CTIA show

Palm Pre at CTIA 2009--photos

While we didn't get the release date or pricing of the Palm Pre at CTIA 2009, we did learn a few new things about the smartphone, which is better than nothing, we suppose.

Fandango on the Palm Pre

(Credit: Bonnie Cha/CNET)

The first bit of news actually came out of the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco where Palm announced that it's ready to release the Mojo SDK to developers so they can create apps for the Pre and Palm WebOS.

Back here in Las Vegas, Sprint and Palm hosted a VIP Lounge where invitees could kick back and check out the Pre in a more intimate setting, away from the masses. I stopped by the lounge, and we were disappointed to learn that there's still a "look, but don't touch" policy (more on this later), but we were happy to see that they were demoing a number of third-party apps on the smartphone, which we really haven't seen before.

The first app I saw was Fandango. The movie ticket site was announced as a partner back when the Pre made its debut at CES 2009, but we finally got to see how it would work on the smartphone, and I've got to say, it's pretty sleek. You can view trailers, check show times, and buy tickets through the Fandango app. If you buy tickets, the Pre will even create a calendar entry to remind you about the show.

Next up was FlightView. This is a real-time flight-tracking app that's designed to make it easier for you to know the status of a friend's or family member's flight. It lets you view in-air maps, receive status notifications, and also offers Calendar integration. FlightView will also use the smartphone's GPS to find the nearest airport to your location

Perhaps the most exciting app for me was Pandora. I love music, and Pandora's introduced me to some great new artists, so it's wonderful to see the integration of the Internet radio service on the Pre. Even better, you can run Pandora in the background while using other applications and without having to go back to the dedicated app, you can use the notification bar along the bottom of the screen to check out what's currently playing and perform some basic functions (e.g., stop/pause, next track).

Last but not least, we got to see a couple of Sprint's services demoed on the Pre, namely Sprint TV and Nascar Sprint Mobile app. The latter lets you get live race audio, keep tabs on your favorite drivers, and receive alerts on their latest results, and so forth. Sprint TV, of course, allows you to access to programming from a variety of channels, including CNN, Comedy Central, Sprint Exclusive Entertainment. The video playback on Sprint TV wasn't all that great. Picture quality was choppy and at one point, there was a couple-second stall in playback. However, to be fair, we've seen this on other Sprint TV-enabled smartphones and cell phones.

In general, I was impressed with what I saw. There were, of course, some hiccups, but everything's still in beta stage and I understand there are issues to be resolved, so I'm not going to pass final judgment. The bigger picture is that the smartphone offers great multi-tasking capabilities, and this is where I think the Palm Pre trumps the iPhone. Being able to run and interact with Pandora while working in another application is just a great example of the Pre's multitasking capabilities. Well played, Palm, well played. Check out photos of the apps and more beauty shots of the Palm Pre above.

Michael Abbott at Web 2.0 Expo 2009

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Palm is ready to let the world get its hands on the software development kit for WebOS, its next-generation mobile operating system.

At the Web 2.0 Expo on Wednesday, Palm's Michael Abbott announced that the company is ready to let developers start playing with its Mojo SDK, until now restricted to a few dozen select invitees.

He also showed how developers can tap into the messaging stream at the bottom of a Palm Pre using a Palm-hosted notifications service, and provided a link to Palm's past with the announcement of an emulator that will let WebOS users run their old Palm applications.

Abbott walked developers through the Mojo Messaging Service, which is a push notification service that developers can use to send status updates, such as the receipt of a new instant message, said Palm's Paul Cousineau, director of product management for WebOS.

If that sounds like the technology Apple just showed off at its iPhone 3.0 event, it is, but with a slightly different implementation: Apple's notification service will display a text-message-like pop-up window in whatever application is running, while Mojo and WebOS use a notifications bar that doesn't interrupt the application.

Palm obviously hopes to attract loads of developers to WebOS in order to tap into the mobile application madness that's sweeping the mobile phone industry, and will make its pitch to a group that's very familiar with the HTML, CSS, and Javascript technologies that are used to build WebOS applications, Cousineau said.

Palm's Mojo SDK and notifications service

(Credit: Palm)

But Palm has also found a way to throw its older developers a bone, as was discovered earlier Wednesday. "Classic" is an emulator that will ship with WebOS and allow old Palm OS applications to run on the Pre and other WebOS phones, Cousineau said.

A registration page went live on Palm's Web site on Wednesday. There will be no charge to download the SDK, and neither will developers have to join any kind of Palm developer association, Cousineau said.

And despite repeated attempts, Cousineau declined to share the pricing or release date for the Palm Pre. Palm has trickled out information regarding the Pre over the last several months since announcing it at CES 2009 in January, but has yet to shed any light on one of the most important factors that will decide how it is received.

Update: The Palm announcement pertains to the Pre SDK--no additional details on pricing or availability.

You got to love when Palm preannounces an announcement for its Pre smartphone.

That's exactly what it's doing with a tantalizing teaser on the official Palm blog. And it claims no April foolery.

The post states: "We thought about running a harmless little April Fools' Day prank on the blog today...but instead, we thought we'd give you a heads-up (for reals) to check back later today (or follow palm_inc on Twitter) for an update direct from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco."

Everybody, of course, is hoping for pricing or a release date for the much-anticipated Pre, a Sprint exclusive. But there's also a high probability that Palm will simply announce the free, general release of the Mojo SDK.

Naturally, we'll bring you the news, large or small, whenever Palm does provide details.

(Via the official Palm blog via Engadget).

The CTIA 2009 spring show is just a few days away, and there are sure to be new product announcements. HTC, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG--they'll all be there. However, there's one company in particular that's at the forefront of my mind, and it would be Palm. I'm sure you can guess why.

Palm Pre, where are you?

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

Both Palm and Sprint will be in Las Vegas for the show, but the companies don't have any news conferences or major events scheduled--just an invite-only VIP Lounge where they'll have the Palm Pre on display.

I really hope we'll learn some new information at CTIA (ahem, pricing, release date), since we clearly didn't during their last Webcast. However, I fear it'll be more of the same and we'll come home none the wiser. Part of me also thinks that they'll wait till the last possible moment (June) to deliver on their "first half of 2009" promise, but I hope I'm wrong.

Palm and Sprint are running into dangerous territory right now. We said at CES 2009 that it was risky for the companies to announce the smartphone (though smart in many ways) back in January and they had to careful to deliver on their promise and not delay the phone.

On the one hand, I commend Palm for better communication with the public whether it be through its blog or Twitter feed, but there's comes a point where the canned responses get old and things like the Webcast look like a stalling method or shameless self-promotion. I think it's pretty safe to say, we're at that point, and the masses are getting restless.

Also, with the new iPhone OS 3.0 and all its new features, the Pre has lost some of its competitive edge. (The chart below gives you a side-by-side comparison of the basic features of the two smartphones.) Plus, there's a chance we could see a new iPhone at WWDC in early June and that could certainly steal some of the Pre's thunder. ... Read More