It is with awe and envy when we see chief Windows phone manufacturer HTC take one of its devices and convert it for the competition.

And that seems to be the case here as the rarely talked about HTC Rome, now appropriately dubbed Touch.B, takes the stage for the first time. And guess that labeling on the back is here to stay? We're okay with that.

Not much is known about the specs, so nothing to get worked up over at this time. It certainly does look nice and we suppose it's not that different from the Eris (which to us trumps Motorola's DROID).  

Still, it is odd having Android running so closely with Windows phones these days. It's like our twin sibling ...an evil twin sibling plotting to kill us.

[UnwiredView via MobiFrance]

Just yesterday we were mentioning the latest leaked build of WM6.5, build 28004, which is branched off as WM6.5.3.

This is the latest in a series of builds by Microsoft that continues to make things more finger-friendly, that much is obvious. What is not obvious is where exactly this fits in with Microsoft's plan in regards to WM6.5 and WM7, and whether this ever see the light of day in an official capacity. (Even the much-heralded HTC HD2 is running older builds.)

Looks like the folks at MoPocket have, off the record, spoken to a Microsoft representative at a trade show, and they asked directly about what all of these builds were about.

In short, it is about the coming wave of capacitive devices. According to the rep, capacitive screens are much more responsive but far less accurate than resistive. (But you already knew that.) In turn, things need to be bigger to touch (and this is also why the iPhone does not have handwriting recognition). 

As a result ...

"Windows Mobile ... is a UI designed to be able to tap with nearly pixel accuracy. As it stands, the top bar and bottom bar of WM6.5 aren’t tall enough to be able to have clickable buttons without a resistive display."

And what about the HD2, you may ask? After all, it has a capacitive display.  Indeed and HTC had to do a lot of in-house work to make that happen, because it's not actually enabled by Microsoft in the OS. That's something we've asked about before on the podcast, and Microsoft is working to make it easier for the OEMs by building it into the OS.

So there you have it. WM6.5.x is real, but looks to be designed for next-generation capacitive displays and might well not be an upgrade for current WM6.5 devices. (Though it could well point to the availability of  more capacitive-display phones before the launch of Windows Mobile 7.) It also probably won't be called WM6.5.1 either, just another special variant for specific devices.

Read more mopocket 

That's right, folks. For a limited time only (we presume) you can get the HTC Touch Pro and Touch Diamond, as well as the Samsung Omnia, for the low, low price of $99. As you well know, all three of those phones are on their way out, so the discount isn't unexpected.

(The Samsung Saga is still at $199, btw, the SMT5800 is $99 the Ozone and Q9m are $49, and the original HTC Touch is $9.99.)

That all comes along with a 2-year contract. So if you don't mind signing away 730 days of your cellular life for phones that while good, aren't the latest and greatest, head on over to Verizon.

Thanks, Elliot, and everyone else who sent this in.

Well, that didn't take too long...

Just days after the succesful port of a very early release of WM6.5 on various GSM devices, Conflipper over at ppcgeeks has released a kitchen that opens the door for a ton of  CDMA devices (Touch, Diamond, Touch Pro, Mogul).

Now, be warned: this is pre-release, early build stuff for WM6.5, meaning a lot of "things" are broke--so your help is needed. 

Also, we should be on the lookout for a newer WM6.5 build around January 26th...so sit tight.

Having said that, here's what to expect...

Read on for the nitty-gritty details!

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Steven emailed us this morning:

It's HERE, it's HERE, it's HERE!!

Indeed it is, sir, the Verizon Touch Pro is live at Verizon's site for $420 with a 2 year contract and a $70 mail-in rebate, bringing the final price down to $350. We're still baffled (and we mean baffled) as to why it's different from the Sprint, Alltel, Bell, and Telus version of the Touch Pro, but who are we to argue against any device that offers:

• EVDO Rev A
• 640x480 Touchscreen
• 1340mAh battery
• TouchFlo 3D
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
• 3.2 mp Camera
• 512mb / 128 RAM

...Ok, we're going to hedge on that last bit, doesn't seem like quite enough for a TouchFlo 3D device. Then again, maybe that's why Verizon doesn't show it in their marketing image, above, eh?

Apologies for the two-post-in-a-row on the Verizon Touch Pro, but BGR's recent leak and some reports, conversations, and investigations here at WMExperts lead us to a disappointing conclusion: It's looking more and more likely that the Verizon Touch Pro could to be slower and less powerful than the Sprint Touch Pro.

We're going to go a little slowly here because we haven't seen the Verizon Touch Pro in person so we can't be definitive. What we'll do is build the case that the Verizon Touch Pro isn't identical to the Sprint version, which isn't the standard modus operandi for these sorts of things, then we'll get into the performance issues.

In other words, there's a lot to dig through here. Join us after the break.

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Looks like Verizon will join Sprint and AT&T in offering HTC's latest and greatest, the Touch Pro. Engadget Mobile snagged the internal document detailing a November 24th launch and December 1st store-availability. The price will be steep at $350 after all the mail-in rebates and a 2 year contract.

Phonenews has the launch date and price set the same. They're pegging the RAM (though they list it as ROM) at 192MB, which is the only difference we can see, spec-wise, from the Sprint model. It seems a little odd to us that HTC would make two different CDMA versions of the Touch Pro, but that's the latest info out there right now. The processor is not “crippled,” as we told you before, hopefully this 192mb spec will turn out to be false as well.

We're fairly certain that the Touch Pro on Verizon isn't hobbled, what we were waiting to hear was a release date. Engadget Mobile is speculating November 14th (that's three days after we praying the Fuze will hit).

They also have a GrainyCam video of the device, showing a few elements of TouchFlo 3D -- including what looks to be a newer landscape mode. Grab your dramamine as you go watch, because there's a definite blair witch feel to it, what with the creepy sped-up audio, bouncy camera, and even (spoiler alert) the last thing you see is some roommate off in the corner before the witch gets you from behind.

We brought you an early review of the Sprint Touch Pro last week, but we know you: what you really want are the pictures. Well here they are, in all their Pro glory, after the break.

We told you it was prettier then the Mogul.

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The Touch Pro for Sprint was originally scheduled to be released on Oct 19th, then delayed to Nov 2nd, and then bumped up to Oct 26th. With all this confusion we at WMExperts wanted to give you a full review of the Sprint Touch Pro with our first impression of the first 24 hrs of its (limited) release. We will then do a follow up review in about 3-4 weeks with an in-depth long term look at the Touch Pro, how it does on extensive road trips, what customizations we ended up adding to, what 3rd party software we felt are must haves, etc.

With a slew of new phones hitting the market so closely together, it can be challenging to decide which one is the best for you or which one lives up to its expectations, or which ones fall flat on its face. So for now, we are are going to dive into the Touch Pro and see if it is all that it has been hyped up to be. Is it worth $299 (which includes a $100 rebate and discount with a 2 year contract)? Did HTC cut any corners at the expense of the consumer (like with the RAM in the PPC-6800)? What new technologies and advancements did HTC throw in?

After playing with it and delving deep into the Touch Pro for the last 24 hours, I am in awe of some really cool new features, impressed with others, and have developed my wish list that would have made it a perfect phone. I believe that the few improvement wishes are greatly overshadowed by the positive features the Sprint Touch Pro has to offer. Read on to see all the details...

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