Palm Pre coming to Romania (and the rest of Europe) in September?

It boggles the mind that palm is still totally silent on the issue of global Pre availability; yes, granted, Apple employed similar foot-dragging following the original iPhone's launch, but the difference there was that Apple was under way, way less pressure from consumers and investors to immediately deliver a monster hit. We've heard rumblings as recently as late May that Telefonica has signed a deal to deliver the Pre on its various networks around the world, but since then, nothing -- and that's where some scrappy little distributor in Romania comes into play. A company called IRIS -- a smartphone distributor for years and Romania's authorized Apple outlet -- says that the Pre will be hitting shelves over there in September for something in the range of $550 unsubsidized, putting it right in range with what Sprint is charging off contract. Of course, by September, the Pre will be fighting a readily available iPhone 3G S and gobs of new Android sets, but webOS itself already proves that the new Palm knows how to work under pressure.

• Palm webOS system upgrades mandatory; hacking scene forbidden from tethering

Palm webOS system upgrades mandatory; hacking scene forbidden from tethering

We've seen a tremendous explosion in the webOS hacking scene ever since the Pre's firmware image leaked out -- between the easily-accessible restore more, Linux foundations and the directly-accessible HTML / CSS / Javascript application code, we've already seen everything from minor tweaks to full on NES emulation to Sprint activation hacks. In short, things are wide open at the moment, and people (including us) are excited by the possibilities -- but that doesn't mean Palm has to play along. In fact, two recent developments have us worried for the future of this happy little scene -- first, Palm's apparently forbidding the Pre Dev Wiki from posting any information about data tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period, and apparently threatening to have the site shut down if it happens:

We have been politely cautioned by Palm that any discussion of tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period (and perhaps beyond-we don't know yet) will probably cause Sprint to complain to Palm, and if that happened then Palm would be forced to react against the people running the IRC channel and this wiki.

Yeah, that's pretty aggro for a company that needs to court all the developer support it can. We're not sure what'll happen after Sprint's exclusivity runs out, but we can't imagine any other carriers are going to be thrilled about hacked tethering options either, so we'd say Palm's going to keep the pressure on until unlocked GSM webOS devices hit the scene -- and we can almost guarantee that tethering hacks are going to make it into the wild regardless of Palm's actions.

Even worse for hackers, Palm's taking an unusually aggressive approach to webOS system updates -- they're mandatory. According to the support docs, webOS updates are automatically downloaded in the background within two days of being available, and they're required to be installed within a week of the download -- after seven days and four install prompts, the phone will give you a ten-minute countdown and then automatically begin installing the update. Sure, we can understand why Palm would want all of its devices to be updated, and we know that a lot of webOS system foundations are in flux while the Mojo SDK is being finalized, but forced updates seem extremely heavy-handed to us -- it's one thing to try and maintain control over a platform, it's another to keep it with an iron fist. Of course, it's probable that we'll see a hack to bypass all of this extremely soon, so maybe it'll all work itself out, but we'd really like to see Palm develop an official policy friendly towards hacking and homebrew and stick to it -- the Pre and webOS have attracted a lot of talent in the past two weeks, and it'd be a shame to lose it.

Palm pulls the plug on PalmOS

When palm announced that the company's next phone would run a new operating system called WebOS, it probably should have been pretty clear that the company was severing its ties to the now-antiquated PalmOS. But just in case it wasn't, Palm CEO Ed Colligan made it official today: The company will not be releasing any more devices with PalmOS.
The mobile operating system may have been hot stuff back in the days when people routinely carried around PDAs that didn't double as cellphones. But Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Apple's mobile version of OS X all outperform PalmOS in key areas.
Moving forward, Palm will be focusing on WebOS development. What does that mean for the thousands of free and commercial applications that were developed for PalmOS? It means they won't run on newer Palm devices unless the developers issue updates or you use an emulator like StyleTap.

• Donna Dubinsky steps down from Palm's board, Rajiv Dutta steps in

Donna Dubinsky steps down from Palm's board, Rajiv Dutta steps in

Courtesy of Palm's most recent 8-K filing, the general public is being informed that Palm's former CEO Donna Dubinsky (pictured) is stepping down from the firm's board. If you'll recall, Elevation Partners decided that it would fork over another $100 million in order to help palm stun the world and reinvigorate itself at CES this year, and as part of that agreement, Elevation "has the right to designate an additional director for election to the Company's Board of Directors." In light of the board wishing to maintain its current size, Ms. Dubinsky freely offered to resign her spot immediately, and at least officially, her decision was not made due to any disagreement with Palm. We're also told that Elevation has designated Rajiv Dutta -- who retired as President of eBay Marketplaces and Executive VP of eBay last October -- for election to the company's board, and said board is expected to meet shortly to consider both the resignation offer and Mr. Dutta's appointment.

• Bell launches Palm Centro

Bell launches Palm Centro

OK, we learned that the Centro was coming to Bell a couple weeks back, we griped and moaned about it in the podcast, and here it is. Pricing's been revealed, specs have been known forever, so there's not much left to get excited about here. Also noteworthy is the absence of any type of "new" signage on the product page -- which is very evident on other recently launched sets on Bell. Don't get us wrong, the Centro was is a fine handset, but is it $49.95 on a 3-year contract good?

Switched On: With Pre, Palm breaks from the Storm

In a recent interview with Elevation Partners' Roger McNamee, the Palm investor explained that Palm knew it had to step up its game after RIM launched the BlackBerry Pearl, which he described as "the first real consumer electronics product in the smartphone category." The Pearl launch served as the coming out party for the BlackBerry brand among consumers as RIM began stepping up its advertising, and the product's narrower hardware design was a noticeable break with the staid stylings of previous BlackBerry devices.
Indeed, back in November of 2006 as Palm rolled out the somewhat consumer-focused Treo 680, I wrote a Switched On column noting that the Pearl broke with the evolutionary path that RIM had been on and served as an example for the kind of hardware shift Palm needed to make.
Palm finally answered the Pearl with the Centro, a compact, inexpensive, and successful smartphone that has apparently served as the final resting place of the original Palm OS architecture. However, between the release of those two devices, the entry and subsequent SDK of Apple's iPhone proved a far more significant turning point in the evolution of consumer smartphones. The iPhone's resonance and popularity have provoked responses from many competitors, but there is a particular contrast in the flagship CDMA touchscreen handsets released by RIM and Palm --- the other two smartphone developers that grow their own operating systems -- since then.
This time it has been Palm, with its back against the wall, that has made the clean break from the past and created an experience that looks modern, clean and elegant. At this point, the Pre appears to sacrifice some discoverability versus the iPhone and Palm has had to accept tradeoffs without as much marketplace power as Apple to drive as deep an SDK or proprietary connectors as Apple has. However, Palm's webOS rewards with a fluidity evident in both the multitasking navigation among applications and the potential for seamless integration of Internet data into its core applications.
In fact, if its capabilities match to the promise extolled in the McNamee interview, the Pre will live up to its name literally by taking -- or at least suggesting -- actions on your behalf in anticipation of your needs. The venture capitalist gives as an example that the phone might offer to email people you have a meeting with when it detects that you are running late. This level of active assistance would leverage the power of inputs such as GPS and the Internet that were not broadly available at the advent of the Newton, the first digital handheld that sought to take a more active role in managing your life. Since then, most PDAs and smartphones -- and even the iPhone -- have been more passive pocket computers. The imperfect information often provided by these inputs may make this more of a novelty for the near-term, but Palm is certainly ceding nothing on the ambition front.
In contrast, while the Storm has certainly done the iPhone one better in many respects, with a higher-resolution autofocus camera that can shoot video, microSD, Bluetooth stereo, integration with turn-by-turn directions and unlimited music (if you take advantage of those services), and of course, excellent mobile e-mail capabilities for those who have a BlackBerry server. But by keeping the basic popup menu-driven operation of previous BlackBerry products intact, the overall user experience is fractured between the worlds of swiping and typing.
The Storm may have strong appeal to those accustomed to the BlackBerry experience and who want a larger touchscreen. But RIM, like Microsoft, now needs to make more significant changes in this new competitive landscape that includes the approachable finger-driven experience with which Apple broke ground and the richness of knowledge that Palm is pouring into a foundation. It's great to have a Pearl, but when taking advantage of a gestalt that marries new interfaces to the new Internet, the world is your oyster.

Another Pre hands-on video with Palm's VP of design

Man, we can't get enough Peter Skillman -- check out this 25-minute pre hands-on demo Palm's VP of design did at CES. Sure, there's some overlap with what we saw Matias Duarte demo during the announcement and the shorter Skillman video we saw yesterday, but there's also some stuff that slipped under the radar -- like the Touchstone's "gecko feet" in action at 1:48, a kinda-sorta unboxing at 2:29, an impressive email / IM / SMS multitasking demo at 12:10, and a peek at the video player at 20:09. Skillman also confirms that the Pre will do MMS, but video recording capability and Touchstone pricing remain a mystery. There are also some friendly iPhone and BlackBerry comparisons -- amusingly, he asks for a phone from the audience so he can show off the comparatively higher quality of the Pre's screen and gets a little flustered when handed the super-high-density BlackBerry Bold. Whoops! Overall, though, it's interesting to see Petey Skills basically just use the Pre for so long -- he throws quite a bit at it, and it never seems to hiccup or slow down, which is definitely encouraging. Video after the break.

• Palm responds to Apple's veiled threat: "we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves"
• Sprint Treo Pro officially unavailable again -- for now

Palm responds to Apple's veiled threat: "we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves"

We've been waiting for this. Ever since Tim Cook made his non-specific, veiled threats in response to a direct question about how the Palm Pre "almost directly emulates the kind of touch interface" found on the iPhone, the entire tech community has waited for the next move. Now Lynn Fox, a Palm spokesperson has stepped into the fray. In a response given to Digital Daily and presumably crafted by a team of lawyers over the 2 days since the Apple analyst call, Lynn says the following:

Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio, and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space. If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.

The gauntlet is thrown. Now, will Apple risk the ire of a million new and middle-aged fanboys and crush Palm's Cinderella comeback by forcing the Pre into some state of unreleased legal limbo? Or will Rubenstein and Jobs quietly sort it out over a yoghurt parfait in some strip mall in The Valley? Oh boy, this is going to be good.

Sprint Treo Pro officially unavailable again -- for now

We've received official word from the good folks at Sprint that the Treo Pro wasn't supposed to be posted today, hence the unceremonious removal of every last trace of the thing within hours of its unveiling. According to the company, the phone will be sold just as soon as it makes it through the "customary testing process," but it's any guess how much longer they think that's going to take at this point. All told, it probably wasn't the way Sprint had hoped to take the wraps off, but let's be honest, we knew this was coming for a hot minute now -- we just want the Buy link, guys. See the full statement after the break.
"Sprint inadvertently posted information on Sprint.com regarding an upcoming product, Palm Treo Pro, this morning. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Sprint looks forward to welcoming this exciting, new device into our portfolio as soon as it has been approved through our customary testing process. We will share details on the correct availability date as soon as the standard testing of both the device and its interaction with our network has concluded. Thank you for your interest in Sprint products."

Pandora's CTO talks about Pre, webOS development, gaming, and small children

While we were happy just to see pictures, Tom Conrad, CTO of Pandora, is one of the lucky few to have seen in action the innards of the software that keeps things moving on the Pre. He sat down with Palm Infocenter (on the wrong end of a zero-bar concall by the sounds) to talk details of webOS software development. Conrad clarified that, despite all apps being mixtures of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, webOS is more than just a big browser -- it has direct access to local files and UI elements. However, he echoed the fears of others that this web-friendly programming interface won't exactly be well suited for gaming, expressing hope that Palm will address this with integrated Flash support or some sort of a lower-level API to appease those who want to tap that OMAP processor directly. Hit the read link to hear the whole conversation yourself.

Palm Pre a Best Buy exclusive?

You know Palm's on to something when reputable sites start to splinter around its newly announced OS and handset. PhoneArena's fledgling sister site, WebOS Arena, has it from a "credible source" that Best Buy will be the exclusive retailer for the Palm Pre. That means that Best Buy will be the only place other than Sprint where you'll find the Pre for purchase on US soil for the first 60 days after launch (whenever that might be). Assuming the rumor is true of course.

Screen shots of Palm's Mojo SDK already in the wild?

We don't have a failsafe way to confirm that these are real, but what we're seeing certainly jibes with what Palm's been saying about webOS and its Mojo SDK: all web, all the time. Apps, which rely heavily on HTML and Javascript, are actually debugged right from the comfort of your desktop web browser, so it seems like there isn't even a native emulator to worry about. Boy Genius Report has a few screenshots posted, and while there isn't anything too terribly interesting going on, it's good to have some semi-confirmation that devs are already hard at work bringing stuff to the webOS table in time for the Pre launch. Oh, and Palm: feel free to hook us up, because we have this awesome idea for an Engadget app. Seriously.

Palm's Mojo SDK for webOS in pictures

Okay, look, we like the Pre. We like it a lot, actually -- but failing our ability to get hold of one of those any time soon, we'll gladly take a boatload of screenshots in its place. These shots, taken from a late-2008 copy of the Mojo SDK, show some core goodies like messaging and Synergy contact management -- there's still a lot of stuff missing, yes, but this version has been floating around for a few months now, so the build demonstrated on Pres at CES was likely a good deal fresher. Head over to Engadget Mobile for the full gallery!
Big thanks to Boy Genius for hooking us up with shots from his tipster!

• palm 's Treo Pro spotted in Sprint attire?

Palm's Treo Pro spotted in Sprint attire?

Our handy dandy leak sheet was already proven correct once with the introduction of the pink Instinct, so we're beginning to feel good about a Sprint-branded Treo Pro making landfall sometime this month. A curious in the wild shot over at WMExperts shows off what clearly looks to be that very handset, though we'd never put it past a mischievous Photoshopper to spit something out in a cutesy grab for attention. Whatever the case, the exterior looks about as normal as ever, and seriously, is any Sprint customer in their right mind looking to pick this up over the forthcoming Pre? Signs point to "no."

• palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on

Palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on

This isn't a Palm-branded party favor, a paperweight, or a doorstop. Actually, sure, it could be any of those things if you really wanted it to be -- but Palm's Touchstone is mainly about charging your pre and making sure it looks pretty while it's getting juiced. It's a pretty wild product (and the first accessory purchase for many a would-be Pre owner, we'd bet), so we wanted to spend a little quality time with it. We weren't allowed to do much charging on our own, but the magnets buried in the Pre certainly seemed to do their job of keeping it glued to the base in portrait and landscape orientations. Oh, and just to validate what we know you're thinking right now, yes: we overheard several palm employees call it "the puck," so you should, too.

• Palm Pre's "New-ness" event video now viewable
• palm CEO on bringing the Pre to Canada: "we certainly want to"

Palm CEO on bringing the Pre to Canada: "we certainly want to"

It's likely not quite the level of specificity that most would-be Canadian users are looking for, but Palm CEO Ed Colligan has at least said something about potential availability of the Palm Pre in the Great White North. Speaking with The Globe & Mail, Colligan first simply stated that, "we do have a UMTS version and a CDMA version," and that "either one of those could come to Canada depending on the carrier" but, when pressed, said that Palm has "of course" been talking to Canadian carriers, and added that "we certainly want to bring the product to Canada." So, there you have it: the Pre is coming to Canada, probably, sometime.

Palm Pre's "New-ness" event video now viewable

Sure, you might've enjoyed the highs and lows (mostly highs) of Palm's pre presser through the magic of written language in our liveblog of the event, but there's something about watching it unveiled in person by utterly enthused execs that can only be conveyed by video. Palm's got its own video of the event now live on its site, so grab your favorite Saturday hangover cure, pull up a recliner and start soaking up Palm's own special brand of RDF.

• palm 's app store christened App Catalog, games not a priority

Palm's app store christened App Catalog, games not a priority

Following an apparent rejection of our suggestion of "Immaculate Collection," Palm's Developer Network site suggests that the official name of its app store for webOS is simply going to be "App Catalog". The name isn't terribly important, but the concept is critical -- every mobile platform of consequence is moving in the direction of intelligent, on-the-go app management, and with the Pre, Palm can't afford to be any different in that regard.
Outside Palm's inner circle of trusted partners, the webOS SDK (playfully named "Mojo") won't be released to would-be app developers until we get closer to the Pre's launch, but we know a few key details. First off, as "webOS" implies, apps written for the platform are web-based -- HTML, JavaScript, that sort of stuff -- but unlike Apple's original vision for the iPhone, Palm's going to include libraries that allow devs to tap in to the Pre's hardware capabilities and interact closely with services exposed by the operating system. For users, that means apps are hopefully going to be rich and powerful, but graphically intensive, heavily interactive things -- think games, mainly -- aren't likely to happen. That's not to say Palm won't eventually offer a binary SDK, but the tools they appear to be offering up front won't get the job done, and we've confirmed in talking to Palm that Pre gaming was never a priority for the company during the development cycle. In a nutshell: Tetris, yes; Tetrisphere, not so much.

• Microsoft culling the WinMo herd, fewer phones to be offered

Microsoft culling the WinMo herd, fewer phones to be offered

Microsoft's veep of marketing for Windows Mobile (jeebus, that's got to be stressful job right about now) has gone on the record in saying that there'll be a "major announcement" out of his camp at Mobile World Congress next month, which makes sense -- it's the biggest mobile trade show of the year, after all, and we've been expecting WinMo 6.5 for a little while. What's particularly interesting, though, is that the dude says they're looking to cut down on the total number of phones offered by its licensees in an effort to "be more focused" and do a better job tailoring the platform to the devices in the market. Makes sense in a way, but on the flipside, one of Windows Mobile's solid advantages over the competition has always been its endless selection of styles and form factors. Taking that away means that WinMo's got to be better by leaps and bounds to keep going head-to-head with the Palms, Apples, RIMs, and Nokias of the world, so here's hoping MWC turns out to be a watershed event.

• Palm's new website devoid of dedicated PDAs

Palm's new website devoid of dedicated PDAs

Palm is kicking off the new year with an all-new site (worthy of an entirely new platform, perhaps?), and while that's not really news in and of itself, it's interesting to see that they've now completely cleansed the most visible pages of traditional PDAs -- you know, those crazy things palm made its name building. The move was expected since Colligan announced last year that they'd be moving to a phone-only model, but what wasn't expected was the optical illusion Palm's trying to pull here. Seriously, the depth of field makes the 800w looks like an 800w nano, which, you know, isn't an entirely accurate representation.

• Unconfirmed details flow about Palm's CES-bound Nova phone

Unconfirmed details flow about Palm's CES-bound Nova phone

Bear in mind that this could be complete rubbish, but unconfirmed reports from "trusted sources" have reportedly stated that Palm's first Nova-based handset will tout a full QWERTY keyboard that slides down beneath a touchscreen (is your imagination running wild yet?). Moreover (and more importantly), the fresh operating system is being described as "amazing," and we're also told that "a ton" of software will be pre-loaded to provide multimedia playback as well as traditional functions such as calendar, email, and contacts. We can't help but say that we're pretty jazzed to hear positive vibes flowing just before CES really gets in gear, but we'll attempt to remain placid until something a touch more concrete is revealed.

• palm 's pre gets its own spot on Sprint's website

Palm's pre gets its own spot on Sprint's website

Merely minutes after palm shook up the mobile realm with the introduction of the pre, Sprint -- its exclusive launch partner -- has already hosted up a dedicated website for what will unquestionably be its flagship device. Currently, all the site offers is a way to get informed of when it'll be out, but that's all you really need at the moment, now isn't it?

• There will be a GSM-friendly 3G Palm Pre

There will be a GSM-friendly 3G Palm Pre

We've gotten Palm on the record saying that there's a WCDMA (read: UMTS world 3G) version of the Pre in the works, though we don't know when or where. That means that the AT&Ts, T-Mobiles, and Vodafones of the world will get a shot at this baby. Suggestion, Palm: "soon" and "everywhere."
Update: We've just seen a copy of the Pre's press release, and sadly, the 3G GSM version is listed as being intended for "other regions" -- in other words, places not served by Sprint. The good news, we guess, is that we've also confirmed that it's HSDPA, so at least it'll be hauling ass.