Not only Google Maps seems to work snappier but the GPS is been more accurate and is also getting a GPS lock much faster. On the mass transit routing you can also pick a departure time, so you can choose the trips – by bus, train, subway, ferry, etc. – that will get you to your destination in the shortest time possible. Take heart that not all American cities are participating in the public transit partner program with Google Maps.

Also, while running the Google Maps app on your Pre, you can check directions between multiple locations and then back again. Unfortunately, you loose all this history log after closing the app. Many of you will still find the updated Google Maps app more helpful with all this new features.

The first video shows something that although very important to many, if not all of us, Palm for some reason did not make it available. I’m talking about LED notifications, it appears the code for this feature is commented out – similar to the add/remove pages hack – all the coding is done, it’s just disabled for some crazy reason. This of course is not acceptable to most of us Pre-owners, we really need some kind of LED notifications.

And for those who want to venture into hacking the Palm Pre to enable LED notifications, just remember to do so at your own risk. In a personal note; I love to see LED notifications not only with white light, but also blue and red for different kind of notifications, and a way for us to chose which color to use. I can only hope. The second video shows the calendar speed on webOS 1.2, which is supposed to have a faster response. There isn’t much to talk about this one, so watch the video.

[Via jhoff80's Channel]

On the first video you can see the new Edit, Select All menu option, along with the fix to the location services, the search feature for email and now the App Catalog supports credit card information storage, which means the beta tag may be coming off the catalog soon. There are a few more features like; Zoom animation in the browser, the ability to tap and select portions of a web page by simply holding Shift and tapping on the screen, you can also tap and hold the orange button to save a web photo to Pictures or share it with others, pressing the same orange button and tapping a link offers options to open in a new card, share the link or copy it. The Tasks are sortable by due date and priority, and tapping a text entry box zooms it and a minor, but important change for many, is the ability to enable the audio clock alarm even when the ringer switch is off.

The second video is on browser downloading, apparently, you will be able to download directly from the browser. In the video jhoff80 shows how he downloaded some PDF files. According to him, the leaked 1.2 allows you to save any file types, supported by the phone or not. For anything unsupported by the phone – which he showed on the video with ZIP files – it can’t open them, so it gives a no handler installed message, but it is still saved to /media/internal/downloads. Apparently, the only two files it won’t save are MP3 and MP4, which it automatically streams and doesn’t give the option to save them. Lets hope we get that option to save mp3s and mp4s in the near future.

[Via jhoff80's Channel]

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.

via: BusinessWire

Business users will also be able to sign up to the carrier’s Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plan.  The Pre is $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and presuming you sign up to a new two-year contract; it will be available from Sprint’s own stores, together with Best Buy, Radio Shack and selected Wal-Mart stores

The Pre will go on sale alongside the Touchstone Charging Kit, priced at $69.99 as first tipped, which includes both the inductive charging base and the new back-cover.  These two parts are also available individually, priced at $49.99 for the dock and $19.99 for the back-cover.

Press Release:

Sprint to Offer Palm Pre Nationwide on June 6

Digital-age-defining Palm webOS phone is built for consumers and businesses alike, powered by America’s most dependable nationwide 3G network, with the best price plan value
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 19, 2009– Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced pricing and nationwide availability for the highly anticipated Palm® Pre™ phone, offered exclusively from Sprint. Palm Pre will be available nationwide on June 6 in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Running on the new Palm webOS™ mobile platform, Pre brings together your important information from where it resides – on your phone, at your work or on the web – into one logical view.(1)

For those who juggle life circa 2009 – bouncing from conference call to car pool schedule, from doctors’ numbers to doctoral thesis data, from social calendars to social networking – Pre marks a new wireless crossover standard. Before Pre, you had to compromise when selecting a wireless phone. To get the business features you needed, you had to sacrifice the personal entertainment features you wanted. Pre consolidates your important information – professional, social and personal – into one revolutionary device using an operating system that redefines the experience of living and working wirelessly.

“The argument that you need one phone for work and another phone for play, or that you have to make compromises between business and lifestyle productivity, is over,” said Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint. “With Pre, compromises of the past are history.”

Palm Pre will run on America’s most dependable 3G network and come with Sprint’s industry-leading, value-oriented Everything Data plans that offer savings of up to $1,430 over two years vs. comparable AT&T and Verizon plans for smartphones and PDAs.(2)

“The Palm Pre takes full advantage of Sprint’s Everything Data plans,” said Avi Greengart, research director for Consumer Devices at Current Analysis. “The Pre has been expressly designed for multitasking among multiple web pages and applications. It also builds on Palm’s heritage in PDAs by managing your digital information – whether that’s on a corporate server or on the web.”

“The Pre’s dynamic ‘activity cards’ approach to handling and navigating multiple applications is a great advance, but the core breakthrough is the integration of information across multiple applications on and off the phone,” said Andy Castonguay, director of Mobile & Access Devices Research, Yankee Group. “With social networking and messaging being so important to consumers, the device’s new ‘Palm Synergy’ functionality – which gives Pre the ability to automatically pull friends’ contact details, messaging addresses and personal calendars from different applications online and on the phone – will greatly simplify people’s ability to communicate with their friends and colleagues the way they want.”

Pre: A New Kind of Phone

The new webOS platform introduces Palm Synergy™, a key feature that brings together your personal and professional calendar, contacts and e-mail into one centralized view, making transitions between work and personal life smooth and easy to manage.

With Palm Synergy, users get:

Linked contacts – With Synergy, you have a single view that links your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook(3), Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they’re the same person and links the information, presenting it to you as one listing.
Layered calendars – Your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
Combined messaging – Synergy lets you see all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with text messaging. You can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts or e-mail, and start a new conversation with just one touch.
Palm webOS lets you keep multiple activities open and move easily between them like flipping through a deck of cards. You can move back and forth between text messaging and e-mail, or search the web while you listen to music. You can rearrange items simply by dragging them, and when you are done with something, just throw it away by flicking it off the top of the screen.

Finding what you need is also easy with universal search – as you type what you’re looking for, webOS narrows your search and offers results from both your device and the web.(4) WebOS crushes the barriers to true mobile computing.

“Pre is truly a new phone for a new web-centric age,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. “We’re a mobile society, and we want our people, calendars and information to move with us. With Pre’s exquisite design and the unique webOS software, running on Sprint’s fast broadband network, we’re changing the perception of what a wireless phone can be.”

Pre comes with a charger in the box, but for anyone tired of plugging a cord into their wireless phone, Palm introduces the Touchstone™ charging dock, the first inductive charging solution for phones, available exclusively for Pre. Simply set Pre down on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. Pre is active while charging, so you can access the touch screen, watch movies or video, or use the speakerphone. Set Pre on the charging dock when you’re on a call, and the speakerphone automatically turns on; when you take a ringing Pre off the dock, Pre automatically answers the call. Other mobile operating systems allow multitasking, but Palm has developed an intuitive method of switching between “cards,” which resemble clicking different tabs on a Web browser. New applications can be launched easily using the “Launcher” software button at the bottom of the home screen, and users navigate between different applications.

With nearly every wireless device today you have to exit one application completely before you can use another. That’s not what people are accustomed to; think of your PC and all the applications you can have open at one time.

Pre: The latest NOW Network milestone for Sprint

Pre also lets you access feature-rich Sprint content on the Sprint Now Network, including exclusive applications such as:

Sprint Navigation(5)
Sprint TV
NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live
“Sprint’s Now Network brings you America’s most dependable 3G network, the largest push-to-talk community, and in selected markets Sprint is the only national carrier bringing 4G to life in 2009,”(6) Hesse said. “The Now Network is more than just a physical network – it’s also data plans that are all-inclusive, eliminating fear of data overages and a perfect fit for Palm Pre users.”

Sprint’s networks are now performing at best-ever levels, and Sprint’s high-value Everything data plans consistently beat AT&T’s and Verizon’s comparable plans in savings by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars over two years. With the revolutionary launch of Ready Now, which Sprint pioneered, customers leave the store educated, comfortable and confident about the phones they’re about to take home. As a result of these measures and more, Sprint customer satisfaction indices – from first call resolution to billing satisfaction, from customer care response time to service and repair – have all significantly improved during the past year.

Pricing and Availability

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year service agreement on an Everything Data plan or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plan. An array of compelling accessories also will be available for Pre, including the Palm Touchstone charging dock. The Touchstone™ Charging Kit, which includes the Touchstone charging dock and Touchstone back cover for Pre, will be available June 6 for $69.99. The Touchstone charging dock and Touchstone back cover also are available separately from for $49.99 and $19.99, respectively.

More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre.

ABOUT SPRINT NEXTEL

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving more than 49 million customers at the end of the first quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.

(1)Use of this device requires providing a valid e-mail address, mobile phone number, and related information for account setup and activation. Unlimited usage data plan strongly recommended; additional data charges may apply. Within wireless coverage area only. Number of applications and actual performance will vary depending on applications used and actions performed.

(2)Comparisons based on unlimited minutes options for Verizon PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Email & Messaging plus VZ Navigator and AT&T Nation plus PDA Personal Bundle and AT&T Navigator. Based on publicly available information as of publication date. Excludes taxes, Sprint surcharges, fees and premium content.

(3)Within wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost. Microsoft Direct Push Technology requires Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with SP2 or Exchange Server 2007. Additional fees may apply.

(4)Searches web and user’s applications, contacts, and dialing information. Web search within wireless coverage area only, requires data services at additional cost.

(5)GPS requires data services at additional cost. Coverage not available in all areas at all times.

(6)“Dependable” based on independent, third-party drive tests for 3G data connection success, session reliability and signal strength for the top 50 most populous markets from January 2008 to February 2009. Not all services available on 3G, and coverage may default to separate network when 3G is unavailable.

Palm, webOS, Pre, Synergy and Touchstone are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc.

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!)

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 320x480 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).


 

The first thing he mentioned is that it “does stuff for you,” which in this case he used the calendar as an example; McNamee said that when you wake up in the morning, it will have already had a look at your calendar and downloaded things such as maps and Wikipedia entries for the people, places and organisations you are going to visit for the whole day, all in advance without you having to do anything other than turn the setting on. Wow, pretty cool, right?

It gets better!

It knows when you are going to be late. No, seriously. Using the Pre’s GPS, Clock and Calendar functionality, the device will check the calendar to see where you are supposed to be and at what time - it will then check where you actually are (i.e, 5 miles away from where you are supposed to be) and then warn you that you are going to be late, calculate roughly how late you are going to be, and email all of the involved parties to let them know you’ll be however minutes late. Awesomeness. 

You can check the full video above.

{Via PreCentral}

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 is the competition already worried, despite the fact that no price or official release date has even been set? In our first post we’ll answer those questions and more with our in-depth preview of the brand new Palm Pre smart phone.

WebOS

For starters, the Palm Pre features a brand new, proprietary operating system that is based off Linux. This provides a sleek GUI (graphical user interface) that is easy to navigate yet at the same time provides all of the features that you have come to expect from smart phone technology – including a highly capable and user-friendly web browser. You can take high quality photos with the 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, and the phone features easy to use cut and paste routines along with a variety of other editing options, as well. There are even several options when it comes to re-charging your Palm Pre, too. You can use the wireless Touchstone accessory or the MicroUSB plug; and you can even replace your battery if you would rather do it that way.

App Happy

To compliment all of the great features that are already installed on your Palm Pre, Palm has also announced an app store for the near future. Here you’ll be able to browse and install only the applications that you want; this will allow you to save memory (although the Palm Pre is equipped with a full 8 GB of internal storage) and you’ll also avoid cluttering up your Palm Pre with apps that you never use. Furthermore, Palm will also be releasing a software development kit, which will allow nearly any web designer to create their very own applications for the Palm Pre. Keeping this in mind, you will be able to access and use nearly any kind of software or application right from your Palm Pre. Palm has even hinted around to the future possibility of running 3D games on the Palm Pre, though this feature is not included in version 1.0 of their operating system.

Touch Me

The 3.1” touch screen on the Palm Pre features 24-bit color in a 480 x 320 display, and it is very responsive, accurate, and seems to be quite stable as well. The keyboard provides keys that are large enough and spaced out far enough apart to accommodate larger fingers, but this phone is in no way bulky. In fact, it is extremely lightweight and sleek, especially when compared to some of the other smart phone models that are currently on the market today. And weighing in at less than 5 ounces, you’ll hardly even notice that you are carrying the brand new Palm Pre in your pocket – that is, until it rings of course.

Palm Pre Blog

This is where Palm Pre Blog comes in - we’re going to guide you through this newness.

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