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

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

Things are starting to shape up for the upcoming webOS devices from HP. First the VP Eric Cador confirmed once again at an industry conference that webOS phones from HP are arriving early next year. He is probably referring to a device with Retina Display resolution, codenamed the Roadrunner, which was spotted in webOS game developer’s logs not long ago.

Now one of the channel partner representatives of the Palo Alto-based behemoth spilled the beans that he has already been toying around with an webOS tablet (codenamed PalmPad) and a “slate” device, which is most likely the HP Slate, running Windows 7 Touch. That ties up nicely with yesterday’s confirmation from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer that we will be seeing a tablet with Windows on it by Christmas, giving much more credibility also to the PalmPad tablet rumor.

The delay in both the HP Slate, and the webOS devices, is explained with the willingness to offer all-around finished products, touch-optimized (in the case of the HP Slate, we assume), and with the security prerequisites needed for them to be used in the corporate world, which is HP’s biggest customer. HP is also aiming to out the new devices with an ecosystem of applications already functioning upon launch.

What do you think, is it getting too crowded in the smartphone/tablet business, or does the whirlwind of mobile operating systems on hundreds of devices will only lead us to great products at low prices?
source: CRN & Reuters

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

Things are shaping up for the first new releases after Palm’s acquistion by HP. The German TÜV certification standard body, has listed two new Palm devices under the codings of P102UNA and P102EWW, in its database. Given the fact that the Palm Pre Plus in its GSM/CDMA versions is coded as P101UNA / P101EWW, the source argues that what we are seeing finally, is the next Palm Pre in the works. A new version of the Touchstone has also surfaced in TÜV’s database.

Meanwhile, after we reported that webOS is being branded as HP webOS from now on, a few more screenshots of the operating system’s next version have emerged. It looks like video editing and other modern mobile OS marvels will be built-in, so webOS 2.0 is shaping to be another great competitor in the already overcrowded touch UI market.

source: PreCentral & Engadget

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)

While Germany’s O2 is the only carrier to officially offer the webOS 1.4.5 upgrade to its customers, and AT&T owners will probably be the last to receive it, a self-proclaimed “Sprint employee” tells the PreCentral forum that webOS 1.4.5.1 will be available from Sprint on July 7th after most European carriers will have already made 1.4.5 available to customers. On the Palm site, it does let us know what changes to expect from this download, mostly some repairs to minor problems. On the browser, for example, if you enter text on certain web pages, the screen focus now will remain on the text being entered. The upgrade will also correct a rare problem that prevented some podcasts from downloading correctly and addresses several security issues with the software. The forum writing “Sprint employee” also dropped a few more items that the upgrade will bring to Sprint users such as fixing the e-mail so that the Sprint branded e-mail default signature is correctly branded. There will be some improvement to battery life and videos will be able to get sent via multimedia messaging. Sprint TV will have a couple of changes with an upgrade to version 3.5.4 and parental controls will be enhanced. Meanwhile, Palm has made the webOS 1.4.5 SDK available to all developers including the just out of beta PDK. The upgrade will allow 3D gaming PDK apps to be supported by the Palm Pixi.
source: PreCentralForums, Phonescoop

With the final details being ironed out between Palm and HP, some are still questioning whether or not the long time smartphone maker would even have an inkling of making another webOS powered handset in the near future. As we moved pass the anniversary of the Palm Pre’s launch with Sprint, Palm’s handset offerings are starting to look a bit stale when we see other contemporary handsets outshine the luster that once accompanied the Pre. During a developers webinar hosted by AT&T, there was a Palm rep that let slip out some interesting news regarding their plans for future devices. One would’ve imagined that HP would be in control and use their strength to bring about a handset quickly to the market, however, it would seem as though there is going to be a substantial gap between now and the time we see any new hardware come out. When asked if there were plans to release new devices this year, a Palm representative at the webinar said, “I’m not allowed to talk about future roadmaps, especially because we’re in the process of being acquired by HP, so I can’t say. But yes we have a road map. We are working on future devices. And [a] new version of the OS. So I think, you’re going to find the next year very exciting.” Naturally there would be a lot of people filled with excitement over this, but their choice of saying ‘the next year,” can dash some hopes seeing that it could be roughly a twelve month time frame before something is seen. Thankfully it doesn’t mean just one single handset is in the works as they mentioned specifically that they’re working on future devices.
via PreCentral

As HP and Palm continue to figure things out, it looks like one of the first things to develop out of the acquisition is a speculated webOS powered tablet. Even though the HP Slate was unveiled back during CES without much fanfare, the recent news about it getting axed raised an eye especially after HP’s buyout of Palm went through. Now there are rumors according to an insider over at HP that a new webOS tablet, going by the code name HP Hurricane, is in the works right now and could see a launch some time during Q3 of this year – which isn’t too far away from now. There is no denying that webOS is still a decent looking and viable platform that could see a major overhaul in the next few months as things look to steady over at Palm land. Without much hesitation, it’ll be interesting to see how this will end up as we continue to see a steady stream of competition around the tablet market in the coming months. We’ll see if there is some validity to these rumors as we wait and see how things turn out between Palm and HP.
source: The Examiner