Wondering how far the mighty Palm Pre is? Here’s a note suggesting that the waiting may be almost over. preThinking informs that Sprint has answered on whether its employees have already began taking classes on the Pre. The purpose of the training, of course, is to make employees capable of serving customers better, regarding Palm’s upcoming smarty. It seems like the lessons have begun, meaning that Sprint has moved a step closer to the Pre’s actual launch. Here’s what the source gives as Sprint’s answer:

“I would like to inform that Sprint is in the process of providing the training for the new Palm Pre. Once it’s launched, Sprint will be ready to serve their valued customers regarding the Palm Pre.”

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With summer just around the corner, Sprint is gearing up their new advertising campaign right now for the spring. The carrier touts how mighty its 3G network is and how it is the best carrier in the world  - the one that will offer the webOS powered Pre exclusively. 

The Sprint Now Network(TM) is more than just a physical network – it features America’s most dependable 3G network,^* the largest push-to-talk community, and it is the only national carrier to offer wireless 4G services and award-winning phones and devices, including the most-anticipated wireless product of the year – the Palm Pre.

http://now.sprint.com/nownetwork/

In a move that appears to have backfired all over the faces of Palm executives, radio personality Howard Stern was given a Palm Pre to test out. The idea was to give him the device at his home, let him play with all of that yummy Pre goodness that everyone is expecting the handset to have, and then talk about it on his radio show. It would be like running free commercials, what could go wrong? After all, Stern has a Palm Treo so surely this was a no-brainer, right? Wrong. After testing out the Pre, the shock-jock decided on the BlackBerry Bold as his next cellphone because, according to Stern, the Palm Pre was a nice phone but it could not connect to Lotus Notes.  I’m sure Stern will change his opinion once the Pre launches…

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Ohhh, I want it so much! Palm teases us really well and now there is a new video demonstration of the Pre posted. Once again, it demos the synergy and the multitasking.

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During his keynote speech at the Web 2.0. Expo in San Fransisco, Palm’s Sr. VP of  Application Software and Services, Michael Abbott, announced that the manufacturer is exapanding the number of third party developers with access to the Palm Mojo SDK. While the software writer’s kit was originally given out to a small, select group of developers, Palm is going to broaden the distribution of the tool to those who put in a request at the Palm Developer Network web site at developer.palm.com. Access will still be limited and as the tools for providing third party apps become more refined, general availability should occur later this year. Abbott made it clear how important it is for his company to get the SDK into developer’s hands to write programs for the webOS platform. Palm also announced that when it does distribute the Mojo SDK to more software writers later this year, it will include a program called Mojo Messaging Service which allows information to be published to an internet “cloud” that will allow developers to push live content to their apps.

After showing off the Pre’s compatibility with some third party apps like Pandora, Amazon and Fandango at the CTIA, two executives from movie ticketing company Fandango and streaming radio company Pandora were singing praises about the device. The latter firms’ executive marveled at the multitasking capabilities of the device while the exec from Fandango talked about the streamlined way a person could get showtimes, buy tickets, and get directions to a theater while passing the info to friends and family. Sprint TV also was given a workout on the Pre although the picture was a little choppy at times.

With all this talk about the Pre’s inner and outer workings, perhaps we will soon learn such mundane things like a launch date and pricing info.

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It was assumed that when the Pre was introduced back at the CES, along with the webOS, that the jig was up for the Palm OS. Oh yes, there were many who had hoped that there would be some kind of support for the older software so that a vast library of apps and software could still be salvaged on the Pre and other devices running webOS. Today, Palm announced that MotionApps will create an emulator application called “Classic” that will allow most of the PalmOS software to run on the new operating system. MotionApp Classic will be available for purchase once the Pre has the green light to be sold at Sprint stores and their web site, which should be sometime in the first half of this year. Palm is working with partners to make sure that the popular Palm OS applications are available on the webOS platform and that they are optimized to take advantage of all that the new OS has to offer. In the meantime, the MotionAps emulator will make sure that those with a library full of the older software will still be able to put it to use in new webOS devices.