Can’t decide between a Palm Pre or an iPhone? Why not get both in this clone, which comes in the form of the Palm Pre, with the iPhone home button. On the hardware side, it features a QWERTY keyboard, that iPhone home button and an operating system that tries to pass itself off as iOS.

It also supports dual SIM, with two cameras, a 3″ touchscreen display at 240 x 400 resolution, a microSD memory card slot, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It’s compatible only with GSM networks.

One of the issues that users of slider phones like the Palm Pre run into is finding a case that offers good protection and still lets the phone slide open for use. OtterBox offers all sorts of cases for different mobile devices and the company has announced a new case for the Pre.

The case is called the Tandem and is a two-piece case that attaches to the front and back section of the phone. The case offers protection from drops and still allows the Pre to slide open and closed. The case also has an over molding that protects the edges of the device.

So, the Palm Pre plus removed the navigation button, features 2x internal RAM, 16GB storage, and a built-in inductive back cover for Touchstone inductive charging. While the Pixi Plus now features Wi-Fi and more colors for back covers, which are all Touchstone enabled.

Both these phones are exclusively for Verizon and a new mobile hotspot app lets you create a Wi-Fi network from Verizon 3G for sharing with up to five devices. That’s pretty cool. Nothing on price yet, but we should know about that soon.

Looks like people in the UK are really digging the Palm Pre. The Palm Pre is more anticipated than the iPhone with 26% of mobile users having some interest in getting one. The iPhone scored just 16% of interest back in 2007.

Many users want to switch to O2 from another carrier just to get the Palm Pre. This is really saying something, because as we all know, the iPhone still has the upper-hand as far as marketing and awareness. Very interesting. We will have to watch and see what happens. Any predictions?

mSpot isn’t new. It has been streaming full-length movies to cellphones for a few years. Now however, the company has a potential customer base of 40 million. Mobile phone users on Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile (including the G1, Pre, iPhone and other smartphones) can go to m.mspot.com to stream movies.

The service is on-demand, so you can also pause and restart them whenever you want. How about that? They have deals with Paramount Studios, Universal and the Weinstein Company, and it looks like more agreements will happen shortly.

The Palm Pre just keeps getting better doesn’t it? Hot on the heels of showing up on Amazon for $99, Walmart is selling the Pre for $79.99.

That’s on contract and with mail-in rebate. Not great news for those of you who dropped $200 a few months ago though. If you’ve been waiting on a deal for the Palm Pre, this is it. It won’t get much cheaper. We think.

It appears that with the recent release of iTunes 9, Apple has once again cut-off direct access for the Palm Pre’s iTunes support. We had seen it before with the release. It shouldn’t be too big of a surprise to Palm owners however, since Apple said the connectivity wouldn’t last long and they’ve thwarted Palm’s access in the past with iTunes iTunes 8.2.1.

It’s easy to see arguments on both sides of this issue, as frustrating as it might be for Palm owners. On one side Apple would like iTunes users to use Apple products to connect directly to iTunes, such as iPods or iPhones. But, they also have been a proponent of non-DRM music and are essentially making it difficult for other devices to get access to the music through their application.

Lets take a moment to honor coders, those genius nerds that do the impossible every day. Their latest trick? They’ve stumbled upon a pre-alpha on-screen keyboard for the Palm Pre that was cleverly hidden away in the depths of webOS.

Portrait or landscape version doesn’t matter, the native keyboard will be available, compatible with virtually any app and every field. Most are likely used to the QWERTY keyboard available on the Palm Pre, but if you like virtual better, then this is pretty awesome.

If you want a Palm Pre for $99.99, then head over to LetsTalk. The company is offering the Palm smartphone for $99 after a combination of mail-in and instant discounts, though it appears that you need to order before the end of today if you want to be eligible.

The Pre is new (not refurbished) and requires a two-year agreement with Sprint, but that’s no different to what the carrier or Amazon would expect of you. Once this rebate expires who knows what deals, if any, the company will be offering. If you’ve been waiting for the Palm Pre to get cheap, head over there now.

Here’s some good news for Pre fans who haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet. The newest Best Buy ad shows the handset on sale for just $99 on a two-year contract. That’s $100 less than the previous price. The timing is interesting. This comes just a few days after Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said that “it’s too early to tell” if the Pre’s a hit.

Well, this should put his mind at ease and boost sales. The question is, is this just a one-week sale or a permanent price drop? You better grab one quick, just in case.

There’s a select group of people living among us that make no sense at all. Like this guy, who is willing to endure a painful and permanent tattoo in order to win a Palm Pre. Hell, just buy the phone. It’s not nearly as painful and in a few years you’ll be on to the next big phone.

Obviously the dude wanted his fifteen minutes of fame. It looks more like 15 minutes of lame. This guy and the Zune guy need to get together and talk about their next project. They would make quite a team.

It hasn’t been long and there may not be a ton of Pre apps available yet, but apparently there are enough for an impressive 666,511 downloads as of June 17th. By now it is likely close to or past the 700,000 mark.

I’d call that a success. As shown in the above graph, they’ve been rising steadily as more apps become available, and we don’t see any signs of the numbers dropping. It’s still early, but things are looking great for Pre app downloads. That graph is sure to spike as more fart and beer apps show up.

Today there are some reports from at least two Palm Pre forums of screen distortion affecting the recently launched Pre. Palm has yet to acknowledge the issue, but there’s a lot of discussion at the Precentral forums, where most of the affected users are reporting a similar circular distortion at the bottom of the Pre’s screen., While at the EverythingPre forums, there are similar complaints.

It seems like some Sprint stores are aware of the issue, and have been exchanging the handsets for new ones, if they have the stock. There is some photo “evidence”, some of it more compelling than others. Though some of the “distortion” has been ID’d by users as a normal part of the background design.

By now everyone knows that the Palm Pre has iTunes support. But Pre’s identity to its host system when connected via USB has confirmed what was already suspected. The method that it uses to hook into iTunes is…questionable.

The Pre identifies itself as an iPod in Media Sync mode, but only on the system’s mass storage interface. The root USB node still comes through as a Palm Pre. Apple could, if they wanted to, easily block it. Would Apple do that? It would certainly help grow their user base to let it be.

There’s no way to know for sure if the linked document is authentic or not. It builds on the original, from a few days back. It sems like a lot of trouble to go through for a joke or hoax, but there are some sick and bored people out there.

I mean, it’s a 31 page PDF file showing Palm Pre inventories for every Best Buy in the US and Puerto Rico. If this is bunk, than someone has a very sad life. Make of it what you will. Maybe it will help you get a Pre.