The TouchPad has decent hardware – 9.7″ 1024×768 display, dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, front-facing 1.3MP camera for video calls, 16/32GB of storage, 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band WiFi, and more. The downside is that it is running webOS, which is a dead platform.

Yes, I know, HP is open-sourcing webOS and renaming it Open webOS in the hopes that developers will continue to work on it and that other hardware vendors might pick it up. I’ll believe both of those when I see them. I’m sure some developers will work on it, but I don’t expect a critical mass to really keep it moving forward. And I don’t expect any new hardware vendors except maybe some real niche players. Android and iOS simply dominate, and webOS offers little to attract a vendor instead of Android.

But the good news is you can turn the TouchPad into an Android tablet with only minor effort. So you can have an Android tablet with fairly solid specs for a lot less than the actual Android tablets go for, if you’re willing to do a little work to install it.

But that’s not all; if you buy a phone with mobile hotspot capabilities and you actually activate them, Amazon will give you a $100 Amazon Gift Card.

The catch? All of this is for new activations only. The official word:

For a limited time only, all phones from Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T with a new line of service are on sale for a penny and include standard FREE Two-Day Shipping. Offer valid between midnight PDT November 21, 2011, through 11:59 p.m. PDT November 28, 2011, while supplies last. Plus, if you buy an eligible hotspot-ready smartphone and activate the hotspot feature, you’ll get a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card

There are 97 different devices to choose from. Mostly Android, unsurprisingly, but also WebOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and even non-smartphones. But why would you get a non-smartphone with this deal? You have one week, start shopping.

What about the rest? Windows came in a distant, distant third with 2.4% of the market on 400,000 units shipped. Which double’s RIM’s 200,000 Playbooks shipped. 500,000 other tablets shipped, many of those likely WebOS TouchPads HP dumped on the market.

With the TouchPad out of the market and the Playbook stagnant, and Windows 8 tablets still a ways off, iOS and Android should take even more of the market this quarter. And Android should take more market share from iOS as more Android tablets hit the shelves, not the least of which will be the $200 Amazon Kindle Fire. Well, if you can really call it an Android tablet given how heavily customized it is.

Via The Register.

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

No more TouchPads, no more Pres, Pixis, Veers, etc. They didn’t kill off the OS itself, technically, but right now it is in a deep coma and not looking well. It remains to be seen if it ever reappears on any phone or tablet devices, or if it ends up as an embedded OS in printers and the like, if even that. HP has talked of licensing it to other companies, or possibly even selling it, but who would buy? It seems like every time another company is rumored as a possibly suitor they rush to say “Not us!”, as if they’re afraid of being tainted by the thought.

WebOS is a two-time failure in the market. Palm couldn’t make a go of it alone, and their ‘savior’, HP, ended up throwing in the towel. Now the market is even more dominated by iOS and Android than when Palm first launched WebOS, or when HP gave it a second try. Anyone wanting to relaunch WebOS would need to spend enormous amounts of money on marketing to displace iOS and Android from the public consciousness. On top of that, Microsoft is poised to do just that to promote Windows Phone Mango. RIM, the long established smartphone vendor, is on a steady decline under the twin attack of iOS and Android.

I suspect that if any of the current players acquired WebOS from HP it would be mainly to beef up their patent portfolio with Palm’s patents – either to defend Android (Google), or attack it (Apple, RIM, Microsoft, etc.). And maybe incorporate choice bits of the platform into their own. But WebOS as a platform would be over and done.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking WebOS. I think it is a great operating system with a lot of clever design features. It is solid, stable, and loaded with features. It just had the misfortune of bad timing and poor management. If Palm had launched WebOS before Verizon launched the Droid and Android 2.0 they might have had a chance. If they hadn’t yoked themselves into a too-long exclusive agreement with a failing carrier (Sprint) they might’ve still had a fighting chance. But the reality is they were too late to market and the launch was under marketed and bungled, and by the time they hit other carriers Android was in full charge and iOS was well established. Palm didn’t have the money to effectively market WebOS against the two leaders. Neither did Sprint. Verizon was focused on Droid and wasn’t going to do much with WebOS. AT&T had iPhone and also wasn’t going to dilute that message. Sometimes good tech just doesn’t win in the market.

So why do I feel smug satisfaction? Because WebOS got me fired. Actually it was something I said on Sling Community about WebOS while I was working for Sling Media that got me fired from my position as a Beta Program Manager there. I deleted the post within days, and EchoStar has since purchased and shut down Sling Community itself, so I thought it was long gone. But I just had the inspiration to check Archive.org – and found the post:

January 26, 2009 6:26 PM

As has been pointed out, the actual development information hasn’t been released yet so it is premature to be talking about development. From what we have seen it looks like webOS is an all-new environment, so it would need an all-new SPM which would not be a small task. At this time we’re taking a wait and see approach to webOS. When it ships we’ll watch the adoption rate and decide if it warrants developing SPM for webOS or not. Keep in mind it has currently been announced for one device (the Pre) on one carrier (#3 and currently falling) so it remains to be seen if and when it appears on additional devices and carriers for the worldwide market and achieves a significant market share.

There has to be a business justification to invest the resources in developing the client. The next logical platform is Android, which we’re already taking a strong look at. Unlike webOS, Android already has multiple announced devices with commitments from several major device makers for even more, with carriers lined up world-wide. Remember that from our point of view it is the intersection of users with the platform *and* a Slingbox who are also interested in using SPM. Engineering resources aren’t free, so there has to be some return on investment.

Speaking for myself, I’m skeptical about webOS. I’m an old-time Palm OS user, I had a Palm IIIx, Visor Deluxe, Sony Clie NZ-90, Treo 650, and I still carry a Treo 680 as my personal phone. But because I’ve been following Palm for so long I’ve also been burned and disappointed too many times. I don’t have any faith left in Palm’s ability to execute and succeed after Palm OS 6 Cobalt, the PalmOne/Palm Source/Access mess, ALP, the idiotic Foleo, the interminable wait for Nova/webOS, etc. So they need to prove themselves to me all over again. Until I see webOS on multiple devices and carriers with a significant uptake I won’t really think of it differently than other proprietary phone platforms. It looks shiny and nice, but that’s not enough for me with Palm anymore.

-MegaZone, Sling Media Beta Manager
Slingbox PRO-HD w/TiVo Series3, Slingbox SOLO w/TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(I also run GizmoLovers.com)

That’s the post that cost me my job. Remember, it was made in the context of an ongoing forum thread of Sling Community members. But Dave Zatz spotted it and excerpted it in a post he made. (Let me interject right here that I consider Dave a friend and a colleague and when I see people blaming him for my being fired it bothers me. So don’t. I’m responsible for what I said.) Once Dave’s post went up it got picked up by Boy Genius Report, CNET, etc. Pieces of what I said were everywhere overnight, taken out of the original context. It sounded like I was making an official statement for the company, and that seems to be what upset the powers that be at EchoStar.

Dave’s post went up on January 31st, and I was fired the morning of February 2nd. Word had come down from somewhere on high that I was to be terminated as quickly as possible, no discussion. I’ve been laid off a couple of times, but that’s the only time in my professional career that I was fired. (I was fired once before, but that was when I worked the snack bar in college and I decided to see how long it would take them to fire me if I slacked off instead of just quitting. Several weeks, as it turned out.)

But look at what I wrote. This was after we saw WebOS and the Pre at CES, but before it actually launched. I think it was fairly prescient. Everything I expected, all of my concerns, came to pass. Launching a single device on Sprint turned out to be a disastrous move. Instead of the Pre & WebOS being a halo device to help turn Sprint’s fortunes around, Sprint turned out to be the albatross around the Pre’s neck. Sprint was in bad shape and couldn’t spend much to market the Pre, and Palm wasn’t exactly flush at the time either. Since they were trapped in an exclusive agreement Palm couldn’t take the Pre to another carrier, like Verizon, who had money and needed something to fight the iPhone. The Motorola Droid filled that gap and the Droid+Verizon partnership turned out to be everything Palm wanted, and needed, the Pre+Sprint partnership to be, but wasn’t. By the time the Pre was free of Sprint Verizon had no use for it. They picked it up but not so as you’d notice.

Of course, WebOS never did carve out more than a negligible market share and Sling Media never released a SlingPlayer Mobile for the platform. While they did support Android. In fact, as I wrote that post I had a T-Mobile G1 from Sling to play with to get a feel for Android as it was an upcoming project, after the then in progress iOS app. And that Treo 680 I mentioned as my personal phone? That was replaced by the Motorola Droid I still carry, which I picked up as soon as it launched. (And will probably be replaced by the Nexus/Droid/Samsung Prime later this year, if the rumors pan out.)

So yeah, everything I said was true and it all played out pretty much as I expected except for the second wind from HP, and even that just stretched things out. But it cost me my job. So I just wanted to say – I told you so.

And that’s where my smug satisfaction comes from.

So, this brings me to the site’s long hiatus. But that’ll be the next post…

The smartphone market is really well on its way to being a duopoly of Android and iOS. Blackberry is up there right now, but while the two leaders have been growing their market share, Blackberry has been losing it. That should continue and the two leaders will increasingly open their lead over Blackberry.

Looking at consumers who plan to buy a new smartphone in the next year, 31% said they want their next phone to be an iPhone while 34% say they want it to run Android. Bad news for RIM, only 7% say they want a Blackberry. That’s especially when 5% say they want Windows Phone 7, and it’s barely broken into the market at this point. So much for Blackberry’s vaunted customer loyalty. Still, they have a chance, 2% say they want ‘Other’, and with WebOS and Symbian Gone they’re really up for grabs, as are the 18% who are undecided.

If these numbers play out, things are looking very good for Android and iPhone – but not very good for anyone else. Blackberry looks to remain in a serious slide unless they can do something drastic to turn things around.

Apple is the HW vendor with the largest single share, as they’re the sole maker of iPhones an thus claim 28% of the market in HW. HTC and RIM are tied for the second spot with 20% apiece. HTC’s 20% is split – 14% from Android and 6% from Windows phones. If the trends continue HTC will probably push RIM into the 3rd slot in HW very soon, if they haven’t already. Motorola claimed 11% of the HW market, and Samsung 10% – split 8% Android, 2% Windows.

As RIM continues to decline this is really turning into a two horse race between Android and iOS, with Android continuing to grow at a faster pace. It may be a while before any single Android HW maker overtakes Apple though, if it happens.

Nielsen via Engadget Mobile.

Going into this CES I’m not sure what the big deal is going to be this year, if there is one. The economy is down and I haven’t really felt any particular buzz about any given area of the market. HDTVs get bigger while getting thinner and faster (refresh rates). We may see some interesting 3D technologies which will start to enter homes in the next few years. Palm is expected to announce Nova and new hardware, but I’m not excited. I was a die-hard Palm OS user for many years, since 1998, and still carry a Treo 680. But after five or more years of waiting for Palm OS 6 Cobalt Nova I just don’t feel that inspired. I’m already focused on Android as my next likely platform, and it would take a lot for Palm to sway me. Even if they produce an incredible OS, they have an uphill battle ahead to win over developers. I don’t think they have a real chance at this point to gain significant market share. And without that the developers won’t come – and the apps really make the platform.

Going forward I think the mobile market will effectively be, in no particular order, Windows Mobile Professional, BlackBerry, Symbian S60, iPhone, and Android. The original Palm OS is the walking dead, and I don’t see Nova/Palm OS II carving out enough market share to be viable. Symbian UIQ is effectively dead as SonyEricsson and Motorola have pulled out and the Symbian world is focused on the S60-based open source effort. Windows Mobile Standard (aka Smartphone) is rapidly dying as Professional-based touch screen devices move into the lower end of the market where Standard used to focus. I expect Android, which is basically just coming into the market, to post the biggest gains as more devices land. I think the LiMo/LIPS effort will falter and expect to see some of the vendors who have been working on it switch to Android. I think those five platforms will provide the bulk of the smartphone market, anything else will be a small niche.

We’ll probably see more tru2way devices on display from a number of vendors this year, but I don’t know that we’ll see anything revolutionary in that market. I’m hoping TiVo may be showing off their ‘Series4′ tru2way-enabled model, which they’re believed to have been working on for a while. And they may be showing their new DirecTV software, which I expect will be running on the HR20/21/22 DirecTV DVR Plus hardware. I’m not expecting anything else major, maybe some new content partnership announcements and perhaps plans to bring TiVo to more countries. (I’m surprised they haven’t re-launched in the UK yet with the DVB-T model actually.)

The past couple of years the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD fight provided some interest. But that was effectively over with CES2008, and officially ended when Toshiba threw in the towel in February. There aren’t likely to be any big announcements in the Blu-ray world, aside from more content partnerships like LG adding CinemaNow and YouTube to Netflix on their players. Maybe someone will be showing off higher density disc or 3D content concepts.

I’m hoping to be surprised by something at the show, something just unexpected. If you know of something I should be on the look out for, do let me know. And if you’re going to CES drop by the Sling Media booth and say hello. I believe I’m on the afternoons of Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and on Friday morning. I’m also scheduled to present for Sling Media at CntrStg on Saturday. Frankly I’m nervous as hell about that. It has been years since I’ve done a presentation or talk at a tradeshow and never at anything as big as CES.

OK, off to finish packing.

Palm is starting their Black Friday deals early. Now through December 1st, you can save $100 off orders of $300 or more, or save $50 off on orders of $150 to $299.99. On top of that get their lowest prices ever on select accessories only at the Palm Store.

Currently at The Palm Store you can save $25 off any order of $100 or more. And they’re offering free shipping on any order over $49, so you get double benefits. The offer includes the Windows Mobile Treo Pro and Treo 800w smartphones, the Palm OS Treo 755p and Centro smartphones, the Palm OS T|X, Tungsten E2, and Z22 handhelds, software, cases, accessories, and more. Just use the code ’25OFF’ when you check out to save $25 on your order of $100 or more.

For a very limited time, through October 29th, you can save $50 on any order of $200 or more from the Palm Store. That includes leading smartphones like the Centro, Treo 800w, and Treo Pro, handhelds like the Palm T|X and Tungsten E2, cases, software, and accessories including keyboards, headsets, and GPS kits. A good time to buy if you’ve been thinking of it.

According to The Official Palm Blog, Palm is releasing two new models of the Centro smartphone for Sprint, in Olive Green and Vibrant Rose. But new colors are the only differences, these Centros come with 128MB of memory, double that of the 64MB in all other Centros. They also come bundled with Facebook for Palm and Google Maps with the My Location feature, and a new low price of $79.99 (with a plan).

The new phones hit select retail locations on October 19th, and will be available online from Sprint and the Palm Store on November 2nd.

Well, OK, no, I’m not even mildly surprised.

According to Register Hardware, Palm is delaying Palm OS II, aka Nova, again. Palm OS II was originally expected on phones in 2007, then delayed until 2008, then late 2008. Now they say it’ll be ‘finished’ by the end of 2008, but we won’t be seeing any handsets using it until the first half of 2008. And, frankly, I wouldn’t place any bets on it. I’ve been a Palm OS user since 1998, but I’m not sure Palm is really relevant as an OS vendor anymore. They make some great Windows Mobile based devices, if I were in the market for WinMob the Treo Pro would be a top contender, but the existing Palm OS is terribly out of date. And now they’re going to be launching a new OS into a market full of WinMob, iPhone, Symbian, and two major Linux platforms – LiMo and Android. As a third Linux platform I don’t know that they’ll be able to garner developer mindshare. I really would rather see Palm take Android and work their magic on it as they’ve done to WinMob.

On the bright side for Palm, one of their major competitors, Windows Mobile, is also facing a delay. CNET reports that Windows Mobile 7 will be delayed from early 2009 to the second half of the year. That could be good news for Palm as WinMob 6 is starting to age and WinMob 7 promises a number of significant improvements. The delay means Palm’s Nova won’t be going directly against WinMob7 – unless it is further delayed, of course. The delay is also good news for Android, which, unless you’ve been under a rock, you’re probably aware launched today with T-Mobile’s G1. We should be seeing more Android phones and the WinMob delay gives Android more time to grab market share.

Picked up via Gizmodo.

I’ve been swamped with work so I haven’t been able to do more than skim most of today’s coverage of the Android launch and read a few of the reports in full. I have mixed feelings. The platform itself looks solid to me, but I think I’ll wait to see some more phones using it. I don’t like the G1′s lack of 3.5mm headphone jack, I can’t believe they left that off after the backlash against other phones. But that’s HTC and not Google or Android. And some of the features I’d need, like Exchange support for work, are being left to 3rd parties. I am 100% sure the hole will be filled, and can actually appreciate that approach – no native app makes the market more attractive to developers – but I’ll have to give it time. Still, I like what I see and think that with a little polish (this is the 1.0 release after all) it will probably be my next phone OS.

Spotted via Engadget.

Palm has also released a new color of Centro for AT&T users. In addition to the existing ‘Obsidian’ (Black) and Glacier (White) AT&T colors, you can now get it in ‘Electric Blue’ (kind of a light, metallic blue). Prices start at $99.99 – after rebate and with qualifying service plan, and they go up to $349 if you don’t want to commit to a plan.

I still think the Centro is a great ‘starter’ smartphone, or a step up for anyone who is considering one of the ‘feature phones’ which tend to cost more but offer less flexibility. The 800w looks nice, and if I didn’t dislike WinMob so much I’d consider it myself. Well, no, because I’d wait for a GSM version, but you get the point. It does give me a little hope that, if Palm ever manages to release Palm OS II, they may once again have some really nice products. And if I haven’t jumped on Android by then I might even try them.

First off, I failed to cover this a couple of weeks ago. On June 12th the Palm Centro became available on the Verizon network. As is usual with the Centro, the standard price is $99.99 with a 2-year contract. But through July 6th it is eligible for the above deal, a $50 rebate that drops it to $49.99. And Verizon is offering a $29.99/month ‘email and web’ plan for the Centro.

And now, as of Monday, Palm is selling an unlocked GSM Palm Centro for $299. It is more than the $99.99 you can get with a subsidy locked phone from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon, but those require a 2-year contract and only work on the purchase network. The unlocked GSM Centro has no contract requirements and it works on any GSM network, just stick in you SIM card.

And there’s more good news for all Centro owners. Google Mobile Maps has finally been updated for Palm OS, from 1.2.0.9 to 2.0.2.0 – including ‘My Location’. ‘My Location’ is a beta feature for Google Mobile Maps which uses the cellular network to estimate your location. It isn’t as accurate as GPS would be, but it can be pretty close. You can download it directly to your Centro by visiting http://m.google.com/gmm using the browser on the phone. Well, actually, I fibbed – it isn’t all Centro owners. My Location doesn’t work on the Sprint Centros – yet. Sprint users have to wait for a software update due this summer.

Actually, the update is available for all Palm OS Treo models as well. However, the ‘My Location’ feature only works on the Centro – for reasons yet to be explained. If you try to use it on a Treo, like my Treo 680, it tells you:

The My Location feature is not available for this device. It is available for Palm Centro phones.

Palm, and Google, claim that the issue is that the version of Palm OS on the Treo lacks the API’s required to support My Location. OK, well, I have an idea – update the blasted software to add the APIs! Is that really so hard? They’re doing it for the Sprint Centro!

Actually, it is worse than that. Reportedly the APIs are in the OS already, but they’re private so 3rd party developers like Google can’t access them. They’re used for the E911 location requirements for emergency services. So it would seem all Palm would have to do is make them public, as they are on the Centro.

I have a suspicion that it is really some stupid business decision to try to draw people to the Centro by giving it features the other models lack. Why do I suspect this? Because there is a freeware patch to GMM 1.2.0.9 for the GSM Treo 650 and 680 (sorry, not CDMA Treos nor the old Treo 600) which adds ‘My Location’ functionality! So, clearly, it isn’t a hardware issue on GSM Treos, and it isn’t even a big software issue if a 3rd party developer can hack together a patch! (It may well be possible for CDMA Treo’s as well, but the radio systems are different.) Even if the APIs used on the Centro are missing, it seems more like a convenient excuse. And, again, software can be updated. If Palm has any plans to do so it would be good customer relations to say so. At it stands it looks like they’re snubbing the users of their more expensive phones.

Things like this really make me less likely to stick by Palm, and more likely to jump to the first decent Android handset I can get. Heck, I’d even consider the iPhone now that it is 3G, if only they’d get it past 60GB storage so it could replace my iPod completely. And I’m not the only one upset by this, going by the comments on Palm’s blog. I’ll note that the moderate comments, so those comments are only those that Palm approved. And I know they haven’t approved all the comments they’ve received, because mine never appeared. Readers at Treonauts and Palm Infocenter are rather displeased as well.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive smartphone with a lot of capabilities, the Centro is the one I’d recommend. It has more features than many phones that cost far more. There are ‘feature phones’, which are a step down from smartphones, which cost more and don’t have as many features as the Centro, let alone the thousands of applications (many free) available for Palm OS. Palm could stand to improve their customer communications though.

SlingPlayer Mobile is currently available for Palm OS, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Windows Mobile Professional/PPC, and Symbian S60. Symbian UIQ is in beta now and will be out soon, and Blackberry support is in development, expected later this year. The license works for any of the SlingPlayer mobile platforms.

Disclaimer: I work for Sling Media.

Available on the AT&T and Sprint wireless networks (and expected on Verizon soon), the Centro joins the Palm Treo family of cell phones as a slimmer, sleeker entry, one we can more reasonably imagine carrying around as a phone for daily use. It’s a long time since the Motorola MicroTAC Elite seemed svelte, and too many smartphones err on the side of pretty chunky. By contrast, the Centro is narrow and easy to grip, similar in width to Motorola’s more recent offerings, such as the RAZR and ROKR.

The Keyboard’s Where it’s At — The only drawback to the Centro’s narrower design is that it sports the smallest keyboard Palm has yet offered on its handhelds. Having used a Palm Tungsten C for a while, I was used to the idea of teensy keys placed close together, but at a full inch wider than the Centro, the Tungsten has room for bigger, much more widely spaced keys. The difference is clear with sustained typing; only those with relatively small hands will be comfortable with much typing on the Centro. Even the extra fifth of an inch (about a half centimeter) of width on the Treo seems to make a difference in typing ease.

But, if you have relatively small hands or you’re dexterous with your big fingers, having a keyboard makes all the difference when composing email and text messages. I found that after a few minutes, I was pretty adept at punching out a few sentences at a time – also true with the iPhone, but even with the iPhone’s adaptive typing recognition, which guesses what you meant to type even if you miss every third letter, lots of users have said they prefer a real keyboard.

Purely Palm — Another key advantage for the Centro is its familiarity for those who’ve used Palm handhelds, often for many years or several models. Detractors say the gradually updated and incrementally refined user interface has fallen way behind, but I have to say that the Centro’s Palm OS offers a clean simplicity that shouldn’t be underestimated.

Anyone who used the original Palm user interface will immediately recognize it in what it’s evolved into; there are more icons on the Applications screen, but a few iterations ago, Palm made them sleeker and colorized them, as well as grouping them into (optional) categories for easy navigation.

As with other recent Palm handhelds, the Centro has an idiosyncratic relationship with Mac OS X, my platform of choice. The Palm Desktop software hasn’t been updated in years, but if you want to use it to manage syncing of your contacts, calendar, and other info between handheld and Mac, you can. Or, Palm’s HotSync software can now collaborate with iSync to allow users to stick with Apple’s Address Book and iCal. We suspect most Mac users will take this approach, especially if they don’t have a long-standing Palm habit.

The Centro includes a web browser and email client; neither is a spectacular example of its genre, but both are capable as handheld applications go. The web browser can display graphics but not much in the way of page layout; Palm web browsing hasn’t changed much in the several years it’s been around, though the Blazer browser is surprisingly adept at displaying Google Maps.

No Surprises — There’s not much else to say, if you’re familiar with using cell phones and you’re familiar with using Palm handhelds. (We suspect relatively few users are jumping on the Palm bandwagon for the first time by picking up a smartphone.) The audio quality is fine, the reception strength is reasonable even in fringe areas (easy to test in my basement, where the iPhone and my Verizon Wireless phone also have trouble), and the battery lasts one to three days of off-and-on use. (You’ll probably want to charge daily.)

What’s the best feature of the Palm Centro? I think it’s the ability to use the Palm OS version of SlingPlayer Mobile, the handheld version of Sling Media’s placeshifting video viewing software. With my Slingbox hooked to my TiVo, I was pleasantly surprised at how watchable both live TV and pre-recorded programs were. The delay in sending remote-control signals from the Centro to the TiVo via cellular connection wasn’t even significantly worse than using Sling’s desktop software via broadband.

Do You Want One? — There’s no question that the Centro is a capable phone, and a worthy successor to a decade of Palm handhelds. In a world with no iPhone, Palm’s Centro and Treo smartphones would be the clear alternative to the quirky Windows Mobile and the walled garden of RIM’s BlackBerry. But with Apple’s category-killer in the game, and an updated iPhone looming, the Centro will be most attractive to those with an attachment to the Palm way of life and those who just need a small dose of smartphone, i.e. those for whom the iPhone is overpriced overkill.

The Centro is most attractive of all right now, with a $50 rebate MegaZone noticed, making the phone effectively $49 instead of $99 through July 6th.

Additionally, through June 11th you can save up to 50% on select accessories and get a free Palm® Aces Texas Hold ‘em No Limit CD.

And if smartphones aren’t your thing and you still prefer standard PDAs, you can get a free Palm® Universal Wireless Keyboard with the purchase of a Palm® Tungsten™ E2 handheld.

The company’s four set-top boxes already provide place-shifted viewing to Windows computers and to Nokia’s palm-top N810 Internet appliance. Like the Slingbox PRO, Monsoon’s HAVA devices support multiple video sources connected at the same time, and their high-end units can stream to multiple viewers at once on a local network, though only one at a time over a broadband connection to the Internet.

Monsoon licensed new audio and video compression decoders from On2 Technologies, Inc. in order to implement the handheld client software; handhelds pose a significant challenge for receiving decent video quality thanks to low (and often unreliable) network bandwidth and low processing power compared to home computer setups.

A beta evaluation copy of the HAVA Mobile Player for Windows Mobile (including Palm Treo smartphones based on Redmond’s OS) is available now from the company’s web site.

I suppose if you have someone else who can use the Z22 it is a decent deal. But most people don’t need two PDAs for themselves. The T|X is Palm’s high-end PDA. It has a 320×480 65k color screen, 128MB memory, WiFi (802.11b), and Bluetooth. It also takes SD cards for additional storage. If I were in the market for a PDA, I’d probably buy the T|X. (I switched from PDAs to smartphones personally – my last PDA was the Sony Clie NZ-90, which ran Palm OS.)

The Z22 is Palm’s entry level model, the final evolution of what was their ‘Zire’ line. It has a 160×160 color screen, only 32MB memory, and no WiFi or Bluetooth. A pretty basic PDA, but if that’s all you need it is a good one.

Seems like Palm may be dropping the Z22 since their given them away with the T|X and supplies are limited. Could be clearing out remaining stock.

It is currently only available in ‘Glacier’ (aka white) with green keypad accents. But in about a month it will be offered in ‘Obsidian’ (aka black – but not the same black as Sprint’s ‘Onyx’ Centro). The official Palm Blog also touted the AT&T Centro launch, including all of the features and bundled applications.

There are also some new features the AT&T Centro will be sporting right out of the box including:

* XM Radio Mobile – Allows you to stream commercial free music from just about any genre (hip-hop, pop, jazz, country and more); all for $8.99 per month.
* MusicID (a personal favorite!) – Helps you identify unknown songs by simply holding your Centro smartphone up to a speaker – it’s a really cool way to figure out song information for tunes you aren’t familiar with (title, artist and cover art, if available, etc.); all for $3.99 per month.
* AT&T Mall – You can buy ringtones, wallpapers, and other multimedia content and download over the air to the device.
* Push to Talk (PTT) – Not really new to the AT&T Centro since it was recently made available on the Treo 680 Update 2.11 for AT&T, but new and cool enough to be worth mentioning again! PTT works like a walkie-talkie to talk to an individual or a group of up to 29. The app also includes “status” icons so you can tell which of your family and friends are available before you call. Users can purchase unlimited PTT minutes with Nationwide Plans for $9.99 per month per line and with FamilyTalk for $19.99 per month per group (two to five lines). Customers also can use PTT on a pay-per-use basis for $0.15 per minute.

Personally I’ll stick with my AT&T Treo 680 – same OS, most of the same features (I have the latest firmware) and not much bigger. So I don’t have a real incentive to jump to the Centro. (And, frankly, if I was thinking about it, I’d wait for the Obsidian version.) But I have played with the Sprint Centro and it is a nice phone. If you’re thinking about getting a smartphone, definitely give the Centro a look. Especially if you’re getting a new plan, since it is hard to beat at $99.99. I’ve tried WinMob and Symbian phones, but they haven’t won me over from good old Palm OS.

Though I am feeling the siren call of Android. We’ll have to see how those phones look when they finally ship, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far.

If you’re a Palm OS user on the Verizon network, it is certainly worth checking out. I wasn’t sure the 680 would be worth upgrading from my old 650, but the updated form factor really is a noticeable improvement. It has a better ‘hand feel’ than the older models. The 755p is a similar improvement on the older 700p, let alone the old 600.

A version for unlocked Treo 680s will be available soon. You can sign up for notificationp of the release.