GSM version of Palm Pre has been caught on tape in Vietnam, or so the “sources” say. There will be a short video after the break so keep reading. This probably means that the GSM version of Palm Pre after it has been spoted several times, first in Barcelona in February, then earlier today in London is getting nearer and nearer to its launch. The video below shows few Vietnamese gadget lovers fiddling with the GSM version (confirmed) of Palm Pre. Is it really true we dont know but we hope (for Palm`s sake) that they will launch it really really soon. Palm Pre has a great chance to become a hit in markets that are huge and liberal like India, Arab countries,Japan and the old continent naturally. That markets are almost exclusivelly GSM/UMTS based. Chech out the video below.

In the past month there has been over 700.000 aplication downloads from the Palm Pre App Catalog, or so it has been claimed by Medialets. It si surely not as impressive as iPhone`s one billion downloaded aplications but if you consider that there are only 30 available applications in the App catalog so far… it is quite impressive. And as you can see from the graph there is no sing of slowing down. It might be a bit early to predict or conclude anything but it is surely a sign of healthy interest and possibly a sign for all the developers that the App Catalog can and will be as interesting as Apple AppStore.

Here it is boys n` gals, after months of anticipation, exhausted by rumors it is offical. Palm Pre will be available on June 6th, Spint has just released a press release. All you european Palm lovers before you get too excited, there is a bit of bad news. Palm Pre will be selling only in the US for the time being, and there is no info on the EU launch at this moment. This is pretty dissapointing that Palm decided to take this path. We are still hoping that they will at least give us a rough estimate.

So Palm pre will go for 199$ (after a mail in rebate and a two year contract with Sprint), we are guessing CDMA/EVDO version with a special “Palm Pre only” plan with data & messaging included. It will be available at Sprint, Best Buy, Radio Shack and some Wall-Mart locations. Optional TouchStone inductive charger will be 69,99$ (charger + back plate)

The launch date is on collision course with WWDC and possibly new iPhone demo, so we guess people at Palm calcualted their ods pretty carefully and decided to go for the prize :) . Since we are euro centric Palm Pre blog we will be on the lookout for any kind of info on the EU launch date so stay with us.

Palm announced “Real reviewer” program just a few weeks ago, for all the social media sites out there. They hope to gain some widespread “organic” credibility troughout the web with it. It is the first time that Palm has opened tis kind of activities to non professionals. it has allways been out there for pro journalists but this time they are counting on bloggers, online journalists and reviewers to get the word on the Pre out.
And we must admit that this tactic is just brilliant, if you are a twitter/friendfeed/facebook user with a large flock of followers (let`s say 5000+) you are an ideal candidate for the “organic reviewer” position. So if you get lucky you`ll get one Palm pre for 6 months to dissect and describe from every existing angle.

So the main story here is a rumor that “real reviewer” program is launching this week, and all who applied and entered will be recieving their copy by the middle of the week. So prepare for buzz whirlpool of Palm pre sightings and news during the upcoming weeks. And it was about time.

It seems that Palm is ready to show what they are up to and release the Mojo software development kit for Web OS. Senior Vice President of Application Software and Services at Palm Michael Abbott announced at the Web 2.0 Expo that Palm is ready to release Mojo to all developers.

Mojo SDK was until now available only to closed circle of selected developers. He demoed the Mojo Messaging Service, basically a push notofication service that can be used to send status updates like IM notification, new mail arrival etc.
Mojo Messaging service is something similar to one presented by Apple few weeks ago in SDK 3.0. It seems that Palm has loaded his guns and is ready to take over all the developers available on the market. Anyone with a good knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript coding can become a developer, and that is Mojos biggest advantage over all other platforms.

The only problem that existed so far was the “old Palm developers” that were “neglected”. Problem was solved with a “Classic” emulator that allows older Palm OS applications to run on the Palm Pre, and all the future Web OS devices.

So if you are good at HTML, CSS or Javascript and have good ideas about inovative applications, hop on to Palm Developers page where you can register for Mojo release. Unlike Apple, Google, RIM and others Palm will not ask developers to join in any kind of association or charge a fee for it. So considering everything that developers need to go trough to become iPhone or BlackBerry developers we think that this is a great move.

It seems that Palm has succesfully mimicked the Apple strategy for initial release of the iPhone. The idea is to announce and heavily demo and show off the device’s capabilities months before the actual launch. Hence the quantity of videos and clips around the web teasing and building up the buzz. That will create the perfect climate for a spectacular launch, hopefully comparable to the one iPhone had.

Now that the WMC is over we can sit back and hand pick the quality material from the conference. So without further ado take a look at the 26 minute demo that will bring you closer to all the fine details of the WebOS and the Palm Pre (via Precommunity)

As you can see the Synergy is working flawlessly and the Calendar function in the new Palm Pre will be as beautiful as it is useful.
Check out the Palm Pre Calendar Gallery ( via Precommunity )

Awesome guys from the PreCommunity.com revealed something pretty interesting. While there was no official presentation or even a mention of a GSM version of Palm Pre, there are a few ones running around Palm’s booth in Barcelona. And guess what, the rumors are true, Vodafone will probably be exclusive carrier for Palm Pre in Europe. You can say that that there is no real evidence here but I think we need nothing more. The only thing we can hope for now is that Palm hits a deal with Vodafone FAST and announces it for 2009 :).

Check out the video that revealed the whole “story” (via PreCommunity)

World Mobile Conference in Barcelona has kicked off this morning, and there is already a few interesting stories for Palm lovers. First of all we bring you a few shots from the Palm’s booth @ MWC and later on there will be some more Palm Pre sweetness. So sit back, relax, look at the pictures and imagine you are in Barcelona hanging out with all the cool people from the mobile world. And don’t forget to check out Palm’s Facebook page for more periodic snapshots from Barcelona.

As it was announced the CEO of Palm inc Ed Colligan revealed alot of interesting bits about the new Palm Pre. The main reason for this conference was probably to show off Palm Pre to some of the potentially crucial investors in the upcoming months and to reassure and feed Pre information to the hungry public.

Palm Inc will no longer make Palm OS devices, they are history and they are shifting focus to WebOS and Windows Mobile (shame if you ask me). So WebOS is the new Palm OS of choice.

Pre will have an “Application Store” preinstalled, just like iPhone and Android, but they will also allow users to download and install Palm Pre applications from other sources over the air or via USB cable from your home PC.
This is pretty good news, considering the relationship that Palm had with developers in the past this will hopefully bring quite a lot quality applications to Palm pre, as well as “testing” grounds for applications before they enter the “Pre Market”.

We all knew that Sprint will be the exclusive carrier of the CDMA version of Palm Pre in the US, but they gave no specifics on how long this exclusivity will last. Colligan mentioned North America, since Bell Canada was announced few days before. In Latin America they will release Pre on multiple carriers considering the nature of the market and Europe. The “suspected” carrirer for part of the Europe is Vodafone.

The bad news is that there will be no worldwide launch since they are looking to release Pre on other carriers by 2010. It seems that they are using the “iPhone technique” of one market at a time, a damn shame if you ask me.

The only problem in that plan is that Palm will remain US centric wich negates the possibility of larger market share worldwide.

Colligan also noted that there are no pending legal actions from Apple on the matter of patents, and that Palm has no need to use intellectual property that is not developed by them. Or the whole deal :

We’re very respectful about people’s intellectual property, we believe we’re huge innovators and have been for a lot of years and that this product has an enormous number of innovations in it. If something does happen there, we do have the portfolio, we think to defend ourselves and to be successful doing that. But nothing’s happened to date, so we’re really just focused on getting the product out the door.

Palm announced today that its CEO Edward Colligan will be presenting at the Thomas Weisel Partners Technology, Telecom & Internet Conference 2009 scheduled for Wednesday February 11th.

This is pretty interesting and might be an early sign of touting new blood and support into the company. There will be a live webcast at http://investor.palm.com/events.cfm.

We will be watching closely what Colligan has to say, but it will probably be presenting or spreading confidence on Pre’s behalf.