After years of dormancy, it appears that the "MyPalm" URL curse has returned with a vengeance (long-time Palm OS users may recall the past turmoil surrounding the MyPalm trademark and domain).

Palm has now just announced rather quietly that its MyPalm online portal resource for Treo and Centro owners will be closing on September 1st, 2008. No details as far as why the service failed to catch on or ever leave its lengthy beta status are given. However, the main benefit of the service, members-only telephone support, is being discontinued with no alternative offered, so it's likely just another cost-cutting move facing the beleaguered Palm in light of several consecutive quarters of losses. Additionally, with Palm's near-exclusive product portfolio of smartphones, Palm's carrier partners can be expected to shoulder a majority of the issues arising with new and/or in-warranty devices.

Who likes a bandwagon? The technology industry, for one. It just loves bandwagons! Especially online bandwagons. If there's one thing you can be assured of, it's that shortly after a popular idea floats to the surface of the fetid cesspool that is the Internet it will attract a mob of hangers-on, desperate to lift themselves out of the stinking mire. Thus the proliferation of "Digg this!" widgets, the virus-like spread of Google Maps onto every mobile on the planet and the access to eBay from anything more advanced than a sundial. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Preferably before someone else has chewed on it.

The biggest tech bandwagon of recent years has been social networking. Even if you don't use Facebook or MySpace, you've probably heard of them. Facebook is such a glamorous-looking bandwagon Microsoft paid $240 million to get a tiny little space on it. Now it's Palm's turn to try and muscle their way on board, with the release of their new Facebook for Palm application. How does it compare to the desktop experience? Will it be enough to get them noticed amidst the swarm of competitors? Is it a clever remora fish or a nasty hookworm? Read on for PIC's in-depth review...

While little more than an interesting footnote in the minds of most Palm OS followers in the west, Group Sense Ltd. (aka GSPDA) released a handful of uniquely-styled GSM handsets running Palm OS 4.1.x and Garnet 5.x over the past several years under the Xplore moniker. Now the Inquirer is reporting (via TamsPalm) that all traces of any remaining legacy Palm OS-based products have been wiped from GSPDA's website. A sole Linux-based handset in decidedly dumbphone guise is the company's sole smartphone offering, a far cry from the large field of large-screened Palm OS-based smartphones it was fielding as recently as 2005/2006.

Despite the fact that a version of Palm's Centro smartphone has been available since February for the AT&T GSM network, users have been offered the wide range of colors hue available to their Sprint CDMA Centro brethren. Centro owners on AT&T been forced to accept a launch color scheme of Glacial White with a rather garish lime green dial pad, followed by a more recent black version that became available in late March after the white version's debut.

For AT&T users, relief is now at hand with the immediate availability of a new "electric blue" Centro that is certain to find favor amongst buyers shunning the white version. As of this writing, Palm.com's AT&T Centro checkout page lists the color as "coming soon" with the same $99.99 price tag as the other color offerings. Palm's blog states the new color will be available in AT&T stores and online at Palm.com begining this Friday.

Hobbyist Software can always be counted on for releasing constant updates for their line of utilities for Palm OS-based smartphones. This summer is off to a busy start, as Hobbyist has released a number of updates to their line of Treo utilities over the past month or so. In the interest of saving space, we won't go into the details of the exact changes that are fully detailed on the Hobbyist Software changelogs.

The superb Phone Technician multifunction utility has just been updated on July 1st to version 4.11. Be sure to read my Phone Technician review from a little while ago. Another Hobbyist utility and a personal favorite of mine, Butler, was updated to version 4.91 on June 30th. Finally, version 3.62 of the Initiate launcher was released on June 5th.

Longtime mobile entertainment title developer Astraware is celebrating the release of the Symbian S60 version of their popular Big Box of Blox title by offering free versions of the title for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile/Pocket PC devices.

Big Box of Blox, licensed from Digital Eel and published by Astraware, is a nifty title that provides a few interesting twists on the classic Columns-style gameplay. Interestingly enough, Coluns itself was one of the slew of early 1990s derivates/clones of Tetris-see my PIC review here of the older but essentially similar Jewels by Beiks. The full rundown on the Palm OS version of this title can be found here.

Long-time favorite backup utility NVBackup from Alex Pruss has just received another update. With the latest beta release, dated June 30th 2008, NVBackup is now up to version 1.22b6. A quick install and quick backup routine on my 755p showed no noticeable problems or installation difficulties.

Sourceforge.net's page detailing the release history of NVBackup and download links can usually be found here but it has not yet been updated to reflect the release of the new 1.22 version. This page also offers archived downloads of older builds of the utility. The 1.22b6 version is available for download "as is" now from Alex Pruss' homepage here (.prc link).

Engadget is reporting late today that Matias Duarte is now employed at Palm and is part of the team driving the design and UI of Nova, Palm's next generation operating system. Matias was formerly the Director of Design, at Danger where he was responsible for the user experience and interface design. He also held a similar position at Helio.

According to his public LinkedIn profile, Duarte has been working at Palm since September 2007 and his own job description field is teasingly vague at quote "something new... :-)"

Palm has posted the first ROM update for the Treo 755p on Verizon. The update brings the device up to version 1.08. The update support page is pretty vague on specific details stating only:

This software update is a tune-up that improves the phone application, stability and device usability.

The update is only for use with a Verizon 755p. Palm Support says the update should take roughly around an hour to complete. The usual backups are recommended. Installers are available for all versions of Windows and a expansion card method is provided for Mac OS and other systems.

On July 1st, California will be joining Connecticut, Illinois, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington State and Washington D.C, by implementing a hands-free requirement while operating a motor vehicle. The new law prohibits the use and handling of mobile phones while driving. Talking while using hands-free devices, such as Bluetooth headsets, will still be allowed for those over the age of 18.

The Stanford PalmPilot User Group meets at 7 pm on the first Tuesday of each month; the July first meeting will feature the Spugly Award for the Worst Palm OS Software Ever. The first nominee is Paragon/Penreader's SlovoEd dictionary application, for its chunk over-locked crashes and robotic technical support responses. Spug members are encouraged to demonstrate their own nominees for the Spugly Award at the meeting, and to show technical support responses which fail the Turing Test. Readers of PalmInfoCenter may also suggest nominees in the discussion forum.