That mighty beast of a smartphone, HTC's Athena -- known better as the Advantage in retail trim -- is getting a modest upgrade in its MDA Ameo guise on T-Mobile Germany. The big news is the bump in the Ameo's hard drive from 8GB to 16GB (would be nice if that was an SSD, but you can't win 'em all) while other changes include a "modified arrangement" of the keyboard (their words, not ours) and the inclusion of Office Mobile 6.1. It'll run €459 (about $675) when it hits in April. And no, we're pretty sure the 16GB hard drive and rearranged keyboard don't make it any less awkward in the hand.

[Via the::unwired]

HTC today announced official US availability of its mobile monster (and we do mean "monster"), the Advantage. Known alternately as the Athena and X7501, the sucker rocks pretty much every feature one could want in a pocketable device: 256MB of onboard ROM, 128MB of RAM, 8GB hard drive, HSDPA 850 / 1900 alongside quadband GSM, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, 3 megapixel autofocus cam, integrated GPS, and an incredible 5 inches of VGA display madness sitting atop Windows Mobile 6 Professional. Coming in at a hefty 134 x 98 x 16mm (20mm with keyboard attached), the term "svelte" doesn't exactly apply here -- but for folks who think power trumps pocketability, this may just be their soulmate. Find it now at CompUSA and Amazon for a buck under $900.

We're not sure why HTC waited longer than virtually all of its carrier partners to unleash a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for its own-branded Hermes, the TyTn, but no bother -- the point is it's now available, so there's really no good excuse for anyone with Hermes hardware to still be rocking old-skool WM5 at this point. Meanwhile, users of the P3300 (Artemis), S620 (Excalibur), and Advantage should all get their hookups this month if everything goes according to plan. Wasn't it, like, an eternity ago now that T-Mobile rocked WM6 on the Dash? Better late than never, we suppose.

[Via the::unwired]

As expected any day now, the T-Mobile "Wing" (aka HTC Herald or P4350) has shown up on the FCC (this time in full glory), and also as expected, it's definitely due for US release. Besides the requisite MyFaves support, don't expect any surprises: it'll have Bluetooth, WiFi, and EDGE data (which is fine enough for T-Mo's 2.5G network). Fingers crossed this will launch soon and on time, and with Windows Mobile 6, to boot.

[Via Phone Scoop, thanks Kashif and Mario]

Another from HTC we saw coming, but that's still a pleasant surprise: HTC's Advantage (codename Athena) will in fact be making it Stateside! Noice, but even better, HTC will be releasing the Advantage (now camera-free) under its own brand. In other words, the little ODM we all watched grow up in the last couple of years has finally broken free of designing handsets for others and the perpetual carrier rebadges, and is officially launching devices under its own brand in the US. Perhaps they finally have the cachet to play the game outside of the normal carrier / device ecosystem (or, equally likely, no US carrier was brave enough to sell the Advantage), but either way users can look forward to:

• 5-inch VGA touch display
• Tri-band UMTS / HSDPA, quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE
• WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0
• GPS navigation
• 8GB drive, 256MB flash memory, 128MB RAM
• miniSD card slot, HTC VueFLO nav
• 3.5mm audio jack

Coming this summer -- hard price and date not yet established.

Naturally, HTC and T-Mobile aren't going to be able to keep this little (er, not-so-little) Athena gem to themselves. Dopod is getting in on the action, with its subtly branded U1000, which carries an alarming NT 39,990 pricetag -- about $1,215, compared to T-Mobile's 500 euro price, roughly $646 -- and of course all the standard Athena specs like the 5-inch VGA screen, 3.5G, 3 megapixel camera, 8GB drive and 624MHz Xscale processor. Oh, and just in case you're keeping track, the 5.5 / 4.5 hours of GSM / UMTS talk time quoted here is a bit more conservative than the initial 6 hours we were hearing from HTC. Peep a couple more angles after the break.

Is this a dream? Have we landed in some alternate reality where the world's hottest devices inexplicably rock 3G radios with compatibility on American bands? That's the only conceivable explanation we can come up with after catching wind that HTC's X7500 / Athena / T-Mobile Ameo will pack not one, not two, but three frequencies of glorious High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, aka HSDPA, aka "we must have one, now." Since all our intel thus far has suggested that the Athena would come out of the gate with 2100MHz only, we'd normally be our jaded selves and reject this new spec as hearsay, but Boy Genius himself has scored what appears to be a legit spec sheet straight from HTC that delivers the good news. Guess there's only one way we can confirm this (HTC, you have our mailing address) but we're cautiously optimistic that things are looking up for North America's mobile warriors here.

Move over, Universal, there's a new sheriff in town. The Athena from HTC is finally starting to make some public appearances in carrier livery, and we've gotta say, T-Mobile Pink is suiting this thing just fine. Specs for the new reigning king of HTC's expansive Windows Mobile lineup include a 5-inch VGA display, an 8GB hard drive to supplement any Flash you might have stowed in the miniSD slot, on-board GPS, quadband GSM plus HSDPA (sorry, yanks -- 2100MHz only), 3 megapixel camera, an XScale core clipping right along at 624MHz, and -- get this -- three styli in the box, two traditional and one multi-function pen. T-Mobile's European division will get this as an exclusive for a few weeks as the "Ameo," at which point we'd imagine a wider European release is in order. American availability, as always, is an open question.

Ok kids, hang onto your hats and dose a grain of salt. According to the lads over at Mobile-Review, the HTC Athena (X7500) is a much hotter and much more highly spec'd device like we thought (hoped) yesterday when it first graced our pages. Certainly, none of this is confirmed, but that beefy Windows Mobile PPC Phone Edition device is now rumored to be running on a 624MHz Intel Bulverde processor pumping away beneath a 5-inch, 262k-color VGA (640x480) touch-sensitive display. It's overall thickness is in part explained by the fact that it spins either an 8 or 10GB disk drive while a 2100mAh Li-Poly battery provides up to 6 hours of talk, 300 hours of standby, or 8 hours of WMV video playback. Those specs certainly make more sense. Better yet, it's said to come in two flavors: one for Europe, and a UMTS/HSDPA quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE flavor for the US unlike initial reports. Other notable features include GPS, a standard 3.5-mm jack for headphones, 2 megapixel cam with LED plus another cam up front for video conferencing, dual stereo speakers with 3D surround, USB 2.0 and another USB 1.1 host, TV-out, 802.11b/g WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP/AVRCP profile support. The unit weighs in at 12.3-ounces (350-grams) / 5.24 x 3.8 x 0.78-inches (133 x 97 x 20-mm) making that QWERTY (barely) usable as a table-top keyboard and not some awkwardly held thumbpad. Estimated to be priced between $1,500 and $2,000 which makes it a non-starter for most, if true. Maybe this is HTC's first take at their UMPC after all. Be sure to hit the read link for the complete list of specifications.

[Via PhoneArena]