Cingular Wireless has only been offering the 8125 Pocket PC phone for a few months, but a replacement is already waiting in the wings.

According to widely available information, this will be a version of the HTC Hermes. The primary difference between this model — called the Cingular 8525 — and its predecessor will be the inclusion of HSDPA high-speed wireless networking, giving users data transfer speeds between 400 and 700 kilobits per second.

But this isn’t the only change being made to this Windows Mobile device. HTC has also added “OK” and “Start Menu” buttons, plus one for Push To Talk (PTT) service.

In addition, the processor speed has been doubled to 400 MHz.

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Starting in March 2007 the Wi-Fi Alliance will start certifying next-gen WiFi products, which puts us at ease a little bit. As CNET reports, the ultimate goal is, of course, to make sure that all the prelim 802.11n stuff out there plays nice with each other, which currently can mess up existing legit WiFi networks. For those of you who haven’t been keeping score at home, 802.11n has been fraught with total confusion since the beginning. Back in May 2006, the IEEE rejected the first 802.11n draft by a wide margin, failing to garner a simple majority, let alone the required 75 percent supermajority. Later that month, Glenn Fleishman at Wi-Fi Net News told us that Task Group N received around 12,000 comments on the proposed draft — compared to the 2,000-some that most drafts generate — which is another very bad sign. Unfortunately though, it still looks like the real deal officially official final ratification won’t be done until 2008. The short version? Just to be safe, stick with your current WiFi setup until there’s a new man in the White House, ok?

Engadget.com

We don’t want to get anyone too excited here seeing how the SGH-Z610’s FCC test report seems to indicate it’s a single-band UMTS 1900 phone, but when we catch wind of pretty much anything with a touchscreen and an antenna, our ears tend to perk up. The glossy white, uh, block (there doesn’t seem to be a sliding keypad beneath) has a touch of appleness to it, offering what appear to be touch-sensitive music controls on the front, a screen, front-facing cam for video calling, and not much else to interrupt its flowing lines. Flipping through the user’s manual, it looks like finger gestures are used to control the phone’s basic functions — we’re not convinced, but if Samsung wants to ship a few of these our way, we’d be happy to give it a whirl.

Engadgetmobile.com

Even though Palm, Inc. isn’t going to announce it’s next smartphone for a couple more weeks, information on this device is already widely available.

The newest detail to emerge is the name for at least one iteration of this device. Palm announced a few weeks ago that Europe’s Vodafone would be the first carrier to offer its newest Windows Mobile smartphone, and a page on a Vodafone web site now has a clear reference to the “Treo 750v.”

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We are currently running a promotion on our Amazon.com channel.  Lets see how this goes.  If it goes well then we might just leave it there permanently.

JAVOedge Store on Amazon.com

German consumer telecommunication magazine “connect” got a working prototype of the HTC Excalibur in their hands and has published some further information about it in its latest issue. Although its previously been seen with T-Mobile themes, connect indicates that it will be carried by O2 Germany, with XDA branding.

According to connect, the O2 Xda cosmo the Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone will be available during September or October of this year. Of course what this means is that European carriers can expect to see it in the next couple of months, while American carriers will probably take another month or two. The Excalibur is HTC’s answer to the Motorola Q. With a QWERTY keyboard (the German version will has most likely a QWERTZ keyboard), jog strip/pad, GSM/GPRS/EDGE quadband and Wi-Fi, about the only thing this phone is missing is 3G connectivity.

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One of San Francisco’s transit authorities AC transit is using 79 buses out of it’s fleet as test beds for their new Bus-Fi service.  Bus-Fi is a free WiFi service for riders (as well as cars following close) and it is due for a full release mid-fall.  The routes that are being tested are ones that goes through the 3 longest bridges (Dumbarton, San Metro and Bay).  Of course this is intentional as longer bus rides would increase actual usage.  Funding for Bus-Fi is set at $340,000 at this time.

Engadget.com
SFGate.com

A quick thanks to Ka Wang Yee from JAVOEdge for providing me with the JAVOHolster for the the review. Without it, this review would not have been possible.

The package arrived a week after it was shipped from JAVOEdge and was enclosed in the USPS shipping box wrapped in plastic packaging.

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I received the JavoSkin for T-Mobile’s SDA and have had the opportunity to thoroughly test and review the product. The JavoSkin is made of silicone and features an Enhanced Anti Dust (EAD) coating to reduce dust attraction. The JavoSkin improves grip, helps to protect the SDA from scratches and also absorbs shock if your SDA is dropped.

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Derek has done a comparison between the Palm Treo 650 JAVOSkin case versus its Boxwave counterpart. Whose the winner? The title kind of gave it away, JAVOedge of course! Once again JAVOedge’s style and ease of use comes out on top over our competitors. Not only was the JAVOSkin thinner and easier going in and out of pockets, it is also easier to access the keypad.

Read the whole comparison at Derek’s Blog.