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Put your rumormonger hats on with us for a moment, although the big reveal of what we're thinking is already clear from the headline.

1. As noted in the NYT article we referenced earlier, Palm Exec John Rubenstein cancelled some Treos not too long ago.
2. The Treo Pro looks nothing like the Treo 800w
3. The Treo Pro has a battery that's nothing like batteries Palm has used in the past. In fact, it looks an awful lot like the battery on the HTC Mogul. See a good image of the Treo Pro Battery here, and the HTC Mogul Battery here. They're not identical (the leads are in different places), but they're the same basic shape, mAh, and even have the same indentations.
4. The Treo Pro sports the HTC Task Manager on the Today Screen.

Palm hasn't said who actually manufactures (the ODM) the Treo Pro, but the question we're aiming for here is who was primarily responsible for the "Thoughtful Design of the Treo Pro?" Could it be that the Treo that Rubenstein cancelled was the original Treo 850? If he did, how did Palm design the Treo Pro so quickly afterwards?

Our guess, if you haven't gathered yet: there was must have been some collaboration on design between Palm and HTC. There are still Palm touches aplenty here -- the Centro keyboard, Ringer Switch, and WiFi button prove that. On the other hand, we have an HTC-esque power button, battery, and let's be honest here: HTC's been able to design the innards in such a way as to make thin phones in a way that Palm just hasn't.

So we kinda sorta a wee-little-bit suspect that, hardware-wise, the Treo Pro is Palm on the outside, HTC on the inside.

Crazy? Crazy like a fox.

Update: Yep, HTC is indeed the ODM for the Treo Pro [via]. Sounds like another piece of confirming evidence about the design of the Treo Pro. That leaves only one question hanging out there -- what exactly did Palm order 5 million of from Compal>

The wait for Windows Mobile 6.1 for the AT&T Tilt continues. We already know that it's coming soon, since we already reported that the download page is up, but it points to an already existing, Windows Mobile 6 ROM. Annoying

Good news is the wait is nearly over -- an anonymous tipster tells us that we can expect the 6.1 ROM for the Tilt to officially drop one week from today, on August 26th. In other words, quit spamming that "refresh" button and sit tight.

Another great story of why Windows Mobile is the platform of choice can be seen in a New Hampshire based company called Globe Manufacturing. Globe didn

Coinciding with the official announcement of the Treo Pro, The New York Times this morning published a piece on Palm CEO Ed Colligan and Executive Chairman John Rubinstein, who left Apple and was brought in to breathe life back into the once-floundering company.

Along with such (great) lines as “Everyone is trying to make an iPhone killer. We are trying to make a killer Palm product,” we get a quick look at Palm's strategy for the Treo Pro.

Writes Laura M. Holson:

Palm has begun to market its products differently at the behest of Mr. Colligan, who has a long history with Palm and its various antecedents and spinoffs. It is scrapping the use of numbers in product names, Mr. Keast said.

As has been apparent with the Centro, and which Holson acknowledges, this shift has been in place for some time now. While Palm has said from the get-go - OK, since this morning - the Treo Pro is a power user's device, and not nearly as consumer-oriented as the Centro. We haven't seen nearly the marketing push, at least not with the 800w, as Sprint put behind the Centro. And never mind that there's currently no U.S. carrier on board for the Treo Pro, and that it initially will be available unlocked for $549.

So it will be interesting to see the response - from Palm, the U.S. carriers and finally the customers - to what easily is the sexiest Treo in the lineup.

But Rubinstein admits there's still a long road ahead.

“One product isn’t going to make us successful,” he said. “It is a brick in the foundation. And each one has to be better than the last.”

Read Palm, Once a Leader, Seeks Path in Smartphone Jungle

If you can

Sure enough, as soon as we get around to buying a Motorola Q9h of our very own, the Boy Genius goes and springs this on us. Go figure.

Apparently there's now a silver-and-chrome version of the venerable slab floating around out there, with Windows Mobile 6.1 out of the box. (The rest of us mere peasants can get the lowdown on the manual upgrade here.) No word on any other goodies under the hood.

BGR doesn't (yet) have the deets on pricing or a release date, but we're willing to bet an AT&T employee is gonna squeal anytime now. Stay tuned.

T-Mo site CellPhoneSignal [via BGR] has tracked down dates to go along with T-Mobile's 3G rollout.

If the schedule, er, rings true, Baltimore and Houston should be online now, and Minneapolis should all be up and running by the end of the day.

Still to come by the end of September are:

• San Diego – Sept. 15
• Los Angeles – Sept. 16
• Phoenix – Sept. 16
• Sacramento – Sept. 17
• Portland – Sept. 18
• Seattle – Sept. 23
• San Francisco – Sept. 24

And these cities are scheduled for 3G service by the end of the year:

• Atlanta
• Birmingham
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Denver
• Detroit
• Kansas City
• Memphis
• Miami
• New England
• Orlando
• Philadelphia
• Tampa
• Washington, D.C.

Now all you have to do is snag a proper T-Mobile 3G-capable phone.

Not that this is a huge surprise exactly what with all the leaked info from the past, but it sure looks like Sprint is getting ready to launch this in September for $299.99 (after MIR; MSRP is $549.99).

Nothing too shocking here, though the mention of Sprint's much derided MMS alternative (PictureMail) seems to be supported, though we wonder if this is the big update we've all be awaiting? Probably not.

via EngadgetMobile