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It seems AT&T is moving forward to launch the HTC Touch Pro. While the details we have are kinda sketchy at the moment — release date and pricing are unknown — we do know the mobile operator will market the device as “Fuze.”

Specs should remain unchanged, though, and include tri-band HSDPA (with U.S. 3G frequencies), WiFi, GPS, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry Connect support, and a whole lot more.

We’ll be keeping our eyes and ears on the street, and get back to you as soon as we have more to report on the subject. Stay tuned, in the meantime.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

If you’re the proud owner of a new Palm Treo 800w, then you might be feeling a bit let down at this point. Aside from the fact that the Palm Treo Pro has just surfaced as the latest must-have Palm Treo smartphone, Palm has acknowledged problems with the software controlling the Palm Treo 800w’s USB port and battery.

The Palm Treo 800w apparently didn’t like recognizing certain USB devices, and had some problems charging a completely dead and drained battery. Both issues have been recognized by Palm and fixes are now available in the new Palm Treo 800w software update.

If your Palm Treo 800w is sitting dead on your desk with a completely drained battery, unable to start charging through the wall-charger, you’ll want to “trickle charge” the Palm Treo 800w battery by connecting it via USB cable to your computer. The USB port on your computer should start charging your Palm Treo 800w, and once the battery hits 25%, you’re good to start the software update.

Even better is news that the software update can be both downloaded and applied through your computer or simply applied as an OTA (over-the-air) update. You can find the software update download link here. To update your Palm Treo 800w over the air, simply point your 800w’s IE browser to palm.com/800wusbota and follow the onscreen instructions.

With this latest software update and our previous hack that should open up faster upload data speeds, your Palm Treo 800w should be humming along quite nicely.

Palm

The Nokia N96 has been highly anticipated as the Nokia N95 successor and new heir to the Nseries throne. With that sexy, glossy-black finish, under-lit keys, mobile TV, and fantastic optics, the Nokia N96 is the new king-of-the-ring when it comes to Espoos Nseries lineup.

We’ve already seen the Nokia N96 from all angles and subjective perspectives. For some, the addition of mobile TV and a refreshed design aesthetic isn’t enough to justify the jump from the Nokia N95. For others, the sleek new look combined with the improved build-quality and more precise sliding mechanism is enough to upgrade to the Nokia N96.

But, that doesn’t mean we can’t stand to see more Nokia N96 reviews. AllAboutSymbian has posted an “first impressions” review of the Nokia N96 that lauds the newly-minted Nseries flagship as having good build quality (as I mentioned from my hands-on time with the N96), solid slide mechanism, and affinity for fingerprints.

The camera shutter button was noted as being a bit stiff, although that’s more likely a personal perspective. I found the pre-production unit to have a well-balanced shutter button.

And, as expected from the Carl Zeiss optics used in the Nokia N96’s camera, the picture quality is top-notch (as you can see from the sample picture to the left).

Head on over to AllAboutSymbian for the down-low.

[Via: AllAboutSymbian]

T-Mobile had a consumer-hit on their hands with the consumer-friendly T-Mobile Shadow smartphone. Taking HTC’s wares and re-branding it as the T-Mobile Shadow was a good idea and it looks like T-Mobile is making good on their promise to continue on with the Shadow lineup of consumer-friendly smartphones.

The T-Mobile Shadow II (2) has been floating around of late, with various spy pics and details leaking out on to the various interwebs. It was only a matter of time before definitive pricing and availability information was released.

The T-Mobile Shadow II will apparently launch on T-Mobile (naturally) on October 15 with a $149.99 price tag (after rebate and new contract, of course). The release date falls nicely in line with our Q4 2008 launch expectations.

The T-Mobile Shadow successor is set to hit the scene with Windows Mobile 6.1 in tow, and should make quick work of web surfing or VoIP calling with integrated WiFi. The inclusion of WiFi also means the T-Mobile Shadow II will be getting down with the carrier’s T-Mobile HotSpot @Home UMA service for those times when you just don’t want to use wireless minutes to make a call from your home.

The T-Mobile Shadow II is, just like its predecessor, based on hardware from HTC. This time around, T-Mobile has taken the HTC Cleopatra and re-branded the handset as the T-Mobile Shadow II.

What’s not clear is whether or not the T-Mobile Shadow II will support T-Mobile’s nascent 3G network on the 1700Mhz AWS band. T-Mobile, for some reason, isn’t all that forthcoming about which of their new handsets will be compatible with the up-and-coming 1700Mhz 3G network. The carrier has previously failed to mention 3G compatibility on upcoming handsets like the Sony Ericsson TM506 Bella, only to turn around later and admit that the handset was 1700Mhz 3G-compatible all along. So, the T-Mobile Shadow II will likely be a 3G T-Mobile handset, but we’ll stop short of declaring it so.

[Via: TmoNews]

We’ve already wrote about it, but now we have yet another proof and a more concrete details to report about the upcoming HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint.

Arguably the single coolest looking Windows Mobile smartphone will be hitting Sprint’s offering in 10 days. According to PC Magazine, we’re talking about September 14th here when both existing and potential Sprint customers will be able to grab the all-touchscreen device for $249.99 on a two-year contract and after a $100 rebate. That’s kinda steep when you consider the iPhone 3G could be yours for $199, but then again, you won’t have to sign-up for iPhone-like expensive plan. Or that’s my take, at least. We’re eagerly counting the last days before the Touch.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

While the rest of the wireless world scurries about, trying to one-up the competition’s network reliability claims with all manner of advertisements, Telstra’s concentrating on recognizing high-performing handsets on their own network. Telstra’s “Blue Tick” award is given to handsets on its network that have proven themselves as signal strength monsters. When most of the country you’re serving is comprised of harsh, desolate bad-lands, it makes sense to give praise to handsets that can lock on to weak wireless signals better than the average cellphone.

The latest handset to win Telstra’s “Blue Tick” nod of approval is the Palm Treo Pro. Apparently, the Windows Mobile-powered smartphone isn’t just good for tapping out emails and editing documents, it’s good for making calls in the Australian outback too! The Telstra Palm Treo Pro has become the “first smartphone on the Next G™ network to be accredited with Telstra’s Blue Tick of approval showing that it is recommended for handheld use in metro, rural and regional areas.”

The Palm Treo Pro is slated to go on sale for free on qualifying service contracts come mid-September. Rural Telstra customer and business users willprobably want to at least consider the Palm Treo Pro as their cellular-signal hunting handset of choice.

Press release

Spore hit the Apple Keynote stage all those months ago to show iPhone 3G hopefuls what kind of gaming experience to expect on the iPhone 3G and iPhones running the iPhone 2.0 OS. Spore Origins, alongside Sega’s Super Monkey Ball, promised to usher the iPhone and iPhone 3G into the world of mobile gaming.

Unfortunately, the initial release of the Spore Origins game was only compatible with the iPod. More unfortunate is the fact that Spore Origins doesn’t offer character transfer or online play. Spore Origins will essentially spin-off of the Spore game title, offering little more amusement than guiding your Spore creature  through a primordial soup filled with smaller-than-you food creatures and larger-than-you predators. The goal will be to feed on smaller creatures while running away from larger predators.

Spore Origins is expected to launch on the AppStore later this week for $5. Were the game more integrated in to the Spore parent-game, Spore Origins would have a larger potential audience. As it stands, we’ll have to wait and see how the game fares against the competition.

[Via: TUAW]

Leave it to Google to take on industry incumbents with the goal of completely redefining the user experience. Google’s latest project, Chrome, is a web browser based on Apple’s open-source rendering engine Webkit. As a new web browser designed from the ground up to put the user experience in line with advanced features, Google’s Chrome is set to light up the web browser-stage.

But, let’s not forget Google’s other major project, the Android mobile OS. It stands to reason that Google would inject their Google Chrome genes in to the Android platform in the form of a Chrome-based mobile web browser. According to Sergey Brin, “Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack… My guess is we’ll have ‘Chrome-like’ or something similar.”

The eventual integration of Google Chrome into Google Android could set the stage for truly portable, cross-platform applications. Applications developed using Google’s App Engine could be ported to both the desktop and mobile versions of Google Chrome out-of-the-box. Rather than spend time and money to port software to the mobile side of life, developers will likely be able to code once and see their applications running smoothly on the both desktop and mobile fronts. Now that’s cool.

[Via: CNET]

There’s no slowing down the iPhone and the AppStore. As popularity for the Apple smartphone and its integrated AppStore continue to grow, companies and musicians alike are looking to new ways to market themselves with an iPhone-twist.

The latest group to take advantage of the iPhone and AppStore’s popularity is the Irish band Snow Patrol. According to Music Week, the band will be releasing an “interactive album,” complete with music, lyrics, album art, and videos via an iPhone application.

“It will be an interactive element; a digital booklet that will take you into the videos and content,” says Polydor product manager Liz Goodwin. “For fans it will be a real must-have, and the fact that they are the first band to do this gives us an additional angle for exposure.”

Snow Patrol is the first band to release such an interactive album that caters specifically to the iPhone market-base, and could pave the way for new interactive albums released as iPhone apps. Could we be poised to see immersed and content-filled albums hitting the AppStore? Let’s hope so.

[Via: MusicWeek]

Talk about a lame excuse. Apple, long known as the tech-company that does whatever it feels like doing, has rejected an up-and-coming iPhone application on grounds that it provides “limited utility.”

Granted, the iPhone application, Pull My Finger, does little more than generate a “fart” sound, Apple’s rejection of the application is a disturbing move. The precedent for Apple to reject future iPhone applications that it just doesn’t like has been set.

Victor Wang, Pull My Finger’s developer, posted Apple’s rejection letter for all to see:

“Hello Developer,

We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.

It may be very appropriate to share with friends and family, and we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing.

Regards,

Victor Wang
Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple, Inc.”

Interestingly, other applications with likewise “limited utility” have been published through the iPhone AppStore. Koi Pond, for example, doesn’t provide much utility for the user, but has hit the top of the AppStore’s sales-charts in recent weeks.

So, what other applications will Apple reject on grounds that it’s just not worthy (read: in line with Apple’s taste) of the AppStore?

[Via: MacRumors]