Sprint are currently running a competition to win one of two Palm Pres, paired with a Touchstone charger and twelve months Simply Everything service.  Over in the My Pre forums member SharonW spotted that the competition end-date – May 18th – lines up nicely with the rumored Palm Pre launch announcement date tipped to show up in the Wall Street Journal. 

Meanwhile, the two winners themselves will be drawn on May 26th, which is leading some to suspect that the Pre might drop earlier than the June 7th rumor.  We still reckon a June launch is most likely, two weeks after these winners are discovered.

Gadgetell have gone one step further, meanwhile, and sifted through the Sprint competition rules along with their calculator.  Regulations say that Sprint must declare the value of the total prize package for tax reasons: the carrier claims each of the two winners will get a prize worth $1,800.  Assuming $69.99 for the Touchstone and $99 every month for a year for the Sprint Simply Everything plan (amounting to $1,188), that leaves the Pre worth $542.01.  Bear in mind the subsidized cost for regular buyers will be much lower.