AT&T has officially announced the HTC Pure, which actually hit stores Sunday. Also announced, the Tilt 2, the Touch Pro 2 follow up to the Fuze or the original Tilt, depending on how you want to look at it. Both of the phones have (or will have, for the Tilt 2) Windows Mobile 6.5 on board from the get-go.

The Pure is available for $149.99 after contract and rebate. The Tilt Pro 2 "will be available in the coming weeks" but as per the rumours it'll be around $299.99.

Powered by the nation's fastest 3G network and the Windows phone platform, the HTC Tilt 2 and HTC PURE deliver an enhanced TouchFLO® 3D interface on a large vibrant touch screen that makes navigation intuitive and rich while enabling smooth access to desktop like web browsing. Both devices embody HTC's approach to put people at the center of the communications experience by providing full access to voice, text, or email in a single contact view, regardless of whether voice, text or email was used. This view can be accessed from the contact card or in the in-call screen during a phone conversation, ensuring the latest conversations are always at hand.

"As one of the first carriers to support Windows Mobile 6.5 in the U.S. and the largest distributor of Windows phones worldwide, AT&T has a long history of leadership in smartphones and Windows Mobile," said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "Twice as many smartphone users choose AT&T over any other carrier and the HTC Tilt 2 and HTC PURE will lead our Windows phone lineup into 2010."

AT&T will support Windows Marketplace for Mobile in 2009 for access to a variety of applications on new AT&T devices, including the HTC PURE and HTC Tilt 2. Additionally, AT&T customers' purchases from Windows Marketplace can be added to their monthly statements. After Microsoft delivers Windows Marketplace later this year for other versions of Windows Mobile, AT&T will make it available to customers using those versions.

Windows Mobile 6.5 received several upgrades that enhance ease-of-use, such as a touch-friendly user interface and improved browser with Flash support. Content and applications are just a fingertip away on the redesigned Start Menu and Internet Explorer Mobile will support the rich experiences that many Web pages offer for desktop computers.

"AT&T and HTC have a long history of innovation with Windows phones," said Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business. "AT&T, by bringing out the both the HTC Pure with its touch slate, and the HTC Tilt 2 with its keyboard, gives people the ability to choose a Windows phone that matches their preference."

HTC Tilt 2:
Designed for the business professional, the HTC Tilt 2 is designed with distinct style and strength while delivering the most powerful productivity experience available on a mobile phone. The HTC Tilt 2 features a high-resolution 3.6-inch widescreen WVGA display which can be easily tilted for an expanded viewing area and a large QWERTY keyboard, which is optimized for heavy email use. A quality speakerphone experience is enabled by dual speakers and dual microphones with advanced noise cancellation, and HTC's Straight Talk™ which allows for simplified conference calling and activation of the speakerphone by simply turning over the device. The HTC Tilt 2 also features a 3.2 megapixel camera.

HTC PURE:
Leveraging HTC's TouchFLO 3D experience, the all touch screen HTC PURE offers an advanced touch experience that is optimized for one-hand use, which further evolves the compact smartphone design. Incorporating a large, brilliant 3.2-inch WVGA touch screen, the HTC PURE is crafted to fit perfectly into the hand and accentuates one's sense of style. With a crisp advanced five megapixel auto-focus camera with video capture, expandable memory, gravity sensor and an ambient light sensor, the HTC PURE brings many of the most sophisticated features to a broad consumer audience looking for the professional benefits of a smartphone, without sacrificing size, looks or functionality.

"The HTC Tilt 2 and HTC PURE are not only powerhouse devices, they also provide a natural simplicity in the way we communicate with the people in our lives whether through voice, text or email," said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America. "Our desire is to put people at the center of every mobile experience, and we are pleased to work with AT&T, who shares this common vision."

Pricing and Availability:
The HTC PURE is available at AT&T retail stores nationwide and online at www.wireless.att.com for $149.99. The HTC Tilt 2, will be available in the following weeks for $299.99. (For the HTC PURE, pay $199.99 and receive $50 mail-in-rebate, for the HTC Tilt 2, pay $349.99 and receive a $50 mail-in-rebate. Two-year agreement on a minimum $69.99 plan required.)

Read more on "AT&T Pure at $149 and Tilt 2 for $299"!

The US Secret Service is trying to identify the people who launched an online poll at Facebook asking whether US President Barack Obama should be assassinated.

Facebook on Monday shut down the user-generated poll, which was titled "Should Obama be killed?" and offered answer choices of yes, no, maybe, and "If he cuts my health care."

"Once we found out about it, we worked with Facebook to have it removed," Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley told.

"We are certainly investigating; just like we would with any threat case."

More than 750 Facebook users had reportedly cast votes by the time the poll was extract from the wildly popular online social networking community.

"This is sick and sad," a Facebook user with the screen name Cocoa Fly said in a posting as the poll fueled passionate online exchanges at the website.

This poll was created over the weekend using a third-party application that lets users conduct their own surveys, according to Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.

Facebook had to shut down the program to get rid of the Obama poll since surveys using the software were controlled by the outside developer.

The application will remain disabled until the developer assures Facebook that the controversial survey has been removed and there are policies and procedures for handling such concerns in the future, according to Schnitt.

Read more on "Facebook Poll Asking to Kill Obama"!

Rumours that the Wii will drop $50 on 27 Sep'09 are looking confirmed. An internal memo from an anonymous Best Buy tipster backs-up the claim, and says Nintendo will make things official this Friday.

When you think about, it's amazing that the Wii has motored along for three years at $250. But it's clear that Nintendo has to do something. The 120GB PS3 Slim is $300, the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite is $250 with rebates, and 250GB bundles for both are strongly rumored to be around the corner. Check out the confirmation.

I hope many of you now thinking of buying the cheap Wii game, don't you?

Read more on "Nintendo Wii Price will be $199 this Sunday"!

Apple’s Steve Jobs appeared on stage today to say that the company has sold 30 million iPhones to date. Later in the presentation, SVP of product marketing Philip Schiller confirmed that they have sold 20 million iPod Touches. That’s a total of 50 million devices that have access to the iTunes App Store, which has more than 75,000 applications. In all, users have downloaded 1.8 billion applications from Apple.

Schiller took the opportunity to knock the competition when it comes to gaming and entertainment titles on the iPhone OS compared to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Schiller said the PSP has 607 titles, the Nintendo DS has 3,680 titles and the iPhone has an overwhelming 21,178.

The number of iPhone and iPod device users are still a fraction of Apple’s overall iTunes users. Today, Job said iTunes is now in 23 countries and that there’s 100 million accounts that are connected to credit cards.

With scale rapidly making the iPhone and iPod Touch one of developers’ favorite platforms to build applications for, the next conundrum is merchandising. With the new iPhone and iPod Touch 3.1 software upgrade, Apple has made that even better. Now in addition to such App Store categories as “New” and “What’s hot,” there’s a new category called “Genius.” It uses the same technology that delivers song recommendations to people in iTunes, but it gives app recommendations based on what you have previously downloaded. For instance, if you liked a golf app, then maybe EA’s Madden would also appeals to you.

Read more on "Apple sold 50 Million iPhones/iPod Touch Devices"!

A video of Wipeout HD being played in 3D, with some schmuck wearing 3D glasses and babbling on about how much fun he's having. Especially for something like Wipeout HD, whose neon-infused tracks make for an almost too convenient example of rapidly approaching vanishing points, we'd say 3D could really be a quasi-"killer app" for consoles going forward -- especially if those fancy new motion controllers don't catch on for Microsoft and Sony.

In many ways, 3D just seems to make more sense in a video game than for a movie, and the whole problem of finding content to deliver in the format has already been solved: a software update for the PS3 sometime in 2010 will enable it to provide a 3D viewing experience to "all" existing games on the system. We're sure there will be some exceptions, but it sounds very promising. The console itself pumps out a quite regular signal over HDMI, which the TV syncs up with your 3D glasses. A 200Hz TV, for instance, alternates 1080p frames, with 100Hz for each eye.

Read more on "PS3 new 3D mode coming in 2010 to all existing games"!