AT&T webOS Devices Preview from CTIA
In what is the first hands-on with "new" Palm handhelds since the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus launched with Verizon two months ago, Engadget has posted pictures and impressions of their first encounter with the AT&T 's first WebOS devices direct from CTIA.
In a nutshell, very little has changed from the recently-launched Verizon versions. Engadget reports the performance of both version, including the usually sluggish Pixi , as being "relatively zippy". No word if this is due to the speed boost received from webOS 1.4 or a newer build on these GSM variants. In fact, Engadget does not even mention which build of WebOS was on their demo units. None of the images in Engadget's photo gallery showcase any of the new AT&T specific software found on these new devices, as we learned yesterday.
The physical center button found on the original Pre is still absent on the GSM Pre Plus and the new blue Touchstone cover for the Pixi was not in attendance for this photo session. There is an image of an interesting-looking dimpled Pixi back cover that does not match the smooth cover standard on its Sprint and Verizon predecessors. This looks like it might provide a more secure grip with sweaty hands or it could just be purely for cosmetics. Otherwise, there's very little to report cosmetically.
PreCentral.net has also posted their impressions from some hands-on with the AT&T WebOS phones. The blue Pixi back cover is pictured several times and looks rather snazzy, though the dimpled black Pixi cover seen in the Engadget coverage is nowhere to be found.
Most interestingly, they confirm that the devices' performance is "fairly snappy" and both demo units were not running webOS 1.4 but rather a new version code-named "Arak". No additional details are available but this could a codename for a preliminary version of WebOS 1.5. The images provided by PreCentral certainly show the same basic aesthetics as earlier versions of WebOS. In another moderately encouraging sign, Dieter also reports that some 3D games were pre-loaded on one of the demo Pixi Pluses. Since 3D gaming is normally a Pre-exclusive attribute, it could suggest that Palm is working to address the feature and performance deficiencies of the Pixi, eventually bringing it up to par with the Pre's gaming capabilities.
Additional details gleaned from the report include confirmation that AT&T Telenav turn-by-turn directions will cost $9.99/month, so the Palm faithful hoping from some Android-style free navigation will have to continue waiting. Another interesting tidbit is the YellowPages Mobile app supplied by AT&T. It is powered by Microsoft's Bing and reportedly works quite well, even featuring tight integration with the PIM components of webOS. This is indeed encouraging news for anyone concerned that Google may show increasingly less affection towards non-Android devices and users as the smartphone wars continue to unfold.
Permalink
PrintArticle Comments
(35 comments)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Hands-on with Sprint's HTC Evo 4G, the Ultimate Android Phone
http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-sprints-htc-evo-4g-the-ultimate-android-phone
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Con - are you getting one? can you imagine what 4G Speed + 8 Megapixel will do for your blogging?
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
ARE you getting one? This is THE phone of the year, bar none. Just put it on Verizon and give it a physical keyboard and I may finally be truly happy (even if I lose 4G in the process)!!
The HDMI outout is an awesome feature! And Sandisk is now shipping 32GB SDHC cards. Imagine this phone running a 64gb SDXC card. WOW!
P.S. I apologize for not getting your streaming test results done yesterday. I have been plagued by some phone problems and have been out of the loop for a while. I'll get those done for you
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
hkk - yes i am buying one as soon as it is available!!! what's not to like???
no worries on the stream tests.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Con - WTF with these antiquated formats? are these what your copious archives are in??? why not just convert them?
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
And there's a flaw in your Evo wet dream: Do you even live in an area with 4G coverage?! NYC does not have 4G.
4.3" screen yet the specs do not mention internal memory at all! FAIL!
http://www.sprint.com/evo
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
The handset is centered around a 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD, with a Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor under the hood (the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2 and Nexus One), and even a helpful 1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM -- hello app storage! Even the battery is bigger than the HD2, and the camera is an 8 megapixel monstrosity with flash, that's capable of 720p video, and is augmented by a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for good measure. The phone features HDMI out (though you'll need an adapter for turning it into a TV-familiar HDMI plug), 802.11b/g WiFi, and an 8GB microSD card. There's that still-rare Android 2.1 underneath an updated version of HTC's Sense UI. But... despite all these wild features, what actually sets the EVO 4G apart is the fact that it's Sprint's first 4G phone. The handset runs a combo of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX, with calls still being made over CDMA and the EV-DO / WiMAX options for data. Interestingly, it sounds like concurrent data and voice use might be possible for the first time on CDMA carrier in this way (killing AT&T's well-advertised differentiator), though Sprint says that's still in the testing phase. One other new feature is the Sprint hotspot app, another MiFi-style connection sharing number, which is obviously aided greatly by the WiMAX on board and can support up to eight concurrent users.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
HAHAHAHAHA. In an age of the $199 *8GB* iPod Touch, that's pretty frikkin lame. L-A-M-E.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Following is a comprehensive list of markets by state where Sprint 4G is currently offered: Georgia - Atlanta, Milledgeville; Hawaii - Honolulu, Maui; Idaho - Boise; Illinois - Chicago; Maryland - Baltimore; Nevada - Las Vegas; North Carolina - Charlotte, Greensboro, (along with High Point and Winston-Salem), Raleigh (along with Cary, Chapel Hill and Durham); Oregon - Portland, Salem; Pennsylvania - Philadelphia; Texas - Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Killeen/Temple, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, San Antonio, Waco, Wichita Falls; Washington - Bellingham, Seattle. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/4G.
In 2010, Sprint expects to launch service in multiple markets, including but not limited to, Boston, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
"I view porn the same way I treat visiting a national park or nature preserve, I leave no trace. I leave my porn in the wild of the cloud where it flourishes unhindered, and surreptitiously view it through incognito windows in Chrome." – theCanuck
http://gizmodo.com/5497953/how-to-hide-your-collection
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
"What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time?"
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
yeah - i posted all of the cities several posts above. twitter has too much noise. i don't have the patience to sort through all of the sea of cutesy mundane repetitive debris that's posted. even sorting through twitter search results are painful for me. i'm not saying there's not some value there, it's just painful for me to use personally.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
mikecane wrote:
>>>1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAMHAHAHAHAHA. In an age of the $199 *8GB* iPod Touch, that's pretty frikkin lame. L-A-M-E.
Mike, I expect better from you. That is a horrid apples to oranges comparison. First of all, the 8GB Touch is an unsubsidized PDA/PMP, not a Smartphone based on the last-gen iPod innards. So let's compare a 16GB iPhone 3GS to the Evo. To keep it simple, let's assume the EVO is heavily subsidized by Sprint and rings in at the same $199 price point as the HD2 on T-Mobile ($199.99).
So for $199 you get an iPhone w/ 16GB fixed storage
For $199 you get the Evo with 1GB storage PLUS a bundled 8GB microSDHC card. 8 + 1= 9GB. So Apple wins there as far as storage capacity on stock units.
(BTW, don't laugh at 512mb RAM--that's as much as the Nexus One, the Pre Plus and TWICE as much RAM as the 3GS).
Anyway, to remedy the Evo's storage woes you can easily buy another 8GB SDHC card for <$20 or less and by mid-summer you'll probably be able to get a 16GB card for $30ish. Sell the bundled 8GB card and for an effective outlay of $20-$25ish you have a tad more storage than your beloved iPhone. AND the Evo is expandable, meaning you can drop in a 32GB card when those become affordable. AND it blows the iPhone away in terms of other niceties---bigger, higher-res screen, 2 cameras, HDMI out, WiMax, removable battery, kickstand etc etc etc. There's no comparison unless you insist on being part of the iPhones/iTunes ecosystem. Hell, I'm more likely to jump ship to Sprint for the Evo + a cheaper plan than I ever was to get a Pre!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
E-T
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Compared to iPhone & Pre, yes that's paltry internal storage on the Evo. But those devices are non-expandable! And you cannot back up to a card, one of the biggest gripes people have going from Garnet to WebOS!
Compared to BlackBerry, then their device have 1 to 2GB at most (Storm 2), with most having less. Same with most of the older WinMob phones too. All other Android devices I've seen other than the new Samsung Galaxy S have the standard 512mb or so of ROM for onboard storage for apps and rely on microSD cards for media. Unless I am mistaken, Android 2.1 must have a few heretofore unannounced tricks up its sleeve regarding support for internal storage volumes. I know they are "working" on allowing apps to be installed to SD cards but the gigs of internal space alongside an SD card is a new trick.
You cannot sway me, Mike! I'm joining Gekko on the Evo bandwagon (or at the very least, a future Verizon variant of the Android + 4.3" OLED screen baseline) unless I find some deal-breaking reason to wait it out (Droid 2 perhaps? A Pre Plus Plus running WebOS 2.0?)
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Thankfully, since it appears as a standard USB drive I can just drag & drop on the Droid (like all other Android devices) whereas with my old Palm devices I would have to remove the card and use a USB 2.0 card reader for copying over any sizable amount of media.
Don't knock the Evo until iPhone 4.0 appears. THEN we can see who is going to truly rule the smartphone roost this summer!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Which is what I have to do. Or used to. Now the SD is filled, so it's internal "card" only. My nightmare is over.
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
In five frikkin months, have you found anything like TCPMP/CorePlayer for Android, that will do AVI DiVX/XViD video?!
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Still, it's a start:
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/kr.mobilesoft.yxflash/
If you'd like, I can give it a whirl in the next couple days when I have some more free time. Hell, Mike, Android is almost worth all the aggravation just to have the delight Aldiko e-book app!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
here's a nice free FTP App i found -
http://www.lysesoft.com/products/andftp/index.html
now all i need is Bloomberg Radio and Hot 97 stream.........
RE: HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
Did you read the comments for it? Sounds like crap! Archos still wins.
StyleTap for jailbreak iPhone!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/styletap-finally-brings-palm-os-to-your-iphone/
OMG.
If you don't understand the implications, let me repeat what I pointed out above: 8GB iPod Touch is just $199 ($10-$20 less outside of Apple Stores at times). This doesn't require an iPhone (who the hell wants to try to run frikkin Blazer?!).
RE: StyleTap for jailbreak iPhone!
Latest Comments
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
HTC EVO 4G AKA Supersonic
HTC EVO 4G is Sprint's Android-powered knight in superphone armor, we go hands-on
By Paul Miller posted Mar 23rd 2010 4:26PM
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/htc-evo-4g-is-sprints-android-powered-knight-in-superphone-armo/