Palm introduces "friendly" Treo

Palm is hoping its new Treo 680 will be embraced by a far bigger crowd than the Wall Street and IT set.

Unveiling the latest addition to the Treo family at the DigitalLife trade show in New York, Palm CEO Ed Colligan spoke about the company's aim to reach beyond buyers who are typically associated with PDAs such as the Treo and RIM's BlackBerry.

Colligan described the new 680, a GSM quad-band device, as "a friendly and approachable product" that he hopes will expand Palm's scope into new demographics as well as new geographic regions throughout the world. And while the 680 has all of its earlier Treo brethren's aptitudes with business software, the new model is clearly aimed at a consumer market.

It's packed with new features and tie-ins to appeal to the more entertainment-oriented, media-savvy customer - an increasingly important target buyer for many gadget manufacturers these days. The Treo 680 comes with new picture and video software, and a camera with video recording capabilities. There's also Pocket Tunes software for listening to MP3s and the handset facilitates streaming audio, internet radio and podcasts.

Palm has partnered with several familiar media companies, such as Yahoo! and blogging company Six Apart, maker of TypePad. The audience at the DigitalLife press conference seemed to be most impressed by the tie-in with Google Maps' traffic mash-ups.

The new Treo is physically simpler than its bulkier predecessors. The external antenna has been eliminated and the skinny handset - just over 2cm thick - has a simpler button interface. It's got a smaller battery but Colligan assured naysayers that it will have the same battery life as earlier Treo models: two to four hours of talk time and 100 hours on standby. The location of the SIM card is different, too - it's now underneath the battery.

Colligan declined to provide specific pricing information but insisted the Treo 680 will be priced competitively for a handheld of its functionality and capability.

Caroline McCarthy writes for CNET News.com