That rumored Highlight for T-Mobile is now official, filling yet another niche segment in Samsung's massive full-touch attack on the carrier -- an attack that now includes the Behold, the Memoir, and this bad boy. As you might have gathered from the appearance, this one comes in at the bottom end of that range, but it really doesn't slack on the spec sheet -- it's still managing to pack AWS HSDPA, a 3 megapixel camera, WQVGA display, quadband EDGE for world travel, AGPS, and a full HTML browser. It's available in two colors today -- fire and ice, which are basically orange and a black / cool blue combo -- for $149.99 on contract after rebates.

We've been toying around with the Highlight this week in its "fire" livery, and we've got to say: for its entry-level aspirations, we're really impressed. The TouchWiz UI is plenty speedy, the browser was about as good as you could expect a Samsung dumbphone browser to be, we had an easy time adapting to the landscape QWERTY keyboard (and the numeric one, for that matter), and -- this is a biggie -- the screen felt really good. Historically, some of Sammy's full touch phones have had a reputation for having really bendy plastic screen -- and yes, granted, this is clearly still plastic, but it's thick and / or strong enough so that there's virtually no give to it. That definitely makes you feel more confident using the phone, and gives it a vaguely upmarket appeal. Do we recommend it? If you're looking for a relatively cheap way to get on T-Mobile's 3G network, yeah, absolutely, though we might wait until they get their pricing strategy figured out -- it's clearly a lower-end device than the Behold and it needs to be priced accordingly. If T-Mobile can manage to get it down to, say, $79.99, it's an all-around winner.

That T-Mobile roadmap we analyzed with a fine-tooth comb a little while back already suggested we'd be getting Samsung's t749 Highlight on July 15, and that date's looking more solid than ever with new launch documentation that shows off the touchscreen set in all its low-end glory. We're not sure what's possessing these guys to fill every conceivable market segment in their lineup with a full touch Sammy, but the Highlight looks poised to slot in beneath the Behold with a 3.1 megapixel camera, 3G, and GPS on board. Pricing's still a mystery, but we're willing to be you'll be able to nab this one for a song.

Leaked carrier roadmap documents of unknown age and origin aren't necessarily the most accurate things in the world, but they are one very awesome, important thing: leaked. Pictured above is a fragment of one such spreadsheet that we've had the good fortune of receiving for T-Mobile USA -- obviously it's a little bit on the small slide, but no sweat, we'll walk you through what it's saying. Again, we wouldn't take these dates as the gospel truth, but we'd venture to say they're a good rough guide for what to expect out of these guys for the next few months. Move along for the full list!

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Tired of waiting for your favorite bowling enthusiast website to finally release its long-awaited mobile optimized version? Yeah, we hear that -- but if a new IBM research project ever sees the light of day, maybe we can just fix that glitch ourselves. "Highlight" is a Firefox-based plug-in that allows end users to script common tasks on sites and boil them down to super simple mini-sites that are more easily digested on mobile browsers, at which point the new sites are copied up to a proxy server that would theoretically be hosted by IBM or another company. There could be some resistance from sites that aren't so keen on having their content re-hosted somewhere outside of their control, but it sounds like IBM is ready to push forward with the project if it generates enough interest. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via textually.org and PC World]