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Earlier this month, AT&T (formally Cingular) finally delivered a long-rumored firmware update to bring a number of new features and updated branding to its Cingular 8525 Pocket PC Phone. The carrier is now offering a new version of that very same smartphone with these updates pre-installed.

Re-branded the AT&T 8525, the smartphone now comes with the carrier's Push to Talk (PTT) functionality and its latest multimedia music and video services.

According to AT&T, its PTT service offers "availability" icons, quick group-calling and the ability to easily switch a PTT session to a regular wireless voice call.

With AT&T Mobile Music integrated into the 8525, users now have access to XM Satellite Radio with 25 commercial-free music channels. In addition, the service allows them to access songs, music videos, ringtones, music news, a MusicID service, music-related chat rooms, streaming music and more from their Pocket PC Phone.

AT&T is also the first U.S. carrier to offer access to music subscription services, Yahoo! Music and eMusic, from a mobile handset.

The new edition of the 8525 also features AT&T’s on-demand streaming video service, Cellular Video, which enables users to watch video clips of television shows, sports, news, weather, and entertainment. Premium content includes access to HBO shows and more.

Other than the new features listed above the updated version of the 8525 is the same as the original, first released by the operator last fall. That means, among other things, it still does not run on Windows Mobile 6 but version 5 instead. A platform upgrade should become available later this year.

Based on a HTC's well-regarded Hermes design, the 8525 is the follow-up to another cellular-wireless handheld, the 8125, which was also built by HTC.

Its most significant advancement over the 8125 is the addition of HSPDA/UMTS 3G cellular-networking for average data transfer between 400 and 700 kilobits per second (Kbps) and uploads of around 384 Kbps. The 8525 drops down to the much more widely deployed 2.5G EDGE technology, with average performance of 125 Kbps, where 3G isn’t available.

In fact, the 8525 is the first HSPDA/UMTS smartphone available in North America.

The quad-band GSM Pocket PC Phone measures and weighs the same 4.3 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches and 5.3 ounces as the 8125. As with the 8125, the new smartphone is used in a portrait orientation as a phone or traditional PDA. A now-you-see-it-now-you-don't QWERTY thumb-keyboard slides out from the side of the unit, switching the device to landscape mode, however.

Unlike European editions of the Hermes Pocket PC Phone, AT&T's edition doesn't sport a second front facing camera. So self portraits and video calling will be out of the question. Its single camera, a 2-megapixel type, resides on the back of the unit.

There's a 400 MHz processor that doubles the speed of the CPU in the 8125, 128 MB of ROM, and 64 MB of RAM, in addition to a QVGA touch-screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and microSD slot.

The 8525 has a more powerful 1350 mAH lithium-ion battery to the earlier model's 1250 type. It adds a trackwheel as well.

The re-branded and update edition of the 8525, as with the original version, sells for $399.99 when purchased with a two-year contract and an unlimited data service plan.