Got my hands on The New Verizon Palm Pre Plus.

The Pre plus is basically a upgrade from the Pre on sprint.

Here are the minor changes:

• The home button on the front is removed on the Pre Plus. Insted of taping the button on the original Pre you would just tap  the slide area below the screen.
• Sliding mechanism is enhanced
• keyboard tweaked

The major changes:

• The Pre Plus has 16GB of internal storage versus 8GB on the original Pre.
• Touchstone charger capability right out the box.
• Bluetooth

The Verdict:

Warning: Not for the business man who types  emails alot. This phone has a incredibly small keyboard.With the minor upgrade changes on this device the major change is the network change. Verizon 3g Speeds are amazing. The 16gb of internal memory makes the device more of a media device to watch videos and download tons of apps on.  Also an expected upgrade is comming sometime in Febuary to include video recording and more..

Stay tuned.

This Device is Avaliable NOW!  @ Verizon $149.00 with the $100 mail-in-rebate with a 2 year contract.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The Palm Pre and Pixi got a refresh today. The new names the “Pre Plus” and the “ Pixi plus”. The new Palm phone are going to be available for the Verizon network. Some changes on the device includes better slide mechanism, revamped keyboard,and 16gb  storage space. Check out video Below and also keep it to The Gadget 411 for more info!

Popularity: 5% [?]

OVERLAND PARK, Kan  –Sprint today announced Nov. 15 as the first day of nationwide availability for Palm® Pixiâ„¢, exclusively available on America’s most dependable 3G network1 from Sprint, It will cost just $99.99 with a two-year service agreement, after a $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate and be available at Sprint stores, online at www.sprint.com, through telesales at 1-800-SPRINT1, and at Best Buy, RadioShack and select Wal-Mart stores.

“We are excited to offer the new Palm Pixi to our customers in time for the holiday season, and it’s a great addition to Sprint’s industry-leading device portfolio,” said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president – Product Development, Sprint. “Simply put, this phone is fun and easy to use; with its multi-touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard, it’s a great device for messaging and social networking at a price everyone can enjoy, and delivers so many of the great features people love about Palm Pre™ in a fantastic new form factor, making it a huge hit for consumers.”

Running the Palm webOSâ„¢ mobile platform, Palm Pixi lets the user keep multiple activities open and move easily between them, like flipping through a deck of cards, using natural gestures. This allows for easy movement between messaging and email or searching the Web while listening to music, and items are rearranged simply by dragging them. Universal search also makes finding things easy, providing results from both the device and the Web.

Palm webOS brings together the user’s most important information from their phone, at work or on the Web into one logical view. In addition to linking information from Google™, Facebook®, Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® and LinkedIn®, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo!® integration to Palm Synergy™3. Palm Synergy offers:

* Linked contacts – A single view that links contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever.
* Layered calendars – Calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams or other interests, and the user can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
* Combined messaging – See all the conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, including MMS, even if it started in IM and switched to reply with text messaging. The user can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts or email, and start a new conversation with just one touch.

A new Facebook application will be available with Palm Pixi, so users can see and comment on all the latest news from friends and easily update their status. Palm Pixi features an exposed full QWERTY keyboard, multi-touch screen and a durable, removable rubberized back cover.

While Palm Pixi comes with a charger included in the box, Palm recently introduced the Touchstoneâ„¢ charging dock, the first inductive charging solution for phones. Touchstone, along with the Touchstone compatible back cover (both sold separately), allows Palm Pixi to be set on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. The device remains active while charging, allowing access to the touch screen, movies or video, or the speakerphone option. Touchstone is available in Sprint stores nationwide for $79.99 and includes a Touchstone charger and USB wall charger. The Pixi Touchstone back cover is also available for $19.99 (plus taxes).

Palm Pixi requires activation on a pricing plan including unlimited data, such as Sprint’s Everything Data plans with Any Mobile, AnytimeSM, which give customers unlimited mobile calling on the Sprint network to and from any U.S. wireless carrier, unlimited nationwide texting, email, Web browsing and much more, starting at just $69.99. The Simply EverythingSM plan from Sprint offers a truly unlimited experience for only $99.99 per month, a savings of $1,200 over two years versus a comparable AT&T iPhone® plan4. (All price plans exclude surcharges and taxes. Other exclusions apply.)

Customers who subscribe to an Everything Data plan are also automatically enrolled in Sprint Premier, the industry-leading loyalty program. The Premier program provides customers with great benefits such as annual upgrades, discounts on accessories, anniversary rewards, rate plan checkups and “first to know” information about the latest at Sprint.

Palm Pixi will take advantage of the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network (inclusive of data roaming), which reaches more than 269 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports. The Sprint Networks (inclusive of data roaming) have more than twice the coverage of AT&T’s current 3G network and more than 15 times the coverage of T-Mobile’s current 3G network, both based on square miles5.

Sprint is also the only wireless carrier to offer Ready Now with trained retail associates to work one-on-one with customers to personalize their Palm Pixi, set up features and demonstrate how it works before the customer leaves the store. Customers have the choice of sitting down with a Sprint retail associate at the time of purchase or they can schedule an appointment for a later time at www.sprint.com/storelocator.

Application developers will have a chance to learn more about Palm webOS at Sprint’s ninth annual developer conference beginning today in Santa Clara, Calif. The Sprint Open Developer Conference is open to all developers and will feature information through speaker sessions and coding camps on developing applications for a range of platforms, including webOS. Palm is a premier sponsor of the conference, and Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, directors of Developer Relations for Palm, will be giving a keynote address in addition to running several breakout sessions and coding camps focusing on the webOS platform. For details, go to http://developer.sprint.com/devcon2009.

Customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pixi can register at www.palm.com/pixi.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Announced earlier this morning, the brand new Palm Pixi will be, for the beginning, sold only in the US and only via Sprint.

However, the Pixi will most probably reach Europe and Canada too – especially since, according to Pocket-lint, a Palm spokesperson declared that the company “does plan to bring Palm Pixi to both regions as soon as it can and will announce more when appropriate”.

Well, a Pixi release outside the US is unlikely to happen this year – after all, Europe is still waiting for the Pre to arrive.

O2 is probably the European carrier that will first offer the Pixi.

Coming as Palm’s second WebOS smartphone, the Pixi features a 320 x 400 pixels multi-touch display, full QWERTY keypad, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, 2MP camera, and 8GB of internal memory. The price of Palm Pixi is not known at the moment, but it will probably be lower than Pre’s price.

source [Unwiredview]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Together with a list of many fixes and improvements, Palm has just released its webOS 1.1 software updates and it will solve your iTunes 8.2.1 sync problem. The new updates has also enhanced the support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) and improved the photo application opening speed. The webOS 1.1 updates will be sent over-the-air to your Palm Pre directly. You would need to accept the installation to start the update process.

Version information

* Version: webOS 1.1.0
* Release date: 23 July 2009
* Configuration: Sprint 1.7

New applications
NFL Mobile Live from Sprint

* Watch or listen to live NFL games right on your phone.

Feature changes to existing applications
Calendar

* For Calendar accounts you create on your phone, the default reminder intervals are 15 minutes for timed events and one day for all-day events. A few notes:
o This change applies only if software version 1.1 was on your phone when you bought it, or if you did a partial or full erase on your phone and signed in to your Palm profile again after updating to version 1.1. If you simply update your phone to software version 1.1, the default reminder intervals in Calendar do not change.
o This change applies only to Calendar events you create on your phone, not to events that are synchronized to your phone from an online account.

Camera

* The Photos application opens more quickly when launched from the camera.

Clock

* Enhanced support for time zones in Clock.
* When you set an alarm in Clock, an alarm icon appears in the notification area at the bottom of the screen. Tap the icon to display alarm details. Alarm details include the following:
o If the alarm is set for the current day, the alarm time appears.
o If the alarm is set for tomorrow, the alarm time and “Tomorrow” appear.
o If the alarm is set for any day other than today or tomorrow, the day of the alarm appears.

Contacts

* Friends added and deleted in Facebook on the web are now correctly added and deleted in the Facebook account in Contacts on the phone.
* As soon as you create or makes changes to a Google contact on the phone, the phone begins a sync to reflect those changes in Google on the web.

Email

* When you set up an Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) email account, you can enter the mail server name as an IP address.
* Support for self-signed certificates with multiple common names has been added.
* When you reply to an email in HTML format using an EAS account, the formatting of the sender’s original message is now retained in the reply.
* Palm’s EAS implementation now supports several Exchange ActiveSync Policies, including the following:
o PIN/Password Required. IT administrators can ensure a password is assigned to the phone. Administrators can also specify the minimum length of the password.
o Inactivity timeout. IT administrators can ensure that an inactive phone goes into a locked state after a certain time period. You cannot set a higher timeout interval for your phone, but you can set a shorter interval.
o Remote Wipe. IT Administrators can remotely erase all data on a phone from their Exchange console. IT administrators can also have the device wipe itself if an incorrect password is entered more than a specified number of times.

Messaging

* You can enter emoticons in new text, multimedia, and instant messages. Emoticons also display in incoming messages.
* If you set the phone to use a 24-hour time format, the message times shown in a conversation appear in 24-hour time.
* If you go into an IM account’s preferences, all the options are available even if you are signed in to the account. You can tap Remove Account to delete the account, enter a new password to update the password, or tap Sign In to sign in with your updated password. Previously, you needed to sign out of the account before you could use these preferences.
* When you delete an IM account, a message now appears asking you to confirm that you want to delete the account.

Phone

* When multiple missed call notifications are displayed on the dashboard, the time of the most recent missed call is shown.
* When you slide the ringer switch off, a bell icon with a slash is displayed. Previously, the icon was a speaker with a slash.
* In Phone Preferences, the Show Contact Matches preference is now turned on by default. When typing on the keyboard in the phone app, the phone automatically displays both the numbers being entered and any contact matches for the characters entered.

System

* Improved functionality of person reminders. A person reminder is a notification that you create in a contact entry. The notification appears when you have a call or exchange an email, text, multimedia, or IM message with a contact.
* Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (8.2.1).
* When you enter a search term in Card view or the Launcher to perform a universal search, if you select the Wikipedia web search option, results are shown in the Wikipedia Mobile site instead of the Desktop site.

Web

* You can now use symbols from the symbols table (Sym Sym key icon + key) when you enter text into a web page dialog box.
* If you have a page open at a certain zoom level, leave the page, and use the onscreen Back Web Back button button or the back gesture to return to the page, the zoom level is restored right away.
* A new gesture is now available that works the same as the onscreen Forward Web Forward button button. To move forward through open web pages, make a short swipe left to right in the gesture area.
* When using the Wikipedia drop-down search feature in the address bar, results are shown in the Wikipedia Mobile site instead of the Desktop site.
* When you tap a link, the link appears highlighted to indicate it has been activated, even if it takes a moment for the linked page to open.

YouTube

* After you enter search text, you can tap the Search Search icon icon to perform a search. You still have the option of pressing Enter Enter key to perform the search.

Popularity: 3% [?]

For those who have a Palm Pre and syncing with Apple iTunes, an upgrade to 8.2.1 will break the sync edit(New Palm webOS 1.1 Updates will fix iTunes Sync) Issues(connection as Apple has decided to block the Palm Pre from using iTunes sync. According to the new software update, the new version “provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices
According to Apple,

“iTunes 8.2.1 is a free software update that provides a number of important bug fixes. It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre. As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players” Natalie Kerris, spokesperson, Apple

Palm did not have a solution for this at the moment, it advise user to stay with iTunes 8.2 if iTunes sync is needed. Otherwise, the music transfer could be done through USB connection or other third party softwares like Missing Sync and DoubleTwist.

Thanks Slashphone!

Popularity: 19% [?]

Well this is good news. Amongst all the rumors swirling around the Palm Pre, it’s predicted shortages, it being dissed even before it comes out, Reuters reports that it was announced today that Verizon will be carrying the Palm Pre in about six months. Great news, because this phone is touted to be Palm’s saving grace and deserves to be on a better carrier than Sprint.
Also in the works is a new version of the Blackberry Storm. Perhaps a head-to-head release? Oooh Fight!

via Reuters

Popularity: 6% [?]

“The new Palm Pre phone will be here June 6, starting at $199.99 on the Sprint network (after rebate and service agreement). “

Says sprint

Sprint could be announcing the launch date and price of the much anticipated Palm Pre Tuesday, according to various Web reports.

Last week, the blog Boy Genius Report cited a “proven tipster” who said that Sprint was working with The Wall Street Journal’s tech columnist Walt Mossberg to release the details of the launch and pricing on May 19th.

And on Monday the Web site Brighthand.com reported it has heard that Sprint Nextel stores have already sent at least one Pre to every store to get employees familiar with the device. Large shipments of the Pre haven’t come into stores yet, the story says. But it appears stores are gearing up for the launch, according to Brighthand.com.

Palm announced the hot new smartphone in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but both Palm and Sprint Nextel, which will be the exclusive service provider for the device, have been mum on details about when the device will launch or how much it will cost.

Rumors and leaks from retailer Best Buy indicate that June 7 will be “Pre Day” and that the device will sell for $200. But these details haven’t been confirmed by either company.

And now it looks like Wal-Mart will also be selling the Palm Pre. In an article published Monday, the Journal cited Wal-Mart executives who said the mega-retailer will be selling the Palm Pre when it is launched. Some blog reports indicated that Best Buy would be the only retailer other than Sprint to sell the device.

The Palm Pre will be the first phone to use Palms new WebOS, and many people believe it could give the popular Apple iPhone a run for its money both in terms of hipness and sales.

The new device, which has a sliding keyboard and multitouch key screen, has an operating system is designed for multitasking. It will also come with 8GB of storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.0 megapixel camera.

Thanks to Cnet!

Popularity: 1% [?]

We found the scoop on the new Palm last week, and yes, the announcement was made at CES Thursday.

The buzz is well deserved. Touted as the biggest mobile announcement at CES, Palm officially announces their new phone today. They were very tight-lipped about development up until now, with very very minor product leak, but we were able to find the scoop early, and were waiting with baited breath for the announcement. Wanna see it? Here are the deets:

The announcement started with ex-Apple cum Palm Executive Chairman Jon Rubenstein. How did he come to Palm? In Mexico, of course. Palm CEO Ed Colligan wanted to restore innovation to Palm, and flew down to Mexico to meet Jon and it worked. Jon left the beaches of Mexico for Palm.

“I’m a product guy,” says Rubenstein. “Palm’s DNA is mobile. The company is positioned to create the best mobile devices in the world…instead of having a bunch of mobile devices, take all that infomation, put it in one place, and let them interact using the right platform that’s forward looking and powerful enough to handle all the complex information”

Bring on Ed Colligan. He wants to consolidate all our internet places in one: “Our lives live in a lot of different places on the internet.” This is true. His thinking is to aggregate all those places into one working mobile device, “Default thinking isn’t to hook up to your desktop PC, it’s to connect to the cloud.” I likes it. So what does this mean? Finally, a new OS for the Palm, called WebOS. It’s built with developers in mind using standard web authoring tools: HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Know these? Then you can develop apps for Palm’s WebOS.

Ok, here’s what we are all waiting for. The new phone is called the Palm Pre (pronounced like “free”) and it is cute. Smaller than an iphone, it is a little like the HTC Touch. It’s a little thicker, due to the slide out QWERTY keyboard.

The Hard Stuff

• Hardware specs:
• 4.5 oz in weight
• EvDO rev a
• Bluetooth stereo
• 802.11 b/g wifi capable
• Ti’s latest OMAP 3430 processor
• 8GB storage
• GPS
• 3.1 in. multi-touch screen all the way to center button so you can flick and gesture all the way to the bottom of the screen
• 320×480 resolution
• ambient light sensor
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash
• speaker
• accelerometer
• micro USB
• card storage slot
• 2.5mm jack
• removable battery

basically, super fast, super sensitive, and super storage-y.

The Soft Stuff
WinOS, the new Palm Operating System works on a Synergistic idea, and the interface is like shuffling around a deck of cards. Flick, drag and gesture from app to app without having to worry about your data. Whatever you flick away, it’s autosaved.

No import – just log into your accounts and all your contacts are pulled from your services without duplicates. Each contact’s pictures are stacked behind each other under a single entry. So if you have LizMoney in your Outlook, Gmail, and Facebook, even AIM, it will pull all that info, stack it up, and consolidate it all under a single LizMoney entry. Synergy will also search for contacts across all address books automatically, and can follow the contact through their email information all the way to their IM handle. So with one tap or click, you can send a message via any of those services. And, it has Exchange OTA Sync. woo!

The calendar compresses empty time blocks. Awesome. See only what you need to see.

The browsing. Full view of websites, tilt for landscape viewing, multiple windows can be opened and viewed simultaneously.

Bonus- notifications pop up beneath your running app, not overlapping what you are doing. Nice little feature.

When, Where, and How can I get me one?
No price point was mentioned, however, they will be available First Quarter of this year, and the hammer: Exclusivity with Sprint.

argh. Something terribly ironic and hilarious that happened earlier in the keynote on live.gdgt.com:
“11:10am – Sorry everybody, Sprint is, yet again, crapping out on us here.”

And the reaction to the Sprint exclusivity via phonescoop.com:
“2:56 PM: No one clapped when it was announced that Sprint was going to be the exclusive carrier.”

So, from what it seems, Palm is back in the game as a serious contender for the iphone and the Google Android OS. Hopefully, the exclusivity with Sprint won’t be a permanent thing.

Thanks to the live bloggers at phonescoop.com, engadget.com, gdgt.com, cnet.com and for Scobleizer for the subversive video feed!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Mock-up found of the New Palm mobile handset:

Pretty sweet. Large touchscreen display, slider QWERTY backlit keyboard, could this be the ultimate mobile handset? Rumor has it that it will be manufactured by HTC, we’ll keep you updated!

pic via RumourMill

Popularity: 1% [?]