Hasta La Gadget!

The Palm Pre won’t be out for several months yet, but that isn’t stopping a few clever hackers from working out how to boot Android onto the pebble-shaped slider. As it turns out, efforts to port Android to the OMAP 3 processor used in the Pre have been underway since July of last year, so tailoring the build to the Pre shouldn’t be too hard — the difficult parts will be gaining serial access to the bootloader to enable switching between OS’s and cramming both systems plus whatever apps and media you might have into the Pre’s fixed 8GB of storage, since there’s no microSD expansion. All problems we’re eager to see tackled just as soon as the Pre launches — doesn’t seem like it can happen soon enough, does it?

[Thanks, Chris]

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre Android port already in progress originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As much as we’ve heard about (and played with) the Pre this month, there’s still a whole lot yet to be revealed about webOS; Palm clearly has a little bit of work left to finish and polish the platform, so what we know so far has much more to do with UI glitz, glamor, and flashiness than the actual trench warfare of using a phone day in and day out. Yahoo’s Tech Ticker had a chance to chat with Elevation Partners’ Roger McNamee — a figure whose cash infusion has been central to Palm’s survival this past year or so as they’ve raced to throw together the Pre — and in between Houdini-esque reveals of seemingly hundreds of smartphones on his person, he’s slipped a couple cool location-oriented features we can expect in webOS. First up, the phone can be configured to check out your calendar every morning and automatically download all sorts of information about the people, places, and companies you’re going to visit, including maps — an especially awesome feature if you’re dealing with spotty 3G coverage. Even cooler, though, has to be the lateness notifier — the phone uses GPS to determine where you are, compares it to where you’re supposed to be at the moment, and if it figures out that you’re screwed, it’ll let you know. What’s more, it can automatically email people to let them know that you’ve screwed up (just blame it on the traffic — we always do). Follow the break for Tech Ticker’s full interview.

[Via PreCentral.net]

Continue reading Palm investor McNamee details Pre’s neat location-based features

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm investor McNamee details Pre’s neat location-based features originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the biggest issues with the iPhone is its battery life. Most 3G iPhone users have to charge their phones at least once a day.

Will the Palm Pre, the upcoming highly anticipated touchscreen phone from Palm, be any different?

The Pre could have a 1150mAh battery, similar to that of the Palm Centro, says TreoCentral. That compares to iPhone’s 1400mAh battery and T-Mobile HTC G1’s 1150mAh lithium ion battery. Palm representatives declined to comment about the battery.

We will have to wait and see whether the battery life on the Pre could be lower than its peers and how the device handles power consumption. The upside is that because the battery is removable, it can be easily replaced.

Meanwhile, other reports suggest that the Pre may be available exclusively at Best Buy in addition to Palm stores nationwide.

See Also:
Palm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the Pre
Six Reasons Why The Palm Pre Is Special
Video: Hands-On With the Palm Pre
New WebOS Is Palm’s Secret Sauce
Up Close and Personal With the Palm Pre

[via Palm Infocenter]

Photo: Palm Pre (dekuwa/Flickr)

In case you missed the keynote, Palm took some special moments to let everyone know that they’re not trying to compete with Apple — which is of course exactly what they’re doing with the Pre and webOS. Sure, there’s plenty of room in the market for multiple operating systems and manufacturers, as both companies have pointed out, but we can’t help but think that Palm took a long hard look at where Apple was at with its ultra-successful mobile OS and what they could improve upon, and we would like to assume that Apple is looking very carefully at webOS right now (and hopefully the Pre’s physical keyboard, but we’re dreamers) and comparing it with its current iPhone OS. So, if you’ll indulge us, let’s look at a few of the iPhone’s existing shortcomings that Apple might try and shore up — or perhaps already has fixes in the works for — now that there’s some very serious competition on the scene. Plus, with Steve on the sidelines, we can imagine there’s some extra pressure on the company to prove that innovation at Apple is not just about one man.

These are by no means the only two phones that matter right now, but there are enough parallels and common ancestry (a certain John Rubinstein) to make this a natural first round of comparison. All the magic happens after the break.

Continue reading What Apple could learn from Palm’s webOS

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

What Apple could learn from Palm’s webOS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know Palm’s on to something when reputable sites start to splinter around its newly announced OS and handset. PhoneArena’s fledgling sister site, WebOS Arena, has it from a “credible source” that Best Buy will be the exclusive retailer for the Palm Pre. That means that Best Buy will be the only place other than Sprint where you’ll find the Pre for purchase on US soil for the first 60 days after launch (whenever that might be). Assuming the rumor is true of course.

[Via PhoneArena]

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre a Best Buy exclusive? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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