Despite being announced over a year ago, Aceeca's first consumer-oriented handheld, the PDA32, has seen a rather bumpy road to production. While the handheld's Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity options remain unavailable, several base-configuration, production-ready units have left Aceeca HQ and ended up in the hands of reviewers for real-world testing.

Last year, Tam Hanna posted a series of size and screen comparisons but had very little to report as far as day-to-day usability of the PDA32. Since then, French Palm OS software developer Luc Le Blanc, creator of the Auriga, has taken a preproduction PDA32 along for a week of cave exploration in France. He was quite impressed with the overall package and has written up his findings alongside some detailed specifications and some benchmark figures.

The mobile OS that refuses to die, Palm OS Garnet, continues to received incremental life extensions courtesy of Aceeca. This time around, the company is returning to its fully ruggedized handheld roots by quietly announcing the availability of the Palm OS Garnet 5.4 versions of the Meazura RDA1500 and MEZ1500.

First mentioned exactly a year ago on PIC, these "Ruggedized Digital Assistants" had previously only been offered with Windows CE and Linux OS options. According to a post on Aceeca's message boards, these devices began shipping in limited quantities in September but has just recently been added to their website.

Overall, the RDA and MEZ 1500 have somewhat comparable specs to last year's PDA32 but in decidedly less consumer-oriented packaging. The main differentiating factor between the two units is that the MEZ1500 supports the company's MZIO expansion modules.

In a move certain to stir up discussions of planned leaks galore, HP has acted quickly in the aftermath of today's Engadget WebOS tablet leak and sent out a modified version of last week's February 9th teaser announcement to the media.

Instead of the customary C&D request to Engadget, they are now tackling the site head-on and claiming that even bigger things are in store for their February 9th event. My anticipation is definitely growing for next month's "Exciting WebOS announcement".

In what looks to be the biggest surprise reveal in years, Engadget has received a bounty of leaked information and images of HP's upcoming WebOS tablets in advance of the company's big upcoming February 9th announcement.

Code-named "Topaz" and "Opal", two WebOS-powered tablets will reportedly be available globally in both 9" and 7" screen sizes respectively. A screen shot of an internal marketing plan reveals a solid and varied lineup of WebOS tablets, arriving in wi-fi, 3G and LTE 4G variants for both Verizon and AT&T. Somewhat tragically, however, the given retail availability of these tablets is not expected until September of this year, placing them well behind Apple's iPad followup, RIM's Playbook and the flood of Honeycomb-powered Android 3.0 tablets expected over the course of the year.

While CES 2011 has come and gone with no official Palm-related announcements from HP, WebOS tidbits continue to trickle out in advance of HP's "WebOS announcement event" slated for February 9th.

Last week, HP's Phil McKinney reiterated HP's promise of bringing a WebOS tablet to market in 2011. Coming via a The Next Bench post detailing his predictions for CES 2011, McKinney told HP blogger-in-chief Darren Gladstone that HP wouldn't have anything to show at CES 2011 then offered a link to a recent Palm blog post hinting at all things tablet-related.

Then last Friday at CES, HP's Todd Bradley told CNBC that HP are "…totally focused on the tablet market" and the promising future of WebOS and its relation to "other large-screen devices". The main highlights from the video interview focus around the number of announcements poised to occur at HP's February event in San Francisco. The nearly 8-minute long video is definitely worth checking out for Bradley's comments about the respective strengths of tablets vs PCs.

HP has just sent out a press invitations for an "Exciting WebOS announcement" on February 9th in San Francisco. Details are scant on the announcement but the tag line of "Think big. Think small. Think beyond" may indeed indicate a multitude of forthcoming devices, quite possibly a Pixi successor, a large-screen keyboardless device, and of course, the mythical "PalmPad".

Of course, the Palm name or logo is entirely absent from this invitation, which will only fan the flames that the "Palm" brand will indeed be retired after the arrival of the Pre 2 and a nearly 20-year run in some capacity.

Despite the recent launch of the Pre 2, the vast majority of WebOS loyalists eagerly awaiting an update to the new OS are still on the WebOS 1.x legacy devices: Pre, Pixi, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus.

WebOSRoundup recently posted a purported leaked update schedule for first-generation WebOS devices. The domestic WebOS 2.x update will be released in the order in which each carrier launched their devices--Sprint will roll out their update first, followed by Verizon, and then AT&T. At the very least, March should at least see the start of the update rollout if not the entire update process.

In the same article, WebOSRoundup also hints that Sprint will not receive a new WebOS device until June of 2011, the 2-year anniversary of the original Pre. The new device will be a temporary Sprint exclusive and will be the first 4G WebOS device, as it be compatible with Sprint's Wi-Max network. As always, this report is unsubstantiated and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Hot on the heels of today's PhoneArena report comes word from Precentral that Let's Talk has posted the Verizon Pre 2 on their Wal-Mart portal site. Let's Talk is an online wireless phone reseller that powers Wal-Mart's online phone store.

The device is currently unavailable for sale and no pricing information is given. However, the Pre 2 is depicted with a full set of specs and specific references to an HP (not Palm) Touchstone dock.

According to the spec listing, nothing has changed in relation to the existing GSM version of the device, but it appears that Verizon's mobile-hotspot feature found on the earlier Pre Plus is still intact. While it's not specified if this is still a "free" feature or not, it's quite possible that HP/Palm will want to continue the Pre's reign as the only VZ device with standard hotspot connectivity.

With CES 2011 kicking off this week, a few new tidbits have emerged to indicate that a Verizon-branded Pre 2 is still imminent, though it may not be long for this world, if the latest PhoneArena report is correct.

Citing an anonymous tipster, Phone Arena is reporting today that the Pre 2 will indeed appear later this month from Verizon Wireless. The device will have an astonishingly short life on the market, as it is reportedly set to be EOL'd and replaced by HP's "...own line of WebOS handsets". The report does not specify if this means HP-branded as well as HP-designed, though some industry pundits are already speculating today that the VZW Pre 2 will indeed by the final device to carry the "Palm" branding.

This report actually becomes quite plausible if you consider the leaked Verizon EOL roadmap from last fall. The current Verizon Pixi Plus, the carrier's only active WebOS handset, is slated to linger until March 31st before being retired. A Pre 2 launched sometime in January after a small production run could indeed enjoy a brief run at the top before being retired alongside its older WebOS siblings in one fell swoop. That March 31st date also coincides with a large number of other current handset retirements, bringing up the usual speculation of a Verizon iPhone launch alongside the carrier's already-confirmed 4G LTE handset rollout.

Over the weekend, Precentral received a screenshot from an anonymous tipster that the Pre 2 has appeared in Best Buy Mobile's internal inventory system.

While no revised release date has materialized, the device's full retail price is $499.99, which fits in nicely one notch above the current unlocked GSM Pre 2 that's available direct from HP. The Pre 2's full retail price is par for the course for a new CDMA smartphone's full price sans any subsidies, so a launch price of $150 (or less) with the usual 2 year contract would appear to be likely whenever the Pre 2 debuts on Big Red.

With the only WebOS 2.0 device now available in carrier-supported form in France and Canada and sold unlocked in the United States and Europe, the Verizon version of the Pre 2 remains a mystery. 


Despite HP/Palm's promise of full Verizon carrier support and subsidies during the Pre 2 launch in October, Verizon's Pre 2 now heads into calendar year 2011 having missed the entire 2010 holiday shopping season.