We aren’t trying to lump these two together or anything, but we figured we’d give those of you who opted for Palm’s second set of webOS handsets an opportunity to pool your thoughts in order to make the smartphone landscape an even better place to survey. We personally didn’t find too much new to laud on Verizon’s Palm-branded twofer compared to the original Pre and Pixi , and those of you who were hoping for all new hardware from the company at CES were undoubtedly let down. Still, there’s something to be said about a webOS product on America’s “largest 3G network,” and frankly, we’re interested in hearing how you’d change things
We’re missing that crazy contoured back this time around, but otherwise, HTC’s so-called Incredible for Verizon is looking as real and ready for action as it ever has in these latest shots leaked over at Phandroid . It’s hard to say whether these crimson bits are going to make it to production — they seem a little too spectacular for a high-end device that Verizon will want to appeal to the masses, but then again, red is Verizon’s color, so who knows? We’ve seen from countless prototypes in the past (Moto’s Morrison comes immediately to mind) that they’re often given special colors, presumably to identify bandits trying to expose them as anonymously as possible — and we’re tentatively going to say we dig it here.
Likely a direct counterstrike to Verizon’s $79.99 Pixi Plus , Sprint has dropped the retail price of its original WiFi-less Pixi all the way down to $49.99 after $100 mail-in rebate on a new two-year contract.
We heard ( momentarily ) that Sprint was fixing to roll webOS 1.4 out to Palm devices starting today, and it seems as if one particular Pre Central forum member has stumbled upon the software early. We’ve already shown you the full changelog , but if you’re too anxious to wait for your own OTA alert, hit up the source link for a deep dive into webOS 1.4 screenshots
Ruh-roh. Palm just confirmed what we heard from analysts yesterday : sales aren’t going so well. The company’s updated its third quarter financial guidance to say that consumer adoption of its products is “taking longer than expected,” leading to lowered order volumes from carriers and deferral of some orders to “future periods.” That certainly puts that “Chinese New Year” Pre / Pixi work stoppage in a slightly different context, doesn’t it
It’s unclear how the data’s being collected, but a handful of analysts have started backing away from Palm this week on some information that the phone’s webOS debut on Verizon has proven something less than bombastic at the sales counter. Of course, it’s no secret that Verizon has poured less money, time, and energy into its marketing of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus than Sprint has with the original versions, but Palm and the market analysts following its progress may have been banking on the unspoken “if only this were on Verizon” factor to counteract that a bit. The biggest concern seems to be that Palm’s on the cusp of being washed into irrelevancy by a massive Android push, with a couple stock downgrades and price target cuts making their way into the hearts and minds of the market makers.
Now this is intriguing. PocketGear has just acquired its former competitor Handango in the cross-platform app store space, and can now claim a library of software that places it right alongside Apple’s App Store in terms of the pure number of applications on offer.
We hate to yell “Pre!” at the top of our lungs here, since we’d really like to see further exploration of the portrait QWERTY form factor for Android, but it’s hard to avoid the form factor and stylistic comparisons. The new “Smooth” phone from ZTE is a low-end handset running Android 1.6, with a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a love for Palm industrial design. The phone, which is being shown off at MWC, should retail under 1000 Yuan (about $146 US) and be released in August of this year as a low-end smartphone contender.
There are only two possible reasons for why a gadget freak like you would want a cheap phone: you’re either a very sensible person (who probably got mugged once), or you’re saving up for the phone of your life . Oh, who are we kidding
Lusting for more Android love from Motorola ? Then you should start searching for a Chinese soulmate. We’ve been told that this ￥5,680 ($830) XT800 CDMA smartphone had been out for just a few days in Shenzhen — right before the country shuts down for Chinese New Year on Sunday
Don’t get us wrong, Game Boy is a great platform that brings back some awesome memories of summer camp, but let’s be honest — at the end of the day, NES is where the action’s at.
50 seems to be a pretty trendy number right now, what with Palm’s Pre Plus and Samsung’s i8910 HD both showing off the ability to run more than 49 concurrent processes .
PreCentral’s 50-app demo on the Pre Plus was insanely (if not excessively) impressive, but is it the only phone out there with the kind of multitasking prowess that mere mortals could never possibly need? No, turns out. Adam Fullerton of iUnlock does a pretty wild demo on Symbian-Guru where he flashes his i8910 HD with a custom ROM that significantly lowers power-on consumption of the phone’s 256MB of RAM, starts running apps, and makes it all the way to 50
Congrats, Palm, you’re now officially on a second US carrier . Yep, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are now up for sale on Verizon’s website — you’ve read the review , are you taking the plunge? Update : Just noticed that the limited time, buy one get one offer that promised a free Palm Pixi Plus with your purchase of a Pre Plus isn’t active — it’s only being offered along side the Pixi Plus.
How long does it take for a smartphone to go from two hundred bucks on contract all the way down to a big, fat goose egg? If you’re Bell — and the phone is the Palm Pre — the answer is right around five months, apparently.
