The new update for webOS was accidentally leaked yesterday, and apparently the leak came from Palm itself. A few forum members overs at PreCentral Forums used webOS Doctor (Build Sprint.100.166 08/30/09 08:03 – which is no longer available) to reset their factory settings and the phone automatically installed the new version 1.2 of Palm mobile operating system.

New features include:

- Ability to enter your account details into the app catalog -  which will allow of the monetization of future apps in the store. So we can expect priced apps to be coming fairly soon.

- Possible improved copy & paste action with a ‘Select All’ tab under the edit menu.

- Type to find contacts and subjects within email app. However email search is still not included in Universal Search.

- Ability to save images form browser

Copies of the update are around on the web but apparently installing can cause some serious issues so best to avoid.

The Palm Pre launches in Canada today bringing one of the most anticipated handsets in recent history to to the country.

The phone is launching on the Bell Mobility network and will be available from $199 on a three year contract.

The phone can be bought online or at your local Bell retailer.

Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility and chief brand officer of Bell Canada said today:

“There’s no doubt the Pre will have a positive impact on our market share and there’s no doubt the Pre will have a positive impact on ARPU [average revenue per user] because it’s so easy to use, so our data revenue will grow,”

Congratulations Canada. Now go grab one.

Thursday is Palm Pre drop day for Canada and as the date finally rolls around, Bell have begun releasing advertising for the handset in print, tv and online campaigns.

Check them all out below:

Print ad:

The very familiar TV spot (why couldn’t Sprint have gone with something like this?):

Episode 1 of the online campaign:

Episode 2:

Rumors abound that the Palm Eos will, or won’t arrive this year. Anonymous sources everywhere are suggesting that the phone is shipping to Palm in October, while analysts are claiming that the phone won’t see daylight until 2010 because the Pre hasn’t done that great, which is a further detail that no-one can confirm.

Basically it’s all non-sense, and no-one really knows anything. If the phone was arriving in October, there would be more concrete chatter about it. Palm would more than likely have announced the model considering they announced the Pre a full six months before release. Note that we have only ever seen one image, via Engadget, of the Eos, that could quite easily have been fabricated.

Personally i like the look of the Eos, and i hope it is being produced, and the sooner the release date the better. The more webOS phones available, the more i think Palm will rebuild their reputation is a strong contender in the smart phone market. While it a lower spec handset than the Pre, the Eos looks like it will do the simple things right, feel and look good, and offer a serious competitor to the Blackberry.

After hearing about some of the maladies that the Palm Pre suffers from in the hardware department, people were likely becoming slightly despondent about the phone’s ability to genuinely compete in the smart phone market. However, Palm, being Palm, are tackling hardware issues with the Pre by altering the hardware for later vrions of the handset.

PreCentral points out that the new handsets come installed with a small foam pad that allows the battery to fit better and avoid some of the slider-related crashes that have been afflicting users.

Additional improvements include a significantly more stable sliding mechanism, no mre spider-web cracking in the Pre screen, and a slightly modified battery. All this means that the phone now represents a significantly better user experience, which was necessary after so many people were suffering faults.

If you want to ceck whether your Palm Pre is a refurbished device you can check opening the phone app, type in ##786# to bring up the Reverse Logistics Support card, where you will find all sorts of info.

[Story and Picture Via: PreCentral}

Palm suffered a fair amount of negative publicity last week when a Palm Pre user revealed that he had discovered that his Palm Pre handset had been sending back inofrmation regarding the ways in which he used to the phone, up to once a day.

Palm Pre user Joey Hess discovered that his phone was reporting his location over a secure connection back to Palm, as well as information about applications on the phone, including thrid party apps that may have not been available in the Palm app store.

Hess told The Register: “As a software engineer, I can understand why Palm’s engineers would be interested in the crash data, but the data gathered during a crash includes potentially private information, such as a list of all the programs running on the phone. Also, it is much more respectful of the user to ask before sending such crash data.”

Palm have now responded to the accusation that the company have breached the privacy rights of its users by gathering user information via the Pre handset.

Palm said in a press release:

“Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off. Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust.”

[Via: The Register]

More sterile weirdness from the is-she-is-she-not-smiling Tamara Hope.

And a little more. This time contacts.

We’re all still talking but what is really going on here. The commercials clearly aren’t appealing to many, so why not scrap them rather than continue disappointing. While i was all for the commercial aspect of being talked about, there is now way too much negativity around these ads in the tech community, and it doesn’t make sense to allow your core word-spreading market to consistently ridicule your own marketing. Time to smarten up Palm.

Also why does she look like she’s going to cry. Has she cut herself on the Pre?

American? Check Over 18? Check. Then you are good to go.

Head over the Palm’s Facebook page to enter to win a free Palm Pre. All you have to do is list three acitivity cards that you would keep open all day if you had the choice.

ENTER HERE

Good luck and god speed.

Although perhaps not in America.

Fiending to find a GSM Palm Pre that you will be able to unlock and use on the network of your choice? Well a PreCentral user has tracked down certification documents that suggest a North American version of the Palm Pre exists.

The unit named P100UNA has been certified for US use on the WI-FI.org as can be seen above. This compares to the previous registering of a European unit the P100UEU, the European GSM Palm Pre. The NA at the end of the first unit stands for North America, while the U stands for UMTS. All very interesting i’m sure, but the real question is where/when is the phone going to be available.

Engadget have come up with the theory that Palm may be producing the unit for Bell who are currently transitioning from a CDMA to GSM.

All of which means there will hopefully soon be North American Palm Pres, capable of using American 3G networks that smart people can unlock for use on any network. Hoorah.

The UK is having a long old wait for the Palm Pre, which is prolly upsetting for the Brits who are used to receiving phones before most other countries due to the fierce competition between the four networks to retain and acquire users.

However, our friends across the pond, you’re time is coming. Soon you too will experience the joys of a Qwerty keyboard combined with a touchscreen, multi-tasking, badass OS.

Apparently, according to numerous O2 sources, late October is the release date of the phone, and the Pre will be available on the same pricing plans as the iPhone 3GS. That is free, with a unlimted data plan. Yes free Americans. Damn the British. Why did we ever let them not rule us?