A friend had a date yesterday with a Cingular employee (CE), who told my friend that Cingular is releasing a new GSM model "in a few weeks." The CE said it's going to be 3G-compatible and is very slick.

I expressed concern that the CE might simply have been referring to the 680 or the 750w, but my friend said the CE specifically said there'd be both palm and windows versions of this "new model" -- with "lots of bells and whistles." But the CE never mentioned a model number. He just referred to it as "a new GSM model."

It's unclear if the CE was referring to a truly brand-new model (could they have really kept that a complete secret?) or simply the long-anticipated release -- finally -- of a GSM 750p, to join the already-announced 750w.

I wish my friend had asked more questions, but this is all the info that was given to me.

Grain of salt and all, of course.... But since they were on a date, I doubt the CE was totally fabricating this story. He was probably attempting to impress my friend with some "insider info." (My friend has a Cingular 650, which is no doubt how the topic came up.)

Cingular has to know how much demand there is for such a model. Sure would make sense to have it hit the market before Xmas, but that's also just wishful thinking on my part.

Grain of salt! This is hearsay! Take at face-value.... :-)