Palm Centro 2 leaked, lacking QWERTY? (update: nope)

As good as it looks, we're not going to get too carried away with this supposedly leaked Centro 2 image. While the mockup certainly looks professional, there's no way of knowing at this point whether or not it's from Palm official or just the dream of a downcast fanboy. If true, then we're looking at a new, presumably QWERTY-less touchscreen device with what looks like an Opera (not Blazer) browser, dedicated media keys, and Bell Mobility Canada branding. A design which would certainly be "breakthrough" and "revolutionary" for Palm smartphones. Hit the read link for a bigger pic while we shake-down our sources for more input.

Update: Sigh, it was too good to last. Turns out that it's just a Photoshop project. Palm, do the right thing and hire this guy.

[Thanks, Robert and Joe F.]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2008 1:09PM]

Andrew just told me about this. I was part of the group that made up this ad. I was one of the main sources for the idea actually. I think at the time we assumed most people knew what the original Palm could do. Keeping lists isn't exactly the newest technological idea. A nice browser view of youtube is a little prettier than black and white lists of phone numbers, groceries, and things to do. So that explains that.

Also, that's my arm in the ad (some of you are mean, if you're keeping score at home, commentors 2, my self esteem 0). I wrote on my arm, partly because I thought we could get more marks, partly because it was partially my idea. We could have easily just used a piece of paper, but that wouldn't have shown as much commitment to the project. About the comments about the odd colours (from that spelling, I think you can guess I'm Canadian and just so you know I am indeed attending the University of Waterloo) of my arm; I believe that the permanent marker was dying on me after I finished writing on my hand, so colour adjustments had to be made in photoshop by Andrew. I assure you the colour of my entire arm is far more natural than it seems in the ad. PLEASE BELIEVE ME! PLEASE!

By the way, what makes Andrew's design work so amazing is that he was ridiculously tight on time. I still don't know how he got it done so quickly and so well. Palm or any company for that matter, are you listening, amazing results under tight deadlines. Can you say IDEAL WORKER?

Now, I'm not great with computers but throw me in a think tank and maybe I could spit out some better ads for Palm (or another company in need of some marketing assistance). Worse comes to worse you can use me like a blackboard, at least my left arm anyways.

P.S. Will someone protect me from GORF (August 11th, 6:35AM)? He evidently wants one of my hands.

[Robbie Hottie Posted Aug 14th 2008 5:43AM]

palm seriously needs to hire those guys. very very seriously. i would actually want that device! ...well... maybe. lol. lets just say i would prefer a second variation be available with just a slide-down numerical pad and T9. (i can type way faster and without looking on T9. Boo 2 QWERTY-mini's)