CoreCodec has just released a new version of CorePlayer for Palm OS and Windows Mobile. This update brings support for Adobe Flash multimedia container files (typically .flv and .f4v files) encoded in flash video. If you have video saved to your memory card it will now be able to play them back. Native support for flash within webpages is still a ways off, but is planned for a future release. The update also includes some bugfixes and optimizations for the recently introduced YouTube support and improved RSS feed functions. You can view the changelog here.

CorePlayer Mobile for Palm OS v1.2.4 is available now for $29.95. It is a free update for current customers. You can read our review of an earlier version here. It is also available for Windows Mobile Professional and Smartphone.

Toysoft's PictureDial for Palm OS has been updated. PictureDial integrates with the home screen of the dialer on the GSM (AT&T) Centro and Treo 680. It gives you a customizable panel where you can add photo icons to dial your own favorites contacts, instead of just the standard static wallpaper display. It blends in pretty seamlessly and will let you add an unlimited number of shortcuts and you can also select your own wallpaper and background colors.

PictureDial v1.1 for the Treo 680 and GSM Centro is available now for $9.95. It comes with a 10 day free trial.

The Palm.com store is running a series of new promotions and deep discounts of up to 50% off on select accessories now through May 14th. You can view the full sale list here. Some highlights include:

• Palm GPS Navigator featuring Garmin Mobile XT for $139, originally $249
• Palm Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard for $69.99, originally $99.99
• Palm Wireless Headset Series 3 for $45.49, originally $69.99
• Palm Treo 755p Standard Battery for $29.99, originally $49.99
• Palm 4GB microSD card with miniSD and SD adapters for $47.99, originally $59.99
• Palm 2GB microSD card with miniSD and SD adapters for $27.99 originally $34.99

In addition, Palm is giving away a free Bluetooth wireless headset with the purchase of any smartphone. With the purchase of any handheld, a free Palm Travel charger is included.

Sprint is running a new television commercial for the Palm Centro. The commercial spot shows off the Centro in a variety of colors and actually shows a bit of what the device can do. This is certainly an improvement over the past campaign which emphasized "multitasking" on a device that runs a non-multitasking, single-threaded OS.

Also in contrast to the previous ad, the Centro itself is the main focus of attention and the promo does a good job of demonstrating a few of its features in quick succession. The ad goes on to refers to the device as the "smallest smartphone ever from Palm." The full clip can be seen after the break.

Rumor: TamsPPC blog has obtained and published a letter from Palm to select developer partners that includes mention and some scant details on two new upcoming device releases. TamsPPC has also posted a image of a "mock up" of an unspecified Palm device, that at the very least shows a new, yet familiar d-pad and keyboard design which could be taken from either of the unannounced devices.

The letter makes reference to two Palm device code-names: Zeppelin and Skywriter. Zeppelin is well known as a reference to the upcoming Treo 800w, expected shortly. The Skywritter, however, is new to us. Tam speculates that it may perhaps be a "Centro" like device running Windows Mobile 6.1. If that is indeed the case, this model could be somewhat related to the leaked "Wanda" information, which detailed Palm's expected Treo 500 successor (pictured at right).

Palm's recent May 1st newsletter to retail and reseller partners contains a variety of interesting tidbits relating to new peripheral announcements, product EOL announcements and a change in reseller pricing strategies.

First off, Palm has quietly announced two new branded peripherals for the Centro smartphone line. The first is a small, no-frills desktop cradle designed for the smaller Centro form-factor priced at $29.99 (3401WW). This cradle, unlike the excellent older Palm Treo cradle kit, does not appear to support the charging of a spare battery and looks surprisingly similar to the classic wedge-shaped Universal Connector Hotsync cradle used by Palm from the 2001's m500 line all to the way to 2003's Tungsten T3. This is the same cradle that Ryan photographed when visiting with the Palm reps at the CTIA show in March.

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm the NPD Group, has posted a thought-provoking piece entitled "The Linux Ultraportable Opportunity" in his Engadget blog column. While not necessarily relevant to Palm Inc. and their immediate stable of products, anyone waiting with bated breath on Palm's next-generation Nova OS would be well-served to begin paying at least passing attention to the increasingly crowded market of portable, affordable devices running some distribution of Linux.

Rubin's article focuses on a product segment that has recently blazing hot: the rise of the affordable, Linux-based subnotebook PC. Rubin notes the rapid rise of Linux into the mobile market in devices such as the Asus EEE PC HP Mini-Note and Everex's Cloudbook. He correctly points out that Microsoft's bloated and clunky Vista and Windows Mobile OSes cannot, even alongside the immortal Windows XP recently given a stay of execution, hope to stave off Linux forever.

• Palm to Present at Merrill Lynch Technology Conference
• WebMessenger Mobile for BlackBerries Released
• SunnySoft Contacts Updated
• Gameloft Announces Wimbledon 2008 Tennis Game
• CinemaNow Remote Download Service for Full-Length Movies

Do you experience pangs of anxiety when you don’t have your PDA in your hand/pocket/bag? Ordinarily I’d suggest you go see a good therapist. But since I’ve had the pleasure of laying my eyes on the gorgeous new Palm Zire 72, ...

Rumor: WMExperts claims to have obtained what is the likely release date for the next Palm Treo smartphone due on Sprint, presumably called the Treo 800w. The site claims Tuesday, July 22nd as the tentative date, which would largely be in line with the leaked Sprint roadmap and recent comments from Palm.

The Treo 800w (also code-named Zeppelin) is expected to debut running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (Pocket PC edition) with a 320x320 pixel touchscreen display. It is also expected to be Palm's first smartphone that includes Wi-Fi as well at GPS functionality and its first EVDO Rev.A device of any kind.

After a long period of dormancy, SnapperMail a robust email application for Palm OS, has recently seen a fresh round of updates. SnapperMail was one of the first email clients written to take full advantage of Treo smartphones. The program features full IMAP4 and POP3 support as well as finger navigation, mail storage on memory cards, native attachment support, background operation and a host of other features. According to the version history some of the most recent updates include a larger number of bug-fixes and improvements, fixes for nvfs and support for the latest devices.

SnapperMail v2.4.1 for Palm OS is priced between $29.95 and $59.95 depending on the version selected. A free 30 day trial version is available.

(Credit: Crave Asia)

Knowing that I still use a Palm Treo 650 (yes, people who review phones don't necessarily have fancy ones), a colleague alerted me to the fact that PDAmill Game Studios has made all its Palm OS games free. The company stopped making games for this platform ...

The Treo/Centro smartphone utility MissedCall has just been updated. MissedCall gives you the ability to activate and program a LED indicator light when you have a missed call or new messages. You can also setup additional actions such as a choosing the LED alert color and adding vibration and sound alerts. The latest update include support for ringtone alerts and lets you choose separate options for missed calls or messages.

MissedCall v1.4.0 for Palm OS is available now for $6.99. It comes with a free trial period and is compatible with the Treo 600/650/680/700p/755p and Palm Centro.

Palm announced today that Palm's Chief Financial Officer Andrew J. Brown is scheduled to present at the Merrill Lynch Technology 2008 Conference in New York on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time.

A live webcast of his presentation will be made available on Palm's Investor Relations website.

All things being equal, after doing extensive side by side comparisons with other sensitive information management products, SplashID (also available for Pocket PC) became my product of choice for quite a few reasons. ...

The Washington Post has published an interesting but bizarrely flip-flopping editorial from PC World Contributing Editor James A. Martin entitled "Is the Palm OS Dying? Should You Care?" The piece discusses the uncertain future facing both Palm Inc. and the Palm OS, now owned by Japan's Access Software. In short, Mr. Martin makes no bones about Palm's gradual, protracted decline due to its aging OS and increasingly unglamorous hardware specs, calling Palm Inc. a "third-tier smart phone vendor" but ultimately asserts the platform as still viable and offering a compelling combination of friendliness, flexibility, and value.

Some of the key reasons offered by Martin for sticking with the tried and tested Palm OS are its unparalleled ease-of-use and efficiency, as well as the questionable classification of Palm's hardware as "reliable and sturdy". He then goes onto curiously point out certain deficiencies and quirks of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch as reasons to stick with the Palm OS. The sensitivity of Apple's finger-based touchscreen UI is called into question but, strangely enough, not the platform's more glaring flaws, such as the lack of a stylus, 3G wireless, full-featured PIM apps, removable expansion cards, and Apple's strict guidelines ...

Palm's most recent GPS bundle, the Palm GPS Navigator with Garmin XT software, has just received a new temporary price reduction. Palm's newest GPS solution debuted late last year with a $249 MSRP but has almost always been promoted with a mail-in rebate and/or temporary sale pricing since its release. To the best of my knowledge, the current sale pricing of $159.99 before a $20 mail-in rebate is this product's lowest price thus far.

Unlike the earlier Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone packages, Palm ships this bundle's with Garmin's Mobile XT software standard. TomTom has apparently ceased development of PDA and smartphone-based navigation solutions to focus on its dedicated and standalone GPS solutions. The Garmin software is provided on the bundled 2GB microSD card with adapters for full-size SD as well as miniSD.

• Palm Treo 500 Comes to O2
• FlipSide MP3 Player Released for Windows Mobile
• NoviiRemote Now Compatible with Palm Centro
• Updated MyStrands Social Player for Symbian S60
• Palm Centro Released in Venezuela

PC Pro reviews the Palm Centro and writes, “It’s not exactly the slimmest or smallest smartphone around - that accolade goes to the Blackberry Pearl and HTC Touch - but for a device with a full qwerty keypad it’s remarkably pocketable. ...

Palm today introduced its popular Palm Centro smartphone in Venezuela through Movistar. Palm's smallest and lightest smartphone and is now available through Movistar in red and blue.

The Centro is a quad-band GSM/EDGE smartphone running Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It has a 320x320 pixel touchscreen display, Bluetooth v1.2, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera with video capture and 64MB of memory. For memory expansion it has a microSD slot. You can find our Centro review here.

Another long time Palm OS developer has decided to make their catalogue available for free. Ellams Software, developer of a number of games going back to the early PDA days, has made all of its titles available as freeware. Ellams offers about 16 games and a few utilities including some classics such as Agent Z and Rapid Racer, to Air Hockey 3D, Jetmam Jack and the classic C64 inspired Heli Rescue.

You can find the full list at Ellams website. Many of the games will run on a wide range of older Palm units going back to Palm OS v3.5. The developer asks for donations if you enjoy the games.

Trusted Reviews has a review of the Palm Centro and writes, “The Centro is aiming to take on the consumer market where the Treo line was more business focussed. The fact that we loose out on the colour options in the UK detracts from ...

On May 10, the Los Angeles Palm User Group (LAPUG) hosts speaker Utena Yokoshima, Regional Sales Manager, AT&T Business Unit, Research In Motion Limited. Expect lively discussion of RIM/Blackberry technology, comparing it with what Palm offers.

LAPUG, recently resurrected last October, meets in Santa Monica, California, the second Saturday of each month. All interested in Palm and competing handheld devices are welcome to share in discussions. The agenda and further meeting details are discussed in the LAPUG Yahoo group.

NoviiMedia has announced that their NoviiRemote Deluxe for Palm software is now compatible with the Palm Centro. NoviiRemote allows Palm OS smartphone and PDA users to control their home entertainment system including TV, VCR, Cable/Sat, TiVo, DVD player and more. The software works as a high-end universal remote control and offers unlimited user-defined options, customizable controls and finger/stylus based operation.

NoviiRemote Deluxe v3.73 is available for purchase from NoviiMedia's website for $34.99. A trial version is also available.

Palm is now launching its Windows Mobile Standard Treo 500 smartphone on O2 UK. If you live in the UK, the Treo 500 can now be purchased from the O2 UK Store. Depending on your rate plan, there will be various subsidies offered.

According to Tim Weston, Head of Marketing for XDA & Data Devices, O2 UK: “We are delighted that O2 customers will now be able to benefit from everything the Treo 500 has to offer. The Palm Treo 500 smartphone broadens our offering to business customers looking for an intuitive, fully functional smartphone.”

The device will be charcoal grey in appearance. The review can be found on Pocketnow.com.

UK Network Operator O2 is now offering the Treo 500 in the UK. Aimed at business users, the Treo 500 smartphone is available across O2's top 100 stores as well as through its direct sales teams and online shop. The device, which comes in charcoal grey, is available free from O2 on select Pay Monthly tariffs, dependent on the tariff taken.

The Treo 500 is a Windows Mobile 6 (Smartphone edition) powered smartphone. It comes equipped with a full qwerty keyboard and a 240x320 pixel transflective display. It has a tri-band GSM radio supporting the 900/1800/1900 bands and UTMS 2100. It also includes 256MB memory with 150MB available for user storage, a 2 megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD expansion slot.

MetaViewSoft has released version 1.0 of their finger optimized contacts scroller and dialer for the Palm OS. 2Cool4U gives you a flickable, touchscreen optimized display of your existing contacts. It's slide and scroll features give you quick access to your contacts and making calls is streamlined with one finger access and large thumb friendly buttons. The new version now offers skin support and comes with a couple of built in choices, full contact pictures, a finger scrollable call log, SIM contacts and much more.

2Cool4U v1.0 for Palm OS is available now for $15.00. It is currently on sale for $10 for a limited time. You can watch a clip of it in action after the break.

Mobile Game Developer Outfit PDAMill has decided to make their entire Palm OS game catalogue available for free. The company recently decided to discontinue development on Palm OS, and are now making their line of high quality titles available fully unlocked and free of charge.

Games include: Arvale: Journey of Illusion, Snails, GameBox Solitaire I & II, GameBox Classic, GameBox Gems and GameBox Asia. The games all require Palm OS 5 or higher and a high resolution screen. Most titles also support 320x480 mode as well. PDAMill notes that the games come without warranty and support and warns that they may not be compatible with all devices. You can find the full list here.

The Treo 500v is the entry level model from Palm that gives new visitors to the world of Windows Mobile the opportunity to live the all-round play and work experience without having to fork out on an expensive bells and whistles handset. The Palm website safely pegs this device as the Windows Mobile equivalent of the newly released Centro. It is aimed at grabbing a share of the demographic looking to move to away from simpler phones in favour of a more PDA / phone hybrid. So is the Treo worthy of standing on the same podium as its million plus selling little brother? Read on to find out!

Overall Rating:


The Good

Compact and lightweight

Has 3G

A good entry-level WM6 Standard device

The Bad

Memory card is behind battery

Triband only

No WiFi or GPS

Free Download Arcade Games - Game Collection for Windows, Palm, Pocket April 27th, 2008 Free Download Arcade Games - Game Collection for Windows, Palm, Pocket Free Download Arcade Games for Windows, Mac, PalmOS, PocketPC, Linux, Symbian and Smartphone. Arcade, puzzle, card, board games - you could try them online, take part in the Source: absolutist.com Gameworld Network Downloads - free game demos, patches, shareware Lost Empire: Immortals Download the new turn-based strategy demo for PC

I also started a general purpose productivity blog to cover items not specifically related to PDA devices. I have a long term project at forgettingthingsdone.com. Also a mini blog project called GettingThingsTerminated.com. ...

Amazon is selling all AT&T cell phones for $0.01 (or less) today if you sign up for a new two-year contract. Windows Mobile phones available include the following:

Palm Treo 750 -- -$0.01 (after $150 mail-in rebate)

Pantech C810 Duo (silver or red) -- $0.01

Samsung BlackJack II (black or red) -- -$49.99 after $50 mail-in rebate

The Tilt seems to be out of stock, though, and the Motorola Q9 Global seems to cost $74.99 (after a $25 mail-in rebate), so their definition of "all" seems a bit off.

There are also various BlackBerry, Palm and feature phones for $0.01 or less, but we don't care about those, do we? And, since I know somebody will ask, the iPhone is nowhere to be seen there.

This offer is for today only. Are you going to take advantage of this deal? Let us know in the discussion.

Innovative clay-tastic graphics make this novel game a muddy treat.

[…] graphics and animation were fast, smooth as silk and fun on our Palm Centro, with the multi-layered scrolling backgrounds giving a real depth

[…] graphics and animation were fast, smooth as silk and fun on our Palm Centro, with the multi-layered scrolling backgrounds giving a real depth

MotionApps has released a new version of its RSS feed reader for Palm OS. mRSS v5.0 brings a new look and an "advanced user interface" that sports hand gestures and finger optimized control. Like any proper feed reader should, mRSS can can download and display the latest news and content from numerous sources of your choice. This new version also allows you to easily send feeds and subscriptions to your device from your desktop computer and has a built in supply of recommended sources.

mRSS v5.0 for Palm OS is available now for $19.99. It comes with a free trial period. It is compatible with the Palm Centro, Treo 755p/700p/680/650 and 600.

Released late last year, Herocraft's Stolen in 60 Seconds is a multi-platform, single-player only game offering a unique combination of action and strategy. The player takes the role of the mastermind of a group of jewel thieves trying to plan and carry out increasingly complex heists on a variety of buildings.

Read on for the full game review...

GoTreo Software is now offering live tech support in conjunction with its recently released SafeGuard utility. SafeGuard is an application designed to troubleshoot, prevent and help diagnose software problems and misbehaving 3rd party applications on Palm OS devices. The company is now offering a new SafeGuard Live service to help frustrated users diagnose and solve their crashing or locked device issues via live phone help, instant messenger or email. The company aims to remedy and stabilize any software issue no matter the offending application.

SafeGuard v2.09 is available now for $19.95. It comes with a free trial period. It is compatible with the Treo 650, Treo 700p, Treo 755p, Treo 680 and Palm Centro. The SafeGuard Live service is sold as a $12.95 monthly subscription, more details can be found here.

...side by side comparisons with other sensitive information management products, SplashID (also available for Pocket PC) became my product of...

PalmPowerups has released an update to SkinUI and has made the program available as freeware. SkinUI is similar to PalmRevolt in that is enables you to completely skin the Palm OS to achieve a completely new user interface experience. Users can find a good selection of skins from OS X and Cobalt to "Church Punk" available at the PalmPowersups site.

In a post on 1src, the developer dmitrygr says he is nearing the end of his long Palm OS programming run. Dmitry is currently working on a nuRom LifeDrive utility and a SDHC driver for Palm devices which he expects to be his last projects.

Engadget Mobile is reporting that Palm will be road-testing the Treo 800w phone, which should have a 320 X 320 screen and built-in WiFi, a first for a Treo.

Palm was a leader in the handheld space and in many ways helped to create it. Lackluster design and bulky form factors have left consumers wanting more. Palm's release of the Treo 500 and the Palm Centro have helped the company stay relevant.

The Treo 800w will be competing with the soon to be released Samsung i788 in the US market as well as the HP iPaq 900 series.

Will you be returning to Palm for a candybar QWERTY form factor or will you be looking at the competitors for more?

Rumor: Palm has recently been sending out invitations to select customers inviting them to "test an innovative new product." The invitation goes on to list a number of requirements among which include heavy smartphone/email use, WiFi Router access and are a current Sprint customer.

At the very least, this email confirms that Palm's expected next generation Windows Mobile Treo will include WiFi. We can also presume that it also indicates that like many of Palm's previous new Treos, the upcoming device will likely debut on Sprint in the US.

This is good news for Palm centro owner, you not only one person that use this smartphone because also other a million people using it. Palm announced that more than a million units of its entry-level Centro have been bought by customers. That’s good news for Palm, as many phones from big companies don’t even sell more than 100,000 units.

This is good news for Palm centro owner, you not only one person that use this smartphone because also other a million people using it.

Motion Apps' popular mOcean mp3 player for Palm OS devices has quietly become a "free" ad-supported app. Since the release of the latest version last month, the app has now added a small banner containing advertisements across the top of the main screen.

In addition to MP3s, this versatile media app plays back still photos, videos, audiobooks and streaming radio, all while mimicking the general look and feel of Apple's iconic iPod interface. mOcean also features full iTunes synchronization capabilities. It is worth noting that mOcean is only compatible with Palm OS smartphones such as the Treo and Centro, so Palm PDA diehards need to look towards PocketTunes or elsewhere for their media-playback fix.

Of course, users are still able to purchase the app at full price to remove the banner advertisements at the usual price of $29.99. You can check out Tim's review of mOcean v3.0.

Palm's most recent newsletter to their retail and reseller partners indicates that the Centro extended batteries we covered just a few weeks ago have already been EOL'd. Just one month ago, we posted a preview article showcasing this battery and its unsightly white hump of a replacement battery door and fully expect it to hit retail in the very near future.

Both the 3341WW Centro Extended Life Battery with black & red replacement covers as well as the 3379WW Extended Life battery with white and blue covers from Palm appear to have essentially died prior to even hitting the market.

Terry Davis unboxes the new Palm Treo 500 over in the UK, which runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard. It's a cute little phone, though some users with big thumbs may find the keyboard difficult to use. Other than that, Terry was generally pleased with the hardware configuration of the device, but didn't like the microSD holder placement behind the battery.

More coverage to come from Terry on the Treo 500.

See also:
Detailed specs of the Treo 500

...a Palm powered product and in fact we've never written a review on one. ... [Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Palm, centro, Tracy

Wish Solutions has released a new free edition of its Call Block software for Palm OS smartphones. Call Block Free Edition is a simple yet effective tool to block and filter unsolicited and unwanted incoming calls and sms messages. The software uses a background blocking method to not interrupt you when blocked calls come in. The free version lets you block up to five callers.

Call Block Free Edition v2.0 is available now for Palm OS. Call Block MP3 Ringtone Edition for Palm OS offers more advanced blocking and reporting features in addition to mp3 ringtones. You can read our review of it here. It is also available for Windows Mobile.

Palm has just introduced the Centro smartphone in Columbia through Comcel and Movistar. The Centro is being made available in the Red and Blue colors, which recently debuted in Mexico.

The Centro is a quad-band GSM/EDGE smartphone running Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It has a 320x320 pixel touchscreen display, Bluetooth v1.2, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera with video capture and 64MB of memory. For memory expansion it has a microSD slot. You can find our Centro review here.