Palm Upgrades Pre and Pixi, Jumps Over to Verizon

While Palm’s CES press conference in 2010 couldn’t rival the atmosphere of the big ’09 Pre unveiling, Palm did have some notable new things to offer for its staple phones.

First up, the new versions of the Pre and the Pixi will bail from Sprint in favor of Verizon, starting later this month.

The new Palm Pre Plus gets a slightly more streamlined look with the loss of the button used for closing out apps. The new-improved Pre will also get an inductive back plate, which will allow it to sync with the Palm Touchstone magnetic charger without needing to swap out the battery cover. Pre memory is upgraded to 16 GB, which is double the 8 GB offered in the original. According to Engadget, the sliding mechanism on the Pre Plus is also smoother than the original.

Pixi Plus loses some mass of its already slim profile and gets Wi-Fi.

Both phones will become mobile 3G hotspots, capable of connecting up to five additional devices via Wi-Fi. They will also get long-coveted video recording function.

Palm’s webOS will receive a number of upgrades including Adobe Flash 10.1 (for Pre) and opening of the software development kit to the public–expect to see apps expanding much more rapidly than before. [via PC World]