The Palm Pre 2 is now available, and if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on one to use as a developer device, HP wants to help. We’re excited to announce that developers will be able to purchase an unlocked UMTS Palm Pre 2 smartphone online in the United States at a $200 discount. Just send an email to pdc@palm.com to request a coupon!
A really sweet deal for webOS developers on the Pre 2. Kudos, Palm!
Source: Palm Developer Center via PreCentral
You can now purchase a completely unlocked Palm Pre 2 from HP here in the US for a very reasonable $449.99. The Palm Pre 2 is powered by TI’s 1GHz OMAP 3630 chipset and has 512MB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The distinctive sliding portrait keyboard remains as does the respectable albeit dated HVGA display, although the front face now uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass. The camera has also been upgraded with a 5-megapixel sensor, but is still fixed focus.
Of course, the real appeal of the Palm Pre 2 is that it is currently the only device running HP webOS 2.0 — the latest version of the killer smartphone OS Palm awed the world with at CES 2009. webOS 2.0 is slated to hit all other Palm devices ‘in the coming months’ and a plethora of new devices — including a tablet — are slated for 2011.
If you insist on having webOS 2.0 now or are a developer eager to get started with webOS development, the Palm Pre 2 is an excellent device with hardware on par with all the latest and greatest smartphones and software that eclipses nearly everything else on the market. The Pre 2 will also be available on Verizon before year’s end for those who don’t mind a contract with Big Red.
Update: webOS developers can get an unlocked Pre 2 for $250.
We’ve got some great stuff coming. If you are a webOS aficionado out there, be patient. The pool of webOS devices is going to grow very dramatically over the next 12 to 18 months.
Watch out, Apple. Palm wants its throne back — and with webOS at the helm and HP at its sails, it’s only a matter of time.
Sources: Web 2.0 Summit, EE Times via IntoMobile
The best mobile operating system just got better — but it’s still far from perfect. Here are some excerpts and links to early reviews of HP webOS 2.0 on pre-production Palm Pre 2 hardware from around the Web.
WebOS 2.0 is without question the biggest webOS update we’ve seen since Palm first unveiled webOS at CES in January 2009. You could argue that the main features…are mainly evolutionary and you wouldn’t be wrong. However, the sum of these updates adds up to an OS that is coming into its own….webOS 2.0 is not a me-too operating system.
from Dieter Bohn’s review at PreCentral
Despite some issues, webOS 2.0 is probably neck and neck with iOS4 when it comes to polish and ease of use….This isn’t just a good OS, it’s a great OS….[however] the problem with webOS 2.0…[is that] Palm is still hampered by last-generation, underpowered hardware. The Pre 2 is nice, but it’s not cutting edge, and it doesn’t hold a candle to the iPhone 4 or G2.
from Joshua Topolsky’s review at Engadget
The general sentiment seems to be positive on the software side and meh at best when it comes to hardware. Whereas webOS 2.0 is a strong hand, the Palm Pre 2 looks to be an amateur poker player. The lack of innovation on the hardware front is the one major thing holding webOS 2.0 back. The Pre 2 is a good first step, but killer hardware is necessary for widespread adoption of the platform. Hopefully, HP and Palm will have a bleeding edge device to unveil in early 2011 that can do webOS some real justice.
HP announced HP webOS 2.0 today along with the first device that will run it: Palm Pre 2. The Pre 2 is essentially a highly refined Pre that updates the hardware to current times — 1GHz processor, 5-megapixel camera, glass screen — without departing from the original design concept. The Palm Pre 2 will be available on SFR in France this Friday and will be coming to Verizon in the US and to Canada ‘in the coming months.’ HP also states that developers will be able to purchase an unlocked UMTS version of the Pre 2 ‘to use as a canvas to build the next generation of webOS applications and services.’
The real star of the show, of course, is webOS 2.0 — now rebranded and prefixed with HP’s name. Fans of the sleek multitasking mobile operating system will not be disappointed. The same ingenious card UI is still the centerpiece, now enhanced with Stacks — the ability to group related cards together.
Universal search has been renamed Just Type and now searches almost everything on the phone or on the Web simply by entering text. Just Type also houses a new killer feature called Quick Actions — essentially turning Just Type into a command line that can run virtually any action with user-defined shortcuts.
Exhibition will allow webOS 2.0 devices to run apps while on the Touchstone charging dock. ‘Set your phone on the dock and Exhibition launches automatically, showing you anything from today’s agenda to a slideshow of your Facebook photos.’
As far as social networking and contact services are concerned, webOS is still at the front of the pack. Synergy is still there ‘to connect you seamlessly to multiple web services’ and is now open ‘so developers can easily plug new Messaging, Contacts and Calendar application sources directly into the core webOS experiences.’ The Messaging app has been updated to include Yahoo! IM and Facebook chat. Speaking of Facebook, version 2.0 of Palm’s Facebook client will be in the App Catalog soon and will support Stacks, Quick Actions, and Exhibition upon availability.
Other features of HP webOS 2.0 include a beta version of Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Bluetooth keyboard support, and a QuickOffice document viewer (replacing Documents To Go’s viewer) that integrates with your Google Docs and Dropbox accounts.
The official press release is available after the break.
Despite an impressive track record at Hewlett-Packard, I am not a big fan of former HP CEO Mark Hurd who was ousted from his position after an investigation by the company board into an inappropriate relationship with an independent contractor revealed fudged expense reports. Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of Oracle — and close friend of Mark Hurd — begs to differ, going so far is to say HP’s dismissal of Hurd was “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”
Although I tend to believe Mr. Ellison says some pretty controversial things, many with which I do not agree, I do admire that he took the initiative to hire a man whom he holds in such high professional esteem. At the very least, his actions are in line with his words — however off tangent they may seem to be.
Source: New York Times via Daring Fireball
I think I speak for all webOS users when I say that we have been anxiously awaiting some killer hardware to replace the (gracefully) aging Pre and Pixi lines. There have been many rumors floating around for months, most notably on PreCentral, that a new webOS phone is in the pipeline, and even a quote back in April from Jon Rubinstein himself that Palm was ‘working fast and furious on new handsets’. Add Palm’s recent acquisition by HP — the largest technology company in the world — to the mix, and we have a recipe for rampant unsubstantiated claims.
What we know for sure is that new hardware is coming from Palm and so too is webOS 2.0. What we don’t know is when it will come, what carrier(s) will get it, and what specifications the device(s) will have. Two recent developments, however, seem to shed some more light on these questions.
The first development comes from Phone Arena which seems to have obtained a tentative lineup of Verizon’s handsets for the remainder of 2010. Slated for a mid to late October release — alongside the Samsung Fascinate, Blackberry’s Storm 3, and the Motorola Droid Pro — is none other than the Palm Pre 2. Unfortunately, no specifications are listed for said device.
The second development comes from Killin’ It Apps — a webOS developer — who tweeted a rather startling find from the developer logs of its popular game Cloud Hopper:
Someone is playing #CloudHopper on a new resolution! @webosroundup @precentral @engadget #webos20 #roadrunnerHD http://twitpic.com/2gd0dd
The resolution? 640 x 960. The device? Roadrunner HD. The webOS version? 2.0.
Although it is certainly possible that this is an elaborate hoax, it definitely seems like the Roadrunner HD — which may or may not sport a ‘retina display’ depending on screen size — is a reality. Whether it is the same phone as Verizon’s Palm Pre 2 — or perhaps a Sprint variant — remains to be seen. In any case, Palm fans have two more reasons to believe the next webOS phone is incoming before 2010 is out.
Sources: Phone Arena, Twitter, PreCentral
During HP’s Q3 2010 earnings call, Todd Bradley fielded a question about the impact of tablets on netbook sales. The response included a confirmation of the release of ‘a webOS-based product in early 2011′. It looks like Palm will be blowing everyone away with the ‘Hurricane’ at CES 2011 just like it did two years ago when it unveiled the Pre and the highly acclaimed webOS mobile operating system. HP recently trademarked the name ‘PalmPad’ and it most likely will be the name of the upcoming webOS tablet. As an avid Palm fan, I am eager to see how well webOS scales to the tablet form factor.
Source: PreCentral