Palm Announces the Palm Pixi – Coming to Sprint in Time for the Holidays!

Palm, today, introduced the Palm® Pixi™ phone for faster, more intuitive and personal communication in a compact and customizable design. With the instinctively useable Palm webOS™ platform, strikingly thin design, a visible full keyboard and fashionable personalization options, Palm Pixi lets you express yourself in amazingly useful ways. It’s scheduled to be available from Sprint in time for the holidays.

• In addition to linking your information from Google™, Facebook and Exchange ActiveSync, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo! and LinkedIn integration to Palm Synergy™ and assembles it all in a single view.
• Complementing the phone’s already rich Facebook integration with the contacts, phone, calendar and photo applications, a new Facebook application will be available with Palm Pixi, so you can easily update your status, see the latest feeds from your friends, and browse your friends’ photo albums.
• The phone’s full QWERTY keyboard puts it all at your fingertips, and the multi-touch screen lets you move back and forth between open applications using natural gestures.
• The unique removable back cover is rubberized, making it scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and durable.

Palm Introduces the Palm Pixi Artist Series

• Palm is introducing the Palm Pixi Artist Series. Designed by some of today’s most unique and compelling artists, these numbered, limited-edition back covers let you change designs to suit your mood. You can see the first collection in the series, as well as information about the artists, at www.palm.com/artistseries .

Check Out Just a Few of the Palm Pixi‘s Exciting Key Features!

• High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A)
• 2.63-inch multi-touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320×400 resolution TFT display
• Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
• Exposed QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging
• High-performance, desktop-class Web browser
• Integrated GPS(7)
• Multimedia options, including pictures, video playback and music, and featuring a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
• Email, including Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (Google push, Yahoo! push, POP3, IMAP)(9)
• Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
• Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
• Accelerometer, which automatically orients Web pages and photos to your perspective
• Sprint services, including Sprint TV® and Sprint Radio, Sprint Navigation, Sprint’s exclusive NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live

What you need to do:

• The Palm Pixi phone is scheduled to be available from Sprint in time for the holidays.
• Pricing for the phone, as well as the limited-edition Palm Pixi Artist Series covers, will be announced closer to availability.
• Tell customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pixi and be notified when it‘s available to register at www.palm.com/pixi .

Telesales now offering the Palm Pre

In case you haven’t been able to get your hand on one yet – as of today, Telesales is now processing orders for them, in addition to local retailers. Of course you can always visit a Sprint Store to get the full ReadyNow experience, and I’d recommend that option if this is your first PDA – but for seasoned pro’s, the gates are now open!.

Palm Pre Software Update for WebOS

Good Morning! Although your new Palm Pre has known about it for a few hours now (smart lil things, aren’t they!), you may not have noticed it yet – but as of this morning the first software update for the Palm Pre is available.

[NOTE: While some Pre's have received the notifications and/or update over the past few days, today is the *official* release date of the upgrade, which is why it's only now being posted here.]

So… what’s updated?

Current Palm Pre’s are running Palm webOS v1.0.2 on the Sprint 1.4 configuration… this update will bring the webOS up to v1.0.3 and the Sprint Configuration to v1.5, Build number is now 124

You can verify your software version, build, and configuration by opening Device Info, scrolling down to Version and Configuration (for webOS version), and then tap on the Version section (for Configuration & Build)

How do I get it?

Your Pre will automatically recognize that it is not up to date with the latest release and alert you to download and install it at some point today. You can also use the Updates application to initiate the download and update.

What’s Included?

Enabled non-SSL Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) email server setup

• Customers not using SSL with Exchange (EAS) were not able to set up email and were receiving an error.

Now can sync EAS version 12.0 of Exchange Server 2007 without Service Pack 1 with Palm Pre.

• Customers using EAS version 12.0 of Exchange Server 2007 were able to set up email, but were unable to sync it, and were not receiving an error.

Corrected pop-up window errors when installing applications.

• Customers installing a downloaded application were receiving ‘Install Failed‘ error message if there was no more allowable memory space.

Addressed handling of 911 calls from the device in airplane mode.

• CDMA radio on device is turned off (airplane mode) and PIN is locked. Customer dials 911 and the device should turn on radio and place a call once system acquisition is complete. Prior to the fix, the device didn‘t turn on automatically CDMA radio. Customers had to disable airplane mode when prompted.

Also addressed were various EAS email optimizations for battery life and attachment processing…

Email transports now ignore CDMA connection on 1x if WiFi is connected.

• Email transports did not ignore a CDMA connection on 1x when WiFi was connected.

Maximum time allotted for re-sending an attachment changed to a variable based on attachment size.

• Maximum time allotted for re-sending an attachment was 20 minutes.

In the WAN connection scenario, the e-mail transport should now avoid connecting immediately.

• In the scenario where the WAN connection is going up and down, the e-mail transport used to connect immediately, and that was draining the battery.

Device doesn‘t sync corrupt data. Software now handles this internally with an exception.

• Device was syncing continuously if user data on server was corrupt.

And finally…

Decreased the sync interval for Google Calendar and Contacts to 15 minutes

• Device waited 2 hours to sync the Contacts and Calendar changes made on device to Google account. Calendar events that contained certain symbols were preventing Google Calendar sync.

The Dormant Battery icon has been replaced with the start up screen after connecting device to the USB charging cable.

• When device was connected to a USB charging cable, Dormant Battery icon was displayed.

Scheduled weekday alarm events no longer sound on the weekends.

• Scheduled weekday alarm events used to sound on the weekends.

Are you liking the update? Any issues or cheers/complains? Sound off in the comments, or take it to the forums over at SprintGurus and their posse of top-notch Sprint users, which is one of my favorite Sprint User Communities to date!

Quick Maintenance Window Update: Online Store

Sprint.com Store will return shortly!

The website updates are *soo* close to being doing for the current phase, and to be able to complete some needed maintenance, the online store, housed on nextel.com will be down from 2AM-6AM this morning!

So hang tight and don’t get too antsy – the Pre is only going to be available in retail channels initially anyways, so it’s not like you’ve got anything to order, right ? Well, if you do it’ll be up in just over 4 hours.

Sprint Palm Pre Activation

Since there are quite a few in the wild already, and we’re just over a week away from launch, I figured it’d be as good a time as any to give a preview of what activation/first use will look like on the Pre, and field any questions that may come up in the process.

There’s been a new way of activating phones here at Sprint for a month or so now, and while you may occasionally run into a few agents who manually program phones out of habit, there’s simply no need for it anymore. Almost all the phones can now be programmed via Hands-Free or One Touch Activation, and the Palm Pre is no exception. The one exception to the Palm Pre is that it can’t be programmed manually, so Hands-Free activation is required.

Update: Coal has acquired & posted a full Palm Pre User Guide at SprintGurus here

To get started you need the ESN/MEID.

On the Palm Pre, this is found in 3 places:

1. Underneath the battery in the phone on the right side of the barcode sticker. Turn off the phone and remove the battery to view. (not recommended)
2. The Barcode sticker on the end of the original box, labeled MEID.
3. The Activation Error Prompt:

All the steps and screenshots included, after the jump…

Palm Pre Goodness

Whoops – I was off by one on the launch date, sorry folks – sometimes even I get the slip, ya know :) It was never my intention for my blog to be all about the Palm Pre, just my sometimes mundane life at sprint. But, hey – what can I do lol. We’ve been working in our own departments and in others the past few weeks, gearing up on all fronts – hence my lack of posts. Like I said though – ISN isn’t about the Pre, it’s about Sprint – and though I have blogged mostly about the Pre lately, well… quite frankly that’s been the biggest thing going on, so it’s only appropriate, right?

Ok.. ok… so I did mention goodness, right? If the blog stats are any indication then you’ve ALL been craving some new info… yea, i see ya hitting refresh every hour or two to see if I’ve posted. Get a feed reader, already – lol :) So who am I to disappoint.. here’s some goodness I doubt you’ve been exposed to. Enjoy.

Oh.. and while you’re here, in case you’re new, check out some of my non-pre posts too, like: Overage Relief Minutes, where you can get 100 minutes for $5 (sure beats .40 cents a minute for overage, right?) oh yea..back to the palm pre, boys…. and you may already know this – quite frankly I’ve been so caught up in it all at work, I forget what’s been figured out, and what hasn’t.

How about some official accessories, price plans, and device info (including battery life)? Full size images after the jump!

After the jump: Palm Pre Service Plans, Featured Accessories, & More…

 

Palm Pre Contacts Video Short

Palm Pre Plan Choices

Due to all the fuss about having to swap to a new plan (for some) in order to activate a Pre, here’s a breakdown of the plans it can be activated on – both with the standard price AND the price with a NVP/Employer discount. As posted before, anyone can qualify for the credit union member NVP discount automatically, which is a 10% discount no questions asked – but you can of course qualify for much more, by having a different employer’s discount – Not that I advocate being dishonest about your employer for discount purposes, but a LOT of companies do business with Sprint/Nextel, so many people are very surprised to know they already qualify for 15%, 20%, 25%, or 27% already.

Here’s how the plan pricing looks, standard and with discounts. Yellow is the standard MRC (Monthly Recurring Charge) and then the NVP Discounts to the right, with 27% first, all the way to the 10% in the final column.

Palm Pre Data Plans

If i left anything out I’m sure someone will let me know, but this gives you a general quick-reference when looking at your options. enjoy!

Twitter & Email

At the suggestion of a few folks, I’ve decided to sign up for Twitter. If that should interest ya, you can follow me ‘InsideSprintNow’ – no promises that I’ll have the time to update frequently but we’ll see how it goes. Also, I’ll make my email address a bit more prominent for the folks that were unable to find it.

Twitter: InsideSprintNow

Email: inside.sprint.now@gmail.com

Boy Genuis not so smart ?

Rumors aren’t the purpose of my blog, and as you can see there’s none here from me. No rumored launch dates, no rumors of the pricing, none of that where the Pre is concerned. But when a generally well respected blog posts a rumor that is SO far-fetched without even a ‘not likely’ disclaimer, I feel I have to speak up, so that folks waiting for the Palm Pre aren’t scared away – which hopefully most are smart enough to realize the insane figures being posted over at the Boy Genius Report (BGR).

So let’s take the post as it was stated:

“according to our ninja, Best Buy will be getting its hands on a limited inventory of Pre handsets for a trial launch on June 7th. Sprint will be direct-shipping the lot to arrive on the 6th and in total, about 4,500 units will be spread throughout Best Buy Mobile locations across the country. That might not seem like a lot, well, because it isn’t, but each and every Best Buy Mobile will be getting at least one Pre to hawk.”

Wow. I’m not sure where to even begin on this one – let’s start by saying that any release this big certainly isn’t going to be done with anyone ‘partnered’ in, other than Sprint and Palm. Sprint has thousands of stores across the country that are perfectly capable of launching  a device – where we not only can tightly control the inventory pre-launch, but where we can also make money on the accessory sales in-store on launch day. To even think that we would miss out on that opportunity and turn it over to a ‘partner’ is simply crazy. Does this person know how huge accessory sales are for a Sprint retail store? Also – Each BB Mobile guaranteed to have at least 1 device? C’mon – I don’t care how bad I wanted the Pre, I would not get out of bed for that, because you KNOW that an employee of BB would have it purchased before the doors opened. Flunk.

“Speaking of hawking, our ninja has some numbers to report as well. Pricing is supposedly still being discussed but the probable points are as follows: New customers with a 2-year contract, $199.99. Existing customer upgrades, $299.99. Outright, $999.99. Yes, seriously.”

Seriously? I don’t think so. Flunk, again. $999 price point?  Put Simply, no. Not in any combination will you find the $999 price point to be valid, contract or not. As to the upgrades for existing customers? Have you -ever- seen a single price point for an upgrade price? The answer is no, because the system is simply not set up like this. The existing customer price will be the standard $75 off for 10+ months into agreement, $150 off for 22+ months, and the full $150 off + any rebates for those that qualify and have have the same device for 24+ months, which is essentially new customer pricing. Premier & White Glove customers also qualify for essentially new customer pricing at the 12 month mark, just as with any other device. To hint that there would be a single price point for any customer that wanted to upgrade is simply incorrect, and anyone as familiar with Sprint as BGR should be, knows that the system just isn’t set up to allow for that.

Here’s how the Upgrade Eligibility works:

• Customers are eligible for $150.00 after 22 months, 23 calendar months instead of 24 months, 25 calendar months.
• Customer’s eligibility date for the new program is based on Rebate Life on File.
• However, once a customer takes advantage of a rebate under the new program, the new eligibility date is based on the last rebate received.
• Customers rebate eligibility is not reset when they upgrade the phone unless they receive an equipment discount at the time of upgrade.

Other program qualifiers include:

• Requires a 1-year or 2-year contract.
• Account must be in good standing with no unpaid past due balance.
• The Monthly Recurring Charge (MRC) on the primary line must be $34.99 or higher without add-ons.
• Customers must keep the phone activated on the upgraded or activated line for at least 30 days in order to receive their Mail-In Rebate.
• If you receive a request to flip-flop the new phone to a different line within 30 days of activation or upgrade, advise the customer that this action will result in loss of their Mail-In Rebate. If the customer wishes to continue with the flip-flop after this impact has been explained, proceed with the transaction

• Upgrade fee of up to $18.00 in Care, Retail, Indirect and Telesales and $0.00 online.
• Employees are eligible for mail-in rebates.
• Customers are eligible to receive a mail-in rebate.
• Mail-in follows the same eligibility requirements as Instant.
• Intra-company upgrades are eligible for the New for You Program.

Customer’s can receive the additional mail-in rebates overlays that exist outside the New for You Program.

• A customer who is eligible for the $150.00 instant rebate is eligible for any additional mail-in rebate overlays.

Bad BGR for spreading such rumors that are obviouly not true, despite how many ‘hits’ it brings to your site. I only know this because I had no less than 50 messages this evening asking if I’d seen the post on your site. Me! And while everyone knows I’m not giving away the pricing or the date, I think they do realize that I’m not gonig to allow such silly rumors to be told without a word to the wiser. There’s no need to scare away potential Pre owners with such crazy scenarios, when in reality Sprint would like to see a Pre in as many hands as possible. I’ve got more to say on the subject, but I wanted to get this posted to may dispell any harm that your post may do.