O2 Wins Exclusive on Pre in UK, Announcement in one week?

The Pre is expected to be announced in the UK very soon, with O2 as the carrier.  The first bit of news comes to us from T3 [via Engadget Mobile], who says that Palm themselves have confirmed that there will be an announcement from them in the UK next week - we're waiting on an official word from Palm on that subject.

As we speculated earlier this week, it does appear that O2 will be the exclusive carrier for the Palm Pre in the UK.  That latest from the Guardian, who also notes that they were "in fierce competition from Orange" for the Pre exclusivity deal. Carphone Warehouse is also expected to carry the device.

Pricing, release date, and more are unknown.  The biggest unknown -- how difficult will this Pre be to unlock and will Palm offer an unlocked version?

Thanks to Edwin and SharonW in our forums for the tip!