The Palm Treo 500v is now available on Palm's European website. But I noticed that when you click on the Vodafone on-line sales Business link, the price is listed but it says "Pre-Order". See the screenshot below. The Consumer link doesn't show the Treo 500v yet.
Say what you really mean. It's a Palm thing.
Speak clearly. The new Palm® Treo™ 500v smartphone lets you say what you want, how you want with phone, messaging, IM, email and web in one simple device. No more code words or misunderstandings thanks to the full keyboard and a big, bright screen.
Be sure to check out the Gallery. That 360 degree photo with the 500v spinning around looks so real that you could just reach out and grab the device! Cool! My drool glands got a nice little workout when I was looking at that gallery. ;-)
You get a Free Bluetooth handsfree car kit when you order the 500v so that's a nice little bonus. It would be nice if Palm gave away a free Bluetooth handsfree car kit with each purchase of a Palm smartphone. Or at least a free Bluetooth headset. If you'll recall, back in May, Palm released new additions to its line of hands-free accessories in order to further their initiative to provide customers with tools to make their mobile experience simple and safer, especially when driving. I've probably said this a lot, but I can't count the number of times that I've seen drivers with their cell phones glued to their heads, flapping their jaws like a birds wings, not paying attention to what's going on around them. I had someone just last week to pull right out in front of me on my Mom's street. The person was of course on a cell phone and never bother to look right or left. Unbelievable! Anyway, I'm glad that Palm is concerned with the problem and that they supported the California bill back in August of 2006 to ban the use of cell phones without hands-free features while driving.
Here's the list of specs and benefits on the Treo 500v:
- Windows Mobile® 6 Standard software
- Full qwerty keyboard
- 3G/UMTS network
- Automatic delivery of Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo!, and Gmail, email as it arrivesMicrosoft® Direct Push technology for delivery of Outlook® email
- Access to Google Maps and eBay
- Vodafone live! for news, sports, and entertainment on the go
- Windows Media® Player Mobile for music and videos
- 2.0 megapixel camera captures video too
- 150MB of memory, expandable with microSD expansion card
I find it interesting that the 500v is the first Palm smartphone to have the micro-SD slot, followed by the Centro. I wonder if Palm's future phones will pick this up? The 500v also has the mini USB connector which is nice. Too bad the Centro still has the Athena connector.
One of the really nice things about the 500v is that it has 3G whereas the Palm Centro doesn't. But... it seems as if the Centro might just be getting 3G according to Dieter's recent article.
Discuss this in our Treo 500 forums.
