Do something like the Google Collections Library does:

    HashMap<String, Integer> foo = Maps.newHashMap();

The return type of newHashMap is determined by the type of foo, so you don't need to repeat the generic types in angle brackets.

  public static <K, V> HashMap<K, V> newHashMap() {
    return new HashMap<K, V>();
  }

http://google-collections.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/javadoc/i...

(I'm not a fan of Java myself, but there are some tricky ways to cut down on its verbosity)