While the Palm Pre may be launching on Friday on Telcel (Mexico’s largest cellular network), other networks in the nation are snapping up the Pre as well. In fact, if you go to Iusacell's website you’ll see the Pre displayed front and center with a “cómpralo aquí” (buy here) link that opens a pop-up where you can sign up for more information and to be contacted by a Iusacell representative.

Unlike GSM carrier Telcel and #2 Telefonica, Iusacell is a CDMA network. Regardless of the network, it’s good to see Palm still making headway in expanding the footprint of webOS outside the US. As for when we’ll actually see the Pre on Iusacell is anyone’s guess...

Thanks to Akitayo for the tip!

We’ve been expecting that Europe would get ‘parity’ by the end of November, and that doesn’t give Palm much time to get it done. If you follow the O2 Pre closely, last night was a confusing period for Palm Pre owners in Europe, with an official O2 Twitter account stating that webOS 1.3.1 would come last night and then it was “delayed” for unspecified reasons.

While Nexave.de forum moderator Deerhunter couldn’t offer a concrete reason for the delay, he did offer some insight into what may have happened. Essentially, the updates that Palm puts together have to be first verified and approved by the carriers. This is standard practice across the globe and likely the reason we were not supposed to see webOS 1.3.1 on Sprint Pre phones until after the Pixi’s release.

Anyway, back over in Europe the 1.3.1 update was apparently approved by O2 Germany and somebody at the carrier's Bielefeld shop decided to run with it, even though it hadn’t been approved by the rest of the Telefonica network. That’s the trouble with running a multi-headed beast like Telefonica: there are at least four separate entities that need to approve the update (O2 Germany, O2 Ireland, O2 UK, and Movistar Spain).

Either way, the approval was revoked or silenced in some manner and as I’m sure you folks in Europe have noticed, you’re still not running webOS 1.3.1. No matter the cause, we are fairly certain you that the release of webOS 1.3.1 to GSM Pre phones is imminent, and we’ll be sure to let you know when it finally lands.

UPDATE: KarlD89 points us to a new post on the O2 Twitter feed claiming that webOS 1.3.1 will be coming to O2 Pre phones on November 23rd. We shall see.

Thanks to gizmo21 for the tip!

Reader deCorvett gave us a heads up that along with the launch of Palm Pre in Spain on the Movistar network, they’ve started an advertising campaign on Spanish television. And surprise of surprises they decided to use Palm’s advertising instead of going off what the creative chaps at O2 Germany whipped up. Thankfully, it seems that they’ve skipped over the first set of bizarre Palm ads and borrowed those that actually showed the functions of the phone, even if they are pretty darned dull. But after those sweet German ads, we can’t help but be disappointed, especially considering that Movistar-owner Telefonica owns O2. At least Spanish-voiced lady isn't quite as unnerving as the Dollhouse-serene version we got here.

[via: webOS Mania]

The German site Heise Mobil, claims that O2 will pass on the 1.2.1 update in order to line up their WebOS version with North America sometime in November. Of course they don’t give an exact date, nor a reference to their source – so like any other rumor this should be taken with a grain of salt – but still, this is exciting news for all Pre users out there.

According to this German site, they believe that “the point is to reconcile the media synchronization of music and videos with iTunes.” This probably makes sense for them since the pre-installed WebOS version 1.1.3 on the German Pre phone does not work with iTunes at this moment, but is still a long shot for Palm to do an update only to get the O2 German Pre to work with iTunes.

Many believe that the time span between updates is in-line with a November webOS update. But there are others who consider the new update as been on time for the Holidays, when Palm’s official launch date for the Pixi will arrive. Either way, we’ll be waiting. What do you think? Let us know in the comments area.

While the Germans were busy getting the Pre out into the hands of anxious customers, O2 United Kingdom decided to celebrate the launch with a party featuring a slew of UK celebrities like Matthew Horne, Alphabeat, Mel B (aka Scary Spice), VV Brown, and Jade Jagger. Members of the press, O2 employees, and some invited special O2 subscribers hopped onto the roof of the fashionable Shoreditch House in London. So a ton of celebrities got their hands on the phone early, and the rest of the UK, along with Ireland, will have to wait until Friday to get their own. Meanwhile, the cats on Telefonica in Spain can buy the Pre today, as in now.

This exclusive event that O2 Germany is hosting, seems to be called “Palm Pre Night”. For our cousins across the pond, this will be a good opportunity to play with the Palm Pre and have a little fun with it before the official launch, which, as we all know, will be on October 13th.

Palm Pre Night will be hosted – apparently – in the following cities; Oct. 8th in München, Oct. 9th in Hamburg, Oct. 12th in Stuttgart and Oct. 13th in Berlin. As you can see, it started on October 8th and will run through October 13th 2009. The party starts at 6 pm local time and there will be “VIP-Parkservice”. If your German is good than check here and here for more info.

While our Spanish is admittedly quite rusty, we can see what’s going on here: it’s a Palm Pre running on GSM carrier Telcel in Mexico. The conversation indicates that Telcel will be the exclusive carrier of the Pre in Mexico, which runs up against Telefonica’s Movistar brand that spans much of Latin America. And just to show us it’s not some variety of trickery, the phone is shown to have both no Sprint apps and a SIM card slot, and with the QWERTY keyboard we know it’s also not an unlocked Pre stolen from O2 Germany.

Strangely, the video also makes a mention of expandable storage, though it is not demonstrated or shown on the video, nor are any specifics discussed. Our money’s on the speaker mistaking USB Drive Mode for expandable storage. One more video after the break.

Update: EBPMAN in the comments, who is much more fluent en Español than yours truly, says that the video specifically says micro SD, but when talking about it he's pointing at the instructions on how to remove/insert the SIM card. Confusion continues to reign supreme.

Update 2: Apparently the videos have been pulled. Take our word for it, they speak Spanish and have a Pre.

[via: PreThinking]

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source: palm

Today, Telefonica announced the availability of Palm Pre on its HSDPA mobile network in Spain. Not only that, but new Telefonica customers might qualify to receive the Pre phone at no cost, depending on their service plan commitment. Telefonica – as we all know by now – is also the exclusive initial carrier for Palm Pre in United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany.

The monthly rates go from €30 ($44) for voice plus €15 ($22) for data. For those Palm Pre buyers coming from another carrier, the Pre will cost only €29 ($43). The HSDPA bands are 850, 1900 and 2100. The phone can be purchased at Telefonica outlets in Spain and online at www.telefonica.es.

While we've known for awhile that Movistar would be the exclusive carrier offering the Pre, it looks like we've finally gotten a solid release date for Spain: October 14th.

According to Spanish tech blog Xatakamovil, the phone will be priced ranging from 0 to 219 euros on contract, depending on the plan selected.

There's still no official word from either Palm or Movistar on the October 14th launch date,  when it'll be available in Latin America, and if the Movistar version can be had SIM-Lock free. 

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Update:  It's official, Palm has announced the October 14th release date on its blog.