Palm Pre
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ZTE's Smooth Android slider is a not-so-smooth Pre knockoff
We hate to yell "Pre!" at the top of our lungs here, since we'd really like to see further exploration of the portrait QWERTY form factor for Android, but it's hard to avoid the form factor and stylistic comparisons. The new "Smooth" phone from ZTE is a low-end handset running Android 1.6, with a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a love for Palm industrial design. The phone, which is being shown off at MWC, should retail under 1000 Yuan (about $146 US) and be released in August of this year as a low-end smartphone contender.
Palm says long taps are 'meta-taps,' impresses Solaris admins worldwide
What do you call a long press in the gesture area on a webOS phone? Well, it doesn't matter, because unless you said "meta-tap" you're wrong. That's what Palm has decreed such a touch will be called and so it shall be called -- at least officially. A long press in that area plus a key, like X, C or V to cut, copy, or paste, has been given this moniker by Palm in something of a nod to the concept of a UNIX meta key, a keyboard modifier that works like the Apple Command key or Windows Alt and Ctrl keys. Why bother with the clarification? Well, for one thing, "meta-tap X" is a heck of a lot easier to type than "hold your finger in the notification area and then press X on the keyboard," and that's the sort of efficiency we can get behind.
FCC paper trail suggests AT&T getting Pre in May?
Palm still won't really fess up to it, but AT&T was more than happy to drop the bomb back at CES that it's picking up webOS for the first time in 2010 -- and a little creative connecting-of-the-dots gives us some idea of when we might see the gear hit the streets. The company's Pre with North American 3G -- model number P100UNA -- is already in use by Telcel in Mexico, but confidentiality in its US FCC filing doesn't expire until mid-May. Why does that matter? Historically, Palm's US releases have come very close to their FCC confidentiality lifts, meaning that we could see this thing on AT&T by the time Summer rolls around. Of course, in light of the Pre Plus, it'd be pretty sweet if AT&T just moved on to the next big thing in Palm's pipeline, but we certainly wouldn't put it past 'em to launch outdated equipment.
webOS 1.4 hitting Sprint's Pre and Pixi on February 15th?
Good news for nonplussed (in more ways that one) Pre and Pixi owners: come the day after Valentine's, it looks like you'll be able to capture your loved ones in moving pictures format! This comes from an alleged Sprint technician who reportedly took the above screencap promising a firmware update with all the features we've heard debuting as webOS 1.4, except for Flash support on the Pre. Note our use of "alleged" and "reportedly," though -- we can't independently confirm this image, so take it with a grain of salt. Still, February was the previously-mentioned release date, and when better to release than just after the halfway mark of the month?
Verizon advertising says Droid is for men, Pre is for women (video)
If you ask us, the Palm Pre Plus pretty much sells itself. So if we were working out a promo campaign for it, we'd just display the competitive pricing front and center and get the hell out of the product's way. But that just wouldn't do for Verizon. After all the machismo it attached to the Droid, the wireless provider is back with a set of ads for the Pre Plus targeted at the modern lady. We're not told why two slabs of plastic and silicon with comparable sliding keyboards and similar internals must be compartmentalized by gender, but we don't really care. The new ads are crazy enough in themselves, so just go see 'em after the break.
WebOS homebrew MyTether app updated, brings WiFi hotspots to Verizon Palms w/o the extra subscription
Since the last time we mentioned it, the MyTether app for WebOS phones has gone up in price from a requested $10 donation to $14.95, but that's still considerably cheaper than Verizon's $40 per month Mobile Hotspot plan. We're still leery about what usage/overusage could mean for your contract & bill, but a new beta version has been posted that officially supports the Pre Plus and according to the developer "makes use of the API calls behind MHS" to let it work more smoothly. Even with the Pre's openness to hackery we had some issues getting the beta installer to operate on our Windows 7 machine but once it was installed it worked as promised, giving comparable speeds to a dedicated EV-DO card on the same network. Other new features include automatic tracking of data usage and the ability to manage connected devices directly on the app. Other than some compatibility issues with WebOS updates there hasn't seemed to be any blowback from Sprint or Palm on this app so far, we'll see if Verizon has any issues with its premium priced turf being encroached upon. %Gallery-84629%
DirecTV DVR Scheduler quietly arrives in the WebOS App Catalog
Just a few days after making debuting on the Android Market, DirecTV has unleashed its DVR Scheduler app for WebOS phones. No surprises here, the usual program guide searching (for everyone) and remote DVR scheduling features (DirecTV customers with the right set-top boxes only) are in effect for the rock bottom price of $0. We've got a few additional pictures of the app here, but it's just as simple to get on your Pre or Pixi so why not roll over to the App Catalog and hit that download button? %Gallery-84325%
VisualBoyAdvance turns your Palm Pre into a Game Boy emulator
A certain UK bank operates a delightfully dorky advertising campaign whose slogan is "we give you extra." Well, in the case of mobile software communities, that's exactly the case. From jailbroken iPhones to PS One-emulating HD2s to multitouch-enabled browsing on the Nexus One, the one group of people we know we can truly rely on are other geeks. So let's salute those heroes once more, in recognition of the VisualBoyAdvance -- a webOS-based emulator for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. The former two categories are said to play smooth as you like, whereas the Advance stuff suffers from slight slowdown at present. We've only seen it playing on a Pre, but there should be no reason why your Pixi wouldn't be allowed in on this party. A quick video demo awaits after the break, and the source link has all the installation details you'll need.
Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles sneaks onto WebOS
Not to be confused with Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles is now available on the WebOS platform. The previous Gameloft-developed iPhone port of the poorly received DS title was a bit easier to stomach due to a drastically reduced price, and the same applies here on WebOS -- you can download it from the App Catalog now for $6.99. Altair's Chronicles takes place before the events of 2007's Assassin's Creed debut. %Gallery-83932% [Thanks, Jared]
Bell's Palm Pre now free -- in exchange for three years of your life
How long does it take for a smartphone to go from two hundred bucks on contract all the way down to a big, fat goose egg? If you're Bell -- and the phone is the Palm Pre -- the answer is right around five months, apparently. Following its August release and a couple of mid-course pricing corrections, Bell's now making Palm's first webOS-based device available for free just as long as you're willing to commit to three years at a minimum spend of CAD $50 (about $47) a month. The move likely comes on the announcement of the Pre Plus, perhaps as a preemptive strike against any of its competitors planning on carrying it -- and if we were Sprint right now, we'd be paying very, very close attention to these guys.
Verizon prices Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus -- offers a free Pixi Plus for limited time
In case you missed it in our review, Palm has gone and spilled its Verizon pricing info on its official blog. The Pre Plus is hitting shelves at a cent under $150, closely followed by the Pixi Plus at $99.99 -- both after $100 mail-in rebate and on two-year commitments. Available to buy from this coming Monday, the new handsets are also incentivized with a free Pixi Plus coming with every purchase -- a limited offer running until February 14. That's after yet another mail-in rebate, meaning you'll probably be shelling out a cool $450 to get your webOS fix on Verizon, but we can't argue with the final tally after all the paperwork has been done, filed, triple-checked, lost, recovered, and your money's finally reimbursed.
Palm Pre Plus shows off multitasking upgrade with 50 simultaneous apps (video)
Yea, you read that right -- fifty apps loaded side by side by freaking side on the Pre Plus, and the thing just kept on ticking. The chaps over at Pre Central decided to test out specifically how much of an improvement the doubling of RAM and storage in the new handset delivered, and they were not disappointed. Opening up the same apps on both phones, they found the original Sprint Pre (sporting a mere 256MB of RAM) ran out of puff at the 13 app mark, whereas the Pre Plus soldiered on until a nice round fifty was reached. Go past the break to see the video evidence for yourself -- long live multitasking!
Palm Pre Plus (and Pixi Plus) review
It's been about a year since Palm pulled itself back from the brink of imminent destruction with the announcement of webOS and the Palm Pre, and even less time since the products announced actually hit the market. In that time span, the company has issued another handset (the small, less powerful Pixi), released a number of over-the-air updates to its OS (nine in all), and created and disseminated a slew of developer tools, including iterative releases of its SDK and a new web-based development environment called Ares. Throughout the ups and downs of the past 12-or-so months Palm has been "back," the company has stuck with Sprint as its lone carrier partner in the US -- so while it's been innovating and tweaking on its platform and devices, the third-place partner has kept it from the larger audiences AT&T or Verizon might offer. Now -- almost a year to the day -- Palm has turned around and opened its devices up to the country's largest carrier, in addition to bumping the specs and features of both phones it offers (the Pre getting an additional 8GB of storage and double the RAM, the Pixi is now equipped with WiFi). All the while significantly improving its SDK (with the new native Plug-in Development Kit) and app distribution model. So can Palm finally really get this ship sailing, court the developers it badly needs, and deliver on the promises of webOS, or is it too little, too late? Read on to find out! %Gallery-83562%
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus first hands-on (video)!
We just had a chance to play around with the new Palm Pre Plus (and Palm Pixi Plus), and we must say -- they've made some solid improvements to these devices. We're going to focus on the Pre, since it's really had the bulk of the changes. Firstly, it's now a Verizon branded (and bound) phone, which should bump the status of the device in many people's minds. The company has also improved the action of the slider mechanism, which is now way, way snappier, and clicks into and out of place with a confidence-stoking solidness. Palm has also changed the keyboard a bit, getting rid of the orange coloring, and revamping the action of the keys, making them far clickier (and maybe a bit more raised). The feel is closer to the Pixi, and that's a really good thing. Of course, they've added an additional 8GB of storage, making the internal capacity 16GB, and Palm is going full steam ahead with gaming on the device thanks to its PDK. Check the video and gallery below for the full story. Update: Video is up! %Gallery-82029%
Verizon-bound Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus specs leaked
And just like that, you've got specs. We'd already heard that the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus were headed to Big Red for some more EV-DO action, and now we've got a leaked image of the phones' spec list. Guess what? Nothing much to see here -- just a storage bump for the Pre to 16GB, and WiFi enabled on the Pixi, unlike its Sprint counterpart. As for release schedule, we've got nothing, but you can expect hear more about these two dudes at Palm's CES event tomorrow, which we will -- of course -- be covering live.
Keepin' it real fake, part CCXLIX: Cool K07 is the ultimate facePalm
Yeah, yeah -- we've seen a fairly weak effort to ape the Pre before, but this... this is the knockoff webOS device your shady side has been waiting for. A dead ringer for the Palm Pre, the Cool K07 boasts a luscious 2.8-inch touchscreen (320 x 240 resolution), a T-Flash card slot, a 2 megapixel camera, inbuilt speaker, MP3 / MP4 player, a blazing fast connection to the web (GPRS, if you must know), Bluetooth, an FM radio tuner, alarm clock, a few games and room for 1,000 contacts. Granted, there's none of that fancy "Synergy" stuff, and we're guessing you won't find any "cards" or "multitasking" here, but for $128 unlocked and room for the SIM card of your choice, how on Earth could you complain? Exactly. You can't. Or maybe that's just stunned silence we hear... [Thanks, Dechris]
webOS paid apps coming to Europe in March 2010
Okay, so this is quite the lag from October's North American availability, but at least when the paid portion of Palm's App Catalog rolls out across Europe it shouldn't experience the stuttering start it suffered back in the US of A. Palm has excitedly blurted out the news on its developer network blog, but not without the requisite garnishings of buzzwords like "leverage," "freedom," "choice," "control," and "speed," as well as something about "faster cycle times" -- all of it designed to get more developers onboard. Kinda ironic the company is boasting about fast cycle times when it can't transition its paid Catalog to Europe in less than six months, but hey -- the Pre already has that one killer app, and it's free, so what do you care? [Thanks, Ben]
Palm's Jon Rubinstein named a 'Geek of the Year'
Just to clarify right out of the gate, the "year" Fast Company is referring to is 2009, but nonetheless, it's an award we're sure Jon is happy to have. 11 geeks were found worthy of the "Geek of the Year" award in '09, with the likes of Evan Williams and Biz Stone (Twitter), David S. Goyer (the creator of Flash Forward on ABC), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Neill Blomkamp (the writer of District 9) joining him. The justification for Jon making the cut? "He came on board as the new chairman of Palm and brought about the Web OS and the Palm Pre, the start of a line of products that is the best hope for reintroducing the geek masses to Palm." After speaking with him on our first-ever Engadget Show and falling head over heels in love with webOS, we can't help but agree. And yes, after last year's introduction at CES, it's all we can do to contain our excitement for this Thursday.
Quake ported to the Pre, webOS 3D gaming truly within reach
Yeah, hardware accelerating Doom is an important milestone in any fledgling system's career, but when you talk 3D acceleration, Quake is certainly a giant leap ahead of Doom in polygonal terms. The game has now been ported to webOS using the same new SDL library from version 1.3.5, and while it looks a little sluggish and crashy in the video after the break, it's clearly a landmark event just the same. Now if only we could get stuff like this in the App Catalog we'd be perfectly happy forever and ever. Or for at least a week.
Engadget now available for Pre and Pixi: the first webOS app of 2010 (and 1000th in the Catalog)!
That's right folks. Hot on the heels of our iPhone app release (which has since skyrocketed up the App Store charts to #1 in News), the webOS version has officially landed. You'll see that the experience is shockingly, wonderfully similar to the iPhone / iPod touch version, but of course there are a couple of webOS flourishes to be found. You can download the application right from your Pre or Pixi by simply popping open the App Catalog and, you know... downloading the thing. This is the 1000th application in the Catalog -- a piece of info we feel pretty psyched about. We've got even more on the way (like BlackBerry and Android versions), so keep it tuned here, but for now... webOS fans, go get your fix! For those viewing this on a Palm device, here's your direct link: Download Engadget for webOS
