The GSM version of Palm's Pre looks all set for a UK announcement next week on O2. Now we get this, a Pre spotted on the support site for Dutch carrier Hi in The Netherlands. Fine, but what you may not know is that O2 and Hi (part of KPN) are also deeply intertwined with Telefonica -- O2 being owned by Telefonica and KPN being an "integrated carrier" with a long history of Telefonica courtship rumors. So, putting two and two together might equal a September launch if that previous Telefonica rumor was true.

[Via Tweakers, thanks Harm H.]

Say what you will about Palm OS, but the idea of a new smartphone -- regardless of platform -- for under $200 unlocked is still a somewhat novel (and extremely attractive) concept. The Pre might be garnering 99.999 percent of the attention being thrown Palm's way these days, but the lil' ol' Centro -- the phone that helped popularize the concept of a low-end consumer smartphone and kept the money flowing at Palm headquarters just long enough to get webOS ready for launch -- is still on sale, and it's ready to make one last splash before riding off into the long-overdue technological sunset. Along with the previously available Glacier White, you can now help yourself to the unlocked GSM version of the device in your choice of Ruby Red or Cobalt Blue, a color that had previously launched in Latin America. For $199.99, it's a tough deal to beat; just be mentally prepared to get emulated into oblivion in a few weeks. Nothing personal, we promise.

[Via Palm Infocenter and TreoCentral]

The last time we saw the Pre's Classic Palm OS emulator in action, we had a few lingering questions in our mind, chief among them being how well can it game? From the looks of this latest video, released by Motion Apps to answer that very question, pretty well so far. In addition to confirming sound support for the latest build, we also get a brief glimpse of the software handling 3D driver GTS World Racer. Of course, seeing this makes us even more curious about the gaming potential for the native webOS, but alas, we're in the cold there. In the meantime, check out some classic 3D racing in the video after the break.

Longtime Palm fans are gonna want to lock the doors and turn down the lights -- our friends at PhoneScoop just got the first demo of Motion App's Classic Palm OS emulator for the Palm Pre. Palm OS apps can be installed by just dragging the .prc files over the Pre in mass storage mode, and they're run as though they were on an SD card. There's no tethered HotSync, although there's a compatibility mode of some kind and apps will be able to pull data down over the air. Check the video after the break, including a demo of ePocrates, which we know a lot of potential Pre owners are interested in.

Dedicated Palm OS users, it looks like your long, solitary walk through this world might not end in tragedy or violence. According to Dieter over at PreCentral, during a new video demo of the company's forthcoming phone, an icon of what appears to be an older Palm device with the label "Classic" below it can be seen within the webOS launcher. Since we know they've got a forthcoming announcement today at the Web 2.0 conference -- and we can be pretty sure Palm won't be dropping price or release date information without Sprint around -- it looks like this might be what all the fuss is about: support for legacy Palm OS apps in the new operating system. Of course, right now this is speculation mixed with hopefulness, but we should know in a few hours when Palm's SVP of application software and services Mike Abbott gives a keynote at the conference. Until then, just hold tight.

The arrival of webOS might be long overdue, but while Palm OS has certainly become a tad long in the tooth over the past few years, there's no overstating the importance of the OS -- particularly in its earliest incarnations -- in defining what a handheld and smartphone OS can and should be. Plus the incredible quantity of devices it spawned makes for quite the photo-op, as these folks discovered at a Hong Kong "farewell party" for the deprecated OS. There's a video after the break.

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Read - Pics thread 1
Read - Pics thread 2

This table pretty much speaks for itself as a snapshot of the year in smartphones that was 2008 (according to Gartner) -- a breakout year for the category particularly in the US. As you'd expect from the smartphone device tallies we saw yesterday, RIM and Apple have the momentum largely at the expense of Symbian's declining market share and the stagnation of Windows Mobile in an otherwise growing market segment. Palm's also a bit of a surprise showing 42.2% growth for the year. With any luck, Palm could turn this table upside down in 2009 with a successful global launch of WebOS. Regardless, you can bet that developers are paying particularly close attention to these numbers as they decide where to best align their resources for maximum financial gain.

When we saw those bizarre images of a Centro seemingly running webOS a few days ago, we declared that it could've been someone "hard at work on a webOS skin for Palm OS." Turns out that's exactly what was going on -- and after watching a video of just how thorough the makeover is, we're pretty blown away. Anyone either in love with the hardware of their Palm OS 5-based device or made physically ill by the thought of switching to Sprint to get the Pre might want to seriously consider TealOS' $14.95 asking price, because it'll get you quite a bit of the visual dazzle webOS promises -- cards (which don't appear to be live, but show you where you left off when you minimized), the wave launcher, translucent app menu, and more. Follow the break for the video of TealOS doing its thing.

[Via PreThinking, thanks Philip]

Not as exciting as an NES emulator, perhaps, but all the more useful, StyleTap's Palm OS emulator for the Symbian OS has finally been released, for real, for real -- if you rely on one of the 30,000-some apps that run on the OS (or all of them, for that matter) brace yourself for some righteous productivity. If that weren't enough, this bad boy includes enhanced display scaling, meaning that apps should look pretty good -- even scaled up to 320 x 320 resolution. And not only does StyleTap do the emulation thing, it handles most of your phone's hardware features -- including screen rotation. Are you totally psyched? We thought so.

[Via Symbian Guru]

Merely minutes after Palm shook up the mobile realm with the introduction of the pre, Sprint -- its exclusive launch partner -- has already hosted up a dedicated website for what will unquestionably be its flagship device. Currently, all the site offers is a way to get informed of when it'll be out, but that's all you really need at the moment, now isn't it?

[Thanks, MTW]

Bear in mind that this could be complete rubbish, but unconfirmed reports from "trusted sources" have reportedly stated that Palm's first Nova-based handset will tout a full QWERTY keyboard that slides down beneath a touchscreen (is your imagination running wild yet?). Moreover (and more importantly), the fresh operating system is being described as "amazing," and we're also told that "a ton" of software will be pre-loaded to provide multimedia playback as well as traditional functions such as calendar, email, and contacts. We can't help but say that we're pretty jazzed to hear positive vibes flowing just before CES really gets in gear, but we'll attempt to remain placid until something a touch more concrete is revealed.

Update: Ricky from MobileBurn wrote in to tell us that his sources are pegging the first device to be a Sprint exclusive -- for how long, no one knows -- and will feature a high-spec cam of some sort. It's all rumor and speculation at this point, but yeah, we're definitely still stoked.

Use a Palm phone? Like the idea of Nova? We hope so, because the company revealed in its earnings call yesterday that it'd be transitioning its entire lineup over to the new, homegrown platform, though it'll continue to market Windows Mobile-based devices like the Treo Pro to businesses. Speaking of the Treo Pro, Palm mentioned that it'd be bringing its top-of-the-line WinMo device to a US carrier this quarter -- we think we know which one -- but the big news is unquestionably Nova, which will be released on a range of all-new hardware starting in the first half of '09. It claims that carriers who've seen the platform are "universally excited" about it, which we suppose is a good start -- but the real trick, of course, is to get consumers universally excited about it as well.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Update: Sascha Seagan of PC Magazine wrote in to let us know that Nova's unveiling at CES wasn't actually confirmed on the call -- but in light of the buzz they've been drumming up, it seems certain that it'll happen. What Palm did reveal is that Nova is already in the hands of some of its development partners (anyone want to send us pictures?) and that traditional non-phone PDAs -- that is, the foundation upon which Palm was built -- will not continue to be developed as Nova comes into play. We still love the Palm V after all these years, don't you?