Hey Sprint, you listening? Granted, GSM doesn't do Sprint a whole lot of good in the States, but swapping a CDMA radio into HTC's first WiMAX effort here would make for a downright mighty response to the Touch HD. The previously-seen T8920 has turned out to be the MAX 4G, an 800 x 480 monster with 8GB of Flash on board, two cameras, an FM radio, GPS, WiFi, triband EDGE, and -- most importantly -- WiMAX support, making it the first GSM / WiMAX handset anywhere in the world. It'll be launching on Scartel's Yota network in Russia, and if you have friends cool enough to have a MAX 4G of their own, calls between the two of y'all will automatically be routed over the WiMAX airwaves using VoIP. A launch date hasn't been announced, but unless you're in Russia, there's probably not much point in even bothering to lust after this one. If you insist, though, you can check out a couple additional shots of the phone over at Engadget Mobile.

Can't be long now, right? First we had dummies, but these are the real deal, ladies and gentlemen -- a little over five ounces of HSDPA, VGA, TouchFLO 3D, QWERTY, and likely a bunch more letters and numbers we're not recalling at the moment. Retail Fuzes are trickling into stores as we speak, though they're apparently going under lock and key; as far as we can tell, none will be sold until AT&T drops the green flag. In the meantime, Sprint, pimp that Touch Pro of yours as hard as you can, because we're afraid your exclusivity is about to end.

We figured those dummies probably meant something good was about to happen, and sure enough, evidence is building that we're just days away from an official Fuze release. Boy Genius Report has been ever so graciously provided with documentation suggesting that we'll see HTC's latest WinMo greatness on AT&T shelves come November 11 (just a day after the Quickfire) for $299.99 after contract and rebate discounts have been applied -- or a solid $499.99 if you want to kick it commitment-free. That pricing is right in line with the Bold, making for an interesting, drama-rich showdown heading into the end of the year. Fight!

Sprint beat 'em with the Touch Pro, but that doesn't mean a throng of AT&T customers aren't going to be delighted to hear that the Fuze is now shipping to stores -- sort of. Retail locations are receiving dummy Fuzes now, which don't do much good if you're trying to store contacts, make appointments, or place calls, but at least give us a solid indication that retail availability ain't too far off. Sorry, Tilt -- you had a good run, but our lust definitely lies elsewhere at this point.

Locked in a footrace with AT&T's Fuze to become the first US national carrier to launch a variant of the HTC Touch Pro, Sprint has announced that folks can start ordering the QWERTY smartphone this week from "select national retailers," making good on a promise made at CTIA last month. That's not quite as cool as a full-scale launch, but at least we'll start to get 'em in the wild in the next few days -- meanwhile, a more full-scale, fanfare-filled launch is planned for November 2 when the Touch Pro is made available online, via phone, and in all Sprint stores. Any Touch Diamond buyers feeling lingering regrets right about now?

It's already been floating around for a day or two, but Samsung and AT&T have decided to go ahead and follow up their latest WinMo smartphone's release to stores with... oh, you know, some actual press material. The i907 Epix rundown goes something like this: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2-megapixel cam, AGPS with AT&T Navigator, Video Share support, 320 x 320 2.5-inch touchscreen display, and one of those crazy "optical mice" for on-screen navigation when using the touchscreen itself is just too much trouble. Get it now (or yesterday, if you were really on the ball) for $99.99 on a two-year contract.

We've gotten a number of reports today that the Samsung i907 Epix is turning up in sundry AT&T stores across the lands, and those claims are certainly backed up by a fresh retail unboxing of Sammy's WinMo 6.1 Professional monster for AT&T that's turned up over on Boy Genius Report. "Monster" is the right word here, too, in light of Mr. Genius' claims that the Epix seems to be just about the thickest device offered by the carrier outside the beastly Tilt -- not the news we wanted to hear about a QWERTY handset that looks from a distance to be no more imposing than a BlackJack. The optical mouse is cool, don't get us wrong, but is it cool enough to justify a conspicuous bulge in our pocket?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We'd been encouraged in previous spy shots that AT&T was intending to keep a clean, brand-free look on the front of the Fuze, but what were we thinking? That'd never sit well with the suits up on the 49th floor of AT&T's headquarters (we just made that up, by the way -- we have no idea how many floors AT&T's headquarters has), and sure enough, the latest batch of shots is showing a big ol' logo slapped on the upper right of the face. The poster says release is currently planned for early November, but we'd say that target is about as solid as one of those Jello rings you make in a bundt mold. We'll believe it when it's on the shelf, as they say.

[Via wmpoweruser]

Now that Sony Ericsson's mighty X1 has earned the FCC's love and affection, you won't be an outlaw for using one in the States -- but unfortunately, you won't be a speed demon everywhere, either. The version that just nabbed approval here is the X1i, and anyone familiar with Sony Ericsson's naming scheme can tell you that an "i" means a phone's not really meant for North American consumption; in this case, we're lucky to squeak by with UMTS Band II support, which means we'll theoretically be able to pick up some of AT&T's 1900MHz signal. On 850, though, you'll be stuck with EDGE. Of course, a true global launch has been in the cards for the X1 from day one, and we're not worried that we won't see a more 3G-rife model getting torn down by the feds -- this just ain't it.

Okay, so this "review" of HTC's beastly new Touch HD isn't much of a review, but it offers up a few important snippets of insight -- and perhaps more importantly for the visual stimulation-starved among us, a plethora of photography. The reviewer notes that the 800 x 480 display is positively gorgeous, the cam is decent (though autofocus is a tad on the slow side), the latest iteration of TouchFLO 3D running here chugs along with virtually no slowdown, and despite the display and the heavy-duty spec sheet, the darned thing is essentially the same size as an iPhone 3G. Oh, and there's also a true 3.5mm headphone jack lurking on here, too, which we dare you to find on that HTC in your pocket right now. Makes it all that much harder to hear that it's launching in the fourth quarter without global HSDPA, doesn't it?

[Thanks, Steph]

Billed as an "affordable touch phone with the benefits of HTC's TouchFLO," the Touch Viva picks up where the original Touch left off and move things just a little bit downmarket for the benefit of smartphone lovers in emerging markets. To that end, the screen stays low-end with QVGA resolution, the radio tops out at EDGE speeds, and the camera's a mere 2-megapixel piece -- but by the same token, the Viva hangs onto WiFi, 256MB of ROM, and GPS. It also gets blessed with a tweaked version of TouchFLO that doesn't rely on 3D acceleration found in HTC's higher-end units. It'll be available starting next month for what we can only imagine will be a pretty reasonable price; backup smartphone, anyone?

Oh, come on, you know there's a part of you that wants it. A big part, even. The Touch Diamond is the first new HTC piece to get teed up for Sprint, but the Touch Pro is hot on its heels a few weeks later -- and with a QWERTY keyboard, it's hard to ignore. Question is, is it worth the extra wait? Well, ease your troubled mind for just a second and take a gander at our gallery on Engadget Mobile -- we're not saying it's going to make your decision any easier, we're just saying everyone likes pretty pictures.

Feel that heat, Touch Pro? That's right -- the Great QWERTY Smartphone War of 2008 is officially gearing up for kickoff now that Sony Ericsson has announced a firm date for the first handful of lucky countries to be scoop up the mighty XPERIA X1. Sweden, Germany, and the UK will be the inaugural launch sites come September 30, with no fewer than 32 more on tap in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America for the fourth quarter of the year. North America, China, Australia, and Russia are also listed as committed launch regions, though dates for those will be announced "in the coming months" -- scary verbiage considering that they weren't even willing to slap the Q4 label there. 2009's a long way off yet, and if there's a Touch Pro in front of us... well, let's just say that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you catch our drift.

So the good news here is that Best Buy's getting ready to open its arms to yet another HTC product that's impossible to find by wandering into the brick-and-mortar store of the US wireless carrier of your choice; the bad news, though, is that it doesn't seem to be the version we wanted. The Touch Diamond now has a Coming Soon page all its own on Best Buy's site, which is just fantastic considering that neither AT&T nor T-Mobile have yet bothered to pick it up -- but the problem is that the specifications make no mention of US 3G despite the fact that we know there's just such a version floating around. Our hope is that we've just caught the big box with its pants down (wouldn't be the first time) and they'll look into carrying the real deal by the time "coming soon" switches to "in stock," especially since they've given the Touch Dual the same courtesy.

[Thanks, Mark]

Before a single AT&T-subscribing soul dreams of jumping ship for Sprint just to pick up the Touch Pro in a few weeks, hold up: we can pretty much confirm that it's coming to your neck of the woods, too. We've already seen some totally legit-looking shots of HTC's hottest QWERTY WinMo piece in AT&T trim, but now we have some more damning evidence in the form of a Google cached page detailing the so-called Fuze on the carrier's own site. As expected, we've got tri-band HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, and BlackBerry Connect waiting for us when AT&T finally decides to pull the plug on the Tilt and make this thing happen. Follow the break for AT&T's poetic Fuze verbiage -- and take your time, since there's no indication that we'll have this in stores in the next few days.

[Thanks, Fred]