Palm this afternoon gave American cellphone users an extra choice with an unlocked Palm Centro for the country. The cellphone can be used with any provider without software restrictions and is the first that can easily be used with T-Mobile. Despite the absence of a carrier, the phone still comes preloaded with Google Maps and (new to the Centro) a My Location feature that gets an approximate position lock without needing a subscription GPS service.

Minus carrier branding and with a slightly different color scheme, the unlocked model is largely identical to the AT&T version with a 1.3-megapixel camera, microSD storage, and data over EDGE networks. Palm is already selling the new Centro for $299 without the subsidies that apply to locked phones and will hand out the updated Google Maps software as a free download for all existing Centros as of tomorrow.