We know two things about HTC

1. They know how popular Sense 2.5 has become
2. They move pretty fast

We know this because a new build of Sense 2.5 (1922; last leak was 1921) officially supports landscape now.  Of course the excitement has lead to it being cooked into some GSM ROMs and it looks to be making its way to CDMA Touch Pro 2's in the next 24-48hrs.

So what does this mean?  Is HTC doing this for an eventual HD2 with a slider keyboard?  Or are they just doing the obvious: updating their UI for various future devices, including ones with slide-out QWERTYs?  We'll go with the latter for now as this seems like an obvious progression of the TouchFLO/Sense paradigm.

[via HTCPedia]

Here's a cool trick: if you want either a dual clock or just an analog clock, download this .cab at XDA by ancola66.

First disable your TouchFLO under Today --> Settings, install the .cab, restart device and then re-enable TouchFLO.

To toggle between the 3 screens (regular clock, analog-only or both), simply tap the area below the HTC Task Manager.

I'm running it on my own custom ROM (due out shortly, ahem) and it works very well. It definitely gives the today screen an elegant look.

Edit: One bug is that the analog clock shows "AM" when clearly it is PM. C'est la vie.

[via XDA]

Until now, if you wanted to run the latest builds of HTC's Manila (TouchFLO 3D), you needed to be running one of the newer generations of HTC phones, as in the Touch Diamond 2, Touch Pro 2, etc. But now Manila 2.5 has been ported to VGA resolution (480x640), and it's already being cooked into ROMs for the HTC Fuze (original Touch Pro). This is all still in early beta, so bugs are likely. But it's good news for those of you with VGA phones. XDA Developers via Mobility Digest

On top of building phones that continue to increase in sophistication, HTC also has continued to evolve its custom OS skin. We're all used to TouchFLO and TouchFLO3D on Windows Mobile. Android now has the Sense UI, and it's coming to WinMo on the HTC HD2. Above, a presentation from HTC that shows Sense in great detail, and hopefully what we can expect on more Windows phones in the future. [via Mobile Tech Addicts]

And speaking of Sense, be sure to check out Android Central's review of the HTC Hero and its implementation of Sense.

Oh, the HTC HD2 (aka the Leo) is the gift that keeps on giving. ROMs have been floating around for a while now, and Pocketnow's taken a new build of TouchFLO3D 2.5, ripped out of a Leo ROM, for a spin.

What's new in Build 1919? There's a Twitter tab, e-mails are much more readable without the old envelope-style view. The calendar app continues to improve. Weather and wallpaper are animated. The Footprints tab (remember that?) is around. Facebook and YouTube integration.

Anyhoo, check out the video yourself after the break. We still don't know what build (or version, for that matter) of TouchFLO 3D may be built into the first official releases we see Oct. 6 Super Duper Windows Mobile 6.5 launch day. But let's hope we see some of this included.

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No two ways around it: This is pretty darn cool. The cats at PPC Geeks have hacked the Orb service into TouchFlo 3D, which as you can see above gives you one-button access to streaming video straight through the standard UI.

Get the full run-down here, and step-by-step instructions here.

Via wmpoweruser

You gotta hand it to the cats at HTC: They can sure skin the heck out of Windows Mobile, and they're getting better with every build. We've already seen Manila 2.5 (aka the next generation of TouchFLO  3D). Now Manila 2.6 has been outed from the upcoming (but still unannounced) HTC Leo. And it's a beauty.

Gone are the drab white icons, instead completely replaced by the colorful images we've come to expect on Android devices. There are more bells and whistles for homescreen shortcuts, too. Expect to see this cooked into custom ROMs any day now, and let's hope we see it in an official release soon.

Peep Pocketnow's video of the build after the break.

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And you thought the Android kids were the favorite child of HTC now with that whole Sense thing. We couldn't tell you at the time, but HTC has been hard at work updating TouchFLO 3D. And quite an update it is. Our sources had told us that Manila 2.5 (Manila's the not-so-super-secret nerd name for TouchFLO, btw), basically takes the Windows Mobile out of Windows Mobile, and boy howdy does it ever.

You get a pretty good feel for it in the above video from German site handy-faq. [via pocketnow] Even the deepest settings don't appear to take you out of the TouchFLO 3D environment and kick you back into Windows Mobile. That's been one of our biggest gripes about TouchFLO in the past – it looks great at first, but you lose the experience of it pretty quickly. Well, no more. And although we don't see it in this video, we're also told that there may be some pretty massive Facebook integration to look forward to.

In the beginning of the video you hear mention of the Firestone, which we believe is the first device we'll see with Manila 2.5. (We've also heard the name Leo being thrown around, which may well be the Firestone's more official moniker from HTC, just as the Maple evolved into the Snap, Rhodium to Touch Pro 2, etc. Or it could be the other way around.)

Now that you're salivating ... Will we see Manila 2.5 on upcoming phones such as the Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2? Let's hope so. And if not, we'll remind you of three little letters.

X. D. A.

More screen shots of Manila 2.5 after the break, courtesy of Italian site UDK-lab.

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Kickin' it like it's 1991, Windows Mobile has teamed up with Naughty By Nature to release a NBN-themed HTC Touch Pro 2. In addition to giving away the phone, they're also offering up airfare and tix to a show in Los Angeles. More info on that here (pdf link), and find more at Facebook.com/windowsmobile.

And for more rap from the Windows Mobile crew ...

Here's a grilling an interview with a couple of HTC Europe execs from Polish smartphone site PDA.pl. [via] It can be a little painful to watch, for both sides, but the questions asked are reasonable:

• Where's the 3.5mm headphone jack?
• There's hardware for an FM radio, but why no software?
• Why aren't "older" phones getting the latest version of TouchFLO 3D?

We can live without an FM radio. This is 2009, after all. And getting custom ROMS with different software is no sweat on HTC phones. But we'll jump on board the 3.5mm headphone jack beat-down. Like it or not, that needs to be standard.

Update: Yep, looks like there are issues with the video. So, here are the answers -- highly paraphrased, of course. And, really, any answer works for any of the questions. Here goes:

1. Want a headphone jack? Use the crazy little adapter HTC provides. Or get a Touch HD.
2. Um, we'll look into it.
3. HTC has many great new phones.