Palm Announces New WebOS Phones, More Serious Software

As Palm’s keynote finishes, we can start to understand just what their main goal was: upgrade, upgrade upgrade.

Not only did they announce TWO new phones, but they’ll also be some other… adjustments.

First off, the Pre is getting a makeover. The 2nd generation of the Pre will be available on Verizon and will be sporting a new slider (that reportedly makes the phone feel more snappy and solidly constructed), a new set of keys that are not orange (and possibly a bit more raised), and a new capacity of 16GB capacity. The Pixi didn’t get such a dramatic makeover. It only added itself to Verizon’s lineup with WiFi.

Elsewhere in the Palm universe, they’ve also announced a PDK (plugin developers kit) that’ll show itself in March (and support REAL 3D gaming), so game developers can get their product onto the WebOS. Until then, users will be able to play Need for Speed and the Sims 3 thanks to EA. These games will act just like other apps, so when you see a text message, you’ll still be able to view apps as cards, and the game will only pause. These other games were also added to the catalog today:

• Need for Speed(TM) Undercover (EA Mobile)
• The Sims(TM) 3 (EA Mobile)
• MONOPOLY(TM) (EA Mobile)
• Asphalt 5: Elite Racing (Gameloft)
• Let’s Golf! (Gameloft)
• Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)
• X-Plane (Laminar Research)
• Tetris (R) (EA Mobile)
• Sudoku (EA Mobile)
• SCRABBLE (R) (EA Mobile)
• The Oregon Trail (Gameloft)
• Brain Challenge (Gameloft)

Palm also unveiled a “Mobile Hotspot” app, so that you can tether more than one computer to your phone for Verizon 3G connectivity. The app is subject to monthly charges (unless you have unlimited data).

Headlines Missed from Last Week

Bamboo Multi-Touch outed, only $69 somehow at BestBuy. It was unboxed and reviewed.

Android SDK 1.6 available now.

Nintendo DSi coming to America in pink and white colors.

Snow Leopard already more than double Leopard sales.

Music Industry wants royalties for the 30 sec preview in iTunes. They probably won’t get it, since the interweb community has lashed out against it.

Just What is Going on at Apple? Blu-ray? More Seniors?

The fourth beta of iPhone 3.0 was set free today, no shocker there. HOWEVER, iTunes 8.2 pre-release was also set free, and it seems like the new iTunes is hinting at Blu-Ray recognition. Take a look:

Now this is very odd indeed. Current Macs don’t support Blu-Ray, possibly with the exception of Blu-Ray drives set forth by other companies, most likely for the Mac Pros. Even worse is that Steve Jobs himself has said “Blu-Ray licensing is a mess, and it’s too much paperwork..”. So what exactly is going on? Many sources hint that iTunes will simply recognize the Blu-Ray discs, and nothing more. With WWDC around the corner, who knows what will happen.

Even more suspicious today is the fact that another chief technology officer from AMD has joined Apple, and that would be Raja Koduri. Apple is no doubt building up some serious hardware talent. All of this combined with the purchase of P.A. Semi in April 08′ could mean that the company may be developing it’s own chip for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but would this suffer just like the PowerPC did?

The Inquirer reports that Raja Koduri, currently Chief Technology Officer of the Graphics Product Group at AMD, will be joining Apple. The rumor comes on the heels of the discoveryjust two days ago that Bob Drebin, Koduri’s predecessor in the position at AMD, has already joined Apple.

Between PASemi, Bob Drebin and other things we can’t talk about yet, Apple is building up some serious hardware talent. All they need now is a good reliability person and a fire chief, and things will get really interesting on the hardware front in Cupertino.

iPhone 3.0 Features Found

More small yet polishing features have been found by developers in the latest seek of the SDK and iPhone 3.0. Below, Data Detectors (detects addresses, so on so forth) have been added to key apps, and the iPod App now features more options for Music & Video.

All found improvements can be found at World of Apple.