www.webOShelp.net

Last week, rumors were that tech-savvy late-night host Jimmy Fallon wanted to get the webOS Palm Pre on his show. That became a reality yesterday, when Fallon played host to Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, who toted the new webOS device with him onto the show.

Topolski had barely become comfortable before sliding the sleek handset out of his pocket. "You're going to show me something that I'm dying to know about.", Fallon said. "You've managed to get something that noone else can get...because you're you", Topolsky quipped back.

After posting dismal Q3 earnings, Palm was evaluating options to boost its budget for the launch of its webOS handset, which included remarketing common shares in Elevation Partners. Today, Palm exercised their right to do just that, remarketing 18.5M shares of the common Series C units of preferred stock and warrants acquired by Elevation Partners back in January.

The initial agreement was made when Elevation Partners infused the struggling handset maker with an investment of $100M in December of last year, allowing Palm to remarket 49% of its Palm shares tied to its series C preferred stock by March 31.

As a result, Elevation will recoup their $49M in original costs, with Palm receiving any net proceeds beyond that amount. Based on current market prices, the total value of the stock comes close to $105M, so Palm could be set up for a healthy allowance in excess of $50M for the launch of the Pre.

Palm shares fell after the news, closing down 2% at $6.02 today.

Yesterday we reported that the Pre was first on a top 10 list of gadgets from a source in London; turns out this list was actually a snippet from a top 100 list by T3, a popular UK magazine specializing in gadgets and technology. The Pre has previously won several awards, including Best of Show at CES 2009. Here are a few excerpts from T3's writeup on the Pre:

"Time-worn brands redeeming themselves...but a Palm phone? A hot product from a company that, like Vanilla Ice, was big in the 90s? Believe it. Palm has taken the best aspects of the iPhone and BlackBerry Pearl, thrown away the things that users don't like about those handsets...it's the first true "iPhone killer".

Here's a few juicy tidbits from industry sources this weekend to help satisfy your Pre cravings:

Bloomberg: Interview with Roger McNamee - Bloomberg recently had an interview with Elevation Partner's co-founder and Palm Investor Roger McNamee. In the interview, McNamee explains how the Pre and iPhone will be driving the rapidly expanding smartphone market (right now at 20%), and expects 50% smartphone adoption within 5 years. "They're aren't really fighting each other. They're really fighting Nokia, Motorola....the folks make the old fashioned phones".

In comparing the Pre to Apple's offering, he states he is a longtime Apple user, with Mac computers, an iPhone and iPod touch. "For media, they're fantastic...but our product is just going to run rings around them of the web". And while the competitors such as the Android and iPhone are based on current computer technologies, the Pre is truly a "next generation" device. In addition, Sprint has a more "mature 3G network" and so was a logical choice for the Pre over AT&T.

palmpreFIX: webOS Imitator Alert - A new program for the Android OS copies a lot of the features of the Palm Pre synergy. It consolidates social networks, daily activities and communications all through the address book. The software is also designed to be customizable, so users can choose what applications run through their contacts.

With the exception of the recent Palm Q3 revenue shortfall and upcoming webcast, it's been a relatively slow week for the Pre and webOS. We've assembled articles from industry news and other goodies to tide you over until the bigger stuff arrives. Feel free to comment on any of the articles below.

• Bloomberg: Pre to Win iPhone Users After Contracts: Roger McNamee, an outspoken investor and founding partner of Elevation Partners, makes the argument that the Pre will come at a perfect time to lure customers away from the iPhone; June 29 is the two-year anniversary of the first shipments of Apple's handset.

"Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone later...Think about it -- If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market, Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy."

• Official Palm Blog: Palm to support Patent Reform Act: With the Coalition for Patent Fairness, Palm is supporting a set of reforms to bring more predictability and balance to the patent system, so worthy inventions will be patented more quickly and inventors compensated fairly without the "threat of opportunistic litigation and disproportionate damages awards". Precentral notes that members already include Google, Dell, HP, Microsoft, and Apple. So it's unlikely to put out any flames in the ongoing patent dispute between the two companies.

There could be some big news coming soon for the hotly-anticipated webOS handset. Palm and Sprint are joining forces in hosting a webcast for the Palm Pre on March 12. CNET was first with the news: Presenters will include Fared Adib, VP of Device Operations & Logistics for Sprint, and Matt Crowley, Product Line Manager at Palm. The "first in a series of interactive webcasts", or "webinar" will provide a first look at the Pre on the Sprint 3G Network. The will also be highlighting three key differentiators that make the Pre a "standout in the smartphone device category."

Many sites are already hoping for details of launch date and price to come out, while other sites have started rumors that the Pre would be 'officially' delayed (later denied by Palm director Jon Zilber). With Palm revenue continuing to fall in anticipation of the Pre, let's hope a clear date is on the horizon.

Palm CEO Ed Colligan and others from Palm have continued to stay tight-lipped about anything other than a "first half of 2009" target. The previous webcast was held on Feb 25 was hosted by Palm CTO Mitch Allen, which detailed webOS from a developer standpoint; during the Q&A period there was also no shortage of "when" regarding for the device and SDK.

The webcast is set for Thursday March 12 at 11AM, with a 20 minute presentation followed by a 20 minute Q&A. We will keep you posted as all the details come in.

Earlier at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a GSM version of the Pre was spotted. This sparked rumors that Vodafone would be the first GSM carrier of the webOS device. These rumors finally have some backing to them, as Palm WebOS Blog recently translated a site on tweakers.net (in Dutch) that states that Vodafone are in negotiation with Palm for the release of the Pre. It's not clear what stage the negotiations are in as yet, but a spokesperson said a deal for 3 months of exclusitivity was in the works.

Vodafone would be a strong partner for a European release. Already, the Pre has appeared on the official portals of 18 countries, and is rumored to be rounding out a North American release with Bell Canada.

Source

Here's an interesting tidbit that came in. For fans of the Pre and late-night shows, NBC talk show host Jimmy Fallon might be good to keep an eye on. He may be the most tech-savvy host yet, whose passions include new gadgets, phones, video games, and using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Flickr. This is in addition to a serious of webisodes he created leading up to the show's premiere. In an interview, he implies that he wants to get the guys behind the fancy webOS handset onto his show:

I'm interested in tech, and I'm interested in gadgets. I want tech people to come on my show, whether it's Bill Gates or the guy who designed the new Palm Pre, to talk about new inventions.