HP contracts 5 or 6 new Palm devices for 2011?

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Underwhelmed by the feeling of sameness with the Pre 2? Well, you may or may not be in luck; Chinese-based CENS.com is reporting that manufacturers Foxconn and Compal now have contracts to manufacturer up to six new Palm devices for 2011. That boils down to one for Compal, and either four or five for Foxconn. We'd venture a guess that PalmPad's at least one of those, seeing as it's due early next year, but what about the others? Whatever (stackable) cards HP / Palm have in hand aren't exactly being laid out, and while we can't confirm this report ourselves, rest assured, we're hoping really hard that there'll be more webOS options with non-pebble form factors.

Via PreCentral

SFR’s website sheds some light on the Pre 2

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It seems as though French mobile carrier SFR has shed some light on the unannounced Palm Pre 2. According to the telecom company’s website, the device will rock a 1 GHz processor, have 512 MB of RAM, and run the very sensual webOS 2.0. There isn’t any indication of when a potential launch could occur, but the fact that SFR has published – unintentionally or not — details of the Pre Deuce has to be a good sign. What do you think webOS fans? Is this good news or are you looking for a little bit more hardware creativity from HP and company?

Via PreCentral

HP’s Palm Pre 2 gets an official commercial spot

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If you’re a webOS/Palm Pre die-hard, and looking forward to the refinements of the Pre 2, we have a little something for you. It looks like a thirty second advert for the updated, pebble-shaped handset has made its way onto YouTube. The official spot, dubbed Sizzle, features some of the new niceties in webOS 2.0 and several critical applications — including Angry Birds and Facebook. The clip is waiting for you after the jump. Enjoy.

Via PocketNow

Palm rumored to have 5-6 new devices brewing

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If a report from financial paper The Taiwan Economic Times is to be believed, freshly acquired Palm Inc. is getting ready to fire up the afterburners and fuel them with bags full of HP’s cash. The paper cites industry sources in claiming that Chinese manufacturing giants Foxconn and Compal were recently awarded new contracts for a total of five to six new Palm-branded devices. Among them is the fabled PalmPad, a webOS-powered tablet that will compete with the Apple iPad, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the flurry of Android tablets currently bombarding the market. Each of the aforementioned five to six devices will reportedly go on sale in 2011.

Via PreCentral.net

Palm Pre 2 heads north to Rogers

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Last week, rumors of the Palm Pre 2’s eventual arrival in Canada surfaced as a result of tidbits extracted from the source code on Palm’s Canadian website. Today, those rumors gain a healthy dose of credibility thanks to a series of leaked images. The aforementioned images show a Rogers info sheet for the Pre 2 as well as the device itself, which is powered on and connected to the Rogers network. Of course nothing is confirmed for the time being, as Rogers has yet to announce the smartphone.

Via BGR

webOS 1.4.5 is out, promises to make your wildest minor bugfix dreams come true

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Palm's touting that webOS 1.4.5 is now out and about, though its support page for the version is a wacky hodgepodge of Sprint and SFR versions of the update -- perfect for French expats living in the good ol' US of A, we suppose. Odds are very good that this new build isn't going to blow you away, but hey, an update's an update: you'll get "minor fixes and enhancements" for use with the PDK, a text field fix for the browser, a "rare problem" involving podcast downloads, and that's about it. The optimist in us wants to believe that the utter lack of innovation in this latest update is a sign that most of Palm's brain trust is invested in engineering fresh hardware at the moment -- right, Palm? Right?

Via Phone Scoop

It looks like T-Mobile US is also getting ready to introduce a WebOS smartphone.

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Unlike AT&T, though, T-Mobile could launch a completely new Palm WebOS device.

According to BGR, the handset resembles the Palm Pixi, and T-Mobile could launch it quite soon – reportedly, the carriers is in “final stages” of preparing the launch.

Unfortunately, details about the features of T-Mo’s upcoming WebOS smartphone are missing, but it will have a touchscreen display and a full QWERTY keyboard.

Just for the record, at the moment T-Mobile USA doesn’t offer any Palm devices, at all, while the Pixi is sold via both Sprint and Verizon Wireless (as Pixi Plus).

Via BGR

Palm Pre Plus MMS and GPS issues crop up, webOS update can't come soon enough

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It doesn't look like we've got any showstoppers here -- but just as with any major new smartphone release, Verizon's Pre Plus is starting to take some lumps after romping in the field for a week since its retail availability kicked off. Of the two biggies being cited so far, one is of particular concern: apps other than VZ Navigator don't seem to take advantage of GPS augmentation, meaning they're relying on a straight-up GPS signal alone to get a location lock -- something that often doesn't work on a phone (a reliable workaround seems to be to open VZ Navigator before you open the app you really need, but still, not an optimal situation). The second, less troublesome issue involves sending MMS messages over WiFi; basically, you can't. The phone forgets to fire up cellular data to send the message and tries to route it over the WiFi connection instead, which inevitably fails. What's odd about both of these is that they seem like regressions from the software already rolled out to Sprint (and other) Pres, and a surprising lack of rigor from a carrier known for putting its phones through the gauntlet prior to release. Let's hope we see an over-the-air update in short order, shall we?

Via PreCentral

Bell's Palm Pre now free -- in exchange for three years of your life

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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. Following its August release and a couple of mid-course pricing corrections, Bell's now making Palm's first webOS-based device available for free just as long as you're willing to commit to three years at a minimum spend of CAD $50 (about $47) a month. The move likely comes on the announcement of the Pre Plus, perhaps as a preemptive strike against any of its competitors planning on carrying it -- and if we were Sprint right now, we'd be paying very, very close attention to these guys.

Via MobileSyrup

The Treo Pro seems to have disappeared from Palm.com

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The Palm.com has of course been mainly trafficking Palm's webOS devices -- the Pre and Pixi -- as of late, but until very recently, it still listed its last non-webOS device, the Window Mobile Treo Pro, a much older phone first outed in August of 2008. If you're hell bent, of course, there are still plenty of places to get one of these bad boys, so we're not going to sound the death knell yet -- but it will be missed.

Via Palm Info Center

Palm suddenly means business with games, heading to GDC this year

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That was a quick turnaround, wasn't it? Palm wasted no time in retailing 3D games that are as visually engaging as the best the iPhone has to offer just as soon as it made the big announcement back at CES, and now it's taking things to the next level by heading out to GDC in San Francisco this March. The Game Developers Conference is -- as gaming goes, anyway -- what you'd call a Big Deal, so the fact that Palm is leading a session there to educate interested parties in its Plug-in Development Kit is a promising sign that these guys are taking the concept of webOS as an entertainment platform very, very seriously. Of course, it would've been nice to see this kind of drive about a year ago -- but better late than never.

Via PreCentral

Palm brings 3D games to webOS, opens developer program, promises Flash and video recording

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While unveiling the upcoming availability of Pre Plus and Pixi Plus via Verizon, Palm has also announced that its webOS platform now supports 3D gaming.

As of today, seven 3D games are available via the Palm App Catalog, which currently has more than 1,000 webOS applications.

Currently compatible only with the Palm Pre, the new 3D games come from top developers like EA Mobile, Glu Mobile, Gameloft and Laminar Research. The available titles include: Need for Speed Undercover, The Sims 3, MONOPOLY, Asphalt 5: Elite Racing, Let’s Golf!, Glyder 2 and X-Plane.

Palm mentioned that a public beta version of the webOS PDK (Plug-in Development Kit) – which enables new functionality, like “immersive 3D games” – will be available to developers in March this year.

Moreover, The Sunnyvale-based company announced that its developer program is now open – so any interested dev can start creating and publishing webOS apps for the Palm App Catalog. To spices up things a bit, Palm kicked off the Hot Apps program, which will reward developers with prizes in cash of up to $100,000 – all you have to do is create an webOS app and hope for it to be among the most downloaded apps. For more information, visit the Palm Developer Center.

Palm also said that, in the coming months, its App Catalog should host a free Adobe Flash Player 10.1 plug-in for webOS, which will allow Palm users to access Flash content directly on their smartphone’s browser. Furthermore, webOS 1.4 will be launched later this year (pretty soon, actually), bringing the possibility of recording and editing video.

Via UV

Palm Pixi Plus: WiFi-equipped and heading to Verizon

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Good ole' Jon Rubinstein, live on stage just announced the Palm Pixi Plus. Looks like the only difference here from its predecessor is that it's got WiFi -- and it's bound for Verizon Wireless' network. Coming January 25th, just around the corner. No price, but you'll know when we do.

Via Palm

Palm swings open doors to App Catalog's innards

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Palm's taking its App Catalog in a distinctly new direction on news that it's opening access to the Catalog database, letting third parties view, show, and remix the available apps in various ways. Users will be able to visit third-party sites and download apps straight to their webOS-based devices -- possibly an interesting option for themed sites that want to give users quick access to a certain category of apps quickly. On a related note, Palm introduced its Hot Apps program that rewards devs for creating popular apps -- the nature of those "rewards" isn't yet clear, but we would imagine they're gonna make it rain on these cats.

Via Palm

Palm's Jon Rubinstein named a 'Geek of the Year'

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Just to clarify right out of the gate, the "year" Fast Company is referring to is 2009, but nonetheless, it's an award we're sure Jon is happy to have. 11 geeks were found worthy of the "Geek of the Year" award in '09, with the likes of Evan Williams and Biz Stone (Twitter), David S. Goyer (the creator of Flash Forward on ABC), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Neill Blomkamp (the writer of District 9) joining him. The justification for Jon making the cut?

"He came on board as the new chairman of Palm and brought about the Web OS and the Palm Pre, the start of a line of products that is the best hope for reintroducing the geek masses to Palm."

After speaking with him on our first-ever Engadget Show and falling head over heels in love with webOS, we can't help but agree. And yes, after last year's introduction at CES, it's all we can do to contain our excitement for this Thursday.

Via Pre Central

Palm has included a software library called SDL

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Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life -- and now it's just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access -- like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You've got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Exciting stuff for webOS users hungry for a little more horsepower... now let's see if Palm puts this into play come CES.


Via Palm Infocenter

Carphone gives free airline tickets to Palm Pre buyers

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Apparently unhappy with how sales of the Palm Pre are going in the UK, Carphone Warehouse has decided to offer two free airline tickets to customers who will buy Palm’s first WebOS smartphone throughout January 2010.

For the moment, UK users can get the Pre only with an O2 contract – the handset is free if you’re willing to pay £45 or more per month.

According to Guardian.co.uk, O2 may have “mountains” of unsold Palm Pres.

Launched as an iPhone competitor, the Palm Pre is quite far from reaching the success of Apple’s smartphone – which may reach 1 million units sold until the end of the year, via Carphone UK only. The iPhone’s advantage, however, is that it was released earlier than the Pre in the UK, and it’s available both through O2 and Orange (while Vodafone will sell it starting January 14).

UK aside, the Palm Pre might soon debut on the US’s largest network (Verizon), as Palm Pre Plus, together with the Palm Pixi Plus. This will probably lead to some increased sales, but, if you ask me, Palm should quickly launch new smartphones if it wants to continue the moderate success it has with the Pre / Pixi tandem.

Via UV

Verizon launching both the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus?

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We’ve already heard that Verizon may launch the Palm Pre as Palm Pre Plus, and it looks like the largest US carrier could introduce the other webOS smartphone too: the Palm Pixi, also with a “Plus” added to its original name.

BGR has it that Verizon “will be 100%” offering the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, both with the recently launched webOS 1.3.5.

Although an exact release date for the two smartphones is not know at the moment, I’m guessing that Verizon won’t wait too long and will make them available in the first months of 2010.

Unsurprisingly, it’s said that the hardware specs of Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are similar to the ones of the original smartphones (launched by Sprint), so it’s not clear yet how Verizon’s handsets will be different.

Via BGR

Palm's Ares SDK goes to public beta

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After a brief private testing period, Palm's interesting Ares software development package has made its way into a public beta phase. Breaking tradition from Mojo -- Palm's other webOS SDK -- the big news with Ares is that the dev environment is fully web-based with no additional tools needed for apps to get whipped into reality. Not only does that make getting started a breeze (theoretically, anyway), but Palm thinks that this is the way to bring mobile development to a whole new category of folks who may not come from traditional dev backgrounds -- they want to pull in web geeks who've got the ideas and design experience but not necessarily the hardcore coding background that you'd normally need to take the next Air Hockey to production. Grab that sucker now and let us know what you come up with, alright? We'll split the profits 60 / 40.

Via Palm

HTC HD2 can be coaxed into doing 802.11n, if you know how to sweet-talk it

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Even though Broadcom, Atheros, and Qualcomm have all been sampling phone-ready draft 802.11n chipsets for some time now, you're still not seeing the tech swiftly overtake 802.11g in the mobile arena -- in fact, we dare you to find a single phone in your carrier's store that can do it. Odds are you can't, but HTC HD2 owners can win a few quid off their skeptical (non-Engadget-reading) friends by enabling support after the fact. Looks like draft-n support got buried in the company's WinMo monster -- a fitting device to add such a rare display of raw, savage wireless power, if we do say so ourselves -- but it got turned off in the shipping firmware for some reason, possibly concerns over increased battery draw, flakiness, or a stark realization that the benefits of 802.11n might not be fully appreciated in a device hamstrung more by a crappy browser than by slow WiFi. If you want to live on the edge anyway and flip the switch, xda-developers has the registry hack you need -- and if you're using an HD2 in the States without 3G right now, let's be honest: you kinda need all the speed-boosting wireless hacks you can dig up.

Via MoDaCo