Video of Palm Pre webOS 1.2 in Action

If you still haven’t got your fill of unauthorized webOS 1.2 information, then perhaps this will sate your desire: jhoff80 has posted a video on YouTube detailing some of the changes in the forthcoming update. Of particular interest is the new copy/paste functionality in the browser, which now lets you select both text and graphics. Huzzah!

Other confirmed browser upgrades include image saving & URL copying (by holding Orange + tapping) and improved zoom on text-entry fields. Also coming is the oft-requested email searching, and a minor change to notification behavior that doesn’t seem to be for the better. Hit the jump for the video!

Palm Pre: The Missing Manual Published

Call off the sniffer dogs and the search choppers, folks: the Palm Pre’s Missing Manual has been found! For some odd reason Palm neglected to include copies of this weighty 287-page tome in the Pre’s packaging. (Possibly because it would have had to have been shredded and compacted into a tiny cube of paper pulp in order to fit.)

But I digress. O’Reilly’s new book is written by USA Today personal-tech columnist Ed Baig, includes a CD-ROM and (most importantly) is in full-color for maximum prettiness. Covering everything from gestures to media, it promises to “help you go from newcomer to expert in no time” and comes in both dead-tree and ebook editions, which will set you back $24.99 and $19.99, respectively. Or $27.49 for those greedy types who just have to have it all. It ships this week.

New Palm phones in Sprint inventory: P120 and C40

Precentral posted a leaked screenshot of Sprint’s inventory management system showing 3 Palm devices, other than the Centro. The first is the 100 we already know – the Palm Pre at $549.99. But after that are two more models we haven’t seen: the 120 and C40. The 2 new devices both share the $1.00 placeholder price, which of course will change once the devices are confirmed.

So does this mean that the 120 represents a Pre with extra memory? And the C40 represents a completely new device like the rumored Palm Eos?

“So now the question we have to ask is what’s what? If the P100 is the Pre, perhaps we should reason that the P1XX series is going to be the Pre and its derivatives, which could mean that the P121 and P120 are a variation on the Pre, perhaps one with more memory (an easy change to make). Going with that hardcore logic, the C40 would be an entirely different model, presumably the Eos, which we have heard will land on Sprint. If true, this would mean that the Verizon inventory screen indicates that they will be receiving two versions of the Pre and not the Eos, at least not right away.”

Source: Precentral.net

Facebook on the Palm Pre is Unofficially Getting Better

thout a doubt, I think the iPhone is now the “Facebook phone,” courtesy of the stellar new Facebook application. It’s so good that some Facebookers I’ve contacted are actually considering an iPhone purchase. I’m wondering if this signals the start of a new trend — “killer” apps might actually affect consumer handset purchases in the future. But the awesomeness of Facebook 3.0 for iPhone doesn’t mean my Palm Pre is completely left in the cold. I’ve been watching the development of FriendsFlow over the past weeks. It’s a homebrew application that’s starting to rival the semi-lame http://x.facebook.com web page that the Pre works with.

I wouldn’t say that FriendsFlow is a fully functional Facebook client, nor a serious competitor to the iPhone’s new version — not by a long shot. But it shows promise. There’s a configurable interval for refreshes, so you don’t need to reload for updates all the time. And it leverages the Palm Pre’s native notification system. I don’t see a way to view photos, see events or post more than comments or likes to a news feed, so there’s plenty of work yet to be done.

While it matures, I’ve got it installed, and I keep upgrading as often as updates become available. For the news feed alone, I’ve actually been running it all the time while the Pre sits on the Touchstone charger — makes for a nice little way to keep up with my friends.

iPhone Killer, Qu’est Que C’est? Maybe “Pre”

Palm, once king of all handhelds, released its highly-anticipated Pre smartphone–the first to be powered by the company’s new webOS operating system–over the weekend to rave reviews. But it’s not the twittering (or Twittering) of tech reviewers that caught my eye. I was struck by what Palm Executive Chairman Jon Rubinstein told Reuters:

“‘For us, the opportunity is not to take customers away from RIM or Apple,’ but rather to entice users of lower-level cell phones to upgrade to a more powerful smartphone.”

In other words, the Pre–not the Blackberry Storm, nor the next version of the iPhone expected to be announced this morning–could commoditize smartphones. This may ensure once and for all that mobile marketing (from SMS to mobile Web ads) is the essential way to reach consumers.

The new handset has a lot going for it: Offers the best of both touchscreen and QWERTY; software allows for easy multitasking; battery can be replaced by the owner her/himself.

Consumers seem to dig all this. Certain Sprint stores around the country sold out of the Pre on Saturday. That might be the dark lining of the silver cloud: Consumers, rather than the targeted corporate clients, are the ones excited about the Pre.

No, Palm’s flagship handset isn’t without its flaws, like the fact that it only works on CDMA networks (not good if Palm wants to enter the global smartphone race) and the dearth of third-party applications.

But consider that the Wall Street Journal’s Walt “Thank You Apple, May I Have Another” Mossberg says: “It’s a beautiful, innovative and versatile hand-held computer that’s fully in the iPhone’s class… I’ve been testing the Pre for a couple of weeks, and I like it a lot.”

Sounds like the Pre could have more going for it than the other smartphone big boys.