Yeah, you’re interested. Here’s what details SFR dropped:

• 1GHz processor
• 512MB RAM
• Same design as the current Pre series, but with a “flatter screen” (we’re supposing glass) and “more refined design.”
• Update: as arthurthornton notes in the comments - if you look closely that finicky USB door has been removed and replaced with a simple, exposed MicroUSB port. Looking more closely the finish on the edge is matted - so it looks like that crack-prone plastic we've been dealing with is a thing of the past.
• Update 2: PreCentral member thomas92 notes via email that SFR also says that webOS 2.0 will bring a faster boot time. We really need to work on our French, it seems.

Additionally, our rusty French translation yielded this until-now unannounced webOS 2.0 feature: push. Specifically, SFR is talking about Facebook push integration (touting it as “the great innovation of 2.0”) with messages, events, wall postings, and chat. We’re not going to read too much into that, as we would hope that Palm would integrate push into more than Facebook. So either SFR is overreaching, or they’re not telling us everything about push and instead are focusing on what customers want to hear about, i.e. Facebook.

Of course, there are battery life and performance improvements, but if the way SFR is writing it, these might be better than the usual negligible bumps. And if you were wondering what the device codename could be, SFR’s given it away in their unedited image name: Roadrunner.

And, before you ask, no mention of price or release date.

Source: SFR; Thanks to JMM for the tip!

UPDATE: SFR wised up and pulled the page down, but we're the crafty evidence-preserving types. Screenshot after the break!

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Verizon, Rubinstein says, have agreed that “their execution of [Palm's] launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales.”  This will involve greater advertising and more Palm “experts” attempting to teach would-be buyers why webOS should feature in their future.  Full email is below:

Team,

This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.

I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.

Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations—all getting the word out about Palm.

All of these efforts are examples of how we are working to accelerate adoption and grow distribution of webOS. In the next few weeks, your management will work with you to make sure your priorities are laser-focused, primarily on helping to increase sales, improve product quality and differentiate the Palm product experience.

Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.

We’ll schedule an all-hands meeting after our earnings announcement in March, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Go team!!!

jon

webOS 1.4 is expected to bring with it the ability to record video using the smartphone’s previously still-only camera, together with paving the way for Flash 10.1 support.  However Flash 10.1 won’t actually be part of the update itself.  According to PreCentral’s sources, the update will begin distributing to users in 100,000 blocks, but can also be manually triggered.

This is all rumor right now, however, so we’ll have to wait until February 25th to see if it pans out.

Now as we mentioned above, this comes from an anonymous tipster, so have the salt shaker at hand just in case. Apparently big red plans to match Sprint’s pricing on the Pre at $149.99 and Pixi at $99.99, after a 2 year contract and a rebate of course.

That seems to be reasonable, but for us early adopters it feels like a slap on the hand, since the “new” webOS handsets have a little advantage over the “old” ones. But since I want Palm to succeed, then I won’t complaint too much, anyway, this should help to boost Palm Pre and Pixi sales.

Over at Tinhte.com they have an intriguing piece of hardware. And I say intriguing because even though the CDMA Sprint version of the Pixi we know, will have an 8GB memory, the Pixi in Vietnam shows only half (4GB) of that. Now, this is not the first time that someone in Vietnam, and more specifically, the same people, get their hands on a Palm product before it hits the market. Remember the GSM Palm Pre video?

This Vietnamese Pixi is the first Euro-friendly version of the candybar device that shows up so far. Besides the obvious SIM slot and the mysteriously low 4GB of onboard memory, it seems to be no different than the CDMA version. Although you can see something odd on the Pixi in the image above, and also on the video below: It has a round button-like mark and glowing dots in the gesture area instead of the single glowing bar. The numbers are orange and the orange button on the Pre’s keyboard was white on the Pixi. And there are yellow dots on the R, F, C and space bar buttons. Just so you can compare, check the image below from the Pixi that we played with back in September.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why on Thursday, you might ask, well, lately Palm has been releasing new apps on Thursdays, but this next Thursday will have extra flavor to it. So many people believed 1.2 would be coming out with more apps. And as you can see on the image above, webOS developers who’ve had their applications accepted for the App Catalog will see them featured there on that day.

Apps can be purchased via credit card. App sales will be split 70/30, with 70 percent going to developers and 30 percent going to Palm.So you see folks, that is why we believe September 24th is a day to look out for. Now remember, Palm might decide to push the release of webOS 1.2 a little further but still, the rumor mill, and our gut tell us that this coming Thursday is going to be special.

[Via AllThingsD]

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]

Forum members go4craig and Leathal at Precentral had to resort to the last hope for their Palm Pre smartphones. They applied the webOS Doctor to get their Pre phones back to factory standard. But in doing so, what a surprise they found; it installed webOS 1.2 for them.

Mainly, two features were found that give us a clue of what’s coming. One of the new features is the ability to enter your account information in the App Catalog. We know paid apps are coming soon, so this isn’t much of a surprise. Now the “Select all” feature, found within the browser, that’s exciting. This could mean that we might be getting improved copy and paste functionality.

There is also a fix for location services that might resolve our complaints about that big brother thing going on. Allowing for finer controls regarding how the data is collected, and a way to turn off data usage altogether. So what do you think? Maybe this means that webOS 1.2 could become available this month.

[Via Precentral]

Back then – thanks to Coal from the now extinct SprintGurus – we received the motherload about the Palm Pre. First we received the activation process in detail. Then, we got the Factsheet, which basically lists specifications, battery life, which OSes it’s compatible with, etc. The Features Guide, that gives an overview of the main capabilities of the Pre – like GPS navigation, Sprint TV, NASCAR and picture messaging – together with how to access the features from the Pre’s menus. And, the Getting Started Guide, which details all the gestures you can perform, how to sync data, merge different views and link together contacts, and use the universal search.

Now, thanks to the guys at MobileSyrup, you’ll be able to see the Canadian version of those documents we got to see back in May. First the “Pocket Sales Guide”, that gives quick information about the Pre such as the specs, tips and tools. Then there’s the “Gesture Guide”, which gives you info on how to use the Palm Pre’s gesture area and the touchscreen. And last, but not least, the “Demo Guide”, which was created to give you quick access to all of the Pre’s features such as Universal Search, Keyboard, Contacts, Calendar, card View E-mail etc.

So, if you want to learn more about the activation, check here. And to learn more about the docs mentioned in this post, go and check’em here in PDF glory. And just in case, we also have the Full Sprint Palm Pre User Guide here. Have in mind, these are the USA/Sprint version, so they might differ a little from what you will get with Bell in Canada.

[Via MobileSyrup]

According to PreCentral’s anonymous tipster, webOS 1.1 will bring with it improved Exchange Active Sync policies and Security, the potential for remote-wipes by IT admins, improved digital certificates and an auto-lock function.  It will also introduce a required PIN for enterprise users and even have the capability of wiping the Pre should an incorrect PIN be entered a set number of times.

Meanwhile other sources have suggested more applications will also arrive in a similar timescale, though it’s unclear whether they will be of Palm’s own making – and distributed as part of webOS 1.1 – or available through the App Catalog.  Palm are apparently aiming to get the update out within the next thirty days.