Mysterious Palm phone surfaces

See that blurry photo at right? No friends, it's not a UFO, it's a UPD--an Unidentified Palm Device. All sorts of rumors have been flying at CES about a forthcoming Windows Mobile 6 phone from Palm and they seem to suggest that we'll be hearing something from Sunnyvale soon. Here's what we know so far: the Boy Genius Report got their hands on a Vodafone 2008 roadmap (the same one that leaked the BlackBerry 8-series deets) and it describes a Palm device going by the codename of "Drucker," which sports quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, Windows Mobile 6.1, a full QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Supposedly, this is the new high-end device that would replace the aging Treo 750v and would arrive in July for around $530. Meanwhile, during his 12th and final CES keynote, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates briefly flashed the above image on the presentation screen, though he neglected to mention exactly what it was. Hmm...very interesting. At any rate, if these rumors prove correct, it would seem that my 2008 Palm predictions are true and that the company is moving away from Palm OS and toward the WinMo smartphone--in which case I would take us all out for ice cream sundaes.

For more on the mysterious phone:
- see this BGR article on the leaked slide
- and this Engadget article on the keynote photo