The Palm Pre 2 was announced in nothing more than just a press release pretty recently, and it looks like we have a pretty good idea for when it will launch with Verizon. Here’s a hint: the Kin One and Two won’t be arriving in Verizon stores all alone this holiday season. That’s right, the next iteration of the Palm Pre with webOS 2.0 – the one that will have Skype support – will be coming during the fourth quarter of this year.
Although it hasn’t been such a breath-taker, if you love your original Palm Pre enough to upgrade to the next one, albeit a very minor upgrade, you’ll be happy with the new version of webOS, the 1GHz processor and the very slightly sleeker hardware.
In case you missed it last time, here are just some of the features that will come with webOS 2.0 once it hits along with the release of the Palm Pre 2:
- True Multitasking – Pause a game, tap an email notification, check your calendar, read a restaurant review, send an email reply, then switch back to the game without closing anything.(1,2) webOS lets you easily manage multiple open applications and notifications using natural touch gestures. New in webOS 2.0, Stacks logically groups together your open apps so they work the way you do. Whether you’re reading email or planning a night on the town, Stacks keeps related items together so managing multiple tasks is even easier.
- Just Type – Start an email, create a message, update your status, search your favorite websites – all before you’ve even opened an app.(1) With webOS 2.0, whenever you want to do something on your phone – whether it’s emailing, texting, searching or almost anything – just type. And Just Type is open to developers, so they can integrate with the search function and add their own user-customizable shortcuts, called Quick Actions.
- HP Synergy – webOS was the first mobile OS to connect you seamlessly to multiple web services. With the Synergy feature, you just have to sign in to your Facebook, Google, Microsoft® Exchange, LinkedIn and Yahoo! accounts and your information automatically populates your phone.(3) webOS 2.0 will extend the support for Synergy so developers can easily plug new Messaging, Contacts and Calendar application sources directly into the core webOS experiences.(4)
- Exhibition – A new way to use your webOS phone, Exhibition lets you run apps designed specifically for the Palm Touchstone Charging Dock, turning charge time into useful time.(4,5) Set your phone on the dock and Exhibition launches automatically, showing you anything from today’s agenda to a slideshow of your Facebook photos. Exhibition will enable developers to display aspects of their existing app experience or create specialized apps for use when users have their webOS device in charge mode on the charging dock.
- Adobe® Flash Player 10.1 Beta – With version 2.0, webOS now supports a beta of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 in the browser, which provides access to rich, Flash-based web content.(6)
Although the hardware is just a minor step forward for the new Pre 2 from its predecessor, I am excited for it mostly because of the new software it brings.
[Via: PhoneDog]