PreCentral is running a piece from an anonymous tipster which includes a few screenshots and some brief initial impressions of the AT&T Pre Plus. The Pre Plus in question is running WebOS 1.4.2 and the AT&T Pre Plus is reportedly subjectively faster than the similar Verizon Pre Plus.

Barring any last-minute surprise spec bumps, the only two major remaining unknown factors are the devices’ release date and pricing. Speculation for the AT&T webOS launch has ranged from May 10th per FCC documentation research to the 14th to the 16th. At any rate, it appears nearly certain that the official AT&T launch for the WebOS twins is imminent at some point later this month.

Source: Palm Info Center

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• AT&T will release the Palm Pre Plus and the 3G MicroCell on May 16 (mobilecrunch.com)

Verizon slashed the cost of its 3G Mobile Hotspot feature for the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus all the way down to $0, effectively giving you a broadband modem for your laptop, iPod touch, and up to three other devices for $60 less per month than you’d pay with a MiFi that accomplishes exactly the same function (and $50 less than any other tether-capable Verizon handset). Here’s Verizon’s official statement on the matter:
“Customers who purchase or upgrade to a Palm Pre and Palm Pixi will get the Mobile Hotspot for free. Existing customers who already have the service will find charges on their next bill will be $0.00.”
Add that in to the fact that the Pre Plus is now $49.99 and the Pixi Plus is now $29.99, both with buy-one-get-one-free deals tacked on.

Source: Engadget

It may have taken a little while for those in Europe to be able to get a Palm Pre, however that does not seem like it will be the case with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. The timing of this also follows up nicely on those earlier rumors suggesting that the Pre Plus was going to soon be available with O2.

Read: Palm Pre Plus & Pixi Plus Are Heading To Europe [GCF (Global Certification Forum) Approval Arrives For The Palm Pre Plus & Palm Pixi Plus] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

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• Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus coming to O2 this April (ubergizmo.com)

To attract more customers, VZW even floated the BOGO offer where the Pre Plus could be taken for free on the Pixi Plus purchase. The current listed price for the VZW Palm Pre Plus is a shocking $30 which tells you the entire story.

The BOGO offer also couldn’t do much good for VZW and hence the prices had to be dropped severely. The Pre Plus was available for $70 a couple of weeks ago at Walmart and at that time, no one expected an ‘amusing’ $40 further price drop. Even Amazon has listed the Pre Plus for $39.99 on a two-year contract.

Source: Device Mag

Verizon Wireless has jettisoned its $100 mail-in rebate requirements for its Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus smartphones, possibly smoothing the way for shoppers to snap up the gadgets.

The Pre Plus is now available for $149.99 and the Pixi Plus is going for $79.99. The devices in January were introduced at $149.99 and $99.99, respectively, after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Source: Kansas City

Wood TV has a review of the New Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Here are the highlights:
These phones are magical. That’s right. With the push of a button your phone becomes a WiFi hotspot. The utility of being able to turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot is amazing.

No other phone has ever had this capability offered at retail. You can tether other phones to your laptop via a USB cable or Bluetooth, but the software on the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus turns your phone into a WiFi network.

I tested it out in the food court in the middle of one of the local malls. Where there was not other WiFi network present, I connected to the Pixi Plus’ network without a hitch and was able to check email and do some light browsing. I had two friends with me, who were also able to browse without an issue.

The App Catalog has grown. At the launch of the original Pre, there were just 30 apps. Fast forward to December of 2009 when I reviewed the Pixi, 774 apps were cataloged. As of this writing, there are now 1,516 apps. This number is likely to grow as Palm has released a more developer-friendly set of tools for writing apps. The 100,000+ apps of Apple’s App Store, and the tens of thousands of apps in Google’s Android Marketplace overshadow the small number in the App Catalog.

The screen sizes and resolutions are identical to the non-plussed counterparts. That means the Pre Plus sports a 480×320 resolution and the Pixi Plus has only a 400×320. From the original Pixi review: “At first glance, 80 pixels may not seem like that many, but it’s really noticeable. Cycle through to one of the images that shows the comparison of how much you’re losing on the Pixi compared to the Pre to see just what I’m talking about.”

Mobilitysite got the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus from Verizon a couple days ago, and here is the highlights from their first impressions:

Starting with the Pre Plus, first thing I have to say is the build quality is a lot better. I had quite a few problems with the Sprint Palm Pre, and it’s all fixed now on the Pre Plus. Slider is solid, no creaks, everything is solid. I like the new front without the button, looks a lot cleaner, and the gesture area works just as well without the button. Keyboard has improved a little bit, still no where close to the Pixi Plus though. Verizon has been solid here, although I would lose EV-DO every once in a while. That could be related to the Pre Plus itself, because the Pixi Plus didn’t have that problem at all. So far, my main concern with the Pre Plus is battery life. I can barely make it through a day with moderate use.

Yep, the $149 and $99 two-year contract prices for the Verizon Wireless versions of Palm’s Pre and Pixi touchscreen phones are the same as they are on Sprint. That said, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus each come with support for a killer new feature: the ability to turn either handset into a wireless hotspot. Hands-on impressions ahead.

Set for release January 25—next Monday—on Verizon, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus (announced earlier this month at CES in Las Vegas) are virtually identical to the original Pre and Pixi on Sprint, right down to the $100 mail-in rebates you’ll need to send (via snail-mail, of course) to get the $149 and $99 two-year contract prices.

There are a few key differences, though, ranging from the cosmetic (no more physical trackballs, keys that have a little more “click” than they did before) to the internal (the Pre Plus comes with 16GB of built-in flash storage, versus just 8GB for Sprint’s Pre).

One of the coolest features for the new phones, however, is actually an app that’ll only be available for Verizon Wireless subscribers (at least initially, anyway): Palm Mobile Hotspot, which turns your Pre Plus or Pixi Plus into a portable Wi-Fi access point, à la Novatel’s credit card-sized MiFi.

Read the full story on Yahoo Tech

Doubled RAM inside Palm’s refreshed iPhone fighter allows it to run 50 apps at a time, and even then it hasn’t hit the wall.

You could be forgiven for passing over the extra RAM in Palm’s recently announced Pre Plus as pretty dry news, but apparently a few extra megabytes here and there can make a pretty huge real-world difference. More specifically, the Verizon-bound Palm Pre Plus can run 50 applications simultaneously.

Read the full story on Digital Trends.

4/5 in Cnet:

The Palm Pre Plus earns its place as the top WebOS device, improving on the Pre with a better design and performance, and upgraded features. Verizon customers looking for a versatile smartphone to balance their personal and work lives will be well-served by the Pre Plus.