Palm Arena

Image courtesy of Engadget

For all those claiming webOS was dieing and Android was taking over, you might want to get a load of this. At Palm’s CES keynote yesterday, Palm announced that it had secured a deal with Vodafone owned SFR which is a French telecommunications company. The odd thing about the announcement is what SFR’s VP had to say, “We started negotiating for smartphones in Cupertino… we ended in Sunnyvale.”

Ouch, I’m sure Steve Jobs felt that in his nuts.

VIA: PreCentral

No doubt you’ve heard about the Nexus One. It’s the phone that’s supposed to be Google’s masterpiece, a device that promises to heat up the cellphone market. Made official yesterday after weeks of speculation and rumors, Google has laid out its idea for the Nexus One.

First of all the device is Android powered. In fact it runs on Android 2.1, so the rumors about it being an in-house software were not true. Secondly the device is not solely Google branded. It has a huge HTC sign on it’s backside and while we’re at it, it’s packing a 5 megapixel camera. The full specs are listed below.

Size and weight
Height 119mm
Width 59.8mm
Depth 11.5mm
Weight 130 grams w/battery (100g w/o battery)

Display
3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
800 x 480 pixels
100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash
5 megapixels
Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
2X digital zoom
LED flash
User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular & Wireless
UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
HSUPA 2Mbps
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Power and battery
Removable 1400 mAH battery
Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger
Talk time
Up to 10 hours on 2G
Up to 7 hours on 3G
Standby time
Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G
Internet use
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback
Up to 7 hours
Audio playback
Up to 20 hours

Processor
Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system
Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity
512MB Flash
512MB RAM
4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location
Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
Digital compass
Accelerometer

The complete specs can be viewed HERE!

The Nexus One will be available one of three ways. You can buy it sans a contract for a mere $549. On a two year contract from T-Mobile, the device drops to a manageable $179. Verizon is listed as a carrier of the device for Spring 2010. As for Europe, Vodafone is being listed as the carrier for an unspecified date. T-Mobile Pricing options can be viewed HERE!

According to Android chief Andy Rubin, Google will “consider” adding the feature to the device. But we wouldn’t have much quips with that as multitouch has been lacking from many touchscreen phones and they still perform flawlessly.

For a complete review of the device. Check out Engadget.

ORDER NOW!

Palm Pre coming to o2 Wireless by end of 2009

Well my brothers in Europe, its finally official that Palm will release its Pre in Europe by years end, and those rumors about o2 Wireless beating Vodafone in the exclusivity deal were actually true. According to Palm’s official website, o2 Wireless is holding down the Pre for the UK, Ireland and Germany, and Movistar is taking it to Spain.

Originally, o2 Germany said it would be releasing the device in October, but that has now changed to “In time for Christmas.” We’re stocked that finally Palm making headway in the European market. Now if only we can get it to our brothers over there in Canada and South America. Not to fear though, we’re hearing Bell is holding the fort and will have shipments sometime in August.

If you’re interesting in all the PR bullsh*t that we come to expect from companies, you can check it out after the break.

Read more…

Guardian UK

Guardian UK is reporting the the Pre has been locked up for Europe by none other than 02 Wireless. If this is true its not terribly unexpected as the rumor mills have been saying this for quite some time now. We’d just like to know where Vodafone fits into this whole equation. But in any case its good to see that Palm is actually getting their act together for our European brothers.

VIA: Guardian UK

UK Flag

This one hit the rumor mill sometime this week and the Pre world is abuzz with the news. According to the rumor, Palm is set to announce who will be carrying the Pre in the UK next week. This makes perfect sense because Palm has been promising a GSM Pre for August of 2009 for quite some time now.

As to who will be the carrier is uncertain as many are saying that O2 is the carrier and yet others are saying that Vodofone will be the carrier. At any rate we will have to wait till next week and see if these rumors hold up. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

O2 Wireless

If we’re to believe the Guardian.co.uk, O2 wireless has fended off  “fierce competition” for the Palm Pre from other carriers such as Orange and Vodafone (who currently carries the exclusive Blackberry Storm in the UK).

More importantly we’re hearing that it will be available for the crucial holiday season, which means we’re not expecting this anytime before September. That said, we’re wondering why Palm would wait until then for the UK to taste the Pre when Cupertino will be unleashing the third variation of their super popular iPhone.

We’ll just have to wait and see, but hopefully Palm will change their mind. BTW O2 is also the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the UK so we’re thinking Palm might have something up their sleves, maybe side by side instore comparisons between both devices?

We’re not sure what to make of this, but it would appear that Telefonica’s Movistar (the guys who operate O2 in the UK) has scored a deal with Palm to carry the Pre not only in the UK but also Latin and South America? We’re guessing Carlos Slim and Vodafone is pretty pissed about this latest development as the latter has placed a locked grip on the Blackberry Storm for most of Europe.

What strikes as a even more strange is the fact that Latin America operates off the same 3G bands as N. America (800 & 1900MHz). Could this mean that AT&T users might be able to purchase unlocked Pre’s for their talking pleasure? We wouldn’t hold our breath for it, but its a cool thought none the less.

VIA: Palm InfoCenter

We were expecting to see a GSM Pre announced today at MWC, but surprisingly Palm has not afforded us the opportunity to continue lusting after their killer new phone. In any case PreCommunity has gotten its hands on a GSM version of said phone.

The SIM card has the Vodafone tag on it which is not too surprising seeing that the latest rumors point to an exclusive partnershipbetween Palm and Vodafone in Europe.

But we won’t bore you any longer.

According to some rumors that have leaked out of the palmpreblog.com, Vodafone would be the exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre in Europe.

Of course this comes as no surprise seeing that Vodafone has had a knack for getting all the best and new devices to hit the Europe markets.

According to Ryan, some Vodafone execs have been boasting about giving the Pre its rounds and so far going as far as to say

“I would keep your eyes peeled on the coming soon section here at our online shop”

As we said before, we’re not too surprised. But we’ll have to wait till February or March when Palm decides to let more details slip.