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Palm Centro unboxing
The kind folks at Palm have sent us over a brand-spanking-new Centro to take for a spin, and we'd thought we'd share that special moment when a phantasmagorical waking dream becomes cold, hard, metallic reality. At a first glance, it's pretty clear that the $99.99 price point will leave you hungry for accessories if you sink your teeth into the Sprint-only (for now) phone, as the box has the bare minimum included -- they don't even throw in a cheap set of earbuds. Other than that it's pretty standard fare. Check the gallery for all the views (including a size comparison with the Treo 750, so you can see how they stack up), and stay tuned for a thorough review.%Gallery-8406%
Palm Centro unboxed at Engadget Mobile
Love Palm? Love the Centro? Love unboxings? Well, it's your lucky day, because we've got a lean, mean, eye-shattering gallery going on over at Engadget Mobile, featuring a full-on unboxing of the new Palm / Sprint entry. Direct your browsers this way, and prepare to have an out-of-body experience.
Palm Foleo unboxed, AT&T-branded Centro spotted?
Welcome to Engadget: Bizarro Edition. Look, truth be told, now that the Foleo has been wiped from a foreseeable Palm future, we kind of wish we could get our hands on one (rare gadget collectors that we are). Well, at least one lucky, lucky gentleman has done just that, and he's been kind enough to share the pictures with the rest of the world. We're not sure how an individual goes about procuring this device, but we can honestly say we're pretty jealous. It's essentially like having an embalmed unicorn in your living room. But that's not all, kids. Take a long, hard look at that Centro in the photos (which is referred to as the Treo 500P) -- it's got AT&T branding all over that home screen. Is your curiosity piqued? Join the club. Take a look at the little curiosity after the break.
Hands-on with the Palm Centro
Well, here's the shiny little Centro, in all its slightly-less-than-breathtaking beauty. Truth be told, the phone doesn't look or feel too bad -- we still don't get the gray stripe through the middle, but what can you do? The keyboard is unbelievably tiny, but we'll take it where we can get it. The surface of the cherry red or metallic black phone is quite slick, and we suspect will go tumbling out of sweaty hands like gang busters. Of course, the EV-DO connection was snappy, but the thing we're most stoked about is the fact that Palm has finally eliminated that 2-pixel border around the screen. Hey, no new OS... but that border is gone. The Centro is due mid-October for the shockingly low price of $99.99, which should help push more than a couple of these out the door. Hit the gallery and check out all the hot photos.%Gallery-7863%
Sprint ups the Palm Centro teaser: $99 on October 14
Sprint just brought up their Palm Centro site and with it, a few more details to make the dealio all official-io. The "world's smallest Palm device" will cost you $100 beans after $100 mail-in rebate, minimum $25 data plan, and two year commitment to Sprint (and Garnet) when it launches on October 14th. We're also seeing a choice of a candy-red finish for the first time if black is a bit too staid for your tastes. Perhaps we'll hear a little more later today when the DigitalLife show kicks off in New York.[Thanks, Conrad A-B.]
Palm shareholders approve Elevation Partners sale
In a move that could be described as "totally unsurprising," Palm shareholders have approved the much-discussed partial sale of the company to a private equity firm called Elevation Partners (of which Bono is a member), and also a change in the board of director's makeup. The plan, if you'll recall, is for Mr. MacPhisto and co. to pay $325 million for a 25-percent stake in the company, while Palm itself will pay out a $9 per-share distribution of cash to current shareholders for a reduction in ownership. There will also be a new executive board chair, namely, Johnathan Rubenstein, an Apple alumni who ran the iPod devision from 2004-2006. Fred Anderson (another former Apple officer), and Roger McNamee (a Silicon Valley investor) will also join the board. Our man Ed Colligan said of the switch, "There are a lot of moving parts here, but the goal is to bring in a transformation and change the dynamics of the company," er... okay. Apparently, Palm has hopes that Mr. Rubenstein will help create "innovative products" and "bring them to market quickly." In our dreams guys, in our dreams.
Sprint's Q4 lineup: Rumor, Centro, Touch, and Pearl 8130
What started as a trickle of unofficially official shots from Sprint's Q4 pipeline has suddenly become a deluge. Check the LG Rumor, Touch (aka, Vogue), and Blackberry Pearl 8130 all dressed up with Sprint logos and sales-goon positioning points for a Q4 launch. We already saw Palm's Centro, OQO Model 02, LG Rumor and Touch yucking it up in the wild this morning but this is the first time we've seen the 8130 in Sprint, not Verizon attire. The 8130 sports a GPS receiver but no WiFi like we saw in those RIM slides last month yet still packs all the rest of the EV-DO niceties you'd expect. The Touch is EV-DO revision A upgradeable like we heard while the LG Rumor does its QWERTY thing for the non-Pro crowd. See for yourself in the gallery below.%Gallery-7262%[Thanks, Stephen]
Sprint on parade: Centro, Vogue, Rumor, and OQO Model 02
Ugh, not more pictures of Palm's Centro, you gasp. Yes... and much more. This time, it's the Centro nuzzled up for some quickie shots with Sprint's Treo 755p and new Vogue (that's, HTC Touch to the rest of the world) and what must be Sprint's take on the new OQO Model 02. A veritable who's who of soon to be launched Sprint handsets. Better yet, our tipster -- contrary to previous reports -- "noticed little to no difference in typing on the QWERTY with the Centro to the Treo" while noting that the Centro was "much nicer to hold." He also says that the Vogue was running a 400MHz Qualcomm processor (not the standard OMAP 850) with 256MB ROM / 120MB RAM which suffered "no slowdown" even while running 15-20 applications. Check out all the sneaky pictures in the gallery below. Oh, as to the device to the right of the Vogue and below the OQO: that's a mystery, any ideas?Update: That other handset turns out to be the LG Rumor, which looks to be positioned for the Facebook and MySpace messaging crowd. More on this later.%Gallery-7251%[Thanks, Catharsis and Stephen]
More Palm Centro details leaked for Sprint
The cats at the Morning Paper claim to have a piece of marketing collateral which spills, or at least, reshuffles the beans on the Palm Centro for Sprint. EV-DO, check. Palm OS (Garnet), check. Touch-screen, check (obviously). Really, the only things we haven't seen before is the list of Sprint services it'll be packing: Sprint TV, On Demand, IM, Mobile Email, and Google maps in the slimmest Treo, er Palm OS device yet. But Garnet on a Q4 2007 Palm release? Puh-lease.[Thanks, Sheldon]
Palm confirms Bird, Plane, but no Centro for September 12th announcement
Hey, everyone getting amped about the Centro -- all seven of you (and yes, there are at least a couple Engadget staffers in that tight group) -- your wait might be a little longer than expected. Contrary to previous suggestions that Palm's European announcement on the 12th of September would be for that bizarre little beast with the tiny keyboard, Palm's Stephanie Richardson has posted a brief note on the official Palm blog to let everyone know that "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's not Centro." If it's any consolation, she specifically uses the phrase "new device," so we'll apparently see something new here -- we're just back to square one trying to figure out what the heck it is. Sure ain't a Foleo!Update: As WMExperts speculates, the Windows Mobile-based Gandolf seems like the leading candidate here, largely on account of the Vodafone-branded pictures we've seen floating around. Same polarizing styling, different platform; pick your poison! [Thanks, Boy Genius]
Palm Centro action shots emerge
Hot off the French press, we bring you brand-spanking-new pictures of Palm's next smartphone: the Centro. Here you see the new entry in its natural habitat, running the tired, tired Palm OS, with what appears to be zero changes in either looks or functionality. Come on guys -- you couldn't even update the graphics a little bit? Of note here otherwise is its striking similarity in size to the BlackBerry Pearl (obviously not a coincidence), and the fact that Palm is bringing over the 680's phone app, which hasn't surfaced on any other Treo yet (including the post-680 entry, the 755p). It's a start -- but you've got to lose that white finish.[Thanks, Cellenin]
Palm teaser hints at early Centro launch for Europe
We can't be certain what Palm's playing at with this teaser brochure on its website: either it's talking about the launch of a European marketing campaign for the Centro on September 12th, or Palm's managed to pull a fast one and is ready to launch the Centro (or another unseen phone) in the next two weeks. We're guessing the former, but at least this promotion tells us something about this phone, Centro or not: the first people to get their hands on one will be European. Check out the website, and if you live in The Netherlands, the UK, Germany, or Italy, enter your details to potentially win not one, but five Palm smartphones.[Via Treonauts]
Palm says Foleo still on schedule... for Summer
It seems possible that Palm took our advice when we asked the company to "stop keeping us in the dark," because the last few days have been filled with transparency. The latest bit of see-through from the PDA-maker comes today in the form of a denial concerning the recent Barron's news that the company's sorta-kinda-laptop, the Foleo, would be delayed due to syncing problems. According to Palm's director of communications, Jim Christensen, "As stated on May 30, U.S. availability for the Palm Foleo mobile companion will begin this summer. We will let you know if this changes," which runs contrary to rumored street dates for the laptop, and to what Deutsche Bank analyst Jonanthan Goldman reported on Wednesday. The company has had its share of activity over the past two weeks, including solid news on the tiny new Centro (AKA the Gandolf), rumored delays for the Foleo, and of course our gentle prodding. We can only hope all this movement, good or bad, is working as a wake-up to Colligan and co.
Dear Palm: It's time for an intervention
Dear Palm,Man, what a crazy year, right? We know things haven't really been going your way lately, but we want you to know that we haven't given up on you, even though it might seem like the only smartphone anyone wants to talk about these days is the iPhone. It can be hard to remember right now, but you used to be a company we looked to for innovation. You guys got handhelds right when everyone else, including Apple, was struggling to figure it out. And it was the little things that made those early Palm Pilots great -- you could tell that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to think about what made for a great mobile experience, like how many (or rather, few) steps it took to perform common tasks. The problem is that lately we haven't seen anything too impressive out of you guys. Sure, over the past few years the Treo has emerged as a cornerstone of the smartphone market, but you've let the platform stagnate while nearly everyone (especially Microsoft and HTC, Symbian and Nokia, RIM, and Apple) has steadily improved their offerings. So we've thrown together a few ideas for how Palm can get back in the game and (hopefully) come out with a phone that people can care about. (And we're not talking about the Centro / Gandolf.) Read on.
Sprint event showcases CDMA Touch, LG Rumor, and more
If you've been patiently awaiting details about, well, a whole slew of handsets, chances are that a recent Sprint event held the answers to a-many of those very questions. First up was the Palm Centro (also coined Gandolf and Treo 800), which you've already seen plenty of earlier today. Moving on, the Sprint Touch (read: CDMA) was said to be rockin' a potent 400MHz CPU, and it also touted EV-DO, 128MB of RAM, a two-megapixel camera, built-in GPS "to be activated in a Rev A upgrade," and a likely launch date in November. Furthermore, an EV-DO BlackBerry Pearl was on display along with a "petite candybar" from Sanyo, the sliding LG Rumor, and the Sprint Airave home cell site (once known as the Samsung Ubicell). We know you're craving the dirt on all of the aforementioned gizmos, so be sure and hit the read link for the full skinny.
Palm Centro: Palm's next Treo, er, smartphone
You didn't really think it was going to be called the Gandalf, did you? Palm's next smartphone is the, wait for it, "Centro"; Palm's apparently not calling it a Treo (it was presented to us as the Palm Centro, not the Palm Treo Centro, or the Treo 800), and isn't yet showing off any images of it (for those you've got Engadget Mobile). But we did learn Palm showed it off at a Sprint media summit, and they outlined these features: "Smallest Palm OS smartphone to date Targeting a younger demographic, new to the smartphone space Runs on EVDO network New design features a full keyboard and touch screen" Wow, a phone with a keyboard and a touchscreen! What will they think of next? Oh, it sounds like GearLog was there to check it out: no surprise, they mentioned the keyboard is "infinitesimal... impossible to type on this thing with two thumbs". Score. It'll also supposedly go for $99, and Sprint will have 90 days exclusivity. However! It does look like the version they played with (probably the one above) isn't the "adult-sized" model we've also seen online, which shares many of the same design cues but appears to be slightly wider, has a horizontally oriented display, and runs Windows Mobile.