Looks like Verizon is carrying the bit of the flattire upon a Palm Pre Plus: it’s fallen to only $30 on a two-year stipulate. That’s a same cost as Big Red’s Pixi Plus as well as a flattering substantial discount over Sprint as well as AT&T, both of that will assign you $149 — as well as male, AT&T hasn’t even proposed offered a thing nonetheless, so someone’s starting to look awful stupid on launch day. No word on either this cut-rate pricing will final or either a Pixi Plus will fall to giveaway, though if you’re seeking for the cheap way to get in on the future of HP, well, now’s your possibility.

So it looks similarto Barron’s as well as The Wall Street Journal have talked to sufficient store office as well as Sprint reps currently to endorse which Radio Shack is really dropping a strange Palm Pre as well as Pixi from the in-store lineup. For what it’s value, Sprint says which “this is in line with Radio Shack’s normal product formulation routine — there is the directed towards volume of space in stores for handsets as well as they work to keep a line up of inclination as stream as probable,” as well as you essentially lendtowards to hold which story given a phones (the Pre in sold have been removing extremely prolonged in a tooth as well as you wouldn’t censure a tradesman for perplexing to cycle in alittle uninformed things. The bigger subject is either a pierce indicates which Palm has alittle prohibited brandnew rigging for Sprint around a dilemma; if not, this gives Palm asingle reduction entrance for sales during the time when it needs all a assistance it can get, generally given we won’t find these guys hawking Verizon’s versions.

[Thanks, Brent]

Looks like Palm’s first Pixi update has an air of exclusivity to it. WebOS 1.3.2 is being released to the somewhat washed, non-slider masses, while Pre owners are so far left toying with 1.3.1. Not a huge loss, it seems, as no one is yet certain what this update does. Still, if you got a P ixi, look for the over-the-air warni ng lights to go on.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole “cloud” agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should ha ve been. Toda y, both Palm and Sprint have issue d a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote:
“We are seeing a small n umber of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device.” Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we’re pretty certain we’re being forced to stay on the manual bac kup bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

[Thanks, Mike]

Several Palm Pre customers have reported major problems with their handset’s online backup system, resulting in the loss of phone numbers, calendar events, memos and other data.

The issue stems from corrupted backups, according to Pre enthusiast blog PreCentral. The Pre backs up its data as a “Palm Profile” online, and it only stores the most recent backup. That means if the most recent backup becomes corrupt, Pre owners could not rev ert to an earlier, non-corrupt profile.

“We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Pal m Profile information to anoth er Palm webOS device,” a Palm spokesman said in a statement. “Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device.”

Though Palm says on ly a small number of customers were affected, the PreCentral blog said it had recei ved several tips throughout the day suggesting this was a widespread i ssue. Recently, T-Mobile Sidekick owners faced a similar problem. Microsoft, T-Mobile and Danger hosted the data of all of T-Mobile’s Sidekick users in the cloud, and recently the server crashed, losing everything. These incidents are rare, but they underscore the risk of trusting a third party to secure your data over the web.

Via DaringFireball

See Also:

6 Reasons Why the Palm Pre Is SpecialPalm PreApple Blocks Palm Pre iTunes Syncing Agai nNothing Unusual in Palm Pre Return Rates, Say Analysts

If you like your softw are homebrewed with just a hint of alpha then boy do we have an app for you. The WebOS homebrew community just released Precorder; an app that lets your Palm Pre record audio and 30fps 480×320 pixel video in H.264/AVC format — you can can even control the built-in LED for recording in low-light situations. Unfortunately, there’s no video preview pre sented while recording but hey, it’s alpha software bro… and it’s free. Check a video sample after the break.

Although we like to think of the US and European markets as the center of the cellphone universe, there are big (Big!) sales to be had elsewhere behind the unstoppable force of globalization. And when it comes to absolute numbers, markets just don ‘t get any bigger than Ch ina with its estimated 700 million subscribers. Rumors of BlackBerry and Palm twist-ups with Chinese carriers are nothing new. In fact, RIM has already been a player in the Chinese market for years. Today, however, we’ve got a rumored timeline for bringing their handsets to China Telecom: end of 2009 or early 2010, according to a Reuters source. The move would give Telecom its first trendy western mobiles in hopes of improving its thir d place position behind Unicom and market dominating China Mobile in a battle for the hearts and minds and treasure of China’s burgeoning populatio n. And while RIM would certainly be pleased by the additional revenue source, Palm, with its modest marketshare by comparison, would be downright ecstatic at the prospect of tapping into Chin a with its new smartphones.

The Palm Pre is out of sync with Apple’s iTunes software yet again.

Apple’s latest version of iTunes (9.0.2) that rolled out Thursday evening breaks the Palm Pre’s ability to sync with iTunes software. The development should be no surprise to Palm Pre owners using iTunes, as it is the third time this year that Apple has disabled the Pre from syncing its multimedia with iTunes.

“Unfortunately, Palm has brought down the ire of Apple because of the way they have decided to make it very easy to sync the Pre to iTunes,” says Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless at analyst firm The 451 Group. “A better, if more difficult, way to go about the whole thing would be for Palm to build its own sync software though they may not have the time or assets to do it.”

Of course, the simplest solution for Palm Pre owners is to not download the iTunes software update and stick with the older version with functional syncing. Still, the implication of Apple’s move is this could create a bigger headache for Palm Pre customers later down the road — when Apple adds new features to future versions of iTunes and presumably continues “crippling” the Pre.

When Palm first introduced the Pre earlier this year, a key feature was the device’s ability to easily sync music with iTunes through the USB port. The feature was a clever trick on Palm’s part. Palm masked the Pre’s identity to iTunes.

“What Palm did was identify the Pre as a recognizable device for iTunes so iTunes treats it like an iPod, which also meant Palm didn’t have to write a separate application to do this,” Hazelton said.

It didn’t take long for Apple to take action against Palm. Barely a month after the Pre’s launch in June, Apple disabled the Pre’s sync feature through an iTunes update. Palm responded by offering a patch for its webOS operating system that would fix the problem. But another iTunes update in September broke Pre compatibility again.

Meanwhile, Apple complained to the USB Implementers Forum, an industry standards group about the Pre’s deception. The forum ruled largely against Palm and asked it to “clarify its intent.” It wasn’t enough to dissuade Palm.

Now with the release of yet another iTunes update, Palm is back to square one. Patching the sync feature again is one of Palm’s choices — one that the company can keep doing. But it also risks losing the confidence of consumers.

Pre user Jake Lazaroff says the Pre’s problems with iTunes sync has turned him away from using the feature completely on his phone. Instead, Lazaroff has opted to use doubleTwist media sync software for his music.

“Palm thinks this is a cat-and-mouse game they are playing with Apple but it is really Pre users who are affected,” he says. “I don’t use sync so [I] am not angry with Palm but I can see how someone might be a little frustrated with them.”

Finding a fix to the issue is easy. Palm could make its own media sync software, much like its competitors, Research In Motion and Nokia. Last year, RIM introduced BlackBerry Media Sync, software that allows iTunes users to sync their DRM-free music files with their BlackBerry media players. The software greatly simplifies how BlackBerry users interact with iTunes.

Palm needs to reassess its strategy and devote resources to creating a similar app for the Pre, Hazelton said. Or the company could partner, or acquire, DoubleTwist or other media sync software players, he suggests.

“There are alternatives and it’s time now for Palm to start exploring some of them,” Hazelton said.

Lazaroff says he doesn’t blame Apple for the problem with Palm Pre’s sync feature.

“No one is forcing Palm to use iTunes,” he says. “Apple has no obligation to make sure the Pre syncs to iTunes at all times.”

See Also:

6 Reasons Why the Palm Pre Is SpecialPalm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the PrePalm Eos: The Successor to Palm Pre?Nothing Unusual in Palm Pre Return Rates, Say AnalystsPalm Pre

Photo: toddmundt/Flickr