Palm Pre Blog

Facebook app is everywhere - iOS, Android, and of course webOS. In fact, Facebook App for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi has been available since the original launch of Palm Pre over a year ago. And now comes the new version that supports webOS 1.3. Everything is improved over 1.1 version that was release in March. New features include selectable feeds, comments in the feed, photo tagging, landscape mode, clearing multiple notifications at once, and lots of performance enhancements., head over to Facebook fan page to learn more.

Verizon Wireless is thinking to offer prepaid Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus? That’s what I heard from a number of news/rumor sites. $45 will cover voice and $30 will let you have unlimited emails and web. Only $5 more than a comparable post-paid plan. Too good to be true? Not really. Right now you can have a month-to-month plan if you choose to pay retail price of a new headset. The minimum monthly fee will set you back $39.99. And since you are paying a full retail price for the phone, you are not required to sign up for any data plan. If you don’t want to be locked into a 2-year contract and don’t want to pay a full retail price for a new mobile phone, pay as you go plan is a good solution. However, a prepaid Palm Pre Plus will be probably cost you somewhere between $300 and $400 vs. $100 or even $0.00 with post-paid plan. Which one to choose? You decide.

When Should I Upgrade my cell phone? Whether you have a beaten-up old phone like Palm Treo or a something just bought a couple of months ago, you can find great deals if you are eligible for an upgrade. OK, the typical contract cycle is 24 months or 12 months (carriers are pushing for 24 months in most cases). You eligibility depends on a lot of factors and we won’t get into details in this post. So, let’s assume that you meet all the requirements, When is the best time to upgrade my cell phone? Holiday shopping and Back to School season! Carriers offer more incentives for you to sign up another 2-year contract during back to school and holiday shopping seasons. So, act now!

Angry Birds Available for Palm Pre Plus
In case you don’t know, Angry Birds currently the number one paid app on iPhone now becomes available for Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pre (requires webOS 1.4.5). This is very casual game and yet very additive. Why did it come to webOS earlier? It’s super simple porting the game to the webOS, at least according to the recent interview with the Angry Birds developer. And for those of you who want to help the birds seek sweet revenge against the green pigs, you can get the app for $0.99. Oh, there is a free version too. Feel free to try it out.

We were expecting to see a HP WebOS Tablet in late 2010. Now HP just officially stated that the new tablet will be available in Q1 2011. I guess we can hold on to the money for now. No price or other details were revealed. January 2011 is one year after Apple officially announced the new iPad. Given the track record how frequent Apple updates their iPhone and iPod lines, we are expecting an iPad 2 to be introduced around the same time. That’s an interesting timing! For Palm and HP to steal some customers away from Apple, they better create something amazing and more magical than the iPad or iPad 2!

WebOS 1.4.5 update for Sprint customers has been available since August 12. Did you get a chance to update your Palm Pre or Pixi? What this release includes minor fixes and enhancements to support the public release of the webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK).
So what does PDK really do? For developers, the PDK makes it easy to port existing C/C++ applications to webOS, easy integration of C/C++ components to enhance the capability of webOS applications built with Mojo. Sounds too complicated? It does. For consumers, all it means is much better gaming experience. After you do the 1.4.5 update, try “Need for Speed Undercover” yourself and find out more.

Do you know that a lot of people bright their cell phones with them when going to the beach? Folks, I know you want to escape the summer heat by dipping yourself into the water. Your phone can’t. Water, heat, and sand can destroy your valuable investment (smartphones are not cheap). Although most of the phones are not made for beach environment, there are some rugged phones that are designed to withstand all types of environment, including shock, water, and heat. So, what’s the best phone to bring to beach while you are sun bathing, playing beach volleyball, or simply taking a nap by the pool? Samsung Convoy for Verizon Wireless does more than a beach phone. It’s so tough that it is Military Spec 810F certified. It’s also a 3G phone and capable of streaming V CAST Video and V CAST Music while you are on the beach (or anywhere in the United States). So, next time you want the best outdoor phone for the beach or pool side, consider the Samsung Convoy.

Some of you might be excited about the Blackberry Torch release and totally forgot about the Palm Pre Plus. So, is Blackberry Torch better than Palm Pre Plus? No way! The Torch is great improvement over previous generation of Blackberry smartphones, but it’s not a Palm Pre killer or iPhone killer. Whatever the Torch has, Palm Pre already has it over a year ago. The biggest improvement is the web browser - now you feel you are visiting a real website while the previous version of Blackberry browser can not render complicated pages. Well, the new Torch will definitely give Blackberry a chance to catch up with Android, Palm, and iPhone. If I were you and already own a Pre or Pixi, just wait for the next HP WebOS phone.

This official Blackberry Price and Release Date from AT&T- you will get this new device for $199.99 after rebates on August 12, 2010. Given the shortage of Blackberry Storm when it was first launched November 2008, do expect the Blackberry Torch 9800 to run out of stock shortly after the release date. The $199.99 Blackberry Torch price is in line with smartphones like iPhone and other Android devices. It’s the first Blackberry with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard (didn’t Palm introduce this a long time ago with Palm Pre?) I am not quite impressed with all the specs. But for those who want to stick with Blackberry and want a touch screen phone, this is the one for you. Check back on 8/12 for much lower online exclusive price here.

We know not everyone is interested in Palm or iPhone, so let’s look at some Android phones. Here is one very cheap HTC Aria deal that you don’t want to miss from online authorized AT&T dealers. Unlike many retail stores, you won’t need to file rebate claims. All discounts and rebates are instantly applied to the HTC Aria sale. And credit check is done online so that you don’t need to wait. What you need to do is relax and have the HTC Aria arrive at your doorstep in just 2 days. This is the cheapest HTC Aria deal you can find and not available in stores. Free Google phone + free shipping. What else can you ask for? Check out the specs highlights below:

• smallest Android smartphone
• large 3.2 inch touchscreen
• Powered By Google’s Android 2.1 Operating System With The Award Winning Sense UI
• Access Thousands of Apps and Widgets On The Android Market
• Advanced 5MP Autofocus Camera With Video Capture Records Moments In Time
• Surf and Talk At The Same Time With AT&T’s 3G Network

There have been a number of reports and rumors that HP will dump Windows 7 Tablet project. In my opinion, this is a better strategic move from HP. Why would you create two products to compete with each other. Would Apple create an iPhone and Android phone at the same time so that you have more choices when it comes to smartphones? Why not make a product that can change the world rather than a product that so few people are interested in. We already have tablets running on Windows. Who needs more Windows tablets.

Well, even if HP doesn’t kill the HP Slate, we will definitely see a new tablet powered by Palm WebOS before Christmas this year. But what can you expect from HP WebOS Tablet? Everything you find on the Palm Pre Plus can be easily brought to a large touch screen. And it’s not going to be called a tablet. I don’t think HP want this new product to be associated with those clumsy tablets that are not sexy. The only competitor in the large touchscreen mobile device is Apple’s iPad. So, whatever the iPad doesn’t have, HP want to have them on the new WebOS device. Just to give you a few - digital camera, support for Flash. So, what do you expect the new WebOS touchscreen device will have? Leave us a comment below. Thanks.

600,000 iPhone 4 were preordered during the first day and nearly crashed AT&T and Apple’s system. I have no doubt that Appple is on track to sell 1 millions of iPhone 4 during today’s official launch. Will iPhone 4 replace your Palm Pre, Palm Pre Plus, and Palm Pixi Plus? A couple of readers responded to why you should switch from Palm Pre to iPhone 4. Are you still waiting for Palm Pre 2? What will Palm Pre 2 include? Double the screen resolution? Double memory capacity? What else can Palm and HP do the fend off competition from Apple and Google. I am pretty sure that HP and Palm will definitely come up with something extraordinary before Christmas. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Is HTC EVO 4G in stock (retail or online stores)? Nope, no wonder it’s the number one Sprint phone this year. Sure, Palm Pre had its share of spotlight during CTIA 2009, but the HTC EVO generated even more buzz in 2010. From my personal visits to a number of Sprint retail and online stores, HTC Evo already ran out of stock in the first 2 days. Some online authorized dealers aren’t even allowed to sell it during the first 1 months.

Although 4G is only available in selected metro areas, Sprint has sold more HTC EVO 4G than any other Sprint product launch in the past. With more 4G coverage coming soon this year, I am sure the EVO will be super hot this summer. If you find the EVO 4G in stock during your visit to local stores, get them right away! Good luck.

You probably know that Sprint has always been the first one to release Palm smartphones. But who else carry the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus? Now every major carrier in the United States has Palm Pre or Pixi except T-Mobile. In fact, TMobile never carry Palm products before and has no plans to do so in the near future. The Pre arrived on the market about a year ago and since then the WebOS family has grown to include Pixi, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus. Not only the number of devices are growing, the numbers of carriers to increasing too. Sprint was the only carrier in 2009 and now that Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are available through AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Consumers have more choices and don’t need to be locked into a single carrier. This is just the beginning. As competition heats up from Android and iPhone, expect more innovation from Palm and HP on both hardware and software!

What’s the number one Sprint phone right now? To answer this question, just go to any Sprint retail store and ask what phone have sold out since last Friday? The HTC Evo it is. The EVO 4G has taken the number one spot on Sprint’s top selling phones this year. This happened only a few days after the official launch. Can you imagine if they have more units in stock? People are comparing the EVO 4G with iPhone 4. In fact, very few people mentioned any trouble of choosing Palm Pre or HTC EVO. We have to admit that Palm Pre is no competition to the Evo. Let’s just hope that HP can come up something more amazing later this year (chances are they will release something before Christmas shopping season).

I just posted a few reasons why you should upgrade to HTC Evo 4G. What about switching from Palm Pre Plus to iPhone 4. The new iPhone looks like having so much more than Palm Pre Plus has to offer. 1GHZ vs. 600mhz processor speed, 960 x 640 vs. 480 x 320 screen resolution, 5 megapixel camera vs. 3 megapixel, and 720p videos at 30fps vs. VGA at 30fps. Plus there are so many more apps for iPhone than for Palm Pre. What’s keeping you from upgrading to iPhone 4 from Palm Pre Plus - carrier/network, price, or features?

We already know Palm Pre is not 4G ready, so why not upgrade to HTC Evo 4G now for a great price? Every spec on Evo is more favorable than that from Palm Pre. The only thing some of the long time Palm users might be concerned is the lack of physical keyboard - but trust me, you don’t need one after you play with Evo for a day or two. The absence of physical keyboard actually is a big advantage - the phone is lighter and slimmer. We have HTC Evo for sale now for $189.99. For a limited time, this price is good for new account, upgrade, or add-a-line. Price is cheaper than what the retail stores offer plus you don’t need to file a rebate claim at all. Upgrade to HTC Evo today and save more money!

For those who want new phones for Verizon June 2010, here is a list of Verizon Wireless phones worth checking out in June - LG Ally and LG Fathom. Both are smartphones. The LG Ally runs on the latest Android 2.1 while Fathom is a Windows phone running on Windows Mobile Professional 6.5. For anyone new to the smartphone world, the Ally is a great a place to start. Although I am not a big fan of Windows phones, I always have trouble opening old version of Excel files (especially older versions) on Palm Pre, Android, and iPhone. On Windows Mobile phones, it’s no trouble at all. So, for someone who would like to take their Microsoft documents to go anywhere the LG Fathom looks like a better choice. Prices are not yet finalized. Expect $100 rebates from retail stores on these new phones for Verizon in June 2010.

How Much is Palm Pre Plus Mobile Hotspot
Want to carry your laptop with you and connect to the internet anytime and anywhere you want? You need a wireless laptop card or a Palm Pre Mi-Fi Mobile Hotspot. So how much does Palm Pre Plus Mobile Hotspot cost? $40 a month normally. That’s on top of $30 unlimited data plan every month. Expensive? Not really. consider what they charge for 5G wireless data on a laptop card, it’s really not a big deal. You can connect up to 5 Wi-Fi devices at the same time. What if I tell you free Mobile Hotspot today. This bonus feature costs absolutely nothing. If you have a laptop data plan, it’s time to switch to the Palm Pre Plus and take advantage of this free MiFi offer.

You probably don’t need to buy insurance for your cell phone if the phone itself doesn’t cost much. What about smartphones like Blackberry? Should I purchase a device protection plan for my smartphones? Smart phones are expensive without contract. Depending on the hardware specs, they can cost anywhere from $400 to $600. You can get a decent laptop with that much money these days.

Let’s take HTC DROID INCREDIBLE for example. It costs $599 without a service plan. So, what happens when it breaks after just a few months, and if you don’t have a Verizon mobile device protection plan? In that case you would have to pay $599 for the exact same phone. That’s a lot of money to pay for a new mobile phone. So, what can you do to protect your investment? Buy a smartphone protection plan from Verizon Wireless for $7.99 a month. I know that’s $2 more than the insurance you have to pay for a flip phone. But it’s a very fair deal. Here is the break down:

1. You pay $150 for the DROID Incredible with a new contract.
2. Opt in the mobile device protection service for $7.99/month
3. When your smartphone doesn’t work, file claim right away.
4. pay $89 deductible once the claim is approved.

Let’s say your new smartphone stop working on the 12th month. At that time you already pay $95.88 in total equipment protection fee. Add the $89 deductible you will end up paying $184.88 in total. That means for $184.88 you will be able to replace your broken smartphone with a new a refurbished one. That’s a very good deal consider the retail price for smartphone like HTC DROID INCREDIBLE costs $599.

I highly recommend getting a smartphone protection plan if you had a habit of losing or breaking your phone in the first 12 months. Otherwise, just be extra careful with your new phone. Good luck.