Radically redesigned Treos

John Chan | Jun 11, 2007

Making its rounds in the rumor mill are images of what seems to be Palm's latest Treos. Technology blog Morning Paper first posted a black-and-white image of the supposed new PDA-phone running Palm OS, followed by a blurry photo of a Windows Mobile (WM) version with a white chassis.

What little can be made out from the images seems to suggest that the white variant uses WM6 Standard. That is Microsoft's smart phone OS, made specifically for devices which do not have touchscreens. If true, this will make it a first for Palm, which has always used touch-sensitive displays for its PDAs and Treos.

The earlier image indicates that the Palm OS black "Gandolf", as it is codenamed, will come with a microSD slot and EVDO. This implies that it works in the CDMA network, which means that it is primarily for the US. There are very few other details, though Morning Paper does claim that Gandolf will be available sometime in Q4, and may possibly cost under US$200, with its main target the youth market.

Though there is no indication of a GSM version for the rumored Palm OS device, the white WM6 version bears the Vodafone badge and should therefore work support GSM network--if the buzz proves true. When contacted by CNET Asia, Palm declined to comment on the rumor.

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