If you weren’t one of the lucky ones that happened to snag a Palm Pre for $99 at Best Buy the other weekend thanks to a pricing snafu, LetsTalk.com has a deal for you. The website has managed to drop the price of the Palm Pre down to only $99 through a combination of instant and mail-in rebates. → Read More
Verizon confirmed in an analyst conference call that the Palm Pre, the little smartphone the could, will be available on Verizon’s network between Q1 and the end of Q2 next year. This should come as a relief to people who are waiting to ditch their Blackberry Storms for Palm’s new offering. There’s not much more info than that: they just said it would happen. This confirms rumors that the Pre would break out of its pen at Sprint sooner than later and could mean new Sprint models coming running Palm’s WebOS. → Read More
The internet is all aflutter with stories rolling in concerning the Palm Pre being sold for $99 with a two-year contract at neighborhood Best Buy locations. Although the Pre is nowhere to be found on Best Buy’s website, here’s an in-store photo from PreCentral.net for your enjoyment. Not a bad deal at all, considering the $99 price is out the door — no rebates or anything like that. Looks like you’ll have to actually get in the car and go to the store if you want to get in on this deal, though, but maybe grab the wife and kids and make a day of it! [Pre Central via FatWallet] Update – False alarm, everyone. John Bernier is saying via Best Buy’s Twitter help line – Twelp Force – that the price is still $199. Now, you still might be able to get the deal if your local Best Buy hasn’t had the price changed or is feeling rather gracious. YMMV. → Read More
If you find yourself wishing your Palm Pre had a tad more battery life, Seidio is now selling an extended life battery for $45. It’s the same size as the regular battery pack so it doesn’t require a special back cover for you to use it. → Read More
Oh, Palm Pre. You’ve got style. You’ve got grace. You’ve even got a PlayStation emulator! But what you don’t have, young one, is a SIM card slot that makes you friendly with the vast majority of popular carriers around the world. That won’t be a problem much longer, or so say the rumor mill. Now, we’ve known a GSM Pre has existed for months now, but Palm has stayed mum on the topic. According to T3, Palm will make an announcement next week regarding everything you need to know about the UK release of the Pre. If these things are released in the UK before the US, we fully expect the eBay grey market to be jam-packed within the week. Unless, of course, they’re locked down to specific carriers – in which case we fully expect them to be hacked and up on eBay within a week and a day. → Read More
The Pre is emerging as a polarizing device, even more so than the G1 (which everyone agreed was kind of beta), probably because it’s the closest thing to a legitimate threat that the iPhone has faced. Who wouldn’t get defensive? With strong sales in its first two weeks and an entirely new OS for developers to do their thing with, it’s strong out of the gate but controlled — because the jockey is holding the reins tight. Palm didn’t expect a dynamite launch or a million app sales in a week; what they’ve got so far is, if we can believe what they say, pretty much what they’d hoped for. Of course, the TechCrunch network is a treasure trove (a rat’s nest, some would say) of opinions, and we have been known to attack the Pre (savagely and repeatedly) despite our interest in it. The app sales numbers for the Pre need more context than a direct comparison to the iPhone App Store, but that is an important data point, so let’s do it thoroughly. → Read More
The iPod Comet orbits the Earth in a biannual rotation, bringing new devices and attendant accessories into our view every Spring and Fall. The constellation is followed by a set of third-party developers and manufacturers who bolster the cloud as it swings into view and then disappear as the excitement wears off, relegating the devices to CostCos and Sam’s Clubs until the next rotation. But this season the orbit brought an anomaly: the Palm Pre, a device that is ostensibly compatible with the cloud, namely iTunes, but is definitely not of Apple’s world. The Pre, as you’ll remember, masquerades as an iTunes-compatible device, a feature that Apple promises will soon be remedied through software updates. To this Palm replied: “Palm’s media sync works with the current version of iTunes,” Palm spokesperson Lynn Fox told me. “If Apple chooses to disable media sync in a future version of iTunes, it will be a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience. However, people will have options. They can stay with the iTunes version that works to sync their music on their Pre, they can transfer the music via USB, and there are other third-party applications we could consider.” → Read More
Got a Pre? Like Nintendo? If you fit in the overlapping intersection of that particular Venn diagram, then have I got some good news for you. Some enterprising individuals over at the Pre Dev Wiki have gotten a NES emulator up and running on the Palm Pre. → Read More
$70 for a charger is asking a lot, but when Palm announced the pricing for the Touchstone, we all acquiesced because it was such a cool little device. And of course if you’re getting a Pre, you really should have the thing. But it turns out that, while the Pre itself costs nearly as much to make as you’re going to pay for it, the Touchstone charger is made of bargain-bin electronics that probably cost only a handful of ducats to manufacture.
Highway robbery? Not really, since Apple (among others) has been doing this kind of thing for a decade. → Read More
/* widget config */ var jtw_search = ‘(pre OR sprint) OR crunchgear’; /* keywords or phrase to send to search.twitter.com and display */ It begins. The first liner-uppers are in line at Sprint stores around the world. The Internet is abuzz with excitement. We will be updating this post during the day when we’re not drinking and if you have any info, tweet us at @crunchgear or let us know what’s up in your line in comments. Let the madness begin! Some humdingers: → Read More
You’ve waited so long, and your time has almost come. If you’re anything like me, you’re refining your early morning line strategy, making calls to every Best Buy Mobile, Radio Shack, and Sprint store within a ten mile radius, and psyching yourself up to elbow a guy in the face if need be. In short: the Pre drops tomorrow, and you’re getting one no matter what the cost. But what if you could order one now? → Read More
Can you feel the tingling in the air? If you haven’t found it already,you will. This is going to be the summer of love. I am talking, of course, about smartphone love. The serenades have already begun for the June 6 launch of the Palm Pre. Next week, Apple will reveal it’s next iPhone (you know MG is going to get one). Blackberry might come out with its second Storm by summer’s end. And the lovefest will continue throughout the year with launch after launch of new Android phones as well. It will be practically nonstop. I hope you can handle it. → Read More
http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/atd/microPlayer.swf You’ll notice that our own Palm Pre review hasn’t run yet – long freaking story – but I enjoyed Uncle Walt Mossberg’s look at the Pre during which he basically confirms that there will be a new iPhone next week. He calls this the best competitor to the iPhone so far and that it also has a keyboard. → Read More
The Internet – a barren wasteland full of haterage and pain and woe betide the company who wanders into its unblinking eye of malice. After saying that the Pre was an also ran last week, other interested parties have started to come out of the woodwork to predict a fiery demise for Palm’s savior-phone.
William Hurley, for example, writes in BusinessWeek that Palm’s efforts to court developers failed early on and that the Palm’s efforts will all be for naught. Here’s the kidney jab: → Read More
Well, Twitter has become the pinnacle of gossip, grapevine chatter, and frankly, just good ol’ breaking news. Yesterday, Palm made a very subjective statement through the company’s Twitter account in response to the question about Visual Voicemail: “Palm Synergy presents integrated messaging in lots of useful ways, but not that particular way”. From the statement, it does not look like Palm’s Pre will have Visual Voicemail out of the box when it hits stores and our pockets on June 6th. It’s a shame, really, but as pointed out by PreCentral, if that specific application is truly sought after, the development community will have no issues churning out the Visual Voicemail that will entice the masses. So, Palm Pre hopefuls and fanboys, is this news a deal-breaker or will you be able to get passed the notion of not actually seeing the messages before listening to them? [Pre Central via IntoMobile] → Read More
Finally! Sprint has officially announced that the Palm Pre will be launching on June 6th for $200 after a $100 MIR and a two-year contract. You’ll be able to purchase a Pre from Sprint, Best Buy, Wal Mart, and Radio Shack. → Read More
