFi-less Q9h us mere mortals use (and one we hadn't seen before) is a cosmetic difference on the back, above the battery door. Pictures of that after the break, and more pics from racingxtsy here.

It appears that this is the real deal. How much would you pony up for WiFi on your Q?

An FCC filing for the Toshiba TG01 is leaving a lot of people confused. The filing itself isn't what has everyone confused. It's the specs that were listed with the filing. The specs didn't match anything vaguely similar to the TG01 that Toshiba had at the Mobile World Congress.  From screen size to physical diminsions, the information in the filing didn't match anything we were shown in Barcelona.

The mystery device is listed as a Windows Mobile 6.1 device with a 3" 800x480 WVGA Screen and a .8" 96x39 B&W LCD. So, could this be a successor to the clam shell Protege'?  Could we see the return of a Windows Mobile flip phone?

The mystery device is also reported as having a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. According to Unwiredview.com the manual that accompanied the filing was for a TM5-E01 (FCC Identifier) but the pictures submitted with the filing were of the TG01. Either somebody at Toshiba goofed up really bad or Toshiba's is intentionally teasing the Windows Mobile community. Regardless, we'll keep our eyes open for more news on this mystery device.

The crazy cats at XDA Developers are at it again, this time stripping the native Facebook application out of a Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM. [via]

The port works on just about all resolutions, says XDA's jug6ernaut, though there are a couple of niggles:

• Can't be installed to the storage card.
• May have issues if not on a WWE ROM.
• Log-in information will not be saved if you choose "log-out," though it will be saved if you close with an "X" button from a third-party app.
• Won't see IDs if they're not one of your friends.
• First launch can take a while to cache info.

The App's running fine on my Motorola Q9h, but you'll get a much better experience if you've got a screen deeper than 240 pixels, and it's fairly obvious the app's built for touchscreen phones. Go check it out here, but remember that this isn't (yet) official or anything, so be forewarned.

More pics after the break.

Skyfire, the little Windows Mobile browser that could, is teaming up with Ustream.TV, the live video streamer that does, for "a
partnership that will deliver live video to consumers accessing content from their mobile phones."

Ustream gets prominent placement on Skyfire's home page (though just beneath Youtube), from which you get easy access to all of Ustream's content.

“Live video from partners like Ustream fit perfectly into our plan to bring the best of the full web to the mobile generation,” said Tracy DeMiroz, Skyfire VP Marketing. "Without any development required to have a mobile presence, Ustream immediately gives their users access to all the content broadcast from their website. We know Skyfire users consume a lot of media during their day. In fact, on inauguration day a vast majority of our users were watching Obama on Ustream. That's
why we're excited to include Ustream in the Skyfire bookmarks.  In just one click, our users will be watching live television."

Get Skyfire at get.skyfire.com, and check out Ustream at www.ustream.tv.

Alltel's Treo Pro has gone on sale a day before we expected, making it the first CDMA Treo Pro for sale in the United States. (Ya hear that, Sprint? OK. You'll have yours out March 15.)

It retails for $519.99 but is knocked down to $199.99 after online discount and mail-in rebate, along with the usual contract stuff.

Go check it out here.

HTC's massive 2009 device roadmap leak was heavy on the thumbnail images but light on the details.  These details are being filled in now by sina.com [via wmpoweruser].  From the Firestone to the Twin to the Thoth to the Maple, we've got some early specs and release date targets to dish on.  So let's get it going, after the break!

The My Phone beta team notes in its blog (and WMExperts reader JoeG notes in our comments) that Microsoft's My Phone beta service will be down today from 7 to 10 a.m. PDT (that's 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT) for maintenance.

They're also pushing out an update (just log-in on your phone and you should see it) to "address some known issues." The blog notes that you need to install the update within seven days of downloading it or My Phone will quit working for you. But don't panic. You can still get it online at myphone.microsoft.com/install.

Mike Nichols, the general manager of Live Search, put up a blog post today regarding the testing of Kumo, Microsoft's update to Live Search. There he discusses the testing and possible rebranding of Live Search.

Many of you have probably seen the press coverage in the last day or so about the internal testing Microsoft employees are doing on our search product. There’s a good deal of excitement brewing over this test, both internally and externally, which we’re always glad to see.

And we're more than happy to help out with said press coverage, Mike. But, seriously, what about this whole rebranding thing. Is this the end of Live Search as a brand?

There has also been a fair amount of speculation around the use of the Kumo brand and URL, and whether this means that we are rebranding Live Search. We’re using the Kumo brand and URL for this test experience to make sure employees understand they’re in a test experience. We believe this will encourage more active feedback. As for rebranding, it’s something we’re still considering.

So you're saying there's still a chance. May we suggest, KUMOBILE!

Update: Microsoft Watch is down on the whole Kumo thing. Well, the name, anyway.

Last month at CES, Dieter got a look at a cool little Mobile Internet Device (MID) from Mio running Windows Mobile. Today, the company returns with what appears to be a GPS-centric phone. [via Mobile Tech Addicts]

Here's the rundown of the K70:

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Quad-band GSM, Tri-band HSPA (850/1900/2100
• 3.5-inch 400x240 display (yeah, that's the strange res also found in the Samsung Omnia.)
• 3MP camera
• 256MB ROM/128MB RAM
• MicroSD
• Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi
• 1,000 mAh battery
• Dimensions: 115.3 x 61.5 x 11.9 mm; 115 grams

Otherwise, not much else to say at this point. No word on price or availability. But you can check out Mio's site for more.

I ran across an interesting application over the weekend while I watched it snow.  AC-S2.com offers a "slide to unlock" application, S2U2, that is feature rich and freeware.  The application does resemble iPhone's slider but S2U2 has a good amount of customization that includes the display of upcoming appointments, slide to answer feature, and customized wallpaper.  The S2U2 settings menu is located in your programs screen under the S2U2 folder and is touch scrollable. 

The AC-S2 website has a FAQ section as well as a downloadable description of each setting.It is freeware and a "use at your own risk" type application but I've had it installed for the past few days on an HTC Fuze with no problems. XDA Developer Forum member "A_C" created this application and website. 

If you're looking for an alternative to the traditional screen lock for your Windows Mobile phone, S2U2 is definitely worth consideration.

Follow Up: If you are using an HTC Fuze and choose to load the Test ROM you will need to disable S2U2's Caller ID/Slide to Answer feature.  It conflicts with the Test ROM's slide to answer feature and locks up the Fuze.

When it comes to Windows Mobile 6.5's honeycomb home screen, chances are you're on one side of the fence, or the other. You either lover it, or you hate it.

But IStartedSomething's Long Zheng has taken a look at the design aspect of the honeycomb, and it makes sense. We noted on one of the early leaked ROMs that the honeycomb eliminated the need for scroll bars; you can simply see that there's more above or below. But it goes a little deeper than that.

Zheng points out that when your finger hits a touchscreen, it does so as a circle, and not a square. (Can't say the same for my companion lovebot, but that's another story.) And the most efficient way to get more of the round icons — or in this case, hexagons — is what Zheng calls sphere packing. You overlap them a bit.

A grid is the most efficient method to pack as many squares into an area as possible, but not for circles. The mathematically most efficient method to arrange non-overlapping circles - a problem called “sphere packing” - is actually and as you might have guessed by now, hexagonal.

It all has something to do with math and pies and other stuff during which we nodded off in high school. But one thing's for certain: The honeycomb's coming, one way or another.

Via jkontherun