You most certainly already knew that Palm’s newly announced OS, WebOS, was codenamed Nova prior to launch. If you didn’t then we invite you to stop by slightly more often and up your gadget cred a bit. What you probably didn’t know however, was that Palm’s knight in shining armor was codenamed Castle. How apropos. The fellas at Palm must have been so exhausted from making sure everything Pre-related happened on time that they forgot to update the copy in an automatically generated confirmation email. You know, kind of like how the BlackBerry Storm is still referred to as the BlackBerry Thunder in some OS files to this day. It’s okay Palm, you did a hell of a job keeping the wraps on your recent announcements and it’s safe to say both the Pre and WebOS are pretty widely acclaimed at this point. Get some rest and then see if you can’t get around to cleaning that up.

Thanks, Rob!

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Note to Bloomberg: When you make revisions to your prepared obituaries, don’t publish them. That might sound a bit obvious but in light of yesterday’s snafu we thought we might hammer the point home. That’s right people, Steve Jobs died for a few minutes yesterday – but only in the minds of those who read with shock as Jobs’ obituary crossed the wire from Bloomberg. As if Jobs’ health hasn’t been called into question enough this year. The miscue was quickly removed and Bloomberg issued a retraction: “An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.” One of the more interesting parts of the slip up was the inclusion of the reporting notes which detail contacts who should be reached for comment in the event of Jobs’ demise. Of course some were obvious such as Steve Wozniak, Al Gore and Guy Kawasaki. Then there were a few interesting choices tossed into the mix such as Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Jobs’ ex Heidi Roizen. The notes next to Roizen’s name read, “venture capitalist who once dated Jobs: [redacted] Heidi knows a lot of Silicon.” Hmm. Hit the jump to read the obituary in its entirety.

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Some things in life just can’t be explained. Bush’s presidency… Ryan Seacrest’s popularity… And the Philips X800. Sure it’s an iPhone designer impostor but plenty of manufacturers are going that route. The spec read out on this puppy is what confounds the mind and warrants a viciously loud “WTF!?”

• General: 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
• Display: Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors
• Size: 240 x 400 pixels (Wide QVGA), 2.9 inches
• Data: GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
• HSCSD: No
• EDGE: No
• 3G: No
• WLAN: No
• Bluetooth: v2.0 with A2DP

Ok, so GSM 850 is missing but we’re used to that. Ok, the touchscreen display is nice and big but only supports 256K colors. All that is WTF-able but it can be worked through. The real marvel here is the connectivity. No WLAN, no 3G and no EDGE! That’s right people, this sweet-looking handset is limited to GPRS Class 10 data with a whopping ~ 48 kbps cap. We also notice that a flash for the camera has been omitted, but perhaps Philips presumed no one would notice thanks to the rest of the specs. Supposedly there is a higher-end Xenium X-Connect model in the works that will resolve many of the connectivity issues facing the X800. If that’s the case, why even bother with this model? The look is high-end but the specs are emerging market; someone might just get fired over this.

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