Verizon Wireless, a provider of wireless voice and 3G data network, has announced the availability of Palm Pre 2 smartphone, which runs on HP webOS 2.0 to enable multitasking of e-mail, games, music and more.
Available at Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) Communications Stores and online for a price of $149.99, the new Palm Pre 2 smartphone features a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard, 3.1-inch glass multi-touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color, 320 x 480 resolution HVGA display, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, extended depth of field, geo-tagging and video capture.
Built on TI OMAP 1GHz processor with 512 RAM (News - Alert), the Palm Pre 2 smartphone has been incorporated with WiFi connectivity (802.11 b/g/), Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1+ EDR along with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, and 3G Mobile Hotspot capabilities for wireless connectivity.
Weighing approximately 5.1 ounces and measuring 2.34 inches (w) x 0.66 inches (d) x 3.96 inches (h), the new Palm Pre 2 smartphone also features integrated IM, SMS and MMS.
The VZ Navigator in the Palm Pre 2 smartphone helps users to receive audible turn-by-turn directions to millions of points of interest and share the directions with others.
In addition, the Palm Pre 2 also features full HTML browsing to enable users to access full websites as well as support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail, as well as personal e-mail support such as Google (News 
- Alert) Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP, and more.
The webOS 2.0 on the device facilitates users to multi-task. Users can play video, upload photos, access online banking and more faster. Users can start an e-mail, create a message, update their status and search their favorite websites – all before they even open an app – with the Just Type feature in webOS.
In addition, the webOS also integrates a beta of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 in the browser, which provides access to rich, Flash-based Web content.
Furthermore, the webOS 2.0 also supports Skype (News - Alert)-to-Skype calls and messaging while in the United States to anywhere in the world, and low-rate calls to international landlines and cell phones via the Skype Mobile app.
Apart from allowing users to view all of their accounts together or separately to access work e-mail alone or combined in a favorites folder with personal e-mail from places like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, the new webOS 2.0-powered Palm Pre 2 also allows customers to keep contacts and calendars up to date automatically with built-in integration for Facebook (News - Alert), Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo! and Microsoft Exchange via HP Synergy.
According to a press release, Pre 2 will be available from Verizon for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in Verizon Wireless rebate - in the form of a debit card - with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will need to subscribe to a data plan. Unlimited data plans are available to customers starting at $29.99 monthly access.
Jayashree Adkoli is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jayashree's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Tammy Wolf
