Palm Europe have announced an unlocked GSM Palm Centro for most European markets. The Centro is currently being shown in black with a note that says it will be available on the 14th of February. It will be sold online for £199 un the UK and €299 (including VAT) in other countries.

The Palm Centro runs Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It has a 320x320 pixel touchscreen display, Bluetooth v1.2, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera with video capture and 64MB of memory. For memory expansion it has a microSD slot. It has dimensions of 4.22" (L) x 2.11" (W) x 0.73" (D) (107 x 54 x 18.5 mm) and weighs in at 4.2 oz (119g).

Australians eager to get their paws on Palm's Treo 500 but not-so-eager to sign up with Vodafone have cause to smile: Palm Australasia have announced the availability of an unlocked model. Retailing at $649 (incl. GST), the Treo 500 will be available from "select retail stores" and has been approved for use on the Optus network.

The Treo 500 was announced as a Vodafone exclusive in September '07. Featuring a 2-megapixel camera, a "widescreen" display and Windows Mobile 6 Standard, the Treo 500 is a capable smartphone that offers 3G and decent hardware at a reasonable price.

The PalmInfocenter store has just added three new Palm Centro cases from Smartphone Experts.

The GloveFit is a sleek form-fitting case with a slide in design with a clear access window and leather sides. It is available in five color options for $24.95.

Canalys' annual smart mobile device, aka smartphone, report for 2007 has just been released. Their data shows that worldwide converged device shipments (smart phones and wireless handhelds) rose 60% to hit 115 million in 2007. Year-on-year growth climbed every quarter throughout 2007, to reach a peak of 72% in Q4. Shipments in North America alone more than doubled 2006 figures to 20.9 million units.

PearMobile has released a new set of Bible applications for Palm OS devices. PearBible is a electronic version of the Bible. It is available in either the traditional King James Version (KJV) and a Bible in Basic English (BBE) edition. There is also a bundle that includes both translations. Of course, both include the full Bible organized by book with selectable chapters. It also includes a religious holiday calendar up to 2012, which you can import into your datebook. You can also export text and quotes to the memopad.

PearBible v1.1 for Palm OS is available for $3.95 in multiple versions. It is currently on sale for $2.95 for a limited time and it comes with a fully functional two week trial period.

Handmark's Zagat To Go or Palm OS has been update to version 6.0. The software is a comprehensive restaurant and entertainment guide featuring the Zagat Survey ratings and rankings for more than 30,000 restaurants, nightspots, hotels and golf courses in hundreds of cities worldwide. The all new version features an improved interface, a recently viewed list and an easier setup process. It also retains the ability to search and browse listings by cuisine/category, neighborhood, ratings, cost, feature and Zagat's well-known top lists. v6.0 also adds PIM and smartphone integration so you can call add listings to your address book and add reservations to your calendar.

Zagat To Go v6.0 for Palm OS is sold on a subscription basis for $29.95 for a 12 month subscription. It is also available for Windows Mobile.

Palm's stock price got a small boost on an analyst upgrade from J.P. Morgan. J.P's Paul Coster has raised his rating on the stock to Overweight from Underweight. The stock is currently up ~6% (at 6.40) on the day. In a note, Coster says Centro sales may be exceeding expectations and the device is currently the most popular device offered by 16 Sprint stores the analyst surveyed. (via Tech Trader Daily)

In related news, Palm's CFO Andrew Brown will be presenting at the Thomas Weisel Partners Technology, Telecom & Internet Conference 2008 in San Francisco later today at 4:25 Pacific Time. A live webcast of the presentation will be available at Palm's Investor Relations site.

We've received a number of reader reports that some BestBuy retail locations are offing a large discount on the Palm Centro with new service signups. The Centro with Sprint service is being advertised in select areas for $39.99 after a $50 "additional savings" discount and a new two year service agreement.

Apparently the offer varies from region to region with some ads showing all 3 colors on sale (red, black and pink), while others area show only the red Centro. Some sale circulars do not even mention the promotion. Let us know in the comments if your store or area is is offering the discounted price.

The Stanford PalmPilot User Group meets at 7 pm on the first Tuesday of each month. The February fifth meeting will feature a demo of Razix’s Location Director for Google Maps for GSM Treo. The meeting will also feature, as is traditional, Stand Alone Software’s Quick News for monitoring election results.

Resco Software is now offering the Resco Suite, a new product which combines six of their best selling Palm OS applications. The package includes five essential applications - Explorer, Viewer, Backup, IDGuard and Neeews as well as its Sudoku game as an added bonus.

Resco Suite v1.01 for Palm OS is available now with a free trial. The full bundle is being sold for $59.95. Purchased individually, the total cost would be $125, representing just about a 50% discount.

The latest gossip on Palm OS Nova comes from PCMag.com, where Sascha Segan has squeezed a few clues about the new OS out of Palm's director of product management, Stephane Maes. Saying that Nova will see Palm "getting back to our roots with simplicity and elegance", Maes goes on to talk about how it will "focus on integrating different kinds of data stored in different locations".

"It's a Web-enabled world, where people have contacts in multiple locations. You start thinking about all of the different places where people have information, it's really about managing people's lives. That's a lot of the heritage we're really going to leverage and expand on going forward."