Well, this is interesting: we'd been under the impression that Telefonica had pretty much wrapped up a
global exclusive on the
GSM Palm Pre under the
O2 and Movistar brands, but here we are, looking at two videos which claim that the Pre will launch in Mexico under rival América Móvil's Telcel label. That's certainly interesting -- and even more intriguingly, we're told that the gentlemen in this video are discussing
storage expansion slots on the Pre, which is basically like having a conversation about Santa winning the Super Bowl in terms of Things That Are Real. Did Telcel just manage to pull the rug out from under Movistar and land what could be the best Pre of them all? We're on pins and needles, here. Videos after the break -- and if anyone wants to leave a better translation for us in comments, we're all ears.
posted Oct 8th 2009 3:01PM
I guess I'm moving to Mexico....
te pela bien rapidito LOL
Move to Mexico if you like being raped by a crappy company like Telcel.
Iphones here in Mexico are ridiculously expensive (both the device, and the monthly rates).
Oh, and the "unlimited" internet, is in fact around 3Gb... if you exceed that, you get capped.
Now Telcel with both the iPhone and the Pre... that's a killer deal... I'm sorry for the other carriers around. Oh yeah, and Telcel has most of Nokia's lineup.
So if you fancy a nice phone (and are not afraid to be mugged for it), yeah... get move over here.
I'm still waiting for Palm to return the stolen USB vendor ID. Then I'll move to Mexico!
The original reason they gave for no expansion cards is bullshit. They said they didn't include them because it will take away from the design. Look what HTC has been doing for some time new, put the slots under the battery cover (but not under the battery) and problem solved. They also probably wanted to copy the iPhone, even the shitty parts.
Agreed, the original excuse that microSD wouldn't fit was incredibly lame. If I wanted to be treated like an idiot by my cell phone manufacturer, I would have bought an iPhone.
webOS = huevos lmao
That's actually pretty funny and makes sense XD.
lmao. That is so true. Spanish Mexican slang FTW!!!!!.
Huevos!
Not only that, but Pré (pree) is pronounced the same way as PRI, the party that ruled Mexico for almost 8 decades. Way to name a phone, huh?
So it's been confirmed, my palm pre has got it's own set of "huevos"
As soon as i said that, my palm pre shot up throught the roof, presumeably because it had more huevos than all the devices from Cupertino, and in a wave of total awsomeness managed to destroy the thosand ninjas surronding the house. Afterwards, because it was so damn manly, managed to do what any huevos- loaded device would do- practice the art of karate-death-stare-down with Chuck Norris- for a thousand years.
It has an expansion slot. Would that be a Palm reader?
They definitely say it has a memory card slto at around the 1:97 mark
Thats awesome! If I only had a PRE...
I live in Mexico, I can't see the video as it seems to be on Youtube and I am at my office... I could leave a perfect translation if someone would post the video on the engadget hub :), this is probably the best news I've heard in a long time :D
They say it's a revised version of the Pre. It is indeed is a GSM version with microSD slot. He said that Telcel is just about to release it.
In minute 1:50 (before the ambulance drives by) he's saying that since he already has the back cover off, you can see that there is a slot for a Micro SD card. It will be on sale on Telcel soon.
If it's coming to mexico, this surely means 850/1900 3g support! I guess i'm going south of the border and getting myself one and bringing that badboy back up here.
Telcel's Pre will certainly work on AT&T (voice and 3G data), if you can SIM Free it first... Which I'm sure it will be possible.
I was about to ditch my money on a soon to be released by Telcel Nokia N97... But now I'd better wait for the Pré... At least it will calm my gadget appetite until Nokia releases a 850,1900,2100 N900 that is... :)
I hope the Pre is vaccinated against the Swine Flu....
This is going to infuriate all of us US based Pre buyers... especially in light of the original excuse Palm used for NOT including it...
Isn't Telcel now called Movistar? Or am I missing something?
No, totally different companies, telcel is native to mexico...movistar is not.
Only thought of that because in other Latin American countries Telcel was completely replace/renamed by Movistar. Didn't know about Mexico in specific though. Thx for the info.
Telcel is part of America Movil, as well as Claro, Comcel and many other south america carriers.
It holds more than 70% market share in mexico, although in Latin America Movistar is Telefonica and as far as i know it holds most of the market as far as i know.
Nop, Telcel is from Mexico, and in latin america is call America movil (I think) and has a larger market share than movistart witch arrive later to the continent.
There was a Telcel in Venezuela that was never related with Telcel Mexico. Telcel Venezuela was bought first by BellSouth and by Telefonica (Movistar) a couple of years after that.
Yep, He really says it has micro sd expansion lost, he doesn't know the screen is capacitive multi touch by the way
cool it seems that all the contact info is no longer stored on the phone nor the sim card....it sends all the info to " the clouds"
On video 2:
He pretty much does a mini review, and he says that the keyboard is quite hard to press specially with big fingers (like his)
The "software" still on the beta stages but is quite fast and the phone responds really fast.
I need to mention that "Telcel" is more like Sprint on the US
that guy has absolutely no idea what he's doing... he cant even find the camera... =/
This guy, Javier Matuk, is the leader in technology podcasts not only in México but in Latin America so if you do not understand what is he saying please do not comment.
but yeah he is just basically saying that the phone has a micro sd slot, and that it is a gsm model, and that you can just put your current SIM card in and go, and that telcel will be the company carrying the pre, and that despite the rumors about the phone being flimsy it feels pretty robust and that he thinks that the phone will be able to take the daily abuse that we generally put our phones through.. and that the way your information is stored is revolutionary because if u happen to lose it or ie gets stolen or you eat it (:0) that you can just buy another one and you can retrieve all of you information..
When the back cover is off there is nothing that looks like it'd be a MicroSD slot, not that the camera focusses on any of it.
Wonder how much PPL would pay for unlocked GSM Pre's on eBay? I bet they would fetch a pretty penny!
There is no SD slot on that device in the video.
hey that's pretty good news, I live down here and never thought we'd get the palm pre.
Of course, a lot of people already have it working under Iusacell (CDMA carrier obviously) which is a much better carrier for data based phones... oh well.
Wonder how much it will go for on contract.
telefonica movistar is very weak in Mexico, telcel, on the other hand is a pseudo-monopoly, so it has all the money they want and can reach those types of agreements
Well Telefonica(Movistar) does not currently have a 3G network, only a few cities and Telcel covers pretty much the whole country so that's the reason why Telefonica isn't getting it.
I think the price would be more or less the same as the iPhone, the 16GB iPhone 3Gs with the cheapest unlimited data plan is around USD$450 including taxes so I expect more or less the same for the Palm Pre.
It's probably going to cost double what it costs in the US, with a two year contract and with "unlimited" 3G internet up to 3GB and then you get downgraded to EDGE speeds (those 3GB count for upload and download not just the latter).
So yeah, I'm done with Telcel and their bulls*hit.
If you're tired of contracts, buy the phone and activate it on Amigo (prepay) they just lowered their rates
$450 pesos gets you the same data plan (3g up to 3gb then EDGE) it's not bad at all when you compare it to the US/Canada, it's actually a bargain.
A $500 peso prepaid card gets you $1000, you can use the remaining $550 for calls&sms.
Yeah, and then I'd be paying 2.5x the US price to get the phone (at least). Not to mention there is still the bulls*hit "Fair Use Policy" that is used to have some beautiful false advertising of "unlimited internet (but with a 500MB or 3GB limit)".
1. Americans pay such a low price because they sign a 2year or more agreement where they comply with being raped in the ass by a 100 dollar monthly bill, usually paying upwards of 3000 dollars in that period. Are you okay with paying 45 thousand pesos for 2 years of service? Okay
2. Fair use policy is actually pretty good since in other countries (such as the USA) they limit everything you can do with their data services, ie. only for web browsing, texting, no voip no tethering no skype no streaming no radio applications etc then they cut you off or send you nasty letters etc etc etc plus their data plans are 30 dollars at the cheapest, not to mention completely inexistent in pay-as-you-go
3. It really is unlimited, unlimited does not mean it's unlimited at 3g speeds for the length of the period, but that it doesn't have overcharges for use. In Movistar for example they charge hundreds or thousands of pesos if you exceed your bandwidth limit by a few MEGABYTES. That's limited.
4. Grow up
Anyone back up the video for part 2? I didn't get to see it and It's been taken down from Youtube already.
I have the Backup of both videos, uploading
Well here's something interesting:
1) TELCEL in Mexico pretty much copied Sprint's NOW Network commercial: http://vidly.com/aefs
2) Probably irrelevant but there's been a twitter account for quite a few months named @PalmPreTelcel: http://twitter.com/PalmPreTelcel
If you want to see the original videos and posts of this click on http://www.matuk.com/2009/10/07/palm-pre-en-exclusiva/
I can't see the videos... anyone got a link that works?
From Matuk's site:
"Ooops, parece que hicimos algo antes de tiempo. Esperamos hayan podido ver los videos que presentamos de la nueva Palm, pero resulta que todavía no se tenía la autorización para ser mostrado… dentro de poco regresaremos con toda la información, precios detalles y mucho, mucho más."
"Looks like we jumped the gun on something. We hope you were able to see the videos we posted with the new Palm, but it turns out that there's no authorization to show it yet. We will soon come back with all the information, pricing, details and much much more"
There doesn't seem to be much to be gained by adding additional storage with the application data partition still capped at 256MB.
"videos removed by user"... looks like somebody either a) told a few fibs or b) let a premature cat out of the bag
Oh man lol at "wevos!"
Imma check it out as soon as comes out, but knowing Telcel, the price for this is gonna be high!
The X1 Still sell at over $11,000.00MXP !!! plus the data plan prices from telcel are ridiculous. Then again this will pretty much be aimed to the "business" assholes that rip everyone.
How bout they bring some Android phones now!!!!
An android phone is coming to Mexico too, from Motorola.
Live Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbEkAxTbEvg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLgXH4EzoeA
Enjoy!
Yeah ! then i can watch it... thanx bro !
Good work, thanks.
Bien hecho Leo!!! :)
Saludos,
Rayan
What is weird is that towards the end of the first video, the guy mentions that a CDMA version is also coming out. I know that today people can buy Sprint phones and activate them on another carrier here in Mexico (Iusacell), that comment concerns me a little bit on the veracity of the information. Also I would have liked him to actually pull out the SIM card. Anyway, lets hope and wait.
Matuk is a very creditable person, I don't have any doubts on the veracity of the information he presented on the video and on his website (http://www.matuk.com).
The first rumors about a Palm Pre release in Mexico where in fact based on a CDMA version for Iusacell, and I don't see why this could not be possible.
And for those who doubt the presence of a microSD card, you need to look closely on the video (preferably at full screen) at exactly 1:50 you will see a small graphic representing what seems to be the microSD card's insertion position to the left of the SIM card slot.
He also mentioned that this particular GSM Pre was a loaner (let me guess... maybe by some Telcel testing engineer?) that he got a chance to play with it for a few hours. He also mentioned that the OS was still a Beta.
if you want to download the video ... here´s the link https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=752152787&email=853fbdb4cff9e90f3365141b110a6661
Don't know if it is relevant, but Telcel came out with a new commercial in mexico that looks exactly like the commercials that sprint was advertising over the summer. The ones that had a bunch of little factoids, like 20k people are on twitter and the such....
I was just waiting for the end of the commercial to say that Telcel was the first 4g network in mexico(didn't happen) and no the palm pre was not part of that commercial...
as for that video of Matuk reviewing the palm pre, his website states that he apparently screwed up and put up the videos prematurely(read, not authorized by telcel or palm) therefore I do think that Palm pre will come out as GSM on telcel AND will have the Micro SD slot( it is right next to the sim card below the battery as shown on the video)
Videos are reposted:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/10/09/video.hints.at.unique.hardware/
Seems like Telcel's Palm Pré lauch date has been shifted a bit to the first quarter of November 2009.
Let's wait and see...
Price around $7K mexican pesos or $540 USD
FINALLY!!!
Palm has just officially announced the Palm Pré release date on Mexico's Telcel carrier.
http://www.palm.com/mx/
Suddenly, November 27 seems so far away!!! LOL....