Currently recording more ups and downs than Ron Jeremy’s buttocks, Palm’s share price continues to oscillate wildly as rumours of a takeover continue.
After the news broke that Palm had hired investment-banking firm Morgan Stanley to advise them about possible business strategies, analysts have speculated that Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and quite possibly the bloke in the corner shop might be looking to buy out the handheld company.
Although now owning a considerably smaller chunk of the smartphone market, Palm is still in profit, posting earnings expectations between $390 million and $395 million (a figure reduced from the original $430 million after shipping delays with its new Treo 750 smartphone.)
Fans of the old oft-flogged Amiga platform will probably find Palm’s curious business shenanigans somewhat familiar: in 2003 Palm was split into two separate companies, with one taking care of t’software and the other t’hardware.
In 2005, Access Systems forked out $324 million to acquire PalmSource – the folks who developed the Palm OS – while the second Palm spin-off company, PalmOne, renamed itself Palm Inc.
A few months ago Palm shelled out $44 million to Japan’s Access Systems for a perpetual license of the operating system used by Treo smartphones and PDAs, ensuring that current and future Palm handhelds remain compatible with Palm’s Garnet OS.
While all this faffing about with names, new logos and buyouts was going on, Palm’s popular Treo brand has come under increasing competition from technology packed smartphones from the big boys.
Although the Windows-based Treo 750 already looks to be doing well in Europe, the lack of wi-fi continues to mightily miff users and some have been looking at the Treo’s lardy lines and hinting that a crash diet could be in order.
China deal
Despite the speculation about its future, Palm has just announced that it’s launching the Palm Treo 680 through the world’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile Communications Corporation, expanding its operations in the country and establishing its first R&D and Operations Centre in Shanghai.
Treo 755p
Elsewhere, rumours are abounding of a follow up to the US-only Palm 700p , the Palm Treo 755p (the ‘p’ means it runs the Palm OS), previously codenamed Treo Sherlock.
According to leaked info, the 755p will be the first to support CDMA Treo with an internal antenna and come with EVDO, instant messaging, native voice dialling and be available in burgundy and blue.
Much as we heart the Treos, that doesn’t sound like an iPhone killa to us, but Palm fanboys are pinning their hopes on Palm co-founder Jeff Hawkins’s hints about having a “top-secret product in the wings.”
Talking to Business 2.0 a while ago, Hawkins hinted that something very special could be in the works: “One of the missions we have at Palm is to design breakout products. It’s hard, really hard, to do. Palm’s done it twice, you could argue, with the original Palm Pilot, and the Treo smartphone. We’ve got another one in development.”
The Palm platform has traditionally enjoyed a lot of support from Mac users who can perhaps relate to the platform’s status as a great working product that isn’t as well known as it should be (or maybe it’s because it’s simply not Windows?!).
All the messages are searchable and the program offers international language support.
Keen to maintain its position as the Dark Master Of All Things PMP, Archos have announced the latest addition to its Personal Media Player, the 704 Wi-Fi.
As befits its media player billing, this puppy can play a ton of video formats including MPEG-4, AVI, Divx and WMV video files, and MP3 and WMA audio files (with optional plug-ins for h.264, MPEG-2 MP@ML, and AAC support). There’s also support for PlaysForSure.
There’s been shots of the 
As of today, drivers using their mobile phone while driving in the UK will be hit with increased fines.
Having a ton of the latest technological gadgets bulging in your pants may give you a Noughties swagger, but you’ll be looking like a prize chump if the batteries go flat, so Solar Technology’s new Freeloader charger might help you keep your cool.
As the name suggests, this Strat-shaped guitar comes with a USB port, allowing aspiring six string warriors to plug into their laptops and access a host of cool effects.
There’s also a multi-track recording/editing function for laying down dual-guitar sonic attacks, delicately layered tracks or a Ronnie Spector wall of noise.
Not all the kids are feeling the digital love though, with 45 per cent of respondents spending but ne’er a bean on music.
When it comes to the real big spenders, the lucrative 20-24 year olds sector were flashing the most cash, with two thirds spending up to £10 a month on downloads, and 16 per cent spend from £10 to £20 a month.
Sony Ericsson in Japan is launching the snazzy new W51S phone which comes in a striking clamshell package.
The Organic Light Emitting Device (OLED) icons look rather dandy to our weary eyes, although work-shirkers probably won’t like not being able to see who’s actually calling before flipping open the phone and getting an irate boss on the line.
The W51S measures up at 105 × 48 × 19.3 mm, with talk time quoted at 210 minutes, with a standby time of 270 hours. For the security conscious, there’s also a feature letting users remotely lock and delete data on the handset over the web (Palm Treo users have been able to do this for years via excellent software like 
Sony Ericsson have let it be known via press invites that there’s a number of new handsets being released in Europe next Tuesday.