Quick, you ever heard of WiAV Solutions? You know, the owner or exclusive licensee of several vague patents on the use of GSM tech in smartphones? The company that doesn't make anything or even have a web site, but files so many patent lawsuits that some companies have taken to pre-emptively filing suits for declaratory judgment against it? Yeah, well, get used to the name -- it's just sued RIM, Apple and Palm for violating ten patents on things like detecting the difference between silence and voices, mobile device power management, and altering music to accommodate voices. WiAV wants a permanent injunction on the sale of all devices that allegedly contain its tech, and not surprisingly, it's asking for damages and attorney's fees as well. There are some procedural hurdles to jump through here -- WiAV is Mindspeed's exclusive licensee for eight of the patents, not the outright owner, so it has to ask the court to join Mindspeed as a plaintiff as well -- and it doesn't sound like any of the companies are talking just yet, so we wouldn't expect this one to get resolved any time soon.

[Thanks, Becky]

Read - AppleInsider post on the suit
Read - WiAV's complaint [Warning: PDF]

So Palm, what exactly have you been up to lately? Besides pumping out that tired, ho hum 800w, of course. The snoopers over at monoNews went and dug through your latest 10-K filing, and it seems as if that noteworthy Elevation Partners deal wasn't the only agreement you were wrapped up in during the past little while. As a matter of fact, we're seeing that during February of 2007, you "acquired the assets of two sole proprietorships [at a cost of $19.2 million] focused on mobile computing and media devices, one a developer of user interface environments and the other a developer of email software applications." Oh, and in October of last year, you "acquired substantially all of the assets [for $500,000] of a corporation focused on developing solutions to enhance the performance of web applications." Curiously, you nonchalantly failed to mention any names, but it's pretty clear that those new pick-ups weren't utilized in the last 16 months or so.

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of DayLife]

Baby steps. When it comes to Palm's mainstream businessphone line, that seems to be the name of the game, and the new Treo 800w is certainly no exception to the rule. So is it new enough, advanced enough, and badass enough to do the duty while still being sufficiently incremental to satisfy even the most easily-agitated suit? Engadget Mobile reveals all in the full review, so click on!

If you've been hemming and hawing about whether or not you should buy a Palm Treo 800w, perhaps a ton of photos of the device would help with your decision. Well today is your lucky day, as we've got the thing in our hands and wanted to share our good fortune with the world. Shoot on over to Engadget Mobile for a slew of pictures, and stay tuned for a review from us coming soon.

We're not sure if you check most mobile provider's sites every ten minutes or so (like we do), but if you did, you would have noticed that the latest Palm Windows Mobile device -- the Treo 800w -- is available for purchase at Sprint's online store. The phone, which features a 320 x 320 screen, EV-DO Rev. A, WiFi, and GPS, is currently listing for $249.99 after a $250 instant savings, $100 mail-in rebate, and two-year contract. So if you've been absolutely, positively dying to get your hands on this thing -- now's your chance.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Last we knew, a 436-page Treo 800w manual popped up from deep within the confines of Sprint. Fast forward a few days, and a few diehards are already trumpeting the receipt of their precious new Palm. Yep, that handset you see above is indeed the 800w, and if you care to ask some early adopters how things are going, feel free to hit the read link and surf on over to the forums.

Remember how we told you to expect some totally edge-of-your-seat, riveting price news in regard to Palm's Centro? Yeah, how's about $30 off? Presumably in conjunction with the iPhone 3G launch, AT&T has hacked the Palm Centro down to $70 after rebates (from $100) with a two-year agreement. There's no telling if the new price will sashay on over to those CDMA carriers or not, but we've got our fingers crossed real tight.

[Via Electronista]

Very rarely does a Palm handset go fully under the radar all the way through to the official announcement (if ever?), and now that we have a user's manual, we can pretty much declare the impending Treo 800w fully, completely, and utterly scooped. This is definitely the real deal, too, coming straight off Sprint's site -- not to say anyone would go to the trouble of faking their own -- and unveils no real surprises that we can see. The usual Windows Mobile 6.1 interface with Palm customizations, conservative styling (we're being generous there), and typical array of Sprint add-ons like Sprint TV are going to make this a safe, easy choice for the well-starched suit in your life, and that's about it. Not to say we have a problem with well-starched suits; Engadget corporate policy requires that we wear them at all times, actually. [Warning: PDF link]

[Thanks, Josh]

So we heard from a very reliable source that mobile user interface guru Matias Duarte -- who you may know as the man behind the Sidekick and Helio UI / user experiences -- actually left Helio late last year to join up with Palm. Although no announcement was made, we hear he and his gang of designers jumped ship (well before Helio completely flooded) to take on the monumental task of designing the UI for Palm's next-gen mobile OS (aka "Palm OS 2.0 or II"). His resume online now lists him as "Senior Director, Human Interface and User Experience" doing "Something new..." since September 2007; we got in touch with Palm, who confirmed that he's now under the company's employ.

Of course, expectations should be pretty high -- Palm's only been promising this supposedly game-changing OS since around 2004, and the company's reputation and pedigree is (or at least it used to be) in groundbreaking mobile UI design. But this news also kind of makes us wonder: if they didn't have a killer UI and user experience team already in place and long-since working their asses off by late 2007, exactly how far along are they on this thing, anyway?

Palm continued to flaunt its almost inexplicable boost in health in an earnings call yesterday. According to reports, honcho Ed Colligan boasted of a 29 percent gain in smartphone sales year-over-year, largely in part to the stellar performance of the company's budget-priced (with contract) Centro. In light of the recent negative outlook from investors, retail store closings, a constantly delayed OS update, and fierce competition, it's a pretty impressive feat to not only stay afloat, but manage some small victories. Now if they can just deliver on those OS and device promises we keep hearing about, they may stay in this game yet.

[Via Palm Infocenter]

So we've had blurry "Treo 800" pictures that turned out to be the Centro, others that turned out to be just about nothing, and now this one that is making the rounds in super-blur fast-mo. It's as if someone took a Centro, made the keys bigger, put a Sprint logo on there, and blurred out what appears to be a tester serial number. That's about all for now, but as usual we'll take this with a big grain of salt and make some rumor soup.

We first heard of Typhoon Touch Technologies back in December when the company sued Dell and Motion Computing for infringing two of its patents on touchscreen computers, and armed with favorable settlements from Motion Computing and Electrovaya, Typhoon's gone ahead and joined a host of other companies to the Dell suit. Roll call: would Apple, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG all report to Eastern District of Texas, please? Lunch will not be provided.

[Via iTWire]

We've seen the Centro in its Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon (to name a few) iterations, but global roamers and free agents of all sorts will be delighted to know that Palm's increasingly popular little smartphone is now available in a delicious unlocked GSM flavor. The device sports all the same specs as AT&T's model, but clocks in with a $299 price tag and plain gray numberpad instead of the telco version's shocking lime green variation. Alongside the carrier-free phone, Centros will also be nabbing a version of Google Maps with its "My Location" feature (long absent from GMaps on Palm phones). Current AT&T and Verizon customers as well as new unlocked owners will be able to download the app tomorrow, with a software update for Sprint later this Summer. Finally, you'll all know where you are.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

According to some slides unearthed over at TreoCentral, it looks like the Verizon Treo 700wx could be an unlikely candidate due for the Windows Mobile 6.0 (not 6.1) treatment. Usually carriers like Verizon won't bother upgrading devices as old as these with newer versions of their mobile OS -- partly to induce future handset purchases -- so we'll have to remain a touch skeptical until such time as the upgrade really does launch.