Our hunger for the Palm Pre is unsatisfiable, and while we are still waiting for its official roll out (hopefully, in the second quarter of the year), at least we’ll get the chance to check it out once again in the Upcoming Webcast event with David Owens, Director of Consumer Acuisitions for Sprint, and Matt Crowley, Product Line Manager at Palm. It’s not clear if the officials will be showing off some new Pre abilities, but we know that we’ll see it run on Sprint’s 3G network for sure. The event is scheduled for today (March 12) at 2PM Eastern Time. Stay with us for our live report of the event, which will actually consist of a 20-minute presentation and 20 minutes more for Q&A.

At the MWC, which has just ended a few hours ago, we noticed a GSM version of the Palm Pre (even though it had not been officially announced), which will most probably be offered in Europe by Vodafone. Unfortunately, in the U.S. we won’t see the much-anticipated smartphone during 2009… with a logo different from the Sprint one. According to a source of CNBC, who wished to stay anonymous, the carrier, that has recently announced a net loss of $1.6 billion, will get the exclusive rights for the Palm Pre distribution until the end of the year. However, nothing is mention for the period after it. Bad news for every other carrier and a good one for Sprint, especially if the Palm Pre turns out to be that wished as the iPhone.

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Sadly, Palm has obviously decided that it would be best if it does not officially introduce the GSM version of the Palm Pre at this year’s MWC. Just about four days ago, however, we informed you that the GSM device was actually shown at the event. There, such device had been spotted running with a Vodafone SIM card and speculations began that the phone would be exclusively available with the carrier in Europe. So we still don’t have any more specific information, but, it seems that we are now a step closer to the official appearance of the GSM version of the Palm Pre, as it has surfaced on Palm’s UK site. For now, there’s just a tiny bit of information about the device and an option to subscribe for the latest news. It is not much, but it’s something at least.

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Just the other day, Sprint’s web site showed data tethering as a feature of the Palm Pre under the heading of Technical Specification. Now, there is no mention of tethering for this highly anticipated new smartphone. In its place is a blurb about the Pre’s MicroUSB port. Removing any tethering capabilities from the Pre would seem to be a way for Sprint to sell their Simply Everything + Mobile Broadband plan. As we reported earlier this week, that plan now includes 5GB of internet access per month for a laptop. Even with the anticaption surrounding the Pre, this is a big enough disappointment to many smartphone fans that you can now hear a pin drop.

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Bad news people, Palm is not going to officially announce the GSM version of its latest smartphone, the Pre, at the MWC. However, you could still see GSM Pre devices here at the show, and what is interesting is that the device has been spotted with a Vodafone Spain SIM card and Vodafone ES, listed as the active carrier on a demo device. Unfortunately, the manufacturer would not give out any information about a possible agreement with the carrier. The same goes for Vodafone itself, as it denies that anything has been settled. Still, this seems like a rather appropriate move from its side, since its arch-rival, O2, has an exclusive deal with Apple for its iPhone 3G.

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The major announcement and pretty much the only interesting one during the whole show was the Palm Pre introductions and the WebOS platform which it runs. Everything started at 11 PST, with a conference room packed with press, eagerly expecting the “Nova”, which was the code name of the new OS. Jon Rubinstein came on stage briefly, to introduce Ed Colligan, President and CEO. The main points in his introduction of the new OS and device were simple: most consumers do not use one device for specific purpose, but combine work and personal stuff, multimedia, office documents and contact information and all those pieces of information are usually scattered in different repositories (folders, e-mail accounts, services, IMs), requiring each one to be accessed separately. Palm’s idea is to have all different parts to come together seeminglessly into one device.

Their second intention and we think their main one is to make the underlying technology invisible to the users – no need to have to save before exiting, no need to try to sniper a small X located in the right corner to just minimize it and you get the idea. This is the whole idea of the Web OS – optimized for human beings from the 21st century who do not use just their local phonebook for contact information, but Gmail, Facebook, multiple IM and have information everywhere which needs to be brought and naturally accessed from one place. Please welcome the Pre and Palm’s new WebOS operating system. Read the full story