Hasta La Gadget!

Well, we’re circling in, folks. Hot on the heels of learning that Sprint employees have the Palm Pre in hand for training, there’s word from all sides that Sprint has put a vacation blackout on the month of May for retail employees, which would seem to imply that the Pre will be launched sometime in there. We saw similar vacation freezes on AT&T’s end for both iPhone launches, and those ended up fairly accurate. We haven’t seen this memo personally, or threatened any Sprint employees for confirmation with shivs fashioned out of Samsung Instincts yet, so we’ll keep an eye out for any other information to confirm or deny. Meanwhile, check out this Pre holster!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sprint puts a vacation blackout on May — Palm Pre launch likely? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We hadn’t necessarily taken the Pre crowd as the attention-span-of-a-gnat sort, but in case our psychology is dead off, Sprint has formulated a truly mind-blowing 60 seconds of video that runs down a series of meaningless stats — the number of emails just sent containing “miracle banana diet,” for example — and ties it all together neatly at the end as a plug for the carrier’s 3G and 4G networks. Perhaps more importantly, the Pre makes two brief appearances in the ad — but if you’re looking to take your visual overload to the next level, you can have a peep at Sprint’s updated “Plug into Now” site, which blasts you with a seemingly endless series of widgets that keep you abreast of stats like the number of lung transplants that occurred today, the number of shopping days until Christmas, and the current national debt. Clicking on the Pre takes you to a dedicated series of Pre widgets complete with a spinning Pre — nothing new, really, but if you simply must have fast access to Pre mentions on Twitter, this might just be your dream come true. Follow the break for Sprint’s ad, but make sure you’re not too amped on caffeine first.

[Via PreCentral, thanks James]

Continue reading Sprint goes a little crazy with new Pre advertising

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sprint goes a little crazy with new Pre advertising originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If that first Meet Pre video wasn’t soothing enough, Palm‘s released the second episode of its chill-inducing series, “This Weekend,” showing off third party like Fandango and Pandora, as well as offering a sharper look at messaging and how SMS and internet clients like Google Talk / AIM are placed into one cohesive chat log with each contact. As with last time, integration is the key point to take from here, and of course being able to play Pandora in the background while browsing other apps has gotta be one of the most enjoyable features, especially for anyone who’s been struggling with the iPhone’s lack of multitasking. Sure, the video’s great, but whether or not it’ll function that well in practice is still up in the air. Hit up the read link to see it for yourself.

Filed under: Cellphones

Second “Meet Pre” video retains calming effects, shows off third party apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dedicated Palm OS users, it looks like your long, solitary walk through this world might not end in tragedy or violence. According to Dieter over at PreCentral, during a new video demo of the company’s forthcoming phone, an icon of what appears to be an older Palm device with the label “Classic” below it can be seen within the webOS launcher. Since we know they’ve got a forthcoming announcement today at the Web 2.0 Expo — and we can be pretty sure Palm won’t be dropping price or release date information without Sprint around — it looks like this might be what all the fuss is about: support for legacy Palm OS apps in the new operating system. Of course, right now this is speculation mixed with hopefulness, but we should know in a few hours when Palm’s SVP of application software and services Mike Abbott gives a keynote at the conference. Until then, just hold tight.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm OS emulation coming to the Pre and webOS? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember wild-man McNamee’s predictions last week of death to the iPhone and all sorts of other Pre-related wonderment? We read and we chuckled and we moved on, but someone took his statements a little more seriously — Palm. Yes, the company Roger was talking up, the company in which his firm Elevation Partners owns a particularly large stake, submitted a document to the SEC that summarily disputes all of his hyperactive talking points. It’s full of facts and figures and is completely dry, but, like an episode of Yes Minister, is also full of comedic brilliance. Here’s the company’s reaction to our favorite bit, about the death of the iPhone:

The statement in the second paragraph of the article that “not one” person who bought an Apple, Inc. iPhone on the first shipment date “will still be using an iPhone a month” after the two-year anniversary of that day is an exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.

It’s good to know that, even in these tough times, there’s still some comedy left in the corporate world. More boardroom humor after the break.

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Continue reading Roger McNamee’s wild predictions shot down — by Palm itself

Filed under: Cellphones

Roger McNamee’s wild predictions shot down — by Palm itself originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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