Let's face it, even non-Treo-owners are anxious to see what palmOne does next with the world's best-recieved smartphone. The Treo 600 put palmOne on the map as a smartphone vendor—at least in terms of features and quality, if not in sales . . .  at least in the United States.

But at the age of one year, the Treo 600 is getting a little long in the tooth, and if recent rumors prove correct, the wait for its sequel, the Treo 650, should end soon.

palmOne is expected to introduce the new smartphone on or about October 25th. The Treo 650 should then find its way to Verizon Wireless customers by mid November, with Sprint PCS subscribers getting their crack at the hybrid device a couple of weeks later.

Here's what we've heard so far about the Treo 650:

Although it should closely resemble the Treo 600 in size and outward design, with its QWERTY thumb-keyboard, upgrades and improvements abound on the Treo 650.

Treo 600's 160x160 pixel low-resolution screen—one of its weakest features—will give way to 320x320 pixel display in the Treo 650. This fourfold resolution increase will provide big-time benefits in document and Web-page readability.

The Treo 650 will also provide Bluetooth (a glaring omission in the current model), allowing owners of the new Treo to use wireless headsets, print to Bluetooth printers, and synch wirelessly to Bluetooth-enabled PCs-out of the box.

A swappable battery and a high-resolution 1.3-megapixel still/video camera are further Treo 650 upgrades. Finally, A faster 312MHz processor and newer Palm OS, Garnet 5.4 should provide a significant overall performance boost.

On the down side, we've heard that Treo 600 accessories will not work with the Treo 650. If true, this may hurt sales, as some folks looking to upgrade may be loath to lose their investment in peripherals.