Men Free Blog

Vodafone impending the Touch Pro to touch decreased in the UK their month, and guaranteed enough, argued expectation has become a reality. HTC’s mighty WinMo-powered smartphone is now to be had based on what i read in official UK distributor devicewire, and if you just recently so transpire to use pounds as your number one currency, you can contend one of your own for the eye-popping worth of £514.99 (including VAT). We will not bother converting the to bucks — faith us, you are bigger off pretending you do not know.

Never mind 3GSM — for Taiwan’s E-TEN, the big news is happening at CeBIT this month in Hannover. Despite being pretty active in the Windows Mobile arena as of late, there are two big things E-TEN has failed to do thus far: 3G data and Windows Mobile 6, and they intend to rectify both of those grave injustices with a new “glofiish”-branded handset to be introduced at Europe’s largest consumer electronics tradeshow. That’s all we have at the moment, but we’re guessing that anonymizing mosaic on the left of the CeBIT invite here is the device in question.

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We don’t generally associate the terms “HTC” and “slider” — at least in the traditional, numeric keypad sense — but it seems the Taiwanese patron saint of all things Windows Mobile would like us to have a change of heart in that regard. The rumored HTC “Nike” (these code names of theirs keep getting weirder and weirder, we swear) should bow as the P5500 when it becomes available this fall in HTC-branded trim, rolling deep with a 400MHz Samsung core, 128MB ROM / 64MB RAM with microSD expansion, integrated FM tuner, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3 megapixel cam, and a 2.6-inch QVGA touchscreen. Best of all, it’ll pack GPS and industrial-strength data via both 802.11b/g and HSDPA (no word on bands, though) — and yes, that is Windows Mobile 6 Professional you see there, hence the touchscreen.
[Via Navigadget]

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The hot word on the street is that Palm has all but confirmed the existence of two new phone models by ramping up a “launch developer” program for new applications. The devices, dubbed Zeppelin (a name we’ve heard quite a bit of) and Skywriter (which is new to us) could be slated for a Q3 release, as Palm is asking devs to turn in their applications by May 30th. Rumor has it that at least one of the units is a “Centro-like” Windows Mobile phone — if that date is close to correct, it could very well be the “Wanda” that we saw back in January. The Zeppelin, on the other hand, is likely the WiFi equipped Treo 800w we’ve been hearing about for what seems like a million years. A mockup of a device (above) was included in the email, though we’re pretty sure not even Palm could create a phone that ugly.

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Man, we hope this is true. Switzerland’s Zenum has been talking up its gorgeous “Opus Operis” concept Pocket PC for a while now — but as is too often the case, the alleged release date came and went with no product in sight. Zenum’s site has been reborn recently, though, suggesting that the company is still on track to eventually offer the QWERTY device, this time with a spring ‘07 launch. Though the site shows Windows Mobile 5 as the platform of choice, we trust Zenum will have the wisdom to switch over to 6 by the time the Opus gets out the door. Other specs should include 128MB ROM, 64MB RAM, 2 megapixel cam, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 1.2, and a tri-band GSM radio (no 850MHz, apparently) atop a 200MHz OMAP750. We’d love to see a successful launch on this one, folks, but we’d gladly wait a few weeks if you could squeeze some quadband action in there. Oh, and Windows Mobile 6, while you’re at it, eh?

[Thanks, Ramesh]

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Though O2 spends plenty of time getting cozy with Quanta for its Windows Mobile needs, that doesn’t mean they’ve thrown HTC to the curb. The latest two HTCs to get the O2 treatment — in Germany, anyway — will be the Herald and Elf, released as the Xda “terra” and “nova” respectively. As you might recall, the Herald is the facelifted Wizard, replacing O2’s own Xda mini S and offering all the same slide-out QWERTY action in a 17 millimeter shell; 3G data is sadly missing, though O2 is going to one-up the competition here by rolling out Windows Mobile 6 Professional on this bad boy out of the gate — expect it in May for €150 (about $200). Meanwhile, the Xda nova (also a 2.5G device) brings Windows Mobile to the masses with a relatively low price point — €100, about $130 — while still managing to pack 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD expansion, and version six of Microsoft’s ubiquitous platform. Look for it a month after its Xda terra stablemate in June.

Read - O2 Xda terra
Read - O2 Xda nova

If you’re in Germany this week and have a chance to hit the CeBIT show, you may be able to peep the new BlueBird BM-500 WM Smartphone (yes, it’s Windows Mobile 5-based). This bar handset — part of the PIDION line — features a rather nice 2.8 inch touch-screen, EV-DO data speeds, built-in 802.11b WiFi, Bluetooth, the now-standard 1.3 megapixel cam and the less-often used miniSD card slot. Changes we’d make? Get microSD in there and dump the miniSD, upgrade that cam to 2 megapixels and get WM6 in there. Seriously — WM5? The older BM-200 and BM-300 had this way back when. Come on now; WM5 is so January 2007.

[Via Wired.com]

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We like to rag on the SMT5700 every so often — not because it’s low-end, not because it lacks 3G, not because it’s not the prettiest smartphone we’ve ever seen. No, we give the SMT5700 a well-earned dose of crap because it earned FCC approval over a year ago. That’s pretty insane even by US carrier standards, and new intel over at Boy Genius Reports indicates that AT&T may finally be ramping up to sell this thing. As we mentioned, it’ll be pretty low-end on account of its EDGE data and 2 megapixel cam, but hey — in the year 2008, there’s no good reason folks shouldn’t be able to get a capable smartphone for next to nothing on any major carrier, in our humblest of opinions. The site doesn’t seem to know when exactly it’ll launch, but they’ve posted a few puzzle piece-like press shots of the phone to whet our appetite (or get us to gag, depending on your disposition toward these kinds of phones).

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Well, here are three that we didn’t see coming or anything — Verizon has officially announced the Motorola Q9c, LG enV(2), and HTC-sourced XV6900 today, all for April availability. The Moto Q9c is a more business-savvy version of the consumer-focused Q9m that was launched on Verizon late last year, with the carrier playing up the new model’s VZ Navigator support, Windows Mobile 6 Standard load (yippee?), and — unfortunately for those whose companies distrust photography — a 1.3 megapixel camera. This one will launch for $249.99 after rebate on a two-year plan.

Next up we have the enV(2) — a phone we mistakenly identified previously as the enV2 because we just never could’ve seen those bonus parenthesis coming — which succeeds the wildly popular enV and injects a fresh dose of industrial design. Features include a 2 megapixel cam, 2.4 inch internal display accompanied by a smaller screen up front that’s just big enough for doing calling duty, microSD slot, and the flip-up QWERTY keyboard the enV series is famous for. It’ll run $129.99 after rebate on contract when it launches next month.

Finally, the XV6900 brings Verizon in line with Sprint’s Touch, though in a far paler shade. It features the full host of Windows Mobile 6 Professional goodies alongside a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, Bluetooth, and HTC’s TouchFLO interface. Like the others, it’s slated for April availability and will run $349.99 on contract after $50 rebate.

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Remember those refreshed Sling apps we mentioned not long ago?

 They’ve finished baking and they’re ready for prime time (sorry, BlackBerry users, we don’t mean you — not yet, anyway). The players for Windows Mobile, both Professional and Standard editions, now rest at version 1.6 while the S60 player gets upped to 1.1; changes are relatively minor, but notable, the Nokia N95 8GB is now officially supported (even though the old player worked pretty well) along with a slew of new WinMo pieces and set-top boxes, video quality is improved on some devices, new channel logos are included, and some “under the hood tweaks.” The update is available now and free for existing SlingPlayer Mobile users; newbs, meanwhile, pay a $30 one-time pop.

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