Palm Pre webcast unveils new features

Palm has revealed new information about its flagship Palm Pre handset during an online Q&A webcast with representatives from both Palm and the US network Sprint.

Not too much was given away during the session but a few interesting pieces did come up, including why Palm has called it the Pre. According to Matt Crawley, Palm's representative at the session, the name Pre is designed to make the phone sound “anticipatory”.

As we already know Palm is planning an app store for the Pre and this was confirmed again by Crawley as was the MWC assertion that Flash support will be present by the end of 2009, if not by launch.

It seems that Palm is taking a different approach to gaming with the Pre than Apple chose with the iPhone as generally “web-centric” and “casual gaming” will be the focus of attention here rather than graphically heavy 3D games, at least for the initial 1.0 version of webOS.

One thing that Crawley was quick to assure was that running multiple apps simultaneously won't be a problem for the new OS but that the specific number that it was capable of running was reliant on what system resources (memory) were already in use by other apps.

Speaking of memory, Crawley defended the one 8GB SKU decision on the basis that inclusion of a microSD, or similar expansion slot, would have made it impossible to retain the compact form factor and that ultimately the decision was design-related.

A somewhat cryptic response was given to questions about music on the upcoming Pre, with Matt only prepared to reveal that “music will be done differently on the Pre” so quite what that means is anyone's guess right now.

The Palm spokesperson also was questioned about whether there were plans to license the new webOS operating system to third-parties to which he responded that as of right now there were no such plans.

There we have it, a few more nuggets to tide us over until the rumoured release date of sometime around June. Stay tuned folks.