Well, file this under "speculation" or course but we thinks the info is quite accurate although admittedly not earth shattering.

Treofficial in our forums informs us he had a meeting with some Palm sales people recently where he was able to actually handle the Verizon Treo 800w (see our past coverage). So far, he can confirm that it does indeed have

• Wifi
• EvDO Rev. A
• Threaded SMS (w00t!)

In addition we learn that the Today Screen is pretty much unchanged (bad Palm) but they have added a new "search email" function which mirrors the search contact feature on the today screen e.g. you type a few letters and that filters through your presumably long collection of email messages, narrowing down the one you are trying to find (which at least confirms that the 800w runs Windows Mobile 6.0).

Of course, we are still not sure if the threaded SMS is the Palm version or the side effect of just having WM 6.1, which is an OS that would not be unexpected on this device.

Hopefully Treofficial will pop back in and continue to answer some questions so follow along in our thread!

Update: Now that we have the new specs on the Treo 800w, we thought we'd update the specs on the contest itself. Instead of a 6 gig microSDHC card, the prize package will now have an 8 gig card.

We are confident, very confident, that the Treo 800w is coming in the next few months. And we are confident, mega confident, that it's going to be a super cool device. Confident enough that we're going to run out and buy one the very day they are available, whenever that day may be. A Windows Mobile 6 Pro device with 320x320 resolution, WiFi, (probably) GPS... and you can easily use the sucker one-handed. That mops the floor with the Treo 700wx and even makes the Mogul a little nervous.

And we don't even use Sprint! So - we're going to give the Treo 800w away. Yes, folks, we're running a contest to give away a rumored device that hasn't been released yet. It's future-iffically rumortastic!

Giving away what might potentially be a non-existent device will, naturally, require a few rules and, er, procedures - get those after the break. The short version is this: In the comments of this post, make a guess about the release date of the Treo 800w. We'll do a random drawing amongst the people who get it right. The winner will receive:

• A Treo 800w after it is officially released. If they end up calling it something else, well, let's just say we're giving away the next Windows Mobile device Palm releases for the Sprint Network. Got it?
• An 8 gig microSD Card. Yeah, the WMExperts Store has 8 gig cards now.
• Any 2 software titles from HobbesIsReal's excellent “Must-Have Windows Mobile Software” article. Sure, Palm will include some “secret recipe” stuff on the 800w, but you can always make Windows Mobile a little better. We believe in the software in Hobbes' article, you should too.

Full rules and info after the break. We're taking off early for the Holidays, everybody, so consider this contest a gift from WMExperts - one of those “we promise we'll make it up to someday” kinda gifts, but a gift nonetheless. See you Wednesday!

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Ah, Treo 500, you arrived on a wave of crazy, mixed up “gandolf” rumors, landed with a splash, and were promptly washed away across the sea - we'd hoped you'd be available in the United States, but our hopes were dashed. Turns out, though, that though the Treo 500v is slightly underwhelming on paper, it's actually not to shabby in person. Great build quality and a relatively small price make it a modest success. Palm looks to capitalize on that modest success by offering it unlocked (instead of tied to Vodafone), according to Reg Hardware. It should happen sometime next year.

Good on Palm. Now, if they'd only make a version that would work in the United States (and bring back the ringer switch!), we'd be happy. During the TreoCast recording last week (and getting published soon-like), Mike suggested that such a move would help the 500v out in China. See, China requires miniUSB on all their cell phones .... and the Treo 500v is the only Treo (heck, the only anything) that charges via miniUSB. hmmmm.

Update: Folks in the comments are mentioning that they're getting Tech Support Texts telling them to go grab the download, which should be up at 6pm EST Today. Still no word from the source I expected to get this information from, the Official Palm Blog

See this link - right here? It comes from AT&T's Windows Mobile Devices page:

Are you an existing Palm Treo 750 customer?
Download the latest Windows Mobile® 6 Professional software update for the Palm Treo 750 that updates the entire operating system from Windows Mobile® 5.0 to Windows Mobile® 6 Professional plus adds HSDPA support, AT&T Mall, AT&T Music, MEdia Net, CV (video) and many other updates and fixes. CAUTION: Firmware updates will DELETE ALL applications, data, and settings on the device. Back up all information on a PC or storage card before installing the firmware upgrade.

As in: the long-awaited, delayed-but-not-really (since-they-never-announced-a-date), everybody else got it first, already leaked anyway, dear god it's been a long time “in the queue,” insert-your-delayed-adjective here Windows Mobile 6 Update for the AT&T Treo 750 will be showing up today. Go ahead, try the link:

Download the AT&T Treo 750 Windows Mobile 6 update

Didn't work? Try it again. If it's up on the AT&T page, it should be showing up at Palm's site soon. Right? Pretty Please?

(Thanks to Roger and eddiejames for the tip!)

While it's not fair to say that the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for Treo 750s has been “delayed” (because no official date was ever officially given, officially), you and I both know that something has been holding it back. We've covered the “delay” many a time.

Well Palm has finally chimed in on the subject, via The Official Palm Blog:

Our commercial launch of the WinMo 6 update for those already using the AT&T Treo 750 is just around the corner.

They ask us to stay tuned, so tuned we will stay. Unfortunately, we don't have much more information about what else the update will include beyond the standard WM6 stuff. Here's to hoping it includes OZ's pretty good IM client, which AT&T has been tossing into their other WM offerings.

Palm has previously promised the update “in 2008,” so I suppose we won't have to keep tuned to this particular channel much longer.

Thanks to michaelalanjones in our forums for the tip!

My. Oh. My. Take a look at what jrinehart has posted up in the TreoCentral Forums:

Our analysis is a little difficult to express because it's colored over with an overwhelming sense of relief. Relief that it's really possible that Palm means to give us a 320x320 Treo on Windows Mobile, on a CDMA Network (Sprint), without an antenna. We'll try to put that aside for the moment and say this:

Yes, we fully expect a Treo 800w from Palm in the near future. Yes, the look of this device is an interesting meld of the Treo 500v (and Centro) and the Classic Treo look. Yes, it does in fact look like it's been stretched horizontally a bit and could very well be a photoshop job.

Even so, Yes, we want to believe. Let the Silly Season begin again!

Attached is a pic of the 800w from my solutions engineer at Sprint. He is going to send me an actual picture of a real live device when he gets a chance. They have started the hardware beta of the device and I should get to see one next month during a Sprint meeting. It is also rumored to be at a Sprint solutions show on Oct. 25th here in my home town. If it is, I will be sure to get some photos of it there and post them soon as I can.

Read: Treo 800w. I just held one. Thanks to Malatesta for the tip!

Update: Over at the post at TreoCentral on this subject, the TC team has ginned up a version of the image that isn't so wide, but instead is shrunk down to more believable proportions. Take a peek at it after the break and see if it doesn't make you believe in the 800w a bit more.

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As Jennifer Chappell notes over at TreoCentral, Palm has announced that they're a big partner for the upcoming Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (yes, that's what it's called - that whole phrase. I'm just happy they didn't put the word "Live" in there.)

If you're interested in seeing what's coming in 2008 with MSCDM, check out our liveblog of the announcement. If you're interested in what it means that Palm is going to support it with a software update to the Treo 750, well, we don't exactly know.

...but it makes us think that the Treo 750 on AT&T won't see an official upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 until then. Please, Palm, prove us wrong.

In the meantime, the Australian Hack to WM6 suddenly look quite a bit more appealing.

As expected, Palm today announced that it will make the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 750 smartphone compatible with Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, delivering increased security and easier phone management, as well as access to information on the corporate network. IT professionals will be able to confidently manage large Treo 750 deployments with features such as policy enforcement, inventory and reporting, and software targeting.

Read: treocentral.com

Update: Well look at this: the AT&T booth has a flyer for the Treo 750 that claims that HSDPA and Windows Mobile 6 will be available in 2007. Prying about doesn't really yield anything substantial except some winks, nods, and hints that it's coming very soon. Go ahead, get your hopes up, it won't hurt again. We promise.

The long (looong) wait for Windows Mobile 6 on the Treo 750 may soon be over, according to a document leaked on the TreoCentral forums. Of course, said document states that the target date for releasing it was October 15th.

Grumble.

People have been getting themselves WM6 the hard way, either through a leak or, more recently, by hacking the Australian version. We still don't know what's causing all the delays. It's certainly not Good Mobile Messaging, they've already released their updated software (congrats on that, by the way).

We're more than 6 months out from the original announcement and I'm just plain exhausted. Seriously: I was so excited about Windows Mobile 6 on a 750 that I haven't slept since they told us we'd get it. It's been rough.

Read: treocentral.com >> Stories >> Rumors >> Treo 680 and 750 Updates Coming on ATT

Update: Thanks to tommc4 for the tip!

Forum user levinda was one of the "lucky" few who managed to sneak in an order for the Samsung SCH-i760 when it was briefly available via a backdoor method. The i760 looked like a sweet device to me, if only because the unique keypad on the front would give it a bigger screen. The devil, though, he's in the details, and according to levinda, the details suck:

- [...] Basically, unless you have really big hands it is almost impossible for me to use one-handed, even when I didn't need to slide the keyboard out!

- I thought the front keypad would enable one-handed use for quick typing of SMS. Wrong! It only has ABC text input. [...]

- Power button. Any time I wanted to turn on the phone I had to hit the power button on the top (not easy one-handed for a lefty) or slide out the keyboard. [...]

- No abilty to diable the touch screen during a call. Why don't all WM phones have this option? [...]

- WM softkeys not alingned under their screen functions

Read: I Jumped To The i760...For Less Than 48 Hours - WM Experts

Basically the Treo is still king of one-handed QWERTY use (as we mentioned here) and the SCH-i760 just isn't as well-thought-out as it should be. If you're going to try something new with button placement on a Windows Mobile device, make sure that you do some usability testing.

After reading Andrew's full-throated defense of the Treo over at Treonauts, I was slightly abashed to realize that the Treo really does still have a very nice form factor - it's just that Palm got it right early and hasn't managed to significantly improved on it. To wit:

The Treo 680, 750 and 755p are still the smallest and lightest smartphones featuring both a large high resolution touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard on the market today!!! [The Treo weighs 5.4 ounces while competing devices in this category are between 5.6 and 6.33 ounces.]

Exclamation points aside, he's right that a combination of a one-handed QWERTY keyboard and a hi-res screen is still an ideal form factor and one that I'd like to return to someday. "Someday" being "when Palm finally gets off their duff and throws a 320x320 screen into the Treo 750," because that really shouldn't be all that difficult (they've done it just fine with the PalmOS 755 and 680).

However, in the past few days I've realized that some other company is likely to challenge Palm in this particular form factor space - that company just might be Samsung. Mobility Today is one among many sites showing a photo and video of this sweet-looking Blackjack-esque device. The spec sheet is literally a list of the things that Palm has failed to deliver on (in the US, anyway):

• Windows Mobile 6
• HSDPA (ok, they've done that)
• WiFi
• GPS

All on a thin little touchscreen device looks to be 320x320. You can watch the video below to get a better feel for it, but don't look at the "mouse" feature too much. The less that's said about that crime against user interface on a smartphone, the better.

Video after the break.

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