The new-ness
is underway, and Palm just debuted its long(est) awaited all-new handset, the Palm Pre. The curvy touchscreen handset has a 3.1-inch 320 x 480 multitouch display, with a silver center button down below and touch sensitivity all down the face -- the lower part is for "gestures." A full QWERTY keyboard slides out from the phone in a portrait orientation, and you can flip the phone on its side for accelerometer-sensed widescreen browsing. The phone is running Palm's all-new
webOS platform, with TI's new OMAP CPU under the hood -- which Palm claims provides laptop-style power, and which juices the phones smooth transitions, scrolling and "deck of cards" app-switching. Other internal specs include EV-DO Rev. A, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP and 8GB of built-in flash storage. There's a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, mass storage-friendly microUSB plug and a good ol' 3.5mm headphone jack, but most exciting is the wireless charger -- a first for a mainstream phone. More shots are after the break, including a fancy FCC diagram depicting a removable battery. The phone is exclusive at launch for Sprint in the first half of 2009, no word on price just yet.
You can check out our other Pre coverage below:
Live from Palm's CES press conferencePalm Pre's wireless charger, the TouchstonePalm's Pre gets its own spot on Sprint's websitePalm Pre website now live with official images, videoPalm pre first hands-on with live updates!Palm stock on a rocket to recoveryThere will be a GSM-friendly 3G Palm Pre Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery
Galleries
Live from Palm's CES press conference
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Palm Pre official shots
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Palm Pre hands-on: hardware |
Palm pre first hands-on with live updates, part 2! |
More Palm Pre hands-on shots
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posted January 8th 2009 2:00PM
For anybody who has seen a video of the Pre demo during the Palm press conference, then you know how thorough and simple Palm has made this OS. Seriously, this should be considered art.
Although the Palm Pre looks pretty slick, until I can get a phone/PDA with opportunistic WiFi that doesn't require a Data Plan, I won't be getting one (I'm cheap and only want to use WiFi that's free). Not surprisingly, none of the the "locked" phones offer that. One has to spend ~$500 on an "unlocked" phone to get such a capability. Just can't do that in this day of disposable electronics...
Palm is BACK!
People need to stop coming up with this "iPhone Killer" crap! Its just not gonna happen. For example, how many times have we heard about an "iPod Killer"? Where is it?! I mean I haven't seen it! The Zune Zucked as they say, didn't even leave a scratch on the iPods 80% plus market share, Sony Walkman? when last did anyone hear of that doing anything major? Same thing with the phone industry, first the Google G1 was meant to be the iPhone killer, then the HTC Diamond and Touch HD, the Blackberry Storm, the Nokia N97, and now this. I mean how many iPhone killers are we gonna have exactly!? We need to stop jumping on bandwagons too early and wait for the product to actually hit the market, get it tested, before we can really make a valid statement on wether or not its a worthy challenger to the iPhones dominance. The only way to topple Apple is to come out with a product that is as revolutionary as the iPhone was when it first got released. Imitation will get you no where, because people will always prefer the original.
Check out my thoughts on the Pre:
http://zwadia.com/?p=70
Palm has a history of over promising and under delivering. I have purchased every Treo since 600 looking for Palm to make "it" work. My last Palm is the 755.
I am now searching for my "Post Palm."
The Palm Pre's processor the OMAP3430 has the Cortex8 Arm processor on the chip which has been known for running up to speeds of 1Ghz. :D
Now how about that Palm stock? My God... get in while the getting is good; investors (and speculators) are all over it.
I dunno sounds like a great phone but, you cant type in widescreen if u were web browsing, since it doenst support an on screen keyboard. everytime you would want to change url, u wuld hav to switch it to vertical angle and type it on the qwerty board, then switch it back to widescreen. for some ppl i geuss thatll be tedious, but i think for a phone that smooth and powerful, it's worth that draw back.
Considering that those of us who are running 64-bit applications can't really do a Sync with standard Palms and some Palm Phones, will this phone work with a 64-bit OS.
If not, it could kill this "iPhone killer".
It's like an iphone & blackberry all in one! :D
I exchanged my Palm Centro for a Blackjack II because the Centro, like the Pre, has a keyboard that is too small. I like Palm PDA's and was excited to see this, but they keyboard's still Fisher-Price size.
Try a netbook
I've used Treo handsets (Palm OS ones) since the Handspring 180, even though I knew in my heart of hearts that the 600, 650, and 680 have all been crap. Last month, I finally made the switch and went to a BlackBerry Curve, since which I've wished I had made the move a lot earlier. Now I can see myself going back to Palm...
Wow, this is the first phone since the iPhone that has caught my attention and actually doesn't suck.
Btw, I like Palm's references to Arrested Development on the photo showing the contact list. They even mentioned the Blueman Group.
hurray for sprint upgrade!!♠
why why why ???? do you iphone users feel like you will forever have the market to yourselves as far as the best phone out there. Time brings about better products and change ok!!! I phone killer this and that who cares lol. But I will say this if this pre lives up to expectations and so happen those expectations make this a as you say an iphone killer lol so what ok. You iphone users are like a bunch of spoiled brats and just for this reason alone and only this reason I hope the palm pre finally blow the iphone out of the water and across to china lol. Then to top that I hope this phone is so good that it will make the iphone users so envious with rage when they realalize that it will only be offerd by SPRINT!!!!!! THEN WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THIS PHONE IS THE HOTTEST AND BEST THING AROUND WHEN IT COMES OUT!!! Remember it was just a few years when apple had the same fan fare ok~!!! What goes around comes around bet that!!!!
Kind of feel like an iRant killer about now...
This may give me a reason to switch back to Sprint...
I am a loyal T-Mobile customer in the USA.
I like the iPhone.
I hate AT&T.
I hate the G1.
I have been sitting on the sidelines, watching and waiting to see how the competition will respond to Apple.
In my opinion, this is the first "iPhone-clone" that has come the closet to outdoing the iPhone.
I like it!
Bring on the GSM version!
My wallet is ready. Do you want my money?
What is the definition of the "iphonekiller"?is it selling 1 million in 72 hours in USA .?
is it being a revolutionary all touchscreen cell that some manufacturers still can't match 2 years later,?
Is it a phone that has set the standard by which all touchphones are measured?
is it a cell that sent all major cell manufacturers into a crazy frenzy to quickly go back to drawing board n create their own iPhone clone?
Is it a phone that has created more buzz worldwide than any other cell in history,?
Ask yourself in order to earn the coveted title, will pre do all these, if so then yes it can be called that.,unfortunately we won't know the answer till 72 hours after palm launch,.
There will never be an iPhone killer people. Nobody does the software/interface better than Apple, and nobody can EVER make a touchscreen as good as Apple -- they have the technology patents locked up. Just look at the iPod TouchWheel. Why do you think every portable MP3 player that has tried to even take a chink out of Apple's market share failed miserably. Zune, what a tech-turd!
My only question is... can we send txt pic? Is so frustrating the fact you can't have all this great features and at the same time be able to txt your friends, send to their phones pics, sounds, and animations. I do have friends all over and sometimes depends where I am I think is cool to take a pic and send to them. But the way they made the smart phones, you can't send directly to their phone, you can only send to their emails.
I do have HTC touch Pro, and another thing I didn't like is how you have to type a message... man, if you are at a bar, or club... even at work and someone tells a joke or just saying hi... takes you 3 times more to txt back, cause the you need to use the lil pen to type, and its so easy to make mistakes, I keep re typing everything over and over lol... big bs
Anyway, I think this phone Palm Pre will be a good idea for me, and I am thinking to give it a try.
ps: if someone knows an easy way to txt pic please tell me, cause I get pics from all my people and I can't send anything to them.
What is the definition of the "iphonekiller"?
is it selling 1 million in 72 hours in USA .?
is it being a revolutionary all touchscreen cell that some manufacturers still can't match 2 years later,?
Is it a phone that has set the standard by which all touchphones are measured?
is it a cell that sent all major cell manufacturers into a crazy frenzy to quickly go back to drawing board n create their own iPhone clone?
Is it a phone that has created more buzz worldwide than any other cell in history,?
Ask yourself in order to earn the coveted title, will pre do all these, if so then yes it can be called that.,unfortunately we won't know the answer till 72 hours after palm launch
look at the design of the OS, it looks like palm stole one of the apple engineers and paid him to design it, it has so much in common with the iPhone, but the iPhone was designed first. I want to see a thinness comparison between the two the photos above don't show too good of side shots.
Seriously, all you people are WACK! Who gives a flying f--k about this? Get a life, clones!!!!
Millions of people are starving in the world, including children living within a couple hundred miles from our shores in Haiti, ( We don't hear from Oprah or Bill Gates about the starvation in Haiti - not a sexy enough news item), we are steadily poisoning the environment like bacteria on the living world, our government has invaded and plundered Iraq in reaction to the terrorist acts of September 11, in which no Iraqis had any involvement, the banks and corporations (our actual government) have ruined the economy with their unbridled greed,and all you idiots care about is texting and ipoding and f--king around with your stupid laptops. We are in deep, deep trouble little sheep. Listen carefully and repeat after me -" We don't need to spend our money on these technology trinkets. We are in a recession. The government (banks and corporations) wants us to spend to save the banks and the corporations. (Are any of you old enough to remember when we were told over and over again that it was wise to SAVE as much money as we could?) It is in our best interest to save so that we can keep our homes and have food and and higher education. Buying toys with our credit cards is only putting off financial disaster temporarily. We need to hunker down and use our money for things that enhance purposeful lives and enable us to improve the human condition and help others. We must never forget that the path to glory leads to the grave, and that all the trinkets and technology in the world will never change this. Our highest value as a human being is the good you we do for others. The one who dies with the most toys is a moron of the highest caliber."
not another tree hugger.,go save some beached whales or something.,we all give a fcuk about gadgets,n no we dont really care who starving who knows where.people like u n the media drove this country into a recession,by sending everyone into a state of frenzy n panic with yor every day ,"sky is falling" statement.,YOU need to move away from civilization, n become a hermit. thank god/allah/buddha etc that u dont reproduce.
I'm wondering, how many people on this forum actually have an iPhone? Or have actually used one? Not many I bet. Please stop comparing every phone that gets released to the iPhone. If you do it just shows that deep down you really believe that the iPhone is the standard that all others should be measured against. If that wasn't the case you'd compare it to The Storm, G1, HTC Touch etc...
Peopl in Haiti are starving? You blame our government for our recession yet, recessions are good. I don't see you blaming Haitian government for starving their own people. Let the Haitians take care of the Haitians and let America stop being the freaking saviors or plunderers of the world. We need to worry about us because the World simple doesn't.
On the Palm Pre, which this is all about, I want one! I am getting 3 of them so that I can help with this recession!!!!111oneoneone!!!
I think that this new Palm looks amazing and is near perfect. On the hardware side, the only problem is the lack of an SD card slot. Now with SDHC cards becoming extremely cheap (8GB >$25, http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Class-Flash-Memory-TS8GSDHC6/dp/B000P9ZBFA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231807482&sr=8-1), and the new SDXC cards, I don't know why anyone would want this otherwise perfect device to be limited by memory. Expandable memory is one of the most important features in "future-proofing" a device in this world where electronics get outdated so quickly.
As for the WebOS part, it looks amazingly sleek. I just wish it had support for real programming languages for real apps and not this webapp widget junk. Sure it may be good for basic apps but why waste this beautiful processor with all this basic stuff? Palm OS as it is now even now rivals Android and iPhone in programming support with apps written in Native code so this is definitely a major downside. I don't know much about programming but I do know enough that we NEED support for C/C++ to get any amazing apps/games. Python libraries would be nice since you can do some fairly decent stuff with it and is an excellent alternate to javascript! Palm should also SERIOUSLY CONSIDER incorporating SDL libraries into their SDK to open up their platform to games!
Also, I'm not sure on this one and as much as I like the idea of the app market, are you still allowed to install apps separately like you used to by placing .prc files somewhere in your memory? If they block this by default to make it easier to use THEY SHOULD AT LEAST give some sort of code to developers (where anyone can be considered a developer) to have this feature for testing/personal use without having to order a special developer model like you have to with Android phones.
two words:
and....scene.
I have a Palm 750 and an I-Phone and I have to say, the Palm is a very good phone but in the very real world, the I-Phone has far to many Apps that make it a new phone every time you download a new one on it so Im sorry to say that for a very long time The I-Phone will be the Very Very Best Phone for a long time and the only reason why it even has any type of not close comp is because of its hold backs such as non MMS to other phones, no text forwarding and no Movie just pic.
When Apple decides to add these features then my friends, the I-Phone will be UNTOUCHABLE!!!!! Always remember that anything that is so greatly copied and admired has lead the way and for a long time will always be on top for a long trip ahead and also, the I-Phone is not threw yet with new tricks up its sleeve...............
...price will decide wether it is the iphone killer or not ... for me at least.
The father of the iPod - Jon Rubinstein - is the same guy who headed up the Palm team on the Pre. There's a post about him here - http://thephonelounge.com/?p=64 - but check out the link to the 'Fake Steve Jobs' blog at the bottom, it's pretty funny with some hindsight.
i will do anything for this celly please contact me soon