Those looking for a nice alternative to the iPhone may have found Apple’s biggest competitor in the smartphone market with HTC’s recent launch of the Touch Diamond. The Diamond is the latest in High Tech Computer’s line of Touch smartphones, and looks to be the best one yet.

The Touch Diamond runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and in addition to the many common features of popular smartphones it has some custom applications built in for watching YouTube video and taking advantage of Google’s mapping service. To top it off, HTC has included a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen which they claim brings near print quality viewing.

The Personal Pocket Safe USB flash drive from CHDT Corp. thinks pretty highly of itself as being the first “encrypted, epoxy coated, pin-protected smart drive.” That’s because according to them, the device has military-grade encryption, a password vault and a track-covering feature, so no one will be able to locate it’s presence when it’s removed from the system.

Golly. Sounds impressive, looks neat and shiny too. It also has a rubber key PIN-pad so you can enter a 4 to 10 digit code in order to access the drive. It looks like we won’t be seeing it in the US for awhile unfortunately, so until then your data will no doubt be living in fear.

That little cuddly, bean-bag like Chumby computer device we had talked about last year is finally available for sale to everyone. We thought it would hit sometime last fall but it looks like it took a little longer.

The Chumby comes in 3 colors of latte, black or pearl with a retail price of $179.95. The small device comes with a customizable Linux OS and WiFi bringing it updates on a frequent basis according to the company. Among the many built-in features it can bring in news and weather information, work as an alarm clock, play music, view photos and email along with whatever else you’d like to make it do yourself.

The BlackBerry Pearl has been coming out in a number of new colors lately and we had heard earlier this month that the latest will be this new pink model with Verizon. We knew it was coming soon and today Verizon Wireless along with Research In Motion (RIM) announced that the Pearl in Pink is coming to Verizon stores and online starting tomorrow (Friday).

Gone are the days of smartphones lacking style and color according to Verizon as they describe the pink BlackBerry Pearl 8130 as “chic and sophisticated”, and it still packs all the same communication features of it’s bland siblings and Verizon’s tools via the EV-DO network. The pink version, just like the others can browse the web with the Verizon wireless broadband connection, has a speakerphone, 2 megapixel camera, media player, external microSD memory card slot, wireless Bluetooth and that not-quite-QWERTY keyboard.

Planon has developed a printer on the go called the PRINTSTIK PS910 that will print any document without having to be connected to a computer.

Using Bluetooth technology you can print from your laptop, BlackBerry, or any device that has Bluetooth capability. It prints up to three pages per minute and supposedly requires very little maintenance. For $299.00 it includes a cartridge of 20 pages plus battery. It takes printing to a whole new level.

Today Asus announced the launch of its award-winning GPS smart phone in the U.S. early this year and will be showing the P527 at CES 2008. The Asus P527 already won one of the CES Innovation Design and Engineering awards for 2008.

It’s a pretty nice looking device and has several versatile functions, but the most unique ones have to be Travelog and Location Courier. Travelog lets users record travel routes and export data to Google Earth, while Location Courier acts like an S.O.S. beacon and is at the ready to send a user’s GPS position to up to five preset numbers. Basically, the Asus P527 has the features of a cell phone, navigator and PDA.

Today Verizon Wireless announced that they are adding the Palm Treo 755p to their lineup of Palm smartphones, coming in their own new color of deep blue-green. The Treo 755p runs on the Palm OS and uses Verizon’s EV-DO high speed network to support Direct Push email and Verizon’s Wireless Sync.

The smartphone also comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera, mini-SD card slot, Pocket Tunes, Bluetooth support, Documents go Go for viewing Microsoft Office documents and PDFs. It supports editing Word and Excel files and comes with Google Maps for mobile ready to go out of the box. Verizon is pricing the 755p at $349.99 if you sign up for the two year contract, get an $100 online discount and get a $50 mail in rebate.

Today E-TEN has introduced the Glofiish X600 as its lightest Glofiish smartphone yet, and although pricing has not yet been released, the X600 is boasted as a “value” phone for “consumers looking for an affordable, versatile mobile communications device,” according to Wayne Ma, President of E-TEN.

The Glofiish X600 measures 107 x 58 x 14.7mm and runs Windows Mobile 6 with Microsoft Office apps on a 400MHz processor with 64MB of RAM and 128MB of ROM. It also features a 2.8 inch touchscreen, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS with SiRF Star III, a 2 megapixel camera and a microSD card expansion slot. It sports a matte black color with red trim, will support the EDGE protocol and is expected to hit streets somewhere around mid-November with an “affordable price”.

Samsung has announced the launch of this cool-looking touch screen smartphone as one of the many chasing after the popularity of the iPhone, and this one actually looks not half-bad. The Samsung SPH-M4650 smartphone is just 14mm thick and features a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen that will buzz your finger with a little tactile feedback when you move it over the virtual buttons, helping you press where you should be pressing.

The phone runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional with a Marvell 624MHz PXA300 processor and packs in a 2MP camera, Bluetooth, a full-browser to see web pages in their original format, and a DMB TV tuner which is real cool if you live in a country that broadcasts DMB TV.

i-mate has unveiled a couple of new additions to their lineup of smartphones with the JAMA 101 and JAMA 201, both running Windows mobile and sporting similar features targeting a slightly different audiences.

The JAMA 101 pictured below runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional and has a 2.4-inch touchscreen, a 2 megapixel camera with flash and Bluetooth connectivity. It houses a measly 128MB of memory but you can expand it to your needs with a microSD card slot. The connectivity consists of just tri-band GSM/EDGE and unfortunately it doesn’t have any Wi-Fi or UMTS. It also houses an unimpressive 300MHz Samsung processor which doesn’t exactly make this smart device a power house but is well within the range of being usable, hopefully with a price to reflect it. The JAMA 101 measures 113mm(L) x 63mm(W) x 14mm(T).

Today Palm announced the release of the Palm Centro, bringing the many circulating spy shots of the “Palm Gandolf” phone into a legitimate reality. The Centro is a non-Treo smartphone targeting those that might like the Treo-type phones but want something that’s not quite so business oriented.

The Palm Centro running on Sprint’s speedy EvDO 3G network is scheduled to launch in October with Sprint being the original carrier, and the exclusive carrier for the first 90 days. It comes in colors of a loud red or black and in a relatively small, curved package measuring 4.2 inches x 2.1 inches x 0.7 inch thick and weighing only 4.2 ounces.

Here it is. AT&T has announced that the BlackBerry 8820 that amazingly (for a BlackBerry) supports EDGE, Wi-Fi and GPS all in the same smartphone. AT&T will have the new 8820 available for purchase starting tomorrow, September 20. In addition to showing off to your coworkers that you have a BlackBerry that can connect via Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) to your own network, the mobile phone can hook up to Wi-Fi hotspots around the country giving data access without data minutes.

The device also has built-in GPS for navigating your way through unfamiliar lands and has AT&T’s push to talk service. To round out the broad connectivity in this device, the 8820 even has Bluetooth for your wireless headset. Also housed is a microSD card slot and a full QWERTY keyboard, all being priced at $300 (after some rebates and a 2-year plan, of course).

Nokia’s release of the E51 comes in response to the demand for business users who want a device that provides both the latest business technologies as well as functionality found in their private phones. Nokia E51 owners with Mobility Solutions will enjoy mobile telephony, email and messaging, office phone functionality while lightening expenses by consolidating to one phone number, one voice mailbox and one dial plan.

The E51 is a simple and elegant solution to an increasing demand for simplicity, with dedicated keys for quicker access to email, calendar and contact screens and a home screen displaying user selected icons to most used applications. An indicator light alerts the user to incoming mail from a number of sources including Microsoft Exchange Server, and the phone provides a streamlined email experience with easy access to attachments. The phone includes set-up wizards for simple step-by-step set up of these applications providing business users a smartphone that is easy to use, setup and maintain.

Palm has officially announced the release of the first major revision to the Palm hardware with the new Treo 500v 3G smartphone, coming to Europe via Vodafone October 1. The new sleek looking Treo will come in two different colors of glacier white or charcoal grey.

The 500v will be running on Windows Mobile 6 and supports Direct Push along with POP3 for email connections. It also houses IE mobile with access to Google Maps and eBay and will have Vodafone live! for accessing sports, news, etc.

The hardware on this model lacks a touchscreen (and Wi-Fi), but does have a 2 megapixel camera, 150MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for capacity expanding. It also features a full QWERTY keyboard, a nice 320×240-pixel Transflective color screen and a center-mounted 5-way navigator for making your way through the features …

HP unleashed another new mobile phone along side the iPAQ 914, named the iPAQ 610 Business Navigator. Unlike its 900 series sibling the 610 features a numeric keypad instead of the full QWERTY keyboard, but has many of the same features along with a little larger display.

An integrated scroll wheel in the keypad of the iPAQ 610 is a slick feature that makes navigating the menus a little easier, and seeing the content won’t be bad either on a decent-sized 2.8-inch touchscreen. It’s a global 3G and Quad-band mobile phone that also includes Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and an integrated GPS and Bluetooth 2.0.