For those of you on Sprint with a Touch Pro 2 who haven't gone the custom ROM route, the Windows Mobile 6.5 update -- at long last! -- is finally here.

The official rundown of features is:

• Upgraded OS to Windows Mobile 6.5
• Added HTC Sense UI enhancements
• Improved Social Networking integration
• Includes a variety of minor bug fixes

Our big question: Are we talking Sense 2.5 (as in the HD2 ROM) or what?

As usual when flashing ROMs, be sure to have a battery charge of over 50 percent, and be sure to read all of the instructions. Then report back what you find! [HTC | Download link ] Thanks, Joe!

Need more proof that the Sprint Touch Pro 2 is finally getting the official Windows Mobile 6.5 update on Friday? Look no further than the official Sprint playbook itself.

And so you can go ahead and torture their servers, bookmark Sprint.com/downloads and htc.com/www/support_select_product.aspx and get your F5 on. Thanks, 99accordv6!

For all of you who have kept on us about the Sprint Touch Pro 2 Windows Mobile 6.5 update, well, good on ya. We now may finally (FINALLY!) have an answer, courtesy of a post at ppcgeeks. What you see above purportedly is an internal Sprint memo that points to March 19 as the day of days. "Sense UI enhancements" are mentioned, but it's still anybody's guess as to whether we're talking Sense 2.5 or what. So stay tuned, folks. [ppcgeeks]

All but confirming what we've been telling you for what seems like forever, a  "Sprint Small Business Catalog" mailer posted at PPCGeeks shows the Touch Pro 2 "software update coming in March." Seeing as how we're about a third of the way through the month, we should be seeing it any time now. Or not. We're not going to count our chickens on this thing until the update's in hand.

And the question remains: Will we see Sense 2.5, like on the HTC HD2? Or just the regular flavor? [PPCGeeks]

While AT&T and Microsoft had positive earnings reports last month, Sprint joins Verizon in having "not-so-great" news with their latest earnings report. While Sprint has had eight consecutive quarters of improvement in customer care satisfaction and first call resolution, the company continues to record losses in customers and net operating revenue.

Customer losses for the 4th Quarter included 69,000 retail customers, 148,000 net wireless customers and 540,000 post-paid customers. This is up from the losses last quarter where Sprint reported losses of 135,000 retail customers, 545,000 net wireless customers and 801,000 post paid customers. Sprint did see it's first gain in CDMA subscribers in six quarters, gaining 3,000 post-paid customers.

While Sprint's subscriber losses seem to be stabilizing, their revenue losses seem to be increasing. Sprint reported a consolidated net operating revenue of $7.9 billion, a net loss of $980 million (up from a $478 million loss last quarter). Sprint does report a free cash flow of $666 million, the highest in company history.

Sprint notes in the report that they are continuing to build on their 4G network. The 4G service is currently available in 27 markets, serving 30 million customers people.  Sprint hopes to expand that to additional markets building the coverage to 120 million people by the end of 2010.  With the Virgin Mobile merger complete, a handful of new phones heading to market and an increase in 4G coverage, Sprint may be able to turn things around in 2010.

via: mobile.engadget.com

Well, it was leaked yesterday and HTC briefly had it up, then pulled it, leaving us in a tizzy.

Evidently though, today is the day to grab the "official" fix for the dreaded future-SMS bug, whereby SMS messages were coming dated from the year 2016, coinciding with the New Year (see our epic earlier coverage for full context).

This fix updates rilphone.dll, which is the key component that interacts with Sprint's SMS server.  In that sense, it is different from the "ziggy" patch, which simply enabled a function that time-dated received messages using your device's clock.

If you are happy with the current "ziggy" patch, there is no immediate necessity to download this patch.  Then again, some prefer to have their SMS messages dated by the server, not their device, so this update makes sense.

What about Verizon, U.S. Cellular and others? No word yet, but we'll keep an eye out.  Also, no word on the Sprint Snap either.

Get the updates here:

Touch Pro 2

Touch Pro

Touch Diamond

[Thanks to all who sent this in]

If you're the kind of person who just has to wait for official fixes to come out, well, fine. We understand. And official fixes are starting to trickle out for the 2016 SMS bug that we helped bring to light.

HTC has hotfixes for the Sprint Touch Diamond and Touch Pro that in all liklihood do the exact same thing our workaround does. But if you need the HTC stamp of approval, well, here you go.

Edit: The links to the CAB files are being squirrley, so just use the ones above.

Edit 2: Odd. Now the HTC pages are borked. Hang in there, guys.

So you're sitting back, enjoying your the new Windows phone you received over the holidays. Downloading apps, emails, and sending text messages to your hearts content on that "unlimited" data plan? Did you know that there may be a restriction on your "unlimited" plan? Restrictions, if violated, could result in your service being terminated?

We checked the fine print with the four major carriers in the U.S. market and found some interesting language as it relates to unlimited packages. Language that many may not be aware of and we felt it important to pass it on. A public service announcement of sorts. Ease on past the break to see what limits are in place.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now let's try to wrap our minds around this one ... Sprint is going to be announcing a Windows Phone that makes use of WiMax, which is the technology behind Sprint’s 4G network. The logic behind this theory is that Sprint has an event scheduled for January 6 with announcements by Dan Hesse (Sprint’s CEO) and Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO). Also, Sprint and LG have been sending out invitations to an event scheduled for the following evening; giving possible insight into the identity of the device manufacturer. InformationWeek points out that the January 7 event is being hosted by Brooke Shields, and states that a celebrity of that magnitude isn’t brought in for a small announcement.

To this point, we haven’t seen ANY WiMax-capable smartphones hit the market. We’ve seen rumors every now and again, but nothing solid. If Microsoft could be the first to market with this technology, even over Palm and its current exclusivity with Sprint, this could be a major coup for Microsoft.

[InformationWeek via Boy Genius Report]

So awhile ago I picked up a nifty car mount for my Touch Pro 2 (on eBay) and lo and behold it has a cut out for the camera. It also swivels, so it is actually easy to get an almost completely clear visual path with the lens.

In short, this is how a Touch Pro 2 works as a in-dash video camera. On top of filming yourself driving through a blizzard, we suppose it's also good if you are in an accident or want to record some yahoo driving erratically.

And if you think I drive fast, I'm from New England and live New York ... that's how I roll.

Either way, it's kind of fun.