Sprint

This week's video blog theme featuring USAC racing has been some of the best fun I've had since I've been a writer for this Web site. And I thought there wouldn't be a better way to end the week than with a fun video starring USAC Sprint Cars.

This particular vid comes from the current season of the National Sprint Car Series at the "Sokola Shootout," a 30-lap competition that took place at Perris Auto Speedway in California earlier this year. It's an entertaining 8-minute clip featuring flips, crashes, and wheels spinning in … Read more

For a first-generation device, the Palm Pre is quite impressive. Palm has developed a strong operating system in WebOS, beating the competition in certain areas and laying a solid foundation for future devices. However, as with any product, there's always room for improvement.

Earlier this week, I listed five of my favorite things about the Palm Pre and as promised at the end of that post, here are five things that I dislike about the smartphone or would like to see in future updates/devices. Fortunately, some of these issues, as well as others not mentioned here (voice dialing, video recording, Bluetooth tethering), can be resolved through over-the-air updates, but here's my Top 5 wish list based on the smartphone as it is now. … Read more

On Monday, I asked readers to tell me about their experience with the Palm Pre, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Not surprisingly, the Palm WebOS received most of the accolades for its multitasking abilities and integration of contacts and calendars from various accounts. Others mentioned good call quality, fast performance, and sleek user interface, and the list goes on.

It's been almost a week since I've been using the Pre and some of the newness has worn off. Yet, there are still times where I say "wow" and see where the smartphone stands out from the crowd, so I've rounded up five of my favorite things about the Pre. These are features that I personally find the most useful. Obviously, everyone has different uses and needs for their smartphone, so I'll be asking you to share your list at the end of the post but for now, here's my top five. … Read more

While many lined up this past weekend to buy the Palm Pre, some decided to wait on making a purchase to hear what would come out of the WWDC 2009 keynote, and as we all found out on the Monday, the answer was the iPhone 3G S.

Since then, the cell phone editors have received numerous reader e-mails wondering whether we'd be doing a prizefight between the two smartphones and we just wanted to let you know that the answer is most definitely yes. As soon as the iPhone 3G S is released on June 19 and we get … Read more

Sprint Nextel executives said Monday that the launch of the much anticipated Palm Pre on Saturday hit a new sales record for the company.

Neither Sprint nor Palm is discussing specific sales figures, but Tim Donahue, vice president of business marketing for Sprint, said that the launch exceeded the company's expectations.

"We experienced our best one day of sales and single weekend sales for any phone we've launched in our history," he said. "We sold out of the device over the weekend in most of our store locations. And it happened at a much faster rate than we had planned on. "

While the crowds that showed up on Saturday morning to buy the Pre at Sprint stores and other retail locations where the phone was offered were small in number compared to the crowds that have gathered for the past two iPhone launches, analysts are calling the launch of the Pre a success. A J.P. Morgan report estimated that more than 50,000 phones were sold in the first two days the phone was available. The Wall Street Journal cited analysts who said that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres had been sold.

Now Sprint and Palm must wait to see if the momentum will continue.… Read more

As we all know, the Palm Pre went on sale Saturday, and while there's no question about the smartphone's popularity in terms of interest, the bigger question is whether this enthusiasm turned into actual sales over the weekend. Well, if early numbers are to believed, things look promising for Sprint and Palm.

The two companies have yet to confirm figures, but analysts have called the Pre launch a success. J.P. Morgan reports that "sales in the first two days probably exceed 50,000," meeting its expectations but falling short of the 146,000 units sold … Read more

With my Sprint contract running out and having been frustrated with my HTC Mogul--more like Windows Mobile 6--it was clearly time to upgrade.

Our smartphone senior editor Bonnie Cha pointed me in the direction of the Palm Pre since I was adamant about having a touch-screen and physical keyboard. I was also drawn to the Pre because of the new WebOS operation system and Synergy functionality.

After having waited in line for almost two hours outside a Sprint store in downtown Manhattan, I was thrilled to get home and start playing around with my new Palm Pre.

A … Read more

NEW YORK--The much-anticipated Palm Pre may have gotten almost as much hype as the Apple iPhone over the past six months, but its opening day fell short of the attention iPhones grabbed on their first days.

Unlike the huge crowds of people that formed long lines and camped out in front of Apple and AT&T stores days in advance of the iPhone's launch, crowds for the Palm Pre were much smaller and tended to arrive in the morning just before stores opened.

Neither Sprint nor Palm have released official figures about how many devices they hoped to sell on the Pre's first day. But Sprint representatives had been trying to downplay expectations for iPhone-like crowds ahead of the launch. Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott told The New York Times earlier this week that the company not only didn't expect long lines for the Pre at its 1,100 stores, but that it didn't want them.

And it looks like the company got its wish. Salespeople at Sprint stores in New York City said a handful of people gathered outside their locations early Saturday morning. But most lines didn't even come close to the madness experienced on iPhone launch days.

Crowds tended to be bigger at Best Buy stores, which were offering the device for the $199 price without the $100 mail-in rebate. Customers buying a Pre from Sprint, the exclusive carrier of the device, pay $299 at the time of purchase and can get $100 back with a mail-in rebate. According to Rich Pesce, a Sprint spokesman, most new phones offered through the carrier have the mail-in rebate offer.

Many Best Buy locations sold out of the Pre almost immediately.… Read more

E3 was a blast this year with exciting announcements from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. But it wasn't all about gaming. In fact we've given much attention to Palm and Sprint's rollout of the Pre, a device we fell in love with on accident at CES a few months ago.

We also found some sub-$300 laptops from Dell that had us interested, as well as Sony Ericsson's take on an app store.

And finally we discussed future tech, including AMD's DirectX 11 GPU and prototype self-assembling robots that will kill us all.

Oh, and some … Read more