Last month Palm started listing the copper colored (orange really) edition of the new Treo 680 as "no longer available" on its Web site. Turns out the company's statement of the death of that particular color was greatly exaggerated; the Treo 680 is available once again in that hue.

Palm once again lists the unlocked edition of the Treo 680 as being available in all four original colors: Graphite (silver), Arctic (white), Crimson (red) and Copper. This smartphone is the first - and so far only - model Palm has shipped in several colors.

As much as I loved having a converged PDA and phone device with my XDA II Mini, ultimately, I always wanted a device that was a phone first and a PDA second. Until now, most (if not all) Windows Mobile PPC Phone Edition devices could be best described as a PDA first and a phone second. Well not any more. Enter the Palm Treo 750v.

Palm has been a leading player in the PDA market for many years with their Palm OS devices. Palm's Treo line of devices introduced the Palm OS to the world of converged smart phones. The Treo 750v is Palm's second foray into Windows Mobile territory, following on from the Treo 700w/wx.

The odds are pretty good that as a web worker you carry a PDA (or BlackBerry or iPod or some other small piece of expensive electronics). After the first few times of having it fall out of your shirt pocket or get scratched by your keys, you’ll realize that some sort of case is necessary. While there’s no shortage of choices (a Google search turns up tens of thousands of products in this category), the vast majority tend towards “stylish” in their design. There’s nothing wrong with style, but it may not be what you want if you’re the more active sort.

Two other products can help offer some protection for your electronics while simultaneously working in more industrial settings. If you’re the sort who routinely carries a multi-tool and a screwdriver as well as the PDA, try Duluth Trading’s Hold Everything Phone and Tool Pouch. It’s marketed for cel phones, but I’ve found that Duluth’s pouches are easily stretchy enough for the average PDA; I’m using one now for my own PocketPC. They offer good scratch protection and are reasonably priced. A good bet if you go in for the whole “Tim the Tool Man” personal esthetic.

Visual Arts is a new utility designed specifically for the Treo 680. It allows you to automatically change the wallpaper for the Main screen in the Phone application. You can set to change the picture each time you Launch the Phone application or set a timer to change. You just assign the picture folder and then Visual Arts will cycle thru all the pictures in the folder. You can also assign a sound for each tab in the phone app.

If you've ever wondered how it works, this is how it works: I don't call Steve, Steve calls me. Or more accurately, someone in Steve Jobs's office calls someone in my office—someone at a much higher pay grade —to say that he has something cool. I then fly to the metastasized strip mall called Cupertino, Calif. where Apple lives, sign some legal confidentiality stuff and am escorted to a conference room which contains Jobs, some associates, and some lumps concealed under some black towels. I stare at what was under the towels. Everybody else stares at me.

For years I have wanted an office suite on my Palm that uses the same file formats as Microsoft Office. My PDA cannot act as a laptop replacement unless I can create documents and e-mail them to clients in a format they can open, and accept attached files in standard Office formats and open and manipulate them. For years the main Palm-based technology promising this has been Documents-to-Go from DataViz (www.dataviz.com), and I bought my license to the Professional version years ago. Over the years, I would download and install every new version with great hope. And a few weeks later I would de-install it in equal disappointment after suffering disappearing documents, frequent crashes, and other problems that made it impossible to use.

Striking a better balance between work and play, taking more exercise and avoiding disastrous relationships top resolution lists around the world this New Year.

Global research group ACNielsen surveyed consumers in 46 countries and found from the United States to Vietnam that more than half of those interviewed wanted work to play a lesser role in their lives in 2007.

One in three U.S. consumers -- who have the highest rate of obesity in the developed world -- also planned to go on a diet.

NormSoft announce today that Pocket Tunes version 4.0 is released. New features include Internet Radio presets, AAC, album art and more. Current Pocket Tunes customers can upgrade their version starting at $12.95 with special upgrade pricing currently running.

Sharpcast today introduced a powerful new version of Sharpcast Photos mobile edition, delivering a completely new way to view entire photo collections on mobile phones, share desktop PC and web photos from anywhere, and get camera-phone photos automatically to a person's PC and the web where they can be enjoyed more easily. The new Sharpcast Photos mobile edition, available today as a free download at , gives consumers fast, fully automatic synchronization of their photos between their mobile phone or wireless PDA, all the PCs they use, and the web.

The two "needed" programs allow you to convert your DVDs into a format that can be viewed on your Treo. Both are freeware. (The sites accept donations, and we encourage you to support the developers.) You will not need any other software (decrypters) to do the job. There is a good chance that this method will work as well for Windows Mobile devices as for Palm OS devices. This tutorial is based on my experience with a Treo 650 & 700p, and I encourage anyone with a WM5 device to comment.

The only equipment you should have is an SD card reader. It makes transfer of larger files much easier, and I have heard that hotsyncing large files to your device with the Palm install tool does not work well.

Expanding its retail presence in New York, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced a new Palm® Retail Store, its largest store to date. Complete with Palm’s entire product portfolio of smartphones, handhelds, mobile managers and accessories, the store features live demonstrations and activations on three major U.S. carriers. The new flagship store, located in historic Rockefeller Center and facing Radio City Music Hall, is offering customers who purchase any Treo™ smartphone between Dec. 11 and Dec. 17 a free Palm Z22 handheld – the perfect stocking stuffer!