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Windows Mobile is all about having options, sometimes to a fault. If you want someone else to decide how you're going to use your device, go here.

That's why the advent of yet another browser for Windows Mobile is a time for celebration. Opera Mobile, Skyfire, Webkit — they all bring something to the table that Internet Explorer does not. And they're all different enough to make having more than one browser not seem silly.

We're eagerly awaiting the alpha release of Firefox Mobile, aka Fennec (we'll save you the trouble: It's a small desert fox), any day now. And after a quick read through Mozilla's mobile roadmap, we can sum up our excitement with a couple of points (after the jump).

Mozilla Weave

Fennec is being developed by Mozilla, makers of uber-browser Firefox, so it's pretty safe to assume that it should be a competent mobile browser. Fennec and Weave are where it can get really sexy.

A spin through that Fennec roadmap brings us a couple of juicy tidbits:

Release themes

In priority order, here are the key themes of the first Fennec release:

1. Simple, fast navigation to Web content 2. Compatibility with the Web 3. Secure 4. A "whole product" 5. A platform for innovation on mobile

Getting to Web content

• Awesome bar
• Search integrated into URL bar
• Password manager
• Weave

By comparison, here are results from my browsers on a Windows XP desktop, plus what I run on my Motorola Q9h:

• Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.13: Scored 12 out of 100 (I think) after about 30 seconds. It rendered so horribly it was hard to tell.
• Internet Explorer 8 beta (8.0.6001.18241): Scored 15 out of 100.
• Firefox 3.0.3: Scored 71 out of 100.
• Safari 3.1.2 (525.21): Scored 75 out of 100.
• Google Chrome 0.2.149.30: Scored 79 out of 100.
• Opera Mobile 6.5: Scored 3 out 100.
• Skyfire 0.8.0.68.43: Scored 52 out of 100.

So, Fennec appears to have a bit of browsing power under its belt. I'll be interesting to see how older devices handle it. That said, the Fennec roadmap lists Windows Mobile 6 as the earliest version supported.

Not quite drooling - yet

At this point, we're mildly excited about Fennec. Having more options on your Windows Mobile device is a good thing, especially one that's open source. We won't go into full-on drool mode until we see some actual hands-on video and get to try it for ourselves.

But Fennec is looking like it may be a fine addition, along with Skyfire and Opera, to our browsing arsenal.

As Dieter and Malatesta talked about in their latest podcast, we're just a few short weeks from learning when the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 should (finally) be released in the United States.

While we wait, let's take a look at some of the early hands-ons from around the Internets.

• WM Experts: As a baseline, we'll start with our man Dieter (natch) at CTIA way back in April. As an added bonus, Dieter also spied one at the BlackBerry-centric WES in May and shot it alongside a Touch Diamond.
• Swedish site M3 gives it a go with a video. Er, in Swedish (we presume).
• Speaking of Sweden, Daily Motion brings us an unboxing. [via]
• Some beautiful pics and a review from Dutch site jouwMobiel That not enough? How about a head-to-head with the new T-Mobile G1?. [via]
• A video hands-on from Xperiancers.com. [via]
• Paul from MoDaCo and Matt from Tracy and Matt get on board with a video. [via]

That should tide you over for a few weeks. As an added bonus, we've dug up the official announcement video from SE itself. Peep it after the break.

(In a related note, the X1 is now available for pre-order from Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. Price is FREE with an 18-month contract from O2. [via] Don't expect to find that kind of deal over here, though.)

You likely know GoDaddy.com as an Internet registrar and for its, er, eye-catching advertisements. Now you can add hosted Exchange to its resume.

What's hosted Exchange, you ask? It's most often found in the workplace, but outside vendors are now offering its push-email and cloud-based storage for monthly fees. We've written about it a bit, and Dieter and Mal have touched on it in a couple of podcasts (19 & 22).

For $6.99 a month, GoDaddy gives you a single mailbox with 2 gigabytes of storage, POP3 and IMAP access (and presumably OWA, though it's not listed), plus the usual calendar goodies. For $9.99 a month you get all of that plus access on your mobile device.

The price isn't bad, but we'd like to see more storage. While 2 gigs is still a boatload of space when it comes to e-mail, it hardly stacks up to the 7 gigs gmail gives you for free. Yeah, it's still not true push e-mail and it doesn't play as nicely with Windows Mobile as Exchange, but you can't beat the cost.

However, it is nice to see another hosted Exchange option come to fruition. Check out GoDaddy's offerings here.

via jkontherun

Nedge2k just received some images and specs on a here-to-for unknown and unseen device from HTC: the T8290. It's a squarish Touch HD but looks to be built to run on WiMAX with some GSM on the side. It's got that beautiful 800x480 screen, WiFi to back up the other radios, and Bluetooth (naturally).

Also as with the Touch HD, we're not confident this is coming to the states (after all, WiMAX is really only up and running in a reliable way in Baltimore), instead it seems destined for Russia's Yota network. Unlike the Touch HD, the T8290 doesn't appear to have a 3.5mm headset jack.

So what does this mean for us? One: it means that HTC really is building smartphones with WiMAX capability -- something we were worried wouldn't happen. Two: it means that HTC has now made two devices with 480x800 screen resolution. We're going to go ahead and hope that they have a third up their sleeve that's destined for these United States.

[via Gizmodo]

Making the rounds on the Internets is a "sale" at Best Buy next week on the Treo 800w. And that's true, at least according to one site. But the even better news is that you can go snag one right now (and for the past several weeks, for that matter) for that same $199 price point, after rebates, contracts, blood tests, etc.

We're not looking a gift horse in the mouth. This is still $50 less than what you'll pay at either Palm's or Sprint's Web sites.

So If you're looking to re-up with Sprint and neither the HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro are doing it for you, swing by and give it a shot.

Windowsmobilecool.com is reporting that Motorola has designed a heavy duty, personal computer they're putting in the Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC) class, bearing the code name VC6096. Don