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We have a new twist of events in our WiMAX WaTCH: Sprint, after ditching Clearwire, is back together with them again. That's not the crazy part, though, the crazy part is that Sprint, along with Clearwire, has managed to cobble together $3.2 Billion US in investment to create a band new company, also to be called Clearwire. The money's coming from various sources, inclding Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks.

In other words, it looks like Sprint is dropping XOHM in favor of using this new company (which they'll control 51% of, by the way), though it may be that they'll keep XOHM as the Sprint-branded version of Clearwire's WiMAX services. These services, by the way, will also be available to re-sell to other companies:

“We've made an excellent start developing XOHM WiMAX services. Contributing those advances to a strongly backed new company - in which we'll hold the largest interest - provides Sprint with additional financial flexibility and allows Sprint management to leverage and focus on our core business.
”Additionally, the agreements allowing the new company and our cable company investors to bundle and resell Sprint's third-generation wireless services strengthen the distribution of our current services while reducing the complexity and enhancing Sprint's cable relationships,“ Hesse added. -[Clearwire Press Release]

Given Sprint's many, many woes, it's to be expected that they would do something to shake things up a bit. It remains to be seen whether or not this is the right move, but it smells to us like Clearwire is going to just offer ”big fat pipe“ services for data and voice. We've been begging for that since the inception of WMExperts -- here's to hoping that the new company can offer that.

In any case, it's clear now why Sprint signed a deal to use Google's services on their future handsets, innit?

Go take a peek at PhoneMag's Live Coverage (now archived) if you want the full experience, or you can also check out HTC's Touch Diamond page. There's not a lot of new information here, hardware-wise, because we already knew we'd be getting:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• 256 ROM, 192 RAM, 4GB Internal Storage
• 2.8“ VGA Touchscreen
• Tri-Band (What?! Boo!) HSDPA
• A-GPS
• 3.2 MP Camera
• Bluetooth, WiFi, FM Radio
• 900, Yes 900 mAh Battery
• Accelerometer

The new new is that TouchFLO, as rumored, has indeed received quite an upgrade. They're not calling it Manilla (and truth be told it looks a lot better than Manilla did), they're calling it TouchFLO 3D. It featured Email, Weather, browser, music, and photos in an integrated interface that allows you some access to the data you're interested in without ”dumping“ you back into standard Windows Mobile quite as often as regular TouchFLO does.

The Touch Diamond will hit Europe and Asia in June, everybody else (read: us) ”later this year.“ Until then, we'll be heading over to the cosmetics aisle. We're so green with envy of our European friends, we're going to need some serious foundation to cover all this up.

Update: Some YouTube vids after the break!

More on HTC's YouTube Page

All righty folks, we teased you earlier, now we have the 411: here's when Sprint plans on releasing the Treo 800w:

Tues, July 22nd

Hopefully you put your guess in to our stupendous contest to win one of these bad boys. You can still head on over and make a guess, but July 22nd is now officially off limits for future guessing. Congrats to the lucky folks who already put in for that date, now we see if Sprint can actually make their self-imposed target date (or change it out of spite).

That's not the only inside info we have for you, though. A bit more after the jump!

While the specs and details on the Treo 800w have been pretty well known for awhile now, turns out that there were a few wrong bits and a few bits that needed confirmation. Here's the new skinny:

• Threaded SMS (looks to be the Palm type, not Microsoft's)
• WM 6.1
• Autonomous GPS
• KB is larger than the Centro, slightly smaller than the 750/755
• KB keys still light up
• It's very fast with no lag
• Official color: Charcoal Black (noyce!)

That's on top of the already other confirmed specs that everyone knows:

• 320x320 resolution
• EvDO Rev A (though some tester units are not Rev A active as of now)
• Wifi
• 256/128 Memory

Now to throw some water on the speculation fire...

• no QChat and no QChat smartphones this year from Sprint (boo!)
• no hardware Wifi switch ala Ringer switch
• no Picture Mail/MMS yet (though see here for some hope)
• screen is not flush i.e it's slightly recessed

Interestingly, we're hearing that there are a few different color schemes floating around (silver is the prototype) as well as some models with WM 6.0 and varying firmwares, which is to be expected in the testing phase.

But Sprint and Palm are headed into final testing in the next couple of weeks and at least WM 6.1 and Charcoal Black seem to be a go for July.

In fact, we're expecting a few more changes to the final version, so stay tuned as the details roll in!

Special Thanks to Vyruz Reaper for the assist!

We already knew that the 800w is in a closed beta program pending it's upcoming release on July 22nd - we know because the Beta program sign-up page explicitly said it was for the Zeppelin, the internal code name for the Treo 800w. Well now TamsPPC [via TreoCentral]notes that Palm also has a new program that will allow Windows Mobile developers to get in on the promotional materials for a couple of upcoming devices, the Zeppelin and the Skywriter. The image that accompanies the email explaining the program is pretty clearly just a dummy casing (or just a mockup) to hide the final look of the device - as you can see it's ugly as sin.

The squarish shape to this Skywriter reminds us of another mysterious squarish shape from the Vodaphone's leaked roadmap for 2008: the Palm Drucker. Honestly we're only expecting a couple of Windows Mobile Treos from Palm this year: the 800w and a GSM version of the same, codenamed Drucker. Seems pretty obvious that it's in testing now and that it has this fancy new codename (companies like to switch up the names to throw folks like us off).

The target launch date for the Drucker (/Skywriter, we hope) is, coincidentally enough, July 2008. Could Palm actually be releasing two Windows Mobile Treos on July 22nd -- in both CDMA and GSM flavors? If so, it would be a welcome change for a company that traditionally only releases devices until a temporary exclusive for a single carrier (usually Sprint) before they deign to release them for the other guys.

A recent promotional video released by Microsoft, pimping its upcoming Live Mesh services, contained hidden treasure. The video depicts a typical suburban family, in a halcyon trance, engaged in various usage scenarios that Microsoft loves to employ as backdrops for its products. As a dreamy musical score plays on, a mother stands beside the family pool, using a Samsung i780 to capture photos of her son's swan dives. She then shares said photos with the rest of her proud family (because junior is obviously destined for great things with such impressive aquatic skills) using Microsoft Live Mesh. Go figure.

At 32 seconds into the video something interesting finally appears. An HTC Touch Dual comes into view, but blink twice and you'll miss that it's running an unmistakably different operating system - Windows Mobile 7. Its appearance is only brief, lasting a mere second or two, just long enough to get a quick look. Though somewhat distant and out of focus, the image clearly shows similar characteristics seen in other Windows Mobile 7 mockups, like a radically redesigned GUI and central Vista-like "Orb" (located in the softkey area) that replaces the venerable Start Menu.

Granted, this is only a promotional video, but it does at least provide an inside look at Microsoft's development roadmap for the platform, and proves that earlier mockups will bear a strong resemblance to the final product. This also isn't the first time Microsoft promotional material has leaked Windows Mobile deets --the Treo 800w image that appeared during Bill Gates' 2008 CES keynote was exciting too, but not quite as exiting as the future version of Windows Mobile that appeared during the same speech.

Who's up for some GUI goodness? I am!

The Xperia X1 officially has some serious competition from HTC if this Translation of newsMobile [via Engadget] is accurate. Sure as heck looks to be accurate, as these images and specs confirm the Specs for the HTC Diamond and HTC Touch Pro we told you about last weekend. In case you forgot:

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Qualcomm MSM 7201A @ 528MHz
• 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM
• 7.2MB HSDPA / HSUPA (rev A EVDO for Sprint versions)
• 2.8“ VGA screen
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• eGPS
• 3.1MP Camera with flash
• Forward facing camera
• 4GB internal flash storage (Diamond only) - Samsung MoviNAND
• TV out (Raphael only)
• Orientation sensor (a-la-iPhone)
• FM Radio
• microSD expansion
• 900mAh battery (!!!)
• Diamond: 51x99x10.7mm with sliding keyboard
• Raphael (Touch Pro): 51x99x17mm

We'll find out for sure on Monday whether or not this is what HTC has up their sleeve. Even folks who aren't fans of slider devices need to stand up and take note: it doesn't get much better than this.

If you can believe what Handango is telling its partners, we should see the Xperia X1 drop in the US in