It seems that Verizon Wireless is in the holiday spirit this year and are going to give away one free ringtone to every customer on December 31st. Customers will be able to take advantage of this by texting the word "tone" to "2007." In return, they will receive a message with the instructions on how to download their free ringtone. With this being a promotion, we're thinking that your choice of content might be limited (What, no B.I.G.?). If anyone decides to take advantage of this, drop us a line and tell us about the ringtone choices.

If the X7500 "Athena" somehow managed to fail to attract your attention and you found the Vox, Libra, Love, and Cavailer positively forgettable, first verify that you have a pulse (because we really don't think that's normal) then check this out: HTC's 2007 arsenal is shaping up to be a doozy, with several previously-unknown models stepping into the spotlight. First up is the "Kaiser" (pictured top left), a follow-on to the Hermes that adds GPS -- a feature that's becoming increasingly common in high-end Pocket PCs. The "Elf" (top right) and "Panda" (not pictured) are midrange devices; they'll lack 3G radios, but the Panda's claim to fame will be a giant QVGA display that weighs in at well over 3 inches, while the Elf makes a name for itself with a fashion-friendly design and a touchpad in place of the typical d-pad. The "Wings" (bottom left) will ultimately take the torch from the Vox -- yes, the still-unreleased Vox -- by adding 3G, GPS, and a beefier processor. Finally, a new clamshell Smartphone will pick up where the Star Trek left off, rocking a GPS receiver and more wireless radios than its predecessor. If you can't find yourself an '07 HTC to your liking now, well... that's just crazy talk, but we know a Finnish outfit that might like your business.

[Via PDA247]

There's always thrilling news coming from ITU Telecom World in Hong Kong for those residing overseas, but this time it's the Americans rejoicing. A Qualcomm official has stated that USA's own Cingular Wireless "is set to launch" a 7.2Mbps HSDPA service this coming January (at the earliest). While we're not sure if that figure is theoretical or otherwise, nor do we know its complementary upload speed, we've found that the service will hit speed-hungry laptops equipped with PCMCIA slots real soon. While upping the speeds of HSDPA services seems to be all the rage these days, we're glad to see such a substantial jump happening right here. Notably, Cingular probably won't be alone in such launches come 2007, as Australian service provider Telstra is already planning to hit its customers up with the same luxury, while a spokesperson from SK Telecom boasted that its networks were "already designed" to support the blazing speeds, insinuating that a boost in service could be just around the bend. Per usual, we've got no details as to just how much coinage this speed will demand, nor any way to tell if this January date will actually stick, but we've got just about a month until we know for certain. [Warning: subscription required]

Update: A Qualcomm official pinged to let us know that this information was supposedly never given to Telecoms Korea, and that Qualcomm "doesn't speculate on operator plans." So there you have it, maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't.