Here's a glimpse at the new palm phone

Palm's upcoming Treo Pro, the smartphone formerly assumed to be the Treo 850, has made an early appearance on the web - courtesy of the manufacturer itself.

Palm's Treo Pro: leaked

An inquisitive reader of the WMExperts online forum found a Treo Pro pre-release presentation on Palm's website. Palm's yanked it now, of course, but not before basic details and images of the handset got out onto the web.

It's being suggested the Pro is the GSM version of the CDMA-oriented 800w, a device you'd expect to be called the 850, if the past examples of the 700w and 750 are anything to go by.

Coming soon to Vodafone?

Certainly, there's nothing seen in the leak video to suggest the Pro is significantly more advanced than the 800w. If so, it'll have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR on board, along with 3G HSDPA and possibly HSUPA.

It's not hard to imagine it being offered initially through Vodafone, which currently offers the 750 as the 750v and has been for some years now.

The 800w's other specs include a 320 x 320 touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, GPS, two-megapixel camera, 265MB memory, Micro SDHC card slot and a micro USB connector for PC linkage.

Apple market capitalization tops Google

Apple (AAPL) eclipsed Dell’s market cap of US$71 billion in January 2006 and in intraday NASDAQ trading in June 2007 Apple’s market value doubled that of Dell’s (DELL), $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion. Take that Michael Dell!

Today our favorite Cupertino company achieved another financial milestone, passing the market cap of tech darling Google (GOOG). According to John Paczkowski’s piece at AllThingsD “Apple’s current market cap: $159.37 billion. Google’s: $157.56 billion.”

Take that Sergey and Brin!

Google phone

The New York Times is reporting that T-Mobile USA will be the first operator to offer a mobile phone based on Google's Android platform. The newspaper, citing sources briefed on the company's plans, said the phone will be HTC's Dream, and is anticipated to go on sale in the U.S. before Christmas and maybe as early as October. The release date of the device depends on how early the FCC certifies both the Google software and the HTC device. Executives at T-Mobile and Google hope to make an announcement by September so the two companies can make a splash for the holiday season.

The "unofficial" blog T-Mobile online reported earlier that T-Mobile would begin taking preorders for HTC's Android-based device on Sept. 17. T-Mobile executives declined to comment on the news, only saying it was on track to offer it in the fourth quarter. HTC, which is expected to be the only device maker to have an Android phone on the market this year, also declined to comment.

Earlier this week, HTC denied a report claiming it will be forced to delay its Android handset. Last week Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said that HTC was struggling to incorporate the Android feature set and the first Android phone--originally slated to debut in the fourth quarter--would not make its debut until after the first of the year. But HTC reiterates that it remains on schedule--moreover, a new video posted to YouTube purports to demonstrate the company's Android-based Dream device, which boasts a fold-out QWERTY keyboard as well as an orientation sensor that automatically flips the screen layout in tandem with the user's movements.

For more:
- read The New York Times

Be glad you didn't get an iphone.. still bugs

AT&T and Apple are reportedly working on a software fix to correct the iPhone 3G connection failures that users worldwide are rampantly complaining about. According to USA Today, citing anonymous sources, the problem lies with a faulty chipset provided by German chip company Infineon Technologies. Users are complaining about connection failures that typically happen when the device tries to move from AT&T's 3G network to the EDGE network. The software fix could be available next week via iTunes.

For more:
- see USA Today

Sony's Answer to YouTube

Don't know if you have seen this...
http://crackle.com/
it's a you tube clone from sony.

AT&T tells Congress it wants to track web surfing

Toss another log on the fire of Internet privacy and possible Congressional oversight. AT&T, in its response to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's recent request for information on the data broadband providers are collecting about their customers, said it hasn't really begun to test a system that tracks web surfers' travels, but it would like to.

AT&T, which said it was "carefully considering" tracking, did say it would employ an opt-in system for anyone involved rather than the opt-out approach some of the other ISPs that have responded say they use.

"If done properly ... overall behavioral targeted advertising could prove quite valuable to consumers and could dramatically improve their online experiences, while at the same time protecting their privacy," wrote an AT&T spokeswoman.

Congress started its inquiry after reports began to surface about ISPs tracking user web surfing habits for use in targeted advertising.

The committee sent letters to 33 companies asking for information about their own targeting practices. So far, 32 of the 33 companies contacted by the committee have responded (Check out all of their letters to the committee here).

For more:
See the PC Magazine story