I found this almost by accident - and notice that MSMobiles.COM has also picked it up - but the "SMART Amazing Phone" from the Philippines now has a ROM update to v1.7.0.13.  One of the features of this new ROM is that it rectifies MSN Messenger no longer working (more information on this here), which - unlike the Pocket PC - has to be rectified through ROM update. It also claims a extended battery life of 20 - 30%, as well as some additional software.

I haven't been brave enough to install the update as yet, but it's a good indicator that other updates will be coming very soon from other suppliers. According to MSMobiles' article, both Orange and PPCW.NET will release Tanager updates. In theory, because these are all HTC Tanager-based phones, you can apply any ROM update from any ROM manufacturer. I would, of course, be very wary - I was much braver with the previous ROM update because it came from QTek (albeit a different country).

I will wait a short while before updating the phone - no time to do it at the moment anyway - but once I do I'll let you know how I go. After all, better that I lose my phone and tell you about it... we can always hope that this new batch of updates improves the radio stack problems too, as that would be virtually every fault resolved with the phone. Of course, that might then stop people from buying the "version 2" Smartphones...

On an unrelated matter, while I was reading the MSMobiles article regarding this, I saw that they were reporting on a great Korean Windows CE.NET-based device which includes a printer, card reader, and bar code scanner. According to MSMobiles, it's capable of performing credit card and debit card transactions via GSM/GPRS, CDMA and WLAN. You can read the article here - may be of interest to some.