Samsung has announced the pricing and (ballpark) availability dates for the Samsung Omnia II and Omnia Pro. European pricing and availability that is.

According to Unwired View the Samsung Omnia Pro will be available in Europe later this month at a cost of 499 Euro (about $700 US).

The Samsung Omnia II will be available in August with a price point of 549 Euro (about $770 US). Both European prices include the European Value Added Tax (VAT) and hopefully the final U.S. price will be lower. Toss in potential service provider contractual discounts and the prices may fall further.

Both the Omnia Pro and Omnia II will initially ship with Windows Mobile 6.1 but upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5.

We ran across this video of Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard running on a Motorola Q9h and it leaves us with more questions than answers. First, can you shoot a video any more out of focus?

The 2:41 minute long video first posted on Everything Q does show the Moto Q running Windows Mobile 6.5 by showing the "About" screen and we agree with wmpoweruser in that Windows Mobile Standard 6.5 doesn't look much different than Windows Mobile Standard 6.1. But we already knew that, didn't we.

Two things stand out here. The phone has Regedit and Documents to Go installed. Does this mean that WM Standard 6.5 is loaded with a registry editor and Documents to Go? Or were these two items added after the install? (The latter, probably.) The video definitely leaves you with more questions than answers, but we do know that there has been some work in loading custom ROMs onto the Q line. Perhaps things are farther along than we thought?

We'll file this under "rumor and speculation" but Cellfanatic.com has put some pieces of a Samsung puzzle together and has come up with an interesting theory. A theory that places the release of the Omnia II on June 15th.

There is a Samsung Unboxing Website that is counting down to June 15th to reveal a new Samsung Mobile Phone. An un-boxing to reveal a phone with overwhelming power and performance. Right now, all that is being revealed is an x-ray of the phone which vaguely resembles the product shots of the Omnia.

One nice thing about this rumor is that it won't last beyond the 15th.  That is unless Samsung delays the unboxing.

We're getting word from some insiders that HTC will be launching the Tachi (aka Twin) in China exclusively on the Dopod network come July (see right).

The VGA (480 x 640) device will launch with WM6.5, making it one fo the first devices in the world to (legally) launch with the new OS. This is evidently a change from the original plan to launch with WM6.1. It will also have dual CDMA and GSM radios enabled and be exclusive to China/Dopod for sometime.

Some other quick specs:

• 2.8-inch screen
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.1MP camera w/auto-focus
• Front facing camera
• MicroSD

Thanks anonymous!

Here's a possibly scenario for you to ponder:

• Sprint's Touch Diamond did not sell as well as the Touch Pro (3,000 units vs 15,000 per month)
• Sprint's Touch Diamond is EOL'd (gone by July)
• No Touch Diamond 2 is on Sprint's roadmap
• ROM file is leaked called "RUU_Quartz_Clearwire_US_1.09.1000.5_Radio_Quartz_1.13.25"
• Quartz = Touch HD / Clearwire = Sprint's Wimax partner

So we're just throwing it out there that somewhere out there on the internets is a "signed ship" ROM floating around (we've seen it ourselves) labeled for Clearwire using the Touch HD's moniker.  And that Sprint shows no signs of getting a Touch Diamond 2 even though it is EOL and running on its final shipment.

We could also throw out this gem from criticalaudioinc, who works with HTC and said 7 months ago:

HTC is currently in discussion again on bringing the HTC Touch HD to the US, I currently have a GSM model that we were asked to convert to CDMA, All that was needed was to pull a board from the diamond and re-solder and flash the the rom. From what we can see it is working pretty well the solder isn't pretty but again its a test. But its looking good so far.

So there you go. What say you? We be crazy or is Sprint getting ready to launch a Touch HD with Wimax?

Microsoft has clarified a Computer World story from earlier this week (and to which we linked) about being able to load apps purchased from Windows Marketplace for Mobile onto as many as five phones. The five phones remains true. But you'd better be the owner of those five phones.

According to an excerpt of the Marketplace's unreleased terms of the service provided to Computerworld by Microsoft's public relations gency, [sic] "You may install and use one copy of the Application on up to five (5) mobile devices you personally own or control and which are affiliated with the Windows Live ID associated with your Windows Marketplace for Mobile account. You may not install or use a copy of the Application on a device you do not own or control."

Hey, that's about how we read it the first time. Did anyone really think the old days of beaming apps between Palm devices would return?

And in slightly related news, there's a lone Tweet floating around [via] from a participant at WebDU in Australia stating that the Marketplace "will open for sales come November." The timing seems close. That would give Microsoft a little rest after the expected launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, which we're still hoping to see by October.

Of course, take that one, single, solitary Tweet with a grain of salt. Not like Twitter has ever led us astray, right?

Mary Jo Foley lets us in on some possible info about this "Pink" stuff.  First, there's these reported specs for 'Chasis 1' which according to Foley "seems to be the the heart of the rumored “Pink” Microsoft phone and possibly other Windows Mobile 7 phones made by Microsoft partners".

In other words, Pink may be a prototype/demo unit/scaffold for developers to model their next-gen WM7 handsets on--so Microsoft is setting the bar on what the minimum requirements will be and what they envision the ideal handset would be like.  Sounds pretty plausible to our ears.  Now onto those rumored specs:

WM7 Chassis 1 Specification

Core requirements:
Processor: ARM v6+, L2 Cache, VFP, Open GL ES 2.0 graphics HW (QCOM 8k, Nvidia AP15/16* and TI 3430 all meet spec)
Memory: 256MB+ DRAM, 1G+ Flash (at least 512MB fast flash – 5MB/s unbuffered read @4K block size)
Display:  WVGA (800×480) or FWVGA (854×480) 3.5” or greater diagonal
Touch: Multi-touch required
Battery: Sufficient to meet Days of Use LTK requirements.
Controls: Start, Back, Send and End are required (soft controls allowed as long as they are always present).

Peripherals:
Camera: 3MP+, flash optional, 2nd camera optional (VGA resolution sufficient)
GPS: aGPS required
Sensors required: Light Sensor, Compass (3 axis, 5 degrees, 100 Hz sample rate), Accelerometer (3 axis, 2mg resolution, 100 Hz sample rate)
USB: High speed required, 20 MB/s transfer rate.
BlueTooth: BT2.1 required, must run MSFT BT stack, CSR BlueCore6 or later recommended.
Wi-Fi: 802.11B/G required, must run MSFT Native Wi-Fi stack, Atheros 6002 or Broadcomm 4325 recommended.
Connectors: Micro USB and 3.5mm Audio required.

Options:
FM tuner:  If tuner HW is present it will be detected and supported by the Media application.
Haptics
SD Card (Micro SD recommended)
DPAD, qwerty or 12/20 key keyboards all optional

So we have an addition of a compass (iPhone is rumored to get that too), microUSB, accelerometer, light sensors, required aGPS, there's that ol' Multi-touch and some high end processors on board.  Gone is also anything less than VGA for resolution, which is something we welcome.

There we have it...think this all sounds legit?  Can you (and the market) wait till 2010?

Just when you think the rumors of a possible Microsoft Zune phone has faded into the sunset, another one surfaces. This round can be credited to a Twitter update from the Microsoft Office 2010 team that hints "June 2009 will be an important month for Zune lovers." This alone is a fairly innocent statement and could simply mean a new Zune player could be launched.  As for why it's the Office 2010 team that is dropping hints, we can't say.

It's the second update on the same Twitter page that complicates things. The update simply states, "New product launch, that's all I'm allowed to say. Hold off from buying an iPhone/Pre." The iPhone and the Pre are obviously smartphones, so it's tempting to put the Zune Phone back into the rumor mix.  Us, though, we're remembering how strenuously Microsoft has denied rumors of being in the hardware business and of the Zune Phone specifically.  So whatever it is, we're not expecting a 180 on this one (but a 360, or more specifically something to do with Xbox 360, doesn't seem crazy).

Regardless, June will be here before you know it and absent a "launch delay" we will all find out soon enough what's up Microsoft's sleeve.

[Read: Neowin.net]

Update: Yeah, NO.  Per Engadget, the tweets are not legit.  What, you thought a rumor with the words "Zune" and "Phone" within shouting distance of each other would actually pan out?

Along with the speculation that T-Mobile is getting the HTC Snap and Touch Pro 2, it now looks like the service provider will be expanding its 3G Network. Tmonews has posted a leaked memo purportedly showing a list of cities  to receive 3G coverage the rest of this year.

As early as this month Shreveport, La; Lubbock, Texas; and Wichita Falls, Texas are to go live with 3G. June has cities such as Henderson, Nevada; Pueblo, Colorado, and Daytona Beach, Florida going live. Along with others, we'll keep this filed in the Rumor Mill for now but if true, combined with the new phone releases, it will be an productive year for T-Mobile.

Via AndroidCentral and IntoMobile

Here's an interesting tidbit: seems as if Conflipper (known for his custom-ROM work, especially with WM6.5) had gotten his mitts on the finalized ROM for the upcoming T-Mobile/HTC Snap which is rumored for a July release (see Dieter's video hands-on)

This is what he can discern from the ROM files:

• Internal codename for T-mobile is "Captain" (aka Maple aka Snap aka Dash 3g)
• Model number for HTC is S522
• The much hyped "Inner Circle" files are not in the shipping ROM (!)
• "A new feature...lets you send an Audio Postcard to your contacts, You take a picture from the camera, the camera will then give you a selection of boarders you can add to it. From there you can add a 60 second audio clip the the picture. And send it to either an email or a MMS account."

Obviously it is not 100% confirmed that HTC's new "Inner Circle" won't be there but as of now, it appears that in the final/shipping ROM, those files are currently missing and that is worrying.  Reasons for this decision, if true, are not known--perhaps HTC is still tweaking that new app?

We'll keep you posted.  Thanks Conflipper

One more bit: a headache inducing animated Gif after the break that's supposedly the startup screen for the T-mobile Captain.

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