Mobile Tech News -- Treo 680 Battery, Astraware and Symbian, and New Palm VP

Extended Battery Available for Treo 680

Braun0n's BatteryUpgrade.com is now offering a high capacity battery for the new Treo 680. This is a 2400 mAh battery, while the one that ships with this smartphone is 1200 mAh.

This battery is physically larger than the standard one, and therefore comes with a replacement battery cover.

It costs $51.80 with free shipping worldwide, and can be ordered now from BatteryUpgrade.com.

Astraware Planning Games for Symbian Smartphones

After years of only making games for Palm OS and Pocket PC, a note on Astraware's Team Blog indicates that this company will soon be branching out to Symbian-based devices.

The note, written by David Oakley, says, "We will be releasing a small number of games on the Symbian platforms next year." These will be for S60 and/or UIQ models.

Oakley did not say what titles it will be introducing.

Palm Names Senior Vice President, Marketing

Brodie C. Keast has joined Palm as its senior vice president, marketing. This means he is responsible for the company's product strategy and mobile-computing roadmap for consumers, mobile professionals, and businesses, as well as for marketing and brand-building aimed at expanding Palm's presence around the world and to a wider customer set.

Keast, 51, was formerly senior vice president and general manager of consumer electronics at Seagate Technology. Before that he held a variety of executive positions at TiVo, Inc.

Keast reports to Ed Colligan, Palm's president and CEO.