Ah, yes, Y2K…remember the good old days?  ATM’s weren’t going to recognize your bank card, servers were going to spontaneously combust, and elevators would have no idea where the second floor was. For those of you who look back with nostalgia at the Y2K hysteria, there is a new, albeit much smaller, Y2 “something” glitch to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside again. WMExperts is reporting that some mobile users are seeing text messages sent after 1/1/2010 dated as 1/1/2016.  The most widely affected group seems to be those on Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 although some non-Windows Mobile users are also reporting this behavior. WMExperts has a home grown .cab file posted with a fix, however we haven’t seen anything official from Microsoft or other major manufacturers. How about it? Any of you out there getting text messages from the future?

[Via PocketNow]

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You know your proprietary mobile OS isn’t all that great when we go ahead and say: thank heavens for Windows Mobile. Garmin/ASUS have announced that their M20 “GPS that can make phone calls” will now ship with Windows Mobile 6.5, and “all” current M20 owners are eligible for the free upgrade. Sweet. The two companies claim 6.5 will be available in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech, Turkey and elsewhere on the M20 by the close of 2009. No love for Western Europe and the US? Oh well. WinMo 6.5 for the M20 is nice and all, but what about all those fellas who purchased a G60?

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The upcoming Canadian wireless entrant WIND has been pretty secretive about its plans other than the fact it wants to shake things up, but thanks to a tipster within the company, we might have just found out the handsets it will be launching its 3G network with. The first is the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the second is the HTC Snap, the third is the Huawei U8220, and the fourth is an unknown QWERTY slider from Samsung. Other than that, it’s alleged that WIND will start off with three n0-contract price plans, have no SAF, not charge clients for features like caller ID and voicemail as well as not bill for intra-Provincial long distance and all dealerships will be outfitted with Microsoft’s Surface. Sounds nice to us, but what do you think, Canada?

Thanks, Fil!

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Yes, indeed, the day so many of you have been patiently waiting for has arrived as T-Mobile’s HTC Touch Pro2 is now on sale. Arguably the greatest Windows Mobile handset to ever grace this great green earth, the Touch Pro2 features a 3.6-inch WVGA restive touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus, Wi-Fi, GPS, 512MB ROM/288MB RAM, microSDHC support and a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A processor — all working to make this Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone with TouchFLO 3D the gem that it is. The only problem as we see it is the 2-year price tag that could make even a hardened extortionist weep: $349.99. Then again, perhaps we’re being too hard on T-Mobile’s pricing; there are worse things you could be spending your hard earned money on, right?

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Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T? You bet. The first live image of an AT&T-branded HTC Touch Pro2 has emerged proving once and for all that, yes, the device codenamed Fortress is indeed headed to AT&T. It’s way too early to speculate on price and release date (or is it?), but we do have something fairly interesting to report. If you took a close look at our exclusive leak of AT&T’s upcoming launch list you’ll have noticed that the HTC Tilt 2 was listed as model number ST7377. Now take a look at the slide of the Fortress that we saw emerge back in May. Notice anything like, say, a model number of T7337? It appears that the AT&T Touch Pro2 will be released as the Tilt 2 meaning that the Fuze is likely to never have any offspring. Welcome back, Tilt moniker.

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Canadian Windows Mobile junkies have a couple of reasons to smile this afternoon as TELUS has begun selling two great WinMo packin’ smartphones: the HTC Snap and Touch Pro2. Priced at $0 and $249.99 respectively on 3-year deals with voice and data discount (or $399.99 and $649.99 outright), both the Snap and Touch Pro2 are sure to please prosumers and business users alike. Apart from their obvious differences, each device has an abundance of features including email support, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, speakerphone, visual voicemail, global GSM roaming and well over five hours of talk-time per device. So, Canadians, who’s in?

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Oh Best Buy, how we love you so. It doesn’t seem to matter to you whether or not a carrier has officially launched a device, because you’re in the big box business and don’t care about trivialities like carrier announcements. The latest example of this sort of behavior is your peddling of TELUS’ HTC Touch Pro2 for $249.99 CAD despite the fact TELUS has yet to confirm pricing, let alone a launch date. But like we said, you’re Best Buy so you can afford to take these sort of risks. Just do us one favor, okay? Fix the crazy image that you have up on the site because you’re making the sexiest WinMo handset in creation look like one of those LG phones that wants to be a makeup compact. Kthx.

Thanks, Dennis!

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By meticulously sifting through all of the information available on the Bluetooth SIG website, it’s possible to learn about handsets before their existence has been announced by manufacturers. Once in a while however, the grunt work is done for us and someone will jump the gun by publishing some information before it’s ready to go. This is exactly what Bluetooth SIG did on its Twitter account when it linked to information about the upcoming Samsung B7620 which, according to Samsung Hub, will be Sammy’s second Giorgio Armani-branded handset. Just like the suits made by its namesake, the Armani 2 looks as if it is shaping up to be a great little handset with specs that include a 800MHz processor, Wi-Fi, aGPS, FM radio with RDS, business card scanner, “Work & Life” mode, Office Mobile and support for just about every audio and video codec under the sun. In other words, apparently it will make the first Armani phone look like A|X.

[Via Samsung Hub]

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No surprises with this one as our leaked spy shots, release date, pricing details and specifications were all spot on. Today, Verizon Wireless made all that we already knew about the HTC Ozone official. Those looking for a basic Windows Mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard will only have to shell out a meager $49.99 after $70 mail-in rebate and 2-year contract for the HTC Ozone. The Ozone will be available online, through telesales and B2B channels starting June 29th with a full in store retail launch to follow on July 13th. Yeah, it’s not the Tour but $49 for a sweet new Windows Mobile smartphone isn’t too shabby at all.

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We’ve already given the world its first peek and Verizon’s upcoming HTC Ozone, nailed down its scheduled availability of June 29th/July 13th and pegged its pricing at $49.99 after MIR, but we’re not done yet because two of our VZW ninjas just hit us up with the complete spec list for the device — and plenty more. Just as we suspected, the Ozone features EV-DO Rev. A connectivity in addition to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. We’re also pleased to report that the GPS chip is not shackled to VZ Navigator and that Verizon will allow users to use the device as a tethered modem (for a fee of course). Hit the jump for the rest of the specs along with a sizable Ozone deck.

Thanks, anonymous and indelus!

Features

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
• Dual-band 1xRTT/EV-DO Rev. A, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Pre-installed SIM Card w/ Global Support Kit
• Microsoft Office Mobile
• Adobe Reader LE PFT viewer
• Internet Explorer Mobile
• Windows Media Player Mobile
• 256MB ROM/128MB RAM
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• 2.4″ QVGA display w/ 24k color
• Full-QWERTY with 5-way navigation key
• 2 megapixel camera w/ auto-focus and video capture
• microSD slot (up to 16GB)
• Voice command, notes/recorder capable
• Speakerphone
• Security locking features
• MMS
• AOL, WLM, Yahoo! IM
• Wireless Sync capable
• ActiveSync capable (v4.5) and Windows Mobile Device Center
• Mobile Broadband Connect capable
• VZ Navigator capable
• Visual Voicemail capable
• Device Insurance available
• Hearing aid compatible = M3/T3

Specifications

• 4.5″ x 2.5″ x 0.5″
• 3.7 oz.
• 1500 mAh battery
• 290 minutes talk-time
• 324 hours standby
• Head: 1.03 W/Kg SAR

Rogers subscribers who happen to be fans of Windows Mobile will be pleased to learn that Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 is now shipping to retail outlets across Canada and will be available within the next few days. Finally. With a price tag of $249.99 on a 3-year contract with a voice and data plan of $45 or more, it’s not exactly clear to us just who is going to want to snag a device that was announced on February 10th of last year — especially considering hot new WinMo devices like the HTC Touch Pro2 and the, umm, Xperia X2 are just around the corner. Then again, maybe we’re just too picky.

Thanks, Treatz!

While Samsung might think that its two new Omnia Pro’s are the hottest new Windows Mobile devices on the planet, LG is confident that its done Samsung one better with the Aigen LG-GM730. Having layered its S-Class 3D UI on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 for a more visually appealing and user friendly user experience, the dual-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA Aigen also features a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, aGPS, FM radio tuner and a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus all in a body that is 11.9mm thick. As for color options, the Aigen is available with black, pink and lime chrome trim. LG says that the Aigen is available now in Korea, but bizarrely pricing has not been made public. Go figure.

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As if we weren’t confused enough already with the whole Louvre/Omnia Pro situation, this morning Samsung has gone ahead and introduced two different devices with the same name at the CommunicAsia trade show. To be officially known as the Omnia Pro B7610 and Omnia Pro B7320 (for now, at least), the former is the touchscreen QWERTY slider we’ve seen a lot of over the past few days while the latter goes the full-QWERTY candy bar route. Just to make matters even more frustrating, Samsung isn’t exactly giving out much in the way of details other than the same old spiel about how the two devices are a part of its “mobile convergence plan” to “reinforce its status as a leader” in the mobile phone industry. Uh huh. Luckily it looks like the rumored specs of the B7610 were pretty accurate so at least the more desirable of the two phones is well covered.

[Via Akihabra News]

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Excited about the upcoming Samsung B7610 Louvre? Well wait just a tick, because we’ve got some interesting news to report. Yesterday Samsung slipped up and pictures of the Louvre were briefly published to its press gallery. Apparently Sammy referred to the Louvre as we know it as the Omnia Pro, a device that we have been hearing about since late April. Truth be told, we wouldn’t be all too surprised if this were the case considering all of the known specs of the Louvre match up with the rumored specs of the Omnia Pro. And speaking of the devices specs, a more detailed list has surfaced that makes the device look even more promising:

• 3.5-inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen display w/ WVGA resolution
• 800MHz processor
• 5.1 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash
• Sliding QWERTY keypad
• 2 UIs (Pro & Media w/ dedicated button to switch between them)
• TV-OUT
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• MicroUSB
• Divx/WMV/H.264 accelerations
• GPS/WIFI/HSDPA/HSUPA/Bluetooth
• FM Radio
• DNLA support
• 1GB internal memory with microSDHC up to 32GB
• 1500mAh battery

The Louvre/Omnia Pro is believed to be on track for September or October. There are some reports that the device is currently running quite slowly because of a very buggy ROM however, so rumor has it the launch might be pushed back a month. September is still quite a ways away though, so we’re hoping Samsung can sort any issues out in time. Until then, hit the jump for a few more press shots.

[Via Unwired View]

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Read – Specs

Hot on the heels of the first rendering of the Samsung B7610 Louvre comes the first spy photo and some additional specifications on this mid-range offering from Sammy. The Louvre looks even better in person than it does in the rendering and it comes with an increasingly solid set of specs that include:

• 3.50inch AMOLED 16M color resistive WVGA (800×480) display
• 800Mhz CPU
• 5.1 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• 2 UIs (Pro & Media, with a dedicated button to switch between them)
• TV-out
• 3.5mm Headphone jack
• MicroUSB connector
• Divx/WMV/H.264 accelerations
• GPS/WIFI/HSDPA/HSUPA/BT
• FM Radio
• DNLA support
• 1GB internal memory + SDHC up to 32G
• 1500 mAh battery

The Louvre is expected to debut later this summer with Windows Mobile 6.1 and an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 to follow in the September/October 2009 time frame. That is the good news, the bad news is that the current ROM is reportedly running slowly, even on the 800MHz processor. Slow performance may result in a slip of the launch date possibly until November, a fate that may also await the Omnia 2 (GT-i8000).

[Via wmpoweruser]

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