A new CNBC article entitled "Palm Almost Ready for High Fives" has been posted under Jim Goldman's TechCheck column. In the new piece, Mr. Goldman paints a cautiously optimistic picture of Palm's future, as the company currently struggles through a grim twelve months filled with a series of layoffs, four consecutive quarterly losses, buggy products, retail store closures, and product delays. Goldman's articles goes onto shed some interesting light problems facing the embattled handheld pioneer and the imminent changes promised by CEO Ed Colligan as the company completes its transition from the PDA days of the 1990s to a smartphone-centric future.

The arrival of August brings not only the close of summer but the annual rite of the back-to-shopping season that's always a strong period for tech gear sales. Based on a leaked weekly sales flyer scan, Best Buy is kicking things into high gear the week of August 3rd-9th with a solid crop of Palm-related deals. As always, these deals may vary in availability or price from region to region.

Palm's newest remaining handhelds, the TX and Z22, both introduced in October 2005 and rapidly approaching their 3-year anniversary, are both marked down from Best Buy's usual prices. The Palm TX, still Palm's only Garnet-based product with 128MB RAM, 320x480 screen and Wi-Fi, rings in at an attractive $254.99, a $60 savings from Best Buy's strangely higher-than-MSRP usual price of $314.99. With the recent beta availability of an unofficial SDHC driver for older Palm devices such as the FAT32-enabled TX, this device's long-term viability just became quite a bit brighter. The entry-level Palm Z22 handheld gets a $10 price cut down to $89.99, a savings of ~$10 from its usual $99 price tag.

Palm has announced that it has now sold over two-million Palm Centro smartphones. Available from almost 20 carriers worldwide, including the three largest carriers in the United States, Centro has reached more young adults and women, as well as a broader range of household income, than any prior Palm smartphone. The Centro is on store shelves in more than 25 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

In addition, recent data released by AdMob, the largest advertising network on the mobile web, states that Centro is among the top 10 devices worldwide for mobile Internet.

The Treo 800w update to enable voice dialing over Bluetooth which we wrote about last week, is now available for download. Palm's support page states:

This software download will enhance the convenience of hands-free calling, as it will enable the use of your Bluetooth headset or car kit to initiate voice calls on the Treo 800w via Voice Command voice dialing software.

The update can be downloaded at Palm Support. There are options to update via a Windows Installer, microSD card and over the air by visiting: palm.com/800wota on your device.

The classic Palm OS Multiformat Game Emulator, Little John Palm, has recently received a fresh round of updates. Little John Palm is an open source classic video game emulator with support for a number of systems including the NES, SNES, Gameboy, Genesis, Sega Master System and Turbo Grafx 16. Henk of Metaviewsoft has contributed a number of new fixes and improvements of late including: Treo and Centro compatibility updates, volume fixes, ui tweaks, hires gfx fixes and an optional phone call detection mode among other minor updates. Henk and a few other developers have recently had some success adding experimental support for using a Nintendo Wiimote with a Palm device and LJP over bluetooth.

The latest version 1.2 of LJP can be downloaded from Henk's blog. Updates on the Wiimote supprot can be found at the LJP forums.

As seen in the PIC's review and amidst much online discussion of Palm's new Treo 800w, one of the device's major shortcomings is about to be quickly addressed Palm. According to this post on Palm's 800w support page:

"Treo 800w Voice Dialing Over Bluetooth will be available soon as a download from this web page. Please return to this page in the coming days for the download and details."

No additional details such as whether or not the update will be RAM or ROM-resident are offered, no is an exact release date given.

RoGame Software's Destaller Pro for Palm OS has been updated. Destaller Pro is an application oriented uninstaller. Applications store many different files that often cause resets and the necessity to do a hard reset when not removed properly. Destaller removes these dangerous leftovers safely. In addition, Destaller allows you to maximize the memory of your device by allowing to safely remove single files, 'a68k' Files, saved and unsaved preferences and more. The latest updates fixes some costmetic issues on older devices. The background engine has also been updated to better support memory cards bigger than 1 gig where device configuration allows it.

Destaller Pro v3.3 is available for $14.95. It comes as a free lite version, with the Pro version offering more advanced features and deletion capabilities. The full Pro version is currently on sale for $12.95 for a limited time.

The Treo 800w is Palm's first new Treo smartphone in over a year. Unlike its predecessors that were broadly aimed at the general prosumer category, the Treo 800w is squarely targeted at the business professional. As such, the Treo 800w packs in an array of features for the mobile road warrior combined with the IT friendly Windows Mobile operating system.

The CDMA powered device premiers on Sprint in the US. It is available now with a $250 debut price after the usual service agreements and rebates.

Read on for our detailed Treo 800w review.

Palm has released a new ROM update for the Sprint version of the Centro. Palm says the update is a tune-up that offers improved Gmail IMAP compatibility and an updated setup wizard with the new Gmail settings, support for the Google Mobile Maps My Location feature, improvements to Bluetooth and Microsoft's Direct Push Technology within Versamail. The full list of updates is posted after the break.

The Sprint Palm Centro software update 1.07 is available now on Palm's support site. The usual Windows installer and memory card update methods are available. A full data backup is recommended before proceeding. Palm says the updater should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Despite appearing at the tail end of 2007, over six months after the device's debut on the Sprint network, a Verizon spokesperson has confirmed to PalmInfocenter that they are "phasing out" the Treo 755p in favor of the newer Centro. The Treo 755p is becoming increasingly scarce at Verizon retail outlets, with many having already removed their display units. The price of a new 755p on Verizon's online store has also been drastically reduced (after rebate) to match the Centro's same $99 pricetag (with 2yr contract). However, checking stock online, both as a new activation customer and an existing customer up for renewal, indicates that Verizon's 755p remains out of stock and has been so for several weeks now.

Finally, Palm has traditionally issued some sort of ROM update for their devices before the gradual EOL process begins. It happened with the Treo 600, 650, 680, 700p and 700w, so the recent appearance of the Verizon 1.08 ROM update is another solid indication that the device has been updated to the satisfaction of all parties involved.

The Case-Mate Signature Series Case for the Palm Centro is new in the PIC store this week. This case is a form fitting case made from imported Italian leather. This luxurious leather is wrapped around a custom molded, impact resistant plastic shell for superior protection and fit. Precise cutouts insure full access to all Palm Centro controls. A silk/nylon lining insures softness, durability, and protection from moisture.

The Case-Mate Signature Series for Centro is available now for $34.95. Shipping starts at $5.95. Case-mate also offers a similar model for the Treo 680/750/755p. You can also check out Kris' recent review of the Case-Mate hard shell case.