German carrier O2 just revealed the price tags of their latest Palm gadgets: the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. Distribution will start April 28th, 2010.
Both devices come straight unlocked from the factory to your hands and can thus be used on any GMS/3G network anywhere on this planet. Buying phones at german O2 stores don’t require O2 subscriptions.
Telefonica (O2/MoviStar) has approved Palm’s latest update. We expect they found some bugs that are on the american 1.3.5.1. The update will be installed automatically over the air. The 15 MB update brings Tethering via Bluetooth and 3D graphics acceleration to European Palm Pre’s, thus allowing us eventually to play Doom, Quake and Need For Speed.
The update features:
We are still waiting for a full changelog from Palm for this update.
Warning
Before updating: don’t forget to use the “Emergency Patch Recovery” (EPR) tool, if you installed patches via PreWare. The EPR tool can be found in PreWare under Available Packages -> Linux Applications -> All -> Emergency Patch Recovery
According to a posting to the german Nexave forums the european Palm Pre 1.3.1 update (for GSM phones) will be released on monday November 23, 2009. The update does not seem to include activation of the GPU.
We recommend to remove custom installed homebrew patches.
Features:
- Synergy: – Calendar and Contacts synchronization with Yahoo!
- LinkedIn contacts synchronization
- Synchronizes Google Contacts “My Contacts” (not all)
- Manual edit of Internet settings (APN, user name, password, etc.)
- Option to disable all data connections
- Bluetooth support to send / receive vCards
- Backup and restore:
- No backup of passwords for increased security
- Disabling of backup service works
- Backup Browser Favorites
- iTunes support from version 9.x
- Available space is immediately updated and displayed when in USB mass storage mode data is added or removed
- Manual e-mail retrieval works
- SMS / MMS forwarding, and marking of all communications
- Highlight / copy of selected areas of SMS and IM messages
- Browser: File download in browser
- Highlight / copy of text in the browser
- Support for Self-Signed Certificates
- System volume was optimized
- Optimization of the audible during an incoming call when another call is active
- AppCatalog: Recommendation for Apps can be forwared via email or SMS
- Facebook Application
- Country-Specific Application Offers
- Initial Registration: password input is now a part of the recovery (because passwords will no longer be backed up) and now entering a security question and answer in the account creation is mandatory. SIM card PIN is requested during the registration process.
via Nexave.de Forums…
Pixel y Dixel made a video from their Palm Pre unboxing session. Attention this video is in spanish. There are no subtitles available at this moment…
A video appeared showing that SIM locked Palm Pre’s from the UK seems to have been unlocked using a proxy SIM solution called RebelSIM. There is no further detailed information about if this is a safe unlock like with the proxy SIMs for the first gen iPhones or i RebelSIM cards use IMSI fake IDs.
In general we suppose to be cautious with proxy SIM solutions. Why? Basically it’s the same with the proxy SIM cards for iPhones (read here).
A software unlock – meaning a binary code modification of the baseband – is almost always the better solution from a technical point of view, but it on the way to being able to patch the baseband many other issues can occur.
So for people who are desperate for a Palm Pre: get yourself the german factory unlocked version and learn to live with a QWERTZ keyboard. It much less hassle imho.
As of now the only factory unlocked Palm Pre’s are being sold here in Germany. German Palm Pre’s are of course being sold with a germany QWERTZ keyboard. Anyway some international customers prefer the international QWERTY keyboard.
Now rumors in spanish forums have surfaced that the spanish GSM based Palm Pre sold by and locked to the MoviStar carrier have been unlocked. As of now we have no confirmation, if that is true or a hoax.
October 13th will be the day many people have been waiting for. The official iPhone competitor by Palm will be released in Germany. The Pre will be exclusively available from O2 Germany.
According to their latest information the Palm Pre will also be available without subscription for about 480€ (=700US$). There is currently no information about upcoming special Palm Pre O2 tariffs.
In Great Britain and Ireland the Pre will be released on october 16th.
In contrast to T-Mobile’s german iPhone tariffs, O2 Germany is gonna allow VoIP applications like Sipgate or Skype (via german Heise.de News).