We know the Palm Pre 2 brings a 1GHz processor to the table and in our speed tests it seemed to be about on-par with an overclocked Palm Pre Plus. There’s a little more to the story, however, as hardcore webOS overclockers know. It’s one thing to have a fast processor, but it’s better to have a processor that’s only running hot when you need it and slows down a bit when you don’t to save battery life.

Enter the unlocked Palm Pre 2 devices making their way around the world from the UK. One ended up in the hands of WebOS Internals member Markus, who tweeted out the above image, noting that "The Pre2 seems to scale between 300Mhz and 1Ghz by default." That should account for some of the battery improvement on the Pre 2.

Congratulations, dear reader, you are now nerdier than when you started reading this blog post.

Source: @twtomcat via @webosinternals

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Ever since it was revealed that the P102UEU had gone through the wireless certification battery of the FCC, PreCentral’s forum members and the fine folks at WebOS Internals have been digging through the documents to find more details about the phone. Here’s what’s been uncovered:

• The processor is clocked at 1GHz. Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals speculates that the processor may be the TI OMAP 3630 (1GHz, single core), which is software- and footprint-compatible (uses the same pins) with the TI OMAP 3430 in the current Pre. Additionally, Texas Instruments claims that the OMAP 3630 provides twice the performance as the older 3430, while sipping half the juice. Battery life gains, anyone?
• The phone comes with a 1150 mAh battery, exactly the same as the Pre and the Pixi.
• It is a slider device (as indicated by the SAR ratings for “open” and “closed”).
• There appears to have been some internal antenna juggling: on the current Pre design all the antennas are hidden behind the battery cover (they’re the yellow-orange strips around the edge of the inside). The documentation notes a difference in distance between the GSM antenna and the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi antenna when the phone is open and closed. Specifically, it’s a movement of 3.5 cm, which is almost exactly how far the current Pre opens.
• The phone is not only Touchstone compatible (no surprise), but is uses the same back currently available for the Pre and Pre Plus. This means that the phone will have a very similar, if not identical form factor, though we have heard unsubstantiated rumblings that there may be difference on the face of the device.
• Palm has requested 180 days of confidentiality from the submission to the FCC testing on September 8, 2010. Covered by the confidentiality granted: external, internal, and testing photos and the user manual. Shucks. One hundred eighty days gives Palm confidentiality until March 7, 2011, though we would expect to see this device on shelves and in hands sooner rather than later.
• As this is FCC testing, the P102UEU is certified to not boil your brains.

With all this we can all but assume that this is going to be called the Palm Pre 2, in fact we’d be willing to bet money on it if we weren’t squirreling it away in anticipation of off-contract purchasing.

UPDATE: As many have pointed out, the FCC label reads 08F-ROAY. The original Pre was the 08F-CASC, as in the "Castle," so it stands to reason that this may be the Roadrunner device we saw pop up in August.

Source: FCC; Via: PreCentral Forums, WebOS Internals on Twitter

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While HP may be the biggest consumer PC seller out there, they’re also tops when it comes to business purchases. We’re talking both big corporate and small shop buys – this is what we in the business refer to as “diversification” and “scale,” wherein HP is capable of selling their products to large and small groups across multiple industries and revenue levels.

With such scale, we’re pleased to see HP using their multitudinous business contacts to push webOS. In fact, not that long ago the HP’s “Small Business Education Series” email newsletter heavily and exclusively featured Palm smartphones. Very smartly, the email focused on the benefits of webOS, noting:

• webOS multi-tasks like no other. HP was sure to put emphasis on flicking between “apps & docs,” as business users don’t just care about multi-tasking with browsers and games.
• You can add up to sixteen email accounts. Yeah, we didn’t think about that either, but we can see how some small businesses can have multiple accounts (sales@, support@, admin@, etc) with one person managing them all.
• Touchstone!
• Wireless cloud syncing magics, otherwise known as Synergy. No need to plug in, unless you want to transfer files, that is.
• “Zero-touch IT support,” as in Palm manages for you the security “from the server, to the cloud, to your phone. Simple.” Granted, that’s a big of an over-simplification, but we’ll allow it.

And then there’s noting that every Palm phone, be it a Pre, and Pixi, or a Plus variant of either, is available for free on your choice of major American cellular carriers (excepting T-Mobile, of course). And the oh so lucrative accessories too, like the above mentioned Touchstone charger, fancy colorful backs for the Pixi, and the requisite cables, batteries, and Palm-branded cases. Though we’ll take the opportunity here to point you to our own PreCentral accessory store for that – we’ve got a bit more diversity and scale in that department.

Source: HP

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Is your phone all seized up? Again? Palm’s got some tips to get things back into working order, and it’s the stuff of legends. Well, it’s more the stuff that tech support would tell you to try first, so you can get this out of the way before placing that always-frustrating call. Here’s what Palm suggests, with our own commentary interspersed. The 6Ts:

• Throw all open applications off the top of the screen – this will dump your running programs and help clear your RAM of hogs.
• Turn your phone completely off and on – reset your network connection by doing this and help clear up any snafus.
• Triple-toggle restart – toggle the ringer switch back-and-forth three times while holding down the power switch to force a restart.
• Top off the battery – just let it juice up.
• Take out the battery – the ultimate forceable restart: pull the plug.
• Tether your phone to your computer and reinstall webOS – as a last resort, reinstall the OS and start over. The nuclear option, if you will.

Of course, those aren’t the only options, but they’re the Palm-supported ones. For more sub-nuclear options, be sure to check out our own How To: Restore a seriously ill Pre guide.

Source: Palm Support, thanks to HardBeatZ for the heads up.

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Here’s some of the latest talk in the forums:

• With the PDK Hot Apps promotion set to go live on July 15th, you know an OTA update is inbound for the majority of you Pre and Pixi users out there.  Member AS4K wants to talk best practices in preparing for the next version of webOS with homebrew.
• Revival: Here’s a fun thread from about this time last year that examined how many times you’ve opened the slider on your Pre, and numbers then were generally in the 800-900 range. After following the directions found in the thread, I discovered that I’m currently at a staggering 22,152.
• Unsure what the webOS Doctor is all about?  Good news: knowing P|C forum members are here to fill you in.  
• There’s been much debate about the difference between the battery that comes stock with the Pre and the Pixi and the one that shipped with the Centro.  Many users, against the advice of Palm, continue to use the Centro battery in their webOS powered phones.  There’s a very real difference, as it turns out, and member itsjustme has the scientific proof.

We look forward to seeing you in the forums.  Not already a member?  Come to your senses and join us! 

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It’s the curse of the modern smartphone: a zillion chips and sensors and a bright powerful screen and umpteen radios all sucking power from battery tech that hasn’t seen drastic improvement in the last decade. And it’s also one of the biggest Achilles’ heels of the Palm Pre and Pre Plus. It’s been a while since we last visited this area, with the Pre and Pixi having now launched onto several new networks across the world, it’s high time we revisit the land of electricity. After the break, we break it down…

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In our AT&T Palm Pre Plus Review, we briefly touched on the battery life on the little GSM webOS wonder. Since then we’ve been finding that our battery life seems pretty decent. PreCentral reader Chris joined a small cast of people to email us to say that his experience with battery life is the same, which is to say pretty darn good.

Got us wondering that maybe, just maybe, the GSM variant of the Pre Plus does a slightly better job with battery life than its CDMA cousins. Even when I’m not using my extended battery for the Palm Pre, I’m getting a full day of light to medium usage. AT&T Palm Pre users: chime in!

How is battery life on your AT&T Palm Pre?Market Research

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We’ve been working on this one for several days now, but it seems that every time we’ve got it ready, a new bug crops up and we have to do some revising. Enough is enough, we say, it’s time to put this out there. We’ve already covered the confusing, inconvenient, and frustrating Daylight Savings Time bug that many webOS users have run into; now is the time to look at what other new problems have afflicted Pre and Pixi phones across the world. There surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly, a lot of stuff to point out. While not everybody is experiencing any or all of the issues listed after the break, we’ve heard from enough of you (and seen some of these problems ourselves) that we know there are some distinct issues out there. It’s a wordy list, as we are wont to do, so if you’re interested in finding out if you’re not alone in your glitchy nature, head past the break for the scoop.

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The Seidio Innocell 2600mAh Extended Battery for the Palm Pre will add noticeable bulk – there’s no question about that. The question is this: does the substantial improvement in battery life (and I do mean substantial) make the sacrifice in form factor worthwhile?

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We know that webOS and the Palm Pre are 1.0 1.1 products, so we’re going to cut you some slack for now. But that slack is starting to run out, and looking at the competition there are some areas where I think you could improve the Pre to both catch up to and leap frog over iPhone and BlackBerry and Android. So here’s what I’d like to see in the way of software updates before that slack runs out and the real complaining starts.

My list is after the break, and it’s by no means comprehensive. Feel free to sound off in the comments if there’s something you think should be added in!

Oh, and Palm, this isn’t an ultimatum or anything. It’s a wishlist. Of stuff I want. So consider it a shopping list, and you’re the grocery store. Some things we can do without, but others are staple items that we need to get through the week, and if you don’t have it, we might have to go across town to the other grocery to get it. After a while, that can get kind of old and we might consider just going to the other store. We don’t want to, as it’s simply not as nice, but they have a lot of what we need.

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