I had to take Friday off from rumors and leaks, thanks to a week of being annoyed at the blogosphere for some erroneous reporting on T-Mobile's 3G launch in New York City (of course it's data and not just voice, yeesh) and some annoyingly snarky sports blogs I read.  So, you know, I held a blog strike.  Well, not really.  But I stayed clear for a day.

Of course now I'm right back to rumor mongering ... I mean, reporting ... and the news right now is about HTC.  Everyone's favorite Windows Mobile smartphone maker is holding a big to-do in London tomorrow (May 6) to announce their "biggest product of the year," and all bets are on the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, aka "Raphael," being unleashed upon the world.  Sprint users here in the US might think of this as the announcement of the next-generation Touch and Mogul, if the rumors, spy photos, and leaks are to be believed.

Speaking of leaks, some specs have emerged and boy to they look tasty.  According to Italian site newsmobile.it (see the Google translated page here), Diamond will feature a 2.8" VGA display, HSDPA and WiFi, a 3.2 MP auto focus, a nicely thin 10.7mm profile, 528 Mhz Qualcomm processor, and 4GB of internal memory backed by a microSD expansion slot.  The Touch Pro reportedly will be basically the same device with a horizontally-sliding QWERTY board, in a slightly thicker body.  Both devices will ship with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional installed.

Whoa.  Those are some serious specs.  And I for one like the designs of those so-called leaked pics.  And then there are the more fringe-type rumors about some next-gen touchscreen technology being packed into these bad boys, as well.

Looks like HTC will announce the devices in unlocked GSM/EDGE/HSPA versions first, but if form holds we should see them trickle down to Sprint's lineup in CDMA versions later this year.  Whatever HTC has for us on Tuesday, I'll be sure to bring it your way as soon as I know about it.  Stay tuned.