Palm Shareholders Approve Elevation Partners Investment

Palm has just posted a press release indicating that the company shareholders have voted to approve the $325MM investment in Palm by Elevation Partners.

"Palm, Inc., (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced that Palm stockholders have approved proposals that will permit Palm to conclude a $325 million investment by Elevation Partners, L.P., borrow up to $400 million in an associated debt financing, make a cash distribution of $9.00 per share to Palm stockholders, and make related adjustments to its equity plans."

"We appreciate our stockholders' strong support of these proposals and look forward to an era of renewed innovation and focused execution at Palm," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer."

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this deal. Many Palm fans are hoping that this agreement will help put the company back on track with new and innovative products while avoiding the problems that plagued the recently canceled Foleo mobile companion.

Read the full Palm press release...

Palm Launches the Treo 500v on Vodafone

Earlier this morning, Palm officially launched the Treo 500v, previously named as "Gandolf" in Internet rumors, for European Vodafone customers. (Note: The European Palm website has not yet been updated, however, Palm has issued the following press release at 6am, Eastern Time in the United States.) The new Treo will become available for sale this October, meaning Palm's customers may still have to wait another 4-6 weeks.

The Palm press release reads:

"Palm Europe Ltd today announced the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 500v smartphone which combines multiple forms of communication and multimedia capabilities with high speed 3G/UMTS mobile internet access, allowing users access to popular websites such as MySpace, YouTube and eBay whilst on the move. The new Palm Treo 500v smartphone will initially be available exclusively to Vodafone customers from October.

The Palm Treo 500v smartphone runs on a Windows(R) Mobile(R) 6 standard platform and has a full keyboard, large screen, video streaming capability and a comprehensive multi-messaging functionality covering Instant Messaging, SMS, email and phone and personal information management software in a new design(1). The compact form factor is available in two colours: glacier white and charcoal grey."

The press release goes on to list some of the features of the Treo 500v, including:

• All-in-one smartphone with messaging, email and web
• Full keyboard for fast and easy typing
• Automatic delivery of Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo!, and Gmail, email as it arrives
• Large, high-resolution screen
• Internet Explorer Mobile full-featured browser
• Access to Google Maps and eBay
• Vodafone live! for news, sports, and entertainment on the go
• 3G/UMTS network
• Planner with address book, calendar, to-do lists, and more
• View Microsoft(R) Word, Excel(R), PowerPoint(R), and Adobe PDF files
• Windows Media(R) Player Mobile for music and videos
• 2.0 megapixel camera captures video too
• 150MB of memory, expandable with microSD expansion card
• Windows Mobile(R) 6 Standard software
• Microsoft(R) Direct Push technology for delivery of Outlook(R) email
• Bluetooth(R) wireless technology
• Device available in two colours: glacier white and charcoal grey

Read the complete Treo 500v press release...

NYPC PalmPilot Meeting Sept 5

NYPC PalmPilot SIG meetings are held the 1st Wednesday of the month and start at 6:30 PM. All user levels are welcome.

NYPC membership is not mandatory, but highly recommended to Palm SIG members.

Location: Meetings are held at NYPC's offices in the New Yorker/Ramada Hotel, 8th Avenue & 34th Street, Suite 551.

Directions: Take the A, E, or C trains to 34th Street.
(Map: http://tinyurl.com/yavrxj)

September 5th meeting: "Back to School"

Let's explore Palm as a lifestyle tool, to take care of your everyday tasks:

- How your Palm can enhance any document creation, be it blog entry or business proposal.
- Use memos for fast note taking, voicememo for a quick capture of ideas, and transfer to a Word file via docs-to-go for portability to a colleague's or your own PC.
- Make your Palm an asset in your IT tool bag.

See you on Wednesday!

Best,

Ted and Grace
===================
NYPC PalmPilot SIG
Grace Lee & Ted Cohn, Co-Chairs
email: nypcpalmpilot@gmail.com
URL: http://nypc.org/palm.php