Amidst a less-than-impressive lineup, U.S. Cellular has finally launched the HTC Touch Pro and kicked its smartphone offering up a notch or two. Earlier this month we reported that the Touch Pro was making its way to this scrappy young carrier but things were still at rumor status. Now that it’s here, we can likely make the assumption that the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, Samsung Gloss and LG UX840 won’t be far behind. As for the Touch Pro, it’s not exactly a new handset so we won’t bother covering the specs for the umpteenth time. You know all about it, you love it and if you’re a U.S. Cellular customer you’d be remiss if you didn’t check it out. Sure you might see the Touch Pro2 pop up soon in the hands of a few pals, but at least you can take solace in knowing they probably paid around $800 for for it while you scored your Pro for $250 after a $70 mail-in rebate.

Thanks, Sams!

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Ask, and ask, and ask….and ye shall receive. Mozilla has finally unleashed a functional “Milestone Release” version of its Fennec mobile Firefox browser. Available immediately for anyone with an HTC Touch Pro. The release version is limited in several ways, most notably without support for soft keyboards, automatic version updating, and plugins, but everything else should work more or less as promised. This is exciting news for anyone that has been eagerly anticipating Mozilla’s official move into the mobile space, and hopefully marks the beginning of significant product development for something that will hopefully do to Pocket Internet Explorer/Opera Mini what the desktop version of Firefox has done to its Internet Explorer equivalent, i.e. render it obsolete. Anyone interested in taking the release for a test drive should hit the Read link for access to the CAB file, though we definitely recommend making a complete backup of your handset before proceeding too eagerly.

[Via WMExperts]

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Well, well, well. Look what we have here. It seems dear old RIM is getting ready to unleash BlackBerry Application Suite (formerly known as Virtual BlackBerry) sometime in the near future as references to it have been found in some of the latest device.xml files within beta OS releases. Don’t remember what BAS is? It’s the little application for Windows Mobile that lets users run the BlackBerry OS virtually on a Windows Mobile device. Ok, now that we have that out of the way, hit the jump for the real news about BAS.

Unlike the last time we spoke about BAS, we have gotten word from some of our RIM ninjas and are able to confirm that BAS has been delivered to many clients for beta testing and it’s a lot better than we were previously led to believe. Internal GPS is now supported meaning that BlackBerry Maps and other location based services will function properly. That is of course provided that the LBS third-party applications have the appropriate API access. Many people were doubting that PIN to PIN messaging and BlackBerry Messenger would work, but we can now definitively say yes, it does. However, life isn’t all beer and skittles as there are many pitfalls to BAS.

The biggest pitfall is that in it’s current form only the HTC Touch Pro/Fuze and TyTn are compatible with BAS. Beyond that… Sorry CDMA users, you’re going to be getting the usual shaft from RIM for the time being (is English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Simplified Chinese with rendering for Traditional Chinese available a good enough consolation prize?). But more so than that, anyone who thought they’d be able to have all of the features of a real BlackBerry is going to be sorely disappointed. For one, Windows Mobile itself handles all calls just as it handles the syncing of Bluetooth devices and external GPS receivers. Pictures taken with BAS are not saved in its directory but rather in the default WinMo directory. MP3s and WAV files do not play nice with BAS while SMS and MMS sent from BAS do not play nice with WinMo as they will not show up in its outbox directory.

So what does all this mean? Well, to us it means that BAS is nice in theory, but will let down anyone who was thinking that they could ditch the shackles of RIM-designed handsets and still have the BlackBerry OS. That said, BAS on a Touch Pro is still very, very badass. Oh, and for you Symbian lovers out there, Virtual BlackBerry is indeed coming to Symbian devices. Makes BlackBerry Connect look a little out of place, doesn’t it? Lastly, and unfortunately, BAS for Windows Mobile runs BlackBerry OS 4.2 which will cause anyone not living in the stone age to become more than frustrated.

One of our faithful ninjas has sent in some info about Telus’ upcoming HTC Touch Pro release. According to our guy, the handset should launch sometime this week, which is in line with other reports. When it drops, expect to pay $299 on a 3 year contract, jumping to a whopping $549 on a 2 year bid, $599 on a 1 year contract, and $649 shackle free. This pricing is comparable to Telus’ current BlackBerry 8830 structure, placing the new HTC model in direct competition with the aging ‘Berry. Finally, we’ve got some comparison shots between the Telus Touch Pro and the handset it’s replacing, the HTC P4000/Mogul/6800. Nothing groundbreaking here, but it does help to illuminate the fact that the Touch Pro is a slightly smaller than its predecessor. Hit the jump for another couple of images.

Thanks, rileysfreeman and kjb_ninja

This week’s Canadian Best Buy ads have hit the presses, and the company had a bit of a shocker in store for those attentive enough to catch the gaffe. It seems that the big box retailer has let the cat out of the bag in regards to the upcoming Telus HTC Touch Pro. The handset appeared alongside the Touch Diamond and the Touch Dual in the ad spot, all but confirming that the QWERTY-equipped beast will be hitting Telus stores before too long. The ad doesn’t reveal anything in the way of details such as pricing, specs, and/or release date, but we can’t imagine these formalities will take too long to surface. If you’ve been in the market for a CDMA version of HTC’s flagship device (that is, of course, until the Touch HD hits the streets) and happen to live on the right side of the border, consider this a prelude to your lucky break.

Thanks, rileyfreeman!

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HTC Touch Diamond not working out for you? We get it, you want a physical QWERTY keyboard. Oh, Touch Pro a little too big? You want something a little more simpler, huh? Starting today, HTC looks to fill that gap. They’ve just announced the HTC S740 and it features the same styling as the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and a numerical keyboard on the front. The only difference? It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard. Here’s a run down of the specs:

• 116.3 x 43.4 x 16.3 mm
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• WCDMA/HSDPA: 900/2100 MHz (we’d guess there is a 850/1900MHz UMTS/HSDPA version in the works, supports HSDPA 3.6Mbps and HSDPA 7.2Mbps)
• 2.4″ QVGA screen
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Qualcomm® MSM7225, 528 MHz
• 256MB flash ROM, 256MB RAM
• microSD slot
• 140g
• 1000mAh battery
• Wi-Fi b,g
• aGPS
• Bluetooth 2.0
• FM radio

Pretty much the most feature-packed Windows Mobile Standard device, no? Enjoy the pics while we phone up our HTC ninjas — we want this thing!

If you’re a Verizon subscriber looking to grab a new handset within the next several months, you’re about to have a lot lot be happy about. If these leaks are to be believed, the carrier is getting set to unveil a host of exciting new handsets. First up is the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, both of which are clearly destined for the CDMA stable. There are no dates associated with these releases just yet, but we’re guessing a mid-fall release wouldn’t be out of the question. Next up is the Motorola Blaze which should hit stores by the 22nd of September. The Treo 800w is on there, but doesn’t have any specific date info, while the as-yet-unidentified Samsung SCH-U31 makes its first known appearance. There are a couple more slated for release in the next month or two, but the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro are the real gems here, no?

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