Palm Pre

re: Palm Pre

Sevenmack — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:23:52 GMT

That's old news, DRWAM, reported in December. Earlier, it had offered voluntary layoff packages; but most people, knowing that they can't collect voluntary severance and still get unemployment, declined to take the packages.

Nothing new for most companies these days. Everyone is laying off large numbers of employees; Sony is laying off 20,000 over the next two years -- including 80 at Playstation offices in Foster City -- while Bank of America is getting rid of most of the headquarters staff it acquired as part of its pick-up of Merrill Lynch.

re: Palm Pre

DRWAM — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:10:01 GMT

Sprint Announces Layoffs, May Close Call Centers:

www.techweb.com/.../showArticle

re: Palm Pre

robertsjoe — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:53:58 GMT

@sevenmack: CNET and Supersite news sites? Rolling Stone is much more of a news site. Come one now.

re: Palm Pre

Sevenmack — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:46:53 GMT

Actually Robertsjoe, the Financial Times article (from which Rolling Stone's blog quotes) simply quotes Ballmer as stating that Zune will be brought to other platforms. Essentially there may be a Zune Phone yet; it could also end up replacing Windows Media Player. Hardly signs of anyone throwing in the towel.

In any case, you little troll, why are you even quoting from Rolling Stone's Web site; it isn't a CNET- Supersite- or Lifehacker-worthy tech news site. Hell, it doesn't even measure up to the lowly ranks of Boy Genius Report.

re: Palm Pre

robertsjoe — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:29:25 GMT

The Zune is also dead and will be discontinued.

www.rollingstone.com/.../is-the-zune-about-to-become-extinct

All you Zune owners (all three of you) are holding on to a doorstop.

Lets count the tarnished MIcrosoft brands in the last 12 months:

- Vista (extinct. Now Windows 7)

- Windows Live Search (soon to be extinct. new name pending).

- Zune (soon to be extinct)

re: Palm Pre

robertsjoe — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:23:00 GMT

Palm is dead. Windows Mobile is dead. iPhone is king.

re: Palm Pre

Sevenmack — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:28:00 GMT

The Pre should be coming out by May or June, according to Engadget and Boy Genius Report. So it will be out before Father's Day.

As far as Sprint is concerned: I'm definitely a fan these days. Customer service is better than it has been and the network coverage is better than T-Mo or AT&T, especially when it comes to 3G. As Mike has noted, the EV-DO download speeds are nice and fast.

As for the plethora of operating systems? Right now, it's wide open. Apple will never allow cloning of its iPhone OS, thus limiting its market share and reach. Android may end up being the leading OS, but it's still new and its UI isn't as robust as it should be. RIM keeps stumbling -- at least in perception -- every time it pursues the consumer market; the Storm is a really sweet phone (mom has it and loves it), but it already has a Vista-like black eye because of the early miscues.

Right now, Symbian is dominant. Contrary to what our most recent troll has said, Nokia is the number one cellphone maker in the world; in most countries, its N-series is the number one smartphone brand (iPhone is only the biggest seller in America with just 15 percent of the market). More often than not, the dominant smartphone outside the US is either a Nokia N, an HTC (WinMo or Android), Samsung (WinMo) or a Motorola offering. But because smartphones are still growing, Nokia and Symbian could lose its lead.

Palm could really pull itself out of the doldrums with this phone. And Sprint really improved its phone offerings -- and standing in some circles -- with this step.So the dominant phone OS race is still tight.

re: Palm Pre

Waethorn — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:27:06 GMT

Ok, so people that bought the G1 have had a beta version of Chrome running on their phone.

Does Android support automatic updates?

Will webOS?

re: Palm Pre

boyreinvented — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:17:46 GMT

Nice. Microsoft should take note and worry, it seem's EVERYONE is ahead of them in the mobile market.

re: Palm Pre

dallasmay — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:24:41 GMT

@Dipsh t Admin

Please don't comment on something being "amateurish and rough around the edges" if you have only seen only seen a few photos.

re: Palm Pre

Dipsh t Admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

I've never tried Android, but the pictures I've seen make the interface look very amateurish and rough around the edges. You don't get this same thing when looking at the Pre. And for an OS that is so heralded and open as Android, the lack of any new devices based on Android is potentially telling. Now we can see why Sprint many months ago was talking about Android and how it wasn't ready yet. Well, when you know a new product is coming that is going to be better (by all pre-production counts at least), you can say things like that which later makes sense.

But in terms many OS's being available, we have the iPhone, Palm Garnet, WinMo, Symbian, BlackBerry and a ton of other OS's that run on a wide gamut of devices. One more certainly isn't going to make much difference. And with the Sprint lockdown, I'm pretty sure that Verizon will get this after a short exclusivity period, and we will probably see a GSM version for foreign carriers very shortly after the Sprint rollout.

re: Palm Pre

daveinla — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:43:59 GMT

Macbidouille, the French Hardmac has posted a nice video:

www.macbidouille.com/.../2009-01-09

It is truly impressive and sleek. Much more than Android. That is the closest thing to an iPhone for now in term of UI.

re: Palm Pre

PeyloW — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:35:56 GMT

@dallasmay: I share your interpretation. Can someone explain how third party apps should be developed, and first party if you like.

re: Palm Pre

helio99 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:17:25 GMT

>As Paul says, another smartphone OS? Egad!

Yeah that comment makes no sense whatsoever. WinMo is essentially dead in the water and symbian is not going anywhere either. They had the option of using Android but I've used that phone and it defines "half backed". RIM and Apple weren't letting their OSs out of the bag so they doid they right thing and bested it both of them.

re: Palm Pre

dallasmay — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:16:05 GMT

"At its core, webOS leverages several industry-standard technologies, including web technologies such as CSS, XHTML and JavaScript."

Am I the only one that sees that this phone can only do "Web Apps"? This is the 2007 iPhone. That means no 3D Graphics. That means no GPS support for developers. SOme one tell me I'm wrong.