Palm Pre Updated and Undressed

Posted by rsanchez Published in Electronics, Gadgets, mobile phones

Last week was an almost all iPhone news week, now it’s starting to look like Palm Pre’s getting it’s time in the limelight. Although like the iPhone it’s also getting its bad news as well as you’ll see from the ones below.

Let’s start with some good news for Palm Pre owners. If you own one, most likely you’ve updated to Palm WebOS 1.0.4. So far coming from the official Palm Pre Support Site, nothing much was added:

Version information

* Version: 1.0.4
* Release date: 29 June 2009
* Configuration: Sprint 1.6

New applications

No new applications in update 1.0.4
Feature changes to existing applications

This release addresses several security issues with Palm webOS software.

Although the site didn’t say much regarding the “security issues”, Engadget was able to confirm what those were:

Update 2: Sadly, Palm’s plugged the hole that allowed homebrew apps on the phone without a jailbreak, though software you’ve already installed on the phone will continue to work. The hole that’s been plugged was admittedly dangerous to leave open (installing apps via a link in email), though rooting and installing otherwise remain unchanged as far as we know.

Next, we’re moving on to the not so good news: someone undressed the Palm Pre and showed that it’s working on a phone that works on GSM SIM Cards. And of all places, they saw it in Vietnam:

Now we’ve got video and images of a GSM-loving Palm Pre on the loose in Vietnam. Why ‘Nam? Easy, as workers gain more rights and higher wages in China, manufacturers of all our fancy consumer electronics are heading further south in search of cheap labor. While this doesn’t mean a damn thing regarding launch, it’s still good to see a functioning GSM Pre in the wild on the way to launch sometime before the end of the year, possibly sooner.

Good news for other parts of the world who are heavy on using SIM Cards. Looks like the Palm Pre will be moving overseas very soon! We’ll definitely be waiting to get our hands on such a prized item!

Source for updated Palm Pre WebOS 1.0.4
Source for Palm Pre GSM SIM

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