Palm Europe is now offering a sim unlocked version of the Treo 500 smartphone. The Treo 500 is now available online for £269.00 in the UK and for €399,00 in most European countries.

The Treo 500 is a Windows Mobile 6 (Smartphone edition) powered smartphone. It comes equipped with a full qwerty keyboard and a 240x320 pixel transflective display. It has a tri-band GSM radio supporting the 900/1800/1900 bands and UTMS 2100. It also includes 256MB memory with 150MB available for user storage, a 2 megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD expansion slot.

A new editorial piece on the current state of the PDA market has been posted by 1src columnist Alan Grassia. Grassia's piece begins with a brief history of the modern handheld (nee PDA/organizer) market before highlighting some of the more recent attempts at handheld devices that are essentially PDA-type machines that tout drastically different core functions and branding, such as the Sony’s recently refreshed Mylo line, Apple's iPod Touch and the Nokia Internet Tablets. Of course, Hewlett Packard's recent efforts to rekindle the market have seen two new iPaq units that pack about every conceivable feature into a classic PDA form factor as well as "Travel Companions" that are little more than conventional handhelds with gigs of internal storage and an emphasis on integrated GPS functionality. The editorial is relatively brief but manages to nicely summarize the short but tumultuous history of the PDA market as well as the feelings of the majority of "classic" Palm OS handheld fans who are desperately awaiting new product from Palm.

YouTube has released a new version of the mobile version of its web site accessible at m.youtube.com. The site now offers access to virtually all YouTube videos in a mobile optimized .3gp (RTSP) streaming format. The new site also incorporates many of the standard features of the regular website including account access, favorites and channels. You can also share, rate, and comment directly from the mobile website to other YouTube users. In addition, the company has also sped up the processing of mobile video uploads via email/mms.

PalmInfocenter has confirmed with a company spokesperson that Palm Inc. plans to close its retail stores. The move marks the latest cutback at Palm as it moves to make cost reductions and consolidate the company around its "core business initiatives."

In a statement Palm says they made the decision to close the retail stores to "focus on consolidating more resources behind fewer programs in order to compete more effectively." These same themes were discussed during the last conference call in which Palm's CEO Ed Colligan said the company would be cutting back on anything non-essential throughout the origination.

Lernen Sie Deutsch? Ein neues Wörterbuch für Ihre mobilen Geräte ist verfügbar. Paragon Software and Brockhaus Duden Neue Medien GmbH have released a new English-German dictionary collection for mobile devices. Powered by the SlovoEd dictionary engine the software is available for Palm OS, Windows Mobile and other platforms.

The Duden-Oxford English-German dictionary is an up-to-date dictionary of modern English and German designed for journalists, editors, students, interpreters, and translators, as well as for everyone else, who wants to write or speak neatly and stylistically correctly.

Palm Inc. has sent out a class action settlement proposal legal notice to users who registered a Treo 600 or 650 smartphone. The class action settlement applies to United States residents who purchased a Treo 600 or Treo 650, experienced two or more repairs or replacements (in lieu of repair) on that device. If the settlement is accepted, Palm will be providing extended warranty repairs and issuing rebates to qualified "class members."

Photos HQ is a new digital camera application for Palm OS smartphones. The application lets you capture photographs in a higher resolution and with better quality than the standard camera software. Better picture quality is achieved by using an enhanced lossless storage algorithm. Pictures with a 960x720 pixel resolution can be taken by combining two consecutive images on models with a VGA camera such as the Treo 680 and 650. In addition, the app also has a motion detector surveillance mode, improved digital zoom, exposure compensation and a 10 second self-timer function.

Photos HQ v1.04 for Palm OS is shareware and costs $3.95 to register.

iambic software has released version 2.1 of its Propel launcher application for Palm OS devices. Propel is a multifunctional launcher replacement that supports launching apps, finding contacts, appoitments, memos, web bookmarks, digital audio and even files stored on a memory card. It also offers enhanced features including a toolbar, tabbed categories, background wallpapers and a favorites list. The professional version also offers voice dialing and app launching as well as mp3 capabilities. The new version incorporates a number of usability improvements and stability refinements.

Propel Professional edition retails for $24.95 and comes with a free trial version. A standard edition, without voice-dialing and mp3 features, is available for $14.95.

The recent Treo 680 firmware updates include a new option to use mp3 ringtones without any additional software. However, Palm provided no support or instructions on how to transfer or use mp3 ringtones on the device. Thanks to the Palmdoc, we have a new simple set of instructions to import mp3 ringtones to your Palm OS smartphone that supports the new ringtone options.

Read on for the instructions as well as a number of other options for using enhanced ringtones on your Treo or Centro.

The PalmInfocenter Store has added a number of new Palm Centro accessories this week. The Mobi Products Crystal Case for Centro ($14.95) is a nice clear and durable case that won't get in your way. It is crafted from strong and shook absorbent highly polished polycarbonate and comes with an optional belt clip.

We also have a new TopPouch leather case ($24.95). The TopPouch is a genuine leather slip case with a velvet soft interior that provides easy top loading access with a magnetic closure to keep your phone secure.

ClieVideo have released a new public beta version of Lightspeed v3.0. Lightspeed is an application that lets the user change the CPU clock frequency, i.e. overclock or underclock the processor, on supported Palm OS 5 devices. This new version adds support for the latest batch of Palm smartphones including the Palm Centro, Treo 755p, 700p and the 680. Updates also include the ability to change the CPU speed from within other applications via the Palm OS Command bar, support for ZLauncher shortcuts and a number of tweaks and fixes.

Lightspeed v3.0 is available for $19.95 and comes with a free trial period. It is currently available for the discounted price of $14.95.