I read over at Palm's Official Blog that Palm is participating in a comprehensive survey being conducted by research firm Basex. Basex is analzying how much information we all try to manage every day and how people deal with it.

According to Palm's blog, everyone who completes the ten-minute survey will be eligible to win one of five Treos. I looked at the survey site and the Treos being given away seem to be Treo 750's with WM 6. Nice!

Go here to participate in the survey.

GPS Business News is reporting that Masternaut today announced that its navigation software Webraska is pre-installed on the new Palm Treo Pro in Europe.

The Treo Pro, which is the first GPS-enabled smartphone from Palm, will be sold by two wireless operators in the Netherlands and in Italy and available unlocked in the rest of Europe.

Palm is the first handset manufacturer signed up by Webraska. Webraska navigation is a hybrid turn by turn naviagation software which both works with off-board and on-board map data. Webraska is provided as a 14 day trial, and then is sold at �59 with one country map or �79 with pan-European maps for a one year license. According to the article, the map data is from NAVTEQ and a pan-European speed camera database (AlertesGPS from GPS Prevent) is included within the one year subscription.

You can read more here.

If you have a Palm Treo 750 on AT&T and you haven't updated your phone to WM 6 yet, don't wait too much longer. According to Palm's support site, availability of updates that include Windows Mobile 6 for Treo 750 smartphones will expire as of 10/31/2008. Looks like you've got until Halloween to get WM 6 on that 750!

Palm's support site has information on the update, including restrictions/important user information and installation instructions.

If you've been putting off updating your Treo 750 to Windows Mobile 6, now would be a great time to head over to Palm's support site and download the update (updater 2.25).

If you're a tech junkie like me, you probably love following all the latest technology news. MobileInfocenter has issued a press release this week letting us know about how to follow the latest tech headlines. We have three new resources to follow with the debut of TechNewsTube.com, MacHash.com and the newly redesigned MobilityBeat.com.

• MobilityBeat: Ryan over at Palm Infocenter and MobileInfocenter has relaunched MobilityBeat this week. MobilityBeat provides up to the minute tech news headlines from the web's best sources in one convenient place. Ryan says that it works as an online aggregator giving you one place to check in on the latest news.

MobilityBeat has dedicated sections for Palm OS, Windows Mobile, iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian news, plus there is a handy mobile optimized version too.

• Tech News Tube: Provides up to the minute technology news headlines. The site is best described as a series of news. (It is not a dump truck.)
• Mac Hash: Covers the latest Apple news and rumors from all over the web. You can also get your Mac news fix on the go with the iPhone optimized version.

Read on for the full article

What a nice early Fall surprise! Dieter has just let me know that Celio and the TreoCentral Store have reduced the price of the REDFLY to $199.95. It's a temporary price reduction through the rest of September and October and Celio is telling us that the deal will only last as long as they have supplies of �seed units.�

Dieter says that Celio is aiming at getting the REDFLY into the hands of users. They mentioned at CTIA that they really feel that once they get enough of the devices into the users' hands, the gadget's popularity will sell.Celio says:

Celio has found that a REDFLY device in the hands of media, developers or mobile enthusiasts has tremendous viral marketing benefit. Therefore, we have budgeted a limited amount of REDFLY devices for placement at $199 until October 31, 2008

Read on for the full article

The marriage between mobile device and marketing has been something businesses have been trying to do for years. This most recent move towards the altar just might work out.

Last week, a company called SnapTell, that offers image recognition-based mobile marketing solutions, announced that the Winter issue of Martha Stewart Weddings (available on newsstands December 29, 2008) will be the first women's magazine to utilize fully activated or "live" advertisements throughout the publication.

SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get solution, which the company states works with "virtually all camera phones" and does not require the consumer to download any special software, can take an image snapped by readers of any featured advertisement, and respond back instantly with content (coupons, special offers, additional information, etc.) from the advertiser.

Since Martha Stewart Weddings is the top selling bridal magazine, this experiment will be getting a lot of visibility and may serve as a proving ground for other interactive efforts. Let's just hope the advertisers make offers the readers can't refuse. Otherwise, this idea will end up in the "nice try" pile along with the CueCat scanner.

eReader sent out some surveys recently, and many readers told them that they didn't want to add coupon codes each time they bought an eBook at eReader.com. And now eReader has just introduced a new eReader Rewards Program.

With the new rewards program, when you buy an eBook, 15% of your purchase comes back to you as Rewards Dollars. Then, the next time you buy an eBook, those Reward Dollars are automatically deducted from your total.

eReader is kicking things off by making every eBook at eReader.com 10% off this week only. No coupons are needed. Hey, that sounds pretty good to me! I never did type in those coupon codes, but copied and pasted them from my emails as that was easier for me. But having the 15% come off my purchase as Rewards Dollars each time I buy an eBook makes it even easier. Sweet!

To earn eReader Rewards you just need to sign up for eReader's newsletter. I really enjoy getting the eReader newsletter. With the newsletters, I'm always informed of what's new at eReader and what kind of special offers eReader is having at the time.

So head on over to eReader.com and start taking advantage of the new eReader Rewards Program! You can learn more about it here.

Silicon Alley Insider [via] is reporting that Vindigo's parent company is closing up their shop and has laid-ff Vindigo's 30 employees.

Vindigo is an application for the PalmOS (and Windows Mobile, though support there has always been thin) that was incredibly pioneering. Over 5 years ago, this application allowed you to sync up local information for a large number of cities. With it you could look up restaurants, get directions, view local maps, read reviews, find movie times, and more. It simply never has been equaled on the PalmOS platform by another application for its speed, quality, and value. Although it hadn't seen any significant update in several years, scores of PalmOS users still swore by the software despite its slightly dated look.

Vindigo lovers looking for a replacement may want to consider Live Search on Windows Mobile. For the Palm OS, I hate to say it, but there's not a great parallel.

Sadly, it appears that Vindigo's parent company, Japan's For-Side, tried to sell the company but was demanding way too much money for it.

We're sorry to see you go, Vindigo.

Looks like the Palm Treo Pro is available in Singapore and has been for about 2 weeks. I just read that forum member GFONG drove over to a shop back on September 12th and picked one up.

Evidently, the Treo Pro went on sale in Singapore on September 11th according to Crave/CNET Asia.

The Palm Singapore website states that you can buy the Treo Pro without a plan for S$938, which is US$659.26. And as to "Where to Buy", here's a link for all the Palm resellers listed on the Palm Singapore site.

GFONG said in the thread that when he bought the Treo Pro, he talked to the sales staff. He said, "She told me a lot of users want to buy the HP iPaq 912s (just launched in Singapore) but ultimately bought the Treo Pro." Hmmmm.... that's interesting to know! ;-)

I reported on KeyToss v2 Beta last month. To refresh your memory, KeyToss is a powerful, personalizable, mobile portal for smartphones and it's Free. Looks like you can really find all the information you need with KeyToss as it's packed with ways to search. KeyToss allows you to use over 50 different mobile-friendly search tools - including Google, Amazon.com, Dictionary.com, eBay, Flickr, PriceGrabber, UPS Package Tracking, Wikipedia, Yelp and YouTube. You select which tools you want in your menu and access the rest using keywords.

Today, KeyToss announced the release of major features to its powerful, personalizable smartphone portal.

For the first time in a full-featured, mobile portal, users will be able to add virtually any link to their personal web pages, and share them with others.

Read on for the full article

Well, today is the big day for Android. Unless you've been under a rock for the past year, you know that Android is Google's much talked about software platform. And it's not just any platform; Android is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.

Today, the T-Mobile G1, aka the HTC Dream, is coming out! This is one sweet looking device my Friends! Talk about drool city! Oh yeah! Now if you'd like to check out the news about the T-Mobile G1, head on over to our new baby sister site, Android Central. Android Central is covering the news in rapid blog post styling.

Dieter recommends a great article by PC Mag by Sascha Segan for your reading pleasure. In the article, Segan says:

Android's true target isn't the 19 percent of phones running OSs, like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Mac OS. It's the other 81 percent of phones, which aren't smartphones and run operating systems you've never heard of like Nucleus and P2K.

Anyway, head on over to our new little sister site Android Central and check out all the news on Android and the new T-Mobile G1.

When the 60th Primetime Emmy� Awards ceremony takes place this Sunday evening, at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, keep your eyes open for the appearance of some stylish Palm Centros.

Palm and Don Ed Hardy ("Ed Hardy") have teamed up to create custom, bejeweled Centros, which will be gifted at the Presenters Gift Lounge backstage. Note: Click on pic at right to enlarge.

Don Ed Hardy is a painter, printmaker and tattoo artist. In fact, with 40 years of tattooing and legendary status among the tattoo community, Don Ed Hardy is known as "the godfather of modern tattoo", for his sophistication, depth and sense of experimentation. California native Don Ed Hardy is recognized around the world for his technical brilliance and mesmerizing imagery.

You can find Mr. Hardy's (no relation to the Brighthand.com editor) handy work at his website, http://www.donedhardyicing.com/, or on Palm's Facebook page.

Go take a look for yourself and check back often on Facebook. According to the Palm blog post by Jon Zilber:

"Not only can you check out more images of these bejeweled Centros (they're hella-blingy, according to my daughter), but you can also catch up on celebrity Centro sightings, get advance word about upcoming Palm events and promotions, take in a video or two, join the discussion, and more."

Let's see... Centro on Oprah, Centro at the Primetime Emmy Awards, Centro on Facebook... Where will it turn up next? My bet is a cameo on HBO's Entourage.

The Emmy Awards will air live Sunday on ABC.

If you're roaming around in Yellowstone National Park, you might have noticed that cell phone coverage is spotty, at best. That could improve, but only near tourist areas. Otherwise, it's just you and the grizzlies.

National Park Service officials have released a draft plan for developing wireless services within Yellowstone, including location of some controversial cell towers at tourists' favorite spots, like Old Faithful, the geyser that burps every hour and a half or so�check it out for yourself with this live video webcam. Note: Click on pic at right to enlarge.

The new plan tries to balance civilization and nature by providing cell phone and wireless Internet services where there are hotels and stores in Yellowstone�s developed areas, while limiting towers in the rest of the 3,500-square-mile natural wonder. That means excluding cell towers from the back country, park road corridors and less developed areas. Now really, even while wearing your tourist hat, do you want to look at beautiful nature or cell phone towers? Appreciate the solitude or text someone about your hair? Okay, never mind.

The impact assessment plan, which has been in development for five years, calls for moving a cell tower located near Old Faithful to a less visible site at a water treatment plant. Its placement within sight of the geyser about 10 years ago started a debate over cellular towers in the park. If only the things weren�t so unsightly.

There's more on this from the Associated Press at this link. I got the nice picture from the Park Service�s static webcam.

BGR has uncovered the upcoming launch schedule for AT&T. The big news for Treo fans is that the Treo 680 looks like it's going to be officially discontinued on their network. This comes as little surprise as the AT&T Centro has all the same features in a smaller package and has been popular for the network.

As we said in our review of the AT&T Centro, it really does represent the device that Palm was aiming for with the original Treo 680 -- a PalmOS smartphone with mass market appeal that would grow the market. We'll always have a special place in our hearts for the Treo 680 as the first PalmOS device to drop the external antenna.

Discuss the Treo 680 in our forums!

Update: Herman writes in to note that it's also significant that the Treo Pro is not listed as upcoming on AT&T

Hey, ever wish you could play games with/against persons using different networks and platforms?

Well, you're in luck! At CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2008, Mytopia Inc., the leading innovator of real-time cross-platform gaming, announced the expansion of its online social gaming community from leading social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5 and Friendster to MOBILE DEVICES, including iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian, PalmOS and Windows Mobile! For the first time ever, Mytopia members from social networks, widget communities, mobile devices and EVERY smartphone operating system will be able to seamlessly play games and chat together in REAL-TIME!

"For example, you could join a game of Texas Hold 'Em on your Treo, and play with a friend who's using an iPhone, a co-worker who's using a BlackBerry, and a family member who's logged in through Facebook or MySpace- all in real-time!"

Read on for the full article

The market may be down, but things are looking up at Palm. Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., a full service investment-banking firm dedicated to serving middle market companies, has initiated coverage on Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) with a Buy. They set the price target $10.

Per a story appearing at Streetinsider.com, an unnamed analyst at Morgan Joseph remarked:

"Smartphones now address a completely new demographic: the mass market. In keeping with Moore's law, evolving technology affords pushing applications previously enjoyed on high-end devices to a wider segment of the cell phone market. Sell-through rates of Palm's Centro device, now available at all three major U.S. operators at a $99 price point, helped drive sales of 3.2mm units, up 19% Y-Y in FY08, which we believe clearly demonstrates broad-based demand...Relative valuation measures show a depressed share price, but this is not the cornerstone of our Buy rating. We believe demonstrated improved financial metrics should easily drive expanding valuation multiples for PALM shares."

PALM is up 2.19% mid-day, $7.45 a share.

I was reading through the tech news yesterday during lunch and came across an interesting item over at GottaBeMobile.

Check out these Dot Gloves that you can use for touch screens during cold weather. Dot Gloves are inexpensive gloves that have metal dots on the fingers that enable use of the iPhone, iPod and iTouch without direct finger contact.

The smooth, curved surface of the metal dots makes them completely safe and scratchless to use on your touch screen.

I looked at the compatibility and the Dots Gloves website states:

Compatable with iPhone, iPod, iTouch, Nintendo DS, notebook trackpads, atms, kiosks, point of sale systems and other touch screen devices.

So I'd say that the Dots Gloves would be compatible with our Palm smartphone screens as well. If both metal and plastic tipped styli work on our screens, I don't see why the metal dots on these gloves wouldn't.

Read on for the full article

Right on the heels of the Verizon Treo 700wx getting the WM 6 update, Dieter got word via a fellow named Scott that Verizon will probably be carrying the Treo 800w. Seems that Scott had some talks with Verizon reps, and a rep told him that a new Treo is coming in the next month or so, and that it will be the Treo 800w. Sweet, huh?

We had seen the Verizon sightings and the leaked presentations and were wondering if it was really going to happen.

As Dieter says in his WMExperts article, if the 800w were released on Verizon next month, that would be about right for the usual 3 month exclusive with Sprint. So we might just be seeing the 800w on Verizon in October!

I hope this turns out to be true so that you Verizon folks can get a hold of the latest CDMA WM Treo like the Sprint folks did. Thanks to Scott for prying the information out of those Verizon reps!

Head over to WMExperts to read Dieter's article.

WMExperts reported recently via Mobile Burn that Google has added localized search capabilities to Google.com for Windows Mobile smartphones. The Official Google Mobile Blog says that Search with My Location is "a new way to make searching for nearby businesses on your Windows Mobile phone faster and easier."

According to Mobile Burn, the system makes use of the same cell tower information that the Google Maps app uses to provide local results for most any search term.

Go to Google.com from any mobile browser and look for the "My location link". Nick at WMExperts says to make sure that you have Google Gears installed first.

Read on for the full article

T-Mobile USA is reported to be planning a launch of its first Google Android phone in barely over a week. The Reuters news agency quoted sources ("people familiar with the matter") that said the mobile operator will probably make an announcement around September 23rd in New York City. Sounds to me like somebody's doing a great job of leaking information.

There had been widespread reports � translate: rumors - that the phone would be delayed. However T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, says it's still on target for a launch in (or by) October.

The rumor mill says the touchscreen-based Android smartphone (That's a YouTube link.) will be supplied by Taiwan's High Tech Computer. HTC did lots of manufacturing under contract to Palm in the good old days, not long in the past. Besides, Android is expected to have some improvements announced in the next few weeks - including a new software development kit (SDK) to answer complaints. Palm has not signed onto the Google Android platform, which is open-source.

Meanwhile SunCom, my cell carrier of choice - the one I hate the least, in other words - has been eaten by none other than T-Mobile. My latest bill came with a courteous note that the SunCom signs are coming down, and T-Mobile is invading the Carolinas. So, maybe I'll be able to report on the Android issue more closely. After I pay my bill.

The University of Kentucky is giving up on students' land-based phones, as students go in for their own cell phones, anyway. The move, effective this semester, saves the university $840,000 - that's $25 a line that the landlines cost.

University said the savings is being passed on to students. Well, sort of. "That's the reason we were able not to raise housing costs for this year," said Ben Crutcher, associate vice president for auxiliary services. Another $100,000 of the savings went for improvements to Internet connections in the dorms.

The university's 5,600 dorm residents still can request a landline, but only seven had done so a day after the academic year began.

Read some of the students' comments, if you want, here.

According to the article, a survey found that 98.2 percent of UK's dorm-bound students in dorms own and prefer to use cell phones. The dorms had 3,060 landline phones. Now they have 260, including hall phones for emergency use.

Check out this sweet looking (and probably sweet tasting too) Treo 755p cake that Lisa Aiken made. The Official Palm Blog posted a couple of pics of the cake, one including Lisa with her cake. Lisa runs a pretty awesome artisan soap business out of Santa Barbara, and it looks like she's a pretty handy baker too.

Lisa sent her story about making the cake by going to Palm's "Tell us your story" page. You can go tell your Palm story too.

That cake looks fantastic! I'm sure it took a looooong time to decorate it with all those keys. I'm glad that Lisa decided to share her story with Palm because I was very happy to read about it and to get to see the pics of that cool Treo cake!

Hey, slice me off a piece of that QWERTY keyboard! It looks yummy! ;-)

the::unwired is reporting today that Vodafone will be the first German telecommunications provider to offer the Palm Treo Pro. The Treo Pro is the Treo 750v's successor, and Vodafone's biggest selling WM phone ever.

According to the::unwired, Vodafone Germany will begin selling the Treo Pro by the end of September. We reported yesterday that Palm's U.S. website is now taking pre-orders for their unlocked Treo Pro. It looks like it'll be near the end of the month before any of us putting in our pre-orders will receive our Treo Pro's. On the pre-order page, it says, "Release Date: Buy now for shipping by 09/23/2008"

We told you last week that the Treo Pro was available for pre-order in the UK. I was just looking at Palm's Eurostore site and it says there: "Order fulfilment will commence week beginning 22nd September for France, Germany and Switzerland, and week beginning 15th September in other countries."

So it looks like Palm will be set to begin selling the Treo Pro around the globe in no time. And if you'll recall, we mentioned in the UK pre-order article that Barrons.com had reported that analyst compnay Cowen said that Windows Mobile will help push Palm's value up by 30% over the next 12 months.

Looks like some of our TreoCentral forum members have already put in their pre-orders for the Treo Pro.

I just read a Reuters article about the four major cell phone companies text message rates rising. It seems that Sen. Herb Kohl, chair of the U.S. Senate's antitrust subcommittee, sent a letter to Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc, Sprint Nextel Corp and T-Mobile expressing concern about "what appear to be sharply rising rates your companies have charged to wireless phone customers for text messaging." Kohl wanted an explanation as to why the price of text messages had doubled in three years.

Kohl noted that the cost of sending or receiving a text message had doubled since 2005 to 20 cents on all four carriers.

Read on for the full article

According to a Handmark press release, Handmark today announced the debut of the first Sony-branded titles for smartphones, including Wheel of Fortune Deluxe, JEOPARDY! Deluxe, and Q*Bert. These games are available through Handmark distribution channels for BlackBerry(R) smartphone, Palm(R), and Windows Mobile(R) users.

"Sony stands out as a leader in entertainment with some of the most admired, timeless television game shows in history," said Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO. "It is an honor to have the opportunity to take their vision and translate it into new, exciting mobile gaming experiences for smartphone users."

Read on for the full article

Note: Click on pic to fully enlarge.

I just read over at ReadWriteWeb that according to the latest data from mobile advertising company AdMob, traffic from Apple's iPhone on AdMob's advertising network almost doubled in August. Also, the iPhone saw the fastest growth of all smartphones worldwide, with the Samsung Instinct coming in second.

According to the ReadWriteWeb article, Palm's Centro, a major boon for Palm, was only trumped by the Blackberry Pearl when it comes to traffic volume. The Centro is among the top 5 smartphones generating traffic. Even though Nokia's devices were responsible for just over 62% of all smartphone traffic worldwide, none of Nokia's smartphones ranked in the top 20 in the U.S.

Read on for the full article

I just read over at Palm Addicts that TopNaviText, by RNS::, now supports the Centro.

TopNaviText is a Preferences panel, which means its icon is not displayed among other applications (in a launcher), but it shows up as a new panel in the Palm OS preferences (the "Prefs" application). This product was created for Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 680, Treo 700p, Treo 755p, and Palm Centro.

According to Sammy's article, normally, there is no way to quickly move the blinking cursor around text without removing the stylus or struggling with a fat and/or stubby finger. Now you can do it!

Use the following Option and 5-Way Navigator combinations to move the cursor faster:

• Option Left
• Option Right

TopNaviText is a FREE app so check it out!

iambic has announced the release of Health & Diet Manager version 3.0, which in addition to the Windows Mobile (Pocket PC and Smartphone) version, is now available also for Palm OS and Windows Desktop PCs. And best of all, both the Palm OS and Windows Mobile versions synchronize with the Desktop.

Health & Diet Manager is an indispensible assistant allowing to easily track food intake, calorie consumption, and exercise regimen. The software has been designed with ease of use and mobility in mind, and at the same time allows for a through tracking of every detail surrounding the individual's health.

It comes with an extensive food database that includes menus from popular eateries (such as McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, etc.). This database is customizable and offers a straightforward way to add food items as well as whole meals. For those on diet programs such as WeightWatchers, Health & Diet Manager provides a convenient way to track point balances and map points to meals.

Windows Desktop users can take advantage of two way synchronization introduced in version 3, allowing data exchange between the desktop and the mobile versions.

Health & Diet Manager sounds very useful. Probably an app I should put on my Centro. I'm sitting here eating doughnuts and drinking coffee for breakfast. Hmmm... and I wonder why I need to lose about 40 lbs. Sheesh!

We've got a couple of Palm news blurbs this morning. First up, Palm said last Tuesday that it would announce its first-quarter fiscal year 2009 financial results on Thursday, Sept. 18, shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Pacific), followed by a conference call for the public at 4:30 p.m. Eastern (1:30 p.m. Pacific).

And of course TreoCentral will be listening in on the conference call and will be reporting on what goes on. So stay tuned.

In other Palm news, Palm has announced their environmental philosophy over at their website.

Palm defines its environmental stewardship as the assumption of responsibility for its impact on the environment and natural resources.

Read on for the full article

Add locking and unlocking your front door to the functions you can implement on your mobile phone. Schlage, a company that makes locks and the like, is showing a cell phone controllable entry door lock at the CEDIA Expo trade show in Denver, according to the Associated Press. CEDIA is the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association. Major geeks.

The battery-operated "Z-Wave" lock, which for backup also works with a simple metal key, can be locked or unlocked by entering a four-digit code over the Internet from a computer or a smartphone. No more retracing your steps if you wonder "Did I lock the door?" The wireless transaction is encrypted, according to the company.

A Schlage kit that includes the lock and the wireless bridge sets you back $299. To implement the remote controls, there's a $13 monthly fee. No word on whether batteries are included. The company says the product will be available in late October.

Nice, but I'll just stick with my plain old brass key and apply the $13 monthly savings to something totally frivolous, like rent.

I reported yesterday that Sprint was getting two new colors for its Centro lineup. Looks like a photo of the Rose and Green Centros have popped up today.

I just read a short article over at Morninpaper.com and they have posted the pics of the new colors.

The pics came from forum member r0fl in this SprintUsers.com forum thread.

I'm sure glad to see those pics so I can rest my spinning mind about what the colors would look like. The Rose is more of a deep rose color compared to the Sprint's "dusty rose" pink Centro. And the Green is a pleasant light green. Nice! And nice for Sprint customers who get more choices of Centro colors soon. ;-) I'm assuming that the release date is still to be October 19th as I haven't heard anything different.

I reported on Tuesday that Australians with Telstra would probably be getting their hands on the Treo Pro, and that those who didn't want to go through the expensive carrier would be able to get an unlocked Treo Pro in shops in November.

Today Telstra confirmed the Treo Pro as the first smartphone on the Next G network to be accredited with Telstra's Blue Tick of approval, showing that it's recommended for handheld use in metro, rural and regional areas.

According to Geoff Booth, Telstra's Country Wide, Group Managing Director, Telstra's Blue Tick accreditation is based on thorough device testing and sets Telstra apart from its competition in terms of customer education.

Read on for the full article

Palm Infocenter is reporting that according to a SprintUsers forum thread, Palm is about to release two new Centro colors on Sprint. Looks like our own TreoCentral forum member heberman had spotted that thread and posted about it on Monday.

The two new colors are said to be "Rose" and "Green". There aren't any photos yet of these new Centro colors. I can't imagine what the "Rose" would look like because to me, the "Pink" Centro on Sprint has a Rose color; like a "dusty rose". And I sure can't think of what a "Green" Centro would look like unless it's going to be the wild green like the keys on the AT&T White Centro. I can't wait to see these new colors.If the new colors are nice, Palm will most likely sell a lot more Centros, and be closer to adding another million units being sold. Palm has already sold 2 million Centros.

According to Palm Infocenter, a reported release date of October 19th is given with no additional details if these colors will be in-store or web-only.

Stay tuned because as soon as we see any pics of the new colors, we'll be sure to post them. ;-)

I gotta say that I'm still in love with my "Electric Blue" Centro!

Hey, was looking around at Palm Addicts and ran across this great looking program, Nexave! Check it out!

Nexave is an iPhone look-alike keyguard replacement for all Hires Palm OS devices.

The transparent Nexave keyguard window times out after 5 seconds, which results in your device powering off - which can be quite the battery saver if you're apt to accidentally hits keys (like I am). You can 'wave' it away by swiping it down with your finger or hit the center button. It replaces the built-in keyguard window. Note: Be sure to set the Auto-Keyguard to "When power is turned off".

Nexave displays the time, the date, battery meter, phone signal meter, beaming status, amount of physical ram including amount in use, basic smart card information and even your phone carrier and phone number - that's quite a bit of information for a freeware program!

Nexave can be set to display todays weather, tomorrows weather, todays and tomorrows weather, 3 day forecast or no weather information at all. I've been using Nexave on my Centro for the past week. My only problem so far has been getting the weather to actually show up even though I do have the 4Cast plugin enabled.

Sammy even has a video of Nexave in action. Check it out!

I have a couple of Treo Pro news blurbs this morning. First up, I read that Palm is going to retail the Treo Pro in Australia starting November 16th. According to istartedsomething, Australians who aren't the biggest fans of the expensive telephone operator Telestra, will be able to get their hands on a vanilla unlocked Treo Pro in shops on Sunday, November 16th for AU$900.

From the article:

At the same time I also asked about why hasn't Palm developed or customized the Windows Mobile shell much for the device - the "bread and butter" of HTC. The representative said that this decision was on purpose and believes that fancy shells usually consume too much memory resources slowing down the user experience, whereas the Treo Pro idles at only around 30-40% memory usage compared to as high as 70% on a HTC Touch Diamond. Whether or not this tradeoff between fanciness and resource usage will pay off for Palm remains to be seen.

Next up, I read over at wmpoweruser.com that Palm is holding a Treo Pro launch today in London. wmpoweruser.com says that since the Treo Pro is being sold unsubsidized in the USA, the phone will sort of become more an international than US-based phone like the Treo 500v, and that the London launch may be much more important than it appears.

We all vent our rage on inanimate objects sometimes, and next time you get mad at your cell phone, you could get in some practice for the World Championship Mobile Phone Throwing contest. But the competition is beastly. This year's champion thrower in the "freestyle" category is a dog.

According to the event's official (English) website:

For the very first time in Mobile Phone Throwing history the winner is from animal world. The winner is Cara dog and Cara's owner Ulle Tonov, Estonia. Cara threw 30 centimetres, but luckily for her only style matters in this category. Cara got full points from the judges.

That's a throw of only about a foot, but it's the style that counts. Only the style. Estonian and Finnish contestants dominated the winners in the other categories, with Estonian Timmo Lilium taking the men's title with a throw of 85 meters (about 279 feet). The all-time champion is still Mikko Lampi from Finland whose 2005 phone throw was 94.97 meters � a whopping 311.58 feet. Now that's phone rage!

Naturally, the World Championship in Finland is preceded by national championships, and there are strict rules about conduct and judging. Next year's contest, the 11th Annual, will be August 22, 2009 in Punkaharju, in the tourism-worthy Savonlinna region. Start practicing now!