It was bound to happen eventually, and we’re somewhat surprised it took this long. O2 Germany has confirmed to PreCentral forum member rot that the original Palm Pre has been declared end-of-life (EOL) on the network. With the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus also available on O2 Germany, the EOLing of the older Pre was to be expected.

According to rot, while O2 will continue to replenish their supply of Plus devices, they have no intention of ordering any more original GSM Pre after their current stockpile runs dry. So, if for whatever reason you still want one, you can get one. And it’s sold as a bundle with a Touchstone back and charger (the Plus comes with a Touchstone back standard) for 240€, the same price as the Pixi Plus, while the O2 Germany Pre Plus will hit your wallet to the tune of 361€. O2 Germany is following in the footsteps of O2 UK, who quietly stopped selling their original Pre without our even noticing.

Now: wouldn’t it be nice if Sprint could get caught up with the rest of the world and get some Plus action?

Thanks to rot in the forums for the heads up!

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The Palm Pre Plus officially launches today on AT&T. It’s $149.99 after a two year contract and we’re pretty giddy to have a GSM webOS device finally available here in the US of A.In case you missed it, you should check out our full AT&T Palm Pre Plus Review.

If you’re new to webOS or to the Pre, you should know that review primarily focuses on what’s new with AT&T and the differences between that Pre Plus and previous versions. We’ve got plenty of resources for you, though:

• Brand new to webOS? Check out our original Palm Pre Guide
• For the full skinny on the original Palm Pre, our Palm Pre Review is the place to go
• To see what the "Plus" in "Pre Plus" means, see our Verizon Palm Pre Plus Review

We don’t know if it’ll set the world on fire, but we think it could start a flame in your heart. Are you getting one? Have you snuck out early to buy? Anybody line up? If our inbox is any indication, more than a few of you have purchased already on AT&T’s website.

Oh, and most importantly, to all you new Pre Plus owners: welcome! 

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After a few months of guessing exactly when Palm’s dynamic smartphone duo would launch on AT&T, we’re finally starting to get a good bead on when folks might be able get their hands on the GSM versions of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus.  The latest number comes from an anonymous tipster [and has been confirmed by Engadget] who told us that May 16 will be the official launch date, confirming earlier reports. Oh, and AT&T’s MicroCell will drop nationwide at the same time, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Thanks, anonymous!

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Life may move fast, but the wait for the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus on AT&T certainly doesn’t. AT&T feels your pain, so they’ve set up a a promo section for the little webOS devices that could where you can learn about the phone and – most importantly – punch in your email address to get the scoop on when it’ll be available for purchase.

Not listed on the promo pages – the pricing. At announce, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on AT&T were set at $149.99 and $49.99, respectively. Now that Verizon has undercut those prices by a country mile, we’re wondering if AT&T and Palm will stick to their guns on that pricing.

Thanks to grandebob for the tip!

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Have a Palm Pre on O2, but find yourself envious of your American compatriots on Verizon running Mobile Hotspot left and right? Fret not, for your quandary will soon be quashed. In a tweet on one of O2 Germany’s official Twitter feeds, the following (translated into English) was posted.

Coming soon: the Palm Mobile Hotspot App. Thus the Pre becomes a UMTS Wi-Fi router with WPA or WEP encryption – ideal for iPods & iPads.

Zing! Especially considering that at launch won’t be able to get a 3G iPad in Europe at all. This is the first official word we have of the Mobile Hotspot app making the leap to another carrier. Because the Pre on O2 is a GSM phone, users will be able to still place and receive phone calls while running Mobile Hotspot, something their Verizon brethren can’t do. No word on pricing, though we expect the app to be free, and O2 Germany currently runs a tethering plan starting at €25 a month. Correction: Tethering is offered free-of-charge for O2 subscribers, but watch your usage to avoid going over your plan’s usage cap.

Thanks to Ruben for the tip!

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As the title says, the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are rumored to be headed to European carrier (and current webOS carrier) O2 in April of this year. If true, it would mark the first time that the Pixi or Pixi Plus has been made available outside the United States. The anonymous tip, sent in to the popular UK technology blog Tracy and Matt, indicates that the two phones will be identical to the devices available on Verizon. With the notable exception of having GSM radios instead of CDMA.

In addition to the Pixi coming to Europe, this would also be the first time a “successor” webOS device appeared on the same network as the original, in this case the Pre Plus appearing alongside or replacing the older Pre on O2. The Pre Plus has been certified in Europe for some time, though we had always expected that was for SFR. Additional details such as pricing, exact release date, plans, and unlock status, were not available.

There is one potential wrench in the works here, though - Palm requested that the FCC keep details on the P101UEU confidential until September 11th. So while it’s looking like a GSM Palm Pre Plus is a sure thing, when and where it will land is still murky.

[via: webOS Blog.de]

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Falling in line with the pricing available for other smartphones on other European networks, you can now get a Palm Pre for free on contract with O2 in the United Kingdom. In fact, so long as you’re willing to sign up for an 18 month contract for at least £30.00 a month, you can get a Palm Pre for free – and that £30.00 a month comes with unlimited data and texts (but just 100 minutes). Amusingly, O2 is also touting that the package comes with 3 free EA games, otherwise known as the games that are being given away for free in Europe anyway.

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Everybody who can get their webOS 1.4.0 jollies on can now also ‘doctor’ their way back to a fresh OS install. Palm has released the webOS 1.4.0 doctors for the Palm Pre and Pixi on Sprint and O2 as well as the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on Verizon. If you’re not familiar with what the Doctor does, here’s a quick brief: the webOS Doctor is a Java-based computer application (works on PC or Mac) that overwrites corrupted or altered OS files with a fresh install of webOS. The Doctor is essentially the last best hope to restore a bricked phone (because of this, webOS phones are near impossible to brick from a software standpoint). While the webOS Doctor will perform a clean install of the OS, newer versions no longer wipe clean any files you have stored on the Media partition, so no worries about destroying those vacation pictures you forgot to backup.

The following webOS Doctors for 1.4 are available (direct download links):

• O2 Palm Pre
• Sprint Palm Pre
• Sprint Palm Pixi
• Verizon Palm Pre Plus
• Verizon Palm Pixi Plus

And to go along with all this doctoring fun, the folks at WebOS Internals have whipped up new versions of their Meta-Doctor tool for webOS 1.4 on Sprint and Verizon.

Thanks to Shadow 360 for the tip!

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Thanks to the early seepage of webOS 1.4.0 to some GSM Pre owners we can show you what some of the improved aspects of the update look like. A lot of the changes are under the hood, but Shadow-360 of the UK has posted in our forums several screenshots of the newer and recording-er Video app, as well as new options in the reset screen and a much-improved call log that gives you more options and info on your missed calls and sorts calls by caller. Additionally, Media Sync has disappeared from the plugged-into-USB options (no surprise, and no loss since iTunes sync hasn’t worked for months anyway) has been turned off by default, but can be turned on in Settings. As we already heard, Blink Notifications come enabled out of the virtual box this time. Check out some more screenshots after the break!

Update: Also after a break, a video recorded on the original 1.4 Pre in Vietnam by Tomi666. Check out how well it renders the splash. Shadow-360 is also continuing to post more screenshots in this thread.

read more

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While it’s an issue for a few CDMA Pre owners, the problem is a major complaint for GSM webOS users: network time sync just doesn’t work the way it should. In the US most Pre and Pixi owners can roam across the country and their phone will pick up and sync the time with local cell towers – useful for when crossing into different time zones. What’s not so awesome is how this sometimes just doesn’t work in Europe, but as always we can count on an enterprising developer to come up with a solution.

To the rescue here is content754 and the new Clock Sync app. This app is a simple utility that instead of trying to sync the phone’s internal clock with the network time connects to online time servers and gets an accurate read on the current hour. It can even run in the background and sync your time every few hours to prevent temporal shift. Judging by the near unanimous 50+ five-star reviews (many in languages this blogger can’t read), it’s a godsend for those with this problem.

Clock Sync is available now in the App Catalog for the low low price of absolutely free. Depending on when webOS 1.4 (which should fix the issue) arrives for GSM Pre users, it could be a godsend.

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