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Palm's software store accidentally posted images of two upcoming Treos headed to Cingular Wireless over the weekend. These pictures - since taken down - confirm the Treo 750 and Treo 680 are, indeed, on their way to the United States within the next few months.

As you can see, both Treos prominently display Cingular branding.

The Treo 680 (see top image) is the official name of Palm's long-promised low-cost Treo (formally code-named Nitro). This model, for the mass market, is supposed to be built on the Palm OS and have a VGA camera, 64 MB of RAM, 1200 mAh battery, and an SD slot. It should ship soon, with worldwide distribution slated over 20 operators before the end of 2006.

Vodafone introduced the first edition of Palm's latest high-end Treo, 750v, earlier this month. The smartphone is the first Palm to take advantage of GSM carrier's 3G/UMTS networks. In addition to the U.K., inaugural launch countries over the next several weeks will include Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, after which the operator-giant plans to expand deployment to other regions.

The quad-band 750v is Palm's sleekest looking and compact model yet - it weighs 5.4 ounces (154 grams) and measures 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.87 inches (111 x 58 x 22 millimeters) - mostly because the new smartphone looses the signature Treo antenna. Something Europeans, in particular, weren't very fond of.

The 750v runs on Windows Mobile 5.0, 300 MHz Samsung processor, and 128 MB of nonvolatile flash memory (60 MB user available). There's a square 240 x 240 pixel resolution touch display that supports over 65,000 colors. This is a lower resolution screen than the 320 x 320 type used in Palm OS Treos, but that's because Windows Mobile only handles that lower resolution.


images from Brighthand

A 1.3-megapixel camera for picture and video lets you take images up to 1280 x 1024 pixels in size with a 2x digital zoom. For audio, there's a microphone, speaker, a 2.5-mm headset jack, and Bluetooth with support for stereo headsets. There's also a miniSD expansion slot and a replaceable/rechargeable 1200 mAH lithium-ion battery that Palm says offers 4.5 hours of talk over a GSM connection and 10 days standby time.

Palm and Vodafone will ship the 750v with Microsoft's Messaging and Security Feature Pack (also known as AKU2), which includes Direct Push and data access to Exchange server, for free out of the box. This delivers push e-mail, calendar entries, contacts, and tasks; native S/MIME support, certificate-based authentication to all Exchange data; and remote and local device wipe.

As with previous Windows Mobile Treos, the 750v includes enhancements exclusively added by Palm and not available to other devices running Microsoft's wireless platform. These would include Today Screen improvements, such as the ability to "dial by name" with a few keystrokes on the keyboard, perform a web search directly from the Today Screen, and one-touch dialing with personalized photo speed dials.

The price will be free - with a data and extended service plan - to £212.77 (about $270) when the carrier-giant releases it at the end of the month.