Oliver W Leibenguth, Germany’s number 1 PDA collector, has just managed to add the gem pictured below to his collection:
For all those of you new to the game: Palm’s m505 had huge sales problems due to its dim screen (much worse than on the picture above). In order to move produce, Palm decided to capitalize on the 9/11 attacks by releasing two versions with a blue or red case…the red one is above.
Further images can be had at the URL below:
http://blog.compuseum.de/?p=358
This email recently was sent out to each and every user on Apple’s mailing list:
No words needed IMHO…
Palm’s long-awaited update to webOS 1.2 has just been released, and is currently downloading on most Pres.
Among other features, the app catalog has received a flurry of new capabilities:
App Catalog
* In preparation for e-commerce in the App Catalog, to purchase apps, you can enter credit card information by selecting Preferences & Accounts from the application menu in App Catalog. Credit card information is stored with the Palm profile, not on the phone. You can choose whether you need to enter their Palm profile password each time you make a purchase, or for the first purchase in any four-hour window.
* If you want to reinstall a purchased application you previously deleted, you can open App Catalog, search for the application, tap the app name, and tap Download again for free. You do not need to pay for the application again.
* A new Share button enables you to send a link to the app page in an email or text message.You can select whether to enter comments anonymously, using your first and last name, or using your first initial and last name.
* You must accept an end-user license agreement to purchase apps.
Further information (and a full change log) can be had here:
http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/na/pre/p100eww/sprint/solutions/article/50607_en.html#104
Palm Pre owners all over the world are busily anticipating the release of webOS 1.2 – it is said to fix iTunes 9 syncing and will furthermore bring paid apps.
Ryan Kairer’s PalmInfoCenter now reports the following:
… A helpful tipster – let’s call him Deep Palm – has let us know that webOS 1.2 is due to drop by the end of next week (Oct 2nd).
What was the delay? It wasn’t the broken iTunes 9 sync, which apparently took a mere couple of hours to fix. Reportedly, it was due to issues with Sprint’s data services …
…
As of now, Palm itself has not stated anything; and no material was posted to “confirm” the rumor. Nevertheless, the news service has a good reputation to loose – which means that the rumor could very well turn out to be true…
Further information can be had at the URL below:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9923/webos-12-update-due-next-week/
Now that Amazon has started the Pre price fights, WalMart has chimed in. Their Pre costs 79$:
Further information can be had at the URL below:
http://walmart.letstalk.com/product/browse.htm?pgId=100&serviceCorpId=545&prId=35101&showPromoSpot=Y
Don’t ask me what industry analysts are up to – first, a story breaks on Palm getting bought up by Nokia, and now another one claims that Verizon will not carry the Palm Pre.
This one is extremely likely to be bogus…and the Boy Genius claims the same:
We’ve just confirmed this with one of our ninjas: the rumor of Verizon Wireless passing on adding the Palm Pre to its line-up is totally and 100% bogus. We don’t have any other information
…
What do you guys think?
We’ve seen quite a few retailer offers claiming to sell the Pre for 100$ with a Sprint contract – unfortunately, none of them came from a reputable retailer.
This has now changed – the screenshot below is from Amazon USA:
Further information can be had here:
http://www.amazon.com/Palm-Pre-100-Phone-Sprint/ …
O2 Germany’s press department has just sent me the press shots below – according to them, they show the O2 version of the Pre which will be released in Germany:
As of now, I don’t have further info regarding branding on the case. Stay tuned…
A consulting company called Intepret LLC has recently performed a benchmark of “consumer perceptions of network quality”, and ended up with some interesting figures.
First of all, a look at pricing. Customers were asked what price they would consider fair for the handset along with a 1-year contract:
The second chart which I considered interesting looks at which attributes customers assign to their handset – the Pre ranked well here:
Further information can be had in the PDF below:
http://podcasts.aolcdn.com/engadget/files/August2009MDPSignatureSmartphones.pdf
Palm’s App Catalog has been a source of perpetual worries for developers and analysts alike – to be honest, quite a few industry insiders have expected Palm to have huge issues getting developers to code for webOS.
However, it looks like the fears are unfounded. Chuq van Rospach, Palm’s development manager, recently stated the following on a public forum:
You’re correct — you should have gotten notified. I understand your frustration (and sympathize).
We got more applications than we could handle well, which is a good problem to have. Unfortunately, it means we dropped some things on the floor, and that’s bad, but with the impending “stuff” that’s coming, this is all going to get a lot easier for everyone and a lot more transparent.
If you didn’t get a response in a timely manner, let me apologize to you. We should have done a better job on this, and I apologize for this. I’m working with the people I work with on this to try to make sure we do a better job of this moving forward. Good news is we’ve hired some people — one’s started, one starts next week, and the third starts the week after that, and that’ll give us some great people and some new resources to make sure this gets fixed and works properly.
As of this writing, nobody knows whether this is a fact or plain publicity – but we should find out more in the near future…
Germany’s division of Telefonica (commonly known as O2) has been chatty about the Pre for some time – that is,l for all things except for an availability date.
However, a recently-dispatched press release brought welcome changes – it stated that the box is scheduled to become available on the 13th of October.
Pricing-wise, the device is said to be “available on all contracts”. An unlocked device can be purchased via their “leaslelend” product, and would end up costing 481 Euros.
As of now, this is all we know – stay tuned for further info!
Long-term followers of TamsPalm will probably still recall the outrage which followed out April’s fools announcement of Palm buying up Nokia. Back then, we assumed that it was clear to everyone that the story was bogus and would make people laugh – but then, this happened.
BloomBerg quotes an analyst as follows:
…
Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile-phone maker, has fallen behind rivals in software for smart phones and buying Palm would help close the gap, said James Faucette, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities Inc. in Portland, Oregon. Espoo, Finland-based Nokia is spending $3 billion a year on software research and development, more than 10 times Palm’s R&D budget, he said.
…
From my personal point of view, the story is completely bogus. Palm’s webOS stands no chance against the Symbian OS when it comes to a per-feature comparison; and don’t even get me started on Maemo. The recent outsourcing of the Symbian Foundation IMHO is all which Nokia wants to do R&D-wise – the boys in Orange should not worry too much about their jobs moving to the icy lands of the Finns.
Whatever…what do you guys think?
Open industry standards like USB are governed by an “implementers forum”, which lives off membership fees and sets out the rules for the standard (usually) by popular vote. Palm recently filed a complaint against Apple due to their iTunes blockage, hoping to get Apple punished.
Unfortunately, things look bad for the Oranges. AllThingsD claim to have received the following letter which the USB Implementers Forum sent to Palm:
…
“Palm will shortly issue an update of its WebOS operating system that uses Apple’s Vendor ID number for the sole purpose of restoring the Palm media sync functionality.”
I attach for your information the USB-IF’s adopted and published policy regarding Vendor Identification Numbers (VIDs). Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm’s usage. Usage of any other company’s Vendor ID is specifically precluded. Palm’s expressed intent to use Apple’s VID appears to violate the attached policy.
Please clarify Palm’s intent and respond to this potential violation within seven days.
…
From my personal point of view as an electrical engineer, the situation is clear: the vendor ID is Apple’s. By abusing it, Palm endangers the standard – after all, vendor IDs are there to identify which vendor made a box for a variety of purposes (like automatic driver downloads). By creating a box which seems to be made by Apple (but is made by Palm), the vendor ID concept is led ad absurdum…
What do you think?
Austria has always been an extremely interesting country for all things carrier: 6 million inhabitants on 8 carriers are not a healthy situation for any of them.
So far, contracts were non-negotiable. However, T-Mobile’s discount subsidiary tele.ring has now changed that – the ads below are currently all over Vienna:
Looks like tele.ring stores will start to get an all-new bazaar feeling in the near future…
