PhoneNews is reporting that Verizon Wireless has approved a firmware update for the xv6850 Touch Pro. As promised by Verizon Wireless late last year, this firmware update will unlock the GPS on the handset, allowing owners to use Google Maps or Windows Live Search instead of the proprietary and costly VZ Navigator. The firmware update also adds Visual Voicemail support to the phone, a feature that requires a $3 monthly fee and EVRC-B codec support which improves call handling. The update is not available through Verizon Wireless or HTC yet but it is being offered early by Phone News. For those Touch Pro owners who have not already hacked their phone to unlock the GPS, hit the read link to obtain the firmware update — at your own risk of course. Samsung Saga and Samsung Omnia owners – hang in there and hopefully a similar update for your crippled handset is right around the corner, too.

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Tired of hearing about the Touch Pro? Hold on a little bit longer as the Verizon Touch Pro rumor mill is just starting to heat up. Earlier today, Engadget leaked a tentative launch date of November 24th for online/B2B/telesales and December 1st for retail stores. Soon thereafter, we got our hands on a Need to Know Guide that covers the ins and outs of using the Verizon Wireless Touch Pro.  We picked out the highlights for you and we can finally put that whole “Verizon completely neutered the Touch Pro” rumor to rest. The document confirms that XV6850 will ship with a Qualcomm 7500A processor clocked at 528MHz, not the rumored 400MHz CPU. It also lists the 512MB of ROM and 192MB of RAM, which we realize is less than the 512MB/288MB on Sprint and AT&T. Why the difference? We are not too sure, maybe Verizon is reporting the available RAM and not the installed RAM. Regardless, it is nice to see the faster processor and 192MB of RAM which is way better than the rumored 400MHz and 128MB RAM device we were afraid Verizon was going to foist on its customers. The rest of the document has some nice eye candy of Verizon’s very red interface and a quick shot of the XV6850′s very different keyboard layout. Hit the jump for some more pages from the guide.

[Thanks to anonymous over at Howard Forums]

A document leaked by VZW E, a well known tipster over at Howard Forums details the training dates of some upcoming Verizon Wireless smartphones. The Blackberry Storm and Touch Diamond were mentioned in a previous leak of training information but this information about the Samsung Omnia is new. Rumored to be coming to Verizon in November, previously leaked documents contained the very broad “coming in November” target release date. According to this new document, the Omnia training is slated to begin November 15th which means we can expect the Omnia to hit the shelves soon there after. The optimistic among us are hoping for a possible release during the last week of November but we will most likely see the phone arrive sometime in December. This is great news for all of you who are anxiously awaiting the Omnia but the document does leave us wondering what happened to the HTC XV6850 a.k.a. Touch Pro, and the Samsung i770 Saga both of which were rumored for a November release along with the Omnia. With no apparent training dates showing up on this document and rumors of delays circulating for both handsets, it looks like we may have to wait a bit before we can get our grubby mitts on the XV6850 or the i770.

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Pure speculation here, no concrete confirmation, just a case of putting two and two together. Now that we have gotten the disclaimer out of the way, let’s see what we have uncovered about the much anticipated and much debated Verizon Wireless Touch Pro by HTC. A document leaked by Phone Arena in August shows that the Sprint Touch Pro will ship with the Qualcomm 7501A processor clocked at 528MHz, while the Verizon variant will have the slower Qualcomm 7500 processor clocked at 400MHz. This single document has set off a whirlwind of discussion about whether the Verizon Touch Pro has been neutered. Of course Verizon is well known for neutering its phones which makes the specs on this sheet somewhat believable. A few folks over at Howard Forums claim to have knowledge of the XV6850 and insist that the Verizon version does have the 528 MHz processor. They have not provided any concrete evidence presumably because they are under an NDA. While we wait for more sturdy reports or for Verizon to finally announce the phone, we have been busy doing our own sleuthing and may have unwittingly substantiated their claims. You see, there is another post over at PPC Geeks from a technician who works in a repair/order/design facility for HTC. According to PPC Geeks, he is a reliable source. He says, and we quote:

I hear the Verizon Touch Pro will be crippled…true?
Yes, will it be crippled SADLY yes, it will have a lower CPU and memory, but from the test model I honestly did not see a difference unless you use some serious programs. UPDATE: Verizon phone does show a 7501a chipset so its looking like it will be crippled

Did you see the light bulb turn on? He says the Verizon phone has the 7501a chipset, the SAME chipset the Sprint version supposedly has and it’s the chipset that clocks in at 528MHz. We know that most of this rests on both sources being accurate but it does offer just the faintest glimmer of hope for you Verizon customers out there. Stay tuned as our ninjas are hard at work trying to get to the bottom of this.

Read (Leaked Sprint Document)

Read (PPC Geeks Forum Thread)