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PalmOne accidentally posted a reference to the Tungsten E2 today on its Web site, before quickly taking it down.

This incident is the strongest indication yet that the follow-up to one of the most popular handhelds of recent years, the Tungsten E, could be imminent.

Brighthand says palmOne listed the Tungsten E2 just bellow the Tungsten T5 as a handheld that would ship with DataViz's mobile office suite Documents To Go v7 Professional Edition. The text for the device linked to a URL (http://www.palmone.com/us/products/handhelds/tungsten-e2/) that could turn out to be the Tungsten E2's product page.

While retailers often make this type of error, it is rare that a handheld vendor itself mistakenly lists one of its upcoming devices before it is ready.

Other devices rumored to be coming from palmOne this Spring include the Zire 73 and the LifeDrive. The company traditionally adheres to a Spring/Fall release schedule.

More on Tungsten E2
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) confirmed the Tungsten E2's existence in January, when it leaked photographs and pictures of the handheld on its Web site—as it is prone to do (to the chagrin of vendors) when approving a wireless device for use in the U.S.

According to recent rumors, the handheld has the same 32 MB of RAM as its predecessor. PalmOne improves on the earlier model's memory, however, by implementing the same on-volatile NVFS technology used in the 256 MB Tungsten T5 and 32 MB Treo 650.

This means all of a user's information won't disappear in the event of a complete power loss, making data much safer than with most other smartphones and PDAs.

Other purported Tungsten T2 features include enhanced battery life, a 200 MHz XScale processor (up from the 126 MHz in the Tungsten E) and Palm OS Garnet (5.4) like the earlier model.

The Tungsten E2 looks very similar to its predecessor in the pictures from the FCC Web site (see top image). Its display runs at the same 320 x 320 pixel resolution as the earlier model, but at 18-bit rather than 16-bit for a much larger palette of colors.

It also appears to have the same connector as palmOne's most recent mobile devices, the aforementioned Tungsten T5 and Treo 650. As a result, you should be able to use many of the same peripherals across all three models.

Support for Bluetooth specification 1.1 means you can connect the Tungsten E2 wirelessly to PCs, cell phones, smartphones, printers, and headsets. Although the Tungsten E2 most likely has a Secure Digital slot, it isn't known whether palmOne will make the device compatible with its Wi-Fi SD card.