Out of the blue the possible first device from Palm after HP acquired the once glorious, but embattled smartphone pioneer, slid through the cracks to appear on the website of the French carrier SFR. Called the Palm Pre 2, it doesn’t break radically with the tradition, but instead enhances it where it had to.

The Palm Pre 2 will enter the world of modern smartphones with a 1GHz processor, possibly Texas Instrument’s OMAP3630, coupled to 512MB of RAM, which has reduced the boot time, and will undoubtedly improve performance.
The design is more streamlined than the previous Palm Pre phones, and the screen is listed as “flatter”. There is a regular microUSB port, and the overall finish beams quality, compared to the pre-acquisition versions. Sporting not only hardware enhancements, but also a brand spanking new webOS 2.0, its major innovation is touted as push Facebook. We suppose that means real-time feed from the all-important social network, with all its status updates, wall postings, calendar sync, and chat. Not something a dedicated app would not do, but knowing Palm, they have probably nailed the “push” feature seamlessly in webOS 2.0.

All in all, it seems like a noble next addition to the Palm stable, without breaking completely with the root looks, while giving the already excellent webOS the hardware it deserves. Are you liking the direction Palm is taking with its new device?

via PreCentral

It’s hard to say concretely as to what is Palm’s strategy for the upcoming holiday season, but from the looks of it all, the Palm Pre Plus might not be making itself presentable in a couple of markets for this crucial time period.

Reports are coming in that O2 UK has removed the webOS powered smartphone off its web site and is in the process of pulling it out of stores – with the intention of not selling it anymore. Quite interesting to see that it’s looking to get the boot quickly, but the Palm Pixi Plus is still readily available.

In addition, it seems that SFR France is in the same mindset since the Palm Pre Plus is also no longer being sold on their web site. Speculations hint that this is happening due to the eventual arrival of a successor, which has been heard to be the Palm Pre 2 or P102UEU which was passed by the FCC not too long ago.

Even though the Pre Plus is not being offered online, it could be just some kind of temporary thing, but then again, it could seemingly signal something entirely different.
source: PreCentral

Now that money isn’t too much of a concern for Palm seeing that HP is taking good care of them, the longtime smartphone company is doing their part to help the community with the launch of their “Palm Connections” program.

In helping out communities throughout the country, Palm decided to offer 500 Palm Pre Plus smartphones with $150,000 of service to help specific charities and organizations across the country. Each of the Palm Pre Plus units being given away will come included with $300 of Verizon Wireless cell phone service.

With the program, Palm intends on supporting a handful of “good causes” that include things like sustainability advocates, charities, and eco-entrepreneurs. They’re going to post stories from the various people who submit them and place them on their Palm Connections Facebook page. From there, users can read all about the good cause that their handsets will be impacting.

If you’re interesting in joining the program, you can simply click the source link and fill out some information to apply.
source: Palm via PreCentral

Palm might be flying under the radar of late, especially when barely any of their existing handsets are making any waves, but some interesting news started to pour out regarding an up and coming device.

Before the Palm Pre became official, it was given the codename ‘Castle’, which also might have something to do with an alleged new smartphone that Palm is currently in the works with. It’s being reported that Palm is indeed planning a new device which may or may not be the Palm P102 which first appeared in a certification database.

This device which is given the codename ‘Mansion’ looks to be somewhat promising since it’s positioned to pack on an 800 x 480 display, however, it’ll lose that all too familiar Palm keyboard that long time owners have been accustomed to using for some time now. You heard that right, this Palm ‘Mansion’ is losing the conspicuous portrait style keyboard and will place all of its text input via on-screen options.

Although it’s assumed that a virtual keyboard code is somewhere buried deep in webOS 2.0, it would primarily be meant for the PalmPad, but it’ll be interesting nonetheless to see how Palm’s virtual keyboard will stack up against the competition. Aside from those two notable things, there is nothing else known specifically about this handset.
source: PreCentral

Continuing its hot streak of being a hotly debated topic all around, some might have been taken off guard by RIM’s choice of choosing the PlayBook moniker for their tablet as opposed to other names like the BlackPad or SurfBook. Now, the next tablet name that’ll be in the minds of people will be the one coming from HP’s camp which is going to be powered by their tried and true webOS platform – and is scheduled for a 2011 release.

Although it’s a safe bet to refer to it as a webOS powered tablet, some interesting tid bits managed to ooze out of an analyst meeting which was held today. Specifically, HP’s Todd Bradley referred to this upcoming device as the “PalmPad,” which is interesting since HP filed a trademark for that back in July. He said, “We’ve already announced the expansion of our future product portfolio well beyond smartphones. We’ll have a webOS-powered PalmPad that will be set for release early in 2011.”

Now it’s rather difficult to say whether or not it accidentally slipped out, but would nevertheless seem like a fitting name. Still, we never know what to expect when it comes down to model names.
via PreCentral

Some times there are perks when it comes to being a developer – especially right now if you happen to be one for Palm’s…we mean, HP’s webOS mobile platform. Most recently, Palm sent out an interesting piece of information which mentioned that “Qualified Developers” would be able to fetch themselves a Palm Pre Plus which is running until October 31st.

For starters, it doesn’t explicitly say what are “qualified developers,” so it’ll be interesting to see how they clarify whether a specific developer is a qualified one or not. In addition, there is no mention about which specific version that’s being given out – or maybe they’ll be given the option of choosing their flavor; GSM or CDMA.

Regardless, if you’re an existing developer for the platform, it wouldn’t hurt to send out an email to inquire more about this special promotion.
via PreCentral

If some of today’s modern day consoles just don’t feel up to par with what you long for, then you may want to check out a Super Nintendo emulator that just made landfall with webOS handsets. Available for the enticing price of free, the SnesEMU v0.0.3 app will  be highly valued to those individuals who wish to experience some long forgotten classic console games in the palm of their hands – literally!

When it comes down to controls, you can either use the on-screen transparent buttons – which can rather be difficult to handle. Or you can simply assign a button on the keyboard that doesn’t take away from your view of the screen. Still, you’ll need some time and patience to get a feel for it since the keyboard may not be as good as your usual game pad. Nonetheless, you can kill plenty of time and relive some of those classic games.
via PreCentral

Would you believe that it has been well over a year since the world was first introduced to webOS? During that time, we saw Palm’s quick ascent to the top where they ultimately plummeted down to reality as they were eventually bought up by HP. However, we’ve started to hear rumors of late regarding a refreshingly new face-lift to the once highly prized platform. Everyone still sporting a webOS smartphone are actually waiting in anticipation for webOS 2.0, but it looks as though we’re all getting a slight preview of the upcoming update.

Chinese website wibozi.com posted some revealing images regarding webOS 2.0 which should naturally get users up on their feet – especially when 24 screenshots provide us all some quick insights about it. Based on the captured images, we can expect to find multiple IM account types, Google Docs support, remote files storage with QuickOffice, Cisco VPN support, and Dropbox to name a few. Obviously this may be considered a boatload of new information to absorb, but isn’t that supposed to happen whenever a mobile platform is on the verge of releasing a highly anticipated update? Especially when it’s more than over due at this point?
source: wibozi.com (translated)

Captain Kirk sported some interesting gear that would naturally appease the most hardcore Star Trek fan out there, but the real life Captain Kirk nonchalantly whipped out one smartphone that some would be surprised to see the old captain packing. During the taping for The New York Times’ online Screen Test series, William Shatner, or simply the Shat, spent the time talking about the beloved series, but interestingly enough, took out his cell phone to take a call from his daughter. No, it wasn’t some kind of Star Trek oriented looking handset, but instead, just simply the webOS powered Palm Pre. It’s hard to see which version he is carrying, but you can distinctively hear the default webOS ringtone playing as he’s receiving a phone call. Although it wasn’t the focal point of the video, it’s nice to see someone like the good captain keeping it real.
via PreCentral

Palm webOS owners have something to look forward to, despite having some rather quiet happenings of late, as Facebook beta for webOS has been updated to version 1.3.1. Although there are no new notable features accompanying its release, Palm states that there are “some bug fixes and performance improvements” that are found with it. Overall, you can just expect to see a more responsive experience when using the app. On other webOS news, the official version of the Facebook app for webOS has also been moved up to version 1.3 – which essentially brings forth worthy features such as landscape viewing, filtered news feeds, and many more items. So if you’re more in line to sticking true with official app releases as opposed to checking out beta ones, then head on over to the App Catalog and catch yourself the latest download of the Facebook app.
via PreCentral