When it launched back in 2009, the Palm Pre was burdened with the uneasy task of bringing webOS to the masses and it made its debut on no other carrier than Sprint. Unfortunately, things have not unfolded as the nation’s third largest carrier planned and webOS devices are now strangely staying away from Sprint’s shelves.

According to the rumor that was just brought to our attention, Sprint is not planning on offering any webOS devices for the rest of 2011 with the main reasons for that being the poor adoption of the platform and the devices that run it. It was hinted that the HP TouchPad might make it to the carrier’s lineup eventually, yet chances of that ever happening were slim. That being said, those of you who have been waiting to upgrade their trusty webOS handset and replace it with an HP Pre3, for example, might really have to look for it on the shelves of a different carrier, as earlier speculations have suggested.

However, if the rumor is to be believed, Sprint may not be breaking up with the platform entirely as that mostly depends on what HP chooses to do with it. Nevertheless, until the next batch of webOS smartphones hits the market, the majority of the loyal webOS fans might have already converted to a different operating system or switched to a different carrier. Wouldn’t it be too late for Sprint to embrace webOS again?

via: PreCentral Forums

Wow, how things change quickly. When the original Palm Pre was launched in June 2009, it was seen as the beginning of a major turnaround not just for Palm, but also for Sprint. After all, the carrier had just announced a $1.6 billion loss. The webOS powered phone was supposed to challenge the Apple iPhone and even knock it down a peg. Things didn’t go as planned, of course, and now that HP is about to release the Pre 3, it looks like Sprint will not be offering the device.

A trusted source for This is my next says that the HP Pre 3 will not be joining the Sprint lineup and HP is not working on any other product for the nation’s third largest carrier. And actually, Sprint might not even care. The original Pre was a major disappointment for them despite setting a record at the time, for first day and first weekend sales. Even with the 6 month exclusive that the carrier had, Sprint soon became enamored with Google’s open source OS and the recent launch of the HTC EVO 3D reconfirms Sprint’s focus on Android.

Those Sprint customers who are hooked on webOS are going to have to switch carriers if they plan on moving up to the new Pre 3. And there are many reasons why current Pre owner should want to update to the new model. From the larger 3.6 inch screen to the 1.4GHz Qualcomm single-core processor and the front facing camera, the latest iteration of the HP Pre is a big improvement over previous builds of the phone. Pre fans out there-and they do exist-are going to want this new model, the first major update in the Pre since its initial launch, and if this source is correct, they are not going to find it at Sprint.

source: Thisismynext via everythingPre

Looking back, Palm’s webOS devices for Sprint still managed to bring customers in, granted it might not have been a staggering amount, it still nonetheless aided the pin dropping network. After the experience, some would question Sprint’s commitment in potentially siding with the long time smartphone maker again in the future.

As we near HP/Palm’s eventual event next week, where they’ll more than likely unveil some new webOS products, we’re starting to hear the faint whispers of them partnering with Sprint once again. It’s being reported that Sprint is letting their corporate customers know that they’ll be carrying new Palm products some time in the future. Not just one apparently, but we might see more this time around – possibly the Palm Pre 2 or some other unknown device. Furthermore, it sounds like some sort of Palm tablet will be making its way down to Sprint as well.

It’s fine and dandy that Sprint is giving Palm a second shot at their business, but we’ll surely know more surrounding this exciting round of speculation as we near HP/Palm’s special event next week.

source: PreCentral

Somewhat lost in things now that the Palm Pre 2 has arrived, but the Palm Pixi still has some surprises up its sleeves – despite its less than stellar specs in tow.

Just because you’re regarded as the kid brother to the Palm Pre doesn’t mean you can compete at the same level as the big boys – and that’s exactly where we find the Palm Pixi. Thanks to a project that was started last October, the latest version of the UberKernel for the Palm Pixi enables the tiny handset to throttle itself to the speed of 806MHz. The substantial speed bump actually benefits more users than one would think over other webOS devices.

Though, you’ll have to watch the settings to find that perfect sweet spot in getting the most out of your tweaks – so it won’t melt the handset or kill battery dramatically. So if you have the itch in bulking up your Palm Pixi, you can check this process out for yourself.

via PreCentral

Palm’s (and HP’s) upcoming PalmPad tablet leaked on Fox News of all places, and it has some aces up its sleeve. First off, it might be announced at CES in two weeks, and will feature a 9.7″ screen, the same size that the iPad sports. The PalmPad is supposedly thinner that the iPad, with rounded edges, and comes at the very decent 1.25 pounds.

Three consumer versions will be on the shelves in March, with slight hardware differences from each other, and WiMAX 4G connectivity (Sprint, Clearwire). A “university” version should come later in 2011, with a slightly smaller, 8.9″ display, and HP will let educational institutions customize its aspects, both from hardware and software standpoints. Not a bad idea to out it for the fall semester, since it is a relatively untapped niche market, which has a huge customer base.

Now on with the juicy details. The PalmPad will have a 3MP main camera, and a 1.3MP front-facing snapper for video convos, both with LED flashes. HP hasn’t forgotten to cover the added value base that will distinguish it from the upcoming iPad 2, BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Everest – extremely formidable competitors. Palm’s slate will have a tablet-oriented version of webOS – 2.5.1, HDMI port, and will sport lightning fast USB 3.0 ports.

Sounds like a good plan, and we can’t help but agree with the source’s opinion that webOS’s card interface and tablets are a match made in heaven. We don’t know what chipset will be inside, probably something of TI’s OMAP family, so we can’t even ballpark the PalmPad cost, but we can’t imagine that HP will be silly enough to price it more than the direct competition. Besides, HP runs a very cost-optimized supply chain, and Palm’s tablet comes as a total underdog, which will take a lot of pressure off its projected sales figures and price at launch.

source: FoxNews

Today, HP announced the UK launch of the Palm Pre 2 that’s set to be released on November 15 for £399 ($640). Now under the HP brand and with the new Palm OS on board – webOS 2.0 – the Palm Pre 2 will try to succeed where its predecessor fell short. We all remember that when the original Palm Pre was released in early 2009, a lot of people thought that this is the iPhone-killer and that the Palm Pre is destined for dominance in the mobile market. As history shows, things turned out to be rather different, so let take a look at the Palm Pre 2.

It’s set to be powered with the new webOS 2.0, that has all the goodies Palm promised – like true multitasking, Just Type and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta – along with some other useful features like Quickoffice for webOS 2.0, Text Assist and the webOS browser.

In terms of hardware, it packs 1GHz processor, physical QWERTY, Gorilla Glass display and 16GB internal memory, but to be absolutely honest, we are less than impressed with its 3.1-inch screen with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, not to mention the 5MP camera that’s lacking autofocus. After all, the Palm Pre 2 is a flagship device, but it’s kind of hard to imagine that it would beat the competition – like the two Motorola DROIDs (DROID 2 Global and DROID Pro) or Samsung Continuum – but that’s only our opinion. In the States, the handset is scheduled for release in Q4 and its US carrier is Verizon.

source: HP

Sprint must have figured that it had hit the jackpot when it worked out a deal with Palm to be the exclusive carrier for the Palm Pre when the webOS unit was launched last year. After all, the early consensus was that the model was the closest thing to the Apple iPhone and some pundits even felt that the Palm Pre surpassed the iPhone in many categories. But we all know what took place and now Verizon is expected to launch the Palm Pre 2 on Thursday as we reported.

Since the Pre 2 is superior to the original Pre , it only makes sense for Sprint to remove the phone from its lineup-which it has done. That leaves the original Palm Pixi as the only webOS handset left for the carrier’s customers, at least for now. If webOS 2.0 becomes successful, or the Palm Pre 2 is everything that the first-gen model was supposed to be, then you might find Sprint looking to bring back the newest Pre. If that doesn’t happen, well, the carrier has some real powerful Android models that they can concentrate on.
source: everythingpre

Yesterday we showed you some pictures supposedly of the new Palm Pre 2.0. from French carrier SFR. Today, MobiFrance has revealed some new pictures of the phone that shows a few things in the way of cosmetic changes from the original version. Most of what is new in the handset is under the hood and are things we reported on Monday.

Will the total package be enough for this phone to survive? If you had taken a poll in early 2009, webOS and the Palm Pre would have hands down been considered the most likely model to challenge the Apple iPhone. No one could have predicted what eventually happened with the birth of Androidmania this past November. Now with the OS and the hardware considered practically an afterthought, can an amazing comeback happen?
source: MobiFrance

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

The addictive game Angry Birds is now available for the Palm Pre and Pre Plus. Available in the Palm App Catalog for $2, your Pre must have the latest version of webOS, 1.4.5, under the hood. According to a press release issued by Palm, Angry Birds will be made available for Pixi owners later. The game’s creator, Rovio, had asked the webOS community if they wanted the game for their platform and the response was extremely positive.

For those Rip Van Winkle types who are not familiar with the multi-level game, using a slingshot you launch birds-each with a different power-toward a number of green pigs protected by wood or stone housing. Spurred on by the massive success of the game on the iPhone and iPod, the developers want to put the game on other platforms. While the game is among the top selling apps in over 60 countries, so far Android users have been shut out.
source: Palm