Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced an agreement to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on BlackBerry smartphones. As a result of this collaboration, BlackBerry smartphone customers will enjoy easy mobile access to Windows Live Messenger and an enhanced level of integration between Windows Live Hotmail and the BlackBerry platform. The integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry platform will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on their BlackBerry smartphone to benefit from the BlackBerry platform architecture.

While I was in Seattle just last month for the annual Microsoft MVP Global Summit, I'm already packing my bags to fly to Seattle again, this time for this year's Möbius conference which I'm happy to be invited again. I will leave tomorrow morning but these kind of events need some advanced preparation anyway because I have to think about which equipment I will carry. Should I travel light with just my HTC Shift and my Sanyo Xacti or should I travel full featured with my Fujitsu Siemens Tablet PC and my Nikon D80? In any case, I will carry some Windows Mobile smartphones while I will leave my Apple AirPort Express at home because the hotel, downtown Seattle has its own WiFi anyway.

Born from a unique heritage of innovation and a deep desire to blend design with simplicity, HTC Corp., a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its new flagship phone, the HTC Touch Diamond. Delivering unmistakable style and meticulous craftsmanship the HTC Touch Diamond is defined by its compact size, game-changing Internet and its new captivating 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. The result is an uncompromising mobile phone that sets a new benchmark for phone sophistication and shapes consumer expectations for how a phone can be used.

Together with today's launch of the HTC Touch Diamond, I also had the chance to get my hands on a brand new, also just announced, German O2 Xda diamond which is the same device like HTC's Diamond but in a slightly different design.
However, it follows the same design principals by being thin and squarish but unlike HTC's Diamond version, the Xda diamond has a flat "soft-touch" battery cover.
Everything else is pretty much the same - including the black mirroring front plate and display bezel as well as the touch sensitive D-Pad.

Together with today's HTC Touch Diamond announcement, HTC also announced a new version of its HTC TouchFLO UI - previously codenamed as "Manila UI" and now called TouchFLO 3D - which follows the first TouchFLO UI which was initially introduced last year with the launch of the HTC Touch. Like last year, we already had some quality time with HTC's latest GUI development which we tested on a preproduction unit of O2 Germany's upcoming O2 Xda diamond. Unlike the first TouchFLO, TouchFLO 3D is now part of the Windows Mobile Today screen or better - it completely replaced Microsoft's Windows Mobile Today screen.