Archive for Pixi

Palm Announces Two New Handhelds And More [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on January 7, 2010 by itnerd

Since the WebOS revolution began over at Palm, they’ve release two devices. The Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi. You can add two new devices to that list. Palm announced the Palm Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus today at CES. I’ll start with the Pixi Plus. It’s basically the Pixi with WiFi from what I can tell. Yawn. However the Pre Plus is far more interesting. It has 16GB of RAM (the original had 8GB), a standard induction cover for Touchstone charging (it was an option before), and no navigation button on the front panel. A new feature that both smart phones have is the ability to be used as a mobile hotspot for up to five devices that want to surf the Internet. If you use that feature, make sure you have a great data plan or it will get expensive in a hurry. In any case, both phones are coming exclusively to Verizon at the end of the month, no word on international carriers for these phones.

Palm also announced WebOS 1.4 which will have video capture, edit and sharing capabilities. Good, but this news is better. Flash 10 support is coming to WebOS (iPhone users take note). Expect WebOS 1.4 to hit the streets in February.

There’s also going to be 3D games available for the Pre (sorry Pixi users, you’re out of luck) from companies such as EA available soon. From the brief shots that I saw on the web feed I was watching, they look very iPhone like.

Finally, developers who want to make WebOS apps can get to work right away according to Palm:

The Palm developer program is designed to promote a thriving environment for all developers to create, distribute, promote and monetize the delivery of valuable applications to Palm customers. It extends the unique web orientation of Palm webOS, providing innovative opportunities for developers to grow their businesses by leveraging the web as a promotional channel for applications.

Each element of the Palm developer program is designed to help developers promote their work and ultimately drive application sales and downloads. Developers receive a 70/30 split (developer/Palm) of gross revenues generated through sales (after applicable taxes).

Sounds interesting. We’ll see how many people take them up on that offer.

IMHO, the biggest news here is impending Flash 10 support. Seeing as the iPhone and the iPod Touch don’t have Flash 10 support, that’s sure to get the attention of somebody in Cupertino CA.

UPDATE: A press release about Verizon getting Palm smart phones has just appeared.

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Meet The Palm Pixi…. It’s Smaller And Cheaper

Posted in Commentary with tags , on September 9, 2009 by itnerd

As a follow own to the Pre, Palm has announced the Pixi which is their second device to use the WebOS. A press release covers the key marketing message:

“With Palm webOS, we’re creating a new, more intuitive smartphone experience defined by unmatched simplicity and usefulness,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “Palm Pixi brings this unique experience to a broader range of people who want enhanced messaging and social networking in a design that lets them express their personal style.”

Okay. Enough marketing speak, here’s the details:

  • It’s smaller than the Pre
  • It has dual-band CDMA and EV-DO Rev A
  • There’s no Wi-Fi
  • It has a 3.5mm headset jack
  • It has a 2 megapixel camera with flash
  • The usual email/IM support is present
  • There’s GPS
  • It’s got 8GB of internal memory
  • It has a rather small 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display

All decent specs I suppose. The lack of Wi-Fi kind of sucks. But I can live with that.There’s another feature that the press release mentions:

For those who want to express themselves with some extra style, Palm is introducing the Palm Pixi Artist Series. Designed by some of today’s most unique and compelling artists, these numbered, limited-edition back covers let you change designs to suit your mood. You can see the first collection in the series, as well as information about the artists, at www.palm.com/artistseries. Palm will be showcasing the fashionable new Palm Pixi with the Artist Series covers this week at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York (Sept. 10-17).

Charming. I’m sure that all the kiddies will love that.

It’s coming to Sprint for better or worse later this year. No word on a GSM version as of yet. But given what happened with the Pre on that front, I fully expect that to be a bit of a circus. Oh, there’s that phone home “feature“ that does little to make me want to buy the Pre. I have to assume that it’s on this phone as well. I’m sure that once it’s released, someone will be kind enough to tell us if that’s the case or not.

On the flipside, the release of this phone proves that Palm wants to make up for lost time in the smartphone market. We’ll see how well it works for them.

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