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The debut of the Palm Pre got the tech world and gadget enthusiasts excited about Palm once again. Long considered dead in the water, Palm's innovative WebOS operating system buoyed it back into the spotlight, and the Pre was certainly a boon for the company as well as Sprint.

While not a complete savior, the two are hoping to create some more magic with the new Palm Pixi. A smaller, cheaper version of the Pre, the Pixi is aimed at a younger audience or for those making the jump from a feature phone to a smartphone. It goes on sale Sunday, November 15 for $99.99 with a two-year contract, but is it worth the price?

Find out in our full review of the Palm Pixi.

Palm Pixi photos

(Credit: Sprint)

Verizon Wireless isn't the only one showing some BlackBerry love today. Following Verizon's announcement that it will bring the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 to its lineup on November 20, Sprint released a statement saying that it, too, will offer the Curve 8530.

Like the other models, the Curve 8530 includes features such a Wi-Fi, an optical trackpad, GPS, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, among other things. In addition, it will support the Sprint Music Store and Sprint TV.

Pricing and release date were not announced at this time, but interested customers can preregister for the device on Sprint's Web site. Sprint will offer the Curve 8530 in black, red, and royal purple.

Sanyo SCP-3810

(Credit: Sanyo)

In case you're tired of all the smartphone news lately, here's an entry-level phone from Sprint that won't cost you anything at all. The Sanyo SCP-3810 is a basic camera phone with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a "hidden" external LCD, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, mobile e-mail, and threaded text messaging. And yes, the SCP-3810 is free after rebates and a new two-year service agreement. The SCP-3810 is available now in both Black Onyx and Regal Red.

(Via PhoneScoop)

On Thursday, Sprint hosted an online chat with its customers and its vice president of consumer marketing, David Owens, who revealed some of the carrier's plans for upcoming smartphones.

During the hour-long session, Owens answered questions on a variety of topics, ranging from service plans to community to, of course, future products. Regarding the latter, Owens said there will be a "robust" lineup of BlackBerry and HTC devices in 2010 and reiterated that a Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry Tour, as well as other such-equipped BlackBerrys, are coming.

The HTC smartphones will run on the Google Android platform, though Owens did not expand on features or form factor. He did say that Sprint is working on releasing an over-the-air Android OS update (unclear whether it will be Android 1.6 or 2.0) for the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment, but it was important for the company to get these smartphones out to the market first.

Also on the topic of Android, Owens did not rule out the possibility of a dual-mode (GSM/CDMA) Android phone or one equipped with a MiFi-type router and said he sees opportunities for price drops as more Android smartphones come to market.

Switching gears to Windows Mobile, there are plans to release a Windows Mobile 6.5 update in early 2010 for the HTC Touch Pro2 and possibly other Windows phones, such as the HTC Touch Diamond, but they are still in the testing phase at this point. However, Owens said Sprint is committed to Windows Mobile, adding that it's an important platform to the carrier and that it wants Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7.0 as soon as possible but that will be dependent on Microsoft.

Some other interesting tidbits from the chat: WiMax phones are definitely in the plan for 2010; Sprint is looking for ways to deploy a next-generation Airave; and there are no current plans to bring back tethering as part of the carrier's Everything Data and Simply Everyting plans. You can find the full transcript of the chat session here.

(Via Gearlog)

Palm Pixi

(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)

On Monday, Sprint and Palm announced that the Palm Pixi will be available starting November 15 for $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The Pixi will be sold online and in Sprint stores as well as Best Buy, Radio Shack and select Wal-Mart stores.

The Pixi is the second Web OS smartphone for Palm as well as Sprint and will be an exclusive to the carrier for an undisclosed amount of time. Unlike the Palm Pre, the Pixi features a candy-bar design and includes new capabilities such as the integration of LinkedIn and Yahoo contacts into Synergy, layered calendars, and a dedicated Facebook app.

Targeted to a bit of a younger audience than the Pre, the Pixi doesn't offer quite the same set of high-end features. You lose Wi-Fi and you get a smaller multitouch screen and a lesser camera (2 megapixels versus 3 megapixels) than the Pre.

Given the feature set and considering that the Palm Pre is available for as low as $79 now, we would have liked to seen the Palm Pixi priced around the $79.99 point. That said, we liked what we saw (name aside) when we got some brief hands-on time with the device back in early September. Of course, we'll work to get you a full review as soon as possible but in the meantime, what do you guys think?

(Credit: Amazon)

Just weeks after announcing a new $279 international version of its Kindle e-book reader, Amazon has chopped $20 off its price and made that model its only Kindle offering for both the domestic U.S. and international markets. In the process, the company has eliminated the U.S. version of the device, which used Sprint as the carrier for the Kindle's built-in wireless capabilities. Now, for better or worse, new Kindles will tap into AT&T's data network, which will also be the wireless provider behind Barnes & Noble's upcoming Nook e-book reader.

For those who bought the international version in recent weeks, Amazon is crediting buyers with a $20 refund. Here's the note it sent out to customers:

Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6-inch Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don't need to do anything to get the lower price--we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.

If you bought U.S domestic version in recent days, you should get the AT&T-powered version. (We're looking into whether you can return an earlier U.S. Kindle for the newer model if you bought the U.S. one in the last 30 days).

For now anyway Amazon is not totally ditching Sprint. Drew Herdener, Amazon.com's director of communications, confirmed that the Kindle DX will continue to use Sprint's data network (no international version of the DX has been announced) and no Sprint-powered Kindle devices will have their wireless cut off.

As for reports that the Web browser is not available in the international Kindle, they may not be completely accurate. According to Engadget, Gadget Lab is reporting that you can get to the English version of Wikipedia, which leaves some hope that Amazon may open the browser to other sites. When we get the official word on what the new Kindle's browsing capabilities will be, we'll update this post.

Comments?

I'm very impressed by the Nook, Barnes & Noble's new e-book reader. It's clear B&N has studied Sony's Reader and Amazon's Kindle very carefully.

The Nook has almost all of the major features of both product lines, plus a few more, with few competitive disadvantages. B&N has also followed Amazon's lead on support services. The Nook has a very good online e-book store as well as applications to support e-book reading on Macs, Windows machines, and smartphones.

(Credit: Barnes & Noble)

The Nook doesn't ship until the end of November, but here's what I found most significant from the announcement and the pages at nook.com:

Industrial design
I think the Nook is attractive and well-designed. It looks better than the Kindle 2, but not as good as Sony's Reader Touch Edition, which offers a larger screen in a smaller form factor. Also, Sony's forthcoming Reader Daily Edition is only slightly larger than the Nook, but offers a much larger screen.

Secondary color display
This feature surprised me. It seems expensive and insufficiently functional for what must be a significant added cost. The low resolution of this display (480 x 144, according to a CNET blog post) means it won't be useful for much beyond the basic user-interface features B&N has already described: book covers, menus, and a keyboard for note-taking. (Although I should note for the record that while B&N says "Its full-color touchscreen encourages you to bookmark, add notes, and highlight passages," I haven't found a photo on the company Web site depicting the virtual keyboard shown in some of the pre-release images. Perhaps that's one of the features still under development.)

By comparison, the secondary color screen built into the Alex e-book reader from Spring Design, shown in another recent CNET story, is large enough to be useful. Unfortunately, it's also large enough to be very much in the way, leading to an awkward device. Spring Design and B&N need to make up their minds-- are they making e-book readers or something else?

Motorola Debut

(Credit: Motorola)

Motorola first debuted the, uh, Debut i856 for Boost Mobile early last month, and now it has brought the handset to Sprint Nextel as well.

Touted as the first slider phone to feature Nextel's push-to-talk technology, the Debut also has multimedia features like a 1.3-megapixel camera and a music player. You can also switch from a push-to-talk call to a regular voice call. Aside from the carrier difference, the Nextel Debut is the same as the one for Boost.

Since the Nextel version is subsidized, it will be available for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate (compare to the non-contract Boost price of $170).

Samsung Moment

(Credit: Sprint)

On the opening day of CTIA Fall 2009, Samsung and Sprint started things off with a bang by announcing the Samsung Moment, the second Google Android phone to be released for both companies in the United States. The Moment will be available starting November 1 for $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate, but customers can preregister for the smartphone starting today at Sprint's Web site.

Unlike the Samsung Behold II, which will be available from T-Mobile on November 2 for $199.99 with contract, the Moment features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard in addition to the 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, which has a proximity sensor and accelerometer. The smartphone is powered by an 800MHz processor and is stocked with all the necessary wireless options, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and support for Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A network.

Like the carrier's other Android device, the HTC Hero, the Samsung Moment offers access to various Sprint services, such as Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, NFL Mobile Live and, of course, you can download more apps and widgets through the Android Market. The handset also has a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, Visual voice mail support, and up to 32GB expandable memory.

In addition to the Samsung Behold II and the Samsung Moment, Verizon Wireless and Google announced a partnership to bring two Android devices by the end of the year--rumored to be the Motorola Sholes and another version of the HTC Hero.

Samsung Moment hands-on photos