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The Palm Pre Touchstone inductive charger, as well as several cases for the Pre, have appeared in Best Buy's internal inventory system. The "Touchstone Kit" for the new webOS device lists as $69.99 and presumably will include the required matte battery cover, confirming earlier rumors regarding pricing. A Touchstone line of products is also expected in the future.

While inductive charging is certainly not new (electric toothbrushes have been using them for some time), it is the first time such technology has been used on a cellphone, and is sure to entice many Pre users to upgrade from the basic USB charging cable, despite the weighty price tag.

In addition, five cases - three acrylic, one leather, and one labelled "palm pre case" were also identified in the system. So a decent selection of cases should be available to protect your shiny new Pre.

via SprintUsers

UPDATE: Engadget reports that the "In Stock Date" for the Touchstone has been changed to 06-07-2009 (June 7th). This coincides with earlier rumors that the Pre could also hit store shelves that day.

UPDATE #2: The Touchstone dock will be available for purchase with the Palm Pre, which now officially has a June 6th release date.

It's been a little over a week since Chapter 5 was released, and now Chapter 6, Data, is out for your webOS development pleasure. Below is a short summary of what to expect from the latest chapter:

"Dynamic data is an important part of any Palm webOS application to keep the user connected and in touch, while local data is critical for offline access and a responsive user experience. In this chapter, we've covered both topics, showing you how to use the Depot and Cookie objects, along with Prototype's Ajax functions and the HTML 5 Database APIs to provide what you need. Managing your data in an efficient way is as fundamental to a great user experience as the powerful UI functions."

Topics covered:

• Using Cookies
• Working with the Depot
• HTML 5 Storage
• AJAX

Head over to the official site here. Thanks to shutton in the forums for the heads up!

According to Smarthouse, Palm Manager for Australia Brett Murray states that a second half of 2009 Pre release is forthcoming. Telstra, Australia's largest wireless carrier, is tipped to be picking up the new webOS handset, although Murray would not confirm any exclusivity details.

Research group iSuppli, who predicted the cost of manufacturing the Pre to be about $170, predicts Palm to offer the Pre to Telstra for about $400AUD (~$300USD) who may sell the phone down under for $299AUD (~$225USD) on a plan and $899AUD (~$675USD) outright.

The news comes around the same time as carrier Bell Mobility announced an exclusivity deal for the Pre in Canada. A European release is also on the way, as Palm is currently in the final stages of securing a provider.

To help keep you on top of all the Pre and webOS happenings this past week, below are a few snippets from industry news from around the web. Check back for more news tomorrow!

 

Developers continue to praise webOS experience

Palm Infocenter notes that developers have a general consensus that Palm webOS is a compelling, developer-friendly mobile platform. It also touches on the continued growth of PreDevCamp, the upcoming worldwide webOS developer event now spanning more than 70 cities. The multitasking and synergy features are praised, as well as legacy support for Palm OS apps.

Palm Goon has another take on the issue, giving reasons why developers will be the key to the success of the platform. This is further proof that webOS continues to energize developers.

 

Pre to support Office 2007 docs, picture messaging, multiple IM; Handmark stock tracking app

There is more good news in regards to Palm Pre capabilities. The latest FAQ from a Sprint insider (see previous FAQ) reports that the Pre will be compatible with Office 2007 documents, giving it a one-up in the business world. It will also support multiple IM sessions and MMS. Video recording is still not expected, but may be added with a firmware update in the future.

In addition, Handmark announced their webOS Express Stocks app, reports PreThinking, which keeps you up-to-date with personalized stock information and financial news.

 

Best Buy to carry Palm Pre

The Best Buy website recently posted a banner ad for the Palm Pre, notes Engadget. Although the banner doesn't link to anything currently, it is fairly indicative that Best Buy will be carrying the new webOS handset at or near launch.

Palm verified this week that the Pre will be available exclusively on the CDMA Bell Mobility network in the second half of 2009. This confirms rumors the Pre was headed to Bell earlier this year, and will make Bell the second carrier to officially announce the upcoming webOS handset. The exclusivity contract means that rival CDMA provider Telus Mobility will not carry the device upon the Canadian launch (despite earlier rumors). Adel Bazerghi, senior vice president of products for Bell Mobility, states:

“Bell is excited to be only the second carrier in the world to announce the 3G Pre. With the unique user experience of the world’s first webOS phone, running on the country’s largest 3G network, we’re confident that Canadians will embrace Pre as the phone for their lives today."

Bell has a longtime partnership with Palm, currently offering the Centro and Treo Pro in their lineup. Pricing and exclusivity details for the Pre on Bell have not yet been announced. You can visit the official Bell Palm Pre page for details.

Source

Normally, we would hope Palm employees minimize their downtime to get the new webOS Pre out in time. However, a particular lunch break scheduled on June 5th is definitely something we can look forward to. An anonymous tipster recently sent BGR an internal Palm memo of an itinerary for Palm Pre training beginning on June 3rd, and culminating in a "LAUNCH LUNCH" on Friday, June 5th at noon.

While this opens up the possibility of a June 5th or 6th launch, the rumored June 7th release date may still hold up, given that Sprint tends to prefer Sunday for new handset launches. A Sprint blogger (who previously posted a Palm Pre FAQ) also hints at June 7th with a pic of the alleged date on his blog, notes PreCentral. Any of these dates would still preempt the iPhone Developers Conference scheduled for the 8th.

Perhaps this luncheon could be a little R&R before Sprint goes full steam ahead with the Pre? The new rumors also mean that the previous May 17th date, gathered from internal memos and shipment documents, could be losing steam.

Reports of expanded training are also surfacing. PreThinking notes that Sprint's business unit has already begun online Palm Pre training, which includes managers and upper personnel. This is in addition to retail-level training of Sprint Store Advocates, who are experts on a given device.

Unfortunately, looks like we won't be getting much info from them anytime soon, as employees receive a strict NDA statement before and after the training. Apparently, some have already been terminated for publicly discussing the Pre. Sprint employees have been rumored to be training for some time now, while AT&T has given employees some anti-Pre training of their own.

Before you start writing code, it's always a good idea to create a wireframe that lays out the basic scenes and stages within the application.  (Click here for few wireframing examples.)  This can be done with basic rectangles and text in PowerPoint, but forum poster shutton has a better idea.  He created a wireframe with elements that mimic the look of the Mojo UI, including buttons in various sizes:

Check out this forum thread to download the .svg file.  By resizing and moving elements around and adding new elements and text in a program like Illustrator, you can quickly mock up how your application will look and get a much better picture of how a user will interact with it.  You'll also be better able to spot any potentially awkward interactions in the UI you may not have previously noticed.  

If anyone is feeling creative, it would be great to build on this file by adding shapes representing other Mojo UI widgets (e.g. radio buttons, sliders, toggle buttons, etc.) and create a complete shape library for rapid wireframing of webOS applications.  After all...what better way to spend your time while waiting to get into the Mojo early access program?

This article is the first of many daily development-related webOS articles.  Grab the RSS feed to stay in the know!

Dialogs are found in most modern applications. They are used to inform the user of errors, provide information, or present the user with important choices. Dialogs in Mojo have some interesting capabilities, such as the ability put almost any functionality into a dialog by building it as a scene.

Dialogs are instantiated using controller functions instead of setupWidget().  showDialog() is used to display custom dialogs, and requires both a template and an assistant—the same as a scene.

There are three basic types of dialogs:

• Error Dialog: Used for presenting error information.
• Alert Dialog: Used for presenting simple options.
• Custom Dialog: A custom dialog requires its own scene with its own assistant and scene view file, which generates overhead both from a development perspective and a device resource perspective. When pushed, the dialog scene becomes a child of the invoking scene.