Our sources have let us in on the following information:
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Price is: $79.99 for new Sprint customers with 2-year agreement.
Current price is: $149.99
Sprint has starting pushing an OTA update to the HTC Hero for Sprint. The update provides some bug fixes. While it doesn’t update the system beyond Android 1.5 (cupcake), it is supposed to fix the “awake” issue that caused a problem with battery life.
Palm has released the much anticipated WebOS 1.3.1 update for the Palm Pre the seventh one since the device launched on Jun 6, 2009 and even though the website states Nov 15 as a release date it will download immediately . The development team at Sunnyvale has added several new features including Yahoo synchronization with synergy which allows users to have their Yahoo contacts and calendar show up on their device just like Google and Exchange accounts do. For some users this is secondary in importance to the Yahoo messenger functionality now included in the messaging client along with Google-Talk, AIM and of course SMS.
One of the chief complaints that many Pre users expressed was the inability to copy, paste and most importantly forward texts. This is remedied with a simple pop up menu in the message thread. Changing ringtones for incoming messages is also supported for the first time. Another complaint was overall lag and Palm states they have included some software optimization that will help the overall performance. I haven’t personally noticed a huge difference but it does feel snappier.
Playing YouTube videos from links is much easier now. If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.
Head on over the the Palm website for a full list of features and improvements.
Link is:
http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/na/pre/p100eww/sprint/solutions/article/50607_en.html
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse announced yesterday that Sprint is reducing its workforce by 2000 to 2500 employees Part of the reduction will come from call centers which are not as necessary due to the decrease in calls to customer care. All employees affected will be notified by the end of the 2009 calendar year.
For the NY Times report follow the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/technology/companies/10sprint.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Make sure to head on over to www.mobileappsshowdown.com/ and take a look at a new contest for developers of Mobile apps being held on Jan 9, 2010 at the CES in Las Vegas, NV. Encourage any developer you think should be there to enter their app for consideration.
SU Blogger Jeff Estep is the expert judge on behalf of SprintUsers.com!
Although no specific release date was mentioned, Sprint released a statement saying they would release their version of the popular BlackBerry Curve 8530. No pricing was available, but the phone can be had in either black, purple or red (although I have not seen images of a red one at this point).
Update You can sign up to get notified of the release here
Photo Credit: Sprint
If you have a Google Voice account but can’t use the visual voicemail feature on Sprint due to the current $.20 per minute charge for call forwarding take heart!! According to Google sometime THIS month Sprint is doing something that will eliminate this problem. Details are scarce but the guess is that Sprint will either eliminate the charge altogether or at least for the conditional call forwarding required to do visual voicemail. Since employees aren’t charged for call forwarding I was able to set it up and fully test it on Sprint using the Palm Pre and IT WORKS beautifully!!!
I currently have it set to send a me text and I also use Gdial Pro from the Sprint app catalog. I actually now have 2 ways to READ my voicemails and other than it having trouble figuring out names (for instance Lynn Croad was translated as link road) It is very accurate and timely. There is a lively discussion about Google Voice here:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184712&highlight=google+voice
Fed up with all the fancy schmancy smartphones recently released and don’t need a full QWERTY keyboard, well this might be for you. This compact phone sports a large, easy to use keypad, GPS, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera and Sprint Mobile Email. You can also expect to see a vibrant 2.4″ internal screen. Available in two color choices, Regal Red or Black Onyx. The SCP-3810 will be free with a 2 year contract and rebates.
Photo credit: Sprint