HTC handhelds get European colors

When the HTC Touch was launched in Europe, it came in two shades--black and green. When it arrived in our region, the company decided to make it available only in black. Its reason given was to concentrate on production volume before anything else, and that the green would be made available at a later date. Well, it seems the Taiwan-based company has made good on that promise, and the "Wasabi green" Touch will soon arrive. It will cost the same as the black Touch (S$848), and go on sale first in Singapore at the end of this week during the computer fair COMEX. It will then be available elsewhere in the region, though no specific dates for these have been given.

Also getting another shade is the Dopod U1000. This feature-packed handheld was released in silver here, but has been sold as the HTC Advantage in black all this time elsewhere. The black version will start to go on sale here as well at the same time as the green Touch. It will still retain the Dopod brand, and the silver version will remain in stores, too. Its retail price remains the same at S$1,998.

Is this the new Treo?

Gadget blog Gizmodo got its hands on some leaked press images of the Palm Centro. The image shows that the shape of the new device looks very much like the previous blurry pictures. The color and perspective make all the difference though, and this new photo portrays the Centro to be much more attractive than the earlier leak suggested.

The Sprint logo is in line with the report that it will have EVDO capabilities. This works only in a CDMA environment, which means the Asia-Pacific region won't see it here until Palm releases a GSM version. Supposedly just US$99 with a Sprint contract, it is targeted at the low-end market, for those who want the simplicity of Palm OS in their first PDA-phone.

When contacted, Palm told CNET Asia that it does not comment on future product line-ups.

Credit: UNEASYsilence (via Gizmodo)

More time needed for Palm's Foleo

If you were planning to camp out this week for the launch of the Palm Foleo, pick up the tent and go home.

Barron's Tech Trader Daily blog spotted a research note from Deutsche Bank's Jonathan Goldberg saying that Palm has delayed the launch of the Foleo, a Linux-based "mobile companion" that looks like a laptop but doesn't deliver anything close to a laptop experience. The device is now expected to ship in late September or early October, according to Goldberg. When Palm founder Jeff Hawkins unveiled the device in May at the D: All Things Digital conference, the company said it expected to launch it this summer.
Read more »

Dopod D810 successor appears Down Under

Users in Australia are the first to get the HTC P3600i, the successor to the HTC P3600, more commonly known as the Dopod D810 in this region. This PDA-phone has started appearing on Australian online stores, and some enthusiasts on message boards based there have already been discussing their purchases.

As was reported earlier, this new PDA-phone will come with more memory and a faster processor. It has a 500MHz Samsung chip and 256MB of ROM, though the RAM remains the same as the D810 at 64MB. ROM is used for storing applications and data, while RAM is temporary storage for running applications. Other features remain largely similar with HSDPA connectivity and built-in GPS. Its design is also similar to the D810, with the most obvious difference being the HTC logo rather than Dopod.

CNET Asia spoke to a HTC representative who confirmed that the P3600i is already available in Thailand, too. It will go on sale in Singapore at the end of August, but the company was unable to confirm its release for the rest of Asia Pacific at this point. No official pricing is available yet either. The Australian online stores list this model with prices just slightly past the A$1,000 (US$777) mark.

Thanks, Allan, for the tip.

Upcoming GPS PDA-phones from Asus

We have gotten word from Asus that new Windows Mobile handhelds will be coming soon. The two models that will be released at the end of the year are the P750 and P527.

The P750 is the successor of the P735 3G PDA-phone. This new version has connectivity options aplenty. This includes GPS and also HSDPA, a first for an Asus handheld. The company was unable to release photos of the device at this point, but an earlier report from the::unwired had a leaked photo, which revealed that this would have a keypad though the earlier P735 did not.

The other device coming is the P527. This is the follow-up model of the P526, and is also a GPS-enabled model with a numeric keypad. Details about its specifications are currently scant, but Asus did reveal that it will come with Travelog, a bundled application that lets users tag their journeys with photos and memos, as well as integrate with Google Earth so friends can track your travels. As with the P750, no images are available yet, but we will provide an update as soon as those come our way.

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