A new day

Today, Palm becomes part of the largest technology company in the world, HP.

It’s our first day together, but it’s already abundantly clear to everyone who’s been involved in bringing the two companies together that great things are in store. The combination of Palm’s trailblazing webOS and HP’s strength as the leading provider of everything from PCs, laptops, and printers to home electronics and enterprise systems promises an amazing roadmap of new tools for your mobile and web-connected future.

We’ve got a few ideas about what that future will look like, and we’ll share details as soon as we can. A big part of that future will be shaped by you, the Palm community of customers, developers, and enthusiasts. We welcome your ideas and feedback -- even your constructive criticism. Just follow @palm on Twitter or drop in at www.facebook.com/palm for tips and tricks, shout-outs for favorite new apps, wishlists for future products -- and lots of amazing photos and videos from your Palm phones (like the stunning image above from @joshhearne).

And if you want to get the big picture from HP, be sure to follow @HP_PC, visit www.facebook.com/hphome, or check out The Next Bench. 

If you’re not already an active part of the Palm community, please join us on the journey to a new future! Because life moves fast, and you really, really don’t want to miss a thing.

Jon Zilber

Comments

[Mike Stoddart]

WebOS has so much potential; I'd love to see it on a tablet. Definitely improve the build quality of the Pre's successor. Improve performance by tweaking the kernel and compiler/linker options. For me the browser is the weakest part of the Pre; I see font rendering issues and I get lots of white pages where nothing is rendered. Google maps is almost a waste of time as it takes so long to load. And last but not least, improve the battery time; I usually have to recharge my battery every 2nd night, even with minimal messaging and internet use and zero calls. Otherwise I love my Pre. Oh and also, get your marketing team in gear the lack of news from Palm/HP is embarrassing compared to other companies.

[Scott Bradford]

Awesome. HP has inherited a small but dedicated following here. Hope they don't mess it up ;-).

WebOS is easily the best mobile operating system ever produced, and with some love (and investment) it'll only get better!

[wendy borcyk]

how about having sprint carry the pre & pixi plus? I have had my pre from the start & had a centro prior...i need a new pre and don't want the non-updated one. How is that fair? I love my pre- don't make me switch phones or carriers...reward me for being your customer! Please?

[James Lyon]

My coworkers and I are eagerly awaiting Flash Player 10.1 for our Palm Pre's.

I'm sure there are other fiscal priorities, but if we could get a new ETA, it would ease some of our stress.

[John]

Congratulations Palm and HP on the beginning of what's hopefully a tremendously successful merger. I've been a Palm user for a decade now and don't ever want to change that. I love my Pre and look forward to a worthy successor!

[BP]

#1: fix wifi (ruined since 1.4 webOS update) ASAP

#2: enable flash

#3: create office related tools, such as word, excell, ppt...

Thanks!

[Mac Strobl]

I've used Palm Pilots for years (currently using a T3) and I bought a Palm Pre Plus from Verizon on Sunday only to be disappointed. A smartphone today has to have a voice dialing capability via earphone for safety, and a Palm smartphone should also be able to sync with a Palm desktop propgram (even it it's a Mac version). Both of these missing features resulted in me returning the Pre Plus today to Verizon -- even though I really loved it's form factor. If Palm/HP correct these failings I'll gladly reconsider acquiring the Palm Pre Plus.

[cn]

Glad to hear that. I love hp pc & printer, but love palm PDA. Its super. Hope it will come to asia soon.

[rgloor]

Congratulation for the merger and all the best for a very successful future.

Especially after seeing the video where HP CTO Phil McKinney sits down with Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, all remaining concerns where gone.
This merger now looks even better than I could dare to dream.

Jon,
you mentioned that life moves fast, and we really, really don’t want to miss a thing:

That is right.

However, presently I am MISSING ACCESS to the paid Apps Catalog (since I am not in an official palm pre country).

I have used Palm devices as my primary PIM device since early Palm III times (around 1998).

Now, I could finally get hands on a Palm Pre Plus (through a distributor here in Switzerland). In general, I am very happy with the device.

However, there are some very important apps that I am missing (eg Password Wallet app with desktop companion) and which are only available through the official App Catalog.

PALM please open up the App Catalog for the whole world.
To me it does not make any sense to block certain regions at all.
Accept that your great devices are spreading further than you as Palm are organizing it yourself.
While with PalmOS, that was no problem. But now with webOS, you are controlling the official App Catalog. That power also brings along responsability. Also for customer outside your official markets.
Why would you
now block certain customers of your products from being happy.
This is very poor marketing.
Please treat ALL your customers and loyal enthusiast around the globe equally.

OPEN UP THE APP CATALOG. NO WALLS!

Thanks in advance.

Greetings from sunny Switzerland

[Francisco]

Hi everyone I am so exciting about this big company merge together PLALM and HP. I have been in the PALM family since 2005 and I love it. I wouldnt trade my Palm Pre for any phone out there and with SPRINT make the phone even better.... Please Palm make the next Generation of Palm better them the new Iphone 4..... and that you could talk and web at the same time... and one last thing if Palm put a front camera please make sure we dont need to have wifi to talk and see each other to talk I mean about video chat.... I love Palm for life....

[Rose]

Palm I love you and always will! Please remember with the next phone, you have always been about business. I really miss being able to have different sounds for for different things, work email, text messages, picture mail, caller id calls, unknown calls, etc. Please put this back on your phone. It'a a business persons dream. I don't have to look at my phone every second. If I work from home and get a work email, I'll know because the tone is different from text messages, etc. That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'll be back. I can't wait for the next phone to be announced, but in the meantime, I am loving my Pre.

[Pearl]

Gratz! Best wishes to dear ol' Palm. HP - plse bring webos to Asia !!! Plse!!!

[Rose]

I have owned every palm phone ever made. Palm I have the Pre now and I love it. I am so anxious for a new phone though. I feel the pre leaves me wanting a little more. I want the next phone to have a bigger screen and a darn toggle key (or whatever you call the pad that you can press to make a selection). It's hard going through hundreds of emails without the toggle key. I want the ability to use different tones, for different features on the phone. I want the next phone to be a business person's toy! You've never disappointed me before and I'm sure you won't disappoint with the new one. I just hope it's sooner rather than later. I am elegible for a new phone with Sprint, but I am trying my best to hold out for a new palm.

[Mario]

Wish U luck! I´ve had Palm products dating back to the old m105! HP however has not been my favorite brand for electronics,let´s see what you do!

[Nima]

I'm glad palm finally has the cash to do things right.. Please promise me no more creapy girl advertisements. It almost made me not want to get the phone after having gone months without a phone in order to get it. Look at sony's playstation, they went from creepy to funny, and imformative.

and please work with bell to offer afordable phnes to those loyal day one customers who went under a 3 year contract and paid 200 in order to buy the pre, and can't upgarde till 2012... I'm okay with renuying my contract, and paying 300, but 600 is to much...

[Sue]

Hi...you better come up with something quick. My Palm Treo Pro is getting older and I am looking at a Blackberry to replace it. I would rather stick to Palm so please, please hurry up!

[ipot]

Release new phones with 4 differrent form factors - slide-out keyboard horizontal (like some HTC phones) and vertical (like Pre), with fixed keyboard (like pixi) and without keyboard (like the iphone). With good hardware and awesomeness of webOS, these phones will be great. I hope something will be released soon enough. I've been with the original pre on Sprint and it is time for an upgrade.

[jim rowland]

when will flash be working it is now july

[Mark]

Will the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus come to Singapore?

[Non-techie Talk]

Please bring back stylus input. So many technical and high-detail/functionality applications require precision input.

I've been a Palm OS loyalist since my first IIIx back in 1999. I'm clutching on to my trusty Treo 680 hoping against hope you guys will deliver a Palm experience that bridges me forward to a prosumer experience instead of strong-arming me into a teenie-bopper social environment that speaks nothing to the type of user that made Palm OS the only choice for professionals back in the day.

While you're at it, a bigger screen has been shown not only possible but standard (remember, the root word of "spreadsheet" is "spread"). We don't need a cutesy phone in hot pink - we need a working platform with the convenience of convergence that seamlessly integrates data management and mobile communications in one slick form factor.

You made this segment. Retake the vanguard. We're waiting to welcome you back.

[Palm, Inc.]

Dear Non-techie Talk,

Given the option to use a stylus or a touch-based user interface, the vast majority of consumers opt for the latter. There's little demand for devices that use a stylus relative to the demand for devices employing touch-based (and preferably gesture-driven, multi-touch) user interfaces. Each of our contemporary competitors have also abandoned stylus-driven interfaces because more people want touch-driven user interfaces. Supply and demand.

That said, we're always researching, listening and paying close attention to feedback from readers like you. If a market opportunity for for alternative input methods emerges we'll certainly consider it.

Thanks for your feedback.

Justin Ried

[Jin]

Congratulations to both Palm and HP. I'm from Malaysia and have been waiting for the Pre to arrive on our shore since the day the Pre was launched. I'm still waiting. Please HP get the Pre to the Asia region as fast as you can before we Palm addicts switch to the ever more tempting Android platform. And please let us know when the Pre will be available to the Asia region. Thank you.

[Kurush]

Really hope that under HP- Palm regains its lost glory. I still love my old Palm that I have even in this day and age of the iphone.

[one.m.davis]

I can buy HP in my part of the world, (not sure if palm "exists"

how long til I can buy a HP pre

?

[Totally and Completely Depressed and missing my TX]

I totally and 100% support Non-techie Talk's complaints. Bring back a stylus. It and the TX's virtual screen were simple and wonderful to use. Not all of us have the ability to operate the newer touch screens with our fingers and as Non Techie said, not all applications are fingertip applications. The after market ones for IPhone and other smartphone don't work.

Please, HP, bring back the Palm TX or a variant of it that does not have a cell phone. It was a tablet far ahead of its time. I am hearing impaired and visually impaired and suffer from Raynauds. My fingers will never manipulate a Iphone - they don't get enough heat to make it work properly.

I can't read the keyboards on a pixi or pre and I can't type on the tiny keyboards. The pre and pixi are so small there is no way to get decent amplication in them (my type of hearing loss is not well treated with hearing aids so compatibility with hearing aids not much help.)

I loved the apps and ereader for the TX - despite the small size - its brightness and resolution was far superior than most ereaders today.

A five inch slate that not a cell phone that works like a Palm TX and can have data securely on it and not in a hackable cloud is what is needed. Data in cloud is impossible in my industry (legal and financial) and no matter what anyone says, a Apple Touch just does not cut for business applications.

I am not coming back to Palm until it makes something useful like the Palm TX...and yet another pink wannabe mini phone is not useful.

I find it odd that when Palm made handhelds, it had far more than two models at one time but now in the the new and improved post hand held era, it only has two phones. I think Palm made a big mistake by not pushing new technology out on its handhelds. Its earlier products handled many of the same tasks that ereaders, iphones, touches, ipads and slates do now but far more elegantly than the new tech.