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What do you do when you're one of the biggest GSM chip makers out there and one of your sweethearts -- HTC in this case -- starts looking elsewhere (say, nVidia)? Well you you throw on the old spice cologne, get a hair cut, and start acquiring AMD's graphics and multimedia technology assets to improve what you've got.

Qualcomm is hoping this move will provide better 2D and 3D graphics features, as well as better audio/video and display support. This drastic make over wasn't cheap.  Qualcomm is dishing out $65 million to AMD for these assets and offering employment  to AMD employees that were involved in the new technologies. We were starting to suspect that Qualcomm was letting itself go (so to speak), so hopefully laying out this cash  for the proverbial face lift and gym membership will get 'em back in shape.

[via phonescoop]

As we continue to learn more about the upcoming Windows Mobile app store called Skymarket, it now appears that Microsoft will help developers certify their programs.

Over at InnovateOn.com, Microsoft is offering help through four stages of app development: Learn, build, test and market.

Developers will get tools and resources for building their applications, 5 hours of free e-mail tech support, up to $400 worth of testing and complimentary code signing, said to be worth another $400.

For us non-binary folks, this should help separate the wheat from the chaff and mean better applications overall.

Via wmpoweruser

We're not likely to see this in the U.S. anytime soon, but the HTC Iolite is headed to O₂ in Germany as the XDA Guide, with a pretty big focus on navigation (natch), but no major surprises.

What's under the Diamond-esque hood:

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.
• Qualcomm 7225 processor at 528 MHz.
• Quad-band EDGE/dual-band HSPA.
• Bluetooth 2.0 w/EDR.
• WiFi b/g.
• aGPS.
• 256MB RAM/512MB ROM.
• MicroSD.

Missing from the OS is TouchFLO 3D, with the phone instead sporting the less intensive TouchFLO 2D. Making up for that, however, is the "Footprints" button, which lets you take photos directly from the TouchFLO interface. If GPS is available, location information can be tagged to the photo, as can some comments. TomTom navigation software also is on board and has a dedicated hardware button.

Peep a bunch more pictures over at the::unwired. [via]

 An anonymous tipster has sent in some slides from a Sprint document detailing the specs and functionality on the Treo Pro, including some head-to-head comparisons against Sprint's other smartphone offerings.  We do have some new information here too, including the procesor speed and storage.  Frankly, we're hoping that the bits about the RAM are wrong, because it's listed as 512 storage, 32mb RAM.  That's ....low.  While the previous Sprint Treo--the much maligned 800w--only offered 256 MB of user memory, it boasted 128 MB of program memory, four times that of the specifications listed for the Treo Pro.

More details and slides -- including why that RAM shouldn't be taken as gospel just yet, after the break!

[Thanks to the anonymous tipster and to Gabriel for the guest post!]

So it seems like a whole bunch of people got themselves into a tizzy over the recent New York Times piece that said Microsoft was scaling back the number of Windows Mobile phones. Us? Not so worried. We always figured it was a quality-over-quantity move, and not that Microsoft was losing interest in the mobile market.

Still don't believe us? TamsPPC [via] got 'hold of Microsoft Austria and heard back from the Mobility group:

We are always working on new versions of the OS and always looking for ways to improve our products with our partners. Microsoft will be focusing on building out the quality of the Windows Mobile experience, investing more in working with its partners to ensure the best hardware-software integration. While this may result in fewer phone models, Microsoft will continue working with our partners to innovate on the Windows Mobile platform.

The MS statement goes on to say that The New York Times piece was just plain inaccurate in its implication, and that "Todd Peters stated that Microsoft would be focusing on building out the quality of the Windows Mobile experience."

There you go. Quality over quantity. Or, as we like to say around here,

Choosy moms choose Windows Mobile.

HTC has released a ROM update for the Touch Diamond over on their European site. [via Gadgetmix] Included in the update are fixes for:

• When you launch the Camera while the system is working on other programs, the preview screen may become black.
• When playing a video, sometimes a portion of the video will be cut off a little bit.
• Fixes Audio playback problem with the speaker. Specific issues: sometimes the music will turn off and on after 10 minutes, or there is a buzzing sound or no sound at all.
• Fixes the problem of not being able to receive MMS when in standby mode.
• When launching music via the Music tab on TouchFLO 3D, the sound may intermittently turn off for a second and come back on.

As always, be sure to back up your data before updating anything. Go get it here.

Whew! We were getting a little worried here that the Sprint Treo Pro, that sleek n' shiny update to the Treo 800w, was getting lost in all the Palm Pre hubbub.

Luckily TreoCentral forum member elistone was kind enough to finally post some of those luscious details on this beaut. What is curious is that evidently it only has aGPS and not standalone-GPS (a contentious issue with 800w owners).  Of course WMExperts will do a comparions of both devices as soon as we get out mitts on one to verify. 

So without further ado...Sprint Treo Pro:

• Robust battery life with an 1500 mAh li-lon battery and 5 hours of continuous talk time.
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition (OS) providing a feature rich experience (with Enterprise SCMDM options)
• 128MB program memory (DDR) and 256 non-volatile memory (175MB of user store)
• A-GPS – for navigation and turn-by-turn directions - Autonomous & Simultaneous GPS allows points of interests searching and mapping from contacts.
• Instant-on WiFi short-cut key - WPA/WPA2 certified
• 2.0 Megapixel resolution Camera for still and video shots with BPP Basic Printing Profile
• Price: $549 retail; $249 2-year contract

The Treo™ Pro by Palm® is a feature rich Windows Mobile 6.1 OS PDA which is a perfect balance of robust productivity and simplicity. Features include embedded WiFi with a dedicated short-cut key, A-GPS, EV-DO REV.A and a 2.0 mega pixel camera. This device has an updated stylish and slim form factor design. Data services run on Sprint’s Nationwide Mobile Broadband Network.

While nothing earth shattering, it should be a strong business messenger device for Sprint.  Look for it on Sunday, the 25th this month.

Playing around with the Fennec emulator has been fun. Its opened our eyes to a whole new way to browse the web from our mobile. Although cool, it really doesn't let us know what the actual application will ultimately look like once on the device.How fast will Fennec be? Is it stable? Will it be another IE?

Open source whiz Gnubeashie might answer some of those questions with an early attempt of what Fennec will look like on 6.1. Keep in mind this is a first attempt (and also just emulation, but at least it's WinMo emulation), but from the looks of it Fennec will be running smoothly.

Vid after the break.  [via wmpowerusers]

Windows Mobile software developer, SPB Software, has released a major update to thier popular application, SPB Weather. Weather 2.0 includes such improvements as an expanded city database (Hooray!), forecasts by Foreca (MSN.com's weather source), and a 3D Globe. The 3D Globe looks particularly interesting in that it runs animated, several day forecasts with global sky conditions, temperatures and precipitation for up to ten selected cities. The Globe will also show the local time for each location as well as a nightime overshadow.

SPB Weather also includes a new finger friendly user interface just like the touch navigation present with SPB Mobile Shell. Today screen plug-ins will still be available as will forecast support from the U.S. National Weather Service. We're in the process of putting SPB Weather through the ringer and will have a full review soon. In the meantime, a downloadable trial as well as the full application can be found here

We are pleased to welcome PreCentral.net to our family of mobile techology websites. Just in case you missed last weeks announcement Palm,inc. introduced their newest smartphone, the Palm Pre. Not only is this a new phone, but a new mobile operating system called webOS.

PreCentral.net will follow in the footsteps of TreoCentral, CrackBerry.com, TheiPhoneblog, Android Central and WMExperts by highlighting and discussing the progress, developments and accomplishments of this new mobile device and system. So lets set another place at the family table and see what all the buzz is about this new Palm device.

Check out the PreCentral.net announcement here.

Welp, after a few weeks they finally got it done and better late than never. Those determined members (Ebag333, NightRaven and some brave testers) managed to beat Verizon and Palm to the punch and get a fully working WM6 AKU 4.2 ROM on the Treo 700wx (Sprint, Verizon, Alltel).

Best part? There are two versions: one is a "trimmed down" setup, where a bunch of unnecessary files have been junked saving space and making it speedier and suitable for making your own "custom ROM". The other is just straight up WM6.

Also check out Ebag's new GUI front-end for his ROM kitchen, which should make things a wee bit easier for you newbie chef's out there ;-)

So, some initial thoughts on WM6? SDHC does not seem to work at this point--but there is a lot of reason to believe this is just a matter of finding one of the many SDHC drivers floating around. Everything else seems great though: it's quite fast (not as fast as WM5 though), the graphics are much better looking, messaging and calendar are way better than WM5.

Bottom line: if you don't mind the risk of flashing your device and you can take the time to carefully follow directions, it is definitely worth it. (Get it HERE)

Post your comments below and hop into the original thread and post your feedback.

Wanna see some screen shots of WM6? Click the link to see a small gallery.