Men Free Blog

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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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

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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