The price is right! The long rumored Centro made its official appearance on Thursday, during the Digital Life conference in New York City. This smart device is priced at merely $99.95. AND it is not a Treo.

Per the announcement, with a fun, new compact design, Centro is the smallest and lightest Palm phone to date. It was designed as a great phone, messaging, and organizational device, and, true to its Palm roots, it is “incredibly easy to use.”

The announcement was covered by TreoCentral/WMExperts’ Dieter Bohn, who found out that Centro was not intended to be an iPhone killer.

“It's a RAZR killer.”

Dieter noted from Palm’s presentation the specific demographic goals: teens 15 through college.

Exciting times for Palm, that’s for sure. Plenty more happened this week, so without further ado, Let’s Talk Treo!

Palm News

Here’s the link to the Centro press release. There’s a couple of things to note:

• It runs Palm OS (Version 5.4.9).
• At only 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches and 4.2 ounces, it is Palm's smallest and lightest smartphone ever.
• It will be available exclusively through Sprint in the United States for 90 days and is available in onyx black or ruby red.
• Per Palm’s CEO, Ed Colligan: "Palm Centro has the power of a broadband smartphone at the price of a standard 12-key phone."
• There’s a whole list of Sprint services accessible by the Centro, including Sprint TV, On Demand, Sprint Picture Mail(SM), Sprint Mobile email, and Sprint IM.
• You also have fast and easy web access on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network at fast EvDO speeds. The full keyboard and touch screen provide quick access to online information. The built-in Google Maps application offers fast access to directions, traffic updates and local search.
• Centro is the first Palm phone to include PocketTunes Deluxe, a $39.99 value.
• Expected availability is mid-October through all Sprint sales channels, Palm stores and online at www.sprint.com and www.palm.com/centro.

For more information, check out TreoCentral’s “on the spot” coverage of the announcement.

Here's a sampling of what others are saying about the Centro.

CBS Marketwatch

Dan Gallagher wrote:

“The Centro launch was not a complete surprise, as leaked photos of the device have been circulating for weeks on the Internet. Nevertheless, the news seemed to excite investors, who bid Palm shares up more than 6% following news of the launch.”

Engadget Mobile

Hands-on with Chris Ziegler:

“Truth be told, the phone doesn't look or feel too bad -- we still don't get the gray stripe through the middle, but what can you do? The keyboard is unbelievably tiny, but we'll take it where we can get it. The surface of the cherry red or metallic black phone is quite slick, and we suspect will go tumbling out of sweaty hands like gang busters. Of course, the EV-DO connection was snappy, but the thing we're most stoked about is the fact that Palm has finally eliminated that 2-pixel border around the screen. Hey, no new OS... but that border is gone.”

Jupiter Research

Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg said:

“… the Centro is ‘not particularly hip or cool,’ but the large swath of phone buyers seeking multimedia and business applications at a low price may follow their wallets.

"…You may very well have some iPhone buyers who say 'I love the concept and the phone, but $399 is out of my price point. But $99, I can afford.”

The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller said:

“While the device may not knock the socks off of the smartphone enthusiast, the Centro is a very capable Palm OS 5.4.9 device.”

“…I personally think Palm did a great job getting everything seen on most Treo models today into the Centro in a cooler, slimmer form factor.”

San Francisco Chronicle

Tavis McCourt, an analyst with Morgan, Keegan & Co. said:

“This is the direction Palm needs to go in. It may not be as successful as the BlackBerry Pearl, but it's nice incremental growth for Palm. It certainly answers some of the critics. They're saying they get it, that customers want things smaller, thinner phones with more multimedia features."

TreoCentral

Dieter at TreoCentral has created a Centro hands-on video.

Taking Over the World

Treo 750 in India

This week, Treo announced the availability of the Treo 750 in India on the Airtel network. It is the first Treo smartphone to be introduced on Airtel's extensive network and also the first Windows Mobile based Treo smartphone to be launched in India. The smartphone segment in India is poised to grow to $2.7 billion by 2011 with a sales rate of about 9.2 million units, according to company estimates. Airtel had earlier entered a similar agreement for providing bundled services with BlackBerry and HTC.

Recent TreoCentral Guides, Reviews & More

Review: Astraware's Hidden Expedition: Titanic - By Harv Laser

Harv played around with Hidden Expedition: Titanic by Astraware. Just released in late September, 2007, this is Astraware's first game done in partnership with Big Fish Games, a developer, publisher and distributor of casual, family-friendly computer games. The objective is to explore the wreckage of this once-majestic ship and collect antique artifacts for the Titanic Museum. Harv wrote:

“Titanic's game play is both leisurely and strategically challenging. Up to six people can (separately) play the same installation of the game on the same device, and each time any player exits the game, it automatically remembers your exact position and the next time you fire it up, you're exactly where you left off. This is the single most beautifully-rendered game I've seen on a handheld since LDW's Fish Tycoon. It'd be cool if it also had a screen-saver mode like FT did, but that's not there.”

Review: Trip Boss - By Jay Gross

Jay took a look at a Trip Boss, a travel manager utility that offers “default lists of stuff that you might need to remember–things to pack, places to visit, people to see, and a host of other items.” He wrote:

“The real ‘boss’ of travel is the wallet, but Trip Boss beautifully handles the details of travel planning and budgeting, all on the Treo where information can be consulted and updated easily as you go. I could wish for better integration of currency exchange rate updates, flight status, and weather, but the program’s extensive features, particularly its check lists, will come in handy. Its biggest strength is probably for business travel, which I no longer do much of, but it goes the extra mile to accommodate personal travel, too.”

Review: Snap - By Andre Kibbe

Andre tried out SplashData’s Snap, a quick entry tool for Palm OS handhelds. In brief, it gives you one place to take notes while talking to someone, and then makes it easy to quickly turns those notes into appointments, contacts, tasks and more. Andre remarked:

“It’s a relief to be able to enter data without being concerned with how to format it at the same time. This is an app I’ll continue to use beyond the review. I completely love the idea, and almost completely love the execution. Snap could do with an update to optimize its interface for Treos, but the QWERTY and D-Pad functionality work well enough to do the job for now. For the price, it’s an excellent value.”

Review: Lubix 3D Wireless Bluetooth Headset UBHS-LC1 - By Douglas Morse

Douglas gave a listen to the Lubix UBHS-LC1 Bluetooth headphones for Treo 750 which consists of two, magnetically held halves which can be separated and slung around the neck, then reconnected for easy toting.

“The Lubix UBHS-LC1 3D headphones offer some of the best, if not the best, wireless Bluetooth music I’ve heard. The controls are fantastic, easy to control calls, tracks, and volume.”

Clue: Treo Software Roundup - By Jennifer Chappell

This week, Jennifer found nearly two-dozen programs to talk about (split between Palm OS and Windows Mobile). Many are quite entertaining too! Some highlights include: Arcade Games Pack, Magic Piano, Propel for Palm OS, Resco Explorer 2007, Softick Audio Gateway, Weather Manager, All Mobile Casino, Be Crossword 1001, Lobster Tunes, Master Kick, Pocket DVD Wizard, PT Pocket Office and Quick2Shop.

Elsewhere in the World of Treo…

Review: ListPro

Stephen Skarlatos at PocketNow took a look at Ilium Software’s ListPro v5.0:

“This was my first time using ListPro and I was dully impressed with the simplicity of managing lists. Although I have not yet tried to synchronize accross platforms, this capability makes ListPro usefull accross the entire workday. The ListPro list exchange is a great place to find list templates with and without data making list creation a snap. I found the export to RSS/XML and HTML the highlight of ListPro 5.0, this feature provides a very innovative way to share lists. The bottom line; if you keep lists to organize your life, ListPro is a must have application.”

Review: PdaNet

Ed Hardy at Brighthand tried out PdaNet from June Fabrics Technology, an application for the Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices that let’s you share your smartphone’s high-speed data connection with your laptop.

“I wish there was a simple guide I could point you to that would tell you how to set up every smartphone that's ever been made so that it can be used with every wireless carrier as a modem for every PC operating system, but it just doesn't exist. But PdaNet takes care of that for most Windows Mobile and Palm OS users quickly and easily. There's no doubt that $34 is at the high end of the range for mobile software, but you have to think about what your time is worth. If you decide to try and do your tethering setup yourself and get frustrated, that $34 might soon seem like a bargain.”

Review/Analysis: Smartphone OS Wars

In a story that appeared in PC Magazine, Tim Bajarin wrote about the various operating systems available on smartphones. He mentioned how Apple and Google are making things interesting. Palm is definitely in the mix. He noted:

“Another player to watch is Palm, which was recently invested in by Elevation Partners. The company is reportedly working on a world-class OS for smartphones. Ex-Apple superstar Jon Rubenstein, the active chairman, will guide the company's efforts in this area.”

Clue: Learn Mobile RSS and Why It Matters

There’s an interesting piece over at WMExperts that talks about how RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is like "TiVo for your favorite websites." If you're not using it now, you should be.

Clue: Keeping International Roaming Costs Down

In his New York Times column this week (“A Cellphone Without Borders”), David Pogue talked about a small company called Cubic Telecom that will be releasing what it’s calling “the first global mobile phone.” It can make calls to or from any of 214 countries — for 50 to 90 percent off what the big carriers would charge. He notes, “there’s no monthly fee and no commitment for any of this. It works like a prepaid phone, where you put some money in your account and use it up as you talk.”

“…Cubic’s cheap global dialing has nothing to do with the phone. The real magic is in the SIM card, the memory card that determines your account information. So get this: For $40, you can buy this card without the phone. Cubic says that you can slip it into any GSM phone — even your regular T-Mobile or AT&T phone, as long as it’s an “unlocked” phone (one that works with other companies’ SIM cards). Then your own cellphone behaves exactly like the Cubic phone described up to this point, minus the Wi-Fi calling, of course.”

Interesting stuff, for sure!

News/Clue: But First, a Word from Our Sponsor -- Free Cellphone Calls for Ads

And if you really want to keep your costs down, then this story by Eric Pfanner of The New York Times may be of interest. This week, British cellphone users got their first look at a new mobile service called Blyk, which will offer subscribers some free calls and text messages in return for their agreeing to accept advertising on the screen of their phone.

In an interview with BusinessWeek last year, Blyk co-founders Ala-Pietilä and veteran ad exec Antti Öhrling stated "The fundamental principle is that advertising never interferes with primary function of the phone."

"If you do it in the right way, it's not just how much [advertising] can you tolerate—it's something people find useful and fun."

Blyk—a made-up word with no meaning in Finnish—is debuting in Britain because it's the second-largest ad market in the world.

Also, according to the company’s website, Blyk is the new mobile network for 16 – 24s that’s funded by advertising. Blyk links young people with brands they like and gives them free texts and minutes every month.

News/Bad Idea: The Pudding

On the other end of the spectrum, there is a new service that eavesdrops on Internet calls to display targeted ads. Per the story in PC World, The Pudding works in a similar way to Skype, offering free phone calls over the Internet. But while Internet-based services charge a fee for calls made to land-line telephones, Pudding users will pay for those calls by watching commercials that will be displayed on their computer screens.

Voice-recognition software listens to the users' conversations and plays advertisements related to the things they talk about. If the name of a new movie comes up, for example, the service will play an advertisement related to that movie.

That’s kind of creepy. Sort of like how Google’s Gmail posts ads based on what’s in an email message.

News: Microsoft Releases Office Mobile 6.1 for Windows Mobile 6

Microsoft just released an Office Mobile 6.1 update as a free download, which is an upgrade to Office Mobile applications on Windows Mobile 6 Classic, Professional and Standard PDAs and smartphones. Office Mobile 6.1 now supports the new Office 2007 file formats. Microsoft Office 2007 introduced new Open XML-based file formats for Office applications. These new file formats reduce file size, improve security and reliability and enhance integration with external sources.

News: MySpace Mobile

On Monday, the social networking Web site MySpace launched a free, advertising-supported cell phone version as part of a wider bid by parent News Corp. to attract advertising for mobile Web sites.

Fox Interactive Media, which oversees News Corp.'s Internet properties, said it also plans to roll out versions of FoxSports.com, the gaming site IGN, AskMen and its local TV affiliates in the coming months that will work on cell phones that can access the Internet.

News: EchoStar to Acquire Sling Media

One of the big announcements this week was satellite television provider EchoStar’s deal to acquire Sling Media Inc. for $380 million. It is expected to close by the end of the year. Sling Media, based in Foster City, Calif., makes devices that allow users to watch their home TV signals on any Internet-connected computer or handheld.

Note: In June, Public Beta 2 of SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS was announced.

A story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal noted that Sling Media co-founder and Chief Executive Blake Krikorian was “psyched to make this announcement.”

“The executive use of ‘psyched’ strikes Deal Journal as something of a landmark event, with those who grew up in the '80s arriving as a force in grown-up society. (According to Factiva, there have been 201 examples of the word's use in news releases since 1988 -- although many of them are sports related, as in "psyched up.") Of course you can't blame Mr. Krikorian, 40, for being so, well, psyched. He just signed a deal that values his three-year-old company, which makes devices called Slingboxes that allow consumers to watch television over the Internet, at a cool $380 million.”

News: NY Time Real Estate Listings Go Mobile

The New York Times announced new mobile offerings from its Real Estate section. Readers can now receive and send detailed property listings on their mobile devices, regardless of whether their property search began in print, online, or on The Times mobile real estate site. Other mobile-ready features include “click-to-call.”

News: LogMeIn Brings IT Support to Smartphones

On Monday, LogMeIn, Inc., the world's leading provider of remote connectivity and support tools, launched LogMeIn Rescue Mobile, a new service that enables call centers and IT administrators to troubleshoot and repair smartphones remotely. LogMeIn Rescue Mobile was demonstrated for the first time at DEMOfall 2007, the premier launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. Currently in BETA, LogMeIn Rescue Mobile (www.LogMeInRescue.com/Mobile) supports smartphones running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operation system. Available by the end of October, LogMeIn Rescue Mobile is priced at $1,950 per year, per technician.

Note: If the name, LogMeIn seems familiar, it is because they were one of the software developers for the Foleo and had an announcement in August.

News: Virgin Mobile USA Launches 3Jam Service

Late last week, Virgin Mobile USA, with more than 4.8 million customers, announced “the next innovation in one of the world’s most popular mobile services, text messaging, with the launch of 3jam SMS 2.0.” The new, free-to-join service improves basic text messaging by allowing friends and family to stay connected with group communication, enabling customers to have multi-party text-message conversations. The launch marks the first time a U.S. carrier is introducing multi-party text messaging, thanks to a partnership with San Francisco-based SMS services firm 3jam.

3jam SMS 2.0 enables Virgin Mobile customers to send a text message to any number of friends simultaneously, have everyone know who received the message, and allow subsequent replies to go to everyone using SMS. The 3jam application is free and requires no subscription. Standard text messaging rates apply. Virgin Mobile customers can sign up on the menu of their WAP deck or at www.3jam.com/virgin. The SMS recipients do not need to sign up.

Talkin’ Mobile Entertainment

As we enter the busy Fall television season, there were quite a few entertainment-related announcements:

News: CSI Mobile

This week, Gameloft, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, announced a worldwide multi-year, multi-game agreement with CBS Mobile to develop, publish and distribute games based on the hit television series “CSI.” It will be developed by Gameloft and CBS Mobile in concert with Anthony Zuiker, Executive Producer and Creator of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” bringing a high level of involvement and direction from the show’s creative auspices. The mobile game will be especially designed to capture the gripping storylines, look, atmosphere and intrigue that infuses each episode of “CSI: Miami.”

News: Sprint Delivers the Most Mobile Episodes of Network TV Shows in Full Length and On Demand

Sprint was busy this week. On Wednesday they announced this TV season, seven popular series will be available on Sprint phones, including "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI: NY." They claim they are offering “more on-demand full-length TV series from the major networks than any other carrier, as part of more than 50 total channels available on Sprint TV.” These seven hit series can be watched on Sprint Power Vision phones – in their entirety, at any time of the day, and from any location within the nationwide Power Vision network. The following programs will launch their season premieres both on television and on mobile within the next six days:

• "Desperate Housewives" (Sprint TV premiere Oct. 1)
• "Grey's Anatomy" (Sprint TV premiere Sept. 28)
• "Ugly Betty" (Sprint TV premiere Sept. 28)
• "CSI: NY" (Sprint TV premiere Sept. 27)
• "Numb3rs" (Sprint TV premiere Sept. 29)

News: Universal Goes Direct to Mobile

BrandWeek reported Universal is planning to launch its own Web site in November offering branded mobile content in an effort to take greater control of marketing and merchandising from mobile carriers. "We want to be master of our own destiny more, to have an environment we control," said Jeremy Laws, svp at Universal Mobile Entertainment. Universal is the latest company to attempt an end run around the so-called "decks" of prepackaged content run by such carriers as Verizon, Sprint Nextel, Vodafone and Orange. But with those, "we're basically beholden to the way operators want to merchandise our brand in their own shops," Laws said.

News: MLB Playoffs Go Mobile

On Monday MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, unveiled its lineup of “unparalleled mobile offerings that provides baseball fans unprecedented mobile access to the most highly-anticipated month on the sport's calendar anytime, anywhere and on any device.” Text Message Alerts are one example of the services being offered. It will provide fans with customizable access to up-to-the-minute postseason information, including every lead change in every postseason game. Fans can subscribe on their mobile device by texting "GET PLAYOFFS" to 65246.

News: Disney Mobile to Close

In other entertainment news, the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG), which has received both critical and customer acclaim for its Disney-branded mobile phone offering, will cease operations of its U.S.-based mobile virtual network (MVNO) phone service later this year and will instead explore a new business model for its content and services that might include offering its popular Family Center product through a partnership with a major U.S. carrier. The Family Center suite allows users the ability to display the location of a child’s handset on a map, to limit when and how the child’s phone is used, and to set limits on expenditures in terms of voice and data.

Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group, noted:

“…the MVNO model has proven, as we’ve seen with other companies this past year, to be a difficult proposition in the hyper-competitive U.S. mobile phone market. In assessing our business model, we decided that changing strategies was a better alternative to pursue profitable growth in the mobile services area.”

News: GoWare and MomCentral Announce MobileMom

GoWare, Inc. (www.goware.biz), the creators of DoMo HomePage, an innovative solution for creating a personalized home page for mobile phones, and MomCentral (www.momcentral.com) a Website that offers home, organizational, and parenting expertise to simplify life for busy Moms, today unveiled MobileMom. MobileMom gives Moms a practical solution to help organize and manage their busy lives by keeping them connected, via cell phone, to Websites, documents, and programs essential to keeping their lives running smoothly, such as schedules, to-do lists, grocery lists, photos, documents, and online services, when they are away from home and their computer. Based on patent-pending technologies built on GoWare's ground-breaking DoMo Platform, MobileMom makes content sent from a PC accessible through SMS text-messaging (something Moms use their phones for quite a bit) and a mobile browser.

Looking Ahead: DEMOfall Debate: What’s Next?

Over at “All Things Digital,” Kara Swisher talked about the recently concluded DEMO conference and the challenges of trying to figure out “what’s next.” Her column has helpful links for anyone interested in learning more about what was launched at DEMO this week.

Endnotes & Ponderables:

Before Sunday, I had never heard of a cartoon called “Sally Forth”. Then I got an email from my mom who was extremely excited to let me know there was a Treo reference in the Sally Forth cartoon that appeared in Sunday’s paper (see above).

I know there have been Treo sightings on TV and in movies, but in a cartoon?

Of course, I’d be really impressed it made a cameo in my favorite comic strip – Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis.

That’s a wrap!

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