Note: Click on pic to enlarge.

All next week, as part of the launch of the Treo Pro in the UK, Palm Europe is doing a very hip event that feels almost Apple-like. Within The Truman Brewery on London's fashionable Brick Lane, Palm will have a pop-up gastro-pub named The Black Sheep. For five nights it will be the home (and stage) for mavericks, innovators and those that refuse to follow the herd. The underlying message here is that the Treo Pro is for those who want to "Be Different."

Interesting... Seems like sort of a twist on Apple's "Think Different" campaign (1997), which sought to capture the spirit of the original Macintosh launch - as witnessed in Apple's most famous "1984" Super Bowl ad.

Per the announcement distributed by Palm Europe last week (and posted by Phones Review of the UK), "slated to appear at The Black Sheep are: Piers Morgan former editor of News of the World and Daily Mirror, Karren Brady CEO of Birmingham City FC, synth-pop pioneers Human League giving a one off performance (on October 14), along with a primetime comedian and a Beijing Olympic gold medallist!"

Guests will also be invited to enjoy "a stunning two-course meal by Michelin starred chef Brett Graham, head chef at The Ledbury in London's Notting Hill, and have the opportunity to sample the new Palm smartphone."

Fun times. Since most of us won't be able to cross the pond to participate, we can do the next best thing - check out The Black Sheep website.

The GSM Association, a wireless communications group, has teamed with a digital content provider named Mofilm and announced the first Global Mobile Film Festival. That's right, Cannes for Thumbelina's TV.

The festival will be held during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February. Mofilm and the GSMA are calling for entries from filmmakers worldwide. The opportunity is for short films, up to five minutes running time, that are produced with traditional cinematic technology, or films made with mobile devices.

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I just read over at InformationWeek that Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz is leaving the company to start his own business with Facebook engineer Justin Rosenstein.

Dustin Moskowitz helped design Facebook, the popular social networking site. InformationWeek is reporting via Valleywag that Moskowitz plans to launch a software startup. Evidently CEO Mark Zuckerberg notified Facebook employees in an e-mail.

Rosenstein left Google in 2007 to join Facebook. Rosenstein said that the company did with 60 engineers what 600 other engineers could not pull off and was on the verge of "changing the world". Facebook has hired several former Google execs since then.

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I read an interesting article over at Big Tech (via Palm Infocenter) in which the author Jon Fortt talks about "Why Palm needs Android". Fortt talks about how things aren't going well for Palm lately as it gets 80% of its sales via the troubled U.S. market, and that Palm's Treo smartphone has given up market share to the popular BlackBerry. Plus Palm losing profits and their revenues dipping.

Fortt notes that Palm has been promising to launch its own new Linux-based platform which has been delayed, and that Palm already licenses and will contine to license Microsoft's WM for its corporated smartphones.

Fortt says that the smartphone world has changed a great deal since Palm started working on their new OS and that Palm might be better off scrapping the new OS plans and joining Google if Android turns out to be all it's cracked up to be.

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The rumor mongers are busy as usual, reading doom for the Treo 700wx into a "While supplies last" flag on Verizon's website. Your mileage might vary, but when I went to Verizon's pages just now to verify the report, I found it clean of any "EOL" indication. Sure, there's that $100 discount if you sign your life away for two years and agree to mortgage your cat to pay Verizon’s rates. But no While Supplies Last sticker.

This doesn't mean the 700wx isn't at the end of its run. Palm has new models to sell, and the new 800w from all accounts improves on the 700wx considerably. There's also the Treo Pro, just shipping, which moves much closer to today's cell phone must-have feature list. But take a look at Palm's website. The 700wx is still alive and well, and available for a mere $649.00. Maybe EOL, but if I bought one at that price I'd be furious if it had as short a model life left as the rumors are claiming.

EOL is business-speak for soon-to-be-discontinued or new-model-on-the-way. A cell phone model reaches End of Life quicker than anything in the known universe - usually much quicker than the 700wx, which has been around for much longer than most cell phone models. That's typical of Palm. I’m content to wait.

The conjecture, of course, is that the 700wx is to be replaced in Verizon's lineup with newer Windows Mobile Treos. Maybe so. There’s plenty of rumor on that issue, too. The big day is October 12, so say the rumors. This week. But why read my cynical take on it here? If Windows Mobile is your thing, cruise on over to our sister site, WMExperts.com and get your fill of 800w rumors, Verizon and otherwise.