Palm's latest Treo-derived smartphone is the Garnet-powered CDMA Centro, announced last week for Sprint. When the question turned to the device appearing on other CDMA carriers or in a GSM version, Palm only replied that the device would enjoy a 3-month period of exclusivity for Sprint beginning October 14th and lasting through the holiday season.

Despite Palm’s current stance on the matter, a handful of leaked images and videos have been reported over the past few months indicating that a GSM-based version of the Centro is indeed in the works. These leaked images of a GSM version of the Centro were removed at the request of Palm's legal department yet no mention was made of a GSM version of the Centro at last week's announcement. In addition to last month's images from PDAFrance of the GSM Centro on the Orange network, the latest leaked images from GearDiary show a black Centro clearly running Garnet and displaying AT&T Music and AT&T Mail apps onscreen. The GearDiary post also (likely mistakenly) refers to this device as the Treo 500p, although a "My Cento" app is in plain sight.

Somewhat reminiscent of the controversial editorial posted by Engadget back in August, another "open letter" has been written to Palm. This time around, Lance Ulanoff, longtime PC Magazine contributor, has penned "An Open Letter to Palm" in which he kindly offers "out of love" that Palm go ahead and release "Palm OS" into the open-source community.

While Mr. Ulanoff's piece is pleasantly worded and his intentions obviously vested in a sincere appreciation of the simplicity of the Palm OS, the reality of the matter is not quite as simple as the PC Magazine piece might lead some readers to believe. First off, Japan's Access Co. Ltd. owns the Garnet/OS 5 source code. Palm Inc. has the rights to ship devices running OS 5.x and alter the code base in any way they see fit under terms of a perpetual licensing agreement (signed late last year). Still, the Palm OS remains technically the property of Access and the former PalmSource, NOT Palm Inc.

The New York Times has just posted an intriguing article regarding the closed ecosystem of AT&T and Apple’s iPhone. Written by Saul Hansell, the piece attempts to shed some light on the myriad of issues surrounding the notoriously closed environment fostered by both Apple’s and their sole domestic provider of choice, AT&T Wireless (formerly Cingular).

Palm's Mark Bercow, the senior vice president of business development is quoted several times within the article on his role of chief evangelist of the Palm OS to the software development community. In short, Mr. Bercow states that the industry trend is heading towards openness of platforms and standards, something which stands in distinct contrast to the ironclad grip that both Apple and AT&T wield over nearly every aspect of the much-ballyhooed yet much-maligned iPhone.

News.com is reporting on the recent announcement that the members of the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) have agreed to settle on microUSB as a common, industry-standard mobile phone connector. The consortium is comprised of both operators and handset manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG. These companies have agreed to bypass the current mini-USB standard in favor of its smaller successor, microUSB. Mini USB has been employed by numerous devices on the market over the past several years but was truly popularized by Motorola’s iconic RAZR V3 handset of 2004 yet has failed to approach industry-wide adoption. In addition, manufacturers such as Apple and Motorola have employed lock-out chips designed to cripple functionality from unlicensed or unofficial accessories.

The wire service Reuters have recently posted an interesting tidbit of Palm-related news. This time around Franklin Paul of Reuter’s MediaFile department has posted excerpts from an interview with Palm CEO Ed Colligan. Discussed here are the ramifications of positive and negative online buzz, along with the double-edged sword that is product leaks.

Palm's new entry-level Centro smartphone, whether intentional or not, received more leaked spy shots and various bits of misinformation over the past few months, arguably the most since the Tungsten T "Oslo" back in 2002. Beginning in early June, the Centro and its Treo 500v stable mate were the recipients of much online chatter and numerous speculative model numbers such as Treo 690, 800p and the infamous "Gandolf" codename.

DeluxeWare has entered the crowded group of Sudoku publishers with their new Sudoku Game for Palm OS. DeluWare's unique approach includes a variety of unique color schemes, visual effects, digital sound effects and music and a custom level constructor.

Sometimes known by the name 'Number Place', Sudoku (or 'Su Doku') gets its name from the Japanese word for 'single number'. Sudoku is played on a nine by nine grid, subdivided into smaller three by three grids. The object is to fill in the empty boxes so that each row, column, and three by three grid contains each digit (from one to nine) exactly once. Though simple in concept, these puzzles have proven an addictive test of logic and perseverance.

DeluxeWare Sudoku v1.0 is available now for $14.95 (currently on sale for $9.95). A free trial is included. It is compatible with most devices running Palm OS 5.0 or greater and has support for stanard, Hi-res and Hi-res+ devices.

Palm's CEO Ed Colligan made a number of comments on the next generation linux-based operating system currently under development at Palm. Colligan made a series of comments on its progress, potential and estimated delivery during remarks at today's Q1 FY08 investor conference call.

Colligan told investors in his opening remarks that the Centro systems team and all Foleo engineers are now totally focused on delivering the next generation platform. He also put a concrete timeframe on its debut, stating they expect it to be "available" by the end of next calendar year.

Emblaze Mobile a subsidiary of Emblaze a Israeli Technology Investment company, has announced a deal with Sharp and ACCESS to develop a new generation of mobile devices that aims to "revolutionize mobile communication". The company claims they have been working on a new mobile device design for the past five years in conjunction with several Israeli high-tech companies. Sharp will apparently be providing the hardware, while ACCESS will be supplying the operating system. While it doesn’t get into specifics, this could be the first possible public confirmation of a handset in the works utilizing the ACCESS Linux Platform.

Read more at Mobile Linux Info...

Palm today reported that total revenue in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, ended Aug. 31, was $360.8 million. Smartphone sell-through for the quarter was 689,000 units, up 21 percent year over year. Smartphone revenue was $302.2 million, up 12 percent from the year-ago period.

Palm reported its first net loss in more than three years of $841,000, or 1 cent a share. Sales of Palm smartphones slowed during the current quarter, down around 9% from the previous record setting Q4 FY07 quarter.

David Berlind, writer for ZDNet.com, has posted a video interview with Palm CEO Ed Colligan to his blog, discussing both Palm’s new Centro smartphone and their cancelled Linux-based Foleo subnotebook.

The interview questions consist of a mix of predictable and interesting topics, with Colligan doing most of the talking and issuing the anticipated responses to most questions. Some of the topics addressed during the interview by Colligan include the Centro targeting cheap featurephone competition as well as the fact that all of the various forms of smartphones comprise only “5%” of the market’s annual sales. The low price point of the Centro is attributed to Palm “doing it in partnership” with Sprint with no mention of cost-reduced component integration, specification reduction, or reduced margins on the device from Palm.

The Freedom Mini GPS is a new micro sized bluetooth gps satnav receiver available in the PIC accessory store. The Freedom Mini is so small it can be carried around in your pocket attached to your keychain. It weights a miniscule 1.06 ounces (30g). It utilizes the latest SiRF Star III chipset for greater accuracy and speed and works with all popular mapping and navigation software currently available. It is compatible with any PDA or smartphone with Bluetooth technology and comes with a USB and car charger for recharging at home or on the road.

The Freedom Mini GPS is available now for $89.95 USD. Shipping charges begin at $5.95 for most US and Canadian orders. This unit does not include GPS software, so you would need to have or purchase a mapping solution such as TomTom.