Asus has announced a new smartphone, this time following the trend of the HTC Touch Diamond by being an almost-full-touchscreen phone.

The P552w runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro with Asus’ own Glide 3D UI, similar to what we see on the HTC Touch Diamond as well, which uses TouchFlo 3D.

The smartphone will be powered by a Marvel 624Mhz CPU and has 128MB of RAM, and features Sirf Star III GPS chipset, WiFi, Bluetooth, and HSDPA. The display has 2.8″ of size, 65k colours, but only QVGA resolution (240×320 pixels), half of the Touch Diamond’s resolution.

The only disappointment besides the resolution is the 2 megapixel camera.

[via GSMArena]

I’ve been reading through a thread on the PocketNow forums on what Microsoft could do on its upcoming online application store, SkyMarket. Many other manufacturers have their own online stores, such as Apple with App Store, Sony Ericsson with PlayNow portal, and Nokia with Downloads! and MOSH, although these are free.

According to Pony99CA, the thread creator, the good thing about the market would be obviously ease of getting useful applications, and software certification from malware.

It would be bad if the operating system developer limited application installation to the market, which would mean that consumers would have to jailbreak their devices for external applications. Having SkyMarket limited to Windows Mobile 7 would mean that quite a lot of Windows Mobile users wouldn’t be allowed to have access to this large application collection, so we hope that Microsoft does not limit it.

OEM can also block the application and include their own, but as long as they don’t fully restrict it, it won’t be damaging to consumers. Microsoft will have to share revenue with these so that they agree to become partners, and the same goes to software companies.

In other words, SkyMarket should be like iPhone App Store, but allow free applications as well.

[via PocketNow]

This time it was Walt Mossberg’s associate writer from Wall Street Journal that leaked the announced HTC Touch Diamond version for Sprint, which is red in some parts of the housing.

The writer, Katherine Boehret, had quite a lot of complaints against Windows Mobile 6.1, the Operating System used on the Touch Diamond. She says that the software platform “has a reputation for confusing navigation and hasn’t had a major update recently”. The writer felt the keyboard way too small to press, that the “device failed to disguise the frustrating interface of Windows Mobile”.

I didn’t feel the Touch Diamond being that bad, it ran like a very decent smartphone, but one thing I can tell, this lady seems to be on something:
“It [HTC Touch Diamond] reminded me of the brown paper bag book covers my Dad helped me make for schoolbooks when I was a kid: They looked great on the outside, felt sturdy and clean and created a blank canvas for homemade doodles that were often more interesting to me than the books they covered. But my book covers couldn’t change what was underneath; pages of frustrating algebra were just a flip away. “

There are plenty more complaints, such as for the Microsoft menus popping up, and the accelerometer being slow. You know what, stick to the iPhone, if you can’t appreciate decent smartphones.

[via All Things D via Phone Scoop]

The upcoming leaked HTC Cleopatra phone will be known as the Shadow II on T-Mobile, which should be one of the first networks to receive it.

The release date for the Shadow II is planned for the 20th of October, even though there is no official announcement at the moment, and the same applies to the HTC Dream G1.

We don’t know much about the specifications, besides the fact that it runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and will have WiFi, but we know also that it will be available in the red, and green and white colours.

The device should cost $149.99 after a Mail in Rebate.

[via TmoNews]

It seems that HTC doesn’t believe in only launching touchscreen phones. After the recent success of the HTC Touch Diamond, and the probable success of the costly HTC Touch Pro, the company is coming up with the S740, a lookalike of the Touch Pro, but without a touchscreen, and with a numeric keypad on the candy-bar form.

The HTC S740 has HSDPA, GPS, a 2.4″ display with QVGA resolution (240×320 pixels), Bluetooth, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Qualcomm® MSM7225, 528 MHz processor, 256MB RAM, and runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard.

Press release after the jump.

[via vnunet]

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