The Palm Pre seems to be garnering mostly positive and complimentary reviews from the gadget blogosphere as the first round of reviews make their way out. Reuters has just disseminated a piece that sums up the reactions from Wall Street and the newspaper reviewers.

"I consider the Pre to be potentially the strongest rival to iPhone to date, provided it attracts lots of third-party apps, which it sorely lacks at launch," The WSJ's Walt Mossberg remarks in his review.

Palm stock gained 9% today on the news. It closed the day up 1.15 at 13.64.

Well known computer hacker DVD Jon Lech Johansen's, aka DVD Jon, has posted a pair of articles on his personal blog which detail how the Palm Pre is able to connect with Apple's iTunes software. (via Slashdot) It turns out that when "Media Sync" is selected on the Pre, it talks to to iTunes and returns specific XML info about the device which identifies itself as a generic iPod.

When the Pre is in "Media Sync" mode it identifies itself as an Apple iPod. However, it's only the Mass Storage interface that identifies itself as an iPod. The root USB node (IOUSBDevice) still identifies the device as a Palm Pre (not visible in the image above). This means that Apple can very easily update iTunes to block the Pre.

The New York Times has posted a new piece in their Bits Blog today that quotes Palm and Sprint PR reps attempting to manage expectations for this weekends Palm Pre launch. In short, they are not expecting a "frenzy" of long lines and packed stores.

"We're actually trying to manage the exact opposite," [Sprint's] Mr. Elliott said.
[...]
"What we're trying to do is not have people backed up waiting so customers feel rushed," [...] Success "is not about having a line out the door," he said. "It's about being able to treat each customer and make sure they're happy with their decision."

The Palm Pre is the long awaited, eagerly anticipated and uber-hyped next generation smartphone from Palm Inc. First unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January amidst much fanfare, the device has been an online media darling ever since.

Arriving in Sprint retail stores on June 6, the Palm Pre is the result of a corporate restructuring years in the making and tons of behind the scenes work. It will also be available from Best Buy and select Wall-Mart stores in the US. The Pre will sell for $199 from Sprint after rebates and a two year service contract. The full retail price without a contract will be $599.

Now that it's finally here, read on as PalmInfocenter presents our in-depth review of the Palm Pre.

Palm Inc. has posted a new commercial for the Palm Pre. Available for viewing on Palm's Facebook page, the ad is the first official television commercial for the new device. Per Palm's blog:

The ad features an imaginative interpretation of several unique Pre features, such as Synergy and multitasking. Directed by acclaimed commercial and feature film director Tarsem, the cast includes over 1,000 martial arts performers orchestrated by Sun Yupeng, who previously choreographed the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics.

Fresh from the spat with Palm over the recent preDevCamp drama, William Hurley has published a dismal summation of the Pre's flop potential at Business Week. The article focuses on the possible missteps that could hamper the Pre's successful arrival including Palm's mistreatment of the developer community, a lack of apps and the possibility of being upstaged by whatever Apple announces next.

Remember that Palm's developer network has been largely dormant for three to four years; not immediately embracing its reinvigorated efforts is shortsighted and will prove costly.

While billed under the "viewpoint" heading, the article reads much like a "hatchet job" according to Barron's TechTraderDaily.

News conglomerate Reuters has published a somewhat rosy editorial on the Pre's potential for success. In a new piece entitled "Palm's Pre: a star is born?" the author guesstimates as many as 600,000 Pre's could be sold by the end of August.

It's no iPhone-killer, but the launch this weekend of Palm Inc's "Pre" could well become the brightest event this year for a gloomy industry. [...]

Plenty could go wrong. Executives have warned of shortages. Scathing reviews could smother not just Palm's hopes, but also Sprint's. And investors might have to wait a long time for the device to boost Palm's financials.

Softick has updated their popular Audio Gateway program, the Bluetooth Stereo A2DP solution for Palm OS devices. Updates in this version include better power management, customizable audio profiles, connection optimizations and some user interface changes.

Softick Audio Gateway v1.25 from Softick is available for $19.95 and a limited trial version is available for download. The updated version of Audio Gateway is free to registered owners of the software. PIC's review of version 1.12 of the app can be found here.

Rumor: EverythingPre has posted what appears to be a number of screen grabs from a Best Buy inventory system. The screenshots supposedly show the stock levels of the Palm Pre for many of its stores for this weekends launch. The shots originate from the site forum, where a member has been posting the images from various states and areas.

Rumors about Palm Pre stock levels have been all over the map of late and if these shots are indeed accurate, it shows that there will be a wide variation depending on the location. A quick perusal shows that some stores could have as many as 26 on hand for Saturday, while a majority will have stock in the single digits with no more than 3 - 6 units per store. The Best Buy location in Sunnyvale, CA (Palm's hometown) will purportedly only have 13 available on day one.

MotionApps has posted a new video demo of its webOS Palm OS simulator. The video clip shows a couple of frequently requested Palm OS titles running on a Pre with the Classic app. You can checkout the 2 minute video after the break. In addition, the company has also posted a new Classic screenshot gallery which shows even more Palm OS apps on the Pre.

MotionApp's Classic application will allow users to run Palm OS applications on the Palm Pre. Classic will be available from the on device Palm App Catalog at launch.

Discussion: With Saturday approaching quickly, and some lines already beginning to form, I've setup an open thread here for everyone to discuss their respective game-plan for scoring a Pre this weekend.

So what's your strategy? Camping out a Sprint Store Friday night? paying a surrogate to stand in line, scoping out a Best Buy or Walmart, holding a seance at an old Palm Airport outlet, skipping it until the crowds die down or just waiting for online orders to begin?