Palm Pre drops $100 2 months after launch
PalmInfocenter just shared that the Palm Pre on Sale for $99 at Best Buy. With an addition $100 mail-in rebate, that means that with contract, you get the CDMA Pre for free. It's still to be seen whether this is a blunder on Best Buy's part of is the Pre's price has really dropped.
P/S: I think Best Buy could've messed up the pricing.
I’m a happy owner of a HTC G1
Yup, that's right folks. I'm really phscyed about this. It's been a while since I've used any modern phone. The Palm Centro is still with me, and is still my main phone, but I have a company line that's just begging to be housed in a good phone. Seeing how I've been really wanting to write a commercial Android app anyway, this falls into plan pretty well. The initial plan was to have the app first, then the phone, but what the heck. I was bored and I came across a relatively cheap phone. I'll also take the opportunity to say this: "Blood thirsty Malaysian phone sellers! I ain't gonna pay retail when it's marked up by US150!".
OK, so let's talk about the phone - it's so cool. Haha sorry, I know that does not describe it in any meaningful way but there are already plenty of reviews on the web. Go read.
I bought a T-mobile G1, a UK model probably as I've read that that model does not have colored hang-up and answer buttons. Mine is all white. The screen is great, the phone is absolutely responsive, even with apps running in the background. Camera is also performing above par - auto-focus and macro is just wonderful. It's a 3.2 mp puny sensor, so no low-light stuff. Wifi is working as it should, hooked up to a WPA and open network just fine. I got EDGE working on Maxis, haven't tried DiGi. Call quality is great. GoogleMaps with GPS is also nice, though no-turn-by-turn voice navigation 
. Bluetooth with A2DP is there, since it runs cupcake. The screen is responsive and looks lovely and is absolutely huge compared to the Centro.
Gripes? Hardware is kind flimsy due to the moving parts. It creaks when squeezed. Ah, also the speaker sounds really bleh.
On to a more positive note - there are tons of free software. OMG this is so nice. Not as much as Palm OS during it's peak but I'm guessing things will move pretty fast due to the ease of development of Android and its openness.
Oh man, I just have to start some serious coding for this thing.
Push Email on Palm OS For Free
If you still have one of the venerable Garnet devices lying around and fancy free push email (not counting the data charges of course!), check out SEVEN's Palm OS5 email client. Malaysian's can actually get a form of SEVEN's push-email service via DiGi (branded Smartmail) for RM15 per month (again, excluding data charges). However, the problem is, this paid service (one would think paid == better) supports only a few Windows Mobile and Symbian devices. No love for Palm I guess. Does not matter though, as SEVEN's beta program offers a free Garnet 5 client. Don't worry about being BETA and if you've never heard about SEVEN - they're actually Sprint's technology partner that provides Sprint Email client for Palm phones in the US.
So what do you get then? Here's a blatant copy from SEVEN's email:
- Access multiple email accounts (personal and workplace)
- Quickly sign in to any account with predefined connection settings for major ISPs
- Get real time delivery of new email on your mobile phone
- Read email offline on your mobile phone even when there is no connectivity
- View attachments on demand
- Access remote address books from work and personal accounts
The software has been pretty stable for me so far. I leave it running in the background and it buzzes whenever there's new email. They sync works 2 way too. Once an email has been read on the hand held, it'll be marked as read on the server. I've setup SEVEN to check my GMail and Yahoo! accounts. It also does IMAP and POP but I've personally not tried this.
There's a forum that provides support (it is a BETA program after all) and to feedback to so I reckon support won't be too hard to come by. Interested? Download the client.
Good Time For Palm OS Owners
First there's news that CrashPro and Skinner from 79bmedia GmbH is now freeware. There a web-based key generator provided by the company. Then there was the 48 hours upgrade offer for Documents To Go 11 Premium upgrade ($7.99, usual price $29.99). SkinUI has also been freeware for quite a while now, allowing Palm OS UI to be souped-up for free. I've also come across other deals - TakePhone for $2.99 and Weather unlimited-subscription for $4.99 - and many more.
P/S: Currently PalmInfocenter is currently having a Palm OS software sale.
Not bad till the new Pre comes out, eh?
Upcoming O’Reilly Palm WebOS book – Chapter 1 out
TamsPalm posted a mighty interesting news related to Palm's webOS. An initial chapter of an upcoming O'Reilly book reveals screenshots, bits of codes and other details of the new webOS. It's 9 pages long so it won't take long to finish. There'll also be a webinar that'll be available soon in which the SDK will be previewed.
Palm, get it out the door already. Please.
Source: Some News on the SDK Front -> TamsPalm - the Palm OS / web OS Blog
Link: Chapter 1 of the book
Palm Pre – $129 2-year contract, $549 without
Malaysians should take note of the price without a contract. The price of an unlocked-GSM model (rumored to be announced in the upcoming GSMA mobile world congress) should be similar. So, the Palm Pre might sell for close to 2000 ringgit. Not an out-of-this-world price for a smartphone, but definitely not as cheap as I'd hope for.
Source: Sprint EOL list reveals target Palm Pre launch, plenty more : Boy Genius Report