Can't be long now, right? First we had dummies, but these are the real deal, ladies and gentlemen -- a little over five ounces of HSDPA, VGA, TouchFLO 3D, QWERTY, and likely a bunch more letters and numbers we're not recalling at the moment. Retail Fuzes are trickling into stores as we speak, though they're apparently going under lock and key; as far as we can tell, none will be sold until AT&T drops the green flag. In the meantime, Sprint, pimp that Touch Pro of yours as hard as you can, because we're afraid your exclusivity is about to end.

Any festering belief that Verizon's version of the HTC Touch Pro is nothing more than a figment of our collective imagination can probably be put to bed now that we have it strutting its stuff on video, yeah? It looks pretty much like what you'd expect it to, sporting an interface every bit as crimson as we've come to expect from a carrier lovingly (or not so lovingly) nicknamed "Big Red." It'll have 512MB of ROM, TV-out, microSD support up to a purely theoretical 32GB, and an integrated business card scanner to put the 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam to work -- enough to make the Windows Mobile faithful on Verizon drool and give pause before setting their sights on the Omnia, we figure. It's not clear exactly when it'll hit retail, but November 14 is sounding like a possible date for deliveries to begin; in the meanwhile, follow the break for the full video!

[Thanks, lwright84]

We figured those dummies probably meant something good was about to happen, and sure enough, evidence is building that we're just days away from an official Fuze release. Boy Genius Report has been ever so graciously provided with documentation suggesting that we'll see HTC's latest WinMo greatness on AT&T shelves come November 11 (just a day after the Quickfire) for $299.99 after contract and rebate discounts have been applied -- or a solid $499.99 if you want to kick it commitment-free. That pricing is right in line with the Bold, making for an interesting, drama-rich showdown heading into the end of the year. Fight!

While SE's Panel interface is a nice XPERIA X1 extra on top of the otherwise vanilla Windows Mobile 6.1 load, we know just how fond of TouchFLO 3D some of you characters are. There's really not too much to say beyond that -- we mean, it's TouchFLO 3D on an XPERIA X1 -- but there's plenty more chatter in the vid just past the break.

Sprint beat 'em with the Touch Pro, but that doesn't mean a throng of AT&T customers aren't going to be delighted to hear that the Fuze is now shipping to stores -- sort of. Retail locations are receiving dummy Fuzes now, which don't do much good if you're trying to store contacts, make appointments, or place calls, but at least give us a solid indication that retail availability ain't too far off. Sorry, Tilt -- you had a good run, but our lust definitely lies elsewhere at this point.

It's not apt to ever go on sale in America (okay, so maybe there's a sliver of a sliver of a chance), but HTC's Touch HD is now on sale for fortunate Britons with a fair amount of poundage to spare. The drop-dead gorgeous WinMo 6.1 handset can be procured right now for £514.99 ($821) sans contract, but if you're a North American mulling an import, you should obviously tack on a few more bills to that. You're still mulling, aren't you?

[Via MoDaCo]

While the Touch HD remains an overseas treat for now, we're left to check out the realm of CNET's UK branch in order to get an up close and personal look at HTC's finest (arguably, of course). As we already saw in the pre-release pics, this beauty is as fine as ever, boasting a marvelous screen and striking curves. Enough chatter -- tap the read link to get all sorts of envious yourself.

[Thanks, T.I.]

Take a good, hard look at that picture above. We know what you're thinking, and you're thinking Sprint might have a CDMA version of the Palm Treo Pro lined up for action. If you'll recall, this isn't the first time (this month) that we've seen a rather believable hint that such an occurrence was on the way, and generally speaking, smokes tends to signal fire. We were always curious about Palm's choice to launch this directly at high-end business users without giving it to a carrier, and apparently, it's been curious as well. So, anyone got any outlandish guesses on a release date?

[Thanks, Hugh]

Along with the change in naming convention comes a change in industrial design, and the C6620 -- one of the first smartphones to make use of Samsung's annoying new one-letter, four-digit scheme -- definitely looks a bit different than your average WinMo piece out of Seoul. Italian carrier TIM appears to be the first in the world to offer it, featuring triband GSM along with HSDPA, Bluetooth (we should certainly hope so), and a 2-megapixel camera -- not earth-shattering by any stretch, but we're digging the two-tone thing they've got going on here. It's selling for €199 (about $254), which we think makes this (or something very close to it) a perfect spiritual successor to the original BlackJack, yeah?

[Via Unwired View and mobileblog.it]

The Samsung Epix, as it's known on AT&T, recently joined the herd of others cluttering up the carrier's shelves after being known elsewhere for the longest time as the SGH-i907. For those teetering on a purchase, the cats at Pocketnow have some valuable insight you should probably chew on first. For starters, they found the screen to be stout and the optical joystick to be "fantastic," though the dearth of in-box amenities was a bit of a letdown. On a very positive note, the reviewer never once had to initiate a soft reboot, and the ginormous 1800mAh battery got him through a solid 1.5 days of heavy usage before calling it quits. Unfortunately, the lackluster software suite was the Achilles' heel; critics found that Samsung's Windows Mobile overlays and additions were ho hum at best, and the complete omission of a soft reset hole was just unacceptable. The bottom line? You should probably give this one a handle in-store before buying blind -- as lovely as some aspects are, you don't want to buy into a device that's frustrating to use.

There are exclusives, and then there are exclusives -- and a Touch HD exclusive definitely falls into the latter category. HTC's undisputed WinMo heavyweight of the moment will be found only on Orange (well, as a locked device, anyway) in the UK through the end of the year for £79.99 (about $127) on a standard 18-month contract, launching delightfully soon in early November. Follow-on launches on Orange's French and Romanian networks are expected soon thereafter.

We can't help but wonder who these mysterious individuals are who get pre-release gear from carriers and manage -- somehow -- to sneak it onto ginormous, hugely visible auction sites without getting into any hot water. Not to say we're complaining; after all, how else would we have the opportunity to see the Fuze's retail box guide book (strangely devoid of AT&T branding) and get a second confirmation that there's going to be a big ol' AT&T logo slapped on the upper right corner of the face? Not to mention that this gives all us peasants the opportunity to scrape up and count the dimes that've collected underneath our couch, hoping beyond hope that we somehow have enough cash to place a bid. We never do, but we can dream.

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

It hasn't been officially put up for sale just yet, but a handful of lucky Alltel types have already managed to land branded Touch Diamonds as evidenced by a full-on unboxing that has recently surfaced on HoFo. For all practical purposes, it looks identical to Sprint's version, albeit with a different branded TouchFLO skin that could be perceived as less annoying if you hate that splash of Sprint yellow or more annoying if you prefer the dark look. At any rate, can't be long now, guys.

[Thanks, Jeff E.]

Locked in a footrace with AT&T's Fuze to become the first US national carrier to launch a variant of the HTC Touch Pro, Sprint has announced that folks can start ordering the QWERTY smartphone this week from "select national retailers," making good on a promise made at CTIA last month. That's not quite as cool as a full-scale launch, but at least we'll start to get 'em in the wild in the next few days -- meanwhile, a more full-scale, fanfare-filled launch is planned for November 2 when the Touch Pro is made available online, via phone, and in all Sprint stores. Any Touch Diamond buyers feeling lingering regrets right about now?

It's already been floating around for a day or two, but Samsung and AT&T have decided to go ahead and follow up their latest WinMo smartphone's release to stores with... oh, you know, some actual press material. The i907 Epix rundown goes something like this: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2-megapixel cam, AGPS with AT&T Navigator, Video Share support, 320 x 320 2.5-inch touchscreen display, and one of those crazy "optical mice" for on-screen navigation when using the touchscreen itself is just too much trouble. Get it now (or yesterday, if you were really on the ball) for $99.99 on a two-year contract.