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Rumor: Best Buy trial of Palm Pre Jun 7

Phones / By /

Just a rumor, but it’s possible that in a month, you may see a limited # of Palm Pre units at Best Buys across the country. And they really mean limited – only 4500 units. Quite possible that some locations may only have 1 unit. That doesn’t seem to make sense to me at all, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.

The other part of the rumor is pricing: New customers with a 2-year contract, $199.99. Existing customer upgrades, $299.99. Outright, $999.99. Here’s hoping my Sprint phone upgrade credit of $150 still applies!

via BGR.

#CES09: Thoughts on the Palm Pre

3 Comments / CES, Phones, Portable / By /

Closely following Palm’s announcement of their brand new mobile handset, the Pre, and operating system (webOS), reaction was swift and unanimously exuberant. Palm has certainly hit this out of the park, and if the tech community’s reaction is any indication, this will certainly save the company for at least a little while to come.

My quick thoughts on the Pre and the OS:

  • the new webOS gets multitasking right
  • unified application for messaging (text, IM, Facebook, etc.) – Palm gets it
  • awesome that development for the platform is based solidly on ubiquitous, well-established technology (HTML, CSS & Javascript)
  • very sexy looking piece of hardware
  • love that they’ve retained the QWERTY keyboard and so maintain that link to their once solid Treo lifeline
  • disappointed that there’s no SD card slot
  • learned from Apple’s mistake of not including a user replaceable battery
  • hopefully they will upgrade the firmware quickly to enable video recording and Adobe Flash support.

One more cool photo for the road:

#CES09: Palm Announces Pre – raw specs

CES, Phones, Portable / By /

Here are the raw specs on the just announced, soon to be released cell phone handset from Palm. Stay tuned for another post on our thoughts on the product (hint: we love it!).

  • 3.1 inch HVGA (320x480px) capacitive multitouch touchscreen with gesture area
  • slide-out QWERTY keyboard
  • GPS
  • 3 Megapixel camera
  • 8GB internal memory
  • 802.11b/g Wifi
  • microUSB connector
  • user replaceable battery
  • new Web-centric Palm OS (named appropriately webOS) that offers true multitasking
  • integration of messaging (text, IM, Facebook, etc.) in 1 application without needing to switch between various apps
  • slide out QWERTY keyboard (yet still same weight as an iPhone)
  • development for apps uses HTML, CSS, & Javascript
  • curved shape (not perfectly flat)
  • Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
  • Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
  • Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective

Palm probably announcing new OS, Nova, at CES 2009

CES, Phones, Portable, Software / By /

Palm is set to announce their next generation OS, codenamed Nova, at CES in Las Vegas next month. They’re being a little cagey about the announcement, but all signs point to it happening.

This is a welcome update to Palm’s offerings, with Nova most likely going to be a Linux-based mobile OS, with a focus on Internet and Web applications. Naturally.

I don’t understand why so-called experts want Palm out of the OS business. I think their CEO has it right that having the OS and hardware strongly tied leads to a better product. For now. I’m a big fan of standardization; for example, the PC platform that runs Windows, Linux or Solaris (and now, practically MacOS). But we’re not there yet with smartphones. Android is a good first step in that direction, but it’s not here yet. Over time, Palm will probably switch to making Android work well on their hardware.

I welcome “Palm OS 2.0”. I’m a bit saddened that I may not be able to update my existing Treo to this OS, but excited that there will be a refresh of a cool mobile OS.

New Palm OS on its way

Phones, Portable, Software / By /

Sweet. Here’s the new Linux-based Palm OS from Access (they swallowed up Palm Source). It supports Linux apps (cool) and yes, it also supports classic Palm apps too (excellent).

Screenshot makes it look nice and bright compared to the current version, but I’ll bet that looks different on a Treo/Palm.

All kinds of PDFs on framework, security and development on the Access website.

Palm Centro now in sexy black

Gizmo of the Day, Phones / By /

Palm Centro

Now you can get your hands on a Palm Centro, aka the Treo 800p, the smallest Treo that Palm has put out yet in sexy black from at least AT&T and Sprint. It is approx 10-15% narrower, with a smaller screen, so this may appeal to you folks who don’t like the current Treos’ bulk. At US$100 (with rebates and a plan), now you can have your very own smartphone. Of course, with the ‘p’ at the end of the model #, this Treo will run PalmOS (Garnet for those of you keeping track).

So like other Treos, the Centro offers features like a built-in 1.3 Megapixel camera/camcorder, full qwerty keyboard, speakerphone, e-mail app, Bluetooth, memory card slot, EVDO broadband on Sprint, MP3 player, productivity apps like Documents to Go, and the PalmOS so you can run thousands of existing apps.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $99.99 with plan
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

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