And rounding up the dreaded SMS-2016 issue, whereby SMS messages come dated from the year 2016, is Palm with a nice patch for their CDMA Treo Pros on Sprint and Alltel.

The patch is a simple .cab file.  Just download, install and soft-reset and you should be good to go.

For those who want direct links to the .cabs, here you go.  Just click and download:

• Sprint patch
• Alltel  patch

Or browse to Palm's support page for Sprint or Alltel for more information.

[Thanks, lunigma, for noticing!]

Here's one that will blow your mind.  Evidently, Verizon is or was planning on releasing the Palm Treo Pro.

Yup, that device from last year, featuring Windows Mobile 6.1, WiFi and EvDO Rev A. from what we're told is making its rounds on Verizon (or was).

From the photos above, you can see the following:

• Software: T850EWW-1.00-VZW
• Firmware: 1.12.40v
• Verizon plugin for email
• Verizon network plugin

That is newer firmware than the Sprint version (1.11.30F) and we're told it features CE OS 5.2.20765 (Build 20765.1.4.4).

Our thought? Hard to make sense of it.  The firmware and photos don't really lie, but since there is no branding anywhere on the device it's hard to judge.  Plus, there's that whole 'Why in the world would Verizon get this phone now!?' issue.

Ah, but we will share what we think is the official explanation:  

...through my conversations with folks at VZW, it was made clear to me that this unit would not ever be officially released. Verizon has a number of them, and they are for sale (if you know how to get at them), but they will not be seeing any acknowledgment or release

So we'll just leave these here for you to discuss amongst yourselves.

Oh and sorry to 'anonymous' for losing these in our mailbox form a few weeks ago. Blame Phil.

Edit: The more we think about it, the more flashbacks we're having with the Motorola Napoleon--a device branded by Verizon, never officially on sale, but was still sold to a few select customers.  Verizon...you truly have some strange policies!

Need a Windows Phone? Got $179? Then Dell may have a deal right up your alley. Dell is currently offering the Palm Treo Pro for the low, low, low price of $179. Yes, it's a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone. Yes, it's not slated for upgrade to WM 6.5 and beyond. But it is an outstanding Windows Phone in its own right.

Also keep in mind that chef's over at XDA Developers started cooking ROMs for the Treo Pro. Even though the Treo Pro isn't "officially" on the Windows Mobile 6.5 guest list, you can get some home cooking that will sneak you in the back door.

The Treo Pro is listed at Dell as the "Dell Daily Deal" so we don't know how long this steal of a deal will last. Thanks goes out to Micky over at thecellphonejunkie.com for passing on this tip.

Update: It appears the $179 "Dell Daily Deal" on the Treo Pro has sold out.  You can still get it through Dell here and at $199 (plus free shipping) it remains sub-$200 and a heck of a deal.

The CDMA (Sprint) version of the Palm Treo Pro has been unlocked for a while now, meaning you can load custom ROMs and, especially, Windows Mobile 6.5.

Uber-hacker cmnoex has released a version of her hardSPL tool for the GSM version of the phone. A slight word of warning, however, from cmonex herself:

OK right now I don't have time for the final tests (am still without a device) but I suppose it works. let me know if it does.

Grab the unlocker at ppcgeeks. Any brave souls out there willing to give it a go? Let us know (and let cmonex know) in the comments. (And don't forget to donate to your favorite chef!)

Well it only took about 12 months but the Palm Treo Pro  (full review) finally caved in today and had its finicky ext ROM unlocked thanks to cmonex and the first custom ROM by CFay, which just happens to be one of the latest versions of WM6.5.1 (Build 23409). 

CFay has also released a "clean" WM6.1 ROM, stripped of bloatware and tweaked for style and performance.

The Palm Treo Pro, designed by Palm but built by HTC, has much more in common with other HTC devices than previous Treos. However, unlocking the ROM files so new ones can be rebuilt has eluded many developers so far, proving to be as tough as Motorola devices.

And since we've heard nary a peep from anyone about an official ROM update from Palm, this is probably your only chance.

Users should be warned that this is in the very early stages of development and currently *only CDMA Treos* can do this, so let the dust settle before jumping, m'kay? 

Get all the goodies here:

• Treo Pro Hard-SPL
• WM6.5.1 Custom ROM
• WM6.1 "clean" ROM

A big congratulations and thanks goes to cmonex and CFay for their hard work.  Don't forget to show them some support via donations!

While it's not necessarily new news that Best Buy is offering the Treo Pro, it is news that their price has finally come down to earth. Don't know when it happened but today when we were surfing the internet, the price had fallen to $399.99.

This is in-line with Palm.com's offering as well as other online retailers. While most are watching and waiting for the HTC Touch Pro 2, the Treo Pro remains a very good choice if you're looking for a Windows Mobile phone and prefer a front facing keyboard.

If you're in the market for a new Windows Mobile Phone, the Palm Treo Pro just became a little harder to ignore. Palm has dropped the price of an unlocked model from $549 to $399. 

With Windows Mobile Standard alternatives such as the Samsung Jack available in the neighborhood of $350 and carrier-branded HTC devices pushing $500 out of contract the Treo Pro becomes very attractive to those looking for a WM Pro phone.

No telling if this is a permanent price drop or a limited time only savings.  Oh and as an added bonus, it looks like Palm is including a free travel charger and shipping on top of a very good price on a very good phone.

No phone is perfect, and the Sprint Treo Pro has some hiccups as well. One that has been documented by many is an issue with the ringer where essentially the settings get corrupted in the registry, resulting in "silent" incoming calls:

The root cause of the Treo Pro No Ringer issue is related to a rare corruption of the Treo Pro’s registry key. This can lead to the smart phone not ringing and causing the user to miss an incoming call.

If you see a Software Version that is T850EWW-1.04-SPT you should install this update.

Interestingly this "update" looks to be an old fix for the Treo 750 found here and brought to Palm's attention here, though a complete tear-down of the official .cab fix needs to be done to confirm.

This also does not address the other missed-call problem associated with fringe reception (documented and addressed here), that is the one where you get no notification at all about a missed call as opposed to just a silent ringer.

Get the official patch/update from Palm here.  For those on the go, here is the OTA update link. And remember that you'll have to re-apply the fix if you hard-reset your phone.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with the glossy black Treo Pro that we've come to know and love. But there's just something about chrome that gets us going. And so when we saw this shot from the official repair manual, we needed a minute. Of course, this could be a region-specific thing, or from a prototype or repair unit, so don't expect to get one anytime soon. But it's still pretty slick.

Head on over to PPCGeeks to download the repair manual and check out more blood and guts of the Treo Pro.

Quick note: this is not a new ROM update, but rather one that flashes to the currently available 1.04 ROMs.  If you have a 1.04 ROM then no need to do this!

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Most people who have bought Sprint Treo Pro's are getting the current 1.04 ROM (see Settings --> System --> About --> Phone --> T850EWW-1.04-SPT).  However, many people who are buying on eBay are coming away with T850EWW-1.03-SPT ROMs (for a full back story on this issue, check out Dieter's write-up here).

So is there a difference between 1.03 and 1.04? Outside of 2 more MBs of RAM in the latter, no there seems to be no difference.  From forum member zbop:

I compared a 1.03 registry snapshot and a 1.04 snapshot and after eliminating all the device-specific differences, and live-state differences, I can't find anything significant. There are a few minor changes, but nothing that looks like a bugfix.

But if you have a 1.03 ROM and would like to flash it to 1.04 and gain peace of mind, then hop right over to TreoCentral where member kronium managed to finagle the file from a Sprint tech.  Score!

Hey, maybe at least now we'll start to get some custom ROM work?  Hmm...