VoiceIt Technologies has released a major new version of its voice dialing application for Palm OS smartphones. VoiceDialIt v3.0 brings a number of improvements in speed and simplicity making it one of the best voice dialing solutions for Treo and Centro users. VoiceDialIt is a simple-to-use application that allows you to dial your existing contacts by simply stating their name. You can also train the software for improved accuracy using only your voice.

VoiceDialIt v3.0 for Palm OS comes with a free trial period and costs $14.95. It is compatible with the Treo 650, 680, 700p. 755p and Centro. It is also available for Windows Mobile.

Palm has announced that the Centro Smartphone is now available in Canada on Bell Mobility's high-speed mobile network (1xEv-DO). Canadian Bell customers are getting the spec bumped version of the Centro that first debuted on the Sprint Olive Green and Rose models.

Bell's Centro comes outfitted in soft-touch Midnight Black with 128MB of available memory, and the Palm Facebook and Google Maps with the My Location pre-installed. It is available now starting at $49.95 with a three year contact, and $399.95 without a contract.

On Sale Sudoku DeluxeWare 1.00 Weather ( infinity subscription ) 1.00 PalmaryClock Wireless for Treo and Centro 1.5 Bowling Deluxe 1.24 Pool Deluxe 1.45 HealthCalc Pro 2.5.0 PalmaryClock for Treo and Centro 3.7 Exact II 2.27 PalmaryDates 1.2 PalmaryClock Wireless 1.5

New Software Ringtones for Business 1.1 Virtual Money Pro 1.3 Virtual Money 1.3 Vehicle Accidents 1.0 Ranking 1.0 Personal Finance Guide 1.0 eReader for Palm OS 3.0 HandAwe 1.0 Skulls 1.0 HandEvents 1.0

Updated Software Agendus for Palm OS Professional Edition 13.02 Agendus for Palm OS Standard Edition 13.02 Agendus for Palm OS Premier Edition 13.02 eQuickRecipes Deluxe 5.0 Utilities Bundle 4.9 eQuickRecipes 5.0 HoHo 4.5 Pro Pack 2.6 Destaller Pro 3.5 Project@Hand 2 2.6.1

Despite being available on the market for nearly 18 months, Palm's popular Palm OS-based Centro continues to attract new carriers. The latest carrier to pick up Palm's entry-level smartphone is Canada's Bell Mobility, as a recent report from Canada's MobileSyrup site indicates.

Bell's Centro pricing is slated to begin at $49.95 CAD w/ a 3-year contract. After the conclusion of the special launch promotion, the price will rise to $199.95 on a 3-year contract, with $249.95 and $349.95 pricetags attached to 2-year and 1-year contracts respectively. Users wishing to purchase the device for full retail price, also known as "month to month", will see a $399.95 price.

PalmInfocenter will be updating on a limited schedule this week, as your webmaster will be taking a break for a vacation. The site will be maintained in my absence, but readers should expect it to be a slower news week than usual. Our normal posting schedule will resume next Tuesday, February 3rd.

In the meantime, visitors can browse through the PIC archives as usual or checkout our recent CES coverage. Readers can also follow the latest mobile and tech news at PIC's sister sites:

MobilityBeat - Tech News Tube - Mac Hash

Sprint, Palm's exclusive Pre launch partner in the US, just announced today that it plans to cut 8,000 jobs or approximately 14% of its workforce. The cost cutting measure will save $1.2 billion annually.

A Sprint spokesperson told InternetNews.com that the "layoffs will not impact its Clearwire WiMAX partnership or the impending launch of Palm's new Pre smartphone in the first half of this year."

Rumor: A new report on electronista claims that Sprint employees have already begun their advance training on usage and selling techniques for the new Palm Pre. The story is apparently supported by some Twitter posts of a Yahoo employee. According the report, unnamed Sprint employees have revealed that the Pre is now expected to arrive in-store in June, making for an arrival on the absolute tail end of the 1H '09 release window mentioned by Palm the Pre's CES launch earlier this month.

The article also goes on to note the historical refresh history of the Pre's chief competition, Apple's iPhone, which launched in June 2007 and received its 3G update in July of last year. Presumably Palm and Sprint would only have a brief window of opportunity to aggressively push the Pre against the current iPhone 3G before Apple counters with their device's 3rd-generation release, assuming the simmering legal war of words does not pick up enough steam to encumber Palm's anticipated Pre release date.

Rumor: Originally rumored to launch next week, new details have emerged that claims the Sprint Treo Pro release has been slightly delayed. According to the latest scuttlebutt from MobilityToday and a reported Best Buy internal memo, the new release date is now set to be February 15th.

This news comes after the Sprint Treo Pro made its premature debut on Sprint.com yesterday, only to be quickly pulled. Sprint reps are now saying that yesterdays posting was put up accidentally and that the "The Treo Pro hasn't passed our testing yet."

Retail giant Best Buy has not only long been America's #1 electronics chain but has traditionally been a strong supporter of Palm's products, especially in recent years. A new report out today from Bloomberg reports that the retailer is in talks with Sprint Nextel to "potentially put the device in more than 1,000 stores."

Best Buy Mobile unit President Shawn Score said the parties aren't ready yet to announce an agreement about the Palm Pre, which works exclusively with Sprint service in the U.S. He declined to comment on whether Best Buy would be the sole retailer for the Pre.

"I'm really excited that they're back in the game," Score said of Palm in an interview. "We're working with Sprint on that, but no official announcement as of yet."

Palm has posted an ongoing, week-long Q&A session with Product Manager Matt Crowley. Instead of appearing within the Palm blog itself, Palm has taken the rather unusual approach of using a Facebook chat to give their users a chance to interact with, moderated by Palm Director of Online Communications and PR Services Jon Zilber.

In the course of the session thus far, Mr. Crowley has helpfully tackled a few (obviously screened) hard questions about the design decisions faced by Palm's team during the Pre's development process. Unfortunately unaddressed are some superb user questions regarding critical topics relating to the Pre's lack of desktop synchronization, how to handle hard resets in areas with no wireless data coverge, if Palm will provide any "free" cloud storage/backup service to Pre users, and how intrusive Synergy will be on users' personal data.

The war of words and thinly-veiled half-threats between Apple and Palm has just taken a new twist, with based on new commentary by a Palm spokesperson responding to comments made by Apple's COO Tim Cook earlier this week. The comments, as seen in a new piece on the Wall Street Journal's D| All Things Digital site, have each party possible entrenching themselves for a long and protracted legal battle.

Written by John Packowski on his "Digital Daily" column, today's article is entitled "Palm to Apple: Bring It". The piece contains just enough juicy bits to make to make it abundantly clear who each company is targeting with their respective statements. As seen in our story earlier this week, Tim Cook fired the initial volley a few days ago with several semi-vague statements such as these choice quotes: