Jim Van nonchalantly tweeted that “The Palm Pre should be interesting…a bunch of us are getting models to do a final test this week…I’m psyched!”  It’s possible for Sprint to hand out the Palm Pre to beta testers for testing purposes, it’s pretty bold of this guy to blab about it.

Let’s think about this. If he indeed has a Palm Pre, he’s more than likely violating a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that would be STANDARD for any beta tester to sign before a product as valuable as the Palm Pre was handed over to “a bunch of us.” Who is Jim Van referring to here? I will bet anything that the NDA Pre beta testers sign has a clause requiring that the user may not admit having the device, let alone using it and revealing all of its features. This is assuming he has the device.

Yet there are reasons we can’t believe him. He has yet to post any photos of his device, proving that he indeed has a Pre, and intimate knowledge of the price, release date, and system itself.  As of yet, the only valuable information he has “leaked” has been a price of $299 on two-year contract, that it’s due out April 30th, and that data tethering works. He hasn’t shown any intimate knowledge of the device, how Synergy works, or any other unannounced feature that could signal that he does indeed possess the Palm Pre.

The writers here at MyPre, and SlashGear.com have a very long history of NDA’s with Apple and many other companies.  Risking a HUGE violation of his NDA would be grounds for recalling his device, and being blacklisted by Palm. By outing himself, spreading rumors, and advertising that he is using a beta device, he’s SCREAMING (like a moron) across the internet to Palm’s listening ears: “Hey, check it out. You know that contract I signed that said I wouldn’t say anything? Yeah, I don’t care.”  NDA’s are taken seriously by the professionals of the field. A professional doesn’t exploit the fact that he has a beta device by posting about it on the internet.

[Via PreThinking]

What follows are screen shots of his tweets before he locked his account.