sprint

We'll take a nugget of news whenever and however we can, and we're getting this one from our cousins over at PreCentral.net. They're poring over every possible source for a hint as to when the Pre will arrive, and their work is our gain.

Notice Line 2 in the photo above from SprintGurus. Why, hello there, HTC Snap! Looks like you'll be the S511 when you're rolling with Big Yellow. (It's expected to be the S522 on T-Mobile.) Coal over at SG also notes that the Snap is currently in testing with Sprint.

And that mention is all we've got. No word on price or a release date, though we're hearing possibly June, which would be in line with that leaked Sprint roadmap. No matter what, it'll be nice to see an Windows Mobile Standard phone hit Sprint, which has been cranking right along with the Treo 800w and Treo Pro.

Here's an interesting tidbit for all you Sprint users out there.  As some of you may know, if you have insurance through Asurion your deductible went up to $100 (previously $50) this month for all Windows Mobile and PDA devices.  The good news is Sprint has greatly simplified and expanded its insurance policy for its customers.

Starting this past Sunday (April 12th), you can now walk into any Sprint store and if your device is within the 1-year manufacture warranty, you can have it serviced usually for free. Here at the requirements:

Within first year = No Charge for:

• Phone Book Swaps
• Software Updates
• Mechanical failure
• Electrical failure
• No DAMAGE evident

If outside the first year or damage is below, Charge = $99/$119

• Missing components
• Failure w/cosmetic damage
• Normal wear and tear
• Broken hinge/lenses/port
• Cracked housing/LCD

In the past, you had to play back-and-forth between the manufacture and Sprint, each passing you off for the warranty coverage.  Now, you just walk into a Sprint center and deal with them directly.  We find this a much welcomed change on paper at least, we'll see how it is executed in reality. Join us after the break to see the full "official" Sprint .pdf screen shots of this policy change.

[via ppcgeeks]

Sure, the Treo 800w was a blip on the Windows Mobile radar and has now even disappeared from Sprint's Web site. But eight months after its release, one cool feature has now been discovered:  the 800w can act as a USB host.

So what does that all mean?  In short, with a cheap $8 adapter cable (like those found here on eBay) you can connect up all sorts of USB devices that don't require separate drivers to run.  Such devices include external hard disk drives, USB flash drives, USB headphones/mics, and for bnsguy, a USB ultrasound probe!

What makes this unique is that at the moment, very few WM devices can act as a USB host (if you happen to know any, drop us a line) and to be honest, it is a really cool feature that we would like to see on future devices.

After the jump, we'll post a few shots of what this setup looks like on the 800w and some various USB devices that can run on it!

Here's a look at what Sprint supposedly has on deck for the next two quarters of the year, thanks to the ninjas over at the Boy Genius Report.

You'll note the Palm Treo Pro, which was just released. Slated for the second quarter is the HTC Willow, which we expect from those monster leak sheets to be a front-facing QWERTY messanger phone. Probably not as up to snuff as the Maple, but we'll see.

In Q3 is the Samsung Ace II. Dieter took a look at the original Ace about a year ago and was plesantly surprised.

Finally is the HTC Rhodium, which we expect to be the replacement for the Touch Pro.

What's it all mean? The rumors, conjecture and rampant speculation that we may see some of the new HTC phones on Sprint in the next couple of months is looking better. Or, ya know, we could all have egg on our face.

Spec sheets after the break, including for the Cedar, which we don't even see on this roadmap.

So take this one with a huge grain of salt, though if squint hard enough, it almost makes sense.

Over at phonedog, they got a tip that "...Sprint would be beating T-Mo to the punch by launching US versions of the devices at CTIA in April with May availability dates."

To some that may sound very early, in fact it might even beat T-Mobile in Europe, who are reportedly getting some new HTC love in June.

But we do know that Sprint has given the "end of life" (EOL) tag to the Touch Diamond for July and looking at Sprint's past practices, a device's EOL date is usually around 2 months after the launch of its replacement (e.g. Treo Pro (orig: 2/09)/800w EOL (4/09); Diamond (9/08)/Touch EOL (~11/08); Touch Pro (11/08)/Mogul EOL (~1/09) etc.). Coupled with the fact that Sprint did get the original Touch, Diamond and Touch Pro pretty darn quick and you know, it could be possible.

So perhaps there's some truth to this? Guess we'll find out more from booth N120 as CTIA approaches!

Just when we were expecting another delay in Sprint's release of the Treo Pro, we run across the phone in Best Buy's Mobile Buyer's Guide for March! The Treo Pro (listed as Palm Pro) will run you $249.99 with a two year contract. Strangely though, if you're upgrading it will run an extra $20 (activation fee?). There's no availability date listed but the Buyer's Guide is dated for February 22, 2009 through March 28. 2009.

Thanks Gabriel for the tip!

While we've known about that pesky Sprint Treo Pro delay for a few weeks now and that it had something to do with Sprint's certification process, up till now we had no idea exactly what was wrong.

According to PhoneNews, what is being fixed is that annoyingly low RAM that we've reported on previously and talked about in the Podcast.  In case you don't remember, the Treo Pro only has ~43 MB of free available RAM after a soft-reset, which is about 20 MB or so lower than its GSM cousin. 

HTC engineers have confirmed that the issue causing the continual delay of the Sprint Treo Pro lies in continuous ROM testing and certification to resolve a perpetual low free memory issue after many insiders discovered that the Treo Pro had ~40 MB of  free memory with no applications running, despite shipping with 256 MB of RAM.

Evidently the problem is this: The RAM on this device is on separate chips and Windows Mobile has problems recognizing this extra amount of memory – so it is physically there, just not being seen by the system. This mirrors some similar issues with HTC's Touch Pro (Verizon) and other original Touch devices, so it sounds very plausible.

At first, my initial assessment having used the device was that it wasn't too big of a deal. But with more extensive usage, I recanted on that notion: 40mb is too little for a 2009 device. Also, we should point out that the Treo Pro only has 128 MB of RAM (like the GSM version), not 256 MB. Although this begs the question: How does a device get so far in development without anyone noticing the extremely (and unusual) low amount of RAM? This isn't like some rare software bug but rather a standard and obvious device specification.  

Finally, we're getting word that some Sprint stores are getting re-stocked as we speak with new Treo Pros with the new ROM on board, so keep an eye out for those. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get my Treo Pro packed and ready to send to the HTC gods ;-)

We knew that Sprint had delayed the release of the Treo Pro until the end of February, but we are now learning that the delay will last a little longer. The Boy Genius Report now says Sprint has now targeted March 15 for the release of the Treo Pro. There's still no indication what is causing these delays and this is a "target" date. Strong rumors have it that the Treo Pro isn't doing so well on Sprint's exit exam, in all likelihood because of that other new Palm device waiting in the wings.

So while you're waiting for March 15 to come (and possibly go), don't forget that in the meantime, we've got your one and only hands-on with the Sprint Treo Pro.

(And thanks, David, for the earlier tip + Anonymous tipster for the Spint Flyer we mashed up above)