Palm Treo 680 to debut on December 8

In case one thinks that the Palm OS is dead, having seen Palm switch camps to Windows Mobile on its Treo 750v, that's not about to happen. It's announced that it will be shipping its latest Palm OS-powered cellular handheld, the Treo 680, to Asia come December 8. A company representative has confirmed that Singapore will be first among the Asia-Pacific countries to get the new PDA-phone, though no dates have been set for the rest of the region.

Expected to retail at an auspicious S$888 (US$632.97), the Treo 680 ought to bring some festive cheer with its four color options comprising graphite, copper, arctic, and crimson. Just too bad Palm is rolling out only the graphite version for the Singapore launch. The most significant cosmetic upgrade of the Treo 680 over its Treo 650 predecessor is probably the antenna, or lack of. The former will also feature 64MB of onboard memory (with SD/MMC expansion), a VGA camera, 320 x 320-pixel touchscreen display and Bluetooth.

Get our early impressions of the Treo 680 here.

RIM to unveil BlackBerry Pearl in Singapore

It's official. The BlackBerry Pearl will finally make its way to Asia. We've just received an invitation from Research In Motion (RIM) for the launch event in Singapore on November 30. There is no operator or pricing information for now, but we are expecting to get the full details in the official press release which will be given only at the event. So stay tuned for more updates.

The Pearl is the first BlackBerry handheld to offer an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera, music and video playback as well as expandable memory, on top of its heralded push-email capabilities. It was announced and launched in the US in September.

Read our full review of the Pearl here.

Apple iPhone launch? You bet

The hype surrounding the anticipation of the Apple iPhone has reached new heights, with sports betting site Bodog.com taking bets on the launch date of the elusive cellular handheld.

According to a blog posted on our sister site CNET.com, Bodog will be "using the money line system to gauge whether Apple will introduce the iPhone by the end of April 2007, or whether it will introduce the product at January's MacWorld conference".

Based on the odds given by Bodog, those betting on whether Steve Jobs will announce the iPhone at January's MacWorld will need to wager US$280 to win US$100, while those who think the cellular device will be launched by April 30, 2007, will have to bid US$150 to make US$100. A launch after that date or no launch will score US$110 on a US$100 bet.

Samsung's ladies clamshell, the SGH-E500

The Korean chaebol's latest addition to its collection of female-oriented handsets comes in the form of the luxurious-looking SGH-E500. According to the press release, the elegant design of the new clamshell is influenced by Botticelli's masterpiece, The Birth Of Venus. The phone features an external leather cover with swirl patterns and smooth edges.

Onboard functions are designed to cater to the female crowd. These include the Mobile Beauty Box function, an onboard application that allows users to project different hairstyles to their pictures, as well as Women's Life which helps keep track of bio-rhythm, calories and height-weight ratio. The external LCD display can also double as a mirror. Other features on this triband are a 1.3-megapixel camera, music player, Bluetooth stereo support and microSD card expansion slot. The SGH-E500 is retailing in Singapore for S$548 (US$390.62) with a two-year contract and S$648 (US$461.90) on its own. No word on its Asia availability for now.

Charge your phone on-the-go

Make haze while the sun shines? With the Indonesian fires still smoldering, it should inspire some of us to go eco-friendly with alternative sources of power, like the Scotty Solar Charger. Though at 5-7 hours of sunlight to fully charge (yielding 1 hour of talktime or 60 hours of standby), that's a lot of tan time. So best slap on some Banana Boat if you don't plan to fry. Otherwise, this is one of the smaller solar chargers we've seen that's portable enough to hook onto a belt or backpack. This Scotty distills the sun's energies into a pair of Ni-CD battery cells serving as a power reservoir, with the option to switch to two AA alkaline batts for more instant power transfers. A charging indicator at the back flashes more rapidly the fuller the batteries are charged. Just one gripe: From the images and specs, the adapters look ancient enough to charge that Palm V and Game Boy. So word to the wise: Do sound out Maplin on whether this Scotty's good enough to beam power into today's iPods and cellulars.

Click for what's in the box | rear of charger

Via Shiny Shiny

Price: 29.99 pounds (US$56.90)
Availability: At Maplin
Device: Portable solar charger
Basic specs: Includes 2x 600mAh Ni-CD rechargeable batteries, 20-year cell life, USB charger

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