Hasta La Gadget!

Advertising Age has taken a deep dive into Palm’s latest string of unsettling, polarizing ads — you know, the ones with the girl — in an attempt to explain the company’s intention with the creepy spots. The industry paper spoke with Gary Koepke, the co-founder and executive creative director at Modernista, the company which developed and produced the short clips. According to Gary, he’s happy that viewers find the commercials upsetting, stating that “The Pre is probably being talked about more than other phones right now because of the marketing and advertising, and that’s a good thing. Could the ads work harder to show exactly how the phone works? Yes, but we knew it would be polarizing people to have a woman not shout at them and tell an interesting story.” Apparently the agency is taking its own stab at Microsoft’s Seinfeld / Bill Gates strategy, which means viewers don’t necessarily have to like (or even understand) the ads… as long as they keep talking about them. Of course, that game plan may work for a company like Microsoft, which arguably has nothing to lose if they run a few ill-received spots. Palm, on the other hand, won’t get a second chance to make a first impression with a lot of people, and since its fortune is currently riding on the device these ads attempt to sell to consumers, it’s a pretty risky proposition. C’mon, how could the folks that brought you the Foleo be wrong?

Continue reading Palm’s ad agency ‘loves that you’re creeped out’ by new TV spots

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm’s ad agency ‘loves that you’re creeped out’ by new TV spots originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

If you love the Pre, but hate Best Buy or Sprint, now you’ve got the option of nabbing one through an online reseller you can live with: Amazon. The device has just popped up on the super-retailer’s site, and like the aforementioned blue and yellow reseller, you don’t have to worry about any pesky mail-in rebates — the phone is $199.99 out the virtual door. Also of note, you can nab the non-contract version for $499.99, which is a $50 savings over the Sprint pricing, and certainly a value compared to Best Buy’s $749.99 price tag. Only bummer note? Amazon says these babies won’t ship for 4 to 6 weeks… which basically sucks.

[Via PhoneNews]

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre sales go live at Amazon originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Google Voice might have just been unceremoniously thrown out of the iPhone App Store, but that doesn’t mean development isn’t racing forward on other platforms — say hello to dkGoogleVoice, an unofficial client for the Palm Pre. Yeah, it’s buggy and has a bare-bones feature set, but hey — it exists, and it’s only going to get better. Can’t say that about your little phone, can you Steve?

[Via PreCentral]

Filed under: Cellphones

Unofficial Google Voice client for Palm Pre makes the scene originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’re doing our darnedest not to be recklessly optimistic here, but after weeks and weeks of nothing, a few new somethings have sauntered into Palm’s App Catalog. If you’ll recall, we actually heard earlier this month that said catalog was destined to get some serious additions in the near future, and we’re hoping that the surfacing of these two is a sign of things to come. Announced this morning over on Palm’s official blog, OpenTable and Fliq Bookmarks are now available to download on the Pre. The former allows hungry owners to secure themselves a spot at a nearby eatery, while the latter works with The Missing Sync for Palm Pre to transfer Safari bookmarks from your desktop (Mac for now, PC coming soon) to the Pre. Sure, it’s not like these two are the killer apps we’ve been longing for, but at this point, any progress is great progress.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Palm’s webOS gets a couple more apps — are the floodgates opening? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

While Palm is busily engaged in a game of domination with Apple to see which one can keep iTunes sync working or broken the longest, the Pre homebrew community hasn’t been sitting idle, introducing two new and painless ways to get homemade software up in your handset. The first is a desktop app called WebOS Quick Install that works on Mac, PC, and Linux, allowing installation with just a drag, a drop, and a click. The other is called fileCoaster, enabling users to download and install IPKs right on the phone itself, plus other files too. Two great apps for fans of unofficial softwares and good tidings for a warm future of basement innovation — only a month after the first custom apps came to light.

Filed under: Cellphones

Installing Pre homebrew apps: now even easier originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments