So the good news here is that Best Buy's getting ready to open its arms to yet another HTC product that's impossible to find by wandering into the brick-and-mortar store of the US wireless carrier of your choice; the bad news, though, is that it doesn't seem to be the version we wanted. The Touch Diamond now has a Coming Soon page all its own on Best Buy's site, which is just fantastic considering that neither AT&T nor T-Mobile have yet bothered to pick it up -- but the problem is that the specifications make no mention of US 3G despite the fact that we know there's just such a version floating around. Our hope is that we've just caught the big box with its pants down (wouldn't be the first time) and they'll look into carrying the real deal by the time "coming soon" switches to "in stock," especially since they've given the Touch Dual the same courtesy.

[Thanks, Mark]

We've heard Microsoft make vague references for some time about a Zune-like experience involving non-Zune devices (Windows Mobile phones, Xboxen), and it looks like they may be making real moves in that direction. A recent job posting from Redmond for a "Software Development Engineer in Test" calls on someone who "dream[s] about having a mobile phone based entertainment experience powered by a unified entertainment service across devices such as Zune, Xbox and PC." Someone, the ad reads, who will, "create a 'Connected Entertainment' experience, realized through the Zune service, that spans multiple devices such as Zune, Xbox, PC and Mobile phones." Sure, it's not exactly a bold-faced advertisement for a cross-platform Zune environment -- but it's pretty damn close.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Before a single AT&T-subscribing soul dreams of jumping ship for Sprint just to pick up the Touch Pro in a few weeks, hold up: we can pretty much confirm that it's coming to your neck of the woods, too. We've already seen some totally legit-looking shots of HTC's hottest QWERTY WinMo piece in AT&T trim, but now we have some more damning evidence in the form of a Google cached page detailing the so-called Fuze on the carrier's own site. As expected, we've got tri-band HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, and BlackBerry Connect waiting for us when AT&T finally decides to pull the plug on the Tilt and make this thing happen. Follow the break for AT&T's poetic Fuze verbiage -- and take your time, since there's no indication that we'll have this in stores in the next few days.

[Thanks, Fred]

Now that Uncle Walt has gone and opened the floodgates, details are starting to pour in on Sprint's imminent release of the Touch Diamond, a device that should actually manage to get the carrier damn close to the top of the Windows Mobile pile (for a short while, anyway). PC Magazine is now reporting that it'll be available on September 14 for $249.99 on a two-year contract after $100 rebate, a sum that would put it squarely in the "average" category for on-contract smartphone pricing in these parts. Of course, with the Touch Pro allegedly just around the corner, it remains to be seen just how much love this thing is going to get; nothing like a good, old-fashioned QWERTY-versus-touchscreen fight, is there?

There's a "Motorola Q11" chilling in the Bluetooth SIG's product directory, and while the SIG is famously tight-lipped about revealing gory details about its members' unreleased wares, we see that it's a "Phone, Handheld" running Windows Mobile 6.1 Smartphone. Then again, given the name and the Q series' storied history, we probably could've gathered that -- and we can probably also count on it having something to do with that Alexander we saw not long ago. Only question is, is the Alexander really two whole numbers in the integer line better than the Q9? Time'll tell.

[Via Cellpassion]

While Apple's App Store was far from being the first of its kind, we're now seeing a job posting over in the Redmond area that suggests that Microsoft is looking to produce something similar for its Windows Mobile platform. The news comes hot on the heels of Google's own Android Market announcement, and if the Product Manager position writeup is to be believed, said platform will be christened Skymarket. Described as a "marketplace service for Windows Mobile," Skymarket could seemingly be a critical part of WinMo 7. But don't take our word for it, the proof is the pudding -- or in the read link, in this instance.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Everything prior had been rumors, hearsay, speculation, and leaked documents -- but now that Sprint has something out in the open, it's going to be a whole hell of a lot more difficult to renege on that September time frame we'd all been pulling for. The carrier and partner Bluefish have thrown up a site taking names and email addresses to be notified when the Touch Diamond is available for purchase; no exact date is given (we wouldn't be surprised if Sprint still hadn't decided on that), but they do mention that it's "coming in September." That gives 'em a full 30 days to make good -- but if it just happened to roll out on September 2 like we'd originally heard, we don't think we'll be seeing too many complaints around here.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC is keeping the S740 under wraps at IFA, but the crafty folks at newmobile managed to score some time with the new QWERTY slider, and it looks pretty decent. Thinner than the Touch Pro, the keyboard is basically the same, with the same sort of stealth-look backplate as the Diamond. No motion sensor, so the display only rotates when the slide is open, but that's really all we know -- the unit wasn't running a production-ready version of Windows Mobile, so impressions are a little up in the air. Hit the read link for more shots.

[Via Coolsmartphone]

With the dull roar of frenzied anticipation (okay, that might be over the top, but you know what we mean) surrounding the launch of the Touch Diamond in all its variants around the globe, why would HTC take a step back in time to get one of its older models approved in a new flavor? Don't get us wrong -- for its day, the Touch Cruise was one of the hottest Windows Mobile devices going -- but the Touch Diamond has seriously muted an overwhelming majority of the WinMo kit out there, including much of HTC's older lineup. Put head to head, the VGA display and TouchFLO 3D alone are enough to make sure the newer handset spanks the Polaris, but for whatever reason, Mr. Chou and his gang saw fit to repurpose it with HSDPA 850 / 1900 and send it through an FCC lab. We're not sure whether this will end up on a carrier anywhere, but with the front-facing cam, we'd probably rule out AT&T off the bat.

Update: Touche, there's a Touch Cruise already in circulation with 850 / 1900 3G -- but the question remains, why was this just approved? Thanks, everybody!

Announced all the way back at MWC in February, the glofiish X610 and V900 are finally nearing release -- or so E-TEN claims, anyway. Though the X610's spec sheet isn't going to get any motors running, it's a pretty sharp-looking entry level WinMo 6.1 Professional device that should find its way into a few pockets where 3G isn't needed. More interesting of the pair is the V900 (pictured), a multitalented mobile boob tube that can handle DVB-H, DVB-T, T-DMB, and DAB broadcasts in one convenient package -- and a VGA display certainly doesn't hurt its case, either. So far, the launches on these two are pegged simply as "soon," so keep an eye on the shop of your choice.

It's still anybody's guess when the Touch Diamond will actually launch on Sprint, though the latest rumors suggest that it has once again been moved up to September 2 after initially being pushed back to October. The fact that promo materials are starting to show up would certainly support that theory, too, now wouldn't it?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Don't worry, you throng of dual-band Samsung smartphone fanboys and girls out there -- Verizon hasn't forgotten about you. It's been a little while since we've heard anything about the i770, but a new slide shows that Big Red's positioning it (or trying to, anyway) for Q3 availability, which just happens to be the very quarter that we're currently in. It features GPS, quadband GSM (which is strange -- typically Verizon's dual-band devices only do GSM on non-North American bands), WiFi, a 2-megapixel camera, EV-DO, and possibly biometric security, though that particular feature is currently marked down as "tbd." Next up in the global stable is the u810, a stylish clamshell with a microSD slot, 2-megapixel cam, and not bloody much else -- not really a great choice for the globetrotting businessperson, so Verizon might have the frequent pleasure traveler in mind here.

[Thanks, HTC Kid]

It leaked ages ago, but the Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade for your beloved Tilt is now ever so slightly more legit now that it's made an official appearance on HTC's support site. The big draws here are Video Share support, reconfigurability for the push-to-talk button, and all the other spoils that come with the WinMo 6.1 we know and love, tolerate, or hate, depending on your disposition.

[Via MobileBurn and WMExperts, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Looking for the Touch Pro in a slightly less conspicuous package? HTC (who else?) thinks it has the answer in the S740, the first thorough revamp of the S710 of old. The basic concept is the same -- wrap Windows Mobile Standard into a candybar package with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard -- but the S740 takes design cues from the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro for a thoroughly 2008-ish look. The feature list has naturally been refreshed, too, with 7.2Mbps HSDPA on the 900 and 2100MHz bands (read: screw you, North Americans), quadband EDGE, a 3.2-megapixel fixed focus cam, WiFi, GPS, and a 2.4-inch QVGA display. And, you know, if all that isn't enough to impress your snobby friends, just slide open that keyboard, say "boom," and watch the jaws drop. Look for it to filter across Europe starting next month.

If you're looking for pictures from every conceivable angle of Sony Ericsson's first foray into the danger-fraught tar pit that is Windows Mobile, well, here you go. In fact, Smape goes so far as to take a look at both the black and metallic versions of the X1 (but don't get to attached to the metallic one just yet, seeing how it might have gotten the axe in some markets), noting that they're assembled exceptionally well and exude a premium look that's rarely seen in the WinMo realm. Unfortunately, they've dinged the keyboard for the same crappy feel observed elsewhere, something we're all hoping gets fixed by the time it hits production in a couple months' time. With that wild panel interface, you might expect some pretty miserable performance when you have the thing going at full tilt; fortunately, though, Smape reports that lags occur "only occasionally," which is better than "frequently" or "always" as far as we're concerned. Camera performance is said to be better than the Touch Pro's, though both HTC and Sony Ericsson (via HTC, ironically) still have plenty of time to tweak that via a well-placed firmware update or two. At any rate, we're definitely looking forward to seeing this thing finally materialize so the Touch Pros and X1s of the world can start duking it out in those rough, dog-eat-dog professional trenches of the world.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]