A leaky update faucet let in-the-know users get in on this one a little early, but HTC's now ready to trumpet its official Windows Mobile 6.1 update for its TyTN II to the world. Besides 6.1, the new release packs in the "display performance update" promised some time ago to help put a cap on the cursing and fist-shaking being displayed by owners of various HTC devices lately -- but as we understand it, this isn't a true driver, so don't expect miracles. AT&T Tilt folks who want to play it straight will have to wait some undefined additional period of time for their carrier to get its act together and release the update, but their European comrades can head on over to HTC's site now and kick off the download.

[Image via MoDaCo]

The good news: HTC's prepping to officially launch a Windows Mobile 6.1 update for its TyTN II any day (or week, or month) now. The better news: you can get it now. The bad news: although there are some video performance tweaks in place, they aren't exactly revolutionary -- and it's still not true video acceleration. The worst news: AT&T's Tilt update will apparently follow on at some nebulous point in the future. Got all that? So if you're lucky enough to be sporting an unbranded Kaiser of some sort, why wait? Grab the update from MoDaCo and let us know how it treats you.

Apparently, HTC is having a little trouble keeping people with cameras out of its offices, as evidenced by this totally great spy shot of a what appears to be a bunch of (or two) new phones. We're familiar with quite of few of these devices, like the TyTn II, Touch Cruise, and Touch you see in the upper row, but things get a little stickier down below. Save for that P3470 that's second from left, we have no clue what those slick looking square numbers are. The far left model and the far right might be the same device, but its hard to tell. It also looks like all the devices in this picture are using Windows Mobile, but we're holding out hope that maybe the model on the far right boots Android... and soon.

[Via IntoMobile]

Update: So we figure that one of the two on the right is likely the MDA compact IV for T-Mobile, although that still doesn't explain the generous QWERTY board depicted over there on the left. Can't you just feel the excitement building? Thanks, Marios!

It's pretty clear that HTC's stance on the lack of ATI Imageon video drivers in recent devices has caused quite a stir over here at the Mob, so we thought some of you would be interested in heading over to Engadget classic to voice your opinions in poll form. This seems to be a somewhat divisive issue, so your input would be greatly appreciated. Also, feel free to take part in the burgeoning comment thread: gotta keep the pressure on, right?

We're seeing a serious flow of tips from people upset with supposed performance issues on a good pile of HTC's newest sets. Handsets like the HTC TyTN II, Touch Dual, Touch Cruise, Wings, Titan, Vogue, Libra, and Iris are all apparently affected by underperforming video drivers which in turn slow the device significantly. The list -- and length -- of threads covering this is snow-balling at the well known XDA-Developers forum pages, as is talk of class-action suits. A site has now been set up called HTCClassAction to help people sort through all the buzz and get the nitty gritty details, so hit the read link if you're inspired to learn more. Of course we'll hopefully hear something official from HTC on this in the near term and will be sure to fill you in as we do.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Boy Genius Report is reporting (which makes sense, since it's the Boy Genius Report, after all) that Rogers is gearing up for some sort of huge Windows Mobile push. Of course, to push Windows Mobile, you need some hot hardware -- the Motorola Q9h and HTC Kaiser, to be exact. Promotional stuff has apparently been spotted bearing both devices, with the Q9h launching any minute now for $249.99 on a three-year agreement. No word on Kaiser pricing yet, but we'd imagine it would go for a touch more. How's that HSDPA rollout coming along, Rogers?

While Apple chose London to inform the world of the iPhone's international agenda, HTC is reportedly looking to make a few announcements of its own on that side of the pond. According to TheUnwired, HTC will hold two press events on the first two days in October, the first of which will be in the UK and the second in Germany. Best guesses suggest that we'll be learning a bit more about the firm's forthcoming Windows Mobile-based lineup, and we can only hope that the Kii, Omni and / or Polaris are part of the show -- but considering the location and all, we wouldn't bet the farm on hearing too much about the likely US-bound Juno. Hold tight kids, the events get going in under a week.

So the FCC documentation for the Kaiser is a little wacky in that it makes repeated mention of T-Mobile in the user's manual. That in itself isn't strange -- T-Mobile Germany has the Kaiser as the MDA Vario III, after all -- but what is strange is that we're pretty sure this is the US T-Mobile they're talking about here on account of the English manual and screen shots, myFaves mention, and the lack of Vario branding in the photos. With the Wing in the wild and the Juno allegedly in the pipe, we weren't totally sure how the Kaiser would fit into T-Mobile's lineup, but here's the ace up T-Mobile's sleeve: 3G support on the 1700MHz band. The documentation identifies the 1700MHz radio as a feature destined for Japan, but it's just too much of a coincidence, isn't it? In our blind desire for T-Mobile's fricking AWS services to launch, are we being overly optimistic here?

[Via Boy Genius Report, thanks Orlando]

In case there was any lingering doubt that AT&T would pick up the Kaiser as the successor to its 8525, this should put all those nasty thoughts to rest. Paul from MoDaCo has noticed that HTC's US site now rocks a guide to setting up BlackBerry Connect on the AT&T 8925 "Tilt," confirming several notable things: one, that AT&T is getting the device, two, that it's called the Tilt and its model number is 8925, and three, that it'll support BlackBerry Connect. Sadly, HTC's apparent misstep (or clever leak designed to get us all foaming at the mouth, depending on how you look at it) reveals nothing about a Tilt release date, but we've gotta think it's coming before too long now.

[Via MoDaCo]

Well it's not quite as good as, say, AT&T informing us that we can walk down the block and pick up one this afternoon, but at least HTC has finally given the Kaiser / TyTN II / 8925 an official place in its lineup. Announcing the quad band Windows Mobile 6 handset for European carriers this morning, HTC revealed that Orange, Voda, T-Mobile, and o2 will all get their hands on this Hermes successor, and all the HSDPA, WiFi, and built-n GPS goodness that comes with it. We wish we had more info on plans for a US release, but with TyTN II hitting the EU in October, we suspect it's only a matter of weeks until we can toss the old 8525 into the retired gadgets drawer. [Warning: PDF link].