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Don't get us wrong, but when we saw the low-end Touch Viva announced, we were a twinge afraid that it might come to the states and take up precious retail space that might be better served by higher-end Touch devices.  Doesn't look like that's in the cards, as the Viva has arisen as the Euro-only T-Mobile MDA Basic.

Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course, even a "Basic" Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro phone these days gets:

• 2 mp camera
• Quad-band EDGE
• WiFi
• GPS
• MicroSD slot
• TouchFlo 2D
• 8 hours of talk time(!)

Best part, if you pick it up on-contract, you're looking at a nominal 4.95 Euro for it.  We're doubting anybody's clamoring to import the thing, but we are liking that these are the minimum specs on a WinMo device these days. [T-Mobile Germany via Engadget Mobile]

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.

Having trouble deciding between Windows Mobile and Android?  Just can't decide which one to take the leap with?  If you're not a fan of hacking Android onto a pre-existing Windows Mobile device, Israeli computer module developer Compulab may have the solution for you.

Compulab has introduced the Exeda that will run both Android and Windows Mobile 6.1. The box-like smartphone has a 3.5 inch VGA touchscreen, a capacitive touchpad that serves as a mouse, and is powered by a 520MHz Marvell CPU. Loaded with 128mb RAM and 512mb of internal flash memory, the Exeda has built in GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth and a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet port. The networking appears flexible to allow resellers to choose from quadband GSM/GPRS, CDMA, and 3G UMTS. While not the slickest of designs, it's definitely a unique phone. No word on pricing but it is expected to be available sometime in March of this year.

[via Android Central, read: Engadget.com]

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.

One big gripe about our devices are they don't hold enough music. One big solution: get access to the massive library you've got sitting on your desktop. Companies like LobsterTunes and Orb realized that and got a head start on streaming your entire library to your phone. Didiom plans to hop on that bandwagon with a little more oomph.

To begin, its a free download (in beta) that lets you stream your entire music library to your phone over a cellular network. Didiom is hoping that you'll install their software for you own music and then head on over to their marketplace, where they've got a library of over 1.5 million DRM-free tracks.  They've also added in something they're calling "adaptive bargaining" where you name what you're willing to pay, Priceline-style, and their "sophisticated algorithm" will let you know if they'll sell at that price.

 They just added support for VGA WinMo devices, too.  Seems like a decent enough service, though it would be nice if they had a wider selection of music (not that we don't heart CD Baby) and if it worked outside the US.

Video after the break for those looking for more info. Anybody given Didiom a shot?  

The rumors of the untimely demise of Windows Mobile over at Motorola appear to be false. We've been hearing grumblings that Motorola was planning on cutting their development teams in half and ditching Windows Mobile for Android.

But in an interview with Computerworld.com, Brian Viscount, Motorola's Vice President of Marketing for Mobile Enterprise Computing (some title), insisted that the recent news of Windows Mobile's demise at Motorola were false. He stated Microsoft's enterprise division, "remains 100% committed to Windows Mobile".

The comments were made during an interview about Motorola's new Snap-on Mobile Payment devices that work on their enterprise-class MC-70 and MC-75 wireless handhelds, which happen to be powered by Windows Mobile. The wireless handhelds are used in retail/commercial locations to track inventory, set pricing, ordering stock and with the snap-on attachment they can be used to accept payments for merchandise.

So there is joy in Mudville tonight as it appears that Motorola will not be ditching Windows Mobile.  Now if we can only dispel the EOL rumors for the Q Series.

[VIA: wmpoweruser.com]

We'd had a fleeting hope that after last month's Alpha 2 release we might see an actual Windows Mobile beta build of Fennec, the upcoming Firefox Mobile browser, in the first couple of months of the year. Alas, it's not to be.

Mozilla's Fennec test plan notes Feb. 27 as the scheduled date for the Beta 1 release, then lets us down in no uncertain terms.

NOTE: this is a Beta1 for Maemo, not Windows Mobile or Symbian

So, work continues, and it sounds like they're making progress. Here are the WinMo notes from this week's Fennec meeting:

Building from trunk is blocked by NSPR, NSS and freetype font backend patches getting review. The font patch has been getting regular review and update, its being held up somewhat now because of conflicts with @font-face work. NSS and NSPR patches have stalled out.

Performance is improving steadily, once we can build from the trunk the focus will be on getting performance patches landed.

Patience, grasshopper.

Somehow it seems odd to us that we haven't found this service -- or one identical to it -- sooner. It's Web-Alerts.com and what it does is convert RSS feeds (like ours) into text message alerts. No longer will your unconscious desire to read the latest news be shackled by your conscious mind's utter failure to constantly scan your RSS reader.

The best part - you can filter the feeds so that only posts with the keywords you care about will get pushed out to you. In other words - you can still feel relatively safe subscribing to an oft-updated blog without getting completely inundated by, well, that blog.

The bestest part is that it's completely free - well, it's as “free” as your SMS limit.

Read: Web-Alerts.com via BGR