Alongside what may be a rebranding from Palm webOS to HP webOS in Palm’s missives to developers is another intriguing tidbit: a free device program for developers.

Free Pre Plus to Qualified Developers, through October 31, contact us now at pdc@palm.com.

While we don’t yet know how Palm defines "qualified developers," it’s certainly worth it for developers to e-mail to find out. For the rest of you not-yet-developers, don’t forget that joining Palm’s Developer Program is free and easy–you too could be a "qualified developer" and not even know it!

Source: Palm Developer Newsletter

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

There’s no question that Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds is a huge (and deserving) hit on webOS, especially since 1.4.5 was rolled out by the last few straggler carriers and Pixi users got in on the action. Rovio Mobile has made it even better not only for new customers, but even for those of us who have already purchased the app: according to an e-mail ad sent out by Rovio this morning, "The Lite version contains 9 levels that are not included in the full game – if you already finished the full game, there’s more to play in the Lite version!"

Well? What are you waiting for? Go get Angry Birds Lite for Pre or Pixi in the App Catalog, and start flattening those pigs in new and creative ways!

Source: Rovio Mobile 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Earlier this month Sprint finally got with the price drop program for the Palm Pre ($50) and Pixi (free), but they still resided in the land of $100 mail-in rebates. 

No more for the Pixi, which now sports an instat web rebate in lieu of the Mail-in rebate. It’s featured in an email with three feature-phones, which is a little sad from a positioning standpoint – but given that the Sprint Pixi lacks WiFi, we suppose we can understand. In any case, it’s a phone that some of us guys would be caught dead with, so good to see it’s free.

Source: Sprint; Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

HP has been selling Palm phones through its recently created wireless central online sales portal since it went live a few weeks ago, and the company is looking to sweeten the deal on already free-on-contract AT&T Palm phones by giving a $50 gift card, reedeamable on HP.com, with the purchase of any new Pre or Pixi Plus.

Source: HP’s Wireless Central; thanks to drewburton87 for the tip!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

In addition to waiving (and refunding) the $50 app submission fee, Palm is now offering the $99 fee to get a full developer access to submit to the app catalog free gratis. The fee had been waived back ‘for a limited time’ back in April and had also been free for open source apps - now that applies to everybody.

No word if, as with the $50 app fee, Palm will be refunding developers. Update: Actually, Palm never did charge that fee – change here is they aren’t planning on it in the future. Either way – the skids for getting apps into Palm’s app catalog are officially greased. 

Source: Palm Developer Forums; Thanks Arthur!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Bell’s history with the Palm Pre hasn’t exactly been a perfect one, but it looks like their new Palm Pre promotion may be a winner. There’s been low sales, very little promotion, and much higher profile launches, especially on their new HSPA network. However, it seems the Pre is back on the front page of Bell’s smartphone section, with this very nice new promotion.

Under the promotion, and a 3-year contract agreement, you get a Palm Pre for $0 (like before), and better yet, there’s now $15 off your monthly bill! That’s a total savings of $180 yearly, plus $300 for the device itself. Oh, and they’re tossing in $75 worth of accessories too.

If that sounds intriguing with you, and the 3-year contract isn’t deterring, then you’ll want to look at the different smartphone plans Bell offers. The lowest is the Smartphone 50 plan, which offers the very basics (with only 500MB allowed monthly), usually for $50/month, but under the promotion, ends up at $35/month.  And don’t forget, Bell allows tethering. Awesome, eh. Prices increase from there, up to the Smartphone 100 plan, so there’s flexibility is what you want out of your device.

Whether this is an attempt at Bell to get rid of lingering inventory, or a renewed interest in Palm now that HP came to the rescue, will remain a mystery. But at these kinds of savings, it doesn’t really matter too much. No details on how long the promotion will last, so if this is what you’ve been waiting for, you may want to act fast.

via MobileSyrup & webOS Roundup, thanks for the tip AdmiralRaptor

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Hold on to your seat folks, because if Amazon’s deal wasn’t good enough for you, then this one sure will. Credit goes to RMB, who posted in the forums that the Pre Plus can be had for free here on AT&T From Wirefly, less then a day after officially launching for $149.95 with a bundled touchstone charging dock. The Deal from Wirefly does seems to be location specific so if you are contemplating on getting a Pre Plus on AT&T, then this seems to a good time as any to do it, just be sure to enter your Zip code beforehand to see if you are eligible for the offer. All in all, a very good deal, which should hopefully lead to more sales, and more webOS devices is always a good thing, right?

                                                                            Thanks to RMB in the forums!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

If you’re anything like Dieter, then you’ve already headed out to your local AT&T store to pick up the GSM Palm Pre Plus. If so, then perhaps you read our earlier report that the $149.99 price tag includes a Touchstone thrown in the mix for in-store purchases – as long as you buy at a corporate store.

If you don’t live near a store and have to e-shop it then I’ve got good news since deal is for online customers too.  If you view the Pre Plus on their smartphone page (it’s the one almost near the bottom under the iPhones… no, under the Blackberrys… keep going, AH there!).  You’ll see that on the right hand side of the Pre Plus page that you’re presented with a Bundle package that includes the Touchstone charging dock.  Select that to ensure you get the deal.  

Meanwhile, going to the store Dieter and a few others have reported that getting that free Touchstone was more troublesome than expected since there wasn’t a proper SKU for the freebie in the system.  Bummer!

Thanks to jescandalo for the tip!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

In a move surprising precisely no one, Sprint has made the Palm Pixi free after a 2 year contract and ‘instant savings,’ which is to say there is no mail-in rebate. This was inevitable after Verizon did the same for the Wi-Fi-enabled Pixi Plus.

Sprint is still selling the original Palm Pre for $149.99, however, while Verizon has it back ‘up’ to $49.99 after briefly selling it for only $29.99. While Sprint’s overall plan prices are definitely cheaper than Verizon’s, Verizon still arguably offers the better deal as they are also still including Mobile Hotspot for free.

Sprint website, thank to jhoove09 for the tip!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

After Verizon dropped the price of the Palm Pre Plus to $29.99, a similarly drastic price cut for its little friend, the Pixi Plus, was inevitable.  On verizonwireless.com, the Pixi Plus is now completely free with a 2 year contract and no mail-in rebates either. 3G Mobile Hotspot is also still gratis, but it looks like Buy-one-Get-one is no more.

So what we’re saying here is that for zero cash up front and around $70 per month, you can have a Verizon 3G mobile hotspot that also happens to be a pretty darn good phone (one that we expect will get 3D gaming sometime later this year). 

Sprint has the Pixi (sans-WiFi) for free online, but their non-plus Pre is still $149.99 after rebate. AT&T’s launch prices of $149.99 for the Pre and $49.99 for the Pixi are starting to look a little daunting, too, dontchathink?

Thanks to George for the tip!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>