• pre,  rumors,  sprint

    Rumor: Palm Pre Set to Launch on June 7th

    May 11, 2009 /

    I just saw this over on BoyGeniusReport.com. If it is true, it looks like the Palm Pre will launch in just under a month on June 7th.

    “We’re prefacing this by saying we’re definitely not 100%, but it looks like Palm could be gearing up for a round of meetings that will lead up to the day we’ve all been waiting for — Palm Pre launch day. We just received what an anonymous tipster claims to be an internal Palm memo regarding some meetings that will take place in early June. According to the document, the meetings will conclude on Friday June 5th with what is labeled ‘LAUNCH LUNCH!'”

    Back in February I was predicting a lunch of the Pre on either May 17th or the 24th. More recently, though, we heard some rumors that Palm and Sprint might push back the launch of the Pre to ensure that there was sufficient inventory in the supply chain and that there may have been some early production problems on the Pre manufacturing line. (I can’t confirm either of those rumors.) At any rate, it looks like the Pre is go for June 7th. I really can’t wait to see how the Pre’s email stands up to the BlackBerry email system. I’ve been using a BlackBerry Curve 8330 since December and I have really become addicted to it’s virtually instanatious email delivery. Will the Pre cause me to dump my CrackBerry? We’ll soon find out.

    [Via BoyGeniusReport.com…]

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  • pre,  web os

    Bell Mobility Exclusive Carrier for Palm Pre

    May 6, 2009 /

    Palm and Bell Mobility in Canada have announced that Bell has been selected to be the exclusive carrier of Palm’s new Pre smartphone powered by Palm webOS. The Pre will be released in Canada during the second half of 2009.

    “We’re excited to bring Pre to Canada with Bell Mobility,” said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, Inc. “We’ve seen enormous interest from mobile operators worldwide and fully expect to continue to expand distribution for Pre, putting it within reach of more and more customers.”

    “Bell is excited to be only the second carrier in the world to announce the 3G Pre,” said Adel Bazerghi, senior vice president of Products for Bell Mobility. “With the unique user experience of the world’s first webOS phone, running on the country’s largest 3G network, we’re confident that Canadians will embrace Pre as the phone for their lives today.”

    You can read the full Palm press release, which includes the specifications for the Bell Mobility Pre, on the Palm website. Pricing for the Bell Pre was not announced today and the release date was only indicated as “in the second half of 2009.”

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  • pre,  rumors,  sprint

    Rumor: Sprint Still Toying with Pre Pricing

    May 4, 2009 /

    A recent article posted over on BoyGeniusReport.com suggests that the Sprint is still considering the pricing for Palm’s Pre smartphone.

    “Pricing is supposedly still being discussed but the probable points are as follows: New customers with a 2-year contract, $199.99. Existing customer upgrades, $299.99. Outright, $999.99. Yes, seriously.”

    Ouch! A thousand dollars to purchase a Palm Pre free and clear? Yikes!

    [Via BoyGeniousReport.com…]

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  • pre

    Palm’s Pre Gets Handled by Angelina Jolie

    April 20, 2009 /

    Dieter Bohn over at PreCentral.net is reporting that Angelina Jolie has been spending some “quality time” with Palm’s upcoming smart(er)phone, the Pre.

    “Being a Palm Pre blogger is tough, yo. One minute a tipster has you headed to your local shop to check out the latest Playboy for an article about the Pre, the next you’re hunting down pictures of Angelina Jolie. These are but some of the services we provide [at PreCentral.net].”

    Read the full article over at PreCentral.net…

    (Mr. Bohn states that the photo has been altered to add the Palm Pre.)

    This article reminds me of another celeb showing off her new Palm.


    (Claudia Schiffer and the Palm Vx special edition. This photo hasn’t been altered.)

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  • pre,  pugcast,  web os

    Palm webOS Video Gallery

    April 18, 2009 /

    Clemens Schuchert, the editor of PUGcast the Blog, has assembled a large collection of YouTube videos of the many various Palm Pre and webOS videos that have been posted to the service.

    The videos, which cover the Pre, webOS, and MotionApps Classic, have been assembled from a variety of sources including Palm’s 2009 CES unveiling of the Pre and webOS, media interviews with Palm and Elevation Partners, and MotionApps.

    Can’t get enough of the Pre and webOS? Make sure you checkout PUGcast the Blog.

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  • pre,  rumors,  web os

    Rumor: Pre Gets a Launch Date

    April 11, 2009 /

    PhoneNews.com claims that they have the inside track on the real release date for the new Palm Pre smartphone.

    “According to internal memos circulating within Sprint Retail Stores, Sprint has implemented a vacation freeze during the month of May for all front-end employees and has begun the process of employee training with the Palm Pre in preparation for one of two launch windows.

    The first window involves Sprint receiving retail units of the Pre around late April to early May in preparation for a preliminary May 17th launch.

    The second window involves Sprint receiving the same units in the aforementioned timeframe, but depending on the unit level received for stocking and sales, the launch would then be postponed to June 29th if the initial shipments are deemed too low to begin initial sales in May.”

    [Via PhoneNews.com…]

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  • pre,  rumors

    Rumor: Palm Pre Launch Date

    April 7, 2009 /

    ComputerWorld is reporting that an Everything Treo forum member has posted that Palm and Sprint could be launching the new Pre smartphone as early as April 15 or 16.

    “Reports circulated on a Palm Inc. user forum that the highly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone would be available on Tax Day, April 15, but a spokesman for the Pre’s wireless carrier would only say that the device would ship in the first half of the year.

    A posting by someone identified as “Inittowinit” on the Everything Treo forum claimed that a Sprint Nextel Corp. customer-service representative on Saturday said that the Pre would be available on April 15 or 16 and that it would cost $300 after discounts with a two-year agreement. However, the poster added that the April date seemed too early, given the absence of any Palm advertising for the new smartphone.”

    Read the full CW article…

    [Via GadgetsOnTheGo.net]

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  • pre,  sprint

    Palm’s Pre Smartphone in Sprint’s New TV Ad

    April 7, 2009 /

    Jimmie over at GadgetsOnTheGo.net posted the new Sprint ad, in which the Palm Pre makes an appearance, posted to his website.

    I kind of like this ad. I don’t know why, it just strikes me as being funny. Not the laughing-so-hard-you-fall-out-of-your-chair funny, but funny none the less. Ok, enough of this money business. Just check out the commercial and let’s hope that we will be able to get our hands on the Pre before the end of May.

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  • motionapps,  palm os,  pre,  web os

    More Details on Palm OS Emulation on webOS

    April 4, 2009 /

    Earlier this week Palm geeks everywhere where happy to learn that there would be third-party support for emulating Palm OS 5 on the new webOS platform thanks to the efforts of MotionApps.

    SlashGearTV.com has some footage from the CTIA Wireless show of the the Pre’s product manager showing off MotionApps’ Classic running on webOS.

    What I find really cool about this is that we can have our cake and eat it too. webOS is the much needed shot in the arm that is required to help reboot Palm and fling them back into the spotlight as an innovator in the mobile computing space. But who want’s to be out there in webOS with not of the great software that you have been using for the last decade? For me, old habbits die hard, and I want to be able to have my Handmark Astraware games and DataViz Passwords Plus.

    If you watch closely in the demo, you will learn that there is full 5-way nav support in Classic and Palm and Motion have worked together to ensure that the keyboard is fully integrated into the emulation environment. There was no word on whether or not you could continue to HotSync information and applications into Classic (my guess is no), but there was an icon called HotSync ID, which I’m guessing is a way to program your old Palm OS device’s HotSync ID into the Classic environment. When you mount the Pre in USB drive mode to your Mac or PC desktop computer, you will be able to copy Palm OS applications (.prc files) and databases (.pdb files) int the classic folder and they will become available in Classic.

    There was one other interesting morsel briefly mentioned in the demo. The person running the demo indicates that they worked with the developer of the popular medical package, epocrates, to come up with a new over the air (OTA) installer for the software. Holy smokes!! Sounds like MotionApps could be building in wireless support for Classic that might allow Classic to access the Pre’s cellular radio to get wireless Internet access for your old Palm OS applications. How cool is that?! Pretty cool, huh? MotionApps plans to release more details as we get closer to the release of webOS and the new Palm Pre. The Palm product manager for the Pre indicates that Palm wants to make sure that customers will have the ability to run all of their favorite Palm OS applications on day one when the Pre goes on sale for Sprint.

    For more details, keep checking the MotionApps website. Click the link below to watch the SlashGear video.

    http://vms.slashgear.tv/sgtv/sgtv_player.swf

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  • iphone,  pre,  web os

    Palm Working Hard to Position Pre As the Anti-iPhone

    April 4, 2009 /

    Palm and their Pre launch partner Sprint have been working to show the mobile phone industry, specifically, end users, that the new Palm Pre is everything that the Apple iPhone is and more when it comes to third-party applications.

    AppleInsider has an article of interest to Palm fans this morning.

    “While third-party apps are being trumpeted as the iPhone’s strength, key Palm Pre demos this week were designed to highlight their restrictions by taking advantage of those precise things that Apple won’t allow.

    At Sprint’s press lounge during the CTIA Wireless Association’s annual event, Palm stressed the advantages of the new webOS platform at the heart of the Pre by running presentations of carefully selected third-party software live on sample phones.

    Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Palm also underlined Apple’s refusal to permit interpreting code within third-party apps by showcasing an emulator that does just this. Mobile software developer MotionApps released an app known as Classic that, much as with Apple’s own Classic that was present in Mac OS X until Leopard, recreates the entire working environment for an older operating system. In the case of webOS, it lets Pre users run PalmOS apps near full speed and as just one of any other, native apps that can be running at the same time.”

    Palm really surprised us when they showed off the Palm Pre and it’s new mobile operating sytsem, webOS. webOS is the successor to the venerable Palm OS which has had a long service life over the last decade powering Palm’s original PDA product line and then making the jump to the company’s Treo and Centro smartphones.

    The Pre and webOS are considered a make or break product launch for Palm. The more I learn about this new hardware and software dymamic duo, the more excited I am to get my hands on the hardware and software.

    Read the full article on AppleInsider.com…

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