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.

One of the most dominant questions asked from someone who has just bought a new phone is, “What’s a good case?”. If the side pouch style fits your fancy, then Smartphone Expert’s Side Pouch ($24.95) is a good answer for such a question.

Read on for the full review!

» Read the rest of "Review: SPE Side Pouch Case for BlackJack, BlackJack II"

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?

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!

After reading around the web and looking at various reports, it's pretty clear that while the Touch Diamond's hardware is certainly top-notch, much (if not most) of the innovation is in TouchFLO 3D. Here's what's great:

• Rather than having to initiate it with a swipe, it replaces Windows Mobile's standard Today screen (shades of the Xperia X1 Panel interface here)
• TouchFLO 3D also appears to be very well integrated in the OS. It's less of an add-on and more of a new philosophy towards Windows Mobile. For example, the 5-way is also touch-sensitive so you can rotate your thumb around it to zoom in and out. It also demonstrates the power of Windows Mobile's data structure -- TouchFLO 3D has previews of emails, allows you to examine your pictures, and plays your music directly within the interface.
• TouchFLO 3D tech is also built-into a custom build of Opera 9.5, which we've previously been enthusiastic about. But get this, no matter what your zoom level is, the text automatically wraps to the zoom. This is in contrast to the iPhone's browser, which sometimes is unable to get the text to wrap properly.
• TouchFLO 3D is, in fact, 3D in its animation effects. The Touch Diamond, unlike previous HTC devices, appears to be fully hardware accelerated and uses that power to full effect.
• Speaking of hardware, I can say from personal experience with some devices that Windows Mobile -- especially browsing on Windows Mobile -- feels like a completely different and more usable animal when it's on a high-resolution screen. 240x320 will be officially antiquated and a sign of a bad user experience when the TouchFLO 3D devices start hitting the market.

...The net effect is a device that we're not embarrassed to call an iPhone killer. The UI looks to be nearly as intuitive and there's a core tradeoff that I think a lot of people will be willing to make. The bad part of this trade: the occasional UI dissonance between TouchFLO 3D and the standard Windows Mobile is more than offset by the power of Windows Mobile's ability to use a giant swatch of powerful, enterprise-class applications.

Looks like Yahoo Go development is continuing apace with the release of Yahoo Go 3 (Beta). You can grab a download here, but a perusal of the compatible devices list seems to indicate that it's only compatible with Windows Mobile Standard for now.

New features include:

• An integrated at-a-glance Yahoo screen
• Improved Yahoo oneSearch
• Prettier design and navigation, complete with clouds -- because your data is stored, you know, in the Cloud. wink
• Full-on widget support, with in-app widgets like MySpace and eBay

Interestingly, we haven't heard mum since Yahoo struck a deal with HTC over a year ago to pre-install the app on HTC devices. Perhaps, like ourselves, HTC was disappointed with Yahoo Go 2, which replaced the awesome Outlook integration with so-so in-app email. We're downloading Yahoo Go 3.0 now to see if that's changed, but not expecting it to. Now that the Yahoo Microsoft merger is not going to happen, Yahoo Go 3 is probably going to be your best bet for getting your Yahoo On for the foreseeable future.

Thanks to Amar for the tip!

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!

» Read the rest of "HTC Announces Touch Diamond"

Our sister site, CrackBerry.com, has just scored an exclusive first Review of the BlackBerry 9000. Kevin's doing it in several parts, this first part is just a hardware overview. Form-factor-wise, I'm shrugging my shoulders. Form factor + spec-wise, however, I'm thinking that even HTC's Magic Stuff today (more on that in just a bit) isn't going to win converts over from BlackBerry.

Why's that - because this 9000 has a front-facing QWERTY Keyboard combined with a 480x320 screen, GPS, WiFi, and Quad-Band GSM 3G. Sure, the OS is antiquated even with a pretty new skin on it, but slap Opera Mini on this thing and it's downright usable.

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!

» Read the rest of "Sprint Treo 800w Release Date (and more info)!"

Well 2 years into its release and customs ROMs are finally getting the work through for the aging 700wx. Better late than never, eh?

Thanks to Waffles (ppcgeeks), LLC23 (wmexperts) and Ebag333 (wmexperts), we now have a dedicated thread located here to discuss the project and most importantly, the inherit risks of re-flashing your device with a non-standard ROM.

Custom ROMs are nice as they allow users to not only replace unwanted stock carrier apps with their preferred ones, but it also enables the ability for pre-tweaking of the registry.

Plus there is that holy-grail for WM users: flashing with newer versions of Windows Mobile. This means the potential to put WM 6.x on the 700w/wx is only a matter of time, perseverance and assistance form ambitious WM users--so maybe you should pop in and lend a hand to make some history, hmmm?

So far the project is confirmed working on Sprint devices but Verizon and Alltel still need some experimenting. Ebag333 has even created a 700wx ROM-kitchen for easy implementation making the future of this project very promising for those who are not too comfortable with the whole process.

Keep up the great work guys! This will keep us busy till the 800w release ;-)