Verizon announced today that the Palm Centro will hit shelves tomorrow. According to Palm, the device is “off to the strongest start of any smartphone in Palm’s history”. Bold claim yes? Upon purchasing the phone and applying for the rebates, the phone will cost $99 and an unlimited e-mail and web plan will cost an additional $29.99. On another note, why are we still pricing things at $99? For the record, that’s $100.
[Via PRNewsWire]
In a bold move by the Vatican, Palm has been bought for $800-million cash and stock. Palm’s final price represents just a $2 premium over Palm’s current $5.80. I’m just waiting for someone to come out with this being an April Fool’s joke in May but it’s for real. With over 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, the Vatican may be able to leverage the company’s worth by selling to its followers. On the other hand, if that’s the strategy it will likely alienate its Muslim users and other subscribers who don’t subscribe to the same God. This news story is just full of joke potential.
The Treo 800w could be a great Treo that will fully utilize Windows Mobile. The launch date of July 22 is still a rumor but it seems plausible. Included in the launch, is Windows Mobile 6.1, integrated GPS, an illuminated keyboard that falls between the Centro’s and the 700 series size wise, and it’s apparently “very fast.” Sprint’s version will likely be coming in Charcoal Black, a color that will suit the device nicely.
Softick has announced the release of version 1.20 of their Auido Gateway software for Palm handhelds, reports PalmInfocenter.
The software allows any Bluetooth-enabled Palm OS device to link up to a pair of Bluetooth headphones and listen to any audio played by the handset, from music players to games to audio books. Version 1.20 adds support for AVRCP connections and fast forward and rewind buttons on some headsets, and fixes some problems with mono sound as well as other minor bug fixes.
The update is free for all registered users.
A company named StyleTap has a demo of Palm applications being run on an iPod Touch, reports PDAStreet.
The company has long offered software to run Palm apps on Windows Mobile devices, and has plans to offer the same functionality for Symbian phones. Now a video has appeared on their website showing off some Palm apps being run on an iPod Touch. The demo is just that, a demo, and is not indicative of any plans to release the software, as they explicitly warn:
This is an EXPERIMENTAL version – it is NOT a product, nor is its presence here a commitment of any kind, express or implied, that StyleTap Inc. will ever release an official version of StyleTap CrossPlatform for Apple iPhone or iPod Touch.
Still, there is a definite possibility of seeing something like this if Apple ever gets around to releasing the iPhone SDK.
Our friends at BlackBerry Cool noted that Palm has modified their home page and saturated newspaper everywhere with a new ad campaign that make fun of RIM for the recent outages on the BlackBerry network.
The new ads say:
Palm smartphones include voice, email, text, web, calendar and contacts.And more importantly, uptime.
Connect to your Microsoft Exchange Server.
No third-party servers and no nationwide blackouts.
Considering their customer satisfaction levels, amongst other things, I’m not sure they’re in a position to take cheap shops.
After only a few months of exclusivity in the US, the Palm Centro will be heading to Europe on the 14th, reports PDAStreet.
The Centro has only been available in the U.S. since its release in the fall, and only on Sprint, despite speculation that other carriers might get the device. Unfortunately, Palm has opted to include the EDGE standard in the European release rather than the faster 3G standards.
PalmInfocenter found an article on PCMag where the author manages to get a few details on Nova, the new OS from Palm.
Stephanie Maes, director of product management at Palm, said the company is getting back to their roots with “simplicity and elegance.” According to Maes, Palm is still going to be using a Linux-based solution for the OS, but has ditched the Access Linux Platform they said they’d be using last October.
“There were things in that platform that were focused on a different set of customers than what we were looking to do, and there were things in that platform that do not support things we would like to do going forward,” Maes said.
She also mentions some other aspects the OS would be going for, such as unifying the myriad places users store their data.
We reported last week that Palm would be closing all of their retail stores, but PDAStreet has discovered that things are slightly different.
Palm will, in fact, be closing only the 7 stores that were opened in malls. The other 26 stores, all of which are in airports, are owned by a quite different company called Airport Wireless which has chosen to remain open. The company has decided, however, to remove the Palm branding from their stores and greatly expand stock to include products from companies like Nokia, RIM, and Motorola.
Palm rumors abound: hot on the heels of the rumor that Palm might be closing their retail stores, WMExperts finds an anonymous user on their forums that claims to have details on the Treo 800w.
The mysterious “anonuser” has made two posts on the WMExperts forums, claiming that the 800w is about as thin as the Centro, will ship with Windows Mobile 6, and will feature an EvDO Rev. A radio, Bluetooth 2.0, and 802.11g WiFi support amongst other things.
According to the user, who claims received his or her information a source inside Sprint, the device will ship in April of this year. Nothing to do but wait and see…