CES: Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, Dell 5-Inch Tablet Prototype

[MacFly123]

The Palm announcement today was impressive and answered a lot of criticism I had of the webOS platform. However, I still insist that this has been working well for a year with it given to a short list.

So Palm has done a good ob of trying to catch up with the iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple is still ahead in my estimation and are no doubt hard at work on the next iPhone iteration. Guess they will stay ahead for now.

Yes. But I at least respect Palm for being original and innovative and also designing very well!

I hold Web OS as second to the iPhone! Android is looking better with 2.1, but as a platform, there is simply too much of the favorites game, and carrier meddling, and fragmentation! Blackberry needs a new OS soon, PERIOD! Symbian is dying and will die. Windows Mobile is beyond a pathetic excuse! And finally all these latest attempts with other random Linux distros are too late in the game.

 

[HaXoR7Om]

Well, It's sexy I give them that. I reckon it's going to be a lot cheaper than the apple tablet with around the same specification that's how dell likes to compete with apple.

 

[ChazUK]

Like a new Dell device about which little is known or told except for a few photos?

It's such a secret there has been press shots released and a hands on at Engadget.

Nice to see people commenting on stuff they haven't even bothered researching (like the uneducated comments about Android OS around here).

 

[iMaggot]

LMAO is funny how everyone is making a tablet now

 

[ChazUK]

LMAO is funny how everyone is making a tablet now

Yes it is isn't it. It stinks of a lack of originality.

 

[Winni]

Oh for christ sake Dell.

Apple rumors of creating a tablet - so Dell jump onto the bandwagon too.

Unoriginality shouldn't be allowed.

So based upon your ideology, the Apple tablet, if it will ever see the light of day, shouldn't be allowed to exist. Because, after all, Apple is the -only- company so far that has not even announced a product yet while almost everybody else has at least a working prototype to demonstrate. Furthermore, the whole tablet PC thing is a by now eight year old Microsoft idea in the first place.

Really, should Apple ever ship something, it will clearly be a rip-off of the ideas of others.

 

[scroto]

It's not that - these companies haven't really bothered with the 'Slate' idea before now.

Yes they have created PDA's and what not - so have Apple.

The hype around the Apple Tablet is massive so what do we have - HP, Dell - all the PC companies that, on the whole, produce shoddy hardware (aside Dell's monitors) creating cheap rip-off products so they can get it on the market first or try to tear some $$$ out of the consumer.

Its happening all the time.

If it isn't a patent war, it's a release date war.

I swear you people are delusional. You do realise Dell PC's and mac's use the exact same components. If anything it's the Mac's that are a ripoff cosidering thay cost twice as much.
Apple hasn't even announced a tablet and you guys are accusing others of copying them. ****ing delusional

 

[Fatum]

The Dell screen is a lot bigger than an Iphone screen, so WTF are you talking about?

The iPhone is a...... phone and works great with a 3.5 inch screen.

A tablet with 5 inch is way to small. 10 inch would still be limited but I could live with it. I don't know what kind of work you would like to do on a tablet, but I for sure don't want to do mine on an iPhone screen + 1.5 inch.

That is what I talk about.

 

[swagi]

No kidding. There have been dozens and dozens of models of tablets and slates made over the past decade or two. I've used several in enterprise apps, and used to specify custom versions.

It sounds like the Apple one might be designed to run and sell iPhone apps in a larger screen format. In other words, it was created by the App Store.

You nailed it!

In other words, the Apple Tablet will stimulate billions of App Store sales, as there will be 'updates' to all your beloved Apps to bring them to Tablet resolution.

I bet you, if M$ wouldn't forbid it, "Solitaire Tablet Edition" and "Free Cell Tablet Edition" would sell like hotcakes.

What do you need a tablet for? Distraction from the real world.

Or browsing the internet in the restroom more conveniently

 

[2992]

You nailed it!

In other words, the Apple Tablet will stimulate billions of App Store sales, as there will be 'updates' to all your beloved Apps to bring them to Tablet resolution.

I bet you, if M$ wouldn't forbid it, "Solitaire Tablet Edition" and "Free Cell Tablet Edition" would sell like hotcakes.

What do you need a tablet for? Distraction from the real world.

Or browsing the internet in the restroom more conveniently

Why you guys are soooo right?!

 

[Digital Skunk]

Being a Pre owner and an iPod touch owner I disagree. WebOS is better than the iPhone OS, no about about it. Apple "wins" by virtue of their 3rd party developer support, and that's about it.

I would have to agree.

And personally the apps don't mean jack squat to a person that isn't going to use them. There's only one or two apps that I've seen, used, handled on the iPhone OS and they have equivalents on the Web OS.

For me the only things that would make me grab an iPhone is syncing with iTunes and NO AT&T.

 

[thisday]

All these are off topic from the main article but its fun.
The thing is HP and Dell where planning to release the slates from way back, it takes time to design,produce etc. So what Apple did is give the fanboys rumors/leaks to fill the net way before, so everybody will assume everyone is copying Apple. Also, SL had more bugs than Leopard. So what? The point is that wherever the money are (Appstore, iPhone) they go, screw the rest.
If you like that kind of attidude, go on, thats fine by me.
Nice one Palm, keep improving.
Note: I dont love/hate Apple.

 

[jouster]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

So Microsoft is ahead in the desktop OS world, and Nokia is ahead in the cell phone world?

It's always a shifting rule-set to make "Apple is teh #1". If need be, feature-set is #1 - if it makes MSFT look bad.

++

For me, "being ahead" simply means "having the best device," which I admit is somewhat subjective. But why would I care about profits in my evaluation?How exactly to they make the experience better for me?

 

[freediverdude]

I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this has been brought up, but what exactly would make anyone buy a palm pre plus now that the pixi plus has wifi?

 

[ChrisTX]

Apple hasn't even announced a tablet and you guys are accusing others of copying them. ****ing delusional

Tablets have been around forever, Bill Gates even is quoted as saying they're the future of pc's. However you are absolutely crazy if you think all of these companies just so happened to be coming out with "slates" despite all of the Apple talk. Everyone knows Apples ability to innovate, such as with the mobile phone industry, so more or less everyone want's to beat Apple to the punch. That's like when RIM said they were working on the first storm long before the first iPhone had even been mentioned. I mean really, who even believes that?! Not saying that competition isn't good because it forces everyone to innovate and get creative. But it would be foolish to believe that all of these companies, DELL, HP, crunch pad(RIP), etc...would have these tablet/slate ideas if everyone wasn't making such a big deal over the apple tablet rumors. This is business, Apple caught everyone sleeping when they released the first iPhone, and people know it so this time around they want to try and be ahead of the curve à la Apple style. Sorry for the rant, just my two cents.

 

[martint84]

This is business, Apple caught everyone sleeping when they released the first iPhone, and people know it so this time around they want to try and be ahead of the curve à la Apple style. Sorry for the rant, just my two cents.

I totally agree with you. However, I don't think anyone at this point is ahead of the curve. While everyone is quick to show off what the hardware looks like, I have yet to see one of these companies (other than the Lenovo IdeaPad) actually show what it can do. I don't even think these companies know what they want it to do or even what consumers want it to do.

This is where Apple shines. When/if Apple releases their tablet, we're going to get a 45 minute demo à la the iPhone introduction. By the end of the presentation everyone's going to wonder how they were able to live without it for so long. Just like the iPod and iPhone.

 

[ChazUK]

Tablets have been around forever, Bill Gates even is quoted as saying they're the future of pc's. However you are absolutely crazy if you think all of these companies just so happened to be coming out with "slates" despite all of the Apple talk. Everyone knows Apples ability to innovate, such as with the mobile phone industry, so more or less everyone want's to beat Apple to the punch. That's like when RIM said they were working on the first storm long before the first iPhone had even been mentioned. I mean really, who even believes that?! Not saying that competition isn't good because it forces everyone to innovate and get creative. But it would be foolish to believe that all of these companies, DELL, HP, crunch pad(RIP), etc...would have these tablet/slate ideas if everyone wasn't making such a big deal over the apple tablet rumors. This is business, Apple caught everyone sleeping when they released the first iPhone, and people know it so this time around they want to try and be ahead of the curve à la Apple style. Sorry for the rant, just my two cents.

Why wouldn't other companies release "slate" PC's now? Windows 7 has slate friendly touch technology in the OS which suggests to me that during the development of Win7, Microsoft saw a touch enabled x86 PC market.

Following on from that, the development and release of Android has given manufactures an open operating system perfectly suited to the handheld market. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is one of the first examples of what Android has made possible.

I think to attribute the new slate fad 100% behind what Apple may or may not release is a little naïve.

I'd say that the iPod Touch had far more to the release of more handheld slate type devices than anything.

 

[AidenShaw]

The iPhone is a...... phone and works great with a 3.5 inch screen.

A tablet with 5 inch is way to small. 10 inch would still be limited but I could live with it. I don't know what kind of work you would like to do on a tablet, but I for sure don't want to do mine on an iPhone screen + 1.5 inch.

That is what I talk about.

Yes, the 5 inch tablet wouldn't replace the notebook - too small.

It would be a big improvement over an Iphone for mobile internet and many applications, though.

If Apple made a 4.5" or 5" Iphone/Ipod Touch with more pixels, I bet they'd sell a lot of them. (Keep the current models of course, just add larger screen models.)

Since the Dell 5" tablet seems to have a SIM slot, a microphone and a speaker - perhaps we'll see what the market is for a large screen phone.

 

[ChrisTX]

Why wouldn't other companies release "slate" PC's now? Windows 7 has slate friendly touch technology in the OS which suggests to me that during the development of Win7, Microsoft saw a touch enabled x86 PC market.

Following on from that, the development and release of Android has given manufactures an open operating system perfectly suited to the handheld market. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is one of the first examples of what Android has made possible.

I think to attribute the new slate fad 100% behind what Apple may or may not release is a little naïve.

I'd say that the iPod Touch had far more to the release of more handheld slate type devices than anything.

@martin84, I agree. Apple has a way to beautifully integrate software and hardware unlike any other company.

@ChazUK Maybe the new tablet/slate craze can't be credited 100% to Apple, I think a large majority can. However when typing out my initial post, all of these new tablets had me thinking of the kindle with a color display and web capabilities. All speculation here but I see the new Apple slate/tablet being a fusion of the Kindle, and the iPod touch, but on a larger scale as per the 10" rumors.

And on to the topic of the Palm Pre, and webos, I believe it was truly the first mobile OS/Phone since the iPhone to really grab the avg consumers attention vs. us tech geeks. However, I believe that people dislike Sprint to the point that even the Pre couldn't bring people back to a slow moving mobile carrier. Had Verizon picked this up on the other hand first instead of Sprint, I imagine palm would have been able to move more devices. Will be interesting to see if enough people still care about Palm(not trying to imply anything) to really get interest generated in their pre / pixi handsets.

 

[EagerDragon]

Miles before we sleep

The competion for the iPhone is still far from catching up, however the closer they get, the nicer the iPhone Jun 2010 is going to be. It is time for my refresh, hope it kicks butt including the butt of the 3GS.

 

[LagunaSol]

Dell's using Android, I believe.

The wedge in the holy Dell/Microsoft marriage burrows deeper?

I hold Web OS as second to the iPhone!

webOS is indeed a beautiful piece of work.

It's such a secret there has been press shots released and a hands on at Engadget.

But Dell isn't saying anything, which was my point.

The competion for the iPhone is still far from catching up, however the closer they get, the nicer the iPhone Jun 2010 is going to be. It is time for my refresh, hope it kicks butt including the butt of the 3GS.

With so many new foes banging on the gates, I believe sticking with this set yearly refresh schedule is a big mistake by Apple (if in fact they stick with it). Wireless contracts end every day - don't tempt people to consider competing platforms just because your new handsets only launch in June.

It's time to accelerate development and put the competition further behind you, not keep it locked on cruise control and give them a chance to catch up.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this has been brought up, but what exactly would make anyone buy a palm pre plus now that the pixi plus has wifi?

The Pre's larger screen and from what I recall faster processor is the only thing really. But that's why the Pixi is in such a wonderful spot. It's almost half the weight and rather thin but gives you the full on WebOS experience. Centro owners and others that have phone like it LOVE the Pixi.

The competion for the iPhone is still far from catching up, however the closer they get, the nicer the iPhone Jun 2010 is going to be. It is time for my refresh, hope it kicks butt including the butt of the 3GS.

I hope the next iPhone revision does kick butt, but I have to disagree with Apple being far and ahead. If that was a subjective statement then never mind, but as far as the iPhone goes, the only thing it has ahead of the pack is a loyal following that WILL change their mind on feature sets and usability based on what the iPhone can and can't do; and the app store.


In my opinion (very subjective here )...

after using all four platforms extensively, I have to say that the iPhone's lead in the OS front is LARGE, just not going the way Apple may want it to. Android and WebOS just have a breathtaking release from the stale and elementary Mac OS X Lite on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

The Pre's larger screen and from what I recall faster processor is the only thing really. But that's why the Pixi is in such a wonderful spot. It's almost half the weight and rather thin but gives you the full on WebOS experience. Centro owners and others that have phone like it LOVE the Pixi.

Does it run Handyshopper in the classic thing?

The Pixi could replace this treo 755 i have - the stupid thing keeps quitting/shutting off every time i unlock it to read a TM. It's driving me NUTS. I'm out of Contract with Verizon at this point.... if it runs handyshopper and the wifi hotspot doesn't cost an arm and a leg (ie, shares a $30 or under dataplan), i'm thinking this is my new phone.

 

[kdarling]

The Pre's larger screen and from what I recall faster processor is the only thing really. But that's why the Pixi is in such a wonderful spot. It's almost half the weight and rather thin but gives you the full on WebOS experience. Centro owners and others that have phone like it LOVE the Pixi.

I believe the Pre also has a better camera.

I was shocked at how light and tiny the Pixi is, btw. Neat little gizmo.

...but as far as the iPhone goes, the only thing it has ahead of the pack is a loyal following that WILL change their mind on feature sets and usability based on what the iPhone can and can't do; and the app store.

I've been saying all along, that phone users mature just like other device users.

Some owners will never use most of their phone's capabilities, even the iPhone. Others will be happy with the status quo. And still others will begin to want more functionality and features, and will migrate elsewhere.

Btw, nice to have you back, DS.

 

[LagunaSol]

Does it run Handyshopper in the classic thing?

The Pixi could replace this treo 755 i have - the stupid thing keeps quitting/shutting off every time i unlock it to read a TM. It's driving me NUTS. I'm out of Contract with Verizon at this point.... if it runs handyshopper and the wifi hotspot doesn't cost an arm and a leg (ie, shares a $30 or under dataplan), i'm thinking this is my new phone.

You may want to spend some quality time with the Pixi first. The thing was painfully sluggish to me, and the keyboard was pointless unless you have fingernails (preferably pointy fingernails). The Pre speed made for a much more pleasant software experience (though the Pre keyboard is nothing to jump for joy about either).

Perhaps subsequent software updates have made the Pixi more bearable. I don't know.