The Internet rumor mill kicked into high gear this morning in regard to Hollywood. A temporary 'test engineer' supposedly working at Microsoft apparently took a few pictures of a working Treo Hollywood smartphone and posted additional specifications on the device at TreoCentral.

As you can see from the images - which certainly aren't the clearest in the world - the phone does look like a Treo, but without the signature antenna, as one would expect of a Hollywood smartphone. It also appears to be running Windows Mobile, not something Palm OS fans will be happy to see. But since Colligan has repeatedly emphasized the company's plans to support both platforms, however, if these pictures are real, then a Palm platform version most certainly will follow at some point.

As for specifications, the new rumor puts previous EV-DO and CDMA (Sprint/Verizon) carrier chitchat into doubt. According to the poster, Hollywood is a GSM phone with UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) 3G support that he saw tested on Cingular's high-speed network. UMTS achieves average data transfer speeds of 300 to 400 kbps.

Additional reported features include a 300 MHz processor, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and a 240 x 240 pixel resolution display; likely the same one as the Treo 700w. Square screens have become increasingly popular in PDAs and smartphones, especially with Pocket PC Phones.

One complaint users have had about the Treo 700w is that its square screen is a step down - at 240 x 240 pixels - from the Palm-based Treo 650's 320 x 320 pixel display. With the way Windows Mobile is set up, however, Palm would have to go straight to 480 x 480 and skip the Treo 650's resolution to achieve a higher resolution. It simply isn't ready to do that for a number resons, battery performance being one, we presume.

We'll report more on the smartphone code-named Hollywood as more information becomes available.

Update: As is well known, the rumored Hollywood smartphone originated in a Sagio Investments report last year; another one called Lowrider came out of the same report. Brighthand reports, according to its sources, the smartphone doesn't actually exist. At least in the sense that it is a completely new line separate from what is currently offered by Palm.

Rather, if what's been pictured and rumored is true, Hollywood is simply a thinner, 3G GSM variation on the Treo 700w for the European market. Sans antenna, of course; as Europeans are known to loathe protrusions from their mobile handsets.

Of course, today's report cast doubt on the existence of Lowrider as well. But then again, these are rumors we're talking about. And if the pictures in today's article are real, and the specification's are accurate, it doesn't matter whether or not the device is codenamed Hollywood or not, or a variation on the Treo 700w.

Either way, it appears Palm has a new, thinner, Windows Mobile-based Treo in the works. And it doesn't change Palm's commitment to announcing several more smartphones this year. It does make figuring out exactly what those smartphone more interesting, however.