Palm announced their latest Treo today, and the folks at PalmAddict, Engadget Mobile and Phone Scoop wasted no time cutting into what they saw as missing features in the new PDA/phone. PalmAddict called Palm to task for not putting Wi-Fi into the gadget, which will run on Sprint's and Verizon's cellular EV-DO networks. Engadget and Phone Scoop said the Treo will support neither voice dialing over Bluetooth headsets nor Secure Digital cards larger than 2GB.

I asked Palm spokeswoman Jennifer Stryd-Donahue about these issues, and she said some different things than I was hearing elsewhere.

The Treo 700p does support existing, currently on the market 4GB Secure Digital cards with the FAT32 filesystem, she said. Some new cards will use the new SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) 2.0 standard starting later this summer, and the Treo won't be able to use those. But Palm has successfully tested existing 4GB cards using FAT32.

It's also "technically possible" for Palm or a third party to build a Wi-Fi card for the Treo 700p -- just because Palm isn't doing so, doesn't mean they can't do so. That leaves open hope that an enterprising company like Socket will build a Wi-Fi solution for this handheld. Of course, it also means you shouldn't count on Wi-Fi being an option if nobody's bothering to develop a card right now.

Finally, yes, there's no Bluetooth voice dialing, even with the third-party VoiceSignal software. That's just disappointing.

I still have high hopes for the 700p. It brings together the easy-to-use Palm OS with speedy EVDO networks and a good hunk of RAM, and the combination there might make for a very potent handheld. I can't wait to get it in to test.

Haven't tried HD Radio yet? No worries: all you need is an HD receiver and you're on your way to listening to crystal-clear, static-free receptions. RadioShack and the HD Digital Radio Alliance announced today that RadioShack stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and Washington, D.C., will sell the Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD.

The Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD offers a multiline display that shows song title, artist, station name and other broadcast data. It also features a clock alarm, remote control, a second speaker,  and memory tuning for programming up to 20 AM/FM stations.

In the Fall of 2006, RadioShack hopes to sell its own branded receivers.

If you want to know more about HD Radio, or would like to see a demonstration, then head over to RadioShack or online at RadioShack.com/HDradio.
   

RadioShack is the first major national retailer to sell HD Radio receivers; Tweeter, Crutchfield, and ABC Warehouse/Detroit were the first major retailers to sell them. More than 800 radio stations are currently broadcasting in HD. "Consumers listening to HD Digital Radio receive FM channels with near-CD quality sound, AM radio with FM-quality sound, brand new HD2 multicast channels and formats, and the transmission of additional information on the display device such as song titles, artist information, traffic alerts, stocks and sports scores."

Get the Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD for $299.99.

[via the press release]

Shiny Shiny is hosting a priceless video in which a London cabbie is mistake for British journalist Guy Kewney and interviewed live on BBC News. He gamely does his best to respond to the increasingly befuddled interviewer's questions about the Apple/Apple Corp. court case. It's cringily awful and kinda touching at the same time!

I hope someone tipped him well afterward...

Why should your Web cam be boring? The USB Foot Web Cam features an LED and microphone with a 360 degree rotatable camera head and USB 1.0/2.0 support. It's perfect for video conferencing and snapping still shots. It's compatible with ICQ, MSN, Skype, and others, and shoots up to 15 fps at 640x480 or 30fps at 320x240. It's also very portable, weighing just 0.23 pounds.

It only works with Windows 98/Me/2000/XP.

The USB Foot Web Cam sells for $22 on USBBrando.com.

[Found via iTech News Net]

Because everybody on the Web wants to speculate about an actual Apple cell phone after the deep disappointment that was the Motorola ROKR E1, there's a lot of buzz going on right now about a deal between Apple and Japanese conglomerate Softbank to produce a new phone.

But what jumps out at me in all of these stories from Gizmodo, Engadget, and Reuters is how the story doesn't live up to the headline. Let's look at the real facts here:

Apple and Softbank are working together to produce a phone which plays iTunes music.

Guess what? We already have two of those phones in the US: the ROKR and the Motorola SLVR L7. Neither are "iPhones," and there's absolutely no evidence that this one will be either. Rather, this will probably be the equivalent of a ROKR for the Japanese market: a JOKR?

Sure, it might have over-the-air downloading of iTunes music. That still doesn't make it an iPhone. It doesn't even make it an "iPod phone." It makes it a phone with an iTunes client with over-the-air downloading. Like a ROKR with a download link.

Let's also remember that phones developed for the Japanese market typically stay in Japan, never coming to any other country. And as Softbank owns a Japanese carrier, you can bet they're building this phone for themselves.

Nothing to see here. Let's move on.

In March Jen DeLeo posted about the Belkin Flip, a nice-looking (and that's unusual) KVM switch. KVM stands for keyboard, video, mouse, and the switches are handy for those who like to switch back and forth between PCs using the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse. This new version lets you do all that with a wireless remote, and the fewer wires, the better, I like to say. (Was I Joan Crawford in a past life?)

The remote works within 10 feet of your computers. The switch works on PCs and Macs, has a color LED that tells you which computer you're accessing, and will support up to 2048 x 1536 resolutions. The Flip Wireless will ship here in June and sell for $79.99.