Dieter and Mike discuss the Pre release date and price, plus all the latest rumors. Listen in!. Listen in!

Have a question for the PalmCast? Email us: podcast@precentral.net . You can call call in to 877-624-9162 x222 to leave us a voicemail too.

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Show notes after the break.

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News

• Official: Palm Pre Releases on June 6th, $199 after contract
• Palm Pre $549 retail
• June 6th… that’s two days before WWDC, right?
• Palm Pre Fact Sheets, User Guides Leak out
• No Palm Pre Amazon MP3 Downloads over 3G
• Add a reminder to your contacts, get reminded when in contact
• Palm Pre Gesture Guide Leaks Out
• Palm Pre Gmail and IMAP: Pushes with IMAP IDLE
• Today’s Nitty Gritty webOS Details: IM, Facebook, Contact Import, and Tasks
• Pre Applications Galore!
• Internal Sprint Pre Documents Leak Out Right Here
• Rocky Road For preDevCamp, But It Keeps on Trucking
• Palm Eos Coming 2nd Half of 2009?
• CEO Confirms: Pre Coming to AT&T
• Palm Profile Pic and Hands-On Video
• Pre Originally Sported Resistive Touch Screen?
• Analyst: Pre could launch with less than 150,000 units available

Thanks to Bruce and Matt for contacting us!

Credits

Thanks to the TreoCentral Store for sponsoring the Palmcast. You can email the Palmcast at podcast@treocentral.com or leave us a voicemail at 800-557-6819 x222.

Music comes from ccMixter.org, a great Creative Commons music site. Our specific music is the following:

• "Hot Sax on a platter (jazzalicious mix)" by shagrugge
• "Cell Path, Nerve Path" by adhesion
• "Valsa pra Ela" by trz
• "strings (Flak Beat pt. 2)" by B_Trasht
• "Independence Day" by MC Jack in the Box

It wasn’t just D7 with Pre action, it also popped up yesterday at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. The web developer get-together is all about web applications and standards, and of course has a heavy emphasis on Google (and their Android operating system). But if there’s anybody that leverages the latest web standards to their max, it’s Palm and webOS. Every application on the Palm Pre (with the notable exception of Palm OS emulator Classic) has been built using HTML 5, JavaScript, and CSS. SlashGear subsidiary MyPre.com was on hand at I/O to see Palm’s presentation on webOS and its standards.

For those not familiar with how all that works, HTML defines the layout of the application, JavaScript allows for fancy transitions, animations, and access to local storage, and CSS is used to style the page/app. Palm’s music app was briefly demoed, and while not anything we’ve seen before, the album art browsing was shown to be based on CSS transformations. Also shown off was the web browser - your history and local application data (like offline Gmail) are all stored using HTML 5.

Thanks to mahootzki for yet another tip, and check out the video after the break!

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And then there was the accelerometer API. We’ve known since January that the Pre was going to have an accelerometer at launch, and at the very least it would be used to rotate the web and pictures browsers, but Palm’s gone a step further (like Apple) and opened up the accelerometer API (application programming interface, i.e. the codes that programmers need to use the hardware) for third party programmers. The presentation touched on the various functions available via the API via some specialized DOM Level 2 JavaScript:

Shake: rapid up-down/side-to-side acceleration
Orientation: angle from vertical/horizontal (e.g. to orient the web browser)
Raw Acceleration: both individual axis acceleration (webOS can tell how fast the Pre is moving in any direction…) and individual pitch, roll, and yaw acceleration (…and how quickly the phone is turning to any orientation)

The big question (one of them) surrounding the Palm Pre is just how good is the browser? We know it’s based off the same open-source WebKit engine as the iPhone’s Safari browser, but the robustness of its features has been up in the air for, well, five months now. Thanks to Darth Pooh in our forums and his magical Pre access, we can note that the Pre’s browser is fairly robust, as it can handle both Google Docs (spreadsheet) and Reader, as seen above. They are the iPhone versions of the sites, but that’s not a bad thing by any measure.

Want to see the highlights of the interview with Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee?  Here you go — including the demo of iTunes sync!

Sadly, it’s doesn’t include any of the foot-in-mouth moments.

After some preliminaries about how Palm was foundering and needed to reboot, and some more preliminaries about what Rubinstein learned from Apple, we got to the demo at the D7 conference.

It started with a quick walkthrough of the Amazon MP3 Store and then jumped to the juicy part: iTunes syncing on a Mac or PC!  When you plug the Pre in, a notification pops up offering to let you:

• Media Sync
• USB Drive
• Just Charge

Kara Swisher of thw WSJ asks "Is Apple open to this?" Rubenstein is coy "I can’t see why they wouldn’t be." Ha!  We like it. From Rumor to Demo in less than a day.

[image and quotes via Gizmodo]

Update: If this sort of thing interests you (and we know every darn thing about the Pre does), we have the full press release on Palm Media Sync, Twitter integration, and the App Catalog beta after the break.

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Palm Unveils More webOS Details: Palm Media Sync, Twitter Integration, App Catalog

New Palm webOS Features Demonstrated at D: All Things Digital Conference

CARLSBAD, Calif., May 28, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Today at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) introduced attendees to the latest features of the Palm(R) webOS(TM) platform, including Palm media sync, the integration of Twitter in universal search, and a beta version of its App Catalog. Jon Rubinstein, Palm executive chairman, and Roger McNamee, Palm director and co-founder of Elevation Partners, debuted the new webOS features, which will be available on the new Palm Pre(TM) phone when it launches June 6 on Sprint’s mobile broadband network.(1)

Palm Media Sync

Palm media sync is a feature of webOS that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes, giving you a simple and easy way to transfer DRM-free music, photos and videos to your Palm Pre.(2) Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select "media sync" on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.

"We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it’s just one of the ways we think you’ll be amazed by webOS," said Rubinstein. "We’ve had an overwhelming response since we introduced Pre at CES, and with availability just days away, we can’t wait to let everyone see firsthand what the excitement is all about."

Pre also acts as a mass storage drive, letting you side-load your media content. Once connected to a computer using the USB cable, Pre will appear as a drive on the computer desktop. You can drag and drop music, photos or video files onto your Pre, or drag files from your Pre to the computer. And, just like a digital camera, Pre works directly with your computer’s default desktop photo software to seamlessly import photos captured with Pre’s built-in 3-megapixel camera.

In addition to listening to music transferred from your desktop, you can use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air. You can search by artist, song and genre, and preview and purchase music files. You can then download purchased tracks when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Twitter in Universal Search

Palm also announced that Twitter search is integrated into webOS universal search.(3) Universal search is about finding what you want quickly, whether it’s an on-device contact to call, a place you’re trying to get to, or a Wikipedia article for encyclopedic information. Just start typing and Pre will figure out if you’re looking for a contact, an application, or even let you search the web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and now Twitter. Universal search uses Twitter’s search service to sort through real-time current events and news, so universal search now covers every aspect of search on the web: general info, location, encyclopedia, and news.

Twitter’s ability to show what’s going on right now is a perfect fit for what universal search and Pre are all about. You don’t have to be a Twitter user to benefit from Twitter in universal search. It’s available for all users, even if they don’t have an account, so anyone can keep on top of real-time news and the latest trends.

App Catalog

Rubinstein and McNamee also gave conference attendees an advance look at the beta version of the App Catalog, which will be available on Pre at launch. The beta version will feature applications from developers such as AP News, Citysearch, Fandango, Pandora and uLocate.

"We’ve received excellent feedback from participants in the Mojo SDK early access program and look forward to the SDK’s public release. Developers are very enthusiastic about the platform’s ease of use and industry-standard development model," said Rubinstein. "We’re excited to launch Pre with the beta version of the catalog, which will give a taste of how the overall webOS ecosystem will work."

The App Catalog was demonstrated at the conference using Fandango’s webOS application, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy(TM), a key feature of webOS. It also uses Pre’s location-based services to find theaters near you, and lets you watch trailers, buy tickets, add showtimes to your calendar and get directions to the theatre.(1) Also included in the beta App Catalog will be Pandora, which makes use of the platform’s multitasking capabilities, running elegantly in the background while you’re using other applications. It highlights a unique aspect of the notification bar that lets you know what song is currently playing, and control pause and play without having to go back into the application.

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre and www.palm.com.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage their lives on the go. The company’s products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm(R) Treo(TM), Pre(TM) and Centro(TM) phones, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm online stores (http://www.palm.com/store).

More information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com.

(1) Use of this device requires providing a valid email address, mobile phone number, and related information for account setup and activation. Unlimited usage data plan strongly recommended; additional data charges may apply. Within wireless coverage area only. Number of applications and actual performance will vary depending on applications used and actions performed.

(2) Compatible with iTunes 8.1.1 on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X version 10.3.9-10.5.7

(3) Searches web and user’s applications, contacts, and dialing information. Web search within wireless coverage area only, requires data services at additional cost.

Palm, Treo, Pre, webOS, Synergy and Centro are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

SOURCE: Palm, Inc.

That’s the question that Jason Perlow asked in his Tech Broiler post ("The Ultimate Tablet: On Palm’s webOS?") at ZDnet.com.  Perlow muses about the tablet form-factor and the possibilities from Palm’s webOS…

"Palm’s webOS has all the DNA to be the ideal embedded OS for a mass market mid-sized touchscreen tablet device that would serve the functions of browser, PDA, media player and e-book reader. Its Mojo development platform is reputed to be very easy to create software for. And unlike Google, Palm has the most experience of developing and shipping successful handheld devices and software than any other company in existence, Apple included."

All of which is very nice, but at D7 Jon Rubinstein just quashed those rumors — at least for awhile. When asked about tablets, he replied "We’re very focused on smartphones.  [...] Our focus right now is smartphones."  In other words, the tablet Foleo II is a little ways off.  Bummer.

Thanks to Spidermonkey The Pre Tablet (NetPilot Tablet) Design Concept!
 

They’re demo’ing the Palm Pre at D7 as I type this and they’ve just shown off the App Catalog - Engadget provides the pic.  It looks quite a bit like Google’s Android Marketplace to us — nicer, actually, but we’re not feeling that its up to the iPhone’s app store quite yet.

Over the Air Download and install and update notifications are in full effect.  They also showed off Fandango again — complete with nice automatic calendar updating for your movie times.

Here we go, Jon Rubinstein and Roger McNamee take the stage at the All Things D conference.  We’re watching a few of the live blogs and twitters and our own forum thread and whatnot, we’ll be back with the big announcement as soon as we hear it.

Evidently Best Buy does plan to advertise the Palm Pre, contrary to their earlier lack of advertising. Earlier, it was easy to attribute the lack of advertising to some supply issues, which would make sense, but putting this large of an advertisement in Best Buy’s June Buyer’s Guide does show some level of commitment.  Maybe Best Buy is getting more devices than earlier rumours indicated.  Either way, people wanting an off contract Pre would still do well to seek a local Sprint Store.  That being said, seeing an ad that large in a public printing is always a good sign, and hopefully it’ll get new people to consider the Pre.

via PalmPre.org, thanks Joshh347

Looks like you can put Verizon next to AT&T in the "We don’t want the Pre launch on Sprint to be too successful so we’re going to tell everybody we’re getting it on our network too" camp.  So says Verizon executive Lowell McAdam:

"Over the next six months or so you will see devices like Palm Pre and a second generation Storm," on the Verizon Wireless networks McAdam said.

Now technically "device like" doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting the Pre for sure, but we’re putting this in the likely camp.  We’re also very excited to see Palm make a triumphant return onto Verizon’s network.  Relations between the two have been fairly chilly of late.

We could also spend some reading in tot he "six months or so" bit as a sign that Sprint’s exclusivity is the industry-standard 6 months, but it’s a little too early in the game to assume that.

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!