And another one also just in time. According to Jason Langridge, HTC also released the previously promised HTC X7500 Advantage Windows Mobile 6 Professional ROM upgrade.
While there is no word about it on HTC's website yet, it appears in the list of available "Phone Software Updates.".
As with the previous Windows Mobile ROM upgrades, also this download requires that you have created a HTC e-Club account and assigned the serial number of your HTC Advantage to your e-Club account.

And the next one; just in time to hit the August time-frame, HTC recently released the promised Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade for the HTC S620 (aka HTC Excalibur).
And - even more interesting - it looks like HTC has started now to roll-out Yahoo! Go, as announced earlier this year. At least there is a teaser on HTC's front-page which mentions that Yahoo! Go is part of the new S620 Windows Mobile 6 ROM.
As always, you have to be a registered user of HTC's e-Club and you have to have added your serial number to your e-Club account to get access to the download.

Late last month I wrote about the first availability of the long awaited and expected Windows Mobile 6 upgrades for the Samsung SGH-i600 and while initially a Russian and Dutch upgrade was available only, later on Samsung also released the Scandinavian ROM upgrades as well as added some more countries. So far so good, even if the (for me important) German und UK upgrades weren't available so far, at least they was announced (as a greyed-out flag with the notice that the country prepares for the upgrade).

Hot on the heels but not from the IFA, we've received some trustworthy information that O2 Germany, which has skipped the HTC TyTN II, will launch the Asian O2 Xda Atom Life as Xda comet instead. While the Xda Atom Life isn't that brand new anymore, it's expected that O2 Germany will launch it's version with Windows Mobile 6 Professional right out of the box instead of the original Windows Mobile 5 for Pocket PC Phone Edition.
The Xda comet features triband (900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband (1900/2100 MHz) UMTS/HSDPA up to 3.6 Mbps. Furthermore, Bluetooth 1.2 and WiFi b/g are part of the specs:

According to a Reuters report, Research in Motion (RIM), you know - the maker of BlackBerry devices, shares rose more than 3 percent on Thursday on renewed market speculation that Microsoft Corp could be interested in buying the BlackBerry maker.
According to speculation, Microsoft might be interested in RIM in response to Google's recent announcement that it is interested in making its own mobile phone operating system, which would compete with Windows Mobile.

Following i-mate's idea to provide its customers a hosted E-Mail solution, HTC announced HTCmail with the introduction of the HTC TyTN II.
HTCmail is a fully hosted, secure, and managed E-Mail service based on Microsoft Hosted Exchange. HTCmail will bring the benefits of always-connected business to mobile professionals. The HTC offering provides seamless and real-time access to up to five different E-Mail accounts, either personal or work mailboxes, aggregated and instantly delivered to a mobile device through Outlook 2007. Features include E-Mail, contacts and calendar, enabling users to easily access information and communications while on the go.

Today, during its IFA press conference in Berlin, Samsung Germany officially announced the previously unveiled SGH-i620 Windows Mobile 6 Standard HSDPA smartphone.
Featuring a slide-out QWERTY (for Germany QWERTZ) keyboard, the i620 is a kind of updated version of the Samsung SGH-i600. Like the i600, the i620 features triband (900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE and singleband (2100 MHz) UMTS/HSDPA and Bluetooth 2.0. However, it's now confirmed that the i620 hasn't has WiFi built-in.

As expected, today during its IFA press conference, LG officially unveiled the LG KS20, LG's brand now Prada look-alike Windows Mobile 6 Professional HSDPA smartphone with a large color touchscreen. Its super-fast network access capabilities and intuitive touch input technology combine to enrich the mobile internet experience for users. It features full internet browsing capabilities and downloads everything from music and video clips to push E-Mail at speed of 3.6 Mbps through HSDPA. It also allows for advanced features like videoconferencing, taking advantage of the phone's dual cameras.

In addition to the FOMA HT1100, today NTT DoCoMo, Inc. also announced the release of the FOMA F1100, a Windows Mobile 6 Standard Smartphone, manufactured by Japanese Fujitsu (not Fujitsu Siemens).
The FOMA F1100, a slider smartphone, features a standard ten-key input layout as well as HSDPA (but not GSM) as well as Bluetooth and WiFi a/b/g. Furthermore it includes a 1.3 megapixel camera (only). The FOMA F1100, developed with business users in mind, can access both FOMA and wireless LAN networks for IP telephony:

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today the release of the FOMA HT1100 and confirmed the existence of HTC's Nike Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone, the 3G version of the HTC Touch with additional slide-out keyboard.
Featuring quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and UMTS/HSDAP as well Bluetooth (WiFi isn't mentioned), the FOMA HT1100 sports a 2 megapixel camera on the back and a video telephony camera on the front. The display is the same as known from the HTC Touch and supports QVGA with 65k colors:

Following Palms earlier announcement to release a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for 3 Australia Treo 750 users, today Palm also released its Windows Mobile 6 upgrade in Europe - at the moment for the Vodafone Treo 750v only and available right from now for UK, Irish and Dutch users. The generic, non branded Treo 750 upgrade for the rest of Europe is expected to be released during September but hey, that's at least a start!
Beside all the joy Windows Mobile 6 Professional includes, the update also includes the long time awaited HSPDA upgrade!

With the latest rendering we was nearly right, except the fact that LG's new Windows Mobile smartphone also features a kind of joystick navigation but seems to have QVGA resolution only (unfortunately). Korean website Aving now published some official information of the LG KS20 which is LG's long time rumored Windows Mobile smartphone. Featuring Windows Mobile 6 as well as UMTS and HSDPA (up to 3.6 Mbps), the device is 12.8 mm thick only and sports a 2.8" touch screen display with full browsing capability.

The Boy Genius Report got its hands on some information regarding a Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone from Pantech. According these information (which are proved by two spy-shots The Boy Genius got its hands on as well), the Pantech C810 features a "Helio Ocean"-like dual-sliding mechanism which seems to include a 12 key numeric keypad as well as a full QWERTY keyboard (kind of a mix between a HTC Vox and a standard slider smartphone). The Boy Genius Report isn't yet clear if it is a UMTS (only) phone or if it will also features HSDPA but UMTS seems to be confirmed:

HTC Corp. today unveiled the HTC TyTN II aka the well known HTC Kaiser which will be launched in partnership with leading operator partners across Europe, as well as direct under the HTC brand, and builds on the success of the award-winning first HTC TyTN. Featuring global high speed HSDPA connectivity, in-built GPS for personal navigation and an innovative adjustable screen angle, this device is the ultimate mobile companion. The HTC TyTN II packs all the power of Windows Mobile 6 into a unique new form factor, continuing HTC's 10-year heritage of innovation in device design.

According to an article in the official Gitex newspaper, HTC is going to launch its heavily awaited HTC Shift Windows Vista-based UMPC at GITEX IT and Consumer Electronics fair (starting 8. September in Dubai, UAE).
Vishnu Vardhan, HTC Executive Director MEA, confirmed in an interview with the GITEX newspaper that the company is "showcasing four brand new products, (and the) flagship release of the HTC Shift".
It's not yet said which the four brand new Windows Mobile devices are but we might guess that it is the official announcement of the HTC TyTN II (HTC Kaiser), HTC Nike, maybe the HTC Polaris and hopefully the HTC Omni?

Microsoft Research and Mitsubishi Research teamed up on a project called "LucidTouch" to reinvent the way touch screens work.
LucidTouch is a mobile device that addresses the current touch screen limitation (like small display sizes) by allowing the user to control the application by touching the back of the device. The key to making this usable is what the project team calls pseudo-transparency: by overlaying an image of the user's hands onto the screen (no, it's not transparent) an illusion of the mobile device itself is being semitransparent is created.

Do you remember our earlier posting about LG's expected Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone?
Well, we told you, that - according to information we've received - this smartphone might looks similar to LG's Prada phone and the same sources told us now, that this Windows Mobile smartphone (which still has no official name) looks quite similar to LG's recently announced KU900. Just as a reminder, according to our sources, this device will sport Windows Mobile 6, is expected to feature GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as UMTS while HSPDA is still unconfirmed.

While HTC is still too shy to talk about its next Windows Mobile best seller, the HTC TyTN II aka HTC Kaiser, US reseller MobilePlanet doesn't wants to hide it anymore.
The HTC TyTN II features Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional and is the latest QWERTY-keyboard device from HTC. With its compact size and 240 x 320 display (only - unfortunately), it has the technical specifications to be a worthy successor to the HTC TyTN.

We all love our HTC Touchs, Xda novas or however they are called, right? Yes, we do - we do until we have to enter some text, doesn't matter if it is texting a SMS message, writing an E-Mail or whatever. As great as HTC's Touch interface is on the first level, on the second level it's pure Windows Mobile Professional again which means you have a soft input panel (aka SIP aka keyboard) which is, more or less, not finger-friendly (Not to say useless. Ever tried to enter 0000 if you want to pair your Touch with another Bluetooth device?). Well, there is a new finger-friendly keyboard in town called PocketCM Keyboard and it's now available in version 0.5.

Nokia, the world's largest mobile device manufacturer and Microsoft Corp., a global leader in online communications and communities, have joined together to provide customers with a new suite of Windows Live services specifically designed for Nokia devices.
Starting today, Nokia customers in 11 countries with compatible S60 devices can download the new suite enabling access to Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Spaces. Starting next year, customers who purchase compatible Nokia Series 40 handsets will also have access to these popular Windows Live services.

It's only 2.5 years that I wrote first time about Orb (which is called Orb MyCast now) and last night Orb announced a milestone in its short history: more than one million people have created accounts to use its free MyCasting software. The first program of its kind, Orb lets users stream all their digital media - whether it is on their home PC or on the Internet - to any remote device that has a streaming media player and Internet connection. Anything you can "play" on your computer, can be played on a remote computer, laptop, PDA, mobile phone or TV using a game console.

How important is mobile E-Mail? I think it's as important for you as it is for me, at least that's one reason why I'm using smartphones, in this case a Windows Mobile 6 upgraded Samsung SGH-i600 (the European version of the BlackJack) and O2 Xda trion; and I'm using these devices for several reasons and one of it is the QWERTY keyboard which allows to write text messages as well as E-Mails. So indeed, E-Mail is important for me, especially because I'm receiving some dozens E-Mail per day as well as I'm writing some E-Mails per day, wirelessly from my mobile device. But have ever thought about the fact, that your wireless connection is marked as spam?

According to some completely unconfirmed information CrunchGear received, AT&T is expected to launch a 3G version of the HTC Vox/HTC Libra and following CrunchGear's information, the device is code-named "HTC Juno".
Well, sounds to me like a U.S. version of the (so far also) unannounced (but already unveiled) HTC S730 (code-named HTC Wings or HTC Volans):

Unveiled earlier this summer, today Verizon Wireless released the media-centric Motorola MOTO Q9m Music Windows Mobile 6 Standard Smartphone which offers 2 Home Screen options - one Verizon Wireless multimedia and the Windows Mobile 6 standard (which can be changed easily with the Home screen toggle key). The exclusive multimedia home screen together with the thumbwheel and the D-Pad allows the user to maximize the V CAST Music experience while the standard home screen offers one-touch access to voice, E-Mail, SMS and appointments:

Well, that's somehow interesting. While the P3600 (aka HTC Trinity) isn't on HTC Europe's list of devices which deserves the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade, in Australia, HTC launched a Windows Mobile smartphone called P3600i which is a feature-upgraded P3600 and even includes Windows Mobile 6 Professional.
Beside all the other P3600 goodies (like quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA, Bluetooth, WiFi and the 2 megapixel camera), the P3600i sports an improved 500 MHz Samsung chip and 256MB of ROM (while the P3600 "only" featured a 400 MHz Samsung chip and 128 MB of ROM):

Spb Software House today announced its new Spb Business Pack for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs which is aimed at making the life and work of a businessperson more organized, manageable, and stress-free.
The bundle intertwines four time-proven applications for keeping track of financials with Spb Finance, appointments with Spb Diary, access codes, local currency exchange rates and weather with Spb Traveler and passwords with Spb Wallet.

HTC Europe kept the word and just released the next long awaited Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade for its current line of Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. After O2 launched its Windows Mobile 6-enabled version of the HTC Herald (O2 Xda terra) back in April already, now also HTC released the Windows Mobile 6 bits for its version of the Herald, the HTC P4350.
HTC P4350 users can download the Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade exclusively from the "My Downloads" section of HTC eClub.

Qwest Wireless yesterday launched the Qwest Fusion HTC 5800 which is the CDMA version of the HTC VOX (HTC S710) which is code-named HTC Libra and also known as HTC S720. With the launch of the "Fusion", Qwest Wireless beats Verizon Wireless, which was expected to launch the device as the first in the US. The HTC S720 is a small candy-bar style smartphone with a numeric keypad on the front and slide-out QWERTY keyboard underneath featuring Windows Mobile 6 Standard a 2 megapixel camera and MicroSD slot. Looks like the S720 got WiFi removed, unfortunately:

Sygic announced the launched of its new navigation software for a wide range of mobile devices with friendly user interface. End-users, retailers, system integrators and mobile device manufacturers will be profiting from the new device/phone model that is introduced to the market. Sygic meets all of the requirements regardless of the type of device, operation system, or screen size. Sygic GPS navigation software already supports all Windows CE devices with ARM, x86, MIPS processors, Windows Mobile, Windows XP/Vista, and now also Symbian operating systems. By the end of 2007, Sygic will launch the product for Blackberry, UIQ and Linux mobile phones.

Sources on the PhoneNews.com Forums have posted dates that confirm and identify exactly what devices Sprint is planning to carry through the end of 2007 and even into 2008.
According to the sources, Sprint has some interesting Windows Mobile smartphones in the pipeline and even confirms the existence of the "Palm Treo 800w". New for me is a so called "Samsung BlackJack International which is supposed to support CDMA and GSM in one device.
No renderings or further details given yet - just the device names with a rough specification and the expected launch date:

phoneArena.com got its hands on an internal document showing the product line of Verizon Wireless for the whole 2007.
According to this documents, Verizon Wireless plans to release a whole bunch of new phones including 5 "new" Windows Mobile 6 Professional (with touch screen) and Standard (without touch screen) smartphones. These Windows Mobile smartphones are the Motorola MOTO Q9m and MOTO Q9c, the UTStarcom SMT5800 and XV6800 and the Samsung SCH-i760.

While i-mate previously announced to launch the Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone Ultimate 6150 and Ultimate 8150 in September, it looks like i-mate axed the in February unveiled Ultimate 5150, Ultimate 7150 and Ultimate 9150.
That's the latest information CoolSmartPhone.com received from Windows Mobile retailer Clove Technology and quotes that Clove Technology "can now confirm, of the original 5 handhelds that were intended, only 2 will remain".

Microsoft Corp. and Linux platform provider Xandros just announces a messaging protocol license and collaboration agreement that will enhance the interoperability of Scalix E-Mail servers with various mobile and personal computer-based E-Mail applications that utilize Microsoft E-Mail protocols. This agreement expands on the ongoing Microsoft-Xandros collaboration.
Both companies' commitment to protocol licensing and technical cooperation will help to provide more E-Mail choices and value. By continuing their focus on mixed-source solutions, Xandros and Microsoft are demonstrating how protocol-level collaboration can benefit customers who rely on a mix of Windows-based and Linux systems.

When Toshiba announced the Toshiba Portégé G900 Pocket PC Phone Edition back in February, it was clear which device Toshiba planned to compete with - the HTC Hermes. Now it took some time for Toshiba to release its first Windows Mobile Pocket PC after a longer period of absence but with Windows Mobile 6 Professional, triband GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1800/1900 MHz) and singleband UMTS/HSDPA (2100 MHz) it's still state of the art, even if it's not a world traveler like the HTC Hermes which supports quadband 2G and triband 3G. Nevertheless, the QWERTY keyboard, the powerful 520 MHz Marvell PXA270 processor and a unique 3" WVGA touch screen at 800 x 480 pixels makes the device quite interesting.

According to Taiwanese DigiTimes, HTC (High Tech Computer) is expected to launch its second TouchFLO-controlled smartphone supporting UMTS and HSDPA standard perhaps as soon as September, market sources indicated.
The new smartphone is likely to be the HTC P5500 (codenamed Nike) which the company unveiled in the first half of this year, indicated the sources, noting that the P5500 will be built using a CPU from Samsung Electronics and chipsets from Qualcomm and supporting the WCDMA standard.

How the Korea Times yesterday reported, Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's leading computer and printer producers, confirmed to market the, by us earlier unveiled, iPAQ 600 Windows Mobile smartphone in Korea late this year. An HP Korea spokesman told the newspaper, that HP will launch a third-generation PDA phone, dubbed the iPAQ 600, late this year through Korean  wireless operators such as SK Telecom and KTF and he confirmed that the smartphone is based on high-speed data packet downlink access (HSDPA) technologies that enable various next-generation services.

With Ilium Software ListPro - the list and information manager for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Smartphones as well a Palm and Windows PCs - you can create shopping lists, to do lists, checklists and organize and use your information however you want to.
It even synchronizes your lists between your Windows Mobile or Palm OS handheld and Windows PC to use them on both. Now, Ilium Software has released ListPro 5.0 which also supports Windows Mobile 6 devices as well as it includes many new feautres:

First time unveiled late June, the HTC Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone code-named HTC Iris, which is expected to be released as HTC S640, recently passed the FCC. According to the previously leaked specs, the HTC Iris is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7500 400 MHz and features CDMA 1x-EVDO Rev. A at 800 and 1900 MHz, WiFi b/g as well as Bluetooth (all confirmed by the FCC now). Furthermore it's expected to sport a 2.4" QVGA TFT LCD screen, a 2 megapixel camera, 256 MB ROM and 64 MB RAM:

Looks like something went wrong with Palm's recently released Verizon Wireless Treo 700p and 700w/wx ROM updates. Instead of being able to download the latest and greatest bits, you now get a notification which informs you that Palm has taken down the ROM updates as a result of increasing customer reports of network connectivity issues following the updates.
While Palm is investigating the issues on both platforms, the Palm OS and the Windows Mobile platform, the update isn't available but it will be "re-post as soon as they become available".

A recently published preview video of HTC's first UMPC, the HTC Shift, confirms that the Windows Vista powered mobile PC also runs Windows Mobile in parallel.
According to information, HTC calls this functionality "SnapVUE" which allows to either run a mix of Windows Mobile 6 Classis and Professional (without the dial-pad) on its own instead of Windows Vista or adds Windows Mobile viewer functionalities to Windows Vista like instant always on access to PIM including instant access to E-Mail accounts with previews and contacts, even if the device is not actually running:

Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) on Wednesday confirmed that the German Japanese joint venture will leave the PDA and PNA (Personal Navigation Assistant) market until end of 2007 which is the defacto end of the Windows Mobile-based Pocket Loox and therefore the end of the Pocket Loox T, C and N Series. In a statement, FSC spokesperson Amy Flécher confirmed earlier information which were previously confirmed by Uwe Romppel, Senior Director Business Development Volume Sales, already

I've mentioned the availability of the UBiQUiO 503G on Monday and thanks to Expansys and UBiQUiO, I've just received a review-sample of UBiQUiO's first UMTS Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone.
Featuring Windows Mobile 6 Professional (aka Pocket PC Phone Edition), the UBiQUiO 503G sports a 520 MHz Marvell/Qualcomm 6280 processor, Stereo Bluetooth, WiFi b/g as well as quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and triband UMTS/HSDPA (up to 3.6 Mbps) and a QWERTY keyboard.

Looks like HTC's heavily awaited HTC Kaiser aka HTC TyTN II (or however you want to call it) took another hurdle: The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has recently approved the "New Kaiser" (and another name) which features, according to the "Qualified Design Listing Details" Bluetooth v2.0/v2.0+EDR (it's not yet confirmed if it is just 2.0 or 2.0+EDR).
Anyway, the Kaiser will support the following main profiles: File Transfer Profile, SIM Access Profile, Dial-Up Networking Profile, Personal Area Networking Profile, Hands-Free Profile 1.5, Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (Stereo headset).

Following our yesterday's news of HP's new line of iPAQ 600 and iPAQ 900 devices, DigiTimes today confirmed our information - more or less.
According to DigiTimes, Hewlett-Packard is expected to launch new iPAQ-series handhelds, including PDAs, PNDs and 3G GPS PDAs, in the fourth quarter of 2007. HP has stepped up its contacts with Taiwan-based makers for different segments, with the sources indicating that Quanta Computer, Inventec Appliances and Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) are likely to land new orders from HP.

If you are that kind of Vertu customer but you are looking for something Windows Mobile powered, Gresso's new collection called "Avantgarde" might be something interesting for you. Made of Gold and African Blackwood, the case of the Gresso Avantgarde smartphones is hand crafted and fastened with Gold screws.
The name of the new Gresso "Avantgarde" is derived from the French "avant-garde", which means "to be ahead of the time".

After Microsoft removed Remote Desktop from Windows Mobile 6 Classic and Professional devices but made it available optional only (read CONFIRMED: Remote Desktop isn't a Windows Mobile 6 Application by default anymore to learn more), VNC is the only option for Windows Mobile 6 devices to get remote access to PCs and servers. Therefore, every new VNC client for Windows Mobile is much appreciated and there is a new one called zoomVNC.
Featuring modern protocol support, macros and zoom, you can control any type of system remotely, using on-screen keys to support macros, key combinations or unusual modifier keys, zooming in from whole screen to 400% and hardware keyboard support:

Spb Software House yesterday released its first communication software bundle - the Spb Communication Pack - an integrated collection of the four recognized best-selling Windows Mobile communication programs: Spb Mobile Shell, Spb Phone Suite, Spb GPRS Monitor and Spb Insight are skillfully bundled together at almost half the price.
In a nutshell, Spb Communication Pack offers three powerful enhancements to the Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition/Professional platform, reinforced by a clever news reader, all intimately integrated and working to improve the Pocket PC user experience at a substantial, 45 % discount.

Following the earlier European launch, HTC yesterday announced the U.S. retail availability of the HTC Advantage X7501. As one of the smallest mobile computers available, the HTC Advantage delivers extreme portability that leverages the mobile office strengths of Windows Mobile 6 Professional and advanced wireless connectivity in one of the smallest mobile computer designs available.
Developed from the ground up to be extremely portable, the HTC Advantage liberates the traveling executive from their notebook PC.

As expected, Palm today announced the upcoming availability of the Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition operating system upgrade for the Palm Treo 750 Windows Mobile smartphone. But unlike all of us hoped, it's indeed a local launch in Australia (yet)! Hutchison 3 customers in Australia can download the free update from mid-August from Palm's Australian website. Other customers will be able to download the update from early September.
The Treo 750 is a 3G/HSDPA (High-speed Downlink Packet Access) five-band world phone that combines a phone with E-Mail, messaging, web browsing and organization software.

Following our earlier posting from last week about HP's new line of Windows Mobile devices, we've just received some more (yet to be confirmed) information about HP's iPAQ 600 and iPAQ 900 line of devices and if the specs turn out to be true, HP is definitely back into the market. I'm not sure if the new HP devices are (still) manufactured by HTC but if not, HTC might face some serious competition, if HP takes its new Windows Mobile approach serious as well. Let us start with the iPAQ 600 series which was rumored to feature Windows Mobile 6 Professional, 3G connectivity and integrated GPS.

Funny, yesterday I was referring to the UBiQUiO 501 Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition and also yesterday, UBiQUiO released a free Windows Mobile 6 Professional upgrade which is available now for download. Not sure how many UBiQUiO 501 users are out there but every Windows Mobile 6 upgrade is appreciated and it shows, that UBiQUiO takes the Windows Mobile business serious. If you haven't heard about the ultra slim Pocket PC Phone Edition with QWERTY keyboard, which is available from Expansys, it's an interesting devices for all non-Smartphone users since it also features the traditional Pocket PC input through the 2.5" QVGA touch screen, allowing stylus control of menus and programs.

Sybase, Inc. (NYSE: SY), a leading provider of enterprise infrastructure and mobile software, and HTC Corp. (TAIEX:2498), the world's leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based smart devices, today announced the formation of a global alliance. The companies are teaming on strategic business, engineering and marketing initiatives designed to deliver optimized Sybase iAnywhere mobility software on HTC devices.
The alliance will focus initially on the management and security components of the Sybase Information Anywhere suite, which provides a platform for enterprise mobility.

Well, I thought we got rid of these artificial HTC product names when HTC said further products will be called Sxyz (for Smartphone) and Pxyz (for Pocket PC (Phone Edition)) but either HTC changed its mind or the GCF got something wrong.
Anyway, the GCF (Global Certification Forum for GSM and UMTS devices) just approved the HTC Kaiser as "HTC TyTN II". Furthermore it approves the same device as Vodafone1615/SFRv1615/Swisscom XPA1615 which confirms that Vodafone UK, SFR France and Swisscom Switzerland will also release the device (beside the previously confirmed T-Mobile Germany launch).

The earlier this year unveiled UBiQUiO 503G Windows Mobile Pocket PC is now available from Expansys. Featuring Windows Mobile 6 Professional, a 520 MHz Marvell/Qualcomm 6280 processor, Stereo Bluetooth, WiFi b/g, GSM & UMTS/HSDPA wireless data and a QWERTY keyboard, the UBiQUiO 503G is an interesting device for mobile workers and everybody who needs fast wireless Internet access.
Thanks to quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and triband UMTS/HSDPA (up to 3.6 Mbps) the device works virtually everywhere in the world.

When Toshiba announced its new line of Windows Mobile smartphones back in February, it caught some attention since Toshiba was somehow not to active in the Windows Mobile space during the past years. And Toshiba not just announced a Pocket PC but a touch screen-less smartphone as well, The Toshiba Portégé G500. Sporting Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone only Toshiba's first Windows Mobile smartphone features a, for Windows Mobile Smartphones, unique slider design. Furthermore it features triband GSM/GPRS/EDGE (no GSM 850 MHz support) and singleband UMTS/HSDPA (2100 MHz only) as well as WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR .

While the photos bellow, PalmInfocenter published over the weekend, are not a Windows Mobile Palm at all, the device could get a reincarnation as a Windows Mobile device as well. The set of live camera phone spy shots of what could be the "Palm Treo 800p" shows the rumored "Palm Gandolf" design in the wild. Not looking like a typical Palm device anymore, the device seems to be much smaller and slightly slimmer then all other Palm smartphones before.
According to PalmInfocenter, the Treo 800p (unconfirmed name) features a touchscreen with a smaller translucent keyboard:

Building on their existing collaboration around mobile entertainment, Nokia and Microsoft Corp. have extended their cooperation to include support for Microsoft PlayReady technology into the Nokia S60 and Series 40 mobile device platforms. PlayReady is a new content access technology from Microsoft that makes it easy for content owners and service providers to deliver virtually any type of digital content in a flexible manner. As part of the agreement, Nokia and Microsoft will also collaborate on expanding and simplifying consumer scenarios for accessing, experiencing and moving digital content using mobile devices.

Can it be true that HP, the "God Father of Pocket PCs" (together with the acquired Compaq) plans to re-enter the Windows Mobile space?
According GPSAndCo it's true and HP is preparing several new lines of Windows Mobile Classis, Professional and Standard devices. According to the sources, the earlier this year announced HP iPAQ Voice Messenger 514 is the first representative of this new generation. Further device classes are:

V2R Vision to Realty today announces the availability of the Active UI based MediaPlayer Today screen plug-in for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. Active Media Player plug-in is a stylish and easy to use animated Today screen plug-in that allows you to quickly play your favorite songs and albums directly from the Today screen. Together with the (free) V2R Active UI core engine, V2R offers plenty of free add-on's in different animations and designs to make the V2R Active MediaPlayer plug-in as personal as possible.

According to Chinese-language Commercial Times, O2 Asia Pacific (which isn't operating any mobile networks in Far East but a reseller of O2-branded Windows Mobile devices) is planning to reduce its size or eventually withdraw from the Asia-Pacific market due to lower-than-expected sales. According to the Commercial Times, the company has stopped taking delivery of handsets as well as suspend orders for new models with ODM handset maker Quanta Computer, Gigabyte Communications and Arima Communications to incur minor losses from canceled orders.

LG just released the LG-KC1, a Windows Mobile 5.0 (unfortunately) only Pocket PC Phone Edition which is equipped with WiBro (Wireless Broadband -  which is quite popular in South Korea). Running a Marvell Monahans CPU at amazing 806 MHz, the KC1 features 512 MB NAND Flash ROM and 128 MB SDRAM. Furthermore the device sports CDMA EVDO for voice and data, Mobile WiMAX (WiBro) for even faster mobile data, T-DMB for mobile TV, Bluetooth and a 2.8" QVGA screen. all this measures 60 x 120 x 16.9 mm only at a weight of 160 grams:

Following O2 Germany, also O2 UK finally released its Windows Mobile Professional ROM upgrades for the O2 Xda Orbit and O2 Xda Trion which can be downloaded free of charge from O2 UK.
And that's cool - O2 UK already enabled the support for XML based Office 2007 files (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) - something Microsoft announced to become available later this year.
Now I wonder if today's HTC TyTN ROM upgrade is also Office 2007 compatible?

Sure, you can protect your whole Windows Mobile Pocket PC with a password but frankly, is your Pocket PC protected with such a device password? If not but you want to protect some files or folders anyway, you might want to try visCrypt, a program for your Pocket PC which encrypts and decrypts your private files and documents and protect it from unauthorized access.
With just a few clicks you can protect single documents or whole folders and subfolders. Secured with a picture password an intruder can hardly break the encryption:

It's not just AT&T which has some (expected) Windows Mobile device launches in the pipeline - according to Engadget Mobile also Verizon plans to launch three Windows Mobile smartphones in August.
According a fuzzy photo of a product flyer (see bellow a better quality), Verizon plans to release the Motorola MOTO Q9M (the CDMA version of the UMTS MOTO Q9), the earlier unveiled Samsung i760, and the UTStarcom XV6800 which seems to be just another version of Sprint's HTC Mogul:

Together with HTC Europe's release of the Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade for the HTC TyTN, HTC also confirmed that it will release other long awaited Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrades during/from August.
HTC said that the Windows Mobile 6 upgrades for the HTC P3300 (HTC Artemis - Windows Mobile 6 Professional), HTC S620 (HTC Excalibur - Windows Mobile 6 Standard) and HTC Advantage X7500 (HTC Athena - Windows Mobile 6 Professional) are scheduled from August as well.

Finally, it took HTC a little bit longer but after HTC released the first Windows Mobile 6 upgrades for other versions of its HTC Hermes reference design, HTC now also released the long awaited Windows Mobile 6 Professional ROM upgrade for its HTC TyTN.
HTC released the upgrade in several European language including World Wide English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and others.
Do get your free download of the HTC TyTN Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade, you have to have a free HTC eClub account.

Announced during the 3GSM World Congress back in February already and leaked last week in forums, it seems Palm is somehow also ready to release Windows Mobile 6 for the Palm Treo 750 smartphone.
While it's not yet clear if Palm is releasing a freely available ROM upgrade download for current Treo 750 users (or just previewing a Palm Treo 750 running Windows Mobile 6 Professional), in an official E-Mail for Microsoft's next week's Australia TechEd conference, Microsoft wrote:

Following our earlier coverage of Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, where version 2.1 was still a proposal, the Board of Directors of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the more than 8,000-member strong trade association responsible for advancing Bluetooth wireless technology, yesterday announced the adoption of Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) by unanimous approval. Through advances in security, simplified pairing and power consumption, the new Bluetooth specification will offer consumers a further improved Bluetooth experience.

The Boy Genius Report received an anonymous tip, that AT&T is preparing the launch of a couple of new handsets. Beside a BlackBerry, a Pantech and another Motorola RAZR device, it looks like AT&T is also preparing the launch of the Motorola MOTO Q9 and the SMT5700 (manufactured by Chinese Amoi).
While the Motorola MOTO Q9 is well known already (a Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone featuring GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as UMTS and HSDPA), not too much is known about Amoi's SMT5700, except the stuff the FCC unveiled some time ago (on the left the Motorola MOTO Q, on the right the Amoi SMT5700):

With the introduction of Windows Mobile 6, we have seen many feature improvements, including HTML E-Mail, a way better Calendar plus many "under-the-hood" enhancements. And yes, one application which also gets some serious improvements is the Remote Desktop application (formerly known as Terminal Service Client).
When I got my first Windows Mobile Pocket PC back in 2001, I hadn't had an idea, what Terminal Service Client was about but now, where the::unwired is running on Windows servers (for some years), where I have 3 PCs in the office and two at home I know what it is and how much I like it.

Mark/Space, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of version 4.0 of The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile, the company's popular synchronization application that connects smartphones and mobile devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system to Apple Mac computers. Along with a number of new features that include video encoding for mobile playback, the 4.0 release becomes the first Mac synchronization software to support devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.

Following our earlier coverage that Samsung (Europe) started to roll-out first Windows Mobile 6 Standard ROM upgrades for its Samsung SGH-i600 Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone, the Korean mobile phone manufacture just updated its website. And first of all the good news: Samsung just added a couple of countries for which the i600 ROM upgrade will be available, namely Scandinavia (including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland). The bad news is, that it seems that Samsung has pulled the plug for the previously available Dutch upgrade; it's not available anymore:

According to WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal Online), Deutsche Lufthansa AG is poised to join with a team headed by cellular-telephone giant T-Mobile to offer broadband Internet access and wireless E-Mail to its long-haul passengers, industry officials said.
After Lufthansa (and other leading airlines) had to switch off Internet access above the clouds after Connexion by Boeing pulled the plug end of last year, it was often speculated that a follower-system is in development.