Sprint's new Pre portal: news, videos, tweets...and doughnuts?

Prefer to get your Palm Pre news with spinning phones and tweetbirds? Then check out Sprint's new Pre portal at www.sprint.com/palmpre. You'll find headlines and links to the latest Pre videos, posts from lots of Pre-obsessed blogs (including this one) and even real-time tweets for up-to-the-minute thoughts on the phone you've been dreaming about.

(And if you're itching to know exactly just how many seconds are left until Doughnut Day, check out Sprint's Plug into Now site.)

Karen C.
Edelman for Palm

Comments

[Ecoteric]

@ Karen C

I was watching a few of the new and old Pre demos, admiring the well designed web browser, and I noticed something that made me quite curious. When you are in normal view of a webpage, docked at the bottom of the browser is a back icon-button and a refresh icon-button, but I do not see an address bar at the top of the page where you can enter a new URL! Do your 'throw' the page to the left or right to make the address bar appear? I am really hoping that you do not 'throw' the page downward to pull the address bar down, for obvious reasons! Doing so would negate the pan up swipe motion. I am hoping you do not have hit the drop down menu, and then hit 'new address' or some other two-tap process to get to the address bar. Someone from Palm, please enlighten us future-Pre owners about this feature.

[Bryan]

When will we see a price or release date in the headlines??

[finid]

Awesome!

[Ecoteric]

On the Palm Pre, how do you pull up the address bar in the web browser application?!
In the demos I have seen, there is only a back button and refresh button docked on the bottom of the browser, but no address bar at the top. I hope you will not have to tap the pull down menu just to enter a web address!

[Art Williams]

So I wonder if the random comment about Doughnut Day is a hint that June 5 is the Pre release day! Hmmmm.

[RC]

that is a very cool site by Sprint..they seem to have some PALM mojo rubbing off on them...any comments on this official blog re: the numerous rumors running through the internets about a May launch date and what seems confirmed of a vacation freeze for Spring employees for May? Does anyone predict if people will be camping out for the PRE?

[Cary]

I'm thinking of hosting a "Welcome Home" party for the Pre. Seriously. There might be a cake with the shape of the phone and perhaps some Pre-shaped cookies. I think I may be able to cut the burgers into Pre shapes as well. Geeky? Yes. Overboard? No. Can't WAIT!!!!

[Steve R.]

I don't care about any of that stuff anymore. I have been with Sprint for 10 years and have always preferred Palm, but the total lack of information makes me so much closer to getting an iPhone. If this is a Marketing gimmick to build up hype, then your Marketing team failed terribly.

I have talked to a lot of people who either will get, or have gotten a different phone because of the total lack of communication.

[blued888]

Nice lookin' phone. Won't the piano black finish be a magnet for fingerprints and scratches though?

[JT]

any information about Groupwise email support for the Pre? My employer is ditching WinMob support, moving from Intellisync to NotifyLink, and adding iPhone and Blackberry support. Philosophically, I can't force myself to get a Blackberry. Don't really want an iPhone. But I've got to be able to get my push email from work.

[Steve R.]

I love how Palm censors my comments about people being fed up with the lack of information/communication about the Pre.

[Jon Z at Palm]

Hey, Steve R. -- We sometimes choose not to publish comments if they're raising questions that have been addressed extensively on this blog. We're sharing as much information as we can (about the hardware, webOS, apps, Palm OS emulation, developer opportunities, accessories, features, marketing plans, photos, videos, etc.) as quickly as we can about the Pre. Check out the discussion boards at www.facebook.com/palm as well as palm.com for even more info. We know that lots of folks are looking for certain details -- like the price and availability date, or very specific questions about how particular apps work -- and we'll share those as soon as we can.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Ecoteric -- appreciate your enthusiasm. There are several videos available, both official Palm videos and great videos done by our community sites, that show how the various features work, which all do a much better job explaining than I ever could. And when the Pre is available, you'll have a chance to dig into the nitty gritty of webOS.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Bryan -- if you believe the headlines, you've seen 25 release dates already.... :)

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Hey Art -- nope, Karen just really, really likes doughnuts.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

RC -- was that a cleverly designed play on words...?

No comment on rumors.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Cary -- maybe a "Welcome Home" doughnut? Although how would you mimic the slide-out keyboard using confectioners suger...?

[RC]

yes, that was a pun. What comes after Pre? I think that is also a clever play on words from PALM and that what comes next could be even more exciting. FWIW I was never actually excited about a phone until PRE...my colleague has an iphone but aside from itunes I had no interest. He insists it can run multiple applications. Are there a few points I can make to him where PALM might have an advantage over Iphone? thanks,

[sonisoe]

hi RC :
these are what iphone currently dont have/can't do that Pre will have/do... but we don't know yet whether these will be fixed in iPhone's new upgrade OS.3 ;
- can't run multiple apps (significant)
- device can't be used as a modem (significant, especially i'm a very mobile person and phonescreen is not big enough for me to review presentations etc)
- bluetooth only to pair w/ a headset, data transfer not possible (significant)
- cant send contact info (vCard) - will be fixed in iphone OS.3 but possible through MMS not SMS. some people don't set-up MMS on their mobile phones, they just forget about it, so they may not be able receive vCard - (med. significant)
- not really push-email so every a period of minutes it syncs with your office network. Pre will be a real push w/ Microsoft Direct Push (med. significant)
- Pre synergy, pooling info from the "cloud" as demoed, not only contact info but also your schedules from various places (med significant).
- Pre non-interruptive notification, you can continue your activity on the phone when someone texts you. the beauty of it, you'll know who sent you the text in a cool kind of way.
- i guess anyone else can add what i forgot to put in.

I'm not a fan of any brand, so i pick up stuff that i think will help me a lot, and, Pre seems to have it all. (i'm not a gamer or heavy music listener so thatsanother reasons am not interested in iphone, anyway gaming can drain your battery which iPhone is known for, and hopefully Pre wont have a battery life problem because its supposed to run multiple apps and do a lot in the back-ground).

[sonisoe]

quoting from andy t "if i can't IM or do facebook/twitter, i would be traveling with a cute but dead phone"... would Pre come with a native messaging app that functions as SMS and chatting so we dont have wait for someone to develop an IM for webOS and worse pay for it ? from the demo with all the threaded message between email, chat, sms in one view, looks it will come with a native app for these multiple functions ?

also i think pre will support Flash.

will it come with pre-installed facebook ?

if the answer is yes to all three, maaaan, just get it out already with the GSM version too .....

RC, if the answer is yes to the first two, then there's more reason to convince your friend why Pre makes iphone look like a version 1.0 device.

[alxhowarth]

you can bring up the url bar by pressing and holding the center of the screen when on a webpage, and then draggin down slightly. the URL bar will be at the top of the screen