Nice going RIM, you've successfully filed for a patent on a device that companies like HTC have been making since 2005. That's right folks, your friends at Research In Motion have just thrown an application in the direction of the US Patent Office which should look painfully familiar. The company is calling it a "Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and QWERTY Hide-Away Keyboard," but we're calling it the Wizard. We suppose it's possible that the BlackBerry-maker has something up its sleeve that goes beyond the typical functionality of a phone like this, but nothing in the application seemed to indicate such a scenario. Did RIM even check out the competition before issuing this paperwork? It seems unlikely given the obvious and commonly used shape and design of this particular handset... oh, wait, this one has a trackball. Okay, our bad.

[Via BlackBerry Cool]

Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Smartphone of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: BlackBerry Pearl, HTC Hermes / 8525, Motorola Q, Nokia N93, Palm Treo 750, and Sony Ericsson P990.

Hold on, Apache owners, your knight in shining armor is just around the corner! At least we think it is, now that we've seen some shots of a Verizon-branded XV6800 doing its thing in the wild. It may not look much different than the XV6700 it replaces, but we figure that if the EV-DO Rev. A doesn't tempt you -- or the promise of a Rev. A upgrade at some point, at least -- the 2 megapixel camera and 256MB of Flash just might. Hit the gallery for more pictures.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Ah yes, this is what we've been so eagerly awaiting. Enough pussyfooting around with the Palm Treo 680 and HTC Hermes / 8525 coming to Cingular -- we know they're due. We need prices, we need dates. And according to what appears to be a recent Cingular marketing presentation, we've got 'em:

• Treo 680: $424.99 straight, $349.99 one year, $249.99 one year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate), $274.99 two year, $174.99 two year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate; their ad, however, shows a $200 list price, but it's good to know we can count on around two Benjamins. Expect it November 5th (tentative).
• Cingular 8525: $559.99 straight, $484.99 one year (not including $50 rebate if included with unlimited data), $409.99 two year (also not including that same rebate); expect it October 29th.

See, now that wasn't so bad, was it? Both came in right around where we'd expected and hoped; between the Dash, the Q, and the 680, it looks like that $200 price point is the sweet spot for ever-slimming smartphones. And the 8525 ain't too bad either, considering what you're getting.

[Thanks also to djnth]

Thar she blows. We're not going to pretend like there's any surprise left here -- it's the 8525 in all its tri-band UMTS / HSDPA glory, it was on Cingular's page, and it looks like they're about ready to go. Yep, all we're waiting for is a price and release date. Yep, just gonna keep on waiting. Cingular?

[Thanks, JeShUa, Matt, and jetfxr]

It's been a crazy few years for the once unknown Taiwanese OEM known as High Tech Computer. Although still not a household name like Sony or Samsung, HTC has leveraged its strong ties with Microsoft to offer tantalizing products that have made us early-adopters stand up and take notice, and now the company feels that it's in a strong enough market position to ditch the Qtek brand and begin selling phones under its own name. The Qtek phase-out was announced as part of HTC's official unveiling of the 3G Hermes Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone -- now known as the TyTN -- as well as the compact, UMTS-capable Breeze smartphone -- which is now called the MTeoR (yeah, we're noticing a MOTO-like naming trend too; see the rebadged STRTrk for further proof). In announcing July's European launch of these self-branded handsets, HTC reemphasized its dedication to the many carriers selling its products under their own names, but this development certainly bodes well for the company's overall name-recognition; imagine, instead of lying and telling people we have a Treo because Sprint-branded-UTStarcomm-PPC-6700-based-on-the-HTC-Apache sounds so nerdy, we may one day be able to proudly proclaim "Oh, it's an HTC." [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Geekzone, thanks to everyone who sent this in]