The Official Palm Blog

Catch the premiere of a new Palm Pre ad on Facebook

Want to see a new Palm Pre commercial before anyone else? Then RSVP for the June 3 debut of a new ad showcasing Palm, Pre, and webOS. Over the next few days, we’ll also be sharing some exclusive behind-the-scenes videos about the making of the ad.

Our national ad campaign will be launching in the near future. But if you want to see the ad first, be sure to RSVP today.

Jon Zilber

More webOS details unveiled at All Things Digital

Taking the stage as the grand finale at the “D: All Things Digital” conference today, Palm’s executive chairman Jon Rubinstein and Elevation Partners’ managing director and co-founder Roger McNamee celebrated the excitement surrounding webOS by sharing a few new details about the hotly awaited platform.

In an onstage conversation with Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal who co-produces D with veteran technology reporter Kara Swisher, Jon and Roger shared details about Palm media sync, a webOS feature that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes to easily transfer DRM-free music, photos, and videos to your Palm Pre. Media sync complements other methods for getting media onto Pre, including USB file transfer and WiFi downloads from the Amazon MP3 store.

The addition of Twitter search to the universal search capability of webOS was also unveiled at D. With universal search, a Pre user simply starts typing and webOS offers up matches from your contacts or applications or-- if there are no matches-- from your choice of search results from Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and Twitter.

D attendees also got a preview of some of the applications that will appear in the beta version of the App Catalog that will be available when the Pre launches on June 6. The App Catalog will include webOS applications such as Fandango, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy and location-based services to find and provide directions to nearby movie theaters and automatically transfers ticket purchases onto your calendar.

On the lighter side, Jon and Roger also shared a short video poking fun at all the hype surrounding webOS and Pre.

 

Jon Zilber

Palm Pre to arrive on Sprint on June 6

Sprint has announced today that the Palm Pre will be available on June 6. Sprint announced that it will be available nationwide in Sprint stores, as well as at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and select Wal-Mart stores. The webOS-based phone will retail for $199.99 (after rebate and service agreement).

The Palm Pre will provide access to all of the exclusive content on the Sprint Now Network, including Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live. More details about Sprint’s service plans and retail channels can be found on the company’s website.

Jon Zilber

Use of this device requires providing a valid email address, mobile phone number, and related information for account set-up and activation. Use of select unlimited data bundle plans will be required.

Can mobile technology stop swine flu?

Well, not exactly. Or at least not yet. But in the not-too-distant future, mobile tech could help track the spread of infectious disease, making it easier to combat. Here’s an example of how that is starting to happen.

One of the amazing things about the Internet is the way a bunch of seemingly random data points can be transformed into a otherwise-invisible insight. Google has been sharing information about hot search topics for years, and even offers a specialized trend-watcher to help track flu outbreaks.

But when you throw mobile technology into the mix, the resulting real-time snapshot of social patterns gets even more powerful. Have you ever gotten a tweet from a mobile Twitterer letting you know that their flight has just landed? This short video shows the overall travel patterns throughout the entire Twittersphere simply by mapping all tweets in a 36-hour time period that contain the phrase “just landed in….” As mobile participation in social networks becomes more common, this kind of map can potentially help epidemiologists track and quickly contain outbreaks of contagious diseases.

(And for a different kind of visualization of the patterns of everyday life, catch the Palm Pre featured on Sprint’s Now Network.)

Jon Zilber

Palm Pre headed for Canada on Bell Mobility network

Judging by some of your Twitter and blog postings, Canadians have been eagerly anticipating details about Palm Pre's arrival in Canada. We are happy to confirm that Pre is scheduled to arrive in the second half of 2009. The phone will debut exclusively on Bell Mobility’s 3G high-speed mobile network.

You can sign up to be notified via email when Pre is available at www.palm.com/ca. You can also get all the latest Palm news by following palm_inc or by becoming a fan at www.facebook.com/palm.

Marc Tremblay, Managing Director, Palm Canada

Heroes in your community

For a lot of people, an online social network is a fun way to keep up with friends and families. For others, it’s even more. Palm is proud to be helping the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) in its mission of creating new ways for veterans to connect to the people, activities and information that matter most to them.

IAVA has created a social network exclusively for the 1.7 million-plus American troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The organization has just launched a new site, Support Your Vet, to make it easier for family and friends to lend a hand. At IAVA’s Heroes Celebration in Los Angeles last week, IAVA’s founder and executive director Paul Rieckhoff noted that “reaching out to veterans was only one piece of the puzzle. When troops deploy, they leave behind wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers, and sons and daughters.”

Many IAVA veterans were present at the event to tell their stories of duty overseas and their dreams for the future. With the launch of Support Your Vet, IAVA will be able to bring these messages of inspiration and connection to the online world.

Maria A.
Edelman for Palm