Palm’s recently-announced Treo Pro wis scheduled to hit our desk on September the 15th - a full review will then come up in the next days. Until then, feast your eyes on the specs and pictures below:
Specs
Get the rest of the scoop at our sister site TamsPPC!
People following TamsPalm for some time will have undoubtedly noted that I am a big fan of the four thirds system due to its extreme compactness - four thirds lenses are much smaller than comparable lenses for other camera types.
Even though my e520 is very compact, some people (like my girlfriend) consider it too big and resort to toting around compact cameras. However, this is now set to change - let’s welcome the Four Thirds Micro standard.
Essentially, we are looking at a smaller standard where the optical viewfinder found on Four Thirds SLR’s is completely replaced by LiveView on the LCD. People currently owning four thirds lenses can purchase an adapter to use these on their Micro cam - unfortunately, this compatibility doesn’t go the other way round.
My friend “Prince of Darkness” managed to get a few shots of a dummy of a new lens next to one of his - here is a comparison shot showing the smaller size of the Micro lens:
Unfortunately, no products have been announced as of now. However, both companies have confirmed that they will continue to develop regular Four Thirds products, too(optical viewfinders can be very useful at times)…
Further information can be found at 1001 noisy cameras
| The New York Times recently managed to get a hold of Brodie Keast, Palm’s senior VP of marketing. He claimed that the orange boys are “confident to get there in 2008″ after being asked avbout when we can expect 2Mio Centro’s to have been sold. |  |
The inhabitants of the German Nexave forum have proven themselves to be excellent truffle swines when it comes to uncovering issues with Palm OS devices: now, the Centro got some “love”.
The image below shows a Centro with a crack next to a key; this problem has been reported by loads of users by now:
Another issue(which has also begun to occur on a few devices) involves a color change in the (weak) keyboard backlighting. It seems to be similar to the pink screen issue found on the Palm IIIc, and is said to occur on Centros and Treo 500x devices:
As of now, no further information is available on any of the issues. Please stay tuned for further info as we receive it.
P.S. The Centro in our labs has not shown any of the things mentioned above…
Tech Center Labs can be considered one of dinosaurs of the Palm OS hardware industry. Nevertheless, the company manages to releases innovative products every now and then - here’s their latest product:
Sir Mayhak’s “FuelCell” products are similar to the external batteries that we reviewed recently; however, they are based on disposable AA batteries. This allows you to recharge the device within seconds(by swapping out the battery), but limits the amount of power that can be stored in the device.
The current 10$ product supports all MultiConnector devices and takes its power from a single AA battery (rechargeable ones are supported). Even though this box can prove handy in emergency situations, do not expect a full charge on a single AA battery.
A few months ago, Palm announced and EOL’d a 1800mAH battery for their Centro smartphone. Seidio now managed to release a version of its own - here is the first official picture:
The battery packs a capacity of 2600mAH(originally 1150), costs 50$ and protrudes from the case(a new backplate is required).
As of now, little is known about how long this battery will actually be useful. Palm has “disabled” some third party batteries with a recent software update for the Treo 680; nobody knows how long this battery will be tolerated.
Apparently, the times of Asus shenanigans will soon be over (not shipping samples, being stupid, reducing battery capacity silently) - Dell now follows HP into the mini-notebook market with the device pictured below:
As of now, the boys at Gizmodo have no idea on specs, pricing and/or when the box will hit the road. However, I hope that the device sells well - unlike other folks, Dell has a long history of good customer care and excellent press relation…
Engadget has recently posted images of an upcoming blue Centro with Verizon branding:
As of now, little is known about when the box will hit the road(if ever) - however, I consider it highly likely that the box will eventually be adopted as it has proven to be a runaway success for Palm(and Sprint).
Pricing and color options have not been disclosed yet, either…
Do you have any further information?
Aceeca has just changed the version number of the update to 600
Aceeca is one of the few manufacturers who still release firmware updates for their devices regularly. Unlike other companies, they also provide detailed change logs - in case anyone of you owns an Aceeca Meazura, please head over to Aceeca.com and get an update changing the following:
-Corrected battery dip issue which would turn the device off requiring two key presses on power to turn it back on again
-Corrected the screen blanking issue.
-Corrected issue where if device is on charger and battery is removed the charger would cause a high voltage on VBatt.
-If battery ID is wrong and plugged in, the device will now show plugged-in charging inhibited. Previously was showing not plugged-in and not charging which was confusing.
-Modified KeyCurrentState to query the keypad controller each time it is called, instead of just looking up a global. This way it is reflective of the key directly, not based on the global being updated.
-Increased the robustness of communications between the main processor and the keypad processor.
-Updated ROM to incorporate MeazuraLib_v306.
-This ROM now incorporates telephony APIs and SMS application.
-Modified serial driver to have added turn on delay time to ensure that the transceiver starts up correctly.
P.S. As usual for Aceeca - this is a free upgrade available to every Meazura owner, worldwide!
P.S.2 Kudos to the boys for their excellent customer care!