After Jon Rubinstein (former CEO of Palm, now SVP and General Manager of the Palm Global Business Unit) left the stage the other night at All Things Digital’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference, he sat down for a more detailed interview with AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski. Although Ruby did not reveal too much more than the little we’ve heard in recent appearances, there were a few tidbits scattered in the interview that were of interest.

First, in response to a question about bandwidth, Ruby all but confirmed that there will be 4G devices coming from Palm:

I am very excited to [be] getting to LTE and HSDPA+ (two faster cellular networks). We have some really interesting visions on where webOS can go as you get more and more bandwidth.

There was also a fair amount of discussion about cloud services, no surprise given webOS’ deep integration with the cloud, but it wasn’t just about webOS devices. Paczkowski asked Rubinstein, "A lot of data is going to be on laptops and desktops. Do you need to build a cloud device to have webOS talk to them?" Rubinstein’s cryptic (but intriguing) response? "Stay tuned," his usual answer for products and services that are coming but may not be ready for announcements.

Ruby gave a nice shoutout to the new generation of webOS developers (like these fine young men):

We have a lot of really interesting ways to develop for webOS. It’s very easy to develop for and people like developing for it. We are getting a whole new generation of developers.

We had this developer conference in New York. If you look at the audience, a lot of them were under 17 and they were making enough money selling applications to come from wherever they were–they weren’t from New York–to bring one of their parents or both of their parents to come to the developer conference.

He also directly addressed questions and concerns about Palm’s staffing in the wake of the HP acquisition:

Since we closed the deal we have hired over 70 people. Two hundred-plus people from HP have joined us and other divisions at HP are busy working on helping us make webOS successful. So while yes, we lost a few people along the way, we gained a lot of people.

There’s more from Ruby via the source link below. Here’s hoping we don’t have to "stay tuned" a whole lot longer for some real information.

Source: AllThingsD’s Mobilized Blog

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With webOS available on three of the four major US carriers, there’s no time like the present to kick some dust around and see who comes out on top. According to PCMag.com’s exhaustive cross-country testing of the Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Cricket, Ma Bell came out on top as far as the nationwide averages are concerned. AT&T also took the speed crown in every region of the US excepting the northeast, where T-Mobile dominated.

While it’s little surprise that AT&T took the crown in 3G testing, the network also bested Sprint’s fledgling 4G network when available. The problem turns out to be the WiMax network’s consistency – while tremendous bursts of speed up to 3.14 MB were observed with 4G, when averaged with PCMag’s consistency scoring Sprint’s 3G network usually proved to be faster and reliable. Of course, we expect that to improve and can remember similar growing pains when 3G EVDO and HSDPA first hit the scene.

Of course, we do have to mention that all that was tested here was data speed (and we’re sure AT&T will be touting the results in ads in no time). Being able to download stuff really fast is great and all, but you should always remember to take the entire package of call quality, dropped calls, signal strength in the areas you frequent, and, of course, whether or not they have webOS phones available, when looking for a carrier.

Source: PCMag.com, via Boy Genius Report

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The Global Certification Forum, a mash-up of networks, manufacturers, and testing agencies has given its stamp to the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. As noticed by the:unwired, the two devices passed through the GCF’s all-knowing hands with model numbers we’ve seen and deciphered before: P101UEU and P121UEU. If you require a refresher, P101 is the Pre Plus, P121 is the Pixi Plus, and UEU means UMTS Europe (their American GSM equivalents were appended with UNA).

The certification was sparse on details, though we do have confirmation that the phones will be quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA at 900/2100 MHz, otherwise known as not compatible with AT&T.

[via: Engadget]

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According to Forbes, Sprint’s first WiMax handset – the first 4G handset from any US carrier – is expected to be available in the first half of 2010. While most logically expect that the phone will be the Android-powered HTC Supersonic (fitting name for a 4G phone), we have to wonder – could it be the C40?

Well, maybe. Frankly, we have no clue. In fact, the lack of info about the C40 has been driving us batty. But a summer launch would coincide with the Pre having been out for a year on Sprint – just in time for a full refresh. At the very least our no-evidence-except-for-intuition expectation is that Palm will release something that will amount to the Pre 2 on Sprint in the summer (or at least that what those of us on Sprint are hoping for), and there’s no reason that the C40 couldn’t be this device.

But why would we want a WiMax phone? For one, the interwebs would be ridiculously fast. Like mind-blowing fast for a phone. In theory, it could be faster than most Wi-Fi connections (Wi-Fi download speeds are limited by the slower ISP they’re hooked up to). With all that bandwidth – again, this is just speculation here – there’s no reason that a WiMax phone on Sprint couldn’t do voice and data at the same time – just run the voice over VOIP (technically EVDO already supports this). But a WiMax radio would only further amplify one of the biggest hurdles Palm is trying to overcome with just EVDO and HSDPA: battery life. Unless they’ve got a ridiculously efficient WiMax radio, a Palm phone with a stock 1150 mAh battery would last, oh, an hour. Maybe.

All that said, chances are that you don’t have WiMax service where you live, at least not yet. Sprint currently has WiMax coverage in a handful of cities across the United States, but in partnership with their quasi-subsidiary Clearwire are rapidly expanding coverage. Sprint expects to add New York City and San Francisco to their WiMax roadmap soon, a move that is sure to tempt many a frustrated iPhone user in those AT&T bottleneck metropolises. Additionally, despite the acceptance of LTE by carriers worldwide, global WiMax deployments are accelerating. eWeek notes that by the end of 2010 combined global WiMax coverage in 147 countries is expected to surpass 800 million people, and one billion a year later. Currently WiMax deployments cover around 620 million.

[via: Engadget, Android Central]

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We’ve heard this before, but the folks at MobileSyrup have reconfirmed what we’ve heard from before: the Pre and Pixi are coming to Telus in January 2010. Although Telus (like Bell, now) runs both CDMA and GSM networks, we’re devoutly hopeful that Telus will opt for the GSM variety of the Pre and, well, the Pixi too. With both Verizon and Telus coming on board in January, it’ll be like Palm’s second North American coming-out party.

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O2 announced today that the GSM Palm Pre will be launching in Europe in the middle of next month. The staggered release will see Germany getting their hands on the hot little smartphone on October 13th, with the United Kingdom and Ireland getting it on October 16th. Yup, that announcement really did come quickly.

Plans will vary by country. United Kingdom O2 customers will have several plan options for the Pre. On an 18-month contract you can sign up for a minimal contract of £29.38 a month (75 minutes, 125 texts, unlimited data) and get the Pre for £96.89. Alternatively, they can pay as little as £44.05 a month (1200 minutes, 500 texts, unlimited data) and get a Pre for free. Customers signing a 24-month contract for a minimum of £34.26 (600 minutes, 500 texts, unlimited data) will also get a Pre for free. All available plans for the Pre come with unlimited data on O2’s HDSPA network and access to 7500 affiliated WiFi hotspots.

German shoppers can pay €1 upfront for the Pre on a 24-month contract, with the rest of the phone subsidized at €20 a month over the contract. In total, you can expect to pay €481 for the phone, or an extra €2 to get the Pre contract-free (no word if that also means its SIM-lock free). The Pre will be available on any contract with O2 Germany, though they recommend you sign up for at least the €10/month data plan (otherwise you’ll be loaded down with by-the-kb data charges). O2 Germany is also giving away 10 Palm Pre phones.

In Ireland, you can sign up for plans ranging from €40 (175 minutes, 100 texts, 10 MMS, 1 GB data) to €65 a month (450 minutes, 150 texts, 15 MMS, 1 GB data) for 18 months and get a Pre for just €99, while forking over €100 a month (700 minutes, 250 texts, 25 MMS, 1 GB data) for a year and a half will get you a Pre for free. All plans are limited to 1 GB of data month, though they do also all come with unlimited access to O2’s WiFi hotspot network.

The German O2 website has also confirmed that the GSM Pre is indeed a Quad-band phone, with dual-band UMTS support (all told, we’re talking EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA). Apart from that, the phone is practically the same as the CDMA Pre seen on Sprint and Bell Mobility.

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

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The Palm Pixi will be the first smartphone to ship with Qualcomm’s new MSM7627 chipset, so there are understandably a lot of questions about what the lower-cost processor will be capable of. While we’ve seen in action that the Pixi isn’t quite as snappy as the Pre, and Palm has said that it won’t support as many open cards (which would seem to be more of a RAM limitation than the processor), the MSM7627 has remained cloaked in mystery.

Over at PalmInfocenter they’ve gotten their hands on the full spec sheet for the MSM7627, which you’ll find below:

• Two ARM cores integrated into a single chip – a dedicated CPU core and a dedicated modem processor – for an unparalleled level of integration:
  • 1. 600MHz applications processor with floating point unit and L2 cache
  • 2. 400MHz modem processor
• Supports both CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A and UMTS HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps, and GSM
• In addition to the two ARM cores, features 320MHz application DSP for multimedia supporting full 30 fps WVGA encode/decode, 200MHz hardware-accelerated 3D graphics core supporting OPEN GL 2.0, high-resolution camera, integrated GPS
• 12mm x 12mm footprint
• Optimized power consumption

Yup, you read that right: the modem chip will easily support both EVDO (on the currently announced Pixi) and HSDPA (for the GSM Pixi we all know has to eventually come) – so at least we can be pretty sure that when Palm slaps a GSM radio in this thing, we won’t have to guess about the chip again (Update, to clarify – the processor can play nice with both CDMA and GSM, but again, the Pixi is CDMA only). Also, the 320 MHz DSP (digital signal processor) and 200 MHz 3D graphics core should provide adequate oomph for gaming, once Palm gets around to whipping up an SDK to take advantage of the chip.

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Europe, it’s time to celebrate. As previously rumored, Telefonica has scored the rights to distribute the Palm Pre in Europe, on the O2 network in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany and on Movistar in Spain. Palm’s official press release (after the break) says that the first GSM webOS phones will launch “in time for the holidays,” but according to O2’s German update notification sign-up page, the Pre will be launching in October. So far the only published (and expected) difference between the Pre that the Telefonica networks will be receiving and that made for Sprint and Bell Canada is the GSM radio, which will come complete with HSDPA (3G GSM). It’s as-yet unclear whether or not the European Pre will support the 3G bands in the US.

Thus far there’s been no mention of price or plans, but if our experience with other smartphones in Europe is any indication, it’s not going to be cheap.

Update: Gizmo and Enzo let us know that that O2 Germany changed their date from October to Fall 2009. Update Update: Goyena notes it’s now changed to "In time for Christmas."  We’re just going to say end of the year, OK O2?

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

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