With all the hype that surrounded the June release of the Palm Pre, the idea of further phones using the webOS system was widely disregarded. Many assumed the the success of the Pre would dictate the release of any further phones, and the Palm’s very existence was reliant on the flagship webOS handset being a smash. The small rumor of another phone name ‘Eos’ or ‘Pixie’ seemed little more than a figment of an over zealous fan wanting to contribute to the growing hysteria that surrounded Palm’s re-boot as a company.

However today’s announcement proves that there has always been a plan to release two webOS phones this year (and that Palm do a pretty good job of keeping things under wraps), independent of the Pre’s success, and that Palm are targeting particular customers with each phone, that webOS will be no one trick pony, and that Palm is planning for the long run.

So the Pixi was announced today, to less hype than the much anticipated Pre, but to seemingly positive reviews that suggest the phone will more than hold it’s own when release on Sprint, sometime before the holiday period. However looking at the phone one might ask whether, while the Pre was meant to be the impact phone, the Centro-like Pixi, might be the phone Palm expects to change people’s perceptions of the company, and move users over to their handsets.

Speaking from a personal point of view, while i own a lovely Palm Pre, that makes me very happy, i have issues with the aesthetics and practicalities of the form factor. I realised the Pre would be first generation hardware and software, and was willing to accept the possibility of better looking and functioning phones in the future. However now that i have seen the fully functioning Pixi, there is a pang of jealousy that will accompany its release into the world.

Yes, i will be happy that i can use my WIFI connection etc, but does that make a huge difference anyway. And the small screen on the Pixi might inhibit me a little but more than the screen on a Blackberry which i find perfectly able. Hells no. What the Pixi offers is sexy, slick, slim form factor, built for use on the move. And with the ever developing webOS, the Pixi offers a phone that will be at the forefront of people’s minds when they are looking for the middle ground between the bidniss styles of the Blackberry, the user-friendliness of the iPhone, and the app development available on Android phones.

This has all been said before for the Palm Pre, however, there is a certain trickiness to using the Pre because of the way it is built which is think has been keeping people away from switching away from their iPhones and Blackberrys. The Pixi offers that middle ground that Palm always spoke of trying to obtain and for this reason i can see the Pixi being the breakaway phone. While it won’t be the phone that everyone is writing about, it will be the phone that, when seen by the average consumer, will be the one they pick.

Coming in the shadows of the announcement of the Palm Pixi, Palm also announced that the price of the Palm Pre has now been dropped to $150 dollars with contract.

So if you’ve been waiting for a cheaper version, or just haven’t been that impressed with the 3GS, now is your chance to grab yourself a great phone at a great price.

Price available after $150 instant and $100 mail-in rebate.

Click HERE to buy the Palm Pre from Amazon.com

Up until today it had been a new Palm phone was a mystery only exceeded by the speculation around the company’s ability to survive over the coming harsh winter months. Yet, out of the frying pan of analysts prediuctions that the Palm Pre’s sales were falling off, returns were high, and Palm was likely to release less than promising results for the quarter, comes a bright new future in the Palm Pixi.

Completely altering the form factor availalble with the Palm Pre handset, the Palm Pixi takes on more of a Centro-like look, and turns it into something so desirable that i can feel the grip i have on my Pre slipping slightly.

The new phone will incorporate all of the newest features of Palm webOS while at the same time being the thinnest phone Palm have ever produced.The Pixi will come with a full keyboard and ruberized back for texting and social networking on the move. It is clearly aimed at the Blackberry market, but should appeal to anyone interested in having a phone that can do everything you need while still being almost invisible when on your person.

Interesting timing by the way Palm. Not like there’s another Apple event today or anything. Balls of steal over at Palm HQ apparently.

There will also be an awesome looking artist series featuring talent such as Jeremy Fish designing their own version of the Pixi. Images can be seen over here.

Official Press release below:

Palm’s Thinnest Phone Yet Expands Palm webOS Line with Customizable Style

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today introduced the Palm(R) Pixi(TM) phone for faster, more intuitive and personal communication in a compact and customizable design.(1) With the instinctively useable Palm webOS(TM) platform, strikingly thin design, a visible full keyboard and fashionable personalization options, Palm Pixi lets you express yourself in amazingly useful ways. It’s scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint in time for the holidays.

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?