BGR has posted images of an upcoming EVO-style Android smartphone from HTC. The article accompanying the images suggests it’s headed for Verizon Wireless.

The source that provided the photos says the smartphone “makes the Droid 2 look like a kids [sic] toy.”

The unnamed phone has a 8MP camera with a two-LED flash, a kickstand, a microUSB data/charging port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and appears to have a large 4.3-inch screen. BGR also reports – and one image seems to confirm – that the phone has a front-facing camera.

Qualcomm began shipping its third generation, dual-core Snapdragon SoC CPUs to device manufacturers sometime around early June.  And, if new information published by AlienBabelTech is taken at face value, devices powered by these new processors are already well into the testing phase.

ABT reports discovering entries for an Android device labeled HTC Glacier  in an online database of GLBenchmark test results.  The benchmark scores show a marked increase in CPU performance  compared to high-end smartphones on the market today.  When compared to the Sprint EVO 4G, for example, which employs a 1GHz 2nd Gen Snapdragon, the Glacier’s CPU produced results that were about three times as fast.

Using comparative math, the poster at ABT seems to believe these benchmark scores come from a 1.5GHz Snapdragon rather than a 1.2GHz model (the 3rd Gen Snapdragon System-on-Chip platforms are available in both clock speeds).  You can review the calculations used to guess the speed of the CPU here.

Qualcomm has only fessed up to shipping 1.2GHz versions of the new Snapdragons thus far, and a jump of 200Mhz in smartphone processors seems more likely than a 500MHz jump. So I’m betting the HTC Glacier – or whatever it’ll be marketed as – will run the 1.2GHz MSM8260 rather than its 1.5GHz sibling.  I could be wrong, of course (here’s hoping).

So, what else is known about the Glacier other than its raw benchmark test results?  Not much.  But ABT supposes that it may be the star of T-Mobile’s Project Emerald, which promises a dual-core HTC Android smartphone.  There are other theories.

The idea seemed impossible just a couple of weeks ago.  But recent events have moved it squarely into the maybe column. I’m not saying HTC is on the verge of discontinuing the Incredible, but there’s now enough circumstantial evidence to make it a possibility. 

Here’s why:

During the weekend of July 10, I was contacted by two unrelated people reporting they had been told, with different explanations, the Incredible was being discontinued.  The first said a Verizon sales rep told him the Droid X would soon take the Incredible’s place in the carrier’s Android lineup; the other said a Verizon salesperson told him not to bother ordering an Incredible (which was – and is – backordered) because it was about to be discontinued.

I largely dismissed the idea that one of the most widely-praised Android smartphones would be discontinued barely two months after its release.  But I did assume there was some truth in the information provided to these two men.  The AMOLED display used in the Droid Incredible had been trickling out of Samsung’s production facilities much more slowly than HTC wished, which was responsible for the smartphone’s chronic backorder status.  Perhaps a new version of the Incredible with a different SKU was in the pipeline, which may have caused the Verizon reps to think the Incredible wasn’t long for this world.

So I contacted Verizon Wireless PR for clarification.  I assumed the response would be something along the lines of a flat-out denial or vague information on a display technology transition.  It wasn’t. 

When I got a response, the message read:

“Verizon Wireless or HTC have not made an announcement about the Incredible. It’s a popular device and we continue to sell it.”

Continue to sell it?  Not “will continue to sell it”?  Hmm…  Qualified and evasive wording is nothing new in PR, but if the Incredible’s shelf-life was assumed to be the normal year or so, why the couched response?

Then, today, HTC announced it would begin using Super LCD (SLCD) displays in its current 3.7-inch AMOLED smartphone offerings later this summer.  This move is an effort to get more smartphones onto the market in light of the ongoing AMOLED shortage.  Mentioned in the press release were two 3.7-inch-screened HTC smartphones: the Desire (which isn’t yet sold by a U.S. carrier) and Nexus One (which seems to be on its way out). There was not word one about the Droid Incredible, which is certainly more popular in the U.S. than either of these devices.  I wasn’t the only person who found this omission odd.

So, there you have it.  Three unrelated events which together point to the Incredible’s possible demise. 

Any thoughts? 

Matthew Nichols, Products Editor

Android v2.2 is, at present, limited to the Google Nexus One in the United States.  Other newer, even high-end Android handsets like the Droid Incredible, Samsung Captivate or Motorola Droid X are running the older v2.1.

But according to information provided to BGR by a tipster, at least one of these devices will also be getting Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo) in as soon as two or three weeks.

That device is the HTC Droid Incredible.  The tipster says that the popular smartphone will be getting the Froyo upgrade by early August which will add sought-after features like 802.11n connectivity, 3G Mobile Hotspot functionality, 720p HD video recording and new widgets for email and news.

This has not been confirmed by Verizon or HTC.

We’ve known for a few months that Palm had another Windows Mobile Treo in the works; today, we know a good bit more than that.  Images and information regarding the upcoming Treo Pro briefly appeared on the Palm.com web site.  The content was pulled shortly thereafter, but not before some eager Treo fans were able to grab some slides from a presentation and run.

The Treo Pro will be, at least in one incarnation, a GSM handset with HSDPA/UMTS compatibility.  Other features include Wi-Fi, GPS and microSD expansion.  No word yet on price or availability.

Click here for additional photos.

Last week we passed on information about the Motorola Alexander, a device made known to the world by the BoyGeniusReport.  Now, that same site has let another cat out of the bag: the Motorola Atila, a version of the Alexander without the sliding QWERTY keyboard.

Features are fairly high end with HSDPA and HSUPA mobile broadband, Wi-Fi 802.11g, a Qualcomm 7201A mobile processor and Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro.  No word on other specs, price or availability just yet. 

New information on the Motorola Alexander, including a photo, has been posted to the BoyGeniusReport and shows a small device with a vertical slide-to-hide keyboard and what looks like Windows Mobile 7 (or Windows Mobile 6.1 with a modified Home Screen).

Previous information on the Motorola Alexander previews a Windows Mobile device with an 8MP digital camera, an NVIDIA graphics processor and onboard GPS.  All of this information is unconfirmed, but the Alexander is one to watch – and we will.

Yet another Zune Phone rumor has been loosed thanks to a story posted at jkOnTheRun.  According to their anonymous source, Microsoft has been having meetings to discuss a Zune Phone designed to help the company do battle with Apple’s iPhone.  The Zune Phone would be powered by a specialized version of Windows Mobile 7 and include a lot of functionality powered by Windows Live services (why wait for the Zune Phone, MS?!).

We suppose a ZunePhone is possible, but shouldn’t Microsoft focus on making Windows Mobile 7 a modern, worthy competitor to Apple’s iPhone OS before they go hardware crazy?

Is Sony Ericsson working on a second Windows Mobile smartphone?  If a new image turns out to be genuine, the answer is maybe.  The image shows the W1, a Walkman-branded smartphone with a large screen, a navpad, and a Windows Mobile 6 Pro screenshot.  The image also lists select features of the device, which include a 6.1MP camera, a VGA screen and 32GB of onboard flash storage.

Sony Ericsson is already prepping its first Windows Mobile device, the XPERIA X1, for release as early as September, so a second WinMo handheld isn’t outside the realm of possibility.  The image is labeled as a concept, however, which could mean that it’s nothing more than the offspring of a boring afternoon and a passing knowledge of Photoshop.

Rumor or reality, we’ll keep you posted.

Pocket PC Central has received information which suggests that Sprint is planning to release a CDMA version of the HTC Touch Diamond as early as September 2008.  The handset, which may be marketed as the Sprint Diamond or the Sprint Touch Diamond would replace the HTC Touch (Vogue), which is currently sold as the Sprint Touch.

As this information has not been confirmed by either HTC or Sprint, it should be treated entirely as rumor at this point.  We’ll keep you posted.

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