Last fall, HTC launched the S740 in Europe, with a 12-key front keypad design with a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  Now they are bringing the handset to the U.S. market, as the S743.  This non-touch screen device, features the same faceted design as the original S740 and HTC Touch Diamond.  THe phone is 1.7 inches wide and features a 2.4 inch QVGA vertical display.  The HTC S743 will feature high-speed HSDPA (850/1900 MHz) network compatability and will be on sale starting some time in Q1 of 2009 at select e-tailers such as dell.com and cdw.com.  For full details on the handset, be sure to check out the press release after the break.

T-Mobile and HTC have not done a very good job of keeping the T-Mobile Shadow II under wraps. Rumors have been flying around since spring of 2008 and we also got our first pics and details of the phone last rummer. The T-Mobile Shadow II is now expected to launch in a few weeks. January 28th to be exact. The Boy Genius Report seems to have the inside scoop once again and is showing off what they beleive are the final specs for the new Shadow. As you can see from the picture, the Shadow two will be available in white and red and will sprot WM 61. Unfortunately the new device will not be taking advantage of T-mobile's newly launched 3G network. We still don't have a set price for the new Shadow, but I can't imagine that it would sell for much more than the refreshed black T-mobile Dash's $99 asking price with new two year contract and after rebate. Be sure to check out all the specs after the break.

Only a week after the T-Mobile G1 was launched, a security hole was discovered that allowed access to Android's root directory on the G1.  google and T-Mobile worked quickly to patch the hole and T-mobile sent out an over the air firmware upgrade to G1 users.  For many, the RC30 firmware upgrade did not do much.  A few big fixes were included to make the general public happy, but developers and system hackers were only disappointed.  To them, the security hole was an opportunity to dive further into the core of Android and tweak the system a bit more.  Some developers have used root access in an attempt to start skinning the default Andorid UI, but other than that there have been no major advancements for those who still have root access. 

Just recently, one of the developers on the xda-developers forum came up with a pretty simply way for G1 users to revert back to their original RC29 firmware and regain root access.  I must warn that doing this could void your warranty and brick your phone, but there are quite a few success stories of forum members who have tried it.  So if you're interested in making your G1 UI look a little more unique

Oh, and there's one thing that I want to help clear up.  Getting root access on Andoid is not called "Jailbreaking".  That was a term used for unlocking the iPhone to install apps on it.  Root access is nothing like that since Android is an open source system.  It seems there are a lot of bloggers out there simply using the wrong term. 

The past few weeks have been filled with rumors that T-mobile would be launching a new Dash.  It turns out that the rumors were true and now T-mobile is selling a new black version of the Dash for $99 after rebates and a new contract.  The bad news is that he only new features of the black Dash are the color and Windows Mobile 6.1.  We're not sure that's enough for for people to upgrade from their old Dash, but at $99, it's quite an appealing starter Windows Mobile handset. 

We've known for a while that Palm is waiting to reveal their new Nova powered handset this week at CES.  Palm has been extremely tight lipped on the project, leaving bloggers only enough information for random speculation.... until now.  If the rumors are to be believed, CrunchGear seems to believe that Palm’s Nova handset will feature a large touch screen.  But unlike Palm's traditional handset design, the new device will feature a slide-out qwerty keyboard.  They are also saying that the device will most likely be made by HTC, just like the Palm Pro that hit the market last fall.  As of right now, we have not been able to confirm these rumors from any other sources, so we're just gonna have to wait till CES kicks off later this week to get the official word from Palm.