Palm Pre tasks, memos, browser on display, automatic backup confirmed

Posted By: wraggster

Just in time for your weekend perusal, Palm Goon (which we half suspect might be a viral site from Palm itself) has uploaded three tours and a FAQ chock-full of new Pre / webOS screens and details, chief among them being confirmation that the Pre does daily automatic backup. We've also got some pretty thorough glimpses of the web browser, Tasks, and Memo applications. Visually, it's quite a beaut -- a very elegant and classy UI that rivals anything we've seen from a certain Cupertino-based company. Of course, functionality remains to be seen, but if Palm and Sprint deliver half as good of a game as they talk, looks like we're in for a real treat.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/22/p...c-backup-conf/

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SlingPlayer coming to Pre "at or near launch"?

Posted By: wraggster

webOS' web technology-based app architecture seems to become less and less of an issue by the day; most of our fears were allayed the moment we saw Classic break cover, and this is another strong sign that the Pre's going to be able to handle just about any multimedia-rich stuff we throw at it. A Sprint-sourced page out of a Pre slide deck entitled "The Pre Application Story" lists a series of "showcase apps" that the carrier thinks (or, at the very least, optimistically hopes) will be available around the time of the phone's launch, and the most interesting thing on here has to be a listing for Sling Media -- you know, those cats making Slingboxes and SlingPlayer builds. Beyond that, we don't have anything -- it could be 3G or WiFi-only (though the fact that this is on a Sprint slide gives us hope that they'll leave EV-DO enabled), it could launch next month or next year, and for all we know, it only works with boxes that aren't even out yet. It'll be kind of cool to see this app running as a card on the Pre's interface, won't it?

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/22/s...r-near-launch/

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Palm Pre on June 6th for $200: It's official!

Posted By: wraggster

The day you've been waiting for is here. Sprint just announced that the Pre will cost $199.99 after $100 mail-rebate and 2-year contract and will launch on June 6th as rumored this morning. The phone will go on sale nationwide (US-only for the moment) at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and select Wal-Mart stores. The Pre will be available under Sprint's Everything Data or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plans. Accessories include the optional $69.99 Touchstone charging dock kit that includes the $49.99 dock and $19.99 Pre back cover. June 6th, that's two days before the WWDC keynote. Poor Apple.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/p...-6th-official/

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Details Leaked On Palm Pre: MMS, Office 2007, No Video Recording At Launch

Posted By: Shrygue

via Gizmodo


It's not earth shattering info or anything, but the anonymous person behind InsideSprintnow claiming to be a Sprint customer care employee has divulged a few more tidbits about the Pam Pre.

Here are the highlights:

• No video recording at launch, though they seem to think such a thing will be added via update.
• MMS support is confirmed
• They imply that Office 2007 documents work fine on Pre, though they don't specify if it's read-only
• Custom ringtones are a go, as are ringback tones
• When in USB mode, all calls will be automatically routed to voicemail.
• IM Services: Google Talk and AIM at launch.
• The color for calendar events can be chosen manually on the Pre, or sync'ed with the colors you've got set up in Exchange
• Cookies can be disabled in the browser
• No pictbridge profile yet, so no wireless photo printing.

Again, none of this information is confirmed. Although that bit about automatic redirect to voicemail when in USB mode seems absurd to me.

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Palm working on a Mini Pre?

Posted By: wraggster

Rumour has it that a second device based on webOS will see the light of day before Christmas.
TechCrunch reports that Palm is working on a second, smaller handset as a follow-up to its highly-anticipated Pre.

According to sources, the 'Mini Pre' will address a different market segment to its bigger brother and is perhaps intended to head off any threat from another rumoured device - the iPhone Nano.


So there you have it - an as yet unconfirmed handset is set to go head-to-head in a battle to the death with another as yet unconfirmed handset.

The name at least should give the Palm marketing department some comedy ammo though.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33195...-on-a-Mini-Pre

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Palm Pre: $138 to build according to iSuppli

Posted By: Shrygue

via Engadget


With the economy in the tank (still) and the heat on, cost and profit margins are more important than ever to companies hoping to stave off the inevitable, apocalyptic doom of recession. Well, iSuppli's released an estimated report of how much its costing Palm to cobble together the Pre -- about $138, as it turns out.

iSuppli has positively identified just two of the Pre's suppliers thus far -- that Texas Instruments OMAP chip, which runs Palm $11, and Qualcomm's wireless chip -- but they've formed a general picture of what's under the hood for the estimate. That price is about 46 percent of the $300 iSuppli suggests Palm will be charging Sprint for the Pre (a number that's completely unconfirmed at this point).
To put it in perspective, the BlackBerry Storm costs about $203 to make and was sold for $199 initially, the G1 clocked in at $144, while the iPhone 3G costs Apple an estimated $174.33. Of course, we have no way of assessing the accuracy of the estimate yet, but if it's in the neighborhood of correct, Palm's profit margin should be pretty healthy.

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Palm Pre Classic emulator demoed on video

Posted By: wraggster

Longtime Palm fans are gonna want to lock the doors and turn down the lights -- our friends at PhoneScoop just got the first demo of Motion App's Classic Palm OS emulator for the Palm Pre. Palm OS apps can be installed by just dragging the .prc files over the Pre in mass storage mode, and they're run as though they were on an SD card. There's no tethered HotSync, although there's a compatibility mode of some kind and apps will be able to pull data down over the air. Check the video after the break, including a demo of ePocrates, which we know a lot of potential Pre owners are interested in.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/02/p...moed-on-video/

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Palm announces webOS SDK availability, Palm OS emulation for Pre, new cloud services

Posted By: wraggster

Well, it's not quite the release date and price you were hoping for, but it's definitely something. Today Palm -- via a short keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo -- announced that the company would begin taking names and numbers on the webOS dev site for potential developers who will receive an "early look" Mojo SDK. And that's starting right this moment... as in now. That news alone would be big, but reps we spoke with said that the SDK would be made available to developers that the company will be cherry-picking as early as tomorrow. So if you were looking to get into the Pre app game, here's your first big chance.

In addition to the SDK news, Palm is introducing a new set of "integrated cloud services" for developers (called Mojo Messaging Service) which will use a standardized publish / subscribe system to allow data to be bounced from the "cloud" to devices. Basically, it looks like this is Palm's play for some of that push buzz -- though the indication is that this service can and will be used for bigger tasks as well.

Finally, the company announced that third-party developer MotionApps will be making a Palm OS emulator available for purchase to coincide with the launch of the Pre. The application will be utilize the mass storage mode of the device to allow for drag-and-drop of PRCs, though according to the press release, the emulator "won't be able to leverage core webOS functionality," meaning that you probably can't expect pure bliss across all of your applications, particularly those with roots that go deeper into phone databases and the like. What's interesting to note about this app is that it's being built on more than just the standard webOS SDK -- an event which Palm called "unique." They went on to assure us that this was a one-off to allow for emulation, but we're thinking they might want to reconsider that policy by factoring in the clamor for serious gaming on a device like the Pre. You can check an image of the emulator after the break.

So, no pricing, no release date, but lots of movement on the developer front -- which is big news if you're a company trying to launch a completely new operating system. Still, we're getting a bit antsy with all this waiting... it might be time to throw everyone a bigger bone than that tired "first half of 2009" line, guys.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/01/p...ation-for-pre/

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Palm release date, pricing announcement later today?

Posted By: wraggster

We don't know what it'll be, but Palm is teasing an announcement for later today. As stated on the official Palm blog:
"check back later today (or follow palm_inc on Twitter) for an update direct from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco."
Palm assures us that this isn't some kind of lame April Fools. As such, we're hoping for a release date (by country) and price or at the very least a free, general release of the Mojo SDK. Whatever it is, you'll find the details here just as soon as they are announced.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/01/p...t-later-today/

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Palm issues takedown for TealOS

Posted By: wraggster

f you're a fan of TealOS (you know, that fairly striking webOS-aping launcher for Palm devices), you're in for some bad news. According to a post on the company's TealTalk support forum, a rep tells users that Palm has issued a takedown of the lookalike. In their words:
I'm sorry to say that at Palm's request, as of this upcoming Monday, March 30, we will no longer be selling or distributing TealOS.
While we can certainly understand the motivations on Palm's part behind wanting to scuttle this copycat, we do find it a little odd. When we met with a Palm rep to retrieve the Pre earlier in the month, he actually had the software installed on his phone and seemed pretty excited about its existence. Our money here is actually on Palm's legal department being a bit hair-trigger, though we hardly think TealOS is posing a threat to the company's bottom line. Bottom line? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/27/p...wn-for-tealos/

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