Treo 800w official--but not yet for Asia

US operator Sprint has the Treo 800w for sale now. This is Palm's latest Windows Mobile phone and comes with GPS and Wi-Fi. Yes, you heard right, a Treo with W-Fi. Palm finally managed to put all the required wireless radios into one of its PDA-phones, years behind the competition. That's not going to matter to those who love the Treo keyboard and are used to the form factor, so we expect this new 800w to do all right.

Here's the bad news. Sprint uses a CDMA network, and the 800w that it's selling won't have the W-CDMA and GSM wireless radios we need here in Asia. If we know Palm, a GSM version should already be in the works. Those who want one here will just have to be patient for now. A similar model currently available here is the Samsung SGH-i780. Check that out if you haven't already.

Via Engadget

Is Google's iPhone app all that?

With so much fairy dust in the air over Apple's day-early release of the App Store and iTunes 7.7 (for Windows and Mac), it's easy to get caught up in the excitement. And we are excited. Being the intrepid reviewers we are, we're taking the unofficial iPhone 2.0 firmware for a ride to test out some of these apps. Be forewarned that the firmware has not yet been Apple-approved for wide release and cannot be vouched for.

More than 500 applications are already clustered in the App Store, many of them tiny apps and widgets that have been custom-built to run natively on the upgraded iPhone firmware. Most of these early entrants are nearly identical to the iPhone-optimized versions previously released by publishers to work with the iPhone Classic.

Google's app is a prime example. It opens with a blinking search bar and with the keypad already engaged. Like the optimized Web app version, suggested matches are displayed as the search begins; this time they are listed below the search field. Below the search space is a shortcut bar for seeing the array of Google apps, including Gmail, Maps, Docs, and Reader. These icons are themselves quick links for launching the Web-optimized versions of Gmail and clan.

The app does save a fraction of time in bypassing Safari's initial loading of the iPhone-optimized page and works without a hitch.

Via CNET Crave

Treasure hunt: Palm Treo 800w user guide unearthed on Sprint's site

You can run, but you can't hide, Palm. It appears that some enterprising individual has unearthed the user guide for the yet-to-be-announced Palm Treo 800w on Sprint's Web site yesterday. This news actually isn't a complete surprise as these rumors have been circulating the Web for a while now. However, this latest find makes the speculation all the more believable. The Treo 800w will reportedly run Windows Mobile 6.1 with support for EV-DO Rev. A, GPS and Wi-Fi, and a 320 x 320-pixel resolution touchscreen. No one seems to know the exact launch date, although Sunday, July 13, has been thrown around.
Here's a roundup of what's being said around the Internet:

Treonauts
WMExperts
Engadget Mobile
Phone Scoop
Boy Genius Report

Via CNET Crave

Tweak HTC's TouchFLO 3D

How do you know if your custom software is a hit? When people write other custom software for it. Over at Xda Developers, a member created the Diamond TF3D Config application which lets you rearrange the order of the HTC Touch Diamond's special Home screen. So if you have been irritated because you want your messages to be in the second tab before your contacts, this will fix that.

Besides that, it'll allow you to remove tabs. For example, if you'd rather not see the Internet tab there with shortcuts to the browser and Youtube, you can remove it. We tried it out on a test unit and the program worked as promised. But as with all third-party applications, especially with these kinds which change the way the manufacturer intends for the device to work, be extra careful. Always backup your data, and remember, you do it at your own risk.

Via WMExperts

Google Maps + Android + Golf = Golfzilla

They may be smart, but they are clueless when it comes to giving catchy names to their concepts.

Golfzilla? Godzilla playing golf? Yeah, I guess that's the reason some people get to keep their jobs helping these chaps come up with decent-sounding product names.

While we don't know when the first Android phone will be coming, there are already a whole bunch of developers writing software for the upcoming open source platform. We wrote about Enkin when Andy Rubin, the man heading Android at Google, was in Singapore last month. Enkin is basically an app written by a couple of college students that combines the use of the phone's camera with a GPS chip to provide a different experience in satellite navigation.

Golfzilla isn't that cool, but it lets you play golf on Google Maps with the option to select the country and the course. So instead of fancy 3D graphics, you are actually playing as if you were on the ground, but from a bird's eye view. The final release of Golfzilla is expected to be available at the end of 2008 and will support P2P battle mode using GTalk. That's pretty much in line with the expected launch of Android.

Picture credit: GClue

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