Are you an Android-lover? Are you still touting around your trusty G1, or even moved onto the physical keyboard-less Magic or Hero? And maybe someone you know has that other Linux-based Operating System, known as WebOS, and you can’t help but want some of that action for yourself. Well, you could have gotten a little closer with a simple theme called (you guessed it) “Palm Pre Android Theme”, which borrowed the icons, wallpapers, and general mojo directly from WebOS.
It looks like Palm is up to no good, at least if you’re one to want some kind of security and privacy when going about your every day agenda. Earlier today, developer Joey Hess did some digging around within the WebOS code that transmits information back to Palm, trying to find out what exactly Palm discerned from this information, and what he found isn’t that promising.
Don’t tell Palm or WildCharge, but analysts Strategy Analytics reckon that right now wireless charging is “pointless”. In fact, according to the company’s latest report, manufacturers of wireless charging systems such as Palm’s Touchstone for the Pre or WildCharge’s eponymous system are currently falling way short of their potential.
Palm and Bell Mobility have announced that the Pre smartphone will be available in Canada on August 27th, priced at CA$199.95 (US$187) with a three year contract. The CDMA handset is the same model as is already on sale in the US through carrier Sprint, and includes EVDO Rev.A, Bluetooth and WiFi, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and multitouch-capable capacitive touchscreen.
Official support for tethering is still one feature conspicuous by its absence from the Palm Pre’s abilities, and the last we heard Palm were cautioning tweakers not to unofficially enable it lest Sprint get upset. If, though, the promise of sharing all that EVDO Rev.A goodness is just too good to miss, and you fancy some MiFi-style WiFi hotspot action, then homebrew app My Tether is the answer.
Video demo after the cut
We’ve seen the Palm Pre accidentally advertised for $99.99 before, but if you’d like a legitimate $99.99 deal then head over to LetsTalk. The company is offering the Palm smartphone for $99 after a combination of mail-in and instant discounts, though you’ll seemingly need to order before the end of today if you want to be eligible.
The Pre in question is new (rather than refurbished) and requires a two-year agreement with Sprint, but that’s no different to what the carrier themselves (or Amazon) expect of you.
After Sprint opened up the doors to online ordering of the Palm Pre through their webstore, Amazon have got in on the action. The webOS smartphone is now available to order there, too, priced at the same $199.99 as Sprint but with no mail-in rebate forms to deal with.
Along with the launch of the Mojo SDK for webOS also came a promise from Palm of a new wave of software hitting the Pre’s App Catalog. Today there’s news of two new titles available to download, and while that may not quite amount to a “wave” as yet – a trickle, perhaps? – it’s hopefully a sign of good things to come.
The titles themselves are OpenTable and Fliq Bookmarks. OpenTable offers not only restaurant bookings from the touchscreen of your Pre, but reviews, reservation management, GPS searches to call up places to eat nearby and integration with the handset’s calendar to automatically note down your eating arrangements.
Well another week has come and gone as time steadily marches on and like every other week here on SlashGear, it has been a busy one. Poor old Toshiba took the old adage “if you can’t beat them, join them” seriously on Monday and announced that it would be launching its own Blu-ray player by the end of 2009. That had to be hard to swallow for the execs who bet it all on HD DVD only to be defeated by Blu-ray. Also on Monday the slick HP Mini 5101 netbooks tipped up starting from $399. I’m not convinced we need another netbook on the market right now personally.
Though it was initially reported that the Palm Pre had a return rate of a staggering 40%, it seems that number was based on bad data and now is more around the 2-3% area, which is a significant drop.
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