Keyboard-less webOS phone gets our hopes up

There are no shortage of black slab phones on the market. From the iPhone to Android to Windows Phone. Even RIM has the Storm. When Palm first announced the Pre, they said to expect a family of webOS devices. The family has been limited to the Pre and Pixi, both featuring physical keyboards. For the most part, the market appears to show a preference to slab devices. HTC EVO, Nexus One, iPhone and so on. Prior to HP’s big product unveiling, we outlined our hopes for Palm’s new hero phone. The Pre 3 looks to be a very attractive phone, but it’s not a major departure from the current form factor. If your target market are folks interested in vertical sliders, then it’s a grand slam due to the limited number of devices that share this design (Torch, ?). A tipster has sent PreCentral a photo of what appears to be an HP webOS phone in a slab format. Could it be? Is HP finally realizing that a large portion of users are demanding larger displays, without a cumbersome physical keyboard?

webOS slab phone

Not much is known about this mysterious new device, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled. This could be a start of the webOS family of products promised back in 2009.

Source: PreCentral

Palm developing new webOS Device for release this year

Palm is expected to launch webOS devices on AT&T in the next few months. These phones will likely be variants of the existing models, likely the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Now comes word via the Wall St. Journal (subscription required) that “those familiar with Palm’s situation” say that Palm is developing a brand new phone for later this year. This news shouldn’t come as a big surprise, but it’s the first somewhat official confirmation we’ve seen regarding a new webOS device. Given the events of the last 24 hours, this certainly comes as encouraging news.

Now that we sort-of know that a new webOS device awaits. What does the next generation Palm webOS device need to boost sales and remain competitive against Android, iPhone and the coming Windows Series 7 Phones. Let us know in the comments.

via WSJ

Rumor: O2 Palm Pre Release Date Set for October 30th

According to an O2 employee, the Palm Pre will release in the UK on October 30th. Our tipster says that management informed staff of the date today. Tariffs will be the same as the iPhone. The next official release date we have is August 27th, when the Palm Pre will release on Bell in Canada. Of course, the O2 Palm Pre will be the first Palm Pre of the GSM variety. It will also mark the first head to head competition for the minds and hearts of consumers who will have a choice between the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre, both on the same carrier.

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Thanks anonymous!