It’s already out in Japan and a few  in Europe, now Toshiba’s skinny TG01 is hitting London on Thursday, July 9th. Presumably the invite will be met with an official UK launch of Tosh’s deftly skinned  handset with a Windows Mobile 6.1 core. Then again, it could be a lot of tech reporters eating mini triangular sandwiches slathered with pickle spread discussing the HTC Hero for four hours. We’ll let you know next week.

You might say that Verizon’s brand new BlackBerry Tour 9630 …ahem, took a “tour” through our offices this morning, gracing us with its QWERTY-having, global-roaming. There’s absolutely no question it’s the best-looking CDMA BlackBerry to date and we also think you’ll be able to stop owners in their tracks as you flash this thing around town; we’d argue that the  is still a cuter handset when you take the company’s lineup as a whole, but then again, the 8900 lacks 3G, and the Tour’s keyboard might just be the best RIM’s ever crafted for a phone. Bottom line, owners of any BlackBerry on Verizon or Sprint should be salivating at the sight of this thing — and if they’re not, honestly, they need their salivary glands checked. Stay tuned for our full review, but in the meantime, enjoy an unboxing and a few quick shots of the Tour taking its first breaths!

We heard that the GSM Pre was set for a UK launch, and now it sounds like things are coming together: The Guardian says the Palm’s baby will launch on O2. That makes perfect sense, O2 owner Telefonica reportedly  back in March. Of course, this is all yet to be official, but with floating around out there and an announcement expected next week, we’re guessing we don’t have too much longer to wait.

Do you understand your smartphone… really understand it? Know its moods, its wants, its desires? A survey hosted by shows that half of people don’t, with 47 percent saying the things confuse the heck out of them, while 60 percent of those aged 35 – 49 feel that people with smartphones spend too much time working and not enough time. Those feelings of confusion and ire doesn’t stop a “sizable segment” of the rest of the 1,000 people surveyed from wanting a handset with brains, with most desiring access to the sort of apps you can’t get on dumbphones, and 14 percent of women saying that playing games was “very important” — only nine percent of men said the same. Sadly, there was no figure indicating how many people enjoy paying too much for text messages and signing their lives away on lengthy contracts.

So much for exclusivity, eh? Sprint is  in the race to get the to market, launching the consensus hottest RIM device to date on July 12 for $199.99 on contract after rebates. It’s awfully refreshing to see an ominous statement like “later this summer” morph into “early summer” instead of slipping into the “dead of winter” as is all too often the case with hotly-anticipated phones, and we have a sneaking suspicion the Tour’s gonna sell like a remastered Bonnie Tyler live album (that’s a good thing, by the way). Who’s in?

Is it cooler than Sprint’s Snap? That’s for you to judge, but whatever the case, Verizon has now announced its own version of HTC’s latest WinMo Standard handset. The so-called Ozone features WiFi, global roaming capability, VZ Navigator and visual voicemail support, a QWERTY keyboard (which feels great if it’s anything like its cousin’s), and a beefy 1500mAh battery that we’re betting will keep this thing going all day and then some. The best part, though, might be the price: it’ll be just $49.99 on contract after rebate when it launches online on June 29 and in stores on July 13.

While some interesting things may or may not be happening under the hood, the freshly announced BlackBerry Tour for Verizon and Sprint (pictured in Verizon garb on the left) is hardly a departure on the surface. It mostly appears to be a minor modification to the Curve (right), though it does seem inexplicably thicker. The Bold seems positively overwrought in comparison. We didn’t get much time to play with the OS, but the screen and the keyboard are pure new-generation BlackBerry charm.