Palm Blog Rounds Up Savings, Offers for Pre Plus, Pixi Plus

The Palm Blog has rounded up a number of deals on Palm's newest smartphones, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus.
 
Anyone who's had an eye on a new smartphone, or on the Palm phones in particular, could hardly do better than the deal Verizon Wireless is offering right now: the Pre Plus for $49.99 or the Pixi Plus for $29.99. Both phones require a new two-year activation with a minimum data plan of $29.99, but both also come with a buy one, get one free offer.
 
Verizon is also now offering free service with the Palm mobile hot spot app. With the app, Pre Plus and Pixi Plus owners can use their phone to create a 3G hot spot to share with up to five other WiFi-enabled devices. Plus, the Blog points out, the first 5GB of data each month are now free.
 
On the contest front, Working Mother magazine is sponsoring a Little Techie competition, asking parents to send in photos of their tech-gurus-in-the-making "exploring the world of technology." More than cherubs chewing on keypads, they're shooting for-pun intended-kids chatting and surfing and clicking away at keypads.
 
First prize is a Palm smartphone of your choice and a $50 gift card to the Palm App Catalog.
 
If you're already a fan of webOS, the celebrated platform that Palm's newest handsets run on, webOSroundup is hosting a contest based on consumer-made videos that best showcase the "strengths of the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi and webOS."
 
Videos have to be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, original material and- this is a family company, folks-clean. The deadline for entries is May 3, and prizes include free phones, other hardware goodies and gift cards for apps. Full details are at webOSroundup.
 
Had Palm's original ad campaign been nearly as cool as the fan-made ad that made its rounds in March, Palm might not be in the pinch it's in.  
 
On Feb. 25, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein warned Wall Street that Palm's fiscal 2010 third quarter wasn't going to meet expectations. What Palm reported on March 18, however, dipped even lower than Wall Street's lowered hopes, though Rubinstein insists that fixes are under way. The latter include an aggressive new ad campaign and deals with new carrier partners.
 
While Palm debuted the Palm Pre and Pixi on the Sprint network, the Pixi Plus and Pre Plus arrived on the Verizon Wireless Network Feb. 1 and will soon debut on the AT&T network.
 
"We're offering our customers even greater choice by adding Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus to the nation's best smartphone portfolio," Jeff Bradley, AT&T senior vice president of devices, said in a March 22 statement. "Palm webOS [offers] access to the nation's largest WiFi network, and the ability to talk and surf the Web at the same time is a powerful combination."