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While our pals over at Precentral.net at TreoCentral certainly see the lion's share of Palm news, let us not forget that Palm still has a strong Windows Mobile showing, most recently with the Treo Pro.

And with that we join with our Pre- and Treo-loving brethren as we congratulate Jon Rubinstein in becoming the new CEO of Palm, and also offer our thanks to Ed Colligan, who led the company for 16 years and the release of six Windows Mobile phones.

Rubenstein takes over on Friday. Colligan will take some time off, Palm said in a statement, then join Elevation Partners, which came to Palm's financial rescue in late 2008.

So to Colligan, we say thanks. Windows Mobile Treos are what brought many of us into the smartphone world. And to Rubenstein, we again offer our congratulations on a successful launch of the Pre, and we hope to see more for Windows Mobile in the months ahead.

We're not quite up on our Malay translation (and neither is Google, apparently), but what we see here is reported to be a silver Sony Ericsson Xperia X2. And while we're still dealing with Mr. Blurrycam, we're definitely digging this one over the other leaked pictures we've seen. They appear to keep the same style of keyboard, but the definition is more pronounced here.

You'll also notice Windows Mobile 6.5 on it. There are couple more shots after the break in which we learn WM6.5 build number (21419.5.0.20) and that the phone's powered by a Qualcomm MSM 7200 processor and there are at least 198MB of RAM available.

Now if only Sony Ericsson would come out and say something ...

jjlifeblog via dailymobile.se

The title says it all, folks. There are the T-Mobile-branded HTC Touch Pro 2 and Dash 3G (aka Snap). We still don't have an exact launch date for either, but the rumor mill has the Touch Pro 2 in mid- to late-July, and the Dash 3G in early July.

Via TmoNews

Remember the Samsung Code mentioned the other day? We'll forgive you if you don't. It was largely unremarkable. But now we have more details and a picture, so here goes. The specs:

• Full QWERTY keypad
• Jogwheel with 4-way navigation
• Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard Edition
• 2.0 MP Camera/camcorder with Flash
• Picture Messaging (MMS)
• Bluetooth® 2.0
• Office Mobile:
• CDMA 1XRTT 800/1900 MHZ EVDO Rev 0 Technology
• Flash/RAM: 128 MB
• Removable Memory: Supports up to 32 GB
• Talk Time: up to 6 hours
• Standby Time: up to 12.5 days
• Battery Type: Li Ion - 1480 mAh
• Size: 4.61" (H) x 2.3" (W) x? .54" (D)
• Screen size: 320 x 240px
• Weight:3.6 ounces

No word on pricing, but we still expect to see it on June 18.

U.S. Cellular via BGR

Marketing is a game. And Apple's Phil Schiller is one of the best. But we just can't let this one go.

As we were sifting through all of the (excellent) WWDC coverage at The iPhone Blog, we couldn't help but be struck by this slide in the keynote. It's a look at how many applications are currently available for different platforms in their respective app stores.

What? Palm only has 18 apps? OK, the app store for the Pre is all of four days old at this point. (Three days old at the time of the keynote.) And it's growing day by day. But that's still blatantly ignoring the thousands and thousands of Palm "classic" apps that will run in the Pre's emulator. Shenanigans.

And what's worse (to us, anyway): Windows Mobile isn't even mentioned. Sure, Microsoft hasn't yet launched its dedicated app store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile. But that doesn't mean there aren't stores from which to buy apps – ahem, here's one – and it's an insult to all of the developers of the 20,000 Windows Mobile applications available.

We're gonna climb off our soapbox now. Cause in the end, it's all part of the game. But we'll call it as we see it: It's out and out BS for Apple to play numbers like that (gasp!), and even more disappointing to see so many take the spoon into their mouths without question.

/rant

On my computer, you will find nary a sign of any Apple software as iTunes stopped being a "neat" app about, I dunno, 4 years ago.

But for those of you who still load that behemoth and want to sync with your trusty Kinoma Play on WinMo (see update), looks like your dream is now a reality due to some third-party freeware by Salling Software.

According to Kinoma, which is officially supporting this method, Salling Media Sync "...automatically identifies phones running Kinoma Play and syncs all the audio formats that Kinoma Play supports." 

The app is "free" for basic use but will cost ya' $22 beans for you heavy sync'ers and those wanting faster sync times (I'd imagine that would be everyone?).  Hey, if the Pre can do it, so can WinMo.  Hmph!

Update: Looks like Kinoma has rolled out a small update from previous v5.1.46 to v5.1.48.

Mostly looks like a "cleaning up" update after the big one just recently, as this tidies up some naming conventions, UI interaction, G-sensor adjustments and just general patches.  It also seems to be a bit speedier, though I still have to wait 2-4 seconds to go back to the launcher on my Treo Pro.  Hmm.

Other changes include:

• More Home shortcuts — The last released introduced a super-convenient shortcut that lets you go Home just by holding the Center key on your 5-way. Now, you can press-and-hold the Back button as well.
• Live365 — The “More” now works correctly for stations listings and presets, and we fixed an issue where audio scrobbling didn’t work for everyone.
• Facebook Media — We updated the terminology to match the current Facebook style (i.e. “What are you thinking?”).
• Get Apps — We improved the way screen shots appear on screen to make your eyes happier.
• Improved press-and-hold feedback — Now when you press-and-hold on lists and grids to bring up the menu pod, a nifty icon appears to show when you’ve pressed long enough. Didn’t mean to do that? Just drag the screen to continue doing what you were doing.

Get the update now via

Menu --> Player --> Check for Updates!

Look like some version of the HTC Snap is making its way to all four of the major U.S. carriers. We've already seen early looks of the the T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint versions. Now one with the 850MHz and 1900MHZ bands — and that means AT&T — has made its way through the FCC.

This variant of the Snap, the S522, in all likelihood also won't carry the Snap name. The Verizon version is rumored to to be the Ozone and T-Mo's is the Dash 3G. So any guesses as to what AT&T will call it?

FCC via Engadget

Dear Verizon,

Last November we published an open letter exhorting you to stop limiting GPS functionality on Windows Mobile handsets. Our arguments were quite good, if we do say so ourselves. The competition you're facing right now is tough in large part because those competing carriers have platforms with GPS that works freely with any app. It makes for a better customer experience on your network and (this is nearer to our hearts) on Windows Mobile. If you feel like you're hedging on GPS, we really suggest you go back and read it again. 

So naturally we were elated when we heard in December that you intended on unlocking standalone GPS for the Omnia, Saga, and Touch Pro in the first half of 2009. Sincerely, that's really great news. So consider this a friendly reminder: there are only a couple of months left in the "first half of 2009" (trust us, we've been paying attention to that date elsewhere).

How about it, big V? Are we going to see some ROM updates soon? Will the rumored May 11 date pan out? We're able to go with unofficial ROMS and GPS hacks, but we're really not happy about it.  We like being happy – it makes us better customers.

Love,

The WMExperts Team