Surely revealing this secret will open Palm to legal liability. After all, allowing Treo users to create smokers on their smartphones must be getting people addicted to nicotine, right? Whatever. Any client, lawyer, or judge who thinks such a case has merit (I'm looking at you, ultra-litigious USA!) must be an idiot." Via The Smart PDA . This also works on the Treo 700wx and T-Mobile Dash running the Palm Threaded Messaging App.

This week Alan covers: - 1SRC December 2006 Palm-related deals thread - 1SRC Suggestions for 2007 thread - Palm's Q2FY07 conference call is scheduled for Dec 19 - ACCESS press release for Garnet perpetual license - Palm press release for Garnet perpetual license - Ed Hardy's Back to the Future with Palm editorial at Brighthand

Ingram reports, "Those rumours have gained substantial traction over the past few weeks. First, a Taiwanese financial newspaper said that a local firm had won a contract to make 12 million music-playing mobile phone handsets for Apple. Then, on Nov. 30, Apple filed a patent application for a combination phone and music player (the company also reportedly owns the domain iphone.org)."

"Analyst Gene Munster of brokerage firm Piper Jaffray, who said in September that Apple would likely launch an iPhone within four to six months, wrote in his latest research report that he now expects the launch to come at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco on Jan. 9," Ingram reports. "The iPhone rumours have been fuelled by many things, including a seemingly unquenchable desire on the part of Apple fans to have the company's distinctive logo plastered on everything important in their lives. But there is also a business case to be made for the company's entry into the market."

Ingram continues, "Much like the digital music player market was when Apple came out with the iPod, the cellphone business is hardly a technological frontier, with billions of people owning mobile phones. At the same time, however, there is a lack of well-designed, easy to use and attractive cellphones on the market... There are also few phones that combine a cellphone and a music player with any degree of success... That means there may still be a market opportunity... One thing is for sure: If the iPhone rumours do turn out to be true, it will crank up the heat even further in what is already a hotly competitive market, and companies like Nokia, Palm, Motorola, and Research In Motion could really start to sweat."

When news came out last night that Palm had paid ACCESS $44 million to license what some people view as an antiquated OS, some sites didn’t read between the lines of why Palm did this. There’s more to the story than Palm licensing an OS they have been licensing for years. Below is a quote from ACCESS’ press release, read between the lines.

"Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the company’s other handheld computers. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole, or in part, in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies. To ensure forward-compatibility of Palm OS Garnet applications, ACCESS and Palm have agreed to continue to measure compatibility against the compatibility test harness in use between the two companies."

I think Palm made this huge purchase for one reason and one reason alone, to keep the Palm OS (as we all know it) at Palm. The Palm OS’ user interface now matter how old it is is the most intuitive mobile OS to use. Palm wants to retain the UI of Garnet while being able to build upon and finally bring us the next generation Palm OS we’ve been promised for years. Palm paid PalmSource, now ACCESS $30 million for the Palm name alone, now they’re making sure they have the OS as well. We all know Palm has been hiring Linux Engineers to work on a next generation Linux based OS.

I expect Palm OS II (codename coined by Alan Grassia) will probably have a lot of Garnet’s technology, mainly the user interface, PIM’s, messaging, cellular radio support, current features, and future technologies that Palm has been working on. This license is not for the aging Garnet or Frankengarnet we currently run, but a new OS that will revive Palm and make them once again the mobile computing leader. Stay tuned.

(Above)Sprint Treo 700wx, Cingular Treo 680, T-Mobile Dash

(Above) Sprint Treo 700p, Cingular Treo 680, T-Mobile Dash

I received my Cingular Treo 680 review unit from Palm last night (thanks Palm!!), and wanted to post some first thoughts before a full review.

Head and Shoulders uses their famous quote in their ads: " Don't forget, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!". When I opened the box and held the 680 in my hand I knew Palm did just that, they've made a great first impression with the new Treo 680.

Upon opening the box I was wondering if there was going to be a noticeable difference between the Treo 680 and my Treo 700p. I mean they basically look like the same device, sans the antenna. When I picked up the 680 I could tell this wasn't a Treo 700p with it's antenna cut off. It feels awesome in the hand, thanks to it's much curvier, and slimmer body. It also seemed much lighter ( a great sign), but it was time to pop in the battery. I looked through the box and couldn't find the battery... did Palm forget to send me a battery? To my pleasant surprise I opened the battery cover and the battery was already in, and fully charged (nice touch). This Treo is is noticeably lighter, thinner, and more comfortable in the hand than my Treo 700p or Treo 700wx (great job Palm).

I wanted to beam a few of my favorite apps I use on my Treo 700p to see if they would work on the Treo 680. Most times you have to wait for software developers to update their applications to support a new Palm OS device, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. I beamed LudusP, Agendus, Chatter, and I'm happy to report that my three favorite applications worked flawlessly. The Treo 680 is also noticeably faster than my Treo 700p, in terms of user interface. This could be because my Treo 680 only has a few applications installed opposed to my fully loaded Treo 700p, but I have a feeling on the 680 Palm has fixed some of the bugs in the Treo 700p OS . I then tried out Pocket Tunes to see if the 700p skipping bug has been fixed. I'm happy to say no skipping on the Treo 680. The Treo 680 is also VERY noticeably louder playing music than my Treo 700p or Treo 700wx .

While these are some of my first impressions of the of the new Cingular Treo 680, stay tuned for more thoughts in the coming days/weeks, and a full review.

Alan Grassia has just published his latest editorial "Saying Goodbye to the Treo 650" over @ 1src .

"This week Palm has quietly announced the Treo 650 smartphone is no longer in production. The announcement came in the form of a small notice at the bottom of the Treo 650 web page that read, “This device is no longer available.” This week, we take a look back at Palm’s popular Treo and examine what worked well and how newer phones are benefiting."

"Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the company’s other handheld computers. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole, or in part, in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies. To ensure forward-compatibility of Palm OS Garnet applications, ACCESS and Palm have agreed to continue to measure compatibility against the compatibility test harness in use between the two companies."

This agreement between Palm and ACCESS ensures that Palm will continue to develop and deliver solutions built on the Palm OS. Looking forward, one has to wonder how this announcement will affect devices that are released in 2007 that us Palm OS as the platform. Many fans of the Palm OS, myself included, welcome this news.

Ha Ha.

In other news, a new report states that 9 out of every 10 emails are junk.

Ha Ha.

Setting up the modem was foolproof with the included setup CD which installs the modem drivers, and also includes the Franklin Connection Manger (it looks just like Sprint’s connection manager I use with my Treo 700p). The Connection Manager software is very easy to use. How easy you ask? Click the Go button to get online, and click the Stop button to disconnect from the network, it couldn’t be simpler.

It’s great being able to connect my UMPC anywhere, and not having to rely on finding a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect to. I’ve been very impressed by the speed of the modem; I averaged speeds of between 600–950 kbps, and not once ever losing connection from the network. I highly recommend this for any mobile professional, or gadget addict like myself who needs to have a high speed connection regardless of where they are.

Purchasing information:

New Sprint Customers with 2 year service plan (monthly is $59.99 if you sign a 2 year service plan and $79.99/mo if you do a 1 year service contract.. Pay $239.99, get a $150 Service Credit on your First Sprint Bill (Service Credit Available for Corporate Accounts, Sprint doesn't offer the $150 service credit for consumer accounts), Net Cost = $119.99

Already Have Sprint Account - No New Contract (if you want to transfer your old contract onto the new USB device): $299.99The Franklin CDU-550 USB Modem can be purchased here .

"In an extensive research note released to clients earlier this week, Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora said the first and slimmer of Apple's initial two cell phone models will look like an iPod with a small screen and a click wheel interface," Lane reports. "'Apple has mentioned several times that music experience is its top priority and that it would not do anything to comprise that,' the analyst wrote. 'We believe that the music phone will be true to these statements and should be considered a music player that has phone capabilities rather than a phone with a built-in music player.'"

Lane reports, "Tortora said the iPhone device, which he calls a "slim music phone," will pack camera functionality and be GSM/GPRS network compatible. Meanwhile, he said Apple is also working on a smart phone device with a larger OLED-based display and a sliding keyboard that will be WCDMA compatible to allow for higher bandwidth... Tortora also told clients he expects volume production of a widescreen iPod to begin in the first quarter of 2007 with availability shortly thereafter."

I'm not surprised that the top honor goes to the Palm Treo 700p (I love mine).

The Treo 700p is ranked best smartphone. "With this Palm you can access the high-speed Ev-Do networks available from Sprint and Verizon. It's Palm OS makes it easy to use PDA applications. It's Favorites application with 70 programmable touch screen shortcuts is one of the most useful we've seen. The Palm OS is also the most versatile and best OS for basic PDA functions, as long as they're running one at a time (the OS gets in the way of multitasking).

The # 2 smartphone on the list is the T-Mobile MDA.

The # 3 smartphone on the list is the Palm Treo 700wx (another one of my favorites).

The # 4 smartphone on the list is the Nokia 9300 Communicator.

The # 5 smartphone on the list is the BlackBerry Pearl.

The # 6 smartphone on the list is the Nokia N80.

The # 7 smartphone on the list is the Motorola Q.

The # 8 smartphone on the list is the T-Moible Sidekick 3.

It's great to see that Palm has two of it's newest phones ranked so highly by Consumer Reports. The Treo 700p ranks # 1, while the Treo 700wx ranks # 3. What's even nicer is smartphones are becoming more mainstream , and there are some great choices available. I always say choose the best device for you. The article gets in more depth with the other smartphones on the list. If you're looking for a smartphone pick up the January Issue of Consumer Reports.

"Release dates have played with our emotions in the past and we are sure they will be played with again, but this time we have some faith in our tipster. Looks like Verizon Wireless has decided to internally announce their newest Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone to the lineup, the Black Motorola Q. Now, we know that it looks similar to its silver brother externally, but it comes with a software update named MOL2. This update corrects such issues as the Goodlink data stall issue, adds jog dial control via Bluetooth headset and improves battery life. Expect this black bad boy to cost an extra $50 across the board and to be out on the web December 12th and in retail January 12th. So how far behind will Sprint be? Guesses, anyone??"

"The Wii-type functionality is more just a sub-element of what the PlayStation 3 offers," says Nic Foster, clearly referring to motion sensitivity. "Wii is a core gaming device. It's a more fun, intuitive sort of product to pick up, where the PS3 is a broader entertainment solution; so you can have your fun, enjoyable gaming ... but then you have a whole suite of other applications ... such as Blu-ray media playback, the ability to access your music, access your photos and the interoperability with the PlayStation Portable."

"If you're like us, you don't watch much TV. You just let the "cream" rise to the YouTube top shortly after an original airing. This comedic and witty clip is no different as VH1 claims Nintendo had "The Best Week Ever."

"Incipio has debuted the "iPod ShuffleBud" which allows 2nd generation iPod shuffle owners to easily connect an iPod shuffle to any USB port without having to use Apple's iPod shuffle Dock (included with your iPod shuffle).

Supporting full speed USB transfer rates, the iPod ShuffleBud is a nice travel companion, taking up virtually no space in a bag or pocket. There's no need to haul around the Dock and cables that came with your iPod Shuffle, just pack the iPod ShuffleBud and you're all set.

The iPod ShuffleBud also comes with a lanyard loop on the side so you can attach it to backpack or laptop case and weighs in at 5.6 grams and measures 47mm X 16mm.

Incipio's "iPod ShuffleBud" retails for US$5.99."

It's a Smartphone that will go down in history, the Palm Treo 650. Today Palm has stopped selling the phone on it's online store. If you view the web page here , there is a message "This device is no longer available. Check out other smartphones." Palm is hoping that you'll check out their new Treo 680 which is a nice upgrade, or sidegrade to the 650.

"The new laptop should be even thinner and weigh less than the current models in the MacBook Pro line-up. In spite of this very tiny and lightweight form-factor, the miniaturized MacBook Pro should keep its built-in optical drive and sport a dual-core processor, providing unequalled size/performance ratio in the PC industry, sources told MacScoop," Roussos reports.

"As it was claimed in former reports we obtained, Apple should use the 12 inch form factor while the use of 'widescreen' a aspect ratio sounds obvious," Roussos reports. "Sources added that the exact price tag for this product is not defined yet, but discussions with people who are very well informed on Apple's pricing strategy for current and forthcoming products brought us in the conclusion that Apple's new laptop could be priced in the $1700~$1800 range... current information makes us believe that the ultra-thin MacBook Pro shouldn't be expected before February 2007."

While everyone is waiting for the true Video iPod to make it's debut, a company named Rover TV is beating them to the punch.

The world's first super smart, super skinny truly pocket size portable media recorder and player that records directly from TV*. RoverTv gives you TV, music, movies and more to go.

Pack your shows, music and downloaded files in RoverTv and Go! RoverTv features the ultra-intuitive media interface and connects seamlessly to your TV or PC. Plus, it comes complete with a vivid color display, integrated speaker, premium TXB earbuds and removable storage.

* Your favorite TV shows, anytime, anywhere

* Record shows directly from your TV* to your RoverTvTM

* Built-in timer to catch your shows while you're away

* Unlimited, external memory - transfer files to and from your RoverTvTM to your Mac or PC

* Watch on RoverTvTM or plug RoverTvTM into a bigger TV or computer and watch it there

* Tune in FM digital. Listen now or record and listen later.

* No monthly fees, no per item recording fees

* Available in 3.5 inch Big Screen and 4 inch Wide Screen

The 2 GB card that's included with your RoverTvTM can store up to 4 hrs of TV, video or movies or up to 2800 songs. You can transfer files to your PC or Mac or get additional cards, so you can always see and hear what you want, when you want it, where you want it.

The RoverTv TV To Go is available now is Big Screen for $299 or Wide Screen for $349.

• I have a little bit of inside information on the Apple phone

• It's coming out in January

• All phone providers will carry it

• GSM, CDMA, Sprint PCS

• It's gonna be "small as shit"

• Operating system unknown

• They are truly doing some very unique things with the phone

• 2 batteries, one charger; one for the MP3 player portion, one for the phone

• I've heard about what the OS can do, it's supposed to be pretty cool

• 2 capacities, 4Gb and 8GB at $249 and $449 respectively

• Flash memory-based

• Slide-out keyboard

• Touchscreen on the outside, I'm not sure though

Rose accurately called the 2GB iPod nano's name, color screen, and price before its announcement and also corrected predicted the release of the 15" Intel-based Macbook Pro shortly before its actual release."

The slender Motorola Q, despite software that is markedly inferior to that of the Treo 700p, is wooing some users because it is much slimmer and now can be had for just $99, versus $299 for the Treo. The Nokia E62 is about the size of the Q and also costs just $99 these days. The tiny BlackBerry Pearl is just $199. And Samsung has introduced the skinny BlackJack for $199, too. So, this month, Palm is striking back with a lighter, thinner, cheaper model of its own, the Treo 680, which is being offered by Cingular Wireless at $199.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile has introduced a new slim, light competitor called the Dash. It has built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking to supplement the slower cellphone data network. And it costs just $149." To read the whole review click here .

As I was listening to the first track titled 'The Prelude' ... I heard Jay-Z give a little shout-out to Steve Jobs and the iPod. The exact line was 'you see hova wasnt digital yet, before steve jobs made the ipod,'" Stucki reports."

This week Alan covers:

* 1SRC Member JAmerican releases jaPalmMade an handy little app to find out when your Palm was made.

* Palm VP and CFO Andrew Brown speaks at the Credit Suisse annual technical conference.

* You thougts about The Core Player and TCPMP is the topic of this week's audio postcards.

* For the next round of audio postcards, send your thoughts about the Treo 680 to 1srcpodcast@gmail.com

* According to a CNet article, people really do prefer the Palm OS for use in smartphones.