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Telus Mobility in Canada recently became the first North American carrier to commit to offering HTC's Touch Diamond. This edition of HTC's sequel to its successful Touch series will sport high-speed EV-DO data access for the CDMA operator.

Due to ship later this summer, the smartphone should go for $149.99 CAD with a 3-year agreement. Unlimited e-mail and instant messaging will set you back $15 a month. Add an additional $15 if you want to add unlimited web browsing.

Rumor has it Sprint will offer this edition of the highly-anticipated smartphone in the U.S.

HTC's shipped over 3 million units of the original Touch since its introduction more than a year ago. It expects to do even better with its latest iPhone challenger.

The Touch Diamond is a compact Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional handset with a new, enhanced, edition of the HTC's touch screen interface, which runs on top of Microsoft's mobile-device operating system.

Called TouchFLO 3D, HTC says the new interface is animated to provide quicker and easier access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more. With the Diamond, HTC is also introducing a touch-sensitive control to allow you use TouchFlO 3D with the full features on the device, something not necessarily true of current version of TouchFLO.

The Touch Diamond is designed to fit in the hand and is composed of black geometric facets and metal. At 3.9 x 2.0 x .42 inches (99 x 51 x 10.7), it is smaller than the original Touch model. It weighs only 3.9 ounces.

It includes an Opera-based web browser and a version of YouTube, as well as an edition of Google Maps that integrates with the Touch Diamonds integrated GPS. Turn the Touch Diamond horizontal from vertical and, like the iPhone, the browser will do the same.

The smartphone sports a higher-resolution, 2.8-inch VGA (640 x 320 pixel) resolution touch display over the original Touch models and ups the camera to 3.2 megapixels from 2. The smartphone also integrates Bluetooth 2.0, with support for wireless stereo headsets, and Wi-Fi.

There' will be 4GB Internal Storage, 256 MB flash, and 192 MB RAM. The Touch Diamond will likely sport an expansion slot for additional storage as well.