And you thought T-Mobile and Sprint were sniffing the good stuff when they demanded $350 for the HTC Touch Pro2. Shortly after Instinct HD boxes began showing up at select Sprint stores, the flagging carrier has finally come forward with an official ship date (9/27) and price. Try as we may, we still can't figure out why exactly "HD" is tacked on the end of this thing; the 480 x 320 display is decidedly average, it can't play back high-def content on the device itself, and the "HD" video output is a feature that approximately 3.8 Earthlings will ever use (on a phone like this, anyway). Compounding the problem is the remarkable lack of detail in the specifications -- Sprint simply swears that its 5 megapixel camera and video record mode are HD, but it fails to provide any elaboration whatsoever. Other specs include WiFi, EV-DO Rev A support, Opera Mobile 9.7, an ambient light sensor, haptic feedback and an accelerometer, but even those can't help justify the $249.99 (after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement) asking price. Hey Sprint -- we thought you guys were actually looking to gain subscribers. Right?

Opera Mobile, already considered by many to be the premier browsing platform for WinMo handsets, has just benefited from a big boost today in the form of version 9.7. The headline here is that 9.7 is the first version to employ Opera's Opera Turbo technology, which offloads pages to Opera's servers (in much the same way as Opera Mini) where they get compressed to tiny fractions of their original sizes before being sent down to the phone. A demo on Opera's site shows the tech in action (using an EDGE connection for added drama), and if the claims hold up, Turbo should clearly make a noticeable difference in end user browsing speed. Next up, 9.7 upgrades to the Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which is exactly the same engine used by Opera's desktop browsers and is said to offer up to a 25 percent boost in rendering speed over previous versions. Anyhow, Opera Mobile 9.7 is available now for your WinMo phone -- much to Internet Explorer Mobile's chagrin, we imagine.

Last we checked, Mobile World Congress ended a few days ago, but evidently ASUS doesn't mind a bit. Out of nowhere, the company has just introduced its newest Windows Mobile 6.1 (boo...) smartphone, the P835. Without a doubt, the two standout features here are the 3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen and support for HSUPA 7.2Mbps downloads. The handset comes loaded with Opera Mobile for web surfing, a trackball, the company's new and improved Glide user interface, a battery good for six to seven hours of talking, a 528MHz Qualcomm 7201A processor, 4GB of internal storage, a microSDHC card slot, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, USB 2.0 connectivity, aGPS and quad-band GSM compatibility. You'll also find a 5 megapixel AutoFocus camera and video recording, and beautifully enough, the phone can double as a WiFi access point to share its blazing fast connection over WiFi with up to ten devices. As ASUS always does, we're left high and dry when it comes to pricing and availability. Full release is after the break.

We've been waiting for this day ever since Opera first announced its Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser back in February. Today, it's out for a beta 1 launch. In other words, it'll be buggy but likely far more useful than the browser already installed on your touchscreen-based (PocketPC) WinMo professional phone. The initial release includes support for double-tap zoom, landscape flip, off-line page save, tab-like browsing, auto-URL complete, and a Google-search bar to name just a few of the 9.5 features. More functionality will be added later including Google Gears and support for Flash video on WinMo and Symbian devices. CNET already has the hands-on video review up for your pickings. Better yet, download and install for yourself and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Update: PhoneArena has chimed-in with a video hands-on of its own. Check it after the break.

Read -- Opera Mobile 9.5 beta 1
Read -- CNET first look

We never thought we would live to see the day that Pocket IE was pushed aside hastily by some Windows Mobile users in favor of the Opera browser. In the "fat lady sings" department that is in rumorland at the moment, the CEO of Opera has flat-out stated that some WM6 handsets will have the Opera browser pre-installed. Eek, say it isn't so! Until we can confirm this, we're on pins and needles along with every other Opera-lovin' WM customer on the planet. How about specific devices? Those beans have no been spilled yet, although the Motorola Q was alluded to along with some unspecified HTC, Toshiba and Asus units. If you're still on PIE (Pocket IE) and have not downloaded Opera already (or some other browser), having that beauty pre-installed is next to foolproof for a better browsing experience for many of us. We're counting the seconds until confirmation of this rumor.