UPDATED:HTC's Android powered Touch.B/Rome spotted in France?

Oh, how these prototype models love to travel. Spotted in France, according to MobiFrance, is the HTC Rome. The Rome, with a trade name of the Touch.B, looks like your typical HTC Windows Mobile smartphone except that it is supposed to be powered by Android. Not much else is known about the handset, but MobiFrance says it will have more info on the phone tomorrow. While we haven't seen much in the way of specs on this model, just knowing that HTC has an Android unit coming that resembles one of the Taiwanese firms' Windows Mobile devices reminds us that the HTC Passion/Dragon should be close to getting introduced by Verizon. After all, the Passion/Dragon is supposed to be an Android powered version of the HTC HD2. For those who have Rip Van Winkled away the last few months, the HD2 is a Windows Mobile 6.5 handset with a massive 4.3 inch capacitive display sporting resolution of 480 X 800 pixels, the Sense UI, Wi-Fi and a 5MP camera all running on a zippy 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

So is there anything new on the HTC Passion/Dragon? According to a story in Android and Me, a web site with the URL htcpassion.com went live showing the Verizon logo followed by the word passion and then "coming holidays 2009". However, it appears as though that image has been taken down, replaced by nothing but a blank page. A check to see who owns the domain shows a Westchester California address and a poster on the web site did a check of the address and it turned up to be a seedy looking storefront location. Some claim that the true owner of the site is hiding behind a third party to hide the real identity of the owner. Regardless, time is ticking away from Big Red if they truly are planning a mid-December launch of this highly anticipated Android version of the HD2.

HTC Passion Preliminary Specifications

source: MobiFrance (translated) via unwiredview, AndroidandMe (Passion)

*UPDATE*
A good hard look at the htcpassion.com web site does reveal a very hard to see Verizon "V" logo and the word Passion along with the line "coming holidays 2009". It does require a long hard look, turning the lights off actually helps you see the image better. As for the question of who owns the domain name, it is being held by Whois Guard, a third party that is in business to hide the true identity of domain owners.