Earlier this morning, Palm officially launched the Treo 500v, previously named as “Gandolf” in Internet rumors, for European Vodafone customers. (Note: The European Palm website has not yet been updated, however, Palm has issued the following press release at 6am, Eastern Time in the United States.) The new Treo will become available for sale this October, meaning Palm’s customers may still have to wait another 4-6 weeks.
The Palm press release reads:
“Palm Europe Ltd today announced the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 500v smartphone which combines multiple forms of communication and multimedia capabilities with high speed 3G/UMTS mobile internet access, allowing users access to popular websites such as MySpace, YouTube and eBay whilst on the move. The new Palm Treo 500v smartphone will initially be available exclusively to Vodafone customers from October.
The Palm Treo 500v smartphone runs on a Windows(R) Mobile(R) 6 standard platform and has a full keyboard, large screen, video streaming capability and a comprehensive multi-messaging functionality covering Instant Messaging, SMS, email and phone and personal information management software in a new design(1). The compact form factor is available in two colours: glacier white and charcoal grey.”
The press release goes on to list some of the features of the Treo 500v, including:
- All-in-one smartphone with messaging, email and web
- Full keyboard for fast and easy typing
- Automatic delivery of Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo!, and Gmail, email as it arrives
- Large, high-resolution screen
- Internet Explorer Mobile full-featured browser
- Access to Google Maps and eBay
- Vodafone live! for news, sports, and entertainment on the go
- 3G/UMTS network
- Planner with address book, calendar, to-do lists, and more
- View Microsoft(R) Word, Excel(R), PowerPoint(R), and Adobe PDF files
- Windows Media(R) Player Mobile for music and videos
- 2.0 megapixel camera captures video too
- 150MB of memory, expandable with microSD expansion card
- Windows Mobile(R) 6 Standard software
- Microsoft(R) Direct Push technology for delivery of Outlook(R) email
- Bluetooth(R) wireless technology
- Device available in two colours: glacier white and charcoal grey