Users of the Palm Pre are enjoying a series of continued technical support in the form of firmware updates that fixes bugs, adds new features and tweaks existing functions to add more capabilities to the device.

In the case of the 1.3.1 update of the Palm Pre WebOS, the device is getting a tie up with Yahoo! and LinkedIn –useful, but only if you have accounts on them. The new update will allow you to connect your contacts and calendar and synchronize them with your profile on both Yahoo! and LinkedIn. This also complements the new features added to the calendar (as well as a few tweaks that renamed some items).

Even better is the Palm Pre email function update. Now, there is nothing wrong with the email function, in fact, it works like a dream. What Palm did is actually improve an already good function into something great. The addition of new shortcuts for important functions and making copy-pasting easier is certainly a welcome treat.

Firmware updates like these are always welcome, but they can also be quite unnerving. It shows that a device has gone past all bug checking standards and still suffers many errors. While it can be argued that this is the norm for most of technology, it appears that the problem lies in the fact that manufacturers and consumers have accepted that norm.

Anyway, the rest of the tweaks and bug-fixes are listed on the official Palm website. What matters now is that users need to get on a secure bandwidth to download the huge 134MB update. It may not be that large for people who are on very fast connection speeds, but others who rely on wonky free WiFi hotspots need to update elsewhere.

Good thing Palm can also slowly upload the update to Pre owners via 3G when the device goes into idle mode.

The highly hyped Web OS powered Palm Pre mobile phone is now available to buy in the United Kingdom on the O2 network. As previously announced, the Palm Pre is available for free to anyone willing to opt in for a 24 month contract, costing 34.26 per month, although those of you who want an 18 month contract can sign up that way too – although you will be paying £44.05 for the privilege.

O2 has also made the Palm Pre available to users on 18 month contracts for £29.38 or £34.26, in which case the mobile phone itself will cost you £96.89. According to the company, people who buy a Palm Pre with a monthly plan can also enjoy the added benefit of unlimited data and Wi Fi Bolt Ons, which normally cost £15 a month. You can purchase the handset on the carrier’s website or via telesales.

Buying a Palm Pre will get you a mobile phone that sports a 3.1 inch touch screen, a sliding full QWERTY keyboard, a 3 mega pixel camera with LED flash, Wi Fi connectivity, Bluetooth functionality and built in GPS, along with 8 GB of interal memory which can be expanded further by means of a microSD card.

The United Kingdom is the third country in Europe to have the Palm Pre, coming after Germany who got the device on the 13th of October, and Spain, who saw it arrive on the 14th.

The Palm Pre is expected to prove a worthy adversary to the popular iPhone, with a recent survey showing that the Palm handset had more buyers eying it off then the iPhone did at this early stage of its life.

After what feels like forever of listening to all the hype, seeing all the advertisements and quietly lusting after the Palm Pre, it has finally landed on the shores of the United Kingdom – and we couldn’t be more excited.

Released exclusively on the O2 network, the Palm Pre is the very first mobile phone to strike fear into the heart of the iPhone. With the winning mix of a slick, slide out, full QWERTY keyboard paired with the flawless design of the body and the debut of the latest Web OS user interface, it seems that Apple may just have found a worthy adversary to their previously largely unchallenged iPhone.

In the United States the impressive Palm Pre has already seen over one million units sold; it’s 3.1 inch touch screen display, 3.1 mega pixel camera and the social networking functionalities, (including the ability to pull contact information from several social websites such as Facebook), winning it the hearts of our friends across the pond.

The contracts available for the Palm Pre mobile phone are very much as predicted, with the handset being offered for free if you sign up for a 24 month plan which includes 600 minutes, 500 text messages and unlimited Wi Fi for £34.26 per month.

There are also 18 month tariffs available, with the 8 GB Palm Pre costing £96.89 if you decide to end the contract early. The prices are very similar to those for the iPhone 3G contracts, although still more affordable than what O2 is currently charging for the iPhone 3GS.

We will be interested to see if the cool and cute Palm Pre has what it takes to bring some iPhone fans into its corner in the coming months.

The Palm Pre could be launched early in the UK, with rumours circulating that the decision has been made because of disappointingly sluggish sales in the United States – a prediction that comes after Palm’s financial results were seen for the first time last week.

Although the company reported results that were far greater than expected for the second quarter of this year, they have predicted that sales and revenue would drop by over 25% by the end of this quarter.

The prediction of a decrease in the number of US sales goes largely against the increase in manufacturing orders, however. The company says that it shipped a total of 823,000 smartphone handsets throughout the last quarter, only 375,000 of which were Palm Pre mobile phones, according to American analyst David Eller or TownHall Research.

Eller is quoted as having said in a research note; “Our estimation of sell through at Sprint is no more than 375,000 units, which would leave one month of inventory in the channel,” before adding; “We cannot understand where these Pre handsets went.”

Matt Thornton of American analyst Avian has been quoted telling Mobile Today; “The North American market does not warrant that level of production. Given the bigger number, it suggests plans for an earlier launch than November into Europe or into other markets such as Latin America, where Telefonica has a presence.”

Telefonica’s O2 already has an exclusive arrangement to launch the Palm Pre mobile phone in the United Kingdom prior to Christmas, and although we had previously expected to see it surface in November it seems highly likely that it could be here as early as October.

There have been recent concerns over user privacy on the Palm Pre. Although not available in the UK yet, Pre users in the US have reportedly been troubled to learn that the smartphone may be sending details about their location from the built-in GPS back to manufacturers Palm. Other information reportedly being sent back to the company included information about which applications were being used and for how long.

Palm have responded by saying that the information being sent back to the company is merely related to system crashes and is aimed at improving the quality of Palm Pre user experience. Claiming that they take customer privacy very seriously, they pointed out that the ‘data collecting services’ can be deactivated on the phone.

This news comes just weeks after reports that a network carrier in the United Arab Emirates had installed a spyware ’software update’ to their customers BlackBerry devices. Research in Motion (RIM), manufacturers of the BlackBerry devices denied any knowledge of the update which sparked concerns that the state owned network provider had installed the patch as a means for reading user e-mails.

Palm however is not a state owned company and the most they would be likely to use the information for is marketing.

While some users of the Palm Pre are now concerned about their privacy amid the recent claims, others have pointed out that this data collecting is now standard practice on many modern smartphones and that users of the Palm Pre had in fact accepted these terms when they agreed to the phones EULA.

The recent uproar about Palm Pre privacy concerns may have come at a bad time for Palm who in recent month have seen sales of their phones drop.

The main reason for using a mobile phone these days besides making calls is browsing the internet for checking mails and other websites. Palm Pre has an amazing browser that is built over Webkit and gives you full web pages within 10 seconds. This is a very good feature that extends to the zoom and drag options in the phone. Since Palm Pre also has GPS and Bluetooth, it is beneficial to have a fast internet browsing experience.

Palm Pre is not yet available for contract Palm Pre contracts and it is expected to be ready for sale sometime after June 2009. Since it is being launched by Sprint, there are no chances that any other network provider like Palm Pre on Vodafone Vodafone might be able to strike a deal with it.

Palm Pre is one phone that understands what you need. It gathers your different online calendars in one location using the Synergy feature so that you do not need to search for it yourself. In case you have similar contacts scattered in different locations, Palm Pre will connect them all and place them before you. Palm Pre is like your obedient personal assistant that will notify you of new messages and let you respond in your own way. The 3MP camera comes with a LED flash. This slider phone is slated to be released on the Now network, so it is a rarity that it would be marketed as a sim-free sim free mobile phones mobile phone.

The center of all Palm Pre reviews Palm Pre reviews is the multitasking that it allows you to do. The phone has a card system wherein you can switch between email, calendar, and images with ease. The touchscreen is very sensitive and reacts faster than a stylus. All we can do is waiting for this amazing phone!

The latest offering from Palm is proving to be a great hit amongst mobile phone users. It is not too big in size and the thickness is acceptable because it is a slider phone. This sleek phone is equipped with Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth with A2DP. It also has 8GB of internal flash memory. The webOS works fast even with a touchscreen and almost does not slow down while you are working. Palm’s website carries a link if you want to be notified when Palm Pre will be available. This implies that Palm Pre would be arriving on the shelves soon so that dealers can plan for its Palm Pre on contract contract.

Palm Pre uses a card system for its applications. It helps you to place the details that you are working on in front of you so that you can keep a track of that task. Whenever an application is launched, simply drag it on your desktop to create a fresh card. This card can be closed when you are done with the job by just flicking it upwards. This way you can have as many cards as you wish and work on all of them at the same time. Along with this, if you have an O2 connection Palm Pre on O2 or any other that you like, Palm Pre will serve as the perfect digital assistant for you.

One more feature that I would like you to know is that the accelerometer in the phone allows you to shake it for playing a game. You have to shake it on the side and the orientation of the screen changes. This feature is liked by many and though the actual price for Palm Pre is not known, there is a group of people who feel that it should be made available as a sim-free sim free mobile phones mobile phone.