Every now and then, Verizon will play with our emotions by setting a launch date for a device and then pulling it back when that info gets leaked by one of our tipsters. It wasn't too long ago when The Roc showed us pics of the device. Since then, the stores have received the dummy units and the price points have been set, so the actual launch can't be too far off. Thanks to HTC Kid, he was able to smuggle out the pricing which is listed as $349.99 commitment free, $299.99 on a one year, and $249.99 on a life long two year contract. Oh yeah, he reports that it should be in retail for launch on February 16th. Hopefully, it won't get delayed any longer as it may turn out to be last year's news if it does.

Brighthand appears to have unearthed a few details on what's up with Windows Mobile 5.0 and beyond, as laid out in a Microsoft "Tech Days" presentation given in Switzerland (which we can only presume they didn't expect to make it into the wild -- oh come now, sillies). There isn't much to work with here, but the document makes mention of "Crossbow," what might otherwise be remarked as WinMo AKU3. We know, we know, you probably still don't have AKU2 yet, but with Crossbow you might be able to look forward to "Great mobile messaging," "Advanced Business and Enterprise propositions," a "Strengthened phone experience," "Faster, easier application development and distribution," and a "Q1/Q2 '07 Marketing Launch."  Yeah, that doesn't really tells loads. As for Photon: "New, Flexible Shell," "Modular Containers," "'Yamazaki' CE kernel," and "Q1/Q2 '08 Marketing Launch," meaning it could be mid to late 2008 to see the true successor to WinMo 5.0. Dems the breaks, ladies and gents, we're just letting you know what we find.

[Via MGN]

Update: Reader Uni points out you can snag the PowerPoint presentation here.

Samsung locked down the filing, so we couldn't get but a minimal amount of information about their SGH-i320 from the FCC, except that like, um, that it was approved, and has acceptable SAR levels and stuff. We don't yet know for sure if it's US-bound (though we expect it would be) or which carrier would pick it up (but we'll give you one guess as to which US GSM carrier typically gets the hot PDA phones before the other), but with a supposed Q2 release, you can bet  your bottom dollar we'll be watching closely for developments on this thing.

We hit you guys up a couple weeks ago with the news that Palm was going to be releasing the AKU2 update for Windows Mobile 5.0 for the Treo 700w in short time. Well, hope you got all your biz backed up, because it's time to get it on! The 35MB Palm Treo 700w Updater 1.10 is up over on their site, but caveat emptor: Palm advises you absolutely do not restore from Sprite Backup backups if you've backed up your registry. We can imagine why, so we suggest you heed their advice if you're the WinMo registry hacking type.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Update: Looks like Palm pulled the update already! We don't know why, but it'll supposedly "be available at a later date." Anyone want to leave some links to hosts? We'll be happy to put 'em up on here. Thanks, Alexander. Astute reader Curt points out that you can still go through the download rigmarole by following the Google-cached download link. Reader beware, though, we can only imagine what bugs in the update(r) caused Palm to pull it.

We've been spending some quality time with T-Mobile's SDA Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone. The $300 phone boasts some pretty good features for the price, including EDGE data, Bluetooth, a QVGA screen, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. The real kicker is the WiFi connectivity lacking in its 2125 cousin from Cingular, but how does it hold up under rigorous solitaire play and indiscriminate texting of ex-lovers? You'll have to read on to find out.

Though it shares many of the same facial features as the Feeler, the XDA IQ (which is really just the HTC Tornado) will benefit from the Tornado's inclusion of 802.11b and EDGE; the rest of the specs aren't much to phone home about (64MB flash and RAM, 200MHz OMAP, QVGA display, Smartphone 5, etc.), so what we're looking to set this thing apart is price (unannounced) and release time frame (same).