DataViz are well-known to PalmOS users: their versatile Documents to Go mobile office suite has been built-in to every device that Palm has released over the last few years. With Ed Colligan's announcement that DataViz would be a partner on their new webOS, Palm Infocenter contacted the company hoping to learn more of their plans for the platform. While they're "thrilled" about the positive buzz for the new system, they're still playing their cards close to the chest. DataViz spokesperson Shari Hoffman told us via email:

"We are thrilled by the amount of positive press this announcement has received as we are a long-time supporter and partner of Palm. At the current time, DataViz is not able to comment or respond to the questions you included in your email... I thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding this exciting announcement and I will be in touch with you in the near future to discuss this further!"

After a long private beta, the StyleTap platform is now available for Symbian powered S60 devices. StyleTap allows users to run many of the tens of thousands of Palm OS applications on current Nokia and Symbian powered phones.

The Symbian version supports all Nokia smartphones running S60 3rd Edition, Sony-Ericsson devices running UIQ 3.0, and the new Nokia touch UI devices running S60 5th Edition. It includes support for hardware features such as screen rotation and the optical joystick on the Samsung i8510 smartphone, and introduces a new screen rendering capability that significantly improves the readability of the screen on QVGA (240x320) devices.

Palm has discretely posted a new firmware update for the Sprint Treo 755p. The release brings the phone's software up to version Treo755p-1.08-SPNT. The description simply states:

This software patch is for a phone reset issue that occurs under certain specific and rare conditions. Download this patch only if you are experiencing reset issues with your phone on a regular basis.

The support page is dated from late October, however this is the first time this update has been seen by PIC and the page is not currently linked to from Palm's official Sprint Treo 755p page. The usual assortment of Windows and SD card installation options are available. Palm says the update will take around 45 minutes.

One of the items of initial concerns by many users and members of the media following Palm's Pre CES announcement was the device's battery capacity. TreoCentral's Dieter Bohn has now confirmed that the Pre's battery is going to be 1150mAh and exactly identical in dimensions to the existing stock Centro and Treo 800w batteries.

While this is certain to come as very good news to current Centro and 800w owners looking to upgrade to the Pre, power users may feel left out in the cold, as Palm's previous flagship device, the Windows Mobile 6.1-based Treo Pro, ships with a mighty 1500mAh battery standard. Fortunately, one advantage of the Pre's shared battery architecture between the older 800w and Centro means that replacement batteries and widely and affordably available on the market, including Seidio's extended-capacity OEM-size 1350mAh Centro/800wbattery, covered here.

Ever since Palm's historical announcement in Las Vegas last week, the web has been abuzz with a flurry of Palm-related news articles, commentaries, and predictions. While PIC will be taking a closer look later in the week at some of the most prescient articles making the rounds online, a piece by Newsweek entitled "Palm's New Reach" deserves to be singled out for discussion.

Written by Dan Lyons, most notable for his former alias as "Fake Steve Jobs", the Newsweek piece is surprisingly thoughtful and contains a good bit of additional background information not seen in any of the articles posted on other sites since Palm's Pre and WebOS announcement last Thursday.

With so much ongoing chatter about Palm's Pre smartphone and their new WebOS platform, it's easy to forget that the device may still not hit store shelves for another four or five months. So until then, Palm must make do with their carryover legacy products, such as the Centro and Windows Mobile Treos.

Palm's recent Centro refresh for Sprint brought two new colors, olive green and rose, in addition to the standard black which will eventually be updated to the specs of the rose and green models. Despite being announced last fall, these new expanded memory units have not been heavily promoted until now. A leaked upcoming Best Buy retail store flyer shows the refreshed 128MB Centro, is available for free with contract in-store at Best Buy.

In our fourth and final series of videos from CES, PIC takes another in depth look at the Palm Pre. In the first clip we take a closer look at more of the features of the Pre and WebOS including the contacts application, linking profiles and contacts together, drop down menus in WebOS, accelerometer control and launching applications. The second video shows more of the web browser in action. It shows CNN being loaded and navigated via the pinch and zoom gestures and double tapping to zoom in. The second video also shows the universal search feature executing a google search.

Tom Conrad has a long history in engineering and product design: he's led teams that have worked on everything from operating systems to video games, including the fondly-remembered PC classic You Don't Know Jack. Currently the Chief Technical Officer for Pandora Internet Radio, Tom's in a unique position to offer insider opinion on the development and capabilities of Palm's new WebOS and Pre smartphone, having worked with the company on these products for a number of months now while creating a version of the Pandora player for webOS. On Monday he generously gave up some of his time to talk to Palm Infocenter about his experiences with Palm's new baby and the development process.

Hit the jump for the interview transcript, or listen to the audio.

Nearly lost amidst the one-two hoopla punch that was Palm's Pre and WebOS announcements on Thursday was the release of a very unique and interesting Palm-branded accessory. Drastically different in both appearance and functionality and possessing much more pizzazz any past Palm's accessory release, the Palm Touchstone is simply a stunning little device in its own right that deserves a further look for anyone who is traditionally fond of desktop charging cradle solutions.

As mentioned in my previous article on Palm‘s Pre accessories, the Touchstone essentially resembles a reduced-size slanted hockey puck. Several Palm staffers actually called it the "charging puck cradle" during the Pre demo sessions. Charging time is listed as four hours, though the Palm reps stated that a ‘good charge" could be achieved in much less time. A series of strong magnets inside the Touchstone lend it a solid feel and also keep the device impressively secure on the puck's surface and properly aligned.

In our latest hands on video we take a closer look at some of the multimedia functionality on the Palm Pre. The following clip includes a live demonstration of the WebOS music application in action with a walkthrough of its background operation and gesture controls. We also take a look at the video player showing a movie trailer (2012) and there is a quick bonus clip of Pre's app store, called the Palm App Catalogue, thrown in for good measure. Read on for the video embed...

Let's be honest: who saw this coming? Palm's jaw-dropping debut of their innovative webOS and stunning Pre smartphone on Thursday finally stemmed the tide of gloomy questions about the company: did the PDA pioneer still have the talent to lead the mobile computing industry? Would the top-secret Nova become another vapourware Cobalt? Could they overcome an entrenched reputation in the community for trailing the pack? In short: Yes, no, and hell yes!

The tech world has been positively gushing in their praise of Palm's spectacular comeback effort, and the reaction from the denizens of the comments has been similarly favourable. But as pleased as we all are to learn that Palm still has the Right Stuff, there are plenty of unanswered questions about their beautiful new baby. Let's take a cold shower, quell the geek lust and analyse what we have – and haven't – been told...