The Treo 755p is now available from the Palm online store. Palm is now taking orders for the Sprint version and is offering free overnight shipping. New orders placed today are showing an expected shipping date of 1 - 2 weeks.

Palm.com is also offering the same pricing as Sprint, starting at $279.99. That price includes 2 year service contract commitment, plus $50 instant savings and additional $100 mail in rebate. It is available for $579.99 without a plan.

Palm's latest 2007 SRP guide lists a new Blueooth keyboard, the "Palm Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard". Bearing a publication date of April 27th, 2007, this price sheet shows the Palm part number for this new model as 3245WW. No release date is given but Palm generally updates this sort of information on a quarterly basis, so an arrival in the June/July timeframe would seem most likely.

Palm gives a compatibility listing of the Tungsten E2 and TX handhelds and the Treo 650, 680, 700p/w/wx, and 750 smartphones. Oddly enough, neither the LifeDrive, any older Palm PDAs with Bluetooth or the newly-released Treo 755p are listed amongst the compatible devices. MSRP of this new model is listed at $99.99.

The worldwide handheld device market opened the year with its thirteenth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline as user interest continued to transition towards converged mobile devices and other consumer electronics devices. According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, vendors shipped just over 900,000 handheld devices in the first quarter of 2007, 36.3% less than the previous quarter and 40.6% less than the same quarter a year ago. The decrease in shipments coincides with the announcement that a former leading handheld PDA vendor, Dell, is leaving the industry.

Sprint's website is now listing the Palm Treo 755p and is taking orders for both the blue and burgundy models. You need to enter in your zipcode and scroll down towards the end of the list of phones to see it.

The 755p is available from Sprint starting at $279.99. That price includes 2 year service contract commitment, plus $50 instant savings and additional $100 mail in rebate. It is being sold for $579.99 without a plan.

In addition to the newly listed 755p, the Treo 700p has been desisted from the site and appears to have been removed from Sprint's current device lineup.

Salling Software has released Salling Clicker v3.5, a major update to its award-winning two-way remote control software. Salling Clicker offers the ability to control iTunes, PowerPoint and other popular applications from mobile phones or handheld computers on Mac and Windows computers through a user interface similar to that on a portable media player. The new version adds Vista compatibility, a Front Row remote, some additional new features, support for the very latest handheld devices and other enhancements.

The FCC has granted the Treo 755p with its seal of approval. This is one of the final milestones a handset must reach before it can be offered for sale in the US.

The FCC documents and some technical test reports on the 755p can be found here. The user manual and external and internal disassembly photos are not yet available as Palm requested to keep these confidential until the end of June. The only documents of any interest posted are detailed SAR reports and various technical radio related documents.

The Treo 755p is expected will be available from Sprint later this month.

There are a number of Special offers and sales going on this weekend at the Palm.com store:

• Palm TX Bundle $299 w/ free wireless keyboard
• Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition 3 $199 after $50 rebate
• Buy a Treo 680 with any voice plan — save $250
• Buy a Treo 750 with any voice plan—save $350
• Free Overnight Shipping on Treo 680s + Music Pack
• Save $100* on an Palm device when you join AudibleListener for 12 months.
• Palm 256 MB Memory Card FREE after rebate
• 2GB MiniSD Expansion Card with SD adaptor $59

A primary component of the new Treo 755p’s enhanced software bundle in comparison to its predecessors is the “Mobile Voice Control” software developed by Nuance and included by Sprint.

A check of the Nuance web site now reveals that this application is now available for a wide variety of smartphones, including both Palm OS and Windows Mobile-based Treos. In addition to the newly-released 755p, Nuance’s MVC program is listed as being compatible with the Treo 700wx, 700p, and 680. Additional supported platforms are a large range of RIM Blackberry models and the Motorola Q and PPC 6700 WM-powered devices.

ComputerWorld has posted a article that, while not delivering any Earth-shaking new info, nicely summarizes the current cloudy outlook regarding Palm's future OS plans. By publishing this article hot on the heels of this week's Treo 755p launch, ComputerWorld again raises the question of how closely one should read between the lines of Ed Colligan's comments last month to continue shipping Garnet-based "...devices this year".

ComputerWorld was unfortunately unable to elicit a response from Palm Inc. regarding their plans for any additional future Garnet OS devices. Several industry analysts interviewed by ComputerWorld paint different scenarios for the immediate future of the "classic" Palm OS. One thing that all parties agree on, however, is that Palm is sending mixed signals to their customers. Maintaining a lineup consisting of Windows Mobile-powered Treos alongside a number of legacy Garnet devices is already sending mixed signals. Add to that Ed Colligan's recent announcement that points towards a new Linux-based Palm platform in the future and it is no wonder that ComputerWorld concludes that the smartphone OS world is in the midst of tremendous uncertainty and instability.

Rumor: As of last week, the Palm Z22 has been spotted at Franklin Covey retail stores sporting a new $79.99 pricetag and a sticker proclaiming "new lower price!". This updated pricing, according to a Franklin Covey employee, appears to be permanent and not a limited time sale. The same price change is also present on the company's online store. This could signal a nationwide price drop just for the Franklin Covey chain as they begin to wind down their PDA efforts and clear out older stock. Or such discounting could be a move by the retailer to prematurely adjust their own prices prior an official price cut announcement by Palm. Palm's most recent SRP price list, dated January of 2007, still shows the Z22 at $99.99, as does the Palm.com online store.

Otter Products has released the OtterBox 1921 Treo case, a rugged, polycarbonate case that protects Palm Treo 680, 750 and 755p series smartphones from water, dust, dirt and drops. The casing completely seals the device from the elements while providing access to the full keypad, touch screen, volume and program buttons.