Hasta La Gadget!

You know the hacked Pre firmware releases that have been coming out lately, first for 1.3.5.1 and then recently for 1.4? We tested out that later one and found the results to be good, and indeed one of the creators, caj2008, sent us plenty of data from early testers showing minimal heat gains and battery losses. Still, Palm isn’t exactly thanking these guys for their hard work, going so far as to issue a warning:

While we appreciate the effort the webOS community has put forth to try and help us along that path, the use of this application is neither endorsed nor recommended by Palm and will likely result in a voided warranty.

Frankly you can’t be surprised that Palm isn’t thrilled about users cranking up the clock multiplier on their phones, nor can you think less of the company for indicating that those doing so might face some warranty issues going forward. And, as we’ve said before, despite all data that these mods are safe users should exhibit caution before dialing up the megahertz. After all, you wouldn’t put a manual controller on your turbo’d car, double the PSI, and then try to get your blown headgasket warrantied… right?

Palm isn’t hot on Pre overclocking, indicates warranties are at risk originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This fantastic ad for the WebOS comes not from Palm, a company which has proven itself unable to make a compelling commercial for the Pre, but from a fan.

Heiko Thies is the fellow behind this video spot, which manages to be both exciting and slightly edgy. It also totally makes me want to buy a Pre.

The ad does what an ad should, especially when it is for a product as cool and capable as the Pre: It shows the phone in action. The jerky handheld camera is great, too, somehow setting it apart from the superslick iPhone ads.

We expect the shaky-cam made rotoscoping the animations tricky, though. It comes over like a cross between Minority Report and District 9, both great films already.

If Palm aired commercials like these — instead of the creepy lady commercials they ran last year — the company might have a chance of capturing the hearts and minds of geeks everywhere. Of course, it might have to do a few more things to stay alive, as early adopter and Epicenter editor John C. Abell argued last week.

Nice work, Heiko. I’m off to watch it again right now. Palm: Hire this guy right now.

Fan-made ad for Palm webOS by ThiesFX [YouTube via Mashable]

We’ve been hearing that China Telecom would be grabbing hold of Palm and RIM’s respective stables of smartphones since early last year, but at long last we’ve some official quotes to prove those whispers correct. According to a new report over at the Wall Street Journal, Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu has affirmed that it will offer an undisclosed amount of BlackBerry devices in China this May, while Palm’s Pre (no word on the Pixi) will hit this July. These deals could certainly bode well for the carrier; as it stands, it’s going up against China Mobile — which already sells BlackBerry handsets — and China Unicom, which is home to Apple’s iPhone. Unfortunately, pricing details weren’t available, but we’re guessing those will pop sooner rather than later.

China Telecom launching Palm Pre, BlackBerry handsets this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UPDATE: A source within Palm (who is known to us but wants to remain off the record) has contacted us to say that “there is no memo and no plans to adopt Android. We are very happy with and committed to webOS.”

An anonymously sourced, unconfirmed memo partially quoted on Slashdot purports to show that Palm is ready to ditch the failing WebOS — which powers its Pre smartphone — and instead become yet another Android handset maker. The full memo was promised to be posted on Wikileaks at midnight ET last night. It is still not there. Here is the purported “quote” from Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein:

While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system, consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and our customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform.

Despite the rather suspicious origins of this information, it does seem like one of the only ways out for Palm, which really did bet the farm on the WebOS. Back at CES 2009, the Pre was the star of the show, with almost unanimous praise from the tech press. It multi-tasks, it has the UI polish you’d expect from a bunch of ex-Apple engineers and it has some genuinely clever features: the windows-as-card-stacks metaphor, and the notification bar, for example. Everybody thought the Pre would save Palm.

But it failed to sell, to the extent that Palm has actually ceased production temporarily and is trying to help telcos shift inventory.

Could a move to Android keep Palm from closing down? Android is hot right now, and while the Motorola Droid and the Google Nexus are no iPhones is terms of sales, they’re getting a lot of press. Just like the Pre did, in fact.

It’d be a risky move. In swapping to Android, Palm would be throwing out the one unique thing that it has to sell. The WebOS is way more important than the Pre (or its little sister, the Pixi): those are just boxes. And if the iPhone has taught us anything, it’s that the box doesn’t matter: It’s all in the OS. Palm’s failure wasn’t in making a bad OS. It was poor marketing. That weird, giant woman on the TV ads? Confusing, if not scary. The iPhone ads, on the other hand, tell us exactly what the phone does, and no more.

Our advice? Stick with WebOS and just fix your ad campaign, showing people that you can use the phone as a five-device MiFi-style hot-spot or that you can use it to tether your iPad. Show the phone in action and people will buy it.

Or license that OS and go up against Android itself. Handset makers will be getting the jitters right now after Apple’s lawsuit against HTC. Offer them something free of patent infringements, something that is here today (unlike Windows Phone 7), and you might just turn Palm into the Microsoft of the cellphone world.

Rumor: Palm ditching webOS for Android? [Slashdot]

See Also:

• Palm Can Still Win: Here Are Five Things They Need To Do …
• Palm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the Pre
• Palm Acknowledges the Pre Isn't an 'Anything' Killer. But Is It …
• 6 Reasons Why the Palm Pre Is Special

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Oh Palm. Just a little over a year ago your future seemed so bright, so renewed. You walked away from CES 2009 reborn, held aloft by a completely innovative new mobile operating system, a striking piece of hardware, and a feeling amongst the press and investors that you were back in the game and playing to win. Now, less than a year and a half later, you’ve nearly returned to the dark and desperate place you’d found yourself in at the end of 2008; a rapidly declining mindshare, the bottom falling out of your stock, and bad dips in phone sales. All of it is leaving you backed into a corner where the common perception now is that you’ve got to sell to survive at all. So what went wrong? How did such a promising launch lead to such a disappointing reality? And how can you wrestle your way back from the brink yet again? Is that even an option?

In 2007 the editors of Engadget penned an impassioned open letter to the company, pleading for many of the changes we eventually saw at Palm. This isn’t a follow-up, but it’s very much in the spirit. We’re going to take a look at the missteps that put the company in its current spot, and talk about what we think can pull it back out. Palm, it’s time for a little tough love… again.

Continue reading Palm: this is your survival guide

Palm: this is your survival guide originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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