BlackBerry Bold OS 4.7 Leaked

Blogger Don Nguyen has posted a leaked BlackBerry Storm 4.7 OS upgrade package. On his site, Mr. Nguyen writes:

"After so many requests and the OK from my source, I am officially leaking the new Blackberry Storm OS."

I'm not sure who he has gotten the "OK" from, so if you plan on loading this update on your brand spankin' new Verizon BlackBerry Storm, you do so at your own risk. The directions for applying the update can be found over on CrackBerry.com forums.

[Via CrackBerry.com...]

Briefly Noted: Palm Smartphone Changes

Kris Keilhack over at PalmInfoCenter.com is reporting two Palm product chances.

Treo 750 Nearing End of Life?


The first is that it appears that Palm and AT&T are moving to end-of-life (EOL) the Palm Treo 750. Of the Treo 750, Mr. Keilhack writes:

"Aside from the evergreen Treo 700wx on Verizon, the 750 remains Palm's oldest current smartphone. Replacing the 750 with the new Treo Pro would appear to be a logical move but to date nothing more than rumors have indicated that Palm's flagship device will be appearing in subsidized form on any domestic GSM carrier.

Originally launched in September 2006 with Windows Mobile 5.2, the Treo 750 is now well over two years old. So despite the presence of the WM6 update released last fall, it is beginning to look a bit long in the tooth relative to not only competing handsets but even its newer Windows Mobile-powered Treo sister devices, the Treo 800w and Treo Pro."

Verizon Centro ROM Upgrade


Palm and Verizon have made a free ROM maintenace upgrade available to customers using Verizon-branded Centro smartphones. Writing for PalmInfoCenter, Mr. Keilhack writes:

"Palm is being rather vague on the specific improvements in this update, claiming only: "This software update is a minor tune-up that may improve device usability in certain situations."

Palm customers who are using Verizon branded Centros can learn more about and download the latest ROM update here. Sprint customers received a similar update back in July.

Rumor: Verizon Centro on June 13th

EngadgetMobile has posted a rumor that the Verizon edition of the Palm Centro will go on sale on June 13th. That should be good news for Verizon customers who want to jump on the Centro bandwagon.











However, everyone seems to be scratching their head about the rumored price of the Verizon Centro with a two-year commitment: 269.99!

I hope that the $269 price is incorrect. Palm has stated on several occasions now that the two reasons why the Centro has been popular on Sprint and AT&T was due in part of the ease of use of the Palm OS and the low $99 price point.

Read the full EngadgetMobile article...

[Thanks to miles4000 for the tip.]

Rumor: Palm Treo 800w Specs

Earlier today EngadgetMobile spilled the beans on the specs for Palm's upcoming and often rumored Treo 800w for the Verizon Wireless network. The specs for the CDMA Treo 800w are:

• 1xEvDO Rev A
• 256MB Flash, 128MB RAM
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional (likely 6.1)
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0 with BBAC Bluetooth and cable support
• micro-SD card slot
• 1.3MP digital camera
• Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP)

These specs are very similar to those of the Treo 850 that also leaked our recently. No pricing information was listed, however, the Verizon Wireless slide had a launch date of "3Q 2008."

Full details at EngadgetMobile.com...

Rumor: Centro Coming To Verizon "Soon"?

While reading the Brighthand forums, I stumbled across the following post by member dwb1:

"I was in a Verizon store Saturday (5/31) upgrading my sons phone and looking at the Touch and there was a dummy version of the Centro on the counter. I was told they should have it in the store soon (1-2 wks). They said it was unusual to have the dummy and not have it in the system. It looks really nice, dark blue case. They guessed the price point to be a little lower than the Touch, maybe $100 after NE2."

Could the Centro finally be coming to Verizon? I hope so. Otherwise Verizon will see some defections to AT&T when the Apple iPhone 2.0 is released later this month.

Read the full Brighthand thread here...

Engadget: Verizon Centro Photos

I'm not sure how they do it, but Engadget has gotten their hands on what appears to be promo photos of the much rumored, might as well just announce it now, Centro that will be appearing on Verizon Wireless soon.

Read the full Engadget article...

Palm Treo 755p Available on Verizon Wireless

Earlier today, Palm launched the Treo 755p smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network.

Compared to the Treo 700p which it replaces in the Verizon smartphone line up, the Treo 755p offers a sleeker body design that has previously only been available to Sprint and AT&T customers. Like other recent Treo smartphones, the Verizon Treo 755p features an internal antenna and the soft-touch paint. This version of the Treo 755p comes in azure green (a deep blue-green color if you are Pantone color chart challenged like me). Sprint offers the the 755p in burgundy and midnight blue while Alltel offers the smartphone in black.

The Treo 755p, like the 700p, features a full suite of software for both business and personal time. Documents To Go, Pocket Tunes, and VersaMail lead off a full feature list. Also included in this Treo is Verizon's Wireless Sync software that allows customers to wireless synchronize email, contacts, calendar, and tasks from a home or business Windows PC.

The Treo 755p will sell for $400 with a new two-year service agreement and after a $50 mail in rebate. Customers who also purchase a qualified voice plan are also eligible for an additional $100 rebate. The Treo 755p will sell for $580 for customers who do not wish to extended there service plans with Verizon.

Full details on all versions of the Treo 755p can be found on the Palm website.

Rumor: Treo 800w Coming to Verizon

Those of you who have been following along with my weekly "Palm Powered" podcast over on 1SRC.com know that I've been wondering out loud about Verizon and their Palm Treo line up.

Until recently, the Treo 700p and 700w|wx maintenance releases where unavailable, the new Centro will be a Sprint exclusive until the new year, and the 755p, which has been available on Sprint for months how is nowhere in sight on the Verizon radar. Will Verizon go a holiday season without a new device from Palm? Until recently, it looked like the answer might be "Yes". Starting today, I'm officially calling for the start of "Treo 800w Silly Season."

Silly Seasons are the months leading up to a new Palm product launch where Palm fan sites, like Foleo Fanatics, and discussion boards are a buzz with rumors and wild speculation about the next rumored device. In this case, it is the rumored successor to the Treo 700w|wx, the Treo 800w.

I'm not even going to start making predictions about what this device will have on board or even what form factor it will have; except to say that I expect the Treo 800w, if it is real, to be running the Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional operating system. (And I'm not even going to go near any rumors of a Treo 800p running Palm OS II. It is way too soon for anything like that to be even close to ready.)

For those who want to get a head start on the Treo 800w Silly Season, check out TreoCentral member howicam's post from this past weekend. If that doesn't jump start rumors, I don't know what will. Just keep in mind that this is only a rumor at this point, and I have not confirmed any of the information in the post.

Do you think we'll see a new Windows Mobile Treo on Verizon before the Christmas holiday? Let us know by clicking the Comments link below and sharing your thoughts.

Verizon Treo 700-Series Updates Reposted

This past week Palm and Verizon have cleared the Verizon Treo 700p Maintenance Release 1.10 update. As you may recall, Palm took down all of the Treo 700-series updaters after customers discovered a bug that prevented customers from consistently connecting to Verizon's EVDO data network.

Palm recently posted on their support website:

The initial version of the Palm Treo 700p Updater 1.10, posted on July 12, 2007 incorrectly set a data connectivity parameter which may have produced an error when trying to connect to network data services.

These errors associated with this issue may include:

"Error 3000" errors when attempting to browse

"PPP Link Time Out error 0x1231" when attempting to connect to data

The Treo 700p Update 1.10 was modified to properly program the parameter which had been incorrectly set, and is reposted as either the:

VerizonTreo700pSDUpdate-rev1.zip.

- Or -

VerizonTreo700pDesktopUpdate-rev1.zip

For the full details on the update including upgrade directions and the download link, visit the Palm website.

The Treo 700w|wx update was reposted back on September 18th.

Verizon Treo 700p 1.10 update...
Verizon Treo 700w|wx 1.22 update...