Palm Pre Browser 4x Faster than iPhone !!!

I’m slightly bummed by the webcast presented by Palm and Sprint. There wasn’t much earth-shattering news here; it was a walkthough of the UI, a discussion about Synergy and info on the Sprint services that the Palm Pre will support. No updated news on pricing or availability at this point. There was one interesting tidbit in the demo when Matt Crowley, product line manager at Palm, did a Universal Search demo.

It was nice to see the Bluetooth app appear when he typed the letter “B.” Adding an “I” showed two of his contacts that had a “BI” in their name. Matt went the full monty by searching Google for Big12. That’s when it got interesting. He went to www.big12sports.com to check out the conference basketball site. It’s a pretty intensive site (shown) that’s best suited for a powerful desktop browser. I’m assuming that he was using Wi-Fi. I searched for and then hit the same site over Wi-Fi on my iPhone, and here’s where it got very interesting.

The Pre had fully rendered the complex site in around 8 seconds. Same site on my iPhone? About 30 seconds. Obviously, I don’t know if the Palm Pre Webkit browser caches web pages from prior usage. I know my iPhone doesn’t, so even if this page load speed was based on cache, it’s still a function not offered on my iPhone. Again, I saw this in real-time. Hit the Big12 site on your device and see how long it takes to render and use. Heck, why not leave a comment with the platform you used as well as the browser?

We already knew that Palm went with a high-end TI OMAP3 processor, while Apple opted for a different ARM solution from Samsung. I’m not losing sight of the fact that my iPhone hardware is nearly 2 years old, but the performance that I saw when browsing on the Pre was staggering. Bear in mind: nobody from Palm nor from Sprint mentioned any performance numbers. They didn’t make any comparisons to other devices. This is simply what I observed from the webcast, timing the performance and sharing the observation.

Watch the video here

[Originally posted at jkontherun.com]

Palm Pre Vs iPhone Vs G1

CES 2009 brought us a new player in the smartphone upper-echelon. Let's drill down and see how the Palm Pre compares with the iPhone and Android's G1.

1. Multitouch touchscreen/gesture control:
All three are capacitive, only the Pre and iPhone have multitouch. The Pre's glowy little "gesture area" has dropped the touchable real estate all the way down tto the bottom of the phone, which is great for being able to navigate with one hand and not interfere with the screen at all. The wavey dock you bring up from the bottom looks awesome, but can you use it out of the box without a second thought or page through the manual? That's my question. Advantage: iPhone/Pre tossup.

2. Multitasking:
One of the beefiest of our beefs with the iPhone SDK is its insistence on Apps running one at a time. The G1's notifications drawer was definitely a step in the right direction, but the Pre's interface is the first smartphone OS that was built with multitasking as a core design element. Resembling the Xbox's old Blades, or a less-jarring OS X Expose even, the Pre's "Cards" interface always places you in the context of every app running for fast switching, and notifications from other apps don't pull you away completely from the task at hand. Multitasking is hugely important on a phone, and it's a good sign that Palm recognizes. Advantage: Pre

3. Hardware:
Adrian says:

While the hardware is definitely high quality, I'm not entirely blown away by the design. It looks really nice, and original, but it's a little too cutesy in shape and kind of reminds me of an oversized pebble. A slightly larger screen could have definitely been put to good use, and I really don't like the black space on the sides of the screen.

A phone with a built-in QWERTY still hasn't touched the iPhone in terms of sleekness and pure sex. And it might still be a while. Advantage: iPhone

4. Development platform:
The Pre's "Web OS" sure sounds nice—all developers need to know is JavaScript, HTML and CSS? Sounds good in theory, but building a mobile app will never be as easy as cranking out a new theme for your Tumblr. Palm's stressing ease of development, though, so it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against Apple's solid, familiar-to-devs OS X-based SDK and Android's fully open source approach. Advantage: Pre? If it's straight-up JavaScript, that's a lot of programmers ready to go. Note: we had iPhone here before, but we've switched with a qualification. Developer community still goes to iPhone for volume.

5. Web Integration:
The Pre subtly integrates the internet into the phone at every opportunity, and it's awesome. Contacts get pulled in from Facebook, Gmail, IM and and scanned for dupes; the messaging app shows your last several emails, IMs and SMS with that contact in a single window. Really, really smart stuff. Advantage: Pre

6. App Store/developer community:
A smartphone is only as good as the software it runs. On the Pre, Palm is still keeping application delivery details like pricing behind the curtain, but they did say the app delivery will be entirely handled by the phone (without a desktop app), which is a shame. They're saying that they're not going to duplicate Apple's Hobbesian app approval black box mistake, which Android has also hasn't fallen for, but there will be an approval process based on "security and stability." But as we know with Android, a dev community needs enough devices in the hands of consumers to reach critical mass, which the Pre will have to match. Advantage: iPhone, even with the black box, but Android and Pre's more open stances are reassuring.

7. Wireless charger:
We've seen wireless charger tech for years at CES, but it's taken this long for a major consumer gadget to come bundled with its own wireless charger in the box. Whoops, it's not in the box, sold separately for unknown $$. But still: Bravo. Advantage: Pre

8. The Network:
Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, gave our coast-to-coast 3G test a shout out in his press conference. Of course he did: Sprint won (in download speeds). Sprint was the only major carrier without a powerful, hype-catching smartphone choice, and now they have one. The Pre is a data-centric phone with a network we've proven to be strong in a large swatch of the country—that's a good combo. But would you switch to Sprint for the Pre? Ugh. Advantage: Not cut and dry for everyone, but we stand by our numbers: Sprint is the best 3G network in our tests.

9. Physical keyboard:
It's preference, but one held by a large swathe of the gadget buying public: physical QWERTY keypads are still the mainstream input of choice. Touch is getting better all the time, but a lot of people still want physical keyboards. But better yet is the ability to choose; unfortunately, the Pre doesn't have a soft onscreen keyboard, and its slide-out is the same meh QWERTY from the Treo Pro. Advantage: It's preference, but on me, the iPhone's soft keyboard can't be beat.

10. Camera:
The Pre has an LED Flash for its 3MP camera, something both the iPhone and G1 lack. Flash cellphone photos are ugly, but for a lot of people, they're good enough. So credit for throwing it in. Advantage: Pre

11. Battery:
Apple's still an outlier with their non-removable battery; like the G1's, the Pre's comes out for a spare swap too. We've heard Apple's reasons for this a million times, we know the drill, but removable batteries will never stop being handy. Advantage: Pre

12. Copy & Paste:
Yep, Pre's got it. iPhone still doesn't. Advantage: Pre/G1

13. Browser:
All three use a browser based on WebKit, which has become the standard for the mobile web. We couldn't put it through our Mobile Browser Battlemodo ringer obviously, but what we saw looked great, and it's the only other mobile browser besides the iPhone that supports multitouch zooming. Advantage: iPhone/Pre

So there you have it. We're excited. Are you?



[originally posted at gizmodo.com]

Rumours that Palm Pre will be coming to O2 in UK

The rumour stems from comments made by a representative from Telefonica, O2’s parent company, to a Spanish newspaper, Expansion, in which the executive said that his company had been given exclusive rights to the Palm Pre in the UK, Spain and Latin America.

But Palm has sought to distance itself from the rumours, blaming a “misunderstanding”. A spokesman for the company told technology website Vnunet.com that he could not confirm when the Pre might be launched in the UK or which network carriers it would be available from.


The device, which has caused huge excitement among gadget fans and the technology community, is being touted as a rival to Apple’s iPhone. It features a 3.1in touch-screen, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, and runs an operating system designed with cloud-based computing services in mind. Many see it as a make-or-break device for Palm, which has struggled in the face of competition from the likes of Nokia and BlackBerry.

It was previously thought that Vodafone had signed an exclusive agreement to offer the Pre in the UK. But a spokesman said: “Vodafone is always talking to leading brands about new handsets. The Palm Pre is an interesting proposition, but that is all we are willing to say at this time.”

If O2 did win the right to launch the Palm Pre in the UK it would pit the device directly against another O2 exclusive, the iPhone. Apple is widely expected to launch a third-generation version of its popular mobile phone this summer.


[originally posted at crn.com]

O2 Grabs Palm Pre Exclusive?

Now here's a turn up for the books...
Contrary to commonly held belief it is now being reported that O2 parent Telefonica has beaten Vodafone to tie up a deal for the new Palm Pre in the process snagging exclusives for the UK, Spain and Latin America.
The news comes from respected Spanish newspaper Expansion and it goes on to say the Pre will be announced on schedule "before summer" which should beat a third generation iPhone out the traps. Of course we all know Palm's dire financial straits mean it can't afford to be late with the Pre so as long as a half finished Storm-esque product doesn't turn up this is good news.
Perhaps just as importantly however is the coup it would represent for O2. Rival networks have long searched for an 'iPhone killer' to compete with O2's exclusive deal with Apple, but should O2 actually grab the first legitimate iPhone killer I've seen then it could well be laughing all the way to the bank. As for contracts, this would likely bring the Pre in line with talk it will mirror iPhone pricing.
We'll be watching this one like a hawk...
Wondering what all the fuss is about? Check out my Palm Pre first impressions.
In related news Confirmed Pre US telco Sprint has unveiled its price plans for Pre with the following tariffs: 450 minutes ($69.99), 900 minutes ($89.99) and unlimited plans ($99.99). Family bundles are 1,500 minutes ($129.99), 3,000 minutes ($169.99) and unlimited plans ($189.99). Now don't read much into this since the US 'cellphone' market is hugely different from ours (read: worse) but hopefully it does mean we're getting towards the business end for this device.
[Originally posted at trustedreviews.com]

Palm Presents Pre Plan Pricing, Particulars

From Gadget Blog 7

Palm and Sprint on Thursday gave an invite-only group a closer look at the Palm Pre, the touch-screen smartphone that struggling Palm is hanging its hat on to rescue it from slumping revenues.
While Palm and Sprint didn't reveal the exact release date or final pricing for the Palm Pre, Palm's answer to touch-screen titans like the Apple iPhone 3G, the Google Android-based T-Mobile G1 and the BlackBerry Storm from Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd., the companies offered insight into the data and voice plans that will be available when the Pre hits the street in the first half of this year.

David Owens, director of consumer acquisition for Sprint, said Sprint will offer nine different individual, family and business plans for the Palm Pre, all based around Sprint's unlimited data and messaging plan, dubbed Everything Data, or Sprint's all-inclusive Simply Everything plan that ties not only unlimited data and messaging, but also voice.

While not all current Sprint plans will be available for the Pre, Owens said Sprint will offer 450-minute and 900-minute voice plans coupled with an Everything Data plan for $69.99 and $89.99 per month, respectively. Individuals can also choose the $99.99 Simply Everything option.

For family plans, Sprint will offer a $129.99, 1,500 minute plan and a $169.99, 3,000 minute plan with an Everything Data plan, or a modified version of the Simply Everything plan, which runs $189.99 for two lines of unlimited talk and data. And businesses, Sprint said, can pool minutes from an unlimited plan.

Overall, Owens said, a two-year unlimited all-inclusive contract could save Palm Pre users $1,000 compared to competing carriers.

Sprint and Palm are also hoping to entice buyers with the Ready Now assistance program, which gives Pre buyers a one-on-one session with a Pre expert to get a tutorial on their device. Pre buyers can have the session at the time of purchase, or schedule a session for a later date.

Matt Crowley, Palm's product line manager, added that the true capabilities of the Pre are unlocked with Sprint's 3G data network and with Palm's new webOS operating system, which lets users open and work in various applications on the single touch-screen.

According to Crowley, another focal point for the Palm Pre and webOS is Synergy, which draws information from a Pre user's various contact lists, calendars, messaging platforms, social networks and e-mail accounts and presents them on one screen.

In addition, Crowley outlined the Touchstone charging dock for the Pre, a stone-looking slab that requires no connection between the dock and the smartphone for charging. Essentially, a user just rests the device on top of the slanted-surfaced dock and it charges. While the device is charging, users can still use the touch-screen, watch movies and video and use the speakerphone for conversations.

The Palm Pre, one of a host of mobile devices unveiled this year at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, is a small and slick smartphone with rounded edges, a form-factor Crowley said was inspired by a "polished river stone."

The 3G device features a 3.1-inch 320-by-480 resolution touch-screen with a full slideout QWERTY keyboard. The device, which will be exclusive to Sprint, also ties in Wi-Fi, GPS, 8 GB of internal storage and a micro USB port for additional memory. The Pre also features a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. The Pre measures 2.35 by 3.96 by 0.67 inches and weighs in at 4.76 ounces. It also ties in three sensors, like an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and ambient lighting sensor.

Palm hopes the Pre will pull it out of a recent revenue slump. Palm expects to report fiscal third-quarter revenue of between $85 million and $90 million, a massive drop from the $312.1 million in revenue it reported in the third quarter of 2008 and the $191.6 million it reported in 2009's second fiscal quarter.

"The much-anticipated launch of the Palm Pre remains on track for the first half of the calendar year 2009, but as expected we've got a difficult transition period to work through," said Palm President and CEO Ed Colligan in a statement. "Despite the challenging market environment, the extraordinary response to the Palm Pre and the new Palm webOS reaffirms our confidence in our long-term prospects and our ability to re-establish Palm as the leading innovator in the growing smartphone market."
[Originally posted at crn.com]

Palm 'Withdraws' McNamee's iPhone-Killing Pre Statements

Last week, Elevation Partners investor Roger McNamee made some interesting statements about how he believes early adopters of the iPhone will jump ship and replace their Apple hardware with the Palm Pre. Palm thought his statements went a little bit too far, and submitted a document to the SEC "withdrawing" them.
This is too rich. As if McNamee's statements weren't somewhat inflammatory to begin with, Palm is calling even more attention to them. Here's what he said last week:
"June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it -- if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they're going to buy.""The Pre going to be a million times -- well, not a million times -- several times faster than the iPhone.""The Pre is going to run rings around [Apple] on the Web."McNamee is implying that iPhone users will want the Palm Pre and nothing else. He's forgetting that there could be a significant number of first-generation iPhone adopters who already moved on to the 3G iPhone. Those users will still be under contract come June 29, 2009. Second, McNamee isn't considering the possibility that Apple may release yet another version of the iPhone come the summer. Palm decided it best to take those statements off the public record (after all, investors may take McNamee seriously).
Palm issued several of its own statements, including:
"The statement in the second paragraph of the article that 'not one' person who bought an Apple Inc. iPhone on the first shipment date 'will still be using an iPhone a month' after the two-year anniversary of that day is an exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.""With respect to the statements in the tenth paragraph of the transcript that the Palm Pre is 'going to be a million times -- well, not a million times -- several times faster' than Apple Inc.'s iPhone products and is 'going to run rings around them on the Web,' the Palm Pre is still under development and it is premature to state the speed at which the device accesses the Web or the relative speed of the Palm Pre compared to the smartphone products of competitors."So there you have it. I totally understand McNamee's enthusiasm, which isn't something he should be denied. But he does need to understand that he can't make statements that could be misconstrued as factual when there are so many unknowns about the Pre's performance right now.
[Originally posted at informationweek.com]

Fanbois will abandon iPhone for Palm, says Wikisugardaddy

Once their current wireless contracts are up, each and every iPhone owner will switch to the Palm Pre. Or so says the ever-entertaining top-secret Wikicult sugar-daddy Roger McNamee.

McNamee's U2-powered private equity firm, Elevation Partners, owns 39 per cent of a certain non-Apple handheld-device company.

Bloomberg recently quoted McNamee as saying: "June 29, 2009 is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later."

His reasoning? "If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy."

Odds are, Steve Jobs is not quaking, angst-ridden, in his secure undisclosed location. Last December, Elevation Partners invested a cool $100m (£71m) to increase its Palm-investment ante from 25 to 39 per cent. Then, on Wednesday, after Palm missed analysts' sales estimates and reported its sixth straight money-losing quarter, Standard & Poors lowered the company's investment rating from CCC+ to CCC. That's eight levels below what it regards as investment-grade.

Incidentally, this is the same Roger McNamee who secretly pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation in an effort to turn Wikipedia into a moneymaker. It's a bizarre tale. At one point, U2 front-man Bono personally wooed Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales on the roof of a five-star Mexican hotel. And the last chapter has McNamee joining the Wikimedia advisory board.

And now, McNamee is not only drinking the Palm-flavored Kool-Aid, he's distributing it by the bucketful. Although the Palm Pre - on paper, at least - looks like a fine phone, it could be headed for a legal showdown with Apple (although Palm insists it's unfazed by Cupertino's implied threats).

To be sure, the Pre may one day carve out a tasty chunk of the smartphone market, especially if it can avoid the launch glitches that plagued RIM's own savior-phone, the BlackBerry Storm.

But to imply that the mere appearance of the Pre will incite a stampede of each and every iPhone fan into Palm's arms seems a stretch. Of course, on July 29, we'll know one way or the other.

[Originally posted at theregister.com]