I normally don’t talk about the sales that Palm runs on their online store, but I’m going to make an exception here.

Palm is running an online sale until the end of the day on January 6, 2008. The sale items includes a new Palm TX handheld for $299 along with a free Palm hard case (valued at $40); and Palm’s ChatterEmail for $29.95 (regularly $39.95). According to the Palm software store details page, ChatterEmail was last updated on 12/17/07. No details have been posted on the website as to what has been changed or updated in the latest release of ChatterEmail.

Palm customers looking to upgrade their handheld (or add a spare one) should consider doing so now and get the free case. (Last month, Palm was offering a free IR wireless keyboard.) Customers who are looking for an upgrade from VersaMail to gain full support for the new Gmail IMAP feature or background email processing (as found in VersaMail 4.0 on the Palm Centro) will want to purchase ChatterEmail while it is still on sale.

The Palm TX promotion can be viewed here, while the Palm ChatterEmail savings can be found here.

With PalmGear gone, I’ve started purchasing software from Handango. If you are looking to purchase some software for your new, or not so new, Palm handheld or smartphone you can get 25% off your purchase if you use the codeword YEARENDSALE during check out.

This offer is good from now until the end of the year (2007).

Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings from your friends at Foleo Fanatics!

A friend of mine emailed me a Palm e-greeting card this week and I wanted to share it with my Foleo Fanatics readers.

As it turns out, there are four versions of Palm’s holiday wishes. There are e-cards featuring the Centro, Treo 680, Treo 750, and the Treo 755p.

Justin Nolan, the captain over at PDALive.com, sent me a note earlier today to let me know that PDALive.com is turning 8 years old! That is a major accomplishment, congratulations to Justin and the entire team over at PDALive.

To help celebrate, Justin is running a cool contest.

Well it has been another whole year. PDALive is turning 8 years old and to celebrate we are having a contest. We are giving away an Apple iPhone. All you need to do to enter the contest is post in this thread what you think we could do to improve PDALive. The contest is going to run through the end of the year. The contest is only open to actively participating PDALive members.

Also to celebrate we are offering 20% off all software in the PDALive Store all you need to do is enter the coupon code: pdalivewinter all one word. The discount is good through the end of the year also.

Thanks
Justin Nolan

Check out PDALive.com now…

An interesting article from today’s Wall Street Journal has appeared in a Yahoo Finance discussion forum discussing some of the changes that are taking place inside Palm. The one thing that I have learned recently about companies when private equity firms come in is that they like to run things “lean and mean.” That, I believe, is why people are in such a tailspin about the as yet confirmed global layoffs at Palm.

The Wall Street Journal article reads, in part:

“Mr. Rubinstein now faces numerous challenges at Palm. Last week, Palm warned it would miss estimates when it next reports earnings on Tuesday, sending its stock plunging. Yesterday, Palm made some reassignments and staff reductions.

Since it typically takes at least 18 months to develop new phones from scratch, it may take years for Mr. Rubinstein’s impact to show up. “With the business smart-phone market dominated by RIM and the personal smart-phone market dominated by Apple, it’s hard to say where Palm’s opportunity is,” says Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns & Co.

So far, Mr. Rubinstein — who heads all of Palm’s research, development and engineering — has kept mum about his plans. But people familiar with his thinking say he is focused on a new Linux-based software platform that would create one set of applications for all Palm products. He wants the platform, due out sometime next year, to be the basis for new phone formats, including possibly a 12-key phone.”

Read the full article here…

CNNMoney.com has an article posted today which provides, in my opinion, a sobering and accurate picture of the situation that Palm finds itself in.

“NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Palm Inc.’s (PALM) warning that a key new product will miss out on the holiday shopping season illustrates the string of bungles that has weighed on the smartphone maker.

The problems call into question Chief Executive Ed Colligan’s ability to effectively manage the company. It also brings up the possibility that the incoming directors from Elevation Partners – Jon Rubinstein, Fred Anderson and Roger McNamee – may take a bigger role in day-to-day operations than previously thought.

“I would not be surprised if they were to assume a more active role in the company’s management,” said Lawrence Harris, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “I would have to think they are concerned at this point.”

Under Colligan’s watch, which began in February 2005, Palm has suffered from several certification delays and an especially embarrassing product misfire in the Foleo. The problems underscore Palm’s tenuous position in the smartphone market as it gets overrun by larger, more dynamic rivals, such as the iPhone.

As a result, the Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of smartphones and PDAs has lost more than three-quarters of its market value over the past 20 months. The stock hit a bottom of $5.33 Friday, its lowest point in nearly four years, and recently traded at $5.63, down 14.6%. Its market cap is now about $600 million.”

Keep reading…

[Thanks to the anonymous tipster who sent this in.]

The Palm online store is running a special on Sudoku Deluxe on CD. Sudoku Deluxe normally sells for $19.99, however if you buy online now, you can use a mail in rebate for the purchase price.

Sudoku Deluxe works on many of Palm’s Treo smartphones and handheld PDAs. The Centro and the Treo 755p aren’t specifically listed, however, I would be very surprised if the software didn’t run just fine on those newer devices.

System Requirements:

• Palm® devices running PalmOS®’ 3.5 or higher with 2MB of free program memory.
• Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2000 or higher devices with 4MB of free program memory.
• PC with CDROM drive running Windows 98 or higher.

Visit http://www.filaomobile.com/ for complete list of compatible devices.

This looks like it can be a great stocking stuffer for your favorite Palm owner on your holiday shopping list. This offer is good until November 15, 2007.

More details, and the rebate form, can be found on Palm’s website…

I received an email from FileMaker, Inc today notifying me that FileMaker Mobile will be discontinued at the end of the 2007 calendar year. FileMaker has sited “technical innovations” of “Internet-enabled devices” such as the Apple iPhone that ship with sophisticated web browsers as being the main reason for Mobile being discontinued. The statement sent out by FileMaker, Inc reads:

“Why is FileMaker, Inc. discontinuing the sales and development of FileMaker Mobile 8?

Technological innovations and the availability of Internet-enabled devices are rapidly changing mobile computing. Apple has introduced the iPhone and FileMaker, Inc. has invested in several technologies to enable customers to publish live data to the Web, most recently PHP. For more information on FileMaker PHP technology, visit: http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/php.html

For offline use, a number of 3rd party solutions have emerged that help people move data back and forth between FileMaker Pro and mobile devices.

December 19, 2007 will be the last day to place an order for FileMaker Mobile 8.”

FileMaker has been working hard to move their application platform to the web, and FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Server 9 make putting FileMaker applications on the web even easier. So I’m not really surprised by this move. Further more, I’ve never been a big power user of FileMaker Mobile because I never really got the sense that FileMaker was really supporting the product from the beginning. For example, you couldn’t store a FileMaker Mobile database on a SD card, and it wasn’t until very late in the product cycle were you able to sync to a database that was being hosted on a FileMaker server.

FileMaker, Inc will stop selling FileMaker Mobile 8 at the close of business on December 19, 2007. Technical support for FileMaker Mobile 7 and 8 will continue on until June 18, 2008.

Additional information on alternative solutions and FileMaker Mobile can be found at: http://www.filemaker.com/support/fmm_eol.html