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AT&T, P100UNA, Palm Pre, Rogers, T-Mobile, UMTS, bell, fcc, gsm pre, news, pre, telus

GSM Palm Pre passes through FCC, doesn’t fry brains

November 16th 2009 | Posted by Derek Kessler

P100UNA FCC Label

Remember that Palm P100UNA that was certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance back in August? Yeah, that’s a GSM Palm Pre made for the United States. To break it down, P100 is the Pre (as seen by the P100 on Sprint), U is for UMTS (3G GSM), and NA for North America. While we haven’t heard anything on this front for over two months, the FCC database trawlers at wireless goodness noted that today a new Palm device passed the fed’s certification process: the P100UNA.

There’s not much too be gleaned from the FCC documents on the P100UNA that we couldn’t figure out from the name: it’s a Pre that will be compatible with US 3G GSM bands, e.g. AT&T and T-Mobile (and our friends up in Canada on Rogers, Telus, and Bell). When will the GSM Pre finally make its way to Palm’s home shores? We don’t know for sure, but if we had to guess we’d say sometime after Sprint’s US exclusive on the Pre expires at the end of 2009. Let’s just hope that an unlocked version is in the mix.

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EDGE, GSM, GSM quad-band, Germany, HSDPA, Ireland, O2, Palm, Palm Pre, UMTS, United Kingdom, WiFi, europe, news, pre

Pre launching for free in Germany on October 13, UK and Ireland on October 16

September 24th 2009 | Posted by Derek Kessler

Palm Pre on O2, launching in October

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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CDMA, DSP, EVDO, GSM, HSDPA, MSM7627, Palm, Palm Pre, Pixi, Qualcomm, SDK, UMTS, news, palm pixi, pre

Specing out the Pixi’s processor

September 14th 2009 | Posted by Derek Kessler

Palm Pixi

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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EVDO, Palm Pre, Sprint, UMTS, news

Pre Can’t Surf Net and Call Simultaneously on Sprint?

February 17th 2009 | Posted by Brian Hart

 

As great, grand, and glorious as the Palm Pre will be, those using the Sprint version will find that their Pre has an Achilles Heel. Pam Deziel, Palm’s vice president of software product management, confirmed at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday that the U.S. Sprint version of the Pre won’t be able to surf the Internet and engage a call at the same time. Bummer!

The reason why the U.S. version of the Pre is affected this way is due to the EVDO network that Sprint uses in the U.S. – it can’t run data and voice simultaneously. Data must be suspended while on a call, but resume when the call is completed. The Pre that will be released in Europe is a UMTS device for the European carrier’s UMTS network. UMTS allows for simultaneous use of voice and data. Will this chink in the Pre’s armor be enough to discourage any of you from buying the Sprint version? Will you wait for a GSM unlocked Pre instead?

Thanks, William, for the tip!

[pcmag]

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