Reviews: Apple iPhone 3Gs, Palm Pre, Google Android G1 Phone from HTC. Plus how to speed up programs in Windows 7, an awesome Free Password Manager, upgrading your notebook audio, better EVDO, switching audio in OS X, and promises from AT&T

Recent reports that Verizon has pulled the kibosh on Palm’s best smartphone, the Palm Pre, may be pure speculation.  TheStreets.com reported that “people close to the discussions say Verizon has decided not to support the Pre.”  TheStreets.com do not site their sources on this and further investigation point to this being false.

Pure common sense would tell you that Verizon snubbing Palm on the Pre would be a bad deal for both parties.  While the Pre is a promising device for Palm to debut it’s WebOS mobile operating system, it has had a hard time making a big splash, only being offered from the waining Sprint.  The Pre and WebOS is supposed to be the saving grace for a near defunct Palm and in order to get it into the hands of the masses, Palm must expand it’s reach.  On Verizon’s side, they could definitely use a flagship smartphone to add to their less than appealing line of devices.  Verizon has long been bashed for their less than spectacular phone lineup and the Palm Pre could be the device to squash those complaints, if they don’t cripple it with their VZ crapware. Read the rest of this entry

The Palm Pre launch this past weekend wasn’t a anything to dismiss, JP Morgan estimates sales of over 50,000 units in the opening weekend.  That is a pretty respectable amount for only 2 days, but compared to nearly 1 million iPhone 3G’s sold it’s first weekend it falls short.  The point that the Palm Pre sold out at every store it was available is understandable when you look at the stock each store had.  Some Best Buy stores were only allocated 5 units, really?  Investors are not convinced that this weekend is indicative of Palm coming out of the gutter financially.  Palm stock has dropped 10 percent as of this morning.  For a company that is all but basing a Chapter 13 filing on this one device, I don’t see much light.  I believe we will see what really will happen to Palm after this coming weeks sales.  Palm has a tough opponent in the Apple marketing machine and the iPhone 3V expected to be announced in the coming minutes.

Whether you got up at the crack of dawn and got in line to be first or you chanced it and arrived at one of the Sprint, Radio Shack, Best Buy, or Walmart stores at opening, I hope your new wonder device does not look like this.

The guys at Rapid Repair have done the unthinkable and dissected the Palm Pre in order to value the guts of the device.  The Pre seems to be a bit easier to disassemble then the iPhone but comes in at just about the same value for the components at $170.

Reports are coming in from today’s nationwide release and everything seems to be pretty smooth.  Let us know how your experience was.  I’d love to hear from somebody that has also endured the iPhone launch lines as well.