Hasta La Gadget!

We heard way back at CES that a GSM Pre was in the works, but not until now have we heard who exactly in the world would be using it. According to confirmation received by T3, Palm is gearing up to disclose the whos, whats and wheres behind the UK launch next week, meaning that we’ve got seven days (give or take) to twiddle our thumbs until we know which carrier (O2 or Vodafone, most likely), how much and when it’ll be available for purchase. We know it’s agonizing, but at least you’ve a time frame to circle in your Trapper Keeper now, right?

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm to disclose UK Pre launch details next week? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not that we haven’t heard a few miraculous gadgets-saving-lives stories before, but this one is in a league of its own. According to the always-embellishing Sun, one David Fitzherbert is thanking his smartphone after coming entirely too close to falling 700 feet to his death. As the story goes, he got wedged between a pair of rocks after losing control of his skis in the Matterhorn, and while we aren’t quite sure why he chose RIM’s BlackBerry over — say, chap-stick, car keys, his wallet or a fattening breakfast — he credited it with adding just enough width to his person to keep him wedged. Two hours after finding himself between a rock and a hard place, rescue crews arrived and flew him to a hospital where he used the “0.5-inch wide” phone to tell his wife that he had survived a nasty spill. We still say David owes a round of thanks to genetics, luck and Zeus, but hey, what do we know?

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry credited with saving skier’s life, serendipity left hanging originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell has begun developing a pocket-sized, ARM-based device powered by the Android operating system, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The Journal article carefully avoided calling the device a smartphone, and positioned it in the context of the Apple iPod touch, a handheld music player and computing device that lacks the native ability to place and receive calls.

What the device is, what it does, what it will be priced: all questions that the Journal‘s source was unable to answer. The plan could also be scrapped entirely, the Journal reported, essentially offering the story with a somewhat large grain of salt.

What’s interesting, however, is that the Journal reports that Dell began work on the device last year. That’s certainly before AT&T Mobility’s chief executive reported in Feburary that Dell was working on a smartphone, which may or not be the same thing.

Rumors about Dell doing something with Android or smartphones have been swirling for over a year now, fed in part by similar unsourced stories in the Journal.

A story in the British magazine MarketingWeek had a Dell Android smartphone appearing in February 2008 – yes, 2008. We debunked that one right here on Gearlog.

The Wall Street Journal then claimed in January 2009 that Dell would “move into cellphones as early as next month,” which clearly didn’t happen. The next step in the Dell vaporware rumor chain came this April, when a market analyst said carriers had decided to pass on Dell’s invisible, chimerical smartphone.

Finally, this May, Dell showed off a Mini 10 netbook running Android–just to stoke the flames.

Interesting piece in the New York Times today about Acer — the company is about to ride the tidal wave of netbooks and other el-cheapo computers straight to the number two spot on the PC sales chart. That’s a big deal — no non-US company has ever made it so high — and it’s interesting that the strategies Acer took to get there are the same things Dell’s been trying to do lately: it’s heavy on low-cost, stylish laptops and netbooks, it keeps inventory extremely lean, and it relies on an extensive set of retail partnerships in Europe. What’s more, the Aspire One has been the best-selling netbook for a while now, and we’d say Acer’s way out in front of the CULV thin-and-light race with the Timeline — in fact, we’d say the only open question here is whether the company can take all this computing success and translate it to something worthwhile in the smartphone space. Based on what we’ve seen so far, we’ve got our doubts, but we’ll see what those super-secret Android sets look like before we place our bets.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Acer poised to beat Dell, become number two PC maker originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unlocked phones are always a tough sell in the U.S. due to the high up-front pricing, despite all of their benefits. Nonetheless, Palm is doing its part to help by slashing the price of the unlocked Palm Treo Pro from $549 to $399, Brighthand reports.

That move could help spur sales for enterprise users, as well as global travelers that like to switch out SIM cards overseas and avoid paying horrendous roaming charges to AT&T or T-Mobile.

The Treo Pro is a solid smartphone even in unlocked form, as I found in my PCMag.com review. It’s quad-band EDGE and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA device with a 400 MHz CPU, a reasonably comfortable keyboard, and some subtle but significant UI enhancements on top of Windows Mobile.

Sprint’s subsidized version of the Treo Pro remains at $200 with a two-year contract–in that case, it’s a tough sell against the stellar Palm Pre.

For more on Palm, Apple, Research in Motion, and other top handset vendors, be sure to visit Smart Device Central, PCMag.com’s dedicated site for smartphones and other mobile technologies.