I just received a Google Alert in my gmail inbox saying that Palm has released a ROM upgrade for the Treo 680 for AT&T. The Google Alert was a story from The Gadgeteer.

In the article from The Gadgeteer, it says that the software should be installed by all AT&T/Cingular customers who purchased a Treo 680 before June 11, 2007.

The system requirement for this software is that it will only work on the AT&T Treo 680. So it won't work on any other Treo Smartphones.

Note: You'll probably want to be sure to do a full hotsync first, as ROM updates erase all data on the Treo

The Palm Software Update for Palm Treo 680 Smartphone for AT&T offers these enhancements to your device:

• Improved power management for better battery life.
• Camera update for improved battery life (available previously as a standalone update).
• Helps correct distorted characters that can occur in the title bar of the Phone application.
• Helps fix device "freezing" that may occur under certain conditions.
• System Lockout improvement for increased security.
• Support for the new Daylight Saving Time legislation (available previously as a standalone update).
• Provides better support for networks unique to some Caribbean, Latin American, and Asian countries.
• Updates Cingular branding, replacing it with the new AT&T branding.

Hmmm, I'm sure many of our TreoCentral Forum members who own Treo 680s from AT&T will be very happy to be getting this update. I've read many posts on the forum regarding battery life, the distorted characters problem, and comments about when the new AT&T brand will replace the Cingular brand on the 680.

So, do you need this update? To find out:

1. On your Treo 680, press Phone

2. Press Menu

3. From the Options menu, select Phone Info.

4. Look for the Software: item. What does it say?

• Treo 680-1.03-CNG or Treo680-1.03-ATT: Yes, install this update on your smartphone.
• Treo680-1.09-ATT: No, your smartphone is already updated.

Palm's Support Site states that most users will spend about 30 minutes to complete this process. You can download the update here.

Update: Heath, one of our TreoCentral readers, wrote in this morning and let me know that this update requires about 24Mb of available RAM to run. Heath found out the hard way:

When I initially attempted the update (I had a little over 6Mb available) the installer aborted gracefully, informing me I needed 20Mb free, to clear it and start again. I deleted a large application when brought me to 20.1Mb available and reran the update.

When I reran the update with 20.1Mb available, the installer ok'd the process and launched. This time I got a message on the Treo that I needed more space and the update on the Treo aborted while the Updater on the PC hung. I had to reboot to recover. Deleted more to bring available space to 22.1Mb and reran update -- the same crash occurred again.

Finally cleared 23.4Mb and the update ran ok.

Thanks for the warning Heath!

So make sure you have enough space available before attemtpting to intall the update. And also be sure to do that full hotsync first.