Tero Kuittinen, an analyst for Avian Securities, is citing "operator sources" - which include Palm's CFO, Andy Brown in an article on Seeking Alpha - that indicate Palm is readying the GSM Centro not just for AT&T, but T-Mobile as well. Apparently the Centro's success has "caught the attention of rival operators". Reportedly, Palm are cagey about the possibility of a Verizon Centro: their relationship with the telco monolith may be "under stress", due in part to the long delays in getting the Verizon Treo 755p out the door.

Ah, the breathtaking thrill of software updates: the tedious backing up, the long minutes staring at progress bars, the all-new application incompatibilities to discover and delight in. Such was the process with Palm's new ROM update for the unlocked Treo 680, which amongst tasty new goodies like better power management and Direct Push also happened to break Softick Audio Gateway's wireless playback controls like a pensioner falling down the stairs. Fortunately, Softick are aware of the problem and the latest version 1.18 claims to resolve these issues, in addition to providing some new troubleshooting options that attempt to exterminate some of the remaining bugs.

Softick Audio Gateway is available for $19.95 and a limited trial version is available for download. The update is free to registered owners of the software. PIC's review of version 1.12 of the app can be found here.

Resco Software has released a new ID and password management application for Palm OS devices. IDGuard securely stores your personal information such as passwords, PINs, credit cards, etc. All records are saved using the industrial encryption standard AES. In addition the application can also store and encrypt memos, documents, images, voice memos and camera snapshots.

Resco IDGuard v1.10.2 for Palm OS is available now for $19.95 USD. It is currently on sale for $12.95 for a limited time. It comes with a 14-day trial period.

Rumor: Digitimes is citing a report from the Chinese-language Commercial Times newspaper that HTC has recently signed Palm back up for unspecified manufacturing orders. Palm has previously utilized HTC in the past to produce the Treo 650 and the 700 series. Reportedly, Palm decided to move away from the company as HTC began to build out their own brand and market directly to consumers. Some of Palm's most recent devices such as the Centro and Treo 680 have been manufactured by Inventec Appliances.

If indeed accurate, the report likely indicates that Palm will utilize HTC to supplement their existing manufacturing capability or has been awarded a new ODM contract for a future device. Palm has recently announced a new ODM strategy for its Windows Mobile business as its aims to streamline development and work closer with its ODM partners. Palm has also recently had a change in its Engineering leadership.

Palm has posted an update for the Palm Centro smartphone. The VersaMail update for the Centro provides enhancements to Gmail IMAP compatibility and an updated setup wizard with the new Gmail settings pre-configured. It also includes a 'improvement' to help eliminate the silent failure of email when using Microsoft's Direct Push technology via Exchange ActiveSync in VersaMail. Palm says that Some users have reported that their email stops arriving, but they are not notified to press the 'Sync' button to re-enable Direct Push Technology. This update helps eliminate the occurrence of this scenario.

The update is meant for only for Centro users and is available here as an on device, over the air download.

Palm has posted a new ROM update for users of the unlocked GSM Treo 680 smartphone. The version 1.12 software update offers Microsoft Exchange Direct Push Technology, power saving enhancements, support for larger SD & SDHC cards, enhanced ringtone support and incorporates previous updates and security patches.

After over eight months of dealing with the quirks and limitations inherent in any beta software release, Palm has finally posted a final release version of the Palm Desktop software for Windows Vista. This new version is still listed at v6.2 but without the beta tag.

This new build is compatible with Windows Vista Basic, Premium, Business, and Ultimate 32-bit editions. 64-bit editions of Vista are not supported. Windows XP, surprisingly, in both Home and Professional 32-bit editions are supported by this version, but only for users of the new Palm Centro. Another surprisingly supported OS is the XP-based Windows Media Center Edition (a notable first for the Palm Desktop).

While it was once a capacity unimaginably large for flash-based media, 16GB in a removable SDHC card for less than $100 is now a definite reality. A recent turn through several reputable online merchants revealed A-DATA 16GB SDHC Class 6 cards for $75 w/ free shipping at Newegg and $69.99 at Meritline. A-DATA has something of a spotty track record for reliability, including a 2GB card that failed me two years ago after just a few weeks' use. Nervous owners can still pick up a reliable Transcend 16GB card for $90 shipped with a free USB card reader drive.

MobileRead's Bob Russell has posted a fascinating article that is certainly makes for interesting reading, what with the rumors and official statements from Palm their own in-house Linux-based OS will not be ready until early 2009. The debacle surrounding the flameout of Cobalt/OS 6.0 by PalmSouce after numerous missed deadlines and broken promises certainly makes for a cautionary tale for anyone thinking that a robust mobile OS is an easy thing to create.

In addition to the Cobalt editorial the article has three high-resolution product sheets from Singapore's Oswin Technology. The images showcase two Cobalt-based smartpohones that never saw the light of day even in their native Asian markets. While a bit chunky and unstylish by today's standards (especially the "Slide ID" flagship), the phones' specifications list is still impressive today, besting all of Palm's current offerings in several areas such as a large portrait 2.8" LCD and a 3 megapixel camera with flash along with hardware-assisted MPEG-4 encoding and decoding.

NormSoft has released a new update, version 4.0.6 to their popular Pocket Tunes mp3 player app.  According to NormSoft's changelog, the update consists of mostly bugfixes and a single enhancement. A grahic indicating whether or not a file is copy protected appears on the Song Info screen. Pocket Tunes 4.0.6 can be downloaded directly from Blazer using the app's auto-update checker.  An integrated self-install routine lets users install the latest version onto their Treos wirelessly for free without having to perform a Hotsync with their PC.

Pocket Tunes Deluxe sells for $37.95 and a free trial is available. A basic version is also available for $19.95, which omits the support for online music stores.

Directory Assistant for Palm OS has just been updated and given a new name. Now called Tryda, the software remains a free and handy tool for Palm OS smartphone users.

Tryda automates queries to the Residential and Business phone directories in the US and works like a free 411 service. It will even preform reverse queries and look up names from phone numbers. You can easily dial from the results and even get maps and directions to results with a single click. The new version features a streamlined UI, the ability to save favorites, airport code support and the ability to find by business category.