Palm announces Web OS, Palm Pre phone

Palm announces Web OS, Palm Pre phone

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Published on: 08 January, 2009 by Nanko Rusev

Palm announces Web OS, Palm Pre phone

Yes, we’ve all knew that this will happen, but there were not much details. Today, at its press event, Palm announced its new operating system called WebOS and the first phone to run on it – the Palm Pre. Targeted at the “fat middle” of customers, the new OS is designed to be simple to use but with lots of features. It’s built from the ground up, so don’t expect to see Palm’s style from the last century, but a new and hopefully better experience. Seeing the large colorful icons, it definitely looks as a 2009 product.

Palm’s Jon Rubenstein demonstrates it on the Palm Pre, the first phone to take advantage of it. The round touchscreen device really looks as pregnant and has only one key on the front, but unlike the Apple iPhone slides open vertically to reveal a full QWERTY keypad, for handy text input. It is a CDMA/EV-DO phone with Wi-Fi, GPS, 8GB of memory, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack, 3.1” 320x480 multi-touch display, and a new TI OMAP processor that is said to be really fast.

Click to see a large image.Click to see a large image.
Click to see a large image.Click to see a large image.
Click to see a large image.Click to see a large image.

Palm Pre will be available in the first half of this year, exclusively through Sprint. However, Palm said that a GSM/UMTS version is also in the works, so let's hope it will be available soon after the Sprint one.

Palm Pre Specifications

We’ll update this article with more details and pictures, but also expect our extended info in the CES 2009 Live Report.

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1.
Very nice job with the multi-touch. I've read were it has a touchscreen gesture area right underneath the main display allows for gesture controls...which could be interesting. If you guys could post a video with the pics that would be great....would love to see it in action.
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2.
hey that is a pretty sweet looking phone
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3.
and Sprint wastes no time launching a pre-order page...no pun intended

http://now.sprint.com/pre/?id9=vanity:pre

This thing has wireless charging as well??
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4.
Too bad the graphics make it look like it is headed to sprint. I am glad that palm is getting back in the game. Competition drives innovation! Now I want to see what Windows 7 will bring to the game.
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5.
This wont be Sprint exclusive forever, we usually have to wait for a couple months before Palm releases it for us, and with the amount of people on VZW network now, I cant see Sprint keeping this gem for very long exclusively. I know the amount of people asking about a new Palm has drastically dwindled , so they need to drop a new pda with us soon or else we will push all the Palm users to other PDA providers.
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6.
My guess would be 90 days....that is how long Sprint had the Centro before it was not longer exclusive.
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7.
WCDMA Version is being worked on according to Phonescoop.com "...Palm later confirmed that it is also working on a WCDMA version of the Pre, though it didn't say when or where it would be made available."

I would assume AT&T will get it at some point this year.

Nice.
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8.
ha! i push everyone away from a palm device unless they still carry a palm pilot and refuse to change. maybe this will change that. now they said they are going for middle market.. does that mean this wont be a true PDA and be more like an iphone/dare/voyager, or will it still be a pda?
maybe this will be an interesting year afterall :)
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Reply to The Godfather Hide 3 replies to this comment
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9.
I hope this phone comes to VZW soon. I'm tired of seeing the 700wx...
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10.
Didnt take long for vzw and att fanboys to act like fat kids at a buffet. You cant everything thats out there. That doesnt sound like confidence in your "market leading" storm or Iphone. The exclusivity will be longer than 90 days seriously best phone best network and best plans..... nuff said
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11.
are you pertaining were all boys haha lol. just cause he mentioned verizon you think hes a fanboy? i hope verizon gets this phone too
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #10 ( Show )
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14.
best network??? lmao??? you lead the industry in losing customers for a reason.


try again
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #10 ( Show )
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17.
yeah best network!!! Do your research GodFather!!! All reports point to sprint in value, network call quality and data speeds, as well as customer service. I know it's hard to swallow, but im sure you can manage to swallow a little, considering Sprint's past, but companies change, what would you do if you were last in everything and losing customers....hmmmmm....maybe change or die? Well sprint is turning their brand around and it's funny to see people squirm and keep their narrow minded perspectives and stay bling to change like you. Laugh all you want but sprint is 3rd in customers still, and number one in everything else, I challenge you to show me something that says otherwise in an independent study, look at JD Power (Call Quality), Gizmodo (Network Strength and Data Speed), Pali Research (Customer Service, 2 studies in a row). They all have Sprint as numero uno on their own independent studies, you should give sprint praise for the huge effort and turn around they have made. This phone wil definitely NOTl do it, but ONE ground breaking phone (like the iPhone with AT&T) with Sprint exclusivity will get people back on board with Sprint because of their best rated network, customer service, and cheapest plans. People who keep talking Sh*t are ignorant and haters, did you expect a company with 50+ million customers to just roll over and die and not try?
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Reply to The Doc Hide 4 replies to this comment
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12.
How about Palm make people buy this phone unlocked. That way, people can use it on any carrier they want.
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13.
you could buy this on sprint and they have to give you the unlock code dont they? didnt they get hit with a lawsuit? and then you could hopefully activate it on vzw with their any device plan? not that thats needed but if the phone turns out to be that good it may be an option for people who want the phone and the network
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15.
thnx again Palm--WHY SMALL KEYBOARD!..it was every post about the centro n mixed bag with the 800w keyboard..well, guess some things never hange..wath n C !!
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16.
does anyone know if this thing actually records video or not? i've read several places yes and no...does anyone really know for SURE?
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18.
Does it matter right now, really? Its not like your gonna go buy it right now.
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Reply to realism121 Hide 1 replies to this comment
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