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There will probably be lines outside of many Sprint stores, nationwide, awating the chance to be among the first to buy a Palm Pre smartphone on Saturday, June 6th.

But, there may also be people eagerly waiting for the alleged “iPhone-killer” at Best Buy stores. That’s because BB has announced that they’re selling the phone for $199 – with no silly rebate.

Sprint, Radio Shack and select Wal-Mart stores will be selling the Pre for $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate. That means you really pay $300 out-of-pocket — copy your sales slip, send it in with a form and wait for someone to send you a hundred dollar check. Not only is that rebate process a pain, but you actually pay slightly more sales tax that way. (Hey, $7-9 is still real money these days!)

I wouldn’t be surprised if Radio Shack and Wal-Mart follow Best Buy’s lead and drop the rebate.

Either way, we’re closing in on Palm Pre day and it’s sure to be a major news event whatever the price.

The information was posted on Sprint’s Website this morning.

Palm’s new iPhone killer – the Pre – will be available from Sprint beginning June 6th.

According to their press release, the Pre will sell for $199 with a 2-year service contract AFTER a $100 mail-in rebate. That means when you go to buy one you’ll have to pay $299 (plus any applicable sales tax) and wait to get your hundred bucks back.

The phone will actually be available at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and also online at Sprint.com.

It will be interesting to see if there are Apple iPhone-like lines outside Sprint stores on Saturday the 6th.

The timing is interesting. It’s just two days before the start of Apple’s 2009 WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in San Francisco where Pre could interfere with partisan discussions of the upcoming, third-generation iPhone.

But it’s not here yet.

Cupcake is the codename for the first major software update to T-Mobile’s G-1 smartphone based on Google’s Android operating system.

The rumors had it that we’d start seeing little “time to download” messages on our handsets late last week – but nothing came.

Smart money is on the downloads beginnig to reach G-1 owners sometime soon – probably just before Labor Day. It will take more than a week (maybe even into June) before every G-1 owner gets their chance to download the upgrade — which includes niceties such as stereo Bluetooth and an on-screen, software keyboard.

We’ll let you know what we think as soon as we’re allowed to see what goodies Cupcake will deliver.

The blogs are buzzing with secret snapshots of what is proported to be an updated BlackBerry Storm smartphone.

Crackberry.com seems to be the first to have a bunch of pictures of the redesigned touch-screen handset.  I know that because they put their logo on the photos.

From these pix it looks a lot like the current BlackBerry Storm except that the buttons right below the screen might now embedded in a touch-screen panel. 

You can also make out that it really is a brand new device – the protective plastic wrapper is still on the screen and it hadn’t been activated when the pictures were snapped.

We’ll have to wait for confirmation, though. Research in Motion, as always, never discusses new designs before they’re ready for release.

We’ve just gotten a sneak peek at the next generation Eee PC netbook and we think it’s beautiful.

Model 1008HA is a classy, slick little machine with very refined styling. It comes with the latest in wireless technology (802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1).

It’s also the first Eee to come with a non-removable, rechargeable battery – like Apple’s MacBook Air. (Wonder what happenes when you need a new battery, though?)

Nicknamed “Seashell” the 1008HA is no laughing matter. Reportedly priced just north of $400, this new thin, lightweight Eee looks and feels like a winner.

We hope to get our hands on a U.S. production model and put it through its paces (as we’ve done with every Eee so far) ASAP.

News reports today that after eight years of investigating, the European Union has ruled against Intel — and ordered them to pay $1.45 billion in fines for engaging in “illegal anticompetitive practices” against rival computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices.

According to the EU, Intel’s strategy of excluding AMD by paying computer manufacturers and retailers to avoid using AMD products — denying consumers a proper choice.

Intel says they will appeal the record-breaking ruiling. They better. The U.S. Government may also be on their case. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission opened a formal investigation of Intel.

And, this week, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division said U.S. regulators would begin an aggressive enforcement policy against companies that abused their marketplace dominance.

For the record, the EU is still busy dealing with their 2004 decision against Microsoft — as well as investigating Cisco (for network maintenance services), IBM (target of the EU in the 80’s) and Google (for dominating Web advertising).

According to published reports, Microsoft might be up to something really big.

The company has reportedly been selling bonds (for the first time) to raise cash. Some analysts say Microsoft is gathering between $3.5 and $4 billion to possibly restructure their own debt.

Then again, others think Microsoft is planning to purchase something else while stock prices are low. Maybe it’s a small down payment for a big company. Yahoo, perhaps?

And who is to say that they’re not planning to manufacture their own smartphone? According to some bloggers, Microsoft might be busy working on a Zune smartphone – combining their music player with their Windows Mobile software.

That’s a very crowded field – getting more crowded with each passing day. But, Microsoft has always had an amazing knack of getting into hardware markets way after everyone else has done so.

Combining Zune and Windows Mobile could be a good thing for Microsoft. They could merge two of their divisions into one and, who knows, they might come up with one heckuva device.

One request, let Zune owners use full-sized, uncompressed WAV music files. Currently that’s not permitted. Apple does allow uncompressed AIFF files for iPods and iPhones.

It looks like we’re going to have to wait a bit longer for the already long-awaited Garmin nuvifone. The release of their GPS-laden cell phones, made for Garmin by Eee PC experts Asus, is being pushed back to the second half of the year, acccording to The Mirror.

We got a first glimpse of a nuvifone “under glass” (they wouldn’t let anyone touch the prototype) back at CES in January, 2008 and the 3GSM show in Barcelona a month later.

Nearly a year later, at CES in January of 2009, we got to see a Linux-OS-based nuvi model in action. Those handsets worked well and looked very cool.

Hopefully, this new delay, from first to second-half of the year, will take weeks– not months. A Summer, 2009 nuvifone would be a lot better than Winter, 2009.

With GPS features now coming as standard equipment on other smartphones, Garmin needs to get their designs to market ASAP. The company has a lot riding on them. Everything, actually.

I wasn’t sure about this one at first. Not sure why anoyone might really need a device like this. But the more I think about it the more I believe this is a terrific idea.

Elgato’s Video Capture is simple and elegant. On one end there’s composite and S-video in (plus L & R channel audio) and the other end plugs into a Macintosh computer. It lets you hook up your DVD player, video camcorder or – dare I say: video cassette recorder or any analog video device and easily digitize the video.

It lets you transfer and transform your old analog stuff into iTunes-ready H.264 or MPEG-4 files. A great way to watch and archive your legacy videos.

Best part is – the kit sells for $99.95. It’s worth checking out.

It seems that everyone else is going to see a new Android-OS based smartphone before we do in the United States.

T-Mobile gave us the G-1 phone months ago but is mum on when we’ll see what I call the G-2 – a handset without the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Great Britain will see the new design first (via Vodafone) soon followed by Canada. Rogers Wireless has announced the launch of the HTC Dream (our G-1) and HTC Magic (the future G-2?) smartphones, the first cellphones in Canada powered by Android.

Rogers says the phones will be available beginning June 2nd. They aren’t saying much else promising details of the launch soon. Customers can sign up for more information on their Website.

T-Mobile’s 3G network works on different frequencies than 3G networks in other countries but HTC already makes the G-1 which runs on that network. We shouldn’t have to wait that much longer for some Magic.

In the meantime, current T-Mobile G-1 owners will soon be able to upgrade the Android OS with new features. Version 1.5, nicknamed Cupcake, should start automatically rolling out to customers by the end of the month. Unlike Apple’s iPhone (another Rogers Wireless Canadian product) the G-1 doesn’t need a computer to perform OS upgrades.