Alright, move along folks, nothing to see here. Remember that Palm Pre support page that showed up on Dutch provider Hi's website? Seems like that'd indicative a possible future collaboration, but according to a spokesman for KPN (of which Hi is a part), it's all a misunderstanding. While not meant for public viewing at this time, the page in question was apparently intended to explain what settings you'd need for using a Hi SIM card, whether you got the device from them or via another provider. Still seems fishy, if you ask us. Of course, he added the company is very interested in the Pre (as if we thought otherwise), but that nothing's been announced at this time anywhere in Europe. Let's just hope that rumored UK announcement pans out this week, and maybe the rest of the continent will follow suit.

[Thanks, Wesley]

Ready for even more rumors about Windows Mobile 7 and Microsoft's mysterious "Pink" smartphone project? Good, cause we've got a few -- and the first is potentially huge. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says her best understanding of "Pink" is now that it's a Microsoft-branded phone running a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile 7, developed by what's left of the Danger team and targeted at the Sidekick market. Yep, Microsoft-branded -- as in, the exact thing Microsoft has been denying for ages now. What's more, Redmond wouldn't be letting third parties use this new UI -- Pink would be manufactured only by Sharp or Motorola, who've made Sidekicks in the past. It all makes sense, even if it does feel a bit like MS is knifing its partners in the back -- companies like HTC and Samsung have been equally aggressive in layering their own UIs like TouchFLO 3D and TouchWiz on top of WinMo, but it's another thing entirely to compete against Microsoft itself, especially now that AdWeek says Microsoft's selected an agency to develop a Pink ad campaign. Yeah, things are starting to get a little wild -- we haven't even mentioned the open questions of whether the Zune HD is running Tegra because it's based on Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, or whether Pink will launch on Verizon, or whether Zune will appear on other phones, or... you get the idea. Hey Microsoft -- you want to clear any of this up by shipping some products?

Read - ZDNet
Read - AdWeek

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.

We're actually surprised we didn't make the connection earlier, but word on the street today is the rumored Samsung Omnia Pro will actually be a renamed Louvre B7610, a set that's been popping up a lot lately. Makes sense -- the Louvre's 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED screen, 800MHz processor, and 5.1 megapixel camera match up nicely with the Omnia line. It's running Windows Mobile 6.1 right now, but we wouldn't be too surprised if the rumored August release date is held back to September or October to coincide with WinMo 6.5. One more pic after the break, couple more at the read links.

[Via Unwired View]

Read - Connect-UTB post
Read - Beyond3D forum post

Looks like the E71 is about to be upstaged as Nokia's premier business-class smartphone -- someone in Espoo's just hit the corporate YouTube account with this promo video for an E72. Upgrades include a five megapixel camera, a relocated headphone jack, and what looks to be an optical mouse instead of a D-pad -- a welcome upgrade for click-happy S60. That's all we know for now, but we're digging for more -- check the video after the break.

Update: The YouTube video's been pulled, but luckily the guys from IntoMobile snagged it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It's pretty much the eve of Apple's big WWDC press conference, and Daring Fireball's John Gruber is back at the eleventh hour to chime in some more on his previous (and perhaps well-informed) iPhone predictions. He sticks to his previous wagers -- twice the CPU speed, twice the RAM, a heavy emphasis on a new video camera (no word on if there's an additional front-facing one), and $199 / $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively -- but additionally chimes in that the new device's codename is... drumroll, please... the iPhone 3GS, which he surmises is probably going to be the final product name, as well. Kind of a yawner, if you ask us, but it'd sell like gangbusters no matter what it was called. As for that lowered-tiered iPhone, he's expecting it to be the current 3G model with a price drop to $99. Also on the table is iPhone tethering, which we already know was built into OS 3.0, likely for a fee chosen by each carrier. Teasing farther into the future, he suggests "Marble," codename for an OS X visual overhaul, and the tablet are very much real projects but that there's little to no chance it'll be at WWDC. No clue what the "S" stands for (speed, perhaps?), but at this point we're pretty much counting the minutes to tomrorow's keynote, and our clocks can't tick much faster.

Sure, it's Palm's big day, but that doesn't mean the Apple rumor mill is taking a break -- check out this pic of what might be the new iPhone set to drop on Monday. Yep, that's a matte black casing with no chrome border, a what looks to be a front-facing camera, and iPhone OS 3.0, so it certainly lines up with what we've heard -- but it wouldn't exactly take a Photoshop master to do this one up either. One more pic at the read link -- anyone believing this?

Update: Nowhere Else seems to be down at the moment, so we've stuck the other shots after the break.

There certainly seem to be a lot of people "familiar" with Apple's iPhone plans spouting off all over the place in these last few days before WWDC, and today they've chosen to whisper their sweet nothings to the Financial Times, which is reporting a cheaper iPhone will be announced on Monday at WWDC. Of course, that lines up with pretty much everything we've heard so far, including rumors of a 4GB iPhone model and cheaper AT&T plans, so it's not exactly a far-fetched rumor -- but then again, it's exactly what we'd say if we were just making stuff up. We'll just have to wait and see on Monday -- and from the looks of our Palm Pre poll, that's exactly what most of you are planning on doing.

Look, we're not definitely saying that Apple's gonna announce a new iPhone in 16 and 32GB capacities on Monday -- we'll leave that sort of certainty to Unkie Walt -- but we will say that the evidence is starting to get overwhelming. Today's whispers bring us "iPhone32gGbV3" and iPhone 16GbV3" inventory placeholders popping up in mammoth UK retailer Carphone Warehouse's systems, with each size notably coming in both black and white editions. That's the first inkling we've seen of color choices, but we're not making too much of it, since it's entirely possible whoever entered this info was just hitting all the possibilities. We're also not seeing anything to indicate that rumored cheaper 4GB version either, so there's a lot still up in the air as we get closer to the Philnote -- keep a sharp eye, we'll let you know.

The Pre launch continues to befuddle -- sure, we finally know that June 6 is when the magic happens, but the mechanics of actually snagging Palm's baby on that day are still pretty mysterious, and that's leaving a lot of room open for misinformation. Today's cloudy tea-reading comes courtesy of an ever-changing list of stores on Sprint.com that are marked as having June 5 "special hours," which some are reading to mean that only those stores will be blessed. We don't buy it. First, we've been told specifically that all stores will have Pre stock, even if it's minimal, and second, the special hours distribution just doesn't seem right to us if it's really correlated with Pre stocks: New York, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco are each currently showing just one store within 50 miles as having special hours, and Philly, Atlanta, and Houston have none listed at all. That's a way different list than when our friends at jkOnTheRun checked earlier, and it's a recipe for total launch chaos if it's true -- but we're guessing the real deal is that all stores will get stock, but only one flagship store in each major metro area will be going all out on launch day with special hours.

Oh, and if you're planning on avoiding all the drama and just rolling into Best Buy on the 7th, we'd say think again: Boy Genius Report says that the Blue will go "weeks after launch with little or no replenishment." Ouch -- guess Sprint CEO Dan Hesse wasn't kidding around about shortages. Bottom line? Keep calling your local Sprint store to see if they get any information about the Pre, and keep it locked right here as we lead in -- we'll be working hard to let you know exactly when and where your best bet'll be.

Read - Sprint Store Locator
Read - Boy Genius Report on Best Buy stock
Read - jkOnTheRun post

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a pretty good track record when it comes to Apple rumors -- remember his spot-on predictions for the unibody MacBook Pro? -- so when he's got a thing or two to say about all the next-gen iPhone chatter, we listen. While not making any promises, he does say he'd wager quite a bit on a new model coming to WWDC, with about twice the CPU horsepower (and possibly twice the RAM, too) as the current model. He also adds some credence to all that talk of video recording, but makes no mention of potential background apps and plays down any surprise tablet or "iPhone mini" cameos. He goes on to add release date would be sometime in July in 16GB and 32GB varieties. We can't say we're willing to bet against him, but that doesn't mean we'll take his word as gospel. We can safely say, however, that we're anxiously waiting to see what kind of shenanigans Schiller has in store for next month.

You had to know we'd see a flurry of iPhone rumors and news as the Apple community reacted to the Pre's official price and launch date, and right on schedule, we've got whispers that Cupertino's next handset will be announced at WWDC, feature an OLED display and a glowing Apple logo, and launch on July 17. There's also a longer list of detailed specs, but for the most part they're just a combination of that matte black casing leak from February and those Chinese specs from last week. So are they the real deal? Well, the source and the site they're on seem a little shaky to us, but the specs themselves don't seem too far-fetched -- OLED screens are getting cheaper and more prevalent, and we're almost certain to see bumps in camera resolution and storage, so even if they are totally made up, we'd venture to guess they're more right than wrong. That's just us, though -- check out the full spec list after the break and tell us what you think.

[Via Wired; image from MacRumors]

We're getting close to WWDC, which means the Apple rumor mill is nearing redline -- today it's BusinessWeek saying AT&T's working on cheaper iPhone data plans. It's not clear exactly how that would play out, but the most popularly-discussed option is a $20 "limited-access" plan potentially offered alongside a cheaper iPhone to be introduced at WWDC -- an option that's almost certainly being discussed as the two companies sort out that exclusivity extension. Of course, we're extremely curious to see what "limited access" means, given AT&T's recent SlingPlayer debacle -- cheap certainly isn't worth it if you're not allowed to do anything worthwhile. Phil, you have anything to say?

[Via AppleInsider]

The Nokia Blog's got it on good authority that the Finnish phone maker's giving its North America distributors the heads up to expect the N97 to arrive on June 2nd for $699, although that price might end up lower. We've been hearing an expected June launch for some time, so it's definitely not out of the question. This does, however, serve as both an exciting and somewhat painful reminder that, should a couple other rumors pan out, June's gonna be a busy month for smartphones.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Ready for some more delicious Zune / Windows Mobile rumors after today's June Zune letdown? Well buckle up -- the always-sharp Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet says she's got specs for Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, the heart of that rumored "Pink" smartphone, and they're pretty wild. According to the list, Chassis 1 phones will all have 3.5-inch or larger multitouch displays with ARM v6+ processors and OpenGL ES 2.0-compatible graphics hardware, 256MB or more of RAM and 1GB or more of storage, as well as at least a 3 megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a compass, and accelerometer. Oh, and glory be -- a 3.5mm headphone jack is required. Here's the kicker, though: NVIDIA's Tegra platform is specifically listed as meeting the core CPU requirements, as well as TI's OMAP 3 platform and "Qualcomm 8k," which sounds to us like Snapdragon's QSD8xxx-series chips. If you've been following along, you know that all three of these (Tegra in particular) have been bandied about as potential Microsoft phone platforms, so it makes perfect sense to us that Microsoft's giving its hardware partners a choice of currently-available high-powered platforms for Chassis 1 -- especially since we've been hearing lots of whispers of hardware based on these chips in the works.

Here's the thing, though: we've also always been told that "Pink" is the codename for Zune software and services on Windows Mobile, so something tells us that Chassis 1 phones running Windows Mobile 7 will feature a strong dose of Zune flavoring -- a plan Steve Ballmer's repeatedly confirmed in the past year. So how do we think this all fits together? Well, we'll slightly revise our previous totally crazy, off-the-wall prediction: we think "Pink" is the codename for a new consumer-focused version of Windows Mobile that integrates Zune services, running not only on a touchscreen Zune HD, but on several third-party phones. Are we crazy? Yes, absolutely -- but you've got to admit the pieces are coming together.