There's a new Palm phone on the block, but it's not what you're probably expecting. It runs Android, has low-end specs, and is going to cost $350 plus $10/month when it launches next week.
Ever since HP completely botched their acquisition of Palm and webOS, I've longed for a return of the excellent user interface and brand. TCL's resurrection of Palm as a tiny, underpowered, basic phone just crushes my soul.
Back in 2015, Chinese manufacturer TCL acquired the rights to Palm, vowing the revive the brand with a slate of new phones. It looks like the first such device will be making its debut sometime in the second half of 2018.
TCL is resurrecting the Palm brand with a brand-new Palm, Inc. based in California. As we reported last week, TCL purchased the Palm brand from HP late last year, although at the time it wasn't clear what the company had planned. It's not at all clear what TCL intends to do with the Palm brand, although they seem to recognize the history that the brand carries. Says TCL: Palm has...
One of the biggest names in processors and radios adds a legend in the mobile industry to the board After a relatively quiet period following his departure from HP in early 2012, Jon Rubinstein is back in the news as he joins the board of directors at mobile chip maker Qualcomm. Rubinstein is well regarded as one of the few people that drove the creation of modern mobile devices, likely...
WebOS Nation Editor in Chief Derek Kessler remembers a simpler era, when Palm Touchstones ruled the land. About a month ago I picked up an LG Nexus 4. I've known Android for some time, but until buying the Nexus 4 I'd yet to actually own an Android handset. While Android has surprised me in some areas and frustrated me in others, that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Nope, I'm...
A bit of a mobile software bombshell dropped overnight with news that some key members of HP's newly open-sourced Enyo team moving to Google, The Verge first reported Thursday evening. Enyo, as you're probably not aware, is the HTML framework that lived and (mostly) died with the Palm TouchPad and was later made open-source with the death of that project. Enyo also makes it relatively...
Android just got a new friend in the open-source playground. HP today announced that the beloved-but-floundering mobile operating system will released to the open-source community. "HP plans to continue to be active in the development and suppport of webOS," the company said. Like the core Android OS, webOS will be made available under an open-source license. Exactly what that means in...
![Moving from webOS to Android [From the Forums]](https://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/styles/w300h225crop/public/postimages/26462/webos.png?itok=jmQKQZHN)
The shocking news yesterday that HP was halting development of webOS forced us to call an emergency Mobile Nations podcast. The news is sad to us but devastating to the many devoted fans of webOS out there. While HP has left the door open for the OS to be licensed, the future does not look bright. Many fans that purchased a Touchpad only a few weeks ago will be searching for a new...
Another day, another chart showing Android's spectacular growth. What you see above is Gartner's numbers for the first quarter of 2011. And in those three months, some 36.2 million Android devices were sold worldwide, for a 36 percent share in the period. Second highest was Symbian, at 27.5 million, and iOS devices totaled 16.9 million devices. BlackBerry was at 13 million, and...
It looks like the tablet playing field is about to get a lot more competitive. Our good friends over at PreCentral got their hands on some information regarding HP's plans and specs for the webOS Tablet, plus hits of the webOS Tablet UI -- and we'll admit it looks pretty impressive. The webOS platform has thus far been sort of left in the dark in all of the Android and iOS madness,...
It's always good to pay attention to the competition, and what they have to offer, and today -- finally -- webOS 2.0 broke out of its shell. Our friends over at PreCentral have been bringing some extensive coverage all morning long, from a nice screen shot gallery, to an extensive video walkthrough, and a well-written review -- they have covered it all. Whether you are looking for a...
OK, all you Palm defectors (and we know who you are). Listen up. Our pals at PreCentral broke the news that the boys and girls in Sunnyvale may be working on a keyboardless device, codenamed "Mansion." It's said to have a 480x800 resolution, and we'll go ahead and assume it'll launch with a next-gen version of Palm's webOS software. So we put the question to you: If Palm comes out...
In case we needed a visual demonstration of irony, HP's new eReader (dubbed the Zeen) will be running the Android OS. While most details are unknown until the December 31 lifting of the FCC confidentiality agreement, we do know that the device will be running Android 2.1 with some sort of HP overlay, have a capacitive screen, SD card support, and have a "significant integration with...
What had better be the cheapest Android smartphone ever, the Palm Pre-esque Alcatel OT-980, will soon show up on the shelves in Europe. We talked about this one ages ago (in Android time anyway) when the specs sounded better, check it out. We have no dates, but supposedly in the UK this August and very soon in France. We do however, have some supposed final specs. Those of you not...
Android remains the No. 2 smartphone operating system worldwide AdMob -- the company that serves up a good many of the ads you see in mobile applications (about 23,000) and that was bought by Google -- has released its numbers for May 2010. As you can see from the chart above, Android's climb continues worldwide, remaining the No. 2 operating system, according to AdMob usage. That's a...
(Ed. Note: Craig Froehle and Don Ferguson are longtime friends of us here at Android Central and Pre Central. They're experts in the Palm OS of old and the webOS of new. And so when they offered up a in-depth comparison of the Palm Pre versus the Evo 4G, we jumped at the chance to run it.) Craig: Both Don and I have used the Palm Pre on Sprint for almost a year, now. We also both (...
We've been watching this discussion with interest for a little while now, and it appears that it's finally working. A gent who goes by infinitemods has hacked the back of his Evo 4G so that it charges from the Palm Touchstone puck, meaning you don't have to have anything actually plugged into the Evo. Infinitemods told Good and Evo the hack took him about a half-hour, and that it...
You might have heard us (erm, OK, me) gush on occasion about certain aspects of Palm's webOS user interface. Now let us (erm, me again) gush a little about Matias Duarte, who has left Palm and is now User Experience Director for Android. And he's a friendly face among the Android leadership, having worked on the Sidekick with Andy Rubin when they were both still with Danger. Some of you...
We hear ya. There are a lot of you out there on Sprint who are looking at your Palm Pre and wondering how it would be to hold the Evo 4G in its place. Ask and ye shall receive. After the break are more photos and video of the Android 2.1 Evo 4G alongside the webOS-based Palm Pre. It's not really a fair fight at this point, but at least they got in the ring. [YouTube link]