Hello, beautiful. Danish phone site Mobil has uncovered "internal documents" on what appears to be Sony Ericsson's upcoming Android-based handset, an XPERIA number codenamed Rachael. Under the hood is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, HSPA and an 8 megapixel camera. It's unclear how big the touchscreen is, and other details are scarce -- there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, so that's nice, but unless we're severely misguided, there doesn't seem to be a slide-out keyboard tucked away inside this thin chassis.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

So much for exclusivity, eh? Sprint is staying toe-to-toe with Verizon in the race to get the BlackBerry Tour to market, launching the consensus hottest RIM device to date on July 12 for $199.99 on contract after rebates. It's awfully refreshing to see an ominous statement like "later this summer" morph into "early summer" instead of slipping into the "dead of winter" as is all too often the case with hotly-anticipated phones, and we have a sneaking suspicion the Tour's gonna sell like a remastered Bonnie Tyler live album (that's a good thing, by the way). Who's in?

If you're familiar with the emulation scene (and let's be honest, you are reading Engadget), then you know the name ZodTTD -- the brain behind some of the best jailbroken emus for the iPhone, including variations on the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and most importantly... the TurboGrafx-16. Now the master-hacker has brought his goods to the Pre, cooking up a version of psx4all on the Palm device, with the aforementioned GBA and TG16 ports on the way! Interestingly, he reports that the performance on the Pre is actually better than that of the iPhone 3GS, and of course he's hacked access to the keyboard, allowing for (more) proper control of games. There are still kinks that are being worked out (sound emulation, screen scaling, etc.), but it looks like we can expect big things in the near future. We at Engadget know everyone will rest a bit easier tonight knowing that real gaming on the Pre is at hand. We'll hopefully be getting our hands on a version soon, but for now hit the read link for more info, and check out the full video after the break!

We don't know exactly what's new yet, but Palm's released firmware version 1.0.4 for Pres on Sprint (not to say there are any other Pres out there at the moment, anyhow). Stay tuned for details.

Update: Looks like the only changes here address security vulnerabilities -- and interestingly, Palm gives a shout-out to Townsend Ladd Harris (a Pre homebrewer no less) who helped find them. Cheers to that.

Update 2: Sadly, Palm's plugged the hole that allowed homebrew apps on the phone without a jailbreak, though software you've already installed on the phone will continue to work. The hole that's been plugged was admittedly dangerous to leave open (installing apps via a link in email), though rooting and installing otherwise remain unchanged as far as we know.

While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers, at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used on handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday. One charger for any mobile phone... where's the catch?

Is it cooler than Sprint's Snap? That's for you to judge, but whatever the case, Verizon has now announced its own version of HTC's latest WinMo Standard handset. The so-called Ozone features WiFi, global roaming capability, VZ Navigator and visual voicemail support, a QWERTY keyboard (which feels great if it's anything like its cousin's), and a beefy 1500mAh battery that we're betting will keep this thing going all day and then some. The best part, though, might be the price: it'll be just $49.99 on contract after rebate when it launches online on June 29 and in stores on July 13.

As we prepare for HTC's official launch event today, we're starting to see some details appear on HTC's own website of the much rumored Hero. Through some URL trickery, we've managed to unearth several details that confirm the previous rumors. Hero includes the new HTC Sense widget-based interface that puts at-a-glance info right up front on the home screen where it belongs. A new Scenes profile feature lets you transform your phones focus from business to weekend mode. Viewing your contacts shows the usual data in addition to the interactions you've had through social networking status updates and photos from the likes of Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter. A dedicated search button searches the phone as well as services like Twitter. In fact, like Palm's Pre, the HTC Hero seems ready to fully integrate your local data with all your subscribed social media sites. The big unveiling is just about an hour away, until then, have a poke around HTC's Hero site yourself by hitting the read link below.

Update: First images are out! More after the break. Inside you'll find Qualcomm's MSM7200A proc running Android at 528MHz, 512MB/288MB ROM/RAM, 3.2-inch TFT-LCD with 320 x 480 pixel rez, 900/2100MHz HSPA and Quad-band GSM, trackball, GPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, 3.5mm audio jack, G-sensor, compass, and 5 megapixel auto-focus cam with microSD expansion. It's all there baby.

Update 2: A bit more detail just rolled in. The White version has an industry-first Teflon coating (right, just like your pans) to keep things clean and grime free. Multi-touch and anti-fingerprint coating too. Hero arrives in Europe in July on T-Mobile and Orange, Asia later in the summer, and North America even later in 2009.

Qik, the live mobile video streaming service pioneered on S60, has always set out to tackle as many phones and platforms as it possibly could -- and the latest to get hooked up today is Android, which means you can push video to the world anywhere you've got a T-Mobile signal on that G1 of yours (and all the better if you're in one of those AWS 3G markets). The software's actually already available in the Android Market, so go ahead and test it right now; just put some pants on first, alright? Please, this is a family service.

The good news is that T-Mobile USA has finally gotten around to announce its second Android handset, the myTouch 3G; the bad news, though, is that you can't have it just yet. The carrier-customized version of the HTC Magic that has already shipped in parts of Europe, Asia, and Canada features a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, AWS 3G for use on T-Mobile's high-speed network paired with quadband EDGE for global roaming, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Exchange support, and -- of course -- Android 1.5 with all the virtual keyboardin' you can handle. Better than the G1? Other than the larger internal memory common to all Magics, that's strictly a matter of personal taste -- but don't worry, you'll have a while to sort it out, because T-Mobile won't even start taking preorders from current customers until July 8 for $199.99 on a two-year contract. Those orders will start shipping in late July, with full national availability following on in early August in your choice of black, white, or "merlot."

Looks like the first post-Pre-launch webOS update is now being pushed out -- Pre owners, get ready for 13MB of 1.0.3 awesome. We're getting a full list, but Palm just told us some of what's new includes better Exchange email support, faster Google calendar syncing, and a bunch of app improvements.

Update: Palm's posted the full release notes here.

This one's been a long time coming but it looks like Dutch company SPRXmobile has launched the world's first Augmented Reality browser. Layar, as it's called, runs on Android and aggregates the data from the cellphone's compass and GPS coordinates to understand where you're standing and what you're looking at. A "radar view" then applies a visual information layer on top of the camera display as you pan around your environment. Content partnerships including a local bank, social networking site, and a realty company allows Layar to identify houses for sale, nearby ATMs, and local clubs and bars all laid out visually on your cellphone's display. Layar will be available this month in The Netherlands via the Android Market for phones such as the G1 and HTC Magic. It will launch in the US, Germany, and the UK sometime later this year with the iPhone 3G S listed as a primary target platform. Looks great with plenty of data populated in the video sample (posted after the break) but we have to wonder how well it works in day-to-day reality.

New BlackBerry models are few and far between -- particularly of the CDMA variety -- so when one is announced, the usual carrier suspects typically fall in line within a few weeks of each other and announce their branded versions in rapid succession. This one was particularly tight, though: Sprint has announced its plans for carrying the Tour 9630 just minutes after Verizon. It'll launch "later this summer" for $199.99 after $150 worth of rebates and a two-year contract, which makes the Pre comparison virtually inevitable. Keep the comments civil, though, alright?

[Thanks, Martin]

Although not exactly the best kept secret (we first caught wind last week), Samsung's Verizon-bound Omnia II / I8000 is now one hundred percent official, along with even more official US confirmations for the Omnia Pro B760 (Louvre) slider, Omnia Pro B7320 candybar, and the Omnia Lite B7300. Specs for the Omnia II are just a little different than what we previously heard: 3.7-inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen with WVGA (480 x 800) resolution, 7.2Mbps HSPA (or EV-DO Rev. A for Verizon's version), 5 megapixel camera, 720 x 480 at 30fps video recording, 2GB to 16GB internal storage with microSD expansion slot, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, AGPS, and TouchWiz 2.0 UI. As for the Lite, we're looking at HSDPA, WiFi, 3 megapixel camera, AGPS, and just as the name suggests, a good likelihood it'll be overshadowed by its more feature-rich brother.

Update: We can't say it's unexpected, but just to be clear, Omnia II buyers shouldn't worry about living in the past. Yahoo! Tech reports its WinMo 6.1 underbelly will be later upgradeable to 6.5.

iPhone OS 3.0 may not be available to the masses for a couple days yet, but that's not stopping Tapulous (nor Apple's App Store overlords, apparently) from rolling out a new version of its ridiculously popular Tap Tap Revenge that's fully ready to take advantage of push notifications right here and right now. We've taken the new build for a spin, and in brief, it works as designed -- notification times ranged from near instantaneous to just under a minute. One of our editors here was testing on a cellular connection and the other was on a SIM-less iPhone 3G running just WiFi, so it looks like this setup will work pretty seamlessly regardless of what kind of connection you happen to be enjoying / tolerating / loathing at the moment. Follow the break for a quick video demo.

[Thanks, Brandon]

You'd think that Nokia would want to do a better job of building up such important product announcements with a long, drawn-out series of frustratingly unhelpful teasers, viral videos, and global PR campaigns, but instead, it turns out that the rumored E72 and 5530 XpressMusic have been officially unveiled at the company's Connection 09 event in Singapore. The E72 is arguably the bigger announcement of the two, succeeding the E71 by adding a whopping 5 megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack (thank goodness), integrated compass, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, and an optical navigation pad; it'll hit in the third quarter for €350 (about $489). Follow the break for video of the E72 in slick, polished, high-orchestrated marketing action. Next up, as we'd heard, the 5530 ends up being a small step down from the 5800 in the S60 5th Edition totem pole, offering just EDGE data without any form of 3G (though you've still got WiFi). It's got a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm jack, and a 640 x 360 touchscreen display. Like the E72 it'll be available in the third quarter; it'll retail for €199 (about $278) unlocked.

[Thanks, nabs]



Read - Nokia E72
Read - Nokia 5530 XpressMusic