LIVEdigitally

A robot that can scan 50 meters deep into the earth may have discovered the 18th-Century buried treasure on the Juan Fernadez island, home to Alexander Selkirk, who we all know as Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk, a Scottish adventurer inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe in 1729.

This little robot, named Arturito, which bears an odd sounding resemblance to R2D2, may be responsible for finding up to 10 billion dollars worth of booty (if the legends of Selkirk are true).

But what I really like about this story is the fact that it was a little robot that found it. Step aside Indian Jones, the next blockbuster movie about an adventurer is going to be about little Arturito, the robot that scanned the ground for treasure. It sure is an advancement from the $20 metal detector I ordered on Ebay when I was a kid.

So Microsoft and Palm finally confirmed a relationship of sorts – after a slew of rumors/spec leaks/photos, the existence of a Windows Mobile-powered Treo is official.

Scheduled for release early next year, yesterday’s press release tells us that Palm has licensed Windows Mobile for what will presumably be successive generations of its popular Treo. Aside from the PR-ese beating us over the head with hyper-positive jargon touting the plethora of wonderful features offered by the OS, the more interesting question is this: what’s the plan for the Palm OS?

Family history: back in 2003 Palm split into palmSource (software) and palmOne (hardware). PalmOne then officially became Palm again back in May when it bought the rights to the name from Palm Trademark Holding, created when the companies split. Japanese software company Access acquired palmSource earlier this month…and the future of the OS remains in limbo.

So I guess this announcement means that if/when I buy a smart device, it will likely be running Windows Mobile…I’m salivating at the thought of Sprint’s PPC-6700 (EV-DO!), but if Palm decides to get cozy with anyone besides Verizon, I’ll sit up and pay attention.