While both Verizon and Sprint users suffered considerably during the sixteen month saga of the Treo 700p’s OS issues, MR delays, and ROM updater woes, Verizon users had to suffer a bit longer than Sprint users while waiting for the bug-free version of the 1.10 ROM update to be released.

As a token of their appreciation for the Treo community’s patience, Palm and Verizon are offering an unpublicized but totally complimentary copy of the full version of excellent Astraware’s Sudoku game for download. This freebie is available only to Verizon Treo 700p users with a 700p pre-loaded with the 1.10 firmware or who have downloaded and installed the updated ROM. Presumably, 700p’s containing the earlier, flawed 1.10 ROM with the infamous “Error 3000 bug” would also qualify for this download. This special offer is effective immediately and is slated to run through April 30, 2008.

SudokuThis same Sudoku game was freely offered back in May to all Treo users who signed up for the MyPalm beta portal. That version, however, had an onerous registration and installation process. Unfortunately, both versions of the game must reside in precious main RAM and cannot be installed to an external expansion card. The game takes up 865kb of device memory when installed. This latest Sudoku giveaway can be seamlessly download and easily installed OTA (over the air) via Blazer and the PalmSource self-extracting installer.

For those users who have not taken the plunge, the 700p ROM update can be downloaded here. I would encourage all 700p owners to update their devices to the latest version of the maintenance release as it is perfectly stable and finally makes the 700p the device it should have been at launch.

Palm’s generous offer of a free copy of Astraware’s excellent Sudoku (probably the best Palm OS version in a crowded field of “me-too” Sudoku titles) really makes this a pleasant surprise from Palm to long-suffering Verizon 700p owners.

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