Palm Centro

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--For individuals and traditional mobile phone users who want to stay connected with friends, family and co-workers, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) and Rogers Wireless today announced the Canadian launch of the popular Palm® Centro™ smartphone, available at Rogers Wireless, the country’s most reliable wireless network. The Centro is Palm’s smallest and lightest smartphone and has sold more than one million units worldwide.

“Traditional cell phone users are stepping up the Palm Centro in droves because of its cool design, full keyboard and ease of use,” said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, Inc. “More and more people need voice, text, email, web, contact and calendar capabilities all wrapped in one compact device so they can stay connected with everyone who is important to them. Centro delivers all that and more.”

Centro has a modern, stylish look that feels comfortable in the hand, and discreetly fits in a pocket or clutch. Centro helps users manage email and text messaging, keep track of their schedules, stay up-to-date on the latest news, capture and share pictures, and get maps and directions with Google™ Maps all in one small phone.Its full keyboard also makes it easy to quickly type text messages and emails with complete thoughts and ideas.

Kensington DisplayLink Dual Monitor Adapter

Kensington has been touting its DisplayLink Dual Monitor Adapter since before it even had a product to show off, but the company's now apparently finally gotten its act together and pushed the device out the door. Like similar devices, this one will let you add a second monitor with nothing more than a USB connection, or up to six monitors if you want to string a bunch of the adapters together. You still won't get more than a 1440 x 900 or 1280x 1024 resolution, however, but thanks to those recently released drivers, you will now be able to use it with Macs in addition to XP or Vista-based PCs. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the price has taken a bit of a jump since the company's initial estimates, with it now running $120 instead of the even $100 we were first promised.

HTC Touch Pro

Call it Raphael no longer! HTC has officially thrown the cover off its Touch Pro today -- the QWERTY slider sibling of the recently-unveiled Touch Diamond -- which should cover the bases for those who loved the Diamond's keen looks but decided they'd go our of their gourds without a full set of physical keys at their disposal. Under that glossy black shell lies WiFi, HSPA with a solid 7.2Mbps on the downstream, Bluetooth, 2.8-inch VGA display, Windows Mobile 6.1 featuring HTC's TouchFLO 3D interface, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a half gig of ROM, and 288MB of RAM. It's not going to win any "world's thinnest" records with an 18.05mm waistline, but those five rows of textual healing don't come without a price. The first batch of devices will be Europe-bound in "late summer" with 900 / 2100MHz 3G alongside the quadband GSM and EDGE; North and Latin American versions are promised for later in the year.

Android-powered phones are coming in 2008

Google denied a report Monday that phones using its Android software have been delayed to 2009.

The Street reported the delay, citing an unnamed source. But Google denied the report.

A view of Google's Android mobile-phone software.

A view of Google's Android mobile-phone software, demonstrated at Google I/O.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)

"We're still on track to announce Android-powered phones this year. Some of our partners are publicly stating that they plan to ship Android phones in the fourth quarter," Google said in a statement.

That's little surprise, given that Android leader Andy Rubin last week said phones using the soon-to-be-mostly-open-source software will be "available in the second half of this year" just last week at the Google I/O conference.

T-Mobile plans to ship an Android phone later in 2008, Chief Executive Hamid Akhavan said in February.

T-Mobile confirmed on Monday that its Android-based phone is still on track to arrive in the fourth quarter.

One source of possible Android confusion could be that although Google and various partners are collectively writing the Android software, Google isn't the only one supporting it.

Android software overseen by Google will appear in the first Android phones, but Android software overseen by partner Wind River Systems will appear in later models expected in the first quarter of 2009, said John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer of Linux seller and Android partner Wind River.

"They (Google) did the first phone. They carefully handheld it all the way through," Bruggeman said. "We've got the rest."

Wind River supports Linux in embedded computing devices but will support the full Android software "stack," which extends to higher-level software as well.

"When Android is open-sourced, we will support the entire stack," Bruggeman said. "We've ramped up our infrastructure. We are resourced to be able to support Android and not just Linux--the messaging and telephony and e-mail and browsing."

Eee-pc-901-1000-01-7-8/

We've seen the pictures, now the details. What you're looking at up there are the official specs and pricing for Asus' new Eee PC series. Up to 7.8-hours of battery (3.2-hours minimum!), 802.11n, Bluetooth, and 1.3 megapixel camera as we already knew. What's more, the 10.2-inch 1000-series features either a 40GB SSD on the Linux-based 1000 or 80GB traditional hard disk on the XP or Linux-based 1000H. Both ship with support a maximum of 2GB DDR2 memory. Interestingly, the long-lasting 6-cell battery is the only option shown in a what could be construed as a lesson learned following recent woes.

Now the price:

* Eee PC 901: NT$16,988 or about $559 (on sale now in Taiwan)
* Eee PC 1000(H): NT$18,988 or about $625
* Eee PC 1000: NT$19,988 or about $658

Let's wait for domestic pricing outside of Taiwan to see how these numbers will ultimately tally closer to home.

Update: Asus just made the Eee PC 901, 1000, and 1000(H) officially, official. Press images released.

SanDisk SDHC 32GB

The bits, they just keep coming -- now that 16GB SDHC cards are old hat, SanDisk's gone and upped the ante with these new 32GB cards. That matches Toshiba's record, but you won't be able to get your hands on one until April, when they ship for $349. A 16GB version and a new 8GB Ultra II SDHC Plus with flip-out USB connecter will also hit in March for $179 and $99, respectively -- but you know you want the big'un, don't lie.

Garmin nuvifone

We know, it's not like the nüvifone is a total surprise any longer, but just in case you tend to rest easier after digesting information straight from the source, here goes. Garmin's recently (and abruptly) announced handset obviously marks the firm's first solo foray into the cellphone arena, and according to Cliff Pemble, the firm's president and COO, it's the "breakthrough product that cellphone and GPS users around the world have been longing for." That being said, the unit will feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen with a trio of primary icons -- Call, Search and View Map -- along with an internet browser, HSDPA support and preloaded maps of North America and / or Eastern and Western Europe. Furthermore, it houses "millions" of POIs, doles out turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions and becomes Garmin's first device to include Google's local search capability. As for pricing and availability? We're looking at a Q3 2008 release, but we'll have to wait things out before finding out a price and who exactly will be carrying it. Check out the gallery below for shots of the device and its UI, and head on past the break for lots more dirt.