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Oh, the ROMs, they are a 'leakin'. There's some buzz going on at XDA Developers over a Touch Pro 2 ROM that purportedly has ties to T-Mobile in the United States. (Don't be alarmed by the picture above — it's an engineering prototype and the shell wasn't finished.) We've known for a while that the Touch Pro 2 is coming, we just don't officially know to which carriers, or when. (We do know that T-Mobile Europe has picked up the Touch Pro 2.)

But what XDA user d474rpr says what we have here is a ROM destined for T-Mobile. Some digging cropped up the same U.S. country ID code as is used on the Dash and Shadow, so this is looking pretty good.

MyFaves are on board, as are YouTube and Telenav (not sure if they're stub apps or the whole thing). The Facebook application that we've already seen ported from WinMo 6.5 also will be there. Another unknown is whether a T-Mobile touch Pro 2 would support its UMA Hotspot @ Home service, which would route calls through your home broadband Internet connection when available.

If this is all on the level, it could prove to be an exciting year for Windows Mobile fans on T-Mo.

Via AllShadow and Pocketnow

Along with Windows Mobile 6.5, one of the other things we're keen to see this year is the arrival of the Snapdragon processor, which promises bad-arse performance alongside increased battery life. The Toshiba TG01 is one phone we know is coming, and here's another reportedly on its way.

Dutch site All About Phones (translated) visited Acer at a conference, where it showed off eight new phones. The F1 reportedly will have a Snapdragon running at (only) 800MHz (the TG01 is at a full GHz). It will launch in September and have Windows Mobile 6.5 out of the box. Price should be in the neighborhood of $750 which, when you think about it, might not be that bad for that much power. It'll also have Acer's version of HTC's TouchFlo interface.

Do note that the image above is of a nonworking prototype, so we'll keep our eyes open for something a little more official.

Via Unwired View

Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't even out yet — hell, as we just found out, they're still tweaking the UI — so we suppose that means it's time to start the speculation of what Windows Mobile 7 is going to look like.

Above, we have Exhibit A from wmpoweruser of what supposedly is a shot of Windows Mobile 7. Also, they say, the "latest inside rumors" say WM7 will reach manufacturers by the end of the year and be out on phones by spring 2010. That's right in line with what we've previously reported.

So maybe this is a shot of Windows Mobile 7, and maybe it ain't. (We'd expect to see the Windows flag somewhere at some point.) Regardless, what we (hopefully) see this time next year is likely to change a fair bit.

But what say you, dear readers? If this is legit, how's it look to you?

For you folks who can't get enough of Skype, the 3.0 beta has been released with a couple of extra goodies.

On top of all the usual Skype features and an improved user interface, this latest version also supports file transfers and will send SMS messages, though they will dip into your Skype credits.

Check out a video of the 3.0 beta, then download it and give it a whirl.

Via Pocket PC Thoughts

This is how we love starting off our day — more he said/she said Dell news! So the other day investment analyst Shaw Wu (who gets no love from Daring Fireball) said that Dell shopped two smartphones around to carriers — one a Windows Mobile phone, the other Android. The carriers promptly turned their noses up and sent Dell back to the drawing board.

Today, DigiTimes reports that's just not so.

Dell will not delay the launch of its new smartphone lineup and is on schedule to release devices in line with its internal roadmap, company CEO Michael Dell said recently in Taipei. However Dell did not publicly divulge any details indicating when products are scheduled for release.

Whom to believe? It's anyone's guess. But since everyone seems to know what Dell's up to in the smartphone market, we'll throw our guess into the ring as well. And we're pretty sure you can take it to the bank:

Dell will release some sort of technology in the next few months. It will involve circuit boards, memory chips, a button or two, and more than likely will be painted black. It might make phone calls. It might not.

You heard it here first, folks.

The Silverlight news just keeps on a'comin, this time in the form of Deep Zoom. No, it's not some sort of Apple mole feeding inside information back to Redmond. To put it simply:

Silverlight Deep Zoom allows users to explore collections of super high resolution imagery, from a 2 or 3 megapixel shot from a digital camera to gigapixel scans of museum pieces, all without waiting for huge file downloads. The simple zooming interface allows users to explore entire collections down to specific details in extreme close-up, all with fantastic performance and smooth transitions.

Couple Deep Zoom with the multitouch capability in the latest Silverlight beta, and it could have the makings of a pretty slick mobile browsing experience. And Microsoft basically says it intends to do just that. Microsoft VP Scott Guthrie told The Register that what you see in Silverlight on the desktop is what we also should eventually see on mobile phones.

"Deep Zoom will be in. Our goal is to keep the experience between desktop and mobile basically the same."

Read more about Deep Zoom here, and check it out in action with Hard Rock Memorabilia.

Thanks to theog for the tip!

If you just got your tax return back, here's a quick way to blow it — and by blow it we mean buy one of the three phones we officially know will be running Windows Mobile 6.5 later this year.

An unlocked HTC Touch Pro 2 is up for auction on eBay. WMPowerUser spied it when it had a "But it now" price of $899, but it looks like it's been relisted and will now see how high the price will go by 11 p.m. EST March 27.

At the time of this writing, the top bid was $475. But before you throw your bid in the ring, do note that while this is an unlocked GSM phone, it only has the 3G radio bands used outside the U.S. So, no AT&T love for this guy. Otherwise, if everything is as advertised, it should work just fine.

So, how much would you pay to be the first on your block with a Touch Pro 2?

Update: And ... the auction's been called off. Can't say that's too surprising.