Palm Europe has announced the availability of the Palm Treo 700wx smartphone for Pelephone’s CDMA/EV-DO network in Israel. Pelephone, as Israel’s first operator, pioneered the country’s cellular communications revolution, resulting in one of the world’s highest market penetrations of mobile phones. The Treo 700wx smartphone is available now at Pelephone stores and authorized dealers.

Palm has SKU'd up two new accessory releases for release later this quarter. Palm's latest SRP guide for June/July 2007 is essentially a carry-over from the previous edition, with few new product introductions, no product EOLs, and no significant price drops.

The first new accessory release in the listing is, unsurprisingly, a replacement OEM battery for the newest Treo smartphone, the 755p. Bearing the part number 3332WW, this battery is officially referred to as the "Treo 755p Standard Battery". Interestingly enough, Palm does not refer to batteries for older Treos as "standard" versions. This could perhaps be a hint that Palm is anxious to get a slice of Seidio's lucrative aftermarket battery business with their own self-branded extended battery down the road.

Rumor: The MorningPaper blog has posted what appears to be a legitimate but low-resolution shot of what could be the next Windows Mobile Treo device. Apparently clad in a matte black finish reminiscent of the recent BlackJack/Q/BlackBerry models, the Treo 800w appears to basically mimic the earlier pictures of the Treo "Gandolf" mentioned recently with a few design cues from the older Tungsten C and W keyboard-based PDAs as seen in the previously leaked photos. The device also appears slimmer with a larger LCD but this could be just due to the orientation of the device in the photo.

Google has quietly released an updated version of their popular Google Maps Mobile app for Palm OS-based devices. While Google's mobile map page does not indicate actual version numbers, a download and quick check of the Palm OS PRC file does indicate that a new version, 1.2.0.8 has been posted within the past few days.

On the Google Mobile Maps Treo-specific page, Google hints at speed enhancements in this latest version, along with real-time traffic reports and detailed directions. Google also touts "shorter startup time" and "stylus integration" as enhancements in this latest version of the app.

A minor update to Motion Apps' mVoice call recording and voice memo recording app has been released. The new version, 5.5.3, adds support for the new Treo 755p. In addition, version 5.5.3 improves upon earlier versions by adding the ability to adjust recording volume with the Treo's side buttons. File handling & deletion has also been improved and the recording screen is no longer displayed by default at the conclusion of a phone call. Initial testing of 5.5.3 on an unpatched 700p shows no major differences from 5.5.2 and slight faster menu transitions.

mVoice is available now for $24.95 and runs on the Treo 650, 680, 700p, and 755p. A review of of version 5.0 of mVoice can be found here.

Over a year after the phone's launch, the long-awaited ROM Maintenance Release for the Verizon version of the Treo 700p is finally being rolled out to certain Verizon Wireless corporate stores. In an odd twist deviating from Palm's usual support practices, Verizon has sent the 700p 1.10 ROM out on SD cards to select corporate stores for Verizon service technician use only. At this point in time, no user-installable version of this update is available nor has a download been leaked.

Word first leaked out of this strange rollout of this update last week on this TreoCentral forums thread. Then, earlier this week, on July 4th, the editor of the Go Button blog posted his findings and a screenshot. The TreoCentral discussion continued on in this thread before finally being confirmed here. Based on the initial reports so far, the update process seems mostly successful and the majority of the 700p's bugs have been cured. No word as of yet if the Verizon-specific SMS lag bug has been resolved as well.

NormSoft has released an update to their popular Pocket Tunes mp3 program. The newest version of the app, v4.0.3, is dated July 6th 2007 and according to NormSoft's changelog, appears to have only one significant change from the previous version. It rectifies an issue where users of newer Treos with the app in ROM (680, 700p, 755p) can update to the latest version of the basic version of the player 4.0.3 after the conclusion of their trial period of the Deluxe version. Previously, users had to delete the newer RAM-resident version to revert back to the bundled ROM version.

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. You can read our Pocket Tunes 4 Review here.

Krome is a new email application for Palm OS Treo's from Wolflane Software. Krome features a clean and streamlined, easy to use interface. It has custom small font support which allows you to view much more text on the screen at one time. It supports the usual POP3 and IMAP email accounts, has a guided setup process and can store messages on external memory cards. It also has advanced network support, which allows you to read and create email while new emails are being downloaded in the background.

Krome v1.0 is available now for $16.95 USD. It includes a 30-day free trial period.

In preparing for its recently announced recapitalization deal with Elevation Partners, Palm has filed a regulatory proxy statement with the SEC. The proxy statement reveals some interesting background information about how the deal came about. The filling also reveals that over the past year a number of different firms have explored purchasing Palm outright, including Elevation.

According to the statement, from January to April of this year Palm met with several potential strategic partners and private equity firms to discuss a potential 'business combination transactions'. Palm goes on to disclose that Elevation Partners initially made an offer to acquire 100% of Palm to take the company private. In the end Elevations unnamed equity partner backed out of the deal, and the current offer to acquire 25% of the company was put forward.

Rumor: We reported previously on the Verizon 755p suffering a minor delay to its initial launch time. Now a supposed screenshot from Verizon's internal release roadmap shows that the newest CDMA Treo has suffered another setback and will not launch until September 4th, 2007.

The authentic-looking image (read on to view) was posted to the Howard Chui Forums' Verizon thread from a poster who appears to be a Verizon Wireless employee. There is no sign on this latest device roadmap surrounding the rumored Windows Mobile-powered Treo 800w.

iDay has come and gone, and the first iPhones have made their way into the hot, grubby hands of gadget geeks and Apple cultists. It's an important phase: how well is this svelte little beauty going to bear up under the hypercritical gaze of enthusiasts without the patented Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field surrounding it? In the words of the Boston Globe's Hiawatha Bray:

"After the relentless buildup of the past six months, the temptation to trash Apple Inc.'s new iPhone is pretty much irresistible. If only I could."

But Mr. Bray shouldn't fret: PIC is more than happy to give in to temptation. Six months ago when Steve Jobs claimed to have "revolutionized" the phone, we put the so-called "God Machine" up against Palm's Treo and concluded that while formidable, it's not the perfect device and could be beaten. Now that we have fresh, unbiased opinions coming in, it's time to see whether or not the Treo still passes muster. Let's take a walk down memory lane...