Will Verizon launch Blackberry Storm on Nov 3rd?

Could Verizon be launching Blackberry Storm on November 3rd? That is a possibility, based on the internal training document that Engadget manage to snag. According to this document, employees are required to complete the Blackberry Storm feature training by November 2nd. So, conceivably, Verizon could launch the Storm on November 3rd. However, I think the November 8th might be more realistic. Also, in that document, employees are required to complete their Touch Diamond training by December 3rd. So, Touch Diamond could launch few weeks before Christmas.

Sprint sets launch dates for Touch Diamond and Touch Pro

Sprint today announced that it will start selling both the HTC Touch Diamond and HTC Touch Pro in October. The Diamond will be launched in September and will be priced at $249 for 2-year contract with $100 mail-in rebate while the Pro will be available starting October 19th and priced at $299 for 2-year contract with $100 mail-in rebate.

 

Qik rolls out live video streaming to Windows Mobile devices

Soon after launching mobile clients for iPhone and Samsung i325 (ACE), Qik, the mobile video provider, has released a new client for Windows Mobile devices. The phones it is supported on are:

HTC Touch Dual

HTC Touch Diamond

HTC TyTn-II

AT&T Tilt

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

In addition to viewing Qik hosted videos on your mobile, the software also allow users to stream live video directly from their phone.

Is CDMA Samsung Omnia in the works?

It appears that Samsung is preparing two derivatives of its popular Samsung Omnia i900 for the North American market. PhoneArena reported today that FCC has just approved the i910 and the i907 from Samsung. The i910 appears to be similar as the i900 with CDMA support alongwith Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This could mean that the phone is headed for Verizon Wireless. The i907 is a slightly different model but it could be a Samsung Omnia derivative headed for AT&T. Neither the operators nor Samsung have confirmed these rumors. You can read the Omnia review here and here. You can read the comparison to HTC Touch Diamond here.

WSJ reviews HTC Touch Diamond

Wall Street Journal yesterday reviewed the HTC Touch Diamond and in the process confirmed that it was headed for Sprint and also the price $250 (after $100 mail-in rebate) with 2-year contract. Now, we knew that the Touch Diamond was headed to Sprint and was due out in September and possibly in red. We also knew that Best Buy will carry it and its price will be in $299 range. However, per Katherine Boehret of AllThingDigital blog at WSJ, Sprint price will be lower than Best Buy’s. However, this is the first hand-on review of the device. Katherine is not impressed with the device and according to her the device

hide the outdated (Windows Mobile) operating system well enough or often enough for a user to want to buy a whole new mobile device

 

Best Buy to sell HTC Touch Diamond?

David Ciccone over at MobilityToday is reporting that Best Buy will begin selling HTC Touch Diamond with 3G support starting September 29th in the USA. No pricing has been announced yet. You can read more about the Touch Diamond here and here. As I had reported earlier, Sprint was rumored to launch the phone this past Monday 9/2, which has not happened yet. So, I am not sure how credible the Best Buy launch date is. Also, the pricing for Sprint is said to be $299 with contract and $549 without contract. I would expect Best Buy to match that.

HTC Touch Diamond appearing at a Sprint Store near you

Update: Engadget Mobile is reporting that the Touch Diamond will be released on September 2nd, 2008. However, they think it will be pushed further out to October.

I had reported earlier on the HTC Touch Diamond coming to Sprint in red. It appears that the red-backed HTC Touch Diamond has been confirmed and is indeed heading to Sprint. PhoneArena had earlier reported that it would be released on August 28th. However, the launch has been delayed by a few weeks. The phone will cost $299 with contract and $549 without contract. You can read the reviews here and comparison to Samsung Omnia here

Get ready for Red Diamond

Looks like HTC Touch Diamond is heading for Sprint and will be decked out in red according to this post on WMExperts. I blogged the review for this handset here. Also, I did a comparison of the Touch Diamond with other touchscreen phones which you can read here. Given that is has already been approved for the US market, I expect Sprint to launch it sometime in September or October. Here is a quick reminder of the specs.

• 2.8-inch TFT-LCD with VGA resolution

• ROM: 256 MB RAM: 192 MB DDR SDRAM Internal storage: 4 GB

• Tri-band GSM and WCDMA support with HSPDA and Wi-Fi

• 3.2 Mpxl camera

• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional

• Weighs 110 grams.

HTC Touch Diamond Review

IntoMobile today reviewed the HTC Touch Diamond. As reported earlier, the Diamond is a Windows Mobile based touch screen phone. Here is what Will at IntoMobile has to say about it:

Compared to my iPhone 3G(a comparison that is inevitable in today’s market), the HTC Touch Diamond is just soo much smaller and compact that I’m inclined to refer to it as “cute.” But, don’t let its svelte profile fool you, the Touch Diamond is about as good as it gets in the touchscreen smartphone world.

Will was impressed by the TouchFlo 3D interface and the GPS. The small keyboard was not an issue for him, however, it could be a problem for people with bigger fingers. Above all,  he was really impressed by the crispness of the VGA display inspite of its smaller size. In his words:

There’s nothing like a side-by-side image comparison with the iPhone’s 3.5″ display to really highlight how much more crisp imageslook on the HTC Touch Diamond’s screen.

You can read the entire review and see comparison photos here.

Samsung Omnia Vs HTC Touch Diamond

Here is a good in-depth comparision of Samsung Omnia and HTC Touch Diamond from an Italian site CellularMagazine.it.