We're unfortunately light on details here, but The Unwired is reporting that HTC's Hero has been approved by the Global Certification Forum, listed here as "HERO100," with support for quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA at 1800/2100 MHz. With the company's touted London event just around the corner -- this Wednesday, to be exact -- we wouldn't be surprised to see the phone and its oft-rumored "Rosie" Android UI take center stage, in possibly two variations. Other than frequency bands and the associative name, the GCF isn't giving us anything else to work with, so for now just sit back and hope this uncertainty is cleared up sooner rather than later.

[Via WMPoweruser]

Liked that blurry photo of a new Palm webOS phone we saw earlier? Well how about some specs, a name, and a better look at this thing? Enter the device above, apparently dubbed the Palm Eos (codenamed Castle... where have we seen that before?), which it seems will be the company's proper follow-up to the Centro -- a quadband GSM / HSDPA phone notably rocking the 850 / 1900 AT&T and Rogers-friendly frequencies. The phone will supposedly be an astounding 10.6mm thin, will measure just 55mm x 111mm (about 2.1 by 4.3-inches), weigh 100 grams, and will tout a 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display. Of course, the info we've got right now can't be verified, and since there are a couple of minor question marks here (like barely rounded corners in the OS), you should take it all with a grain of salt... as usual. Needless to say, we're working on getting more details (and some confirmation), so stay tuned!

Update: Oh boy -- looks like we just got the full spec list. And yes, it's definitely coming to AT&T (if it's really coming).

• 4GB storage
• Price: $349 (pre-rebate)
• Camera: 2 megapixel fixed focus digital camera and flash / video capture
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP and EDR, USB 2.0 via micro USB
• Removable 1150 mAh battery (4 hours 3G talk time)
• Messaging: SMS, MMS (picture and video only), integrated IM client
• Contact sync with AT&T Address Book
• MediaNet
• Cellular Video
• Email: POP3, IMAP4, and EAS support
• A-GPS
• Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+ ringtones
• Video Playback: MPEG4, H.264, H.263

The recent glut of telephony news can mean only one thing: CTIA Wireless 2009 is getting ready to kick off in Vegas baby, Las Vegas. In the runup we have LG upping the hype on its 13.4mm-thick GD900 handset first outed in Barcelona at February's MWC show. This time, however, the 7.2Mbps HSDPA slider with world's first transparent glass (not plastic as originally assumed) keypad will be functional, running LG's new S-Class UI on the 3-inch display. We know that the GD900 features vibrational haptic feedback and that the transparent keypad seems to double as a touch-sensitive mouse pad (like that on your laptop) when surfing the internet or navigating the UI -- it also seems to support gestures like writing "M" to launch MP3 music player and multi-touch such as pinch to zoom on photographs. The GD900 will launch in Europe and Asia sometime in May. No US release announced so we'll have to make the most of our time with it this week in order to clear up all the mysteries presented by the Korean press release. One more pic showing an apparent finger-swipe rotating the UI after the break.

[Via Akihabara News and Engadget Korea]

Shoehorned in with its Samsung Memoir announcement today, T-Mobile has announced that it plans on covering 200 million Americans with its AWS 3G network by the end of 2009. That's up from "more than 100 million people" at the end of 2008, so even if you consider "more than 100 million" to be as high as 150 million, that's still a nice boost in HSPA coverage year over year. And considering that we're expecting a barrage of new G series (or at least one or two of 'em) to launch on T-Mob in '09, we'll take just as much 3G as we can get.

We knew production was destined to start in 2009, and lo and behold, Orange has committed to selling the thing. You heard right -- sometime "later this year," LG's G910 Watch Phone will be available across the operator's European footprint, though there's nary a mention of pricing. For those who've forgotten, this timepiece will support Bluetooth headset pairing, 3G HSDPA, video calling, multimedia playback and touch input, and it'll also make you the coolest cat in the office. And that's a Billy Mays guarantee.

Like Symbian candybars? Then try this surprising little number, the 5630 XpressMusic. Nokia's 5800-sib is an N-Gage ready, 12-mm slimster with a 4GB microSD card dropped in the box along side a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack to rock whatever buds, plugs, or cans you have an itch for. It's also packing a 3.2 megapixel, "4x zoom" camera with dual-LED flash and HSDPA/HSUPA data to move your pics and videos up to your favorite photo sharing site on a rocket. Dedicated audio keys and Nokia's "say and play" feature makes the 5630 a media all-rounder. Expected in Q2 for around €200 pre-tax, pre-subsidy.

Prada, Armani, Hugo Boss -- who's next? Coco Chanel? As the trendsetters paradoxically begin to follow the trends, we've got yet another fashion icon placing his name on a touchscreen-based phone. Except in this case, there's really nothing special about it at all. In essence, the Hugo Boss edition F480 is simply a Samsung F480 with a Hugo Boss logo, Hugo Boss themes and a set of Hugo Boss-inspired ringtones (saywha?). Oh, and there's the Hugo Boss Bluetooth headset for those who actually enjoy transforming into a full-fledged walking advertisement. Feel free to point and laugh when you see it in European stores next month for €479 ($620).

After a flurry of leaks and announcements caught our attention last year, we've heard nary a peep from Toshiba about its multi-faceted device since. Suffice to say that's it's out in parts of Europe and countries with a penchant for the backward "R" and "N." Great, but what is it and how well does it do what it does; that's the convoluted question. Fortunately, IntoMobile went hands on with the USB memory stick / alarm clock with snooze / MP3 player / 7.2Mbps HSDPA USB modem / tri-band GSM cellphone and came away with the opinion that "the device is excellent." It pulled a respectable 2.7Mbps off O2's UK network and performed reasonably well as a "backup phone." The 160MB of storage for MP3 / AAC music playback was disappointing but it served its purpose in a pinch. Still, that's a lot of device for £140.

[Via IntoMobile]

Like the i900 Omnia, eh? We sure did. Well here's its prettier, smarter cousin tagged the T*Omnia. For the most part, it's the same quad-band, WinMo 6.1 candybar with 7.2Mbps HSDPA data, WiFi, GPS, 5 megapixel cam, and nifty TouchWiz UI we've seen for months. But this hometown Korean version bumps the display to a WVGA, 800 x 480 pixels (up from 400 x 240) while slapping in a DMB digital television tuner to ensure it's non-Stateside status for eternity... at least with this specific configuration. Perhaps Verizon would be so kind as to make use of that display?

Hardware fanatics, listen up -- a golden egg has been laid in the form of the Samsung I7110. Arriving with a slightly sleeker design than on the earlier spotted i7110c, this Symbian S60-based candybar has been revealed to the world today in London. Specs wise, you're looking at a luscious 2.6-inch AMOLED display, FM radio / transmitter , GPS navigation (with geotagging functionality), an accelerometer, "3D graphics," Bluetooth 2.0, HSDPA and WiFi. Additionally, it packs a 5-megapixel camera (with Auto Focus and a LED flash), robust multimedia player (DivX support included), 50MB of internal memory, a microSDHC slot, video recording, 11-hours of talk time and a 12.9-millimeter thin body. Price remains a mystery, but those in Russia will be the first in the know when it launches there next month. As for everyone else? Patience.

In the wireless biz, simple economics ensure that the little guys have a harder time of everything, including the all-important matter of getting decent handset selections from manufacturers. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though -- beyond the lack of hot hardware, rural carriers are struggling to find a way to pay for network upgrades that'll get them in line with what the rest of the world's up to. Some 28 companies so far have banded together as NextGen Mobile, a consortium designed to share the cost of network upgrades and give smaller operators a unified voice for approaching manufacturers and demanding what it calls the "next 'it' handset." Though members haven't yet been identified, everyone involved in NextGen is GSM-based and either has or intends to deploy UMTS -- and down the road, LTE. We're probably not looking at a team that's going to be challenging Verizon or AT&T for market dominance here, but if it means more people are going to have access to high-speed data faster, we're down.

[Via Phone Scoop]

German carriers who've complained that the country hasn't doled out enough 3G spectrum to meet their data-heavy needs are going to get their collective wishes granted next year with another auction, this time in the 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz ranges. Thing is, they'll need to bid like they mean it, because the government is allowing new players outside the current four -- T-Mobile, E-Plus, O2, and Vodafone -- to enter the race. If there's one thing the world doesn't need, it's two entirely new UMTS bands -- but if it means a whole lot more 3G in Bavaria, we guess we're going to have to deal.

[Via mocoNews]

If you've invested in one of those Sony Ericsson TM506s being offered by T-Mobile, it certainly helps if you've got some place to take advantage of its carrier-first HSDPA support -- and while it's going to be a while (a good, long while) before you find it blanketing every square inch of T-Mobile's coverage, you'll at least have a few more cities in which to play by the time that all-important G1 launches next month. Thirteen cities have officially launched so far, with another 8 coming online in the coming weeks, another 7 beyond that by the end of the year, and "meaningful expansion to additional customers and markets through 2009." In case you'd like 'em to be showing a little more hustle here (and who wouldn't?), it looks like the government is still holding things up; T-Mobile specifically mentions in its press release that it's continuing to "work closely and effectively together" with the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and Defense to speed things along and free up AWS spectrum as quickly as possible. In the meantime, follow the break for the full list of cities that'll be 3G-ready by the end of 2008.