PalmAddicts has published a new interview with Palm Founder Jeff Hawkins. In it, Hawkins discusses his work at Numenta and Palm's "secret third business". Tantalisingly, he hints at a talk to come at Walt Mossberg's D Conference in May which he says Palm fans "should keep a close watch on".

"We’re going to be announcing something…but I won’t tell you what it is…we will be launching this year, not in the distant future. I’ll give you a much bigger hint: I’m going to be speaking at Walt Mossberg’s D Conference in May. It’s a high-end industry conference. Anyway, I’m going to be giving a talk there, and that would be something for the Palm fans to keep a close watch on."

Other highlights from the interview include Hawkins' thoughts on Palm's foray into Windows Mobile devices, which he basically describes as a move born out of fears of being shut out of Palm OS. He also states that it takes two years to design new products, hence why it will take a little time for the company's new-found control over its "destiny" to bear fruit.

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Shares of Palm Inc today rose more than 10% to close at $18.30. The trading volume was more than five times the usual daily average. Today's rise follows up on the ~8% gain seen two weeks ago. Again the buying is being fueled by rumors that Palm is a takeover target. Last time it was Motorola, this week the latest unsubstantiated rumor is that Nokia is interested.

According to IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, the worldwide market for converged mobile devices pushed past the 20 million unit mark during the fourth quarter of 2006, and past the 80 million unit mark for the year. Fourth quarter of 2006 shipments were up 33.5% more than the same quarter a year ago. For all of 2006, vendors shipped at total of 80.5 million devices, 42.0% more than what they shipped in 2005.

Kinoma has released a small update to Kinoma Player EX bringing it up to v4.1.2. Kinoma media player software brings streaming flash video support for videos from YouTube and Google Video and has a vast built in online media guide. You can check out Kris' previous review here. The latest updates include stability enhancements, rss and media synchronization improvements, and support for the Treo 750 via StyleTap.

The update can be download via the integrated version checker or downloaded from the PIC store. Kinoma Player 4.1 EX costs $24.95.

Palm is planning to address the recently disclosed Treo security vulnerability with ROM updates for the Cingular Treo 680 and the Verizon and Sprint Treo 700p. A Palm official has confirmed with PalmInfocenter that there are no plans at this time for a security update for the Treo 650 or unlocked models. Palm is "investigating" an update for these devices, but does not have anything on the roadmap at this time.

The ROM update for the Treo 700p will be the long awaited comprehensive maintenance release for the 700p. Palm is currently finishing up work on the maintenance release and estimates that is should be available in April depending on carrier certification.

In what might be just the impetus Palm needs to release a Windows Mobile 6 (or, maybe not) update for their older 700w/wx Treos, Download Squad are reporting that Microsoft are offering free WM6 licenses. These licenses are being handed out by Microsoft to their device partners wishing to release OS upgrades for their existing devices.

This strategy could benefit device manufacturers such as Palm in several ways. Tthe hardware companies could pass the savings directly along to their customers and offer the upgrade at no charge. Or the hardware suppliers could charge the customer for the OS license that is provided at no charge to them, realizing substantial profits in the process.

Computerworld have published an opinion piece regarding the current status and future outlook of the Palm OS. Authored by long-time Palm handheld owner and former publisher of the Palm Reader e-mail newsletter, Mike Elgan, the piece takes a refreshingly hysteric-free look at the early days of Palm Computing and points out Palm’s numerous missteps and hiccups along the way. Elgan cautions that while the early brilliance of Hawkins and Dubinsky must not go overlooked, a loss of control of both the company and the product began Palm's decline. Long-term followers of the platform will be surprised at Elgan's assertion that this began not during the tumultuous 3com/Palm Inc./PalmSource/Handspring days of the late 90s/ early 00s but rather during the US Robotics' acquisition of Palm in 1995 -- a year prior to the first Pilot even shipping!

To quote just one succinct piece from the article:

"How many times has Palm distracted, divided and plundered the company with spin-offs, acquisitions and mismanagement?"

Rumor: A poster on the Phonenews.com forums has posted what appears to be an internal Sprint system listing of handsets being EOL'd throughout the remainder of the year. Most notable of these is the Treo 700p, with an End-of-life date of "Early May".

A subsequent section of of estimated launch dates gives the Palm Sherlock with a tenative release date of May 14th. One interesting tidbit is that the "Sherlock" is stated to be available in dark blue and burgundy colors.

The one bit of information still absent from all of these rumors is the OS of this mysterious new device. The fact that Sprint has always been the rumored carrier does give some credence to the rumors about it being a Palm OS device. Sprint has historically been a Palm's strongest CDMA partner and the biggest supporter of Palm OS-based smartphones over the years.

The Palm.com online store is offering a coupon code for $10 off a purchase plus free shipping on all orders. Enter the promo code CRT10 at checkout to take advantage of this offer.

No word if there is a minimum purchase amount required to redeem the coupon or what expiration date is for this promotion. Good uses for this coupon would be the recently-discounted Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition 2 package, or its higher-priced replacement, the 3rd edition GPS kit. Spare styli or screen protectors are always handy to have on hand as well.

Update: Looks like the code is no longer valid, however the free shipping is still available.