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

After the first screenshots of Palm’s (or should we say HP’s) next webOS version leaked, we are now treated to a short video preview of some of its new features. We don’t know how long will that video be up, considering the way Palm halted the admissions for the SDK shortly after some virtual keyboard screenshots were leaked.

Judging from the video it seems that the MobileMe and DropBox integrations we saw earlier are actually part of QuickOffice. The preview shows a bit about the cards management, and some new notification features, so you can watch it below to explore what Palm and HP have in store for their future touch-enabled devices. We cross fingers they don’t pull the plug on the video too soon.
source: PreCentral

HP’s PC division head confirmed in an interview that it will show the fruit of its marriage with Palm early 2011 in the form of a tablet, running webOS. HP put on the shelf its plans for the Slate – a Windows 7-powered tablet, but it is no doubt using the hardware expertise acquired on the way to come up with a webOS device just months after it acquired Palm. What would it be is anyone’s guess, but webOS is great at multitasking and many other things, so a tablet with it backed by HP’s mammoth production and marketing capabilities might stir up the market quite a bit.

Speaking of alternative mobile operating systems for the exploding tablet market, Bloomberg reports that BlackBerry will be releasing its BlackPad in November with an OS created by QNX – a Canadian software company it bought in April. It turns out that these guys are producing the in-car multimedia and navigation user interfaces in our Porsches, Audis and BMWs, so we are assuming that BlackBerry is aiming for a classy experience with the BlackPad. The QNX operating system has actually been around since the 80s and is now used in Canadian nuclear plants, so we’d dare to say it must be stable.

We are embedding a video of the latest QNX in-car touchscreen creation we could find, called the “Flash Motor” – the BlackPad’s user interface may or may not look anything like that. It’s QNX’s part of a project called the “LTE connected car”, using in-dash touchscreen for infotainment and controlling the car.

It has nothing to do with the BlackPad for now, but you can still check it out to see what the OS is capable of – UI is demoed as well as browsing, a YouTube client, etc. The QNX guys are heavy users of Adobe Flash in their software, so it will be relatively safe to assume Flash won’t be an issue, unlike on some other tablets we know of.

source: Yahoo! & BGR

Discover the QNX “Flash Motor” – a car with a difference from Paul Wyatt on Vimeo.

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The latest version of webOS, that was released by Sprint for its Palm phones, seems to have unlocked some gaming capabilities on the Palm Pixi munchkin. Since webOS 1.4.5 brings OpenGL support to the handset, it is now able to run 3D games for mobile. Need for Speed: Undercover was installed on it to test the 3D prowess of the Palm Pixi, and it behaved quite well, with playable framerate, but slow loading times. If you are a Pixi user and have gaming pedigree, that is certainly great news.

While some are just receiving their mobile gaming capabilities, others are running Rage at 60fps. That is precisely what John Carmack from id Software (hint: DooM 1, 2 and 3; Quake 1, 2, 3 and 4) demoed with an iPhone 4 in his hands at QuakeCon 2010. Carmack was using id’s Tech 5 graphics engine, and, scaled for the iPhone, the “megatexture” experience of Rage looked amazingly smooth. He even went as far as to say that the demo is able to “kill anything done on the Xbox or PlayStation 2… “. Certainly an impressive feat, if we forget that the whole action is shown on a 3.5” screen, a big part of which is to be occupied by your thumbs.
source: Engadget and Gizmodo

AT&T came up with a press-release to officially announce the upcoming availability of the webOS-powered Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Unfortunately, users won’t be able to enjoy the many advantages of Palm’s webOS soon, since both smartphones will become available sometime “in the coming months”, so the information hinting at a June or July release might turn out true (but we hope it won’t). Expect the Palm Pre Plus to cost $149.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The  Palm Pixi Plus will be available for $49.99 on the same conditions.

Both handsets look identical to the models already found in Verizon’s catalog, except for these being GSM phones with 3G support on the 850/1900 MHz bands. Also, users will be able to use voice and data services simultaneously.

Both devices will be showcased at the CTIA event, so expect our coverage!
source: AT&T and TheOfficialPalmBlog

With Sprint receiving their Palm Pre and Pixi webOS 1.4 update on Saturday, it only took a day later before Verizon customers started to get the 1.4 update on their Pre Plus and Pixi Plus units. The total time it takes to download the 40-some MB file and install it is roughly 1 hour, so make sure your battery is fully charged before starting. The webOS 1.4 upgrade includes enhancements and updates to the SMS messaging, video recording with editing and uploading to YouTube, expanded calendar and tasks functions, more email options with ringtone selections, Yahoo! mail support, and much more. The full change-log for the Palm Pre Plus can be found here and for the Palm Pixi Plus here . We should also point out that Flash is not included in the update, however, it does make the web browser compatible with Flash 10.1 whenever Adobe releases it the first-half of the year. Let us know what you think of the webOS 1.4 update in the comment section below.
Source Verizon Wireless (Pre Plus, Pixi Plus)

European webOS users are now a step ahead of North Americans, as they have been presented with version 1.3.5.2 of the operating system, which for the record is higher than the version available stateside by 0.0.0.1. What’s great is that the update really brings some useful improvements. For example, you can now browse App Catalog’s one thousand apps and run multiple simultaneous downloads, which will also continue to run, should you exit the download screen. Nice fix indeed. Other goodies coming with the webOS 1.3.5.2 update include better handling of prepaid SIM cards, improved performance and more. It would be really nice to see the update become available in the US too. For a more detailed list of what you will get by updating your Pre, check the source link below!

So, webOS users, do you find this new software satisfying, or you won’t settle until you get version 1.4?
source: Palm via EngadgetMobile

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!