Palm Pre Plus

Palm Pixi Plus

We like it when rumors turn out true. In this case, we now have an official confirmation that the Palm Pre Plus will arrive alive and well on Verizon’s network on January 25. The same goes to its little brother, the Pixi Plus. We bet you are dying to learn what the differences are, when compared to Sprint’s variants of the handsets? Well, unfortunately the answer is “not many”. The Pre Plus will double the internal memory to 16GB and will miss the button below the screen. As for the Pixi Plus, it adds Wi-Fi support. Both phones will run on the freshly-announced version 1.4 of webOS.

The bad thing now is Palm and Verizon have not announced the prices of the phones, but hopefully we’ll get to know that soon.

source: Palm Blog

It became clear now that in addition to releasing versions of the Pre and Pixi through Verizon, Palm will also be outing version 1.4 of its still young operating system. What this will bring to the users is the much-wanted video recording and editing capabilities that were up to this point, missing.

Hey, any gamers out there? If you’ve thought simple web-based entertainment is all webOS can offer on the gaming front, well you’ve been wrong. Thanks to a new Plug-in Development Kit, Palm’s App Catalog is now offering seven 3D games, including NFS: Undercover, The Sims 3 and Asphalt 5: Elite Racing. So, why don’t you go check them out and report how your device handles them?

Another important update on its way to Palm’s is Flash 10.1 support for the browser. Now, that’s what we’re talking about, Palm, keep them coming! Still, bear in mind that it isn’t known exactly when Flash will be available. Expect it in the coming months as a free plug-in in the App Catalog.

Don’t leave this page just yet, as there is another thing that might appeal to future Pre Plus and Pixi Plus users. Palm and Verizon have unveiled an app, called Mobile Hotspot, which will basically allow your smartphone to turn into a Wi-Fi router for up to 5 devices simultaneously. Sounds cool to us!

Our sister site, PhoneArena, has posted up a Verizon document that details the specifications for the new Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus smartphones. The Pre Plus will double the internal memory of the Sprint model to 16GB, include a 3.1″ capacitive display with 320×480 resolution and multi-touch support, slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, EVDO Rev A, a 3MP camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, music and video playback, and document viewer.

If the Palm Pixi Plus is more to your fancy, you can expect 8GB of internal memory, a 2.63″ capacitive display with 320×480 resolution and multi-touch support, front-facing physical QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, EVDO Rev A, a 2MP camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, music and video playback, and document viewer.

Just like their predecessors, neither the Pre Plus or the Pixi Plus have a means of expanding the memory and they both lack video recording. Otherwise, look forward to these new-and-improved handsets on Verizon.

A leaked Verizon document reveals detailed specifications about the carriers upcoming Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus models. The Pre Plus will come with 16GB of internal memory, as the original Pre on Sprint only had 8GB, a 3.1″ capacitive display with 320z480 resolution and multi-touch support, slide out QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, EVDO Rev A, 3MP camera with LED Flash, Bluetooth, video and music playback, and document viewer. On the other hand the Pixi Plus will come with 8GB of internal memory, 2.63″ capacitive display with 320z480 resolution and multi-touch support, QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, EVDO Rev A, 2MP camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, deo and music playback, and document viewer. Unfortunately, both the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus do not have a microSD memory card slot and do not support video recording.
Thanks to one of our tipsters!

Good news coming out of AT&T’s Developers Summit that’s being held right now in Las Vegas! Ralph de la Vega has just announced that two webOS handsets are expected to land on AT&T sometime within the first half of 2010. With the Palm Pre’s debut quickly approaching the one year mark, it’s been a long wait to see a GSM version come out for AT&T. So far there is no concrete information if it’s going to be either of the existing current Palm smartphones, the Pre and Pixi, that’ll make its way to AT&T. Frankly though, customers from the number two wireless carrier in the country have been on the back seat during this mobile platform war going all out. Not only is this considered a victory for AT&T, but Palm will be getting more face time in between customer now that they’re on-board with three out of the four major providers.
source: Engadget

Business Week is reporting that Verizon will start offering the webOS powered duo of the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi sometime this month. A BW source says that Big Red will introduce the models at this week’s CES in Las Vegas. Both models will have additional memory when compared to the current version of the devices, which have been available exclusively in the U.S. at Sprint since the launch of both phones.

For Palm, this is the second chance for the Pre to take off. When originally introduced last year, it was immediately considered the equal of the iPhone and hopes were high for big sales of the device. But the reality never caught up with the expectations and the Pre languished after being launched in June. Maribel Lopez, founder of Lopez Research LLC, a San Francisco-based consulting and research firm, says Palm has “to prove that this platform has legs and they can do something with it.” According to BW’s source, Big Red will determine the pricing for the phones this week. At Verizon, the Pre and Pixi will have to compete with the current flagship model, the Motorola DROID and the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm2. the carrier has been heavily marketing the Android based Motorola phone while practically ignoring the Storm sequel. The Business Week story also says that AT&T might start selling Palm’s phones in the first half of the year. This would mean that Palm would have to start producing GSM models of the webOS handsets for the American market.
source: BusinessWeek

Just like an inexplicable bad cold, software bugs can require some hasty updates to combat and fix their issues. So that’s why it isn’t too surprising that the Palm Pre and Pixi are getting another makeover so soon. Now the main culprit behind the expected webOS 1.3.5.1 is a bug that’s causing calendar events to get cleared soon after syncing to an Exchange account. For the business type, that probably would pose not only a major problem, but can throw off some who readily relies on their calendars for guidance. Other than that one bug being fixed in this update, there are no other features to be found to really make this minor update stand out. So check your phone to see if the update is available to download.
source: Palm via Engadgetmobile

With the Palm Pre readily available in most parts of Europe now, it was just only a matter of time before we see paid apps being made available in Europe for the webOS powered handset. Attempting to move forward in the paid apps market, Palm is looking towards a target date of March 2010 before we start seeing them readily available. Through Palm’s own developer networking blog, they make some clear indications about the opportunities that developers can expect with “faster cycle times” so they can provide high quality applications. With the attraction of monetary compensation, Palm plans on offering greater freedom and how apps are marketed – so that developers can promote and grow their business. Let’s just hope that the end result for the user is there – meaning that the App Catalog won’t be bombarded with a bunch of worthless apps. With over 600 apps available in 2 months in the US, we should expect to see a boom out of the European Market in the very near future.
source: Palm Developer Network Blog via Engadgetmobile

Earlier reports have hinted to over 600,000 Palm units being amassed and ready to ship to Big Red – that figure was down from the original 800,000 due to units not meeting Verizon’s equipment verification process. In any case, now it looks like a tipster has informed BGR that both the Palm Pre and Pixi have begun surfacing in Verizon’s inventory systems. Additionally, the same source has been heard saying that Verizon ordered roughly 200,000 units a piece for both the Pre and Pixi units – a grand total of 400,000 awaiting to be shipped out. It’s really unclear as to how or why this figure is down heavily from the speculated original 800,000. We’d surmise that maybe Verizon is taking the conservative approach on their bid on selling enough Palm units. If it does well, we’re sure that Big Red will continue to order units as the demand for them increases.
source: BGR

An anonymous tipster passed along to Engadget a picture of Sprint’s internal computer system that reveals a pink version of the Palm Pixi. With Valentine’s Day just a little less than 6 weeks away, offering up a version of the webOS device for the ladies seems not only like chivalry, but also good business sense. With the square industrial design of the Motorola DROID considered to be attractive to males, why shouldn’t Palm and Sprint offer a handset with soft feminine curves, in pink. Besides, with a name like Pixi, the phone even sounds like it has been made for the ladies. No, we’re not saying that there is anything wrong with a man owning the device. We’re merely pointing out that giving a pink Palm Pixi to your Wife or SO would probably be well appreciated on Valentine’s Day. Well appreciated.
source: Engadget