With the new update to webOS, we also received an update to the Google Maps app on our Palm Pre phones, or at least that’s when many of us notice it. The updated Google Maps app now allows you to choose what kind of route you would like to use: driving, mass transit, or walking. [...]

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By now you already know about the leaked webOS 1.2, since not only us, but many more sites have covered it. We also have posted some videos about some of those features too. This time, thanks again to jhoff80, we have two more videos to show you more on that webOS goodness.

The first video shows [...]

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Since the Palm webOS 1.2 leak, there has been a lot of buzz. Now we have word of some videos demonstrating the new features that will make their way into our Pre handsets via webOS 1.2, hopefully, by the end of this month. But keep on reading, and don’t forget the videos at the end. [...]

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We’re currently tracking all the undocumented improvements to webOS 1.1 on the Palm Pre in this forum thread, (and here too), the stuff not covered in the changelog.  Well, I’m here to say that there are plenty:

• Changed sound for notifications – You still can’t change them yourself, but the new sound is much richer, if a little quieter
• Animated drop down menus – they look really slick and really change the experience. The Context menus also have some nice animation.
• Additional photo upload options – you can now upload a photo to either Facebook or Photobucket (not new – thanks commenters!)
• Lots of Photo app improvements. A more distinct bar between all photos and your albums in the photo app, plus they’re calling the Screenshot album "Screen Captures." The preview thumbs also slide in from the right.  Faster photo rendering. Overall the Photos app feels much more fully baked.
• Emailing Memos – The memo app now has a menu option to email a memo.
• A new font for the Browser – uses Palm’s system font and, truly, it looks fantastic.
• Disabled the key combo in browser to open in a new card.  Boo-urns.
• Javascript interpreter Performance upgrades – this will speed up virtually everything and is great news
• Sporadic reports of speed improvements both in the browser and system-wide, but it’s always tough to know if these are real or just perceived
• Seems to have better Gmail handling – not failing when you tap on a notification for an email you’d already archived on the desktop
• A new icon for AIM
• more more more!  If you find some, post in this thread and we’ll update this list as they come in.
• More auto-complete / auto correct entries in the dictionary.
• With the slider open, the Center button now turns on the screen, where as before you had to hit a keyboard key or the power button.
• It’s a little finicky, but you can double-tap to start text selection in editable fields (note, however, that cursor placement in the Memos app is buggy)

Although a lot of homebrewers are going to need to re-patch a lot of stuff (Check this thread for a list of homebrew busts), the homebrew tethering solution still appears to work.  We’re also tracking webOS 1.1 bugs in this thread.

Of course, the wish-list of stuff that wasn’t added is still a mile long, but hey, we’re at 1.1 less than 2 months after launch – this is tasty stuff, Palm.  Keep ‘em coming.

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It has already been known that the Pre will have stuff like searching through Twitter, iTunes syncing and the App Catalog, but now Jon Rubinstein, Palm executive chairman, and Roger McNamee, Palm director, have officially presented the features. Here is a quick reminder of what the Pre does: first off, we have Palm Media Sync, [...]

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Sprint have announced that the much-anticipated Palm Pre will go on sale from June 6th in the US.  Priced at $199.99, the Pre will take advantage of Sprint’s Everything Data plan for unlimited internet access, ideal for the new WebOS Synergy synchronization system.

Business users will also be able to sign up to the carrier’s Business Essentials [...]

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With so much Pre news floating around all over the place lately, it can be hard to keep up. New features are being announced, and questions are being answered on a near daily basis. To help alleviate this problem, we’ve compiled a list of Known Pre Features, Missing Pre Features, and things we just don’t know about yet. When perusing the list (after the break), if you find anything to be missing or inaccurate, please let us know in the comments so we can keep this article as up to date as possible! 

 (Apologies for my bad pictures folks, hope to have my new copy of Photoshop this week!)

  Updated as of 2/17/09 @ 5:00pm (Thanks for the comments all!)

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Updates in italics

Known Pre Features:
-CDMA EVDO Rev A / GSM 3G (European model only)

- WiFi enabled with 802.11 b/g (no n, sadly)

- Bluetooth with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support as well

- ARM Cortex A8 processor (PowerVR SGX 530 GPU + 430MHz C64x+ DSP + ISP)

- 8gb of internal flash memory (Actually usable likely to be in the 7.4 gb range)

- 3.1 in capacitive touch screen, with 320×480 HVGA resolution

- Hardware keyboard, with buttons something along the lines of the Treo Pro

- microUSB connection slot (so it can be connected to your computer and used in Mass Storage Mode; also used for charging)

- 3.5mm headset jack (Woot!)

- 3 megapixel camera, LED Flash, no zoom but extended depth of field

- Accelerometer, Ambient light and proximity sensors

- Audio Support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, and WAV

-Video Support for MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 (will also support standard image formats like GIF, JPEG, PNG, and BMP)

- GPS (Navigation likely to be limited based on Sprint coverage, at least initially due to TeleNav based Sprint Navigation app. However, as far as we know the GPS chip will not be locked down, so third party solutions should be available)

- MMS support (along with SMS and IM, all threaded together, though we do not know for sure what the supported IM clients will be, AIM and GTalk are confirmed)

- Flash Support (not at launch, but within the year)

- Synergy (Push support)

- Google, Facebook, Exchange, and LinkedIn at launch, but you can still connect to your Yahoo, Hotmail, etc, but it’ll likely have to be setup to check for new messages ever hour or something of the like

- Standard array of apps such as Calendar (a really awesome one though), Contacts, Messages, Notes, etc.

- Copy and Paste (take THAT iPhone)

- Tethering support (Bluetooth or USB 2.0)

- Universal Search capability (not sure how deep it actually goes though, such as the ability to locate keywords in memos or saved messages

- Optional Touchstone inductive charger (special battery cover needed)

What’s Missing (at least at launch):
- No Alarm application (to clarify, you will be able to set alarms for calendar appointments, but there is no stand-alone Alarm application).

- No Bluetooth Keyboard support

- microSD card slot

- No PalmOS emulation or backward compatability, so all the old Palm apps won’t work on the Pre

- Software Keyboard (sorry folks, you’re stuck with the hardware one for now)

- No IR support (it’s finally died…)

- Today screen (There is a pseduo-today screen, where you can see your upcoming appointments and notifications. Mark in the comments put it best: There is something sort of like this in the dash board. When you tap on the dash board to expand it the calendar shows the next appointment, email/messaging show unread messages, etc.)

-No Video out connection (bummer)

-No indicator light (that we’ve seen, though one of those lights in the gesture area might do this, but I wouldn’t count on it)
 

-No Audio or Video Recording (though this reported to be added post launch)

Unknown Features (we haven’t heard much, if anything about these things)
- Docs to Go support (though document VIEWING is supposed to be present at launch

- PEAP authentication support for WiFi 

- SDK Availability, while this isn’t Pre specific, we still have no ETA on when this will be released, but we do know it will most likely be AFTER the device launches.

- RAM specifications

- Processor speed

- Battery life (we’ve heard a lot of rumors here, and we know it’s the Centro’s 1150 mAh battery, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say with heavy use, you’ll be charging this puppy nightly)

- YouTube support (I suspect a 3rd party solution will be available eventually)

- Visual Voicemail (not likely at launch, expect a 3rd party solution for this one too)

- Security Options are unknown at this point

- Voice dialing or recognition is unknown, but not likely

- Simultaneous voice and data usage (Increasingly unlikely on Sprint CDMA Pre, still guaranteed on European GSM version).

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Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners, who invested 20 percent of his private equity fund in Palm, has revealed some pretty cool new location aware features that come as standard with the Pre.
The first thing he mentioned is that it “does stuff for you,” which in this case he used the calendar as an example; McNamee [...]

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Palm Newness
The Palm Pre is the newest and most innovative gadget to hit the world of smart phones; and as soon as it hits store shelves it is destined to become the most desirable phone on the market. But what is it about the Palm Pre that has cell phone users buzzing already? And why [...]

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