May 07

Palm Pre banner hits Best Buy website, acts like a total tease

Posted in: BestBuy, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Sprint, Today's Chili

Given that Sprint and Palm are no stranger to Best Buy shelves, it was only natural that the Pre would be headed that way, and it looks like a sure thing now that a bright yellow Pre banner landed on Best Buy’s website. Oddly, the banner only seems to show its face under specific searches for “pre” or “palm pre,” and isn’t linked to any further info — like a super-convenient launch date and price or anything special like that. What it does suggest is that Palm may or may not be gearing up to reveal those very facts. Possibly.

[Via Everything Pre; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Palm Pre banner hits Best Buy website, acts like a total tease originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 May 2009 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Pre FAQ Surfaces on Sprint Employee’s Blog

Posted in: Phones, pre, Sprint, Today's Chili

palm pre

Inside Sprint Now is a blog written by a Sprint Nextel employee, the words bubbling up from deep inside the bowels of the beleaguered telco to float on the skeptical surface of anonymous internet publishing.

Our nameless nark has posted a Palm Pre FAQ, addressing some questions on the upcoming handset, specifically those that are most “frequently asked”. In this case, though, we suspect that they’re the most infrequently asked. For example: “In the Calendar, can I choose my own colors for the appointments?” The answer is an over-enthusiastic “Yes”, but really, who cares? What about the questions “How much will it cost?” or “When can I buy one?” Those are surely the real FAQs.

A few of the points are interesting though. When you hook up the Pre via USB (for syncing) the cell radio switches off, or is at least disabled:

All calls are routed to voicemail when the Pre is in USB Mode. Slight downer, I know – but how often are you really gonna have the Pre in USB Mode?

We can answer that! Every time I get near my computer, just like the iPhone. More:

The backup feature, does it cost anything more?

Nope, it’s all included for free as a part of the service provided by Palm included with your Pre.

That’s pretty neat. The list is worth a look, and at this point we’re happy to take any info we can get in the Pre. And there is one upside to the blandness of the Q&As — they’re pretty likely to be dead-on true, as nobody would make up something so dull.

Palm Pre FAQ: Round 2 [Inside Sprint Now via The Reg]

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired


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May 05

Pre deets continue to trickle out; Office 2007 support in the mix

Posted in: palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, rumor, rumors, Sprint, Today's Chili, video

Still no word on pricing or a release date, but the kind chappie running Inside Sprint Now has posted up a little Pre FAQ to tide us over. If you’re inclined to believe this information indeed comes from deep within Sprint customer service — and we’ve no reason to not to — you’ll find some interesting factoids in the mix, including full support for Office 2007, ringback tones, and custom ringtones. There’s also a promise of video recording support and wireless PictBridge printing sometime down the line. Great, great — but we’d really rather learn all this stuff on our own after release, you know?

[Via PalmInfoCenter]

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Pre deets continue to trickle out; Office 2007 support in the mix originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 03

Best Buy Mobile to get some Pre stock on June 7th?

Posted in: BestBuy, launch, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, rumor, Today's Chili

If this latest bit of Pre intel scored by Boy Genius Report is to be believed, it looks like you might be able to pick up one of 4,500 of Palm’s latest and greatest as early as June 7. According to a tip from a supposed Best Buy insider, the venerable retailer could be gearing up to launch the hotly anticipated handset in just over a month’s time, though it’s not clear whether this’ll coincide with Sprint’s full-scale launch or come before or after. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, they’ve got some possible numbers on what this beauty will run you: $199.99 for new customers with a 2-year plan, $299.99 for upgrades, and a cool $999.99 contract-free — though in our experience, Best Buy Mobile frequently has its pricing wrong ahead of launch, so these are definitely subject to change.

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Best Buy Mobile to get some Pre stock on June 7th? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 May 2009 18:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 01

Palm Eos headed to Sprint as well?

Posted in: att, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, rumor, speculation, Sprint, Today's Chili

Okay everyone — grain of salt goggles on? According to PhoneNews, not only is a GSM version of the Palm Eos (AKA Mini Pre, AKA Pixie, AKA Castle) coming to AT&T sometime in the near future, but Sprint will be getting its version of the Centro-like device come Q3 2009. The site claims that “sources within Sprint” have “confirmed” the launch window for a phone with specs similar to those on the device we hit yesterday, and that said device is actually in testing right now. Of course, just as we mentioned with the Eos news, this isn’t actually confirmed by anyone at Palm (or even close) right now… and you know how much the internet loves a rumor. Still, this would make a lot of sense as Sprint and Palm are all but joined at the hip, and it helps jibe some of the differing reports we / the blogosphere has heard about carriers. Obviously there’s much, much more to this story — you’ll know about it when we do.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Palm Eos headed to Sprint as well? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 30

Palm going Centro for next webOS handset?

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, rumor, Today's Chili, webos

The Boy Genius Report just got ahold of this ultra-blurry shot of what purports to be Palm’s next webOS device, with a supposed fall release date and zero other info to go on. From the looks of things the keyboard is stationary, but with the relative height-to-width ratio (and last night’s “Mini-Pre” rumor) we’re thinking the keyboard and screen might be shrunk down slightly — which, were we to conjecture further, could mean a webOS Centro. Or perhaps Palm’s gone large and produced something entirely more delicious.

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Palm going Centro for next webOS handset? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 29

Palm launching smaller Pre-like device later this year says rumor-mill

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, rumor, speculation, Today's Chili, webos

As if we didn’t have enough Pre rumors to sort through, along comes TechCrunch and Mikey A. with some hard hitting stuff. According to the TC honcho, one of his “better sources” claims that Palm is “very far along” on a second webOS device which is smaller and slimmer than the Pre and may or may not have a physical keyboard. Apparently, this won’t be the iPhone 3G to the first-gen iPhone, rather a device which addresses “a different part of the market.” Details are still sketchy, but Arrington claims that the “Mini-Pre” (his name) will land sometime this year — possibly as soon as the Fall. This is all complete rumor right now, but Palm has previously said that there would be more than one webOS device, so the idea of another model in the oven doesn’t exactly come as a surprise. Stay tuned for further updates as we get them.

Palm launching smaller Pre-like device later this year says rumor-mill originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 29

Palm Releasing Smaller Pre-Like WebOS Smartphone This Year

Posted in: palm, palm pre, pre, rumor, Today's Chili, top, webos

An apparently reliable source at Palm has told TechCrunch that Palm is “very far along” on a second, smaller Pre-like device to be marketed as soon as this fall, 2009. Pre nano, anybody?

Details are scarce, but the device is rumored to be both smaller and thinner than the Pre, which may mean we’re looking at a phone with the QWERTY keyboard replaced by a soft keyboard. It is assuredly not the “Pre 2,” since it’s too soon for Palm to be this far along on that project, but it will run Palm’s ballyhooed WebOS.

The main factor here seems to be the device’s size, hence TechCrunch’s moniker “Mini-Pre.” We’ll keep you updated when and if more info comes in on this mysterious Palm project. [TechCrunch]

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Apr 29

Palm Pre: $138 to build according to iSuppli

Posted in: cellphone, cellphones, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Today's Chili

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: $138 to build according to iSuppli originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 29

New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator

Posted in: palm, pre, Screenshots, sdk, Today's Chili, webos

Odds are you’re going to have the phone to your ear nine times out of ten when this screen’s showing, but it’s still somehow interesting — nay, mesmerizing — so we’re happy to see that a recent build of Palm’s webOS emulator for developers has a polished version of the call screen included. Other goodies in PreThinking’s new gallery include options for adding Google, Facebook, and Exchange calendars, the pop-up battery / WiFi / Bluetooth status display, Google Maps shots, and a bunch of miscellany that only true Pre aficionados could appreciate (you know who you are). Follow the break for another shot — and let’s hope the next time you’re cycling through screens, it’s on a Pre of your very own.

Continue reading New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator

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New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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