Here's some word that Mobile phone aficionados might find interesting: Details on the upcoming Treo 800w from Sprint are out. At least not the official ones. It's shaping up to be a nice mix of style and features, as you'll see when you read the full article.

After Morning Blog released an unflattering image of the supposedly top-secret Palm Gandolf just a few days ago, two more pictures (of far better quality) were "leaked", showing that the device is running what looks like Windows Mobile Standard - or Smartphone, depending on how you want to call it.

If that's the case, then it would be the first Palm to use the Windows Mobile, steering away from its usual touch-screen interface. The picture does not offer any other information, other than the Vodafone brand (which tells us that this will be offered in Europe as a GSM device), and the two home and back buttons characteristic of devices using Windows Mobile Standard.

It's not yet clear whether the device pictured is the Treo 800w; Palm Infocenter did mention that Verizon will release Treo 755p and Treo 800w sometime this year, but we'll definitely check this device out as more information comes our way, so stay tuned!

 

 

It looks like Sprint and Verizon are still at it. Verizon has just signed up to get the Treo 700wx. The story: Verizon had an exclusive on the Treo 700w but then Sprint releases 700wx. The 700wx is the updated version of the 700w. There's only one notable difference between the two, the 700wx has 32MB of RAM.

So is this Verizon striking back? Checking with the image above, it says that when you buy a 700w, you get a US$ 100 mail in rebate for a Treo 700p, 700P WOC, and 700WX. And it indicates that the promotion ends on February 19.

Interesting. Does that mean Verizon subscribers will be seeing the 700wx soon? We'll watch out for updates regarding this (pricing, release date, and what not) so stay glued.

While some of us look for energy sources at the nearest 7-Eleven or wall socket, some people simply look up. The sun. The energy's free and it's everywhere. You just have to harness it.

This solar charger from Solar Style is handy and, of course, useful for those who are trying to save energy and those who are always on the go. The SC002-Charger FK can handle standard mobile phones, smartphones, PDA's, MP3 players, and other devices with the same or less energy demands.

There are two kits available with seven connectors each, depending on what gadgets you want to connect. Both kit versions come with SA019 AC Charger and SA202 Car Charger. The full set retails for US$ 55.99.

• Version 1 - SA002 Motorola, SA003 Nokia, SA004 Samsung, SA008 Sony Ericsson, Mini USB, Game Boy, 4 pin X connector
• Version 2 - SA002 Motorola, SA003 Nokia, SA004 Samsung, SA008 Sony Ericsson, SA011 Motorola, SA013 Palm/Treo, 4 pin X connector

The limitation of the current Windows Mobile Treo units is that it cannot add SDHC support because an SDHC driver is not yet available. But now, thanks to those persistent hackers, there is now a way to enable such.

By simply tapping files from the new Treo 680 on Cingular, which does have SDHC support, users can now successfully add in the support to the Treo 650 and Treo 700p. Why would you want to do that? Because it actually increases the maximum capacity of your SD memory cards dramatically. Up to two times the existing four GB capacity to eight GB , in fact. And just you wait as the newer cards are released. Definitely, this could go bigger.

Now, we don't really know yet if Palm will be officially supporting SDHC in existing models with software updates. But for now, at least you have a workable option for it.

Palm Inc announced plans to release the new kid on its smartphone block, the Treo 680, with the mobile game Bejeweled from Astraware. Bejeweled was originally developed for Palm OS in 2001 but has been updated to support new devices including Treo smartphones. The latest version of Bejeweled includes full 5-way controls for easy one-handed play.

"As a huge fan of the whole Treo range, I'm thrilled to continue supporting Palm by providing the best games," said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. "We receive a lot of feedback from busy people who like to play our games on their Treo smartphones in their spare moments, and Bejeweled is a particular favourite."

In response, Palm Inc said they were just as pleased to work with Astraware. "Bejeweled is perfectly suited to gaming on the move - its one-handed play complements the capabilities of the Treo beautifully," the phone manufacturer said.

We can't afford a Palm Treo 680 but we are happy for them anyway.

Anybody else got a better idea for a Palm handheld other than organizing your, ho-hum, weekly meetings and e-mailing your files to your office assistant? Apparently, Astraware has. For as long as you love baking cakes and are challenged by the Palm OS devices' capability to give you this fast-paced culinary experience, you're going to fall for Cake Mania. The game is originally a PC game that has gone the way of the Palm handheld due to its addictive nature.

Released just earlier this week, this mobile game has 50 cake-baking levels, equipment upgrades to help bake bigger, better cakes from among 500 cake combinations, with fun customers, cartoon-style graphics, and zingy sound effects. Your goal in the game is to help Jill to bake, frost, and decorate elaborate cakes to satisfy impatient customers. The daily Baker Goal keeps score of your achievements. If you win, you can stop the Megamart bullies from taking over Jill's grandparents' bakery and buy it back.

The game is a joint effort between Astraware and Sandlot Games. This version runs on Palm OS 5 handhelds but is not compatible with Zire 21, Zire 31, Z22, Treo 600, Qool QDA 700, PiTech W300 or any Palm OS handheld without at least a 320x320 screen. The game is priced at US$ 19.95, but for the meantime, you can download the trial version here.

Download: [Cake Mania for Palm OS handhelds]

Every forum follows certain rules and regulations. And members, for an orderly flow of thoughts and ideas, should adhere to these. Here in our forums for example, swearing and sexual content are strictly prohibited. However, Cingular Wireless' take on regulating its forums seems a bit curious and different.

A few months ago, mobile-dedicated site, Engadget, revealed an alleged product road map for the biggest mobile company in the United States. The report included two Treo units, Nitro and Lennon. It appeared that Cingular didn't appreciate the leak even one tiny bit. As a form of retaliation, they banned Engadget in their forums.

Any mention of the word engadget or links that lead to them are barred. Any member who try to do so will receive the following message:

Cingular's move didn't gain approval from its very own users though. And in a business like them and ours, consumers are the ultimate arbiter of things. The ban was lifted eventually after a few days. Subscribers of Cingular Wireless total roughly to 57 million.

We thought it was going to happen last month, but we were proved wrong. Now, almost three years after it was first announced, the Blackberry Connect client for the Palm OS has finally touched down in the US. The client allows Treo users to access most of the features of the Blackberry Enterprise Server, including wireless calendar sync, remote address lookup, over-the-air-device management, and their popular "push" email.

Right now, Cingular is the only large wireless carrier in the US to offer the Blackberry Connect service to its customers. Other wireless carriers will no doubt follow suit in the coming months.

The first smartphone to have the service is the Treo 650. Those who purchased their Treo 650 from Cingular after June 3 will receive the application for free. While those who purchased their Treo 650 before June 3 will be charged $9.99.

A few days ago, QJ reported on some images of an antenna-less Palm smartphone that lead to rumors that Palm's latest baby is to be released soon. Today, the rumor becomes fact as Treo sets a date for the official release of the Lennon-750 or Treo 750 (official name not confirmed yet), Palm Treo's antenna-less smartphone.

Set to take place in a yet undisclosed location in UK, the launch of Palm's newest PDA will happen on the 12th of September. Palm has also disclosed that this device will run on Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC, making it the first Windows Mobile device from Palm to use the GSM/GPRS standard. The Treo 750 will also support UMTS, a 3G wireless-networking standard, most popular in Europe.

Some other details about this smartphone has been circulating, but they all can be considered mere speculations for now. For example, Palm recently said that it was going to add short-range wireless networking technology to its smartphones, but has not really committed to any specific model. Hence, it still is a matter of debate if the antenna-less model will indeed have built-in Wi-fi. It supposedly also has a 1.3 megapixel camera and an SD card slot.