Hot on the heels of Palm's Movistar GSM Pre sighting comes confirmation from carrier O2 that they'll be offering the smartphone "in time for the Christmas holidays". The handset will go on sale in the UK, Ireland and Germany on O2, with Spanish buyers getting the GSM Pre on Movistar. As expected, the only hardware change has been switching to support HSDPA/UMTS.
The GSM Palm Pre has made its first official appearance, on the company’s Spanish site. Unveiled as an exclusive to carrier Movistar, the Spanish network owned by Telefonica, the announcement lends further weight to the rumors that O2 – also a Telefonica carrier – will make some GSM Pre announcement this week.
Itchy trigger-finger or wishful thinking: either way, it's interesting to see that the Palm Pre has shown up on Dutch carrier Hi's website. A new support page isn't necessarily big news, but given that Hi is a VMNO brand of KPN and they, in turn, are strongly associated with Telefonica, it makes sense given that O2 (owned by Telefonica - are you confused yet?) is a strong frontrunner for Pre exclusivity.
As press releases go, this one is short and sweet: Telefonica have given the first "real" LTE demonstration today in Madrid, Spain. Unlike earlier tests, the fourth-generation network was not a standalone prototype but connected to the existing 3G and 2G network.
Arch carrier rivals Telefónica and Vodafone have signed a deal that will see them share cell-tower hardware, consolidating existing 2G and 3G base-stations and working together on future installations. The agreement will first impact the UK, Germany, Ireland and Spain, with further negotiations taking place regarding the Czech Republic.
Apple stole headlines this week with a surprise update just seven days after refreshing their Mac line. The new 4GB iPod shuffle is even smaller than the original, using an in-line remote and VoiceOver spoken tracknames to get around the absence of a display. Apple also released iTunes 8.1, while rumors of a multitouch 10-inch netbook flourished as first Chinese then US press picked up on the capacitive panel trail.
According to Spanish media, carrier giant Telefonica has grabbed the all-important Palm Pre exclusivity deal in Spain, the United Kingdom and Latin America. If the reports - currently unconfirmed by either Palm or Telefonica - are true, that would see the carrier's UK subsidiary O2 selling the Pre alongside the iPhone 3G.
