No fooling with these April savings tips

With April 15 around the corner, you’re probably either putting off a painful payment or anxiously awaiting a welcome refund. Either way, we’ve got a few money-saving opportunities for Palm phone customers:

• For Verizon Wireless customers, the free Palm mobile hotspot app now comes with free service. The first 5 GB of data each month now comes at no extra cost. The app lets your Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus share your 3G bandwidth with up to 5 other Wi-Fi devices.
• Verizon Wireless is also now currently offering the Palm Pre Plus for $49.99 and the Palm Pixi Plus for $29.99 (requires contract commitment). A buy-one, get-one free offer is also currently available.
• The folks over at webOSroundup are offering free phones and all kinds of accessories for the winners of their “PalmSpot” contest -- just submit your video that tells the world what’s so special about Palm webOS for you.
• Is your child a “Little Techie”? The folks behind the WHERE app and Working Mother magazine want to see photos of your gadget-crazed wunderkind in action. Prizes include Palm phones and gift cards you can spend on Palm webOS apps (for your little techie, of course).

Jon Zilber

Comments

[Dustin]

pleasseee lower the no contract prices. K, thanks bye :) i love you palm.

[Jthomp]

Awesome! Definitely getting a Pre Plus or Pixi Plus for my fiancé soon!

[Roger]

When will us Sprint customers get something like this free hotspot? Maybe I should switch when my contract is up!

[Vanderhooligan]

Great prices but how about Sprint?

[Sam Kamens]

So how about mobile hotspot functionality on Sprint? After all, we Sprint users were the first to jump on the WebOS bandwagon...

[Paul]

What about BELL in Canada?

[Christopher Kay]

if i go to the palm app catalog i should be able to find this seeing how its a "palm" app catalog and not a cell phone company's catalog, right so how come all these different pres have different apps if it's a palm pre catalog then it would only make since to have that is all im saying so to anyone that has a palm whatever should be able to have the free hotspot app or is this coming out in the next webos update that no one knows about, not even me. i'm just saying cuz we all did the camcorder update and now we r waiting on the flash update and thats gonna be lets see probally till this christmas until that comes out man y'all work slow as fuck. At my work we gotta be fast and get the job done with by the end of the week and it takes all of you to do this in a year. man o man but i understand tho but im saying also is HELP! asap hurry ahhhh im on fire someone please hose me down before i die HELLO? anyone there?

so... if u have a palm phone you should be able to get whatever palm apps are there and they should all be free and there should also be many more than there is as well. i got the first palm pre the one with the actual button on it and that slides.

if i could suggest some app ideas, it would be a universal remote control app, a free phone number tracker app, a free tv app, a police radio app, and if you were to put the free hotspot app on it then make it to where u can use the app as well use the phone to do whatever(text call make a video take a picture,etc).

[Christopher Kay]

sorry i just realized that theres an update now for my palm so maybe you dont have to do that but i dont see my post that i just put up maybe its not up yet idk or i said something i wasnt suppose to and the comp took it off idk but ya bye

[Nathan]

Awesome. The $40 (per MONTH!) to tether was one of the big factors keeping me away from the Verizon Pre. Now it's going to be hard make excuses for not switching. Though I think I'll be able to resist for a little while as I'm still holding out for the Pre on T-Mobile.

[Todd Vandenbroecke]

ok, here's my verdict Palm. If you value your customer and opions, then you should read closely. This is not in anyway a rant, merely stating some key flaws in the phone and operating system.

I am a certified A+ IT Techinician with over 15 years experience with Microsoft server/client and Linux server/client experience.

First off, I'd like to say that the phone is really a wonder, I like is very much and I seen much potental for this awesome little device. The PalmPre model, which I've had for 2 months now has been for the most part a delite to use.

However there are quite a few anonyances with this phone, that I have to point out. Most people unlike myself, will not put up with these anonyances and move to the competition, and your company can probably see in the user comments.

The arguably the most anonyance for me is the speed of this phone, with long boot up times and the lack of resouces make this phone a pain to use sometimes. The OS seems to have a fair amount of bugs in it, and sometimes can lock up the phone entirely with no way to restore it, except removing the battery.

Which leads me to my second point, the battery. What's really anonying about this phone, once you remove the battery you have to plug the phone in without the battery and then once the phone complains there is no battery you plug the battery back in. Imagine my surprize the first time that happened to me and I just so happened to now have a charger with me.

I won't go into details, but other anonyances include the keyboard, lack of zoom functions (even just digital), and the lack of useful software, like the competitors. I have even considered switching to an iPhone, just for the voice command system.

I like my palm, but its very hard to believe this webos is built on a linux os. I not trying to knock it, but the very thing palm needs to work on is the overall speed of the phone, resources, and the battery, are the major issues. The application side needs more useful apps to compare to competitors. The linux world knows there os and I'm sure they would agree. I think palm should look to developers and work with them to come up with a truly superior linux product worthly of what the people expect their phones to do in this modern world of information technology.

I can sympathize for the fellow Bell customer as I am canadian also. It is very puzzling and frustrating that many of the apps I wanted on my phone are not availabe, just because I am from canada.

That is my view, I promiss I won't switch to iPhone just yet, but...

Todd VanDenBroecke
Certified A+ IT Technician
British Columbia, Canada

[Pax]

Hi All!

Maybe someone can answer this question for me? Can the Palm Pre be used as a standalone PDA (sans contract) - like the good 'ole days?

I've been looking for a powerful handheld computer/pda. Can the Palm Pre be used without contract for the following:

Reading free eBooks (html, pdb, txt, prc)
Ability to run apps (including older Palm Apps - PalmOS)
mp3 player (transfer to/from desktop)
Video Player (transfer to/from desktop)
Connect via Wi-Fi
Shot, save and transfer photos
Simulate phone features via Wi-FI using a third party app like Skype?

I already like that this device has a replaceable battery. A lot of the older Palm units are pretty useless because of this issue (except those that ran on AA or AAA batteries).

The videos I've seen re: Palm Pre seemed so tied into Social Networking and always-on data-sharing (via a cell phone contract) that it seemed pretty weak in other areas.

I really don't need or want a cell phone (happy with the simple low-cost throwaway phone I already own).

Thanks for any insight or links into this and pardon my ignorance related to these units.

Thanks!

[pcohen]

Why doesn't palm market the phones heavily in India, Middle East, China.

They have a billion customers, who pay $300-350 on substandard phones.

WebOS will pick up like crazy.

Also we need a webos tablet with a physical keyboard accessory.

Market WebOs like crazy in all sort of form factors, we need more people to see the beauty of it.

[Matt]

Hey,

I moved to the pre plus because of this and all I can say is.

Way to go palm!!!

This device is awesome. Keep up the good work!

Thanks,

Matt

[Hung]

Did i miss something - tried to use the hotspot wifi, set it up fine, but on the first web visit i land on a verizon page stating the monthly access fee is 40? Exact phrase: $40 When added to $29.99 or greater data plan or feature.

[Steven]

Hung,

You have to login to My Verizon and add the 3g Hotspot feature to your phone. It is listed at $0.00 so it is free, you just need to add it.