[1] Looks like we were right on the money with yesterday's Palm Treo 500 story [2]. The company has finally let the cat out of the bag and the Treo 500v smartphone will indeed land on Vodafone's 3G network in Europe next month. As we reported yesterday, this little guy runs Windows Mobile 6, sports full QWERTY, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and 150MB of onboard memory. It also supports SMS, IM, full email and expansion via a MicroSD card slot. The Treo 500 will be available in two colors, the standard " charcoal black" and the oh-so-chic, iPod-esque "glacier white". What's more, Palm is hoping to give it away for free on most carriers (with contract, natch).

Though it may not look too exciting on the surface, the long-rumored Windows Mobile cousin of the Centro [3] represents a big departure for Palm. The device abandons most of the features that the company has long been known for (a touchscreen, Palm OS), in favor of a slew of new features (push email, multimedia support, 3G) that have proven popular in smartphones from competing manufacturers. This definitely looks like a solid alternative for the T-Mobile Dash/BlackJack crowd and will certainly offer a good value if it comes free with a contract. So how about a U.S. release, eh, Palm?

For more on the Palm Treo 500v:
- check out these full-sized photos [4] of both versions of the device
- and peep this article [5] from Pocket Lint