The big news last week was Verizon’s release of the Samsung Omnia and the HTC Touch Pro. The Samsung Saga, announced in mid-November, should also now be available in stores. It’s great to see that the hottest new phones are now generally available in the U.S. This week in addition to noting Verizon’s release, I’ll point you to some reviews of these and other new devices.

The HTC Touch line is one of the hottest in the Windows Mobile world, and it’s great to see the carriers coming out with their versions of the HTC Touch Pro, now including the AT&T Fuze. Again, this device has the popular TouchFlo 3D interface and a slideout keyboard. This week we’ll also mention the HTC HD and Pharos phone/GPS devices.

At last, I was able to afford an iPhone 3G without an expensive data / phone plan (meaning a much higher starting price). Of course, I've been playing with the device since then. See my review HERE.

I enjoy keeping tabs on the latest and greatest, and this week we’ll note a new Windows Mobile phone, the T*Omnia, which includes a satellite TV receiver. I’ll also point you to reviews of some of the most popular new devices — including the new Samsung Epix from AT&T

Wow, a lot of news recently regarding your choices for new devices. AT&T has released the Samsung Epix, HP has come out with the iPAQ Voice Messenger and the iPAQ Data Traveller, and Sprint has released the HTC Touch Pro.

AT&T Epix

AT&T’s new Samsung Epix has a Treo-like form factor with a front-facing QWERTY keyboard. It’s sometimes called the BlackJack III, but unlike that device it has a touch screen.

Again, the about-to-be-released T-Mobile G1 isn’t a Windows Mobile phone; rather, it uses Google’s Android software. But in this week's column I want to point you to some of the initial reviews, since it’s an exciting device and another strong indicator of things to come. Bottom line: powerful device, Android software is impressive, but needs fine tuning.

 The Android OS has been lurking in the shadows for some time, and even after the SDK was released, the project still seemed somewhat a mystery. The lurking will end as soon as T-Mobile starts shipping its new G1.

Reviews of some of the most appealing new devices are popping up, so I wanted to point you to those this week. It’s fun to see the different form factors and technologies. While devices with iPhone-like touch interfaces are hot, there’s still plenty of action in other form factors and approaches.

Rumors are about that Verizon and Sprint will be offering the HTC Touch Diamond and HTC Touch Pro. Plus, there’s a great video on YouTube of the amazing Touch Pro interface. This week we’ll also note a few reviews of the new HP iPAQ 910 and leaked information about the Treo 850.

It has been quite some time since Palm has come to the table with a new Windows Mobile Professional device: enter the Treo 800W, WM 6.1. At first glance it doesn’t appear all that different than its predecessor, the Treo 750W. But there are some subtle and not so subtle differences.
The new Treo is much thinner, the screen is the same size, there is a Sprint logo on the top, there are two new hardware buttons—one for mail, one for calendar, the keyboard keys have a new look and feel-they are flat instead of rounded and therefore seem to have less definition.

Hardware

There’s a really interesting article comparing the built-in camera of the four most widely discussed new Windows Mobile phones: HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. There is also a dedicated PPCT thread HERE, with some of my comments.

Games

Yes, it was quite a long ago that I've published my last Misc news. The reason for this is my having been really busy: