Looks like this coming week could be a big one for the Palm Pre users out there… Especially the Pre users fed up with the limited number of apps currently available in the App Catalog.
My bud Phil over at PreThinking has reported that multiple developers that have been accepted in the SDK Early Access program can now submit apps to Palm (NSDQ: PALM) for consideration in the Beta App Catalog… as of yesterday!
The official note from Palm:
We are pleased to announce a limited expansion of access to the Beta Application Catalog for our SDK early access partners. Starting today, you can submit your application for consideration to be included in the Catalog.
Hopefully the review process is a speedy one, and we start to see more and more apps pop into the App Catalog this coming week! Should be interesting to see what happens. Would be nice if the SDK opened up to the public sometime in the near future as well… Palm needs to put the pedal down to foster app development!
One more tidbit of Canadian mobile news before I take a breather over here. Best Buy Mobile has confirmed that the TELUS (NYSE: TU) HTC Snap and HTC Touch Pro2 are ‘coming soon’. Rumored pricing to purchase the HTC Snap outright is sitting at $449.99, while the Touch Pro2 is coming in at $549.99.
No launch details for the Snap or Touch Pro2 were revealed, but in the flyer above, all details within are ‘good until July 30th’. So, chances are we’ll see all 3 of these devices before then. In fact, the TELUS BlackBerry Tour is scheduled to drop on July 15th (starting at $249.99 on a 3-year contract), so we could very well see all three devices launched on that date. That said, I’d lean more towards a solo Tour launch on the 15th, with the Snap and Touch Pro2 coming sometime between the 16th and the 31st. We’ll see!
Here’s the latest rumor from the land of Canadian mobile. Word has it that Samsung lovers in the Great White North are in for a treat. Samsung is set to release the ‘Link’ via Bell on July 15th. Not much else is known at this point (no pricing or device specs), but as you can see from the amazing image above (can you feel the sarcasm?), the Link will at the very least feature a full QWERTY keyboard. No slider here.
Stay tuned for more on the Samsung Link… I’m very interested to learn more about this one!
Facebook for iPhone is awesome. Anyone that has used it usually raves about it, as It makes interacting with the site ultra-easy (and fun)… and I have to admit, I pop it open once a day just to see what’s going on. Awesomely, (Is that a word!?) Facebook has announced that the new Facebook for iPhone 3.0 is nearing completion, and we should see it available for download in the near future. Look for enhancements such as a new homescreen, new notes and events pages, plus an updated news feed. Also, and probably much more noteworthy, Facebook for iPhone 3.0 could very well let you create photo albums, upload photos, zoom photos, tag photos, and a lot more. Stay tuned for more on this. It’s coming soon… I can feel it.
We’ve already heard Archos is moving forward to introduce the Android-powered device. Now we have a new tidbit of information to add to the pile.
According to RegisterHardware, the company’s Managing Director of Northern Europe operations — Tony Limrick — has confirmed such device will be unveiled this September. As a matter of fact, he said it’s September 15th when we’ll hear some hot news from Archos.
Limrick described the upcoming Tablet as “Android-based devices with phone, email, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) apps and Android Apps.”
Earlier we’ve heard the specs and are hoping they’ll stay intact: 5-inch screen, HSPA connectivity, 500MB of storage, 10mm thick, HD movie playback capability and 800MHz TI OMAP 3440 CPU. The price is unknown at this stage, but judging by the specs, I doubt we’re talking about a cheap device.
Ad agency T.A.G (a unit of McCann) has apparently been chosen to work with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on what they openly referred to as the Pink project. It does exist! The rumours of Pink have floated around like vapourware for a long time now, but this certainly helps to cement its reality. The last we heard about Microsoft’s Pink was a list of preliminary specifications of the device, but it was still unclear if that encompassed the whole scope of the project. How it incorporates the Zune brand, if at all, and Windows Mobile 6.5 (or even 7) remains something of a mystery, but it would be no surprise to see all of these things come together somehow with Pink.
When it comes to super-slim and sexy smartphones with enough computing power to take over the world, the Toshiba TG01 takes the cake. Thanks to a power-packed Snapdragon chipset, the TG01 speeds along at 1Ghz clock speeds while playing with a hefty 256MB of RAM and a 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen display. The kicker - the TG01 stuffs WiFi, GPS, 3.2-megapixel camera and 3G data connectivity into a package barely 10mm thick! And, it’s coming to the UK next week.
We’ve been keeping an eye on the Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01 ever since we had a chance to put hands on the super-thin smartphone in Barcelona. Despite having pulled the plug on Japanese production, Toshiba looks to be going strong with their TG01 roll-out. Check out our in-depth Toshiba TG01 hands-on here.
While those of use in The States will have to wait for the Toshiba TG01 to get all official, it looks like the UK will be the next market to get the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone. Come July 9th, Toshiba will be showing off something really cool in London. Given Toshiba’s Summer launch window for the TG01, it’s highly likely we’ll see Toshiba unleashing the Toshiba TG01 on British soil next week.
The Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre’s biggest downfall is the network technology that it uses - the US-only CDMA standard. That fact alone limits the Palm Pre to the US. American GSM users and just about everyone else on Planet Earth will have to wait for Palm to launch the GSM variant that we spied in Barcelona.
The good news is that the GSM Pre may not be too far off. A newly leaked set of pics shows the Palm Pre clearly rocking a SIM card under the battery cover. The removable SIM bodes well for a near-term release of the GSM Palm Pre. Sooner is better than later.
The iPhone helped popularize the smartphone. The iPhone’s user-focused UI and more natural capacitance-based touchscreen has changed the mass-market’s expectation of what a smartphone should be. It’s just too bad Windows Mobile has yet to catch on - it’s still fully backing resistive touchscreens (you might know them as “squishy” touchscreens). Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has been making excuses for not overtly supporting capacitive touchscreens by spouting higher hardware costs and lesser hand-writing recognition accuracy. Given Windows Mobile’s ancient UI and fairly disappointing user experience, a squishy touchscreen is the least of Redmond’s problems.
That doesn’t mean a capacitance touchscreen wouldn’t go a long way to making Windows Mobile work and feel more like a modern day touchscreen smartphone. In fact, Microsoft seems to be aware of “some device manufacturers” that are “considering options to ship capacitive screens” on their Windows Mobile smartphone.
A recently-posted developer article first makes a case for using capacitive touchscreens:
Capacitive technology has several advantages: zero pressure is required to make an input because nothing needs to be deformed and this leads to a much more natural interface experience; although additional material is laid onto the screen, there is no air gap so optical clarity is much improved reducing the need for backlighting making power draw lower; multiple touch points can be supported; things like touch size and pressure can be extrapolated from the capacitive data.
Microsoft then makes excuses for Windows Mobile smarpthones using resistive touchscreens:
However they do suffer in other areas: in general the cost is currently higher than the equivalent resistive screen; supporting a stylus is hard because it must be made of conducting material and must make sufficient contact to change the capacitive property of the screen; in several areas the accuracy tends to be lower than resistive e.g. around the edges of the screen, combined with the lack of a stylus and lower sample rates makes things like handwriting input very hard.
But, there’s hope yet. The article clearly states that a Windows Mobile 6.5-powered handset featuring a capacitance-based touchscreen is at least an option that’s being considered by hardware manufacturers:
Windows Mobile 6.5 has primarily been designed for resistive screens because some input areas still rely on small controls and require a high level of input accuracy that can’t be easily achieved with a finger and require a stylus; however some device manufacturers are considering options to ship capacitive screens.
HTC showed the world that Windows Mobile smartphones don’t have to suffer from small-buttons-and-awkward-UI Syndrome. HTC’s TouchFLO 3D II UI not only replaces the traditional WinMo homescreen, it also replaces many of the awkward UI elements that makes resistive touchscreens necessary. With enough customization to the WM6.5 UI, it’s possible that HTC will roll out Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones equipped with capacitive touchscreens running HTC TouchFLO 3D II!
The HTC Snap has already proven itself a top choice for cost-conscious smartphone fans looking for a Windows Mobile smartphone with a good QWERTY keyboard. But, with Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard running the show, the HTC Snap is going to feel a little dated when Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) launches Windows Mobile 6.5 later this year. Unless, that is, HTC decides to bless the Snap with a Windows Mobile 6.5 update - as hinted at by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).
For those of you that don’t yet know, the Bluetooth SIG is a Bluetooth certification body that, well, certifies, uh, Bluetooth. Anyway, the Bluetooth SIG website can be a goldmine for leaked tid-bits on upcoming mobile phones. The latest leak makes reference to the HTC Cedar (HTC Snap’s codename) running “WM6.5.” It’s not clear if HTC intends to release a WM6.5 update for both HTC Snap/Cedar variants, or if the update will only be available for the recently spotted HTC Cedar100. Still, the mention of an OS upgrade for the Snap is intriguing.
With a little luck, HTC Snap owners might be treated to a Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade in the near future.
Looks like this coming week could be a big one for the Palm Pre users out there… Especially the Pre users fed up with the limited number of apps currently available in the App Catalog.
Ad agency T.A.G (a unit of McCann) has apparently been chosen to work with Microsoft (
When it comes to super-slim and sexy smartphones with enough computing power to take over the world, 
