Check it W-Zero3, Sharp just one-upped your azz with their new EM ONE handheld. This Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC device brings 3.6Mbps HSDPA and 802.11b/g data to the game along with hot dual-sliding action under that 4.1-inch touch-screen display. Unlike Samsung's F520 dual-slider which combines a QWERTY and numeric keypad for making calls, Sharp's slab is a data-only device so they combine the QWERTY with a side-sliding navigation pad for scooting around the 800 x 480 pixel display. However, Sharp's EM ONE comes heavy on the chub at 140x70x18.9-mm compared to the F520's 105x54x17.4-mm or even Nokia's N800 which is about the same length and width but much thinner at 145x75x12.7-mm. The whole kit comes powered by a Marvell 520MHz PXA270 processor and nVidia GoForce 5500 graphics along with 512MB/128MB flash/SDRAM memory and miniSD expansion. The display boasts a rather anemic 65k color palette (albeit, the same as the N800) for viewing integrated 1-Seg mobile TV and WMV videos with WMA and MP3 audio playback supported by a pair of built-in stereo speakers. Rounding out the specs are Bluetooth 1.2, a 1.3 megapixel CMOS camera, stylus, and a 4-hour battery. On sale in Japan starting March 31st for ¥95,000 (about $797) without contract or ¥39,800 ($332) with 2-year commitment.

[Via Impress]

Socket Mobile, the company formerly known as Socket Communication, has set up an intriguing teaser website that alludes to a mysterious smartphone concept. A first glance at the badly put together flash teaser that greats you when you first visit www.socketmobile.com will probably make you reach for your calendar: we can assure you that it is in fact February, just under two months to go until April Fool's Day (we checked.) There's no way we can take the dodgy animation as a confirmation that this device exists, but if Socket Mobile actually expects to release a device based on the concept image above, we can expect it to include a CompactFlash and SecureDigital slot, and for it to run Windows Mobile 5.0. That's it; that's all the information that the dodgy flash animation gives up, other than the concept image above and the assertment that a second concept will appear next week. Until it does, we'll scratch this one up to a really lame attempt at viral marketing, and nothing more.

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

The folks at LAPTOP Magazine have come out with some pretty high praise for HP's iPAQ rx5900 Travel Companion (a slight variation of the rx5915), calling it the best GPS/PDA hybrid yet and bestowing its Editors' Choice award on the shiny little handheld. The iPAQ scored the most points for its top-end navigation software, courtesy of TomTom, which they say worked like a charm in conjunction with the SiRFstar III antenna. And, being based on Windows Mobile 5.0, the iPAQ also provided all the PDA functionality you'd expect from a regular handheld, with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth to round out the connectivity options. The biggest downside, not surprisingly, is that the battery will run down pretty quickly when you have the GPS turned on, lasting just 90 minutes with the backlight on as well. Although it does come with a car dock and charger, which will come in handy if you don't want to have to worry about getting stranded on your next cross-country trip.

Looks like that developer site's leak of the Samsung SGH-i607 coming to Cingular was spot-on. The pics above plastered in Howard Forums are purported to be the latest Q-killer from Samsung. No front-facing camera like we we've seen elsewhere but that Cingular branding is unmistakable. Just to run it down again for ya, this WinMo Smartphone is expected to bring quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE / HSDPA data, Bluetooth, MicroSD expansion, and a side mounted scroll-wheel said to be "on-par, or better than those on RIM devices." We'll see soon enough if the Q3 launch date is accurate. Another picture 'round back after the break.

[Thanks, Notorious J]

We've managed to get our hands on some live shots of a prototype Black Diamond smartphone, a handset that's gained publicity not because of its feature set (WM5, 400MHz CPU, WiFi, quad-band GSM) or its design, but thanks to a $300,000 bank-busting pricetag and an exclusive five unit manufacturing run. Subtlety and style seems to be the main theme here, with the designers avoiding the obvious temptation to stick thousands of diamonds on the case. Click on for comparison shots with AXIA's EMXI 700, and for pictures of our lucky insider cradling the most expensive hunk of plastic he'll ever hold.

Sure, you like the Motorola Q but hate the fact that it's missing WiFi. And the lack of 3G on the HTC Excalibur is also a deal breaker. Well, look no further for your QWERTY fix brother, 'cause our favorite maker of boxy black devices is showing off their SGH-i600 Smartphone at IFA in Berlin. This tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 baby brings it all: HSDPA, EDGE, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel cam with another up front for video calls, a 2.3-inch, 65k color, 320 x 240 TFT display, Microsoft's Push Mail, and 128MB ROM / 64MB RAM with MicroSD expansion all powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone on a TI OMAP 1710 processor. The phone looks small enough for single-handed operation, can pull double-duty as an HSDPA modem and can even be switched into USB mass storage mode for easy drag-n-drop data transfer off your PC. And yeah, it's FCC approved so the estimated Q4 2006 release date is certainly do-able. Now sop-up the drool and click-on for more pics.

[Thanks, Martin]

You know it, you need it, and now you can finally loose your wild-eyed gaze upon these non-blurry pics of the HTC Excalibur. Or more appropriately, the Xda cosmo as this fully-functional, pre-release device from O2 Germany has been re-dubbed. Yeah, Germany, which explains the Z and Y switcheroo on zee handy's QWERTY QWERTZ keyboard. Still, with an expected September/October European release (coming to The States a few months later), we'd expect the specs and cosmetics of this quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and 1.3 megapixel cam WinMo 5.0 Smartphone to push through to production with few, if any changes. Click-on for a few more hi-res shots courtesy of the::unwired.

[Thanks, Martin]

While we loved the specs on Sharp's W-ZERO3 / WS003SH, let's just say that its plastic, chub of a case was seriously short on swank. Now check the W-ZERO3 [es] / WS007SH hotness which our brethren at Engadget Japan got the jump on this AM. Developed under that same partnership with Sharp, Willcom, and Microsoft, the new WS007SH variant keeps the Pocket PC flavor of Windows Mobile 5.0 and 416MHz Intel PXA 270 proc but brings a second, standard phone keypad to the mini, sliding QWERTY. They even managed to squeeze that same VGA resolution into a smaller, 2.8-inch screen while keeping the best of the rest: 128MB flash (60MB allocated to the user) and 64MB of SDRAM, miniSD expansion, USB, and 1.3 megapixel cam. All this and she still manages to slim-down from 70 x 130 x 26-millimeters and 220-grams to 56 x 135 x 21-millimeters and 175-grams. Ok, no WiFi or Bluetooth yet folks, but these, like a Japanese OneSeg expansion pack for digital TV on the go are currently under development and will certainly increase the bulk. Available only in Japan starting July 27th for ¥29,800/¥36,800 (or about $260/$321) with/without a one-year contract. Many more pics, including the OneSeg TV expansion after the break.

[Via Engadget Japan]

We heard it was coming and sho'nuff, MobiTV just announced the immediate availability of their MobiTV service for Windows Mobile powered phones and devices. When run on WinMo 5.0 Smartphones, the $10/month service supports full-screen viewing, an EPG, and hot TeeVee streaming over WiFi or high-speed 3G-ish nets. And while the press release is just ambiguous enough to make it sound like any WinMo 5.0 Smartphone or PocketPC will work with the service, a bit of digging finds only the Treo 700w, Sprint PPC-6700, Cingular 2125 and 8125, and Motorola Q  listed as "supported devices." So you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Even though we've seen a ton of products designed to aid the visually-impaired in their daily lives, technology still has a long way to go before disabled folks are able to enjoy a completely unrestricted lifestyle, which is why inventor/visionary Ray Kurzweil has spent the last quarter-century building devices that make reading easier for the blind. His latest invention, called the K-NFB, is basically a five megapixel digital camera attached to the back of a Windows Mobile 5.0-powered PDA, which is loaded with software that uses optical character recognition and text-to-speech technology to read aloud the words contained in user-captured photos. Once it's called into action, the $4,860 device supplies the operator with an initial "situation report" that attempts to describe whatever's in the camera's field of vision; if the report indicates that the desired text is within range, owners can then choose to snap a photo and listen to the resulting translation. Although the K-NFB is scheduled to be released soon by the UK's Sight & Sound, several technical issues -- most importantly, the software's difficulty in understanding inverted (white-on-black) text -- still have to be ironed out before it's available to the public.

[Thanks, Megan]

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]

We're not nearly as into DualCor's cPC Windows convergence device now that we found out it doesn't come with any built-in wireless radios, but we've still been looking forward to catching it in the wild just the same, because any pocket-sized machine that sports both XP and WM5 is more than a little bit noteworthy in our book. And luckily for us, our partners-in-crime over at Engadget Chinese have just captured some nice photos of this two-processor machine as part of their extensive Computex 2006 coverage, although our contribution of copying and pasting the pics for you to peep should not be overlooked. More cPC snaps are available after the break, and more VIA-powered products from the CPU manufacturer's booth tour can be found by following the Read link...

PhoneArena just posted an intensive review of the ETEN G500 / Torq N100 for your dirty little gadget spelunking ways. This Windows Mobile 5.0 PPC Phone Edition handheld, you'll remember, sports a 400MHz Samsung processor, 2.9-inch QVGA display, 64MB RAM / 128MB ROM, a 1.3 megapixel shooter, Bluetooth, miniSD slot, quad-band GSM, and SiRFstar III GPS. So yeah, it's "bulky" as pointed out in the review, but then again this is one of the more "sophisticated" pocket PCs you'll find making it the ideal choice for both the highest-of-tech junkies and corporate users alike. Definitely not for the fashion conscious or average user due to its "great complexity" thus requiring a bit of know-how with them thar 'puters. But if opening 15 apps on a PocketPC without any noticeable performance degradation is your (like the reviewers) idea of a good time, then this is the work-horse for you. A few more snaps after the break.

We've been on the fence about HP's hw6000 line of Swiss Army phones ever since we first spotted the GPS-equipped iPaq hw6515 -- these models include everything but the kitchen sink, but they also force you to use that non-standard 240 x 240 screen. Still, MobileTechReview's in-depth look at the latest member of the family, the hw6915, makes us think we could overlook the square screen and lack of 3G data options because, well, the rest of this Windows Mobile 5.0-powered smartphone sounds like exactly what us convergence-geeks are seeking. According to MTR, the quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset impresses on many fronts, including its solid keyboard, powerful internal antenna, GPS performance, and best-in-class benchmark numbers. HP also throws in some nice extras, like helpful Today screen plug-ins, a full-featured wireless radio manager, the ability to location-stamp photos, and even A2DP in the Bluetooth stack, which isn't normally included in WM5 AKU2 devices out of the box. Besides the fact that this screen resolution may not support all third-party apps, the only real knock to this model concerns the camera's startup/shutter lags -- and if that's the worst thing to be said about a device that seemingly does it all, then we're totally sold.

DualCor Technologies has just released the final specs for their cPC "ultimate convergence device," and those who were looking forward to this model are bound to be horribly disappointed: not only will the production version lack cellphone capabilities out of the box as first promised, but the device contains no radios whatsover. That's right, if you want to get your WiFi, Bluetooth, or 3G on with the cPC, you'll need to bring your your own CF cards or USB dongles to get connected, which takes an awful lot of convenience out of a product designed to lighten your load. Besides the crushing lack of wireless, the rest of the specs seem decent enough, with the XP side of the device powered by a 1.5GHz Via processor that's backed by a full gig of DDR2 RAM. Both OSes can store data on the 30GB hard drive (and not 40GB as we previously reported) or the 1GB of NAND flash memory, with the Windows Mobile 5.0 side is supported by a 400MHz Intel PXA263 chip and 128MB of DRAM. GottaBeMobile is reporting that the cPC will be shipping within the next 90 days, though now that the product is devoid of any wireless capabilities, we're curious to see what type of customer actually picks one up. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via jkOnTheRun]