Palm Pre plays Need for Speed, undercover (video)
While Palm's Pre is many things to many people it still can't game. Oh sure, it'll play Magic Fortune Ball like a champ but when it comes to intensive 3D action the Pre is as helpless as a would-be terrorist trying to ignite his underwear. See, webOS and the Mojo SDK currently can't exploit the GPU the way other smartphone platforms can. Rewind a few weeks, however, and we're reminded of a video showing EA's Need for Speed Undercover running impossibly smooth on a Pre. At the time, the video and claims of the device running Flash were shot down as fake largely due to the accompanying screen caps of the purportedly new App Catalog. Well guess what? Those screen caps were vindicated today with the webOS 1.3.5 update that just so happened to launch a new App Catalog matching the leaked images, exactly. That lends credence to the video then doesn't it, while hinting at future apps and games with full OpenGL graphics support. Is that the big reveal at CES alongside enhanced Pre+ and Pixi+ handsets headed to Big Red? We'll find out shortly enough -- until then check the gameplay after the break.
[Thanks, Brian K.]