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Sprint Nextel confirmed Tuesday that Palm Pre will arrive June 6. Sprint, as reported weeks earlier, will be the exclusive carrier. Palm Pre will be available at Sprint retail stores, and the Sprint Web site, and also at Best Buy, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart. The phone will cost $299 with a two-year service agreement, or $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate.

Palm Pre will face serious competition in the better-established giants of the smartphone market, not least Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, Apple’s iPhone and Google’s G1. And it’s worth noting that on the day Palm Pre becomes available, its thunder might last only a short time before being stolen completely. The reason? Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is kicking off 48 hours later, and with that hotly anticipated event may come the next generation of Apple’s iPhone.

But both Sprint and Palm have their game faces on. Speaking at an investor conference Tuesday, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was quoted by Reuters as saying the initial run of Palm Pre phones available will be limited — and predicted that initial demand would be high.

“We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while,” Hesse said to Reuters. “We won’t be able to keep up with the demand for the device in the early period of time.”

Palm Pre was first unveiled back in January at CES, and as more details emerged in the months that followed, Sprint was announced as its exclusive carrier in the U.S. and Bell Mobility got the nod for Canada. Some observers questioned that exclusivity, with one researcher, ChangeWave Research, going so far as to cite 17 percent of consumers who wouldn’t consider a Palm Pre at all because they didn’t want to sign up with Sprint.

Palm itself has been hurting, chalking up its most recent earnings drop to “reduced demand for Palm’s maturing legacy smartphone products, the challenging economic environment, and later-than-expected shipments of the Treo Pro in the United States.” At the time, Palm President and CEO Ed Colligan essentially staked Palm’s recovery on the Palm Pre and its new webOS.

“Despite the challenging market environment, the extraordinary response to the Palm Pre and the new Palm webOS reaffirms our confidence in our long-term prospects and our ability to re-establish Palm as the leading innovator in the growing smartphone market,” Colligan said in early March.

Sprint, which has lost more than 6 million subscribers since mid-2007, is also much in need of a home run. Earlier this month, the company reported a net loss of $594 million for its first quarter, and revenue declined by 12 percent to $8.21 billion.

Sprint did express optimism at the time, saying it had seen growth in prepaid phone plans, something Sprint can continue to drive considering it’s armed with a new phone to push.

A Macquarie Securities analyst, Philip Cusick, told Dow Jones Newswire Tuesday that the launch of the Palm Pre should help stem those losses, but estimated Sprint subscriber losses to still hit the 1.1 million mark in the second quarter.

admin Smart Phone, Windows 7

Acer has made good on its recent netbook promise, rolling out two new netbooks, one of which is forcing other computer manufacturers to rethink the traditional size of ultraportable notebooks.

The 10.1-inch Acer Aspire One AOD250 and 11.6-inch Aspire One AO751h are both available to customers for order Monday. The move to make the new netbooks official comes about one month after the computer manufacturer first showed them off.

The 11.6-inch Aspire One shows Acer’s willingness to innovate in the netbook category. Ultraportable notebooks first appeared with a form factor of about 8 or 9 inches, but since then computer manufacturers have been pushing the size, until 10.1 inches became something of a standard. The Acer Aspire One AO751h pushes the envelope, however, adding an inch and a half to the size of the machine while still calling it a netbook.

Even though the 11.6-inch Aspire One is bigger than its predecessors, its specifications still land it in the netbook category. The machine is powered by an Intel Atom Processor Z520 and comes equipped with 1 GB of memory and a 160 GB of storage. The netbook comes preloaded with Windows XP Home Edition SP3.

The supersized screen of the Aspire One 11.6-inch netbook has a 16:9 aspect ratio and is a high-definition LED backlit TFT LCD screen. The six-cell Li-ion battery can provide up to 8 hours of battery life, the company said. Select models of the Aspire One can be equipped with up to 2 GB of DDR2 memory and the hard drive can be expanded to 250 GB.

Still, the Aspire One AO751h tips the scales at less than 3 pounds and has a suggested MSRP of $349.99.

Meanwhile, the Acer Aspire AOD250 10.1-inch netbook is powered by an Intel Atom N270 Processor and an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. The Intel 945GSE Express chipset is also standard. The AOD250 comes equipped with 1 GB of DDR2 memory.

Like its bigger cousin, the 10.1-inch netbook also sports 160 GB of memory and is preloaded with Windows XP Home Edition SP3. The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio and an LED backlit TFT LCD screen.

The 10.1-inch Acer Aspire netbook weighs about 2.5 pounds and starts at around $298.

admin Hardware

Napster was among the first of the peer-to-peer sites where music fans traded songs amongst each other and raised the ire of the RIAA and Metallica. Napster was also among the first to succumb to the legal crusade waged by the RIAA and remade itself into an unsuccessful “pay for” music site.

After more iterations and being purchased last year by Best Buy, Napster has again remade itself into something that Best Buy hopes will be successful and profitable — the purchase of Napster cost Best Buy $121 million in cash.

The latest offering from Napster gives subscribers unlimited music streaming from a computer for $5 per month and provides users with five included DRM-free MP3 downloads each month.

The streaming service will only be offered to subscribers as long as they pay the monthly charge, but the five download tracks each month can be kept even if the service is cancelled.

Napster CEO Chris Gorog said in a statement, “There’s no need to settle for 30-second clips to decide if you want to buy a song. For five bucks now you can have access to our entire music catalog and get five MP3s to add to your permanent collection.”

The streaming library covers all of the major record labels and artists according to Napster and the catalog has over seven million songs total. The DRM-free tracks are compatible with the iPod, iPhone and any other MP3 capable device.

Best Buy SVP of entertainment Julie Owen said, “A decade ago, Napster revolutionized the way people discovered and enjoyed music. The brand that started it all is shaking things up again with a new service that provides music lovers continued access to the entertainment experience they’ve come to expect of Napster and Best Buy.”

admin Apple News

Hewlett-Packard has recalled 70,000 laptop batteries that pose a fire and burn hazard to users.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall Thursday, saying there have been two reports of batteries overheating and bursting into flames. The fires caused minor property damage, but no injuries.

The faulty lithium-ion batteries are used in laptops sold under a variety of brands, including HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, HP, and HP Compaq. A list of model numbers is available on the CPSC Web site.

The systems were sold through computer and electronics stores nationwide and HP’s Web site from August 2007 through March 2008. The laptops cost between $500 and $3,000. The batteries also were available separately for between $100 and $160. The battery manufacturer was not named, but the product was built in China

HP is offering replacement batteries at no charge and has a Web site that provides additional details. Customers also can call 800-889-2031 to get support.

The latest recall is similar to a massive recall about three years ago of Sony (NYSE: SNE) batteries that ultimately included more than 10 million batteries. Those batteries also posed a threat of overheating and causing fires. Several injuries were reported.

Recalls were issued by many of the major computer makers, including Apple, Dell (Dell), HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. The last recall of Sony batteries occurred in October of last year, when Dell and Toshiba recalled a total of 100,000 batteries. At least two people suffered minor burns from battery-sparked fires.

admin Uncategorized

AT&T  issues statement about SlingPlayer: SlingBox, which allows you to watch your home TV with you while you are on the go, launched today on the iPhone?however, only using the phone’s Wi-Fi network. And, AT&T issued a statement today to explain why. Engadget does a good job of taking it apart. AT&T says that apps like SlingPlayer could create congestion on the network and cites a portion of its wireless terms and conditions that says, “applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service.” Engadget has a problem with AT&T comparing “smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs.” “Sure, guys, but a RAZR shares 85 percent of its DNA with a PC and an iPhone shares 87 percent, so we’re splitting hairs here.”

admin IPTV

Verizon Wireless’ first netbook offering  — the HP Mini 1151NR — is currently starting to touch down in stores across the country.   Mark it down in your calendars folks: May 17th via all channels; the same day Verizon’s MiFi personal hotspot drops. Pricing isn’t yet appearing in Big Red’s system but we’re hearing it will be $199 with a 2-year contract after MIR. Of course some people will jump right into complaining and adding up monthly fees ($40 or $60/month), saying that this isn’t a good deal. It’s true — you’ll end up spending between $960 and $1,440 over your 2-year contract period for data access. To those people, we suggest buying a comparable netbook with an integrated data card ($450ish) or a comparable data-less netbook ($300ish) and a USB modem/data card off contract ($250ish). Then pay, yeah, $40 or $60 every month for data anyway.

admin Mobility

The first details on one of T-Mobile’s upcoming smartphones running Google’s Android OS surfaced earlier this week, and now a more complete picture of it has emerged… literally.

This device — code-named either Bigfoot or Morrison — will have a landscape-oriented sliding keyboard, and will be the replacement for the T-Mobile G1.

Details are still mostly unknown, but a new image of this model shows it in more detail (at left).

Coming to Wal-Mart
According to unconfirmed reports, this smartphone will be released by T-Mobile USA in October.

It will be available from Wal-Mart for $150. It’s not clear if this will be the standard price though. Shortly after the G1 debuted, Wal-Mart began offering it at a $30 discount, and it’s possible its successor will have the same arrangement.

Part of a Trio
This model is one of three on a roadmap of upcoming Android-based models that leaked out of T-Mobile USA this week.

The first will be the myTouch 3G — a version of the HTC Sapphire, which recently debuted in Europe as the HTC Magic. This device has a tablet shape with an HVGA touchscreen and a trackball on its front.  It depends on its on-screen keyboard for text input, as there is no hardware one.

The third Android device heading to T-Mobile USA this year is being designed by Samsung and will supposedly be code-named the Houdini. This could be a version of the recently-announced Samsung I7500, this company’s first phone running Google’s operating system. This will have a tablet shape with a 3.2-inch, HVGA OLED touchscreen, mobile broadband, and Wi-Fi.

Like the Bigfoot, the Houdini will be released this fall for an as-yet-undisclosed price.

admin Smart Phone

Microsoft said on Thursday it intends to acquire BigPark, a Vancouver, B.C.-based game studio.

BigPark, which is made up of former Electronic Arts Canada and Distinctive Software executives, has been working on an Xbox-exclusive game over the past year.

"We believe BigPark has tremendous potential to create new properties and innovative gaming experiences for our platforms, one of which we’re looking forward to showcasing at the E3 Expo in June," Microsoft game studios boss Phil Spencer said in a statement. The company did not disclose financial terms in its press release announcing the deal.

Among BigPark’s founders is Don Mattrick, who joined Microsoft in July 2007 as senior VP of its interactive entertainment business, while continuing to serve as BigPark’s chairman. Microsoft noted that Mattrick’s investment and role at BigPark was known to the company when it hired him.

However, neither Mattrick’s Microsoft biography nor the press release announcing his hiring mention BigPark.

admin Gaming, Microsoft News