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We told you in April that Engadget had gotten wind of an HTC Snap variant heading to Verizon Wireless.  As is so often the case, the tech news site was pretty spot on, and today Verizon made it official.  Meet the HTC Ozone XV6175.

With a somewhat different look than its Sprint Snap and T-Mobile Dash 3G siblings, the HTC Ozone skips the trackball system navigation system in favor of a more traditional 5-way directional pad.  The QWERTY keyboard is also a bit different, but in most other ways, the Ozone is a Snap through and through.

Features include Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (non-touchscreen), a 528MHz CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, aGPS, 2MP camera, and microSDHC slot.  Although the Ozone is a CDMA phone, it also has a SIM card slot for use outside the U.S. on GSM/GPRS networks.

The HTC Ozone will be available from the Verizon Wireless online store beginning June 29, with in-store availability to follow in mid-July.  The price, with a two-year service agreement and $70 mail-in rebate will be $49.  Not bad.

Verizon Wireless Press Release

We’ve known it was coming for some time, but now we know when; the T-Mobile Dash 3G (a.k.a.HTC Maple 100, Snap, S522), the successor to the long-lived Dash, will be released in July.

Sprint has begun selling its version of the Dash 3G, the Sprint HTC Snap.

As the name suggests, the new Dash is 3G-ready with UMTS and HSDPA built in – this is something the original Dashed lacked.  However, T-Mobile has the smallest 3G deployment of any of the four major U.S. wireless carriers, so if you want the Dash 3G for the 3G part, you’d better check T-Mobile’s coverage maps before you get too excited.

Link: T-Mobile Dash 3G User Manual

Today was a busy one for the good folks at Samsung; they announced a new family of phones, including the upcoming Omnia II, a Windows Mobile touchscreen phone that’ll be sold by Verizon Wireless (at least) later this year.

We have most of the details on the Omnia II: 3.7” AMOLED touchscreen, up to 16GB of onboard flash memory, microSDHC card slot (good for another 32GB once the cards are available), aGPS, 480p (DVD quality) video shooting on a 5MP camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, aGPS… it’s loaded.

Availability is expected around September, but device delays are legendary.  We’ll keep you posted.

A CDMA version of the HTC Snap is coming to Sprint officially on June 21st, but those who want to get their hands on one sooner can grab one at Best Buy today.

The Sprint HTC Snap (S511) is a Messenger-class Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Smartphone (no touchscreen) with EV-DO Rev A., 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, a microSDHC memory card slot, and aGPS. 

This model replaces the Motorola Q 9c.

Sprint was originally planning to release the Snap on June 7, but pushed back the release in order to focus attention on the Palm Pre.

High-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi may soon be available on Windows Mobile Smartphones and other mobile devices thanks to Qualcomm’s new WCN1312 wireless chip.

“The new WCN1312 chip uses low-power 65nm CMOS technology and advanced power-management techniques to minimize sleep, standby and active power consumption. It is optimized for performance with Qualcomm’s complete Mobile Station Modem(TM) (MSM(TM)) solutions and supports a variety of mobile operating systems, including Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform(R), Android and Windows Mobile. The WCN1312 chip is the industry’s first mobile handset device to support both 1×1 and 1×2 dual-receive configurations to increase range and data throughput performance when needed. The WCN1312 solution also implements advanced coexistence architecture and algorithms to optimize performance when paired with Qualcomm’s Bluetooth(R) solutions.” [Source: PRNewsWire]

The WCN1312 will hopefully begin showing up in Windows Mobile, Android and other handsets in Q4 2009.

Engadget Mobile was gifted a long list of product slides representing most (if not all) of the Windows Mobile Smartphones AT&T will be offering throughout the second-half of 2009.  We’ve already told you about the iPAQ K3, so we wanted to fill you in on some of the other WinMo goodness AT&T will be carrying later in the year.

First, and foremost: the HTC Touch Pro2 and Touch Diamond2.  The leaked slides list these smartphones as the HTC Warhawk (Touch Diamond2) and the HTC Fortress T7377 / T7378 (Touch Pro2).  The Warhawk is listed as running Windows Mobile 6.5 at release, while the Fortress shows WM6.1.  The documents’ release dates are a bit suspect, but you can probably expect to see these Windows Phones around August or September.

Next, the LG HQ.  This is also listed as a Windows Mobile 6.1 handset.  It has no touchscreen, and features a love-it-or-hate-it SureType keyboard.  Other features include HSDPA, aGPS, a microSDHC card slot and a 2MP camera.

Last, but not least, the Samsung Pivot, a Messenger-class touchscreen Windows Mobile handset powered by WM6.1 (at least on release).  Features include a full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, HSDPA, a 3MP camera, microSDHC, 4GB of onboard flash storage and aGPS.  Release may be sometime around October.

We’ve added the slides for each product to the jump page.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time since we’ve had any rock-solid, exciting iPAQ news to bring you.  You can judge for yourself how exciting this is, but we think it’s pretty cool.

HP will release a new iPAQ smartphone later this year, the iPAQ K3 “Obsidian,” and unlike its most recent devices, the K3 will be sold directly by a U.S. wireless carrier: AT&T Mobility. 

The iPAQ K3 will also run Windows Mobile 6.5, which is due out later this year.  It has a flush QVGA touchscreen display, 512MB of onboard flash memory, a microSDHC memory card slot, onboard GPS, and Wi-Fi.  With the inclusion of Windows Mobile 6.5, there’s little need for a stylus, and HP has decided to leave one out.

No word yet on pricing, but according to the product slide obtained by Engadget (which is the source for all of our current K3 information), the iPAQ K3 will be released by AT&T in November.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is the latest addition to AT&T Mobility’s extensive smartphone line-up. 

Originally set to debut tomorrow, the Curve 8900 was posted today in AT&T’s online store.  The price: $199 with a two-year service agreement and a $100 mail-in rebate.

The Curve 8900 boasts Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and aGPS, but does not have HSDPA 3G mobile broadband connectivity.  Other features include a microSDHC memory card slot (for adding up to 16GB of storage), a 3.2MP digital camera, turn-by-turn navigation, a QWERTY keyboard, and a non-touchscreen display.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is now available for order the AT&T Mobility web site and should come to third-party retailers in the next couple of weeks.

HTC has received approval from the FCC to sell a version of the Touch Pro2 in the U.S. with both CDMA and GSM radios onboard, though its GSM will be locked down so that it will not work with U.S. carriers’ GSM networks (AT&T, T-Mobile).  Of course, this limits this particular model to Sprint and Verizon Wireless.

Inclusion of a GSM radio will allow this version of the HTC Touch Pro2 to work outside the U.S.; non-US wireless carriers are dominated by GSM-based networks.  

Versions of the  HTC Touch Pro2 are reportedly destined for release by Sprint (story), T-Mobile (story) and Verizon Wireless in the coming weeks/months.  Read more about the HTC Touch Pro2…

via Engadget Mobile

Late yesterday (and right on schedule), AT&T Mobility added the new Samsung Jack SGH-i637 Windows Mobile Smartphone to its online store.  The Jack is now available for order. 

The price is $99 after $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement.  This makes the Jack one of the least expensive Windows Mobile Smartphones at release; similar devices usually debut at $150, $199 or more, and then fall in price as the product ages and spreads to other retailers.

The Samsung Jack is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Smartphone, meaning that it does not have a touchscreen interface.  Reportedly, the Jack is also Windows Mobile 6.5 ready, meaning that an upgrade to WM6.5 can (and very likely will) be made available later this year when the new mobile OS is released.

AT&T will release the Samsung Jack, a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (non-touchscreen) Smartphone, on May 19th. The SGH-i637 Jack is a replacement for the current (and aging) BlackJack II.

The Samsung Jack is a feature packed handset: 528MHz CPU, 256MB of RAM, HSDPA mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, aGPS, and a 3MP digital camera.  With a new two-year service agreement, the Jack will set you back just $99. The best news is that the Jack is ready for a Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade when it becomes available later this year.

We’re big fans of Samsung’s Windows Mobile Smartphones here at Pocket PC Central; the BlackJack II, Epix and Saga all scored well in reviews.  So, as you might imagine, we are looking forward to taking the Jack for a spin.

Various tech news sites are reporting that LG has a new Windows Mobile Smartphone up its sleeve.  The GT810H (seen left) looks an awful lot like the current CT810 LG Incite sold by AT&T.

And the similarities aren’t just skin deep.  The GT810 and CT810 (Incite) each have a 200×400 3” touchscreen, a 3MP camera, microSDHC expansion, 256MB flash ROM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HSDPA network support, etc., etc.

In fact, it appears that, for all intents and purposes, the GT810 is the CT810, but perhaps simply destined for other shores than the U.S.

Here’s hoping that LG (a featured partner at the Windows Mobile 6.5 announcement earlier this year) has more than this clone up its sleeve for 2009.

Details are scant, but EngadgetMobile.com is reporting that a new HTC Messenger-class Windows Mobile smartphone is headed to Verizon Wireless. 

The HTC XV6175 is a sibling/cousin of the HTC Snap / S522, slated for T-Mobile sometime this summer.  We don’t know now similar these two devices will be, either in design or specs, but the two handsets will likely have a great deal in common.

The HTC S522 is rumored for a July 1 launch with T-Mobile – will Verizon beat them to the punch or lag woefully behind?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

HTC will soon launch a new Messenger-class Windows Mobile Smartphone called the HTC Snap. The Snap will also be sold in the U.S. beginning in the summer, but the unit’s American name is S522.

The HTC S522 is a non-touchscreen smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard.  Other features include onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and aGPS, 256MB of flash ROM, a 2MP camera and a microSDHC memory card slot.

No word on carriers or pricing, but we’re looking forward to this new Messenger from HTC.

We’re huge fans of Messenger-class smartphones — phones with a QWERTY keyboard, hardware controls and a display, all on the unit’s face.  Until recently, RIM focused exclusively on this design, and we believe this has been a huge part of the BlackBerry’s success.

HTC, the most productive member of the Windows Mobile partners’ club, on the other hand, has shied away from this design, releasing only the HTC Excalibur (T-Mobile Dash) in the U.S since 2006. 

But the Dash’s reign as the lone HTC Messenger smartphone may soon be over.

CNet Germany has posted photos of the HTC Maple, a new Windows Mobile messenger that features a spacious keyboard, a trackball and the Standard, non-touchscreen version of Windows Mobile.

Details on the HTC Maple are scarce, but we’ll keep you updated with new information as it is released.

via Engadget Mobile