We are going to change the way the news is reported on 247 from now on. Instead of a daily upload at 7am (UK time) every morning we will post the news and commentary as and when we write it. This will mean that some days 3 articles may appear and that on others 20 may appear.

This should not only mean more variety for you, but some more time for us to write full articles for the site. We have also increased the default number of items on the front page from 10 to 15, and this may increase further. If lots of articles are posted on one day, use the calendar on the left. Your thoughts on this change are of course welcome via the comments link.

expansys is now selling the Treo 680 for only £140.99- "Say hello to the Palm® Treo™ 680 smartphone. It's your phone along with email, messaging, and web access. Not to mention your contacts, calendar, photos, and songs. Sounds like a lot. And it is. But everything's so easy to learn that you'll actually use it, which makes it anything but a typical phone.

The same goes for design. Pick it up and you’ll notice a large colour touchscreen and an easy-type keyboard. Since the Treo 680 is just the right size, you have the freedom to take it anywhere and still be connected to friends, work, and family. Of course, there's also something called an "off" button, for when you don't want to be connected at all.

Phones—enjoy easy-to-use features such as multi-party conference calling and speakerphone."

Do you think of your smartphone as a PDA with a phone attached or a phone with a PDA attached? Is phone or PDA functionality the most important when deciding what to buy?

Having used the Asus EEE 701 for almost a year now, I discovered that Curry's were offering the Acer Aspire One for a bank holiday special price of £199 (512MB / 8GB Flash / Linux version) - that's £50 off- and, after spending a few minutes in the shop tinkering with it, I decided that the increased screen size made it a desirable upgrade to the EEE. My only particular qualm was the battery life, which has been reported in most reviews as being very poor indeed- around the two hour mark, and so I made sure to check the power requirements before purchase, and, I was pleased to discover that my Proporta Portable Laptop Battery, which I've had sitting in my drawer gathering dust for a long time now would power the device.

Why mention it? Well, the battery is expensive - at £100, it may almost be worth buying a UMPC with a longer battery life, such as the EEE900, if you wanted that particular unit. However, Proporta has a bank holiday sale of 15%, which makes a substantial saving on this item. Similarly, the battery is about the hardest thing to find on their site (I had to resort to Google to find it, even though I knew it existed, so ineffective was Proporta's search engine!), so, a link for those interested probably wouldn't go amiss: here.

Having had concerns in the past about power retention with the battery (after a charge, how quickly does it all die away, requiring a recharge), I was very pleased (okay - absolutely amazed) to discover that, after what must have been at least a year in the drawer, it had retained pretty much 100% charge! I plugged it it (using the Aspire's charger, of course) just to be sure, and, in less than 10 minutes, it was showing full capacity. I haven't completed a full discharge cycle yet to see if there is any degredation, but, I will be testing it thoroughly next weekend, with an eight + hour flight...

James (JK) Kendrick has written up some new thoughts about the current state of play with Palm- "Ryan Block has left the building.  Ryan is was the Editor-in-Chief at engadget and is leaving to start a new venture with Peter Rojas.  I won't wish them luck as they don't need it, anything those two do together will be a raging success.  The timing for Ryan's last day couldn't have been better as it was the anniversary of engadget's famous letter to Palm detailing how they could turn their doldrums around.  Ryan penned a one-year recap of those suggestions and does it look good?  Let's just say that Palm gets a negative score and move on.  The real question though- does Palm have enough left to move on?  I don't think so.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Palm, I'll admit that.  I still think their revolutionary Palm xv was one of the most ground-breaking gadgets ever produced.  It raised the bar for thin and light yet powerful PDAs and can even stand its ground today I'll bet.  I used the heck out of the one I owned and still remember it with fondness.  Unfortunately Palm really didn't do much after that until the introduction of the original Treo.  It was buggy for sure but it brought the smartphone into the mainstream and rejuvenated a stagnant market segment.  I never got one of those Treos because it was running the Palm OS which was aging and flagging even back then.  Palm seemed to have become unable to renew that old OS and it was highly evident to me with the original Treo..."

A new touch-screen phone from a mystery company has been detected on the internet by tech magazine, T3. The O1, as it is apparently called claims to be launching towards the end of next month and is reported to come with a 5 megapixel camera, 3G connection and a huge 32GB of internal memory.

There isn't any specifications on the website though, so it was not immediately clear where T3 got the technical specifications from - or at least it was initially. Checking who owns the domain name via a whois look-up, found that the technical contact for the website is an email address registered with Future Publishing - which just happens to be the publisher for the T3 magazine.

The use of the T3 website as a screenshot for the handset was also a bit of a giveaway that at the very least, there is some linkage between the two firms.

One of the most interesting aspects of the handset though - based on the image on the website - is the projection keyboard. The projection keyboard projects the image of a computer keyboard onto practically any flat surface. An infrared system senses the letters and numbers typed by the user. More at cellular-news.

PIC has posted a Treo Pro Unboxing and Video Preview which offers a good indication of what this new phone is really like. Expect a full review on 247 very soon...

"The Treo Pro arrived at the PalmInfocenter HQ today and I've put together a video first look. In the video preview, embedded after the break, I "unbox" the Treo Pro and go over the new retail packaging. In addition, I also take an initial look at the Treo Pro and compare it with a number of other recent devices."

WMExperts has also published an unboxing video of the Treo Pro- "Yep, we have the Treo Pro in-hand even as I write this. You can check out the video above, or better: head on over to TreoCentral for the “Big screen” version of the Video along with a gigantic Treo Pro photo gallery comparing the Treo Pro with the Treo 750, the Treo 800w, the Centro, the iPhone 3G, the BlackBerry Bold, the AT&T Tilt, the HTC Diamond and the Motorola Q9h..."

In the meantime, Clove has it available on pre-order for £386.58 which is a very good price compared to some other resellers.

"Whether you’re rehearsing a presentation over breakfast, making changes to a spreadsheet at the stadium, or checking email1 after a leisurely lunch, getting work done on the go is easy.

With on board phone functionality and contact database, you can look up a contact directly from the Treo Pro's today screen by entering just a few letters of their name. Then call, email, or text them right from the same screen.

The Treo Pro makes mobile messaging, so simple.  Windows mobile messaging features and the ability to conencto to messaging services aided by a front facing QWERTY keyboard makes text and data input is effortless and comfortable, typing messages of any length.

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition provides the familiar look and feel of Windows, plus mobile versions of applications you use every day. Download, view, and edit Word and Excel compatible files. Even review PDF and open ZIP files. And do it all with the ease of a touchscreen and a keyboard.

The large colour touchscreen on the Palm Treo Pro gives you one more way to access the applications you use most - great for checking email or opening your calendar. Just tap the screen to navigate without scrolling through menus."