Palm Sighting: Castle 29
Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) has been sporting a Palm Pre throughout this season of the popular crime drama Castle, but it’s a rare event that we actually see the phone’s UI in action. This week, we not only got to see the Pre in action, but we got to see it on a Touchstone. Of course, we won’t point out that yet another TV show has whipped up a pointlessly different interface for the Pre, or that they managed to set the phone up too high on the Touchstone dock to actually charge...
Have you spotted the Pre, Pixi, or other Palm device on your favorite show? Drop us a note at pretips@precentral.net with the show and a few relevant details like air date, time in the episode, and an online video link if you've got one!
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
29 Comments
Sweeeeeeet! The more exposure, the better for Palm...the better for Palm, the better for us =)
Bring on "the first 4G webOS smartphone!"
=]
I was surprised when I heard the words "Palm Pre" spoken on FlashForward the other night.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Pre mentioned on FlashForward as well! Great PR for Palm! Thank you Hollywood!
The top half of the phone looks a matte finish, not shiny like a normal pre. I'm guessing this is a mockup, eh?
probably a sticker... just like the Best Buy display.
It's just the studio lighting.
I think one of the developers that hang around this site should buld a patch that looks exactly like Beckett's phone when it rings... We should have an app for that...
Stana should be in the shot too!
I didn't watch the show, but is that touchstone modded to a dashboard? Sweet.....
Touchstone and Pre were on a table.
Any exposure is good.
I've been noticing some nice web ads from Verizon on different sites, including big news sites, that talk about getting one of three great smart phones. They are the Droid, Pre and Pixi. The ads are pretty good. Hopefully more people will see them.
What Palm needs to do is have a video that just shows someone using the Pre or Pixi and going through apps, the web, email, calendar, etc. Show how great webOS is.
i was watching that show Kendra last night and they were using a pre.
I love that show. It's one of my favorite on the sprint tv app. Does anyone know the title of that episode?
Palm Sighting: World New Tonight. Volunteers in Fargo were seen filling canvas bags with Palm Pres in a mostly futile attempt to hold back the rising Red River.
LOL - those were old WinMo Treos...
It is called "tick-tick-tick". The plot lines are getting sillier as the season goes on. I'm only watching because they use a Pre (apparently from Sprint, FYI).
Becket keeps her phone in her pocket so she can't use a Nexus One, because it would break:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/06/bad-news-htc-says-nexus-ones-dont-go-...
And once again, Palm is positioning the Pre as a woman's phone...
I really hate that they seem to position the pixi as a woman's phone. i spent 2 hours in the sprint store deciding on which phone to upgrade to. was between pre, pixi, and droid. After 2 hours of playing with each. I chose the pixi, and i definitely have testicles.
If they actually have an app to capture and transmit fingerprints like that... I might buy an iPhone just for that.
Do you think anyone actually recognizes that to be a Pre unless they are a Pre owner - or personally know a rabid Palm enthusiast?
Ironically, the 3-d transparent evidence display at the FBI that Castle plays with at minute twelve works like WebOS, and even resembles the latest Palm Pre ad.
It multitasks, swipes to move windows, pinches to zoom, etc.
Tale a look at about minute 12 and see if you agree. Perhaps the next Palm phone will be completely see-through and have 3 screens?
Or maybe that's the prototype for a WebOS tablet?
Wow...ABC is showing some love! Love it, more exposer the better.
I suspect the fake screen was altered to make it full-screen (since ours shows up half-screen and wouldn't be as filming-friendly) and to avoid showing the caller's number, since they wouldn't want to make up a fake number for Castle just for that. I suspect filming is the reason it's so high up on the charger, too--it would be harder to shoot that shot at that angle and get the screen properly if you had it lower, the way it has to be to charge.
I was just so excited to see it on a Touchstone that I geeked out over that instead of worrying about her life being in danger....
Don't be fooled, all product placement on TV is paid for. The question is, is the exposure strong enough to justify the cost? Palm seems to think so. They love buying product placement on prime time netwok television. My guess is, it's to beef up the "Cool" factor of the phone.
not ALL product placement on tv is paid for. It may be the majority, but there is such a thing as advocacy on the behalf of crew/creators/actors
I just know that I want that fingerprint app that the FBI agent used. That was real, wasn't it?
Actually, I've worked in product marketing, and the majority of my product placement came by request of the props folks on shows. Sometimes they even bothered to ask permission (others, I was sitting in a movie theater and suddenly one of my products was full screen and the people around me were startled at my shriek).
That said, a lot of the really good placement you see is paid. If you see a logo or identifiable product label front and center, it's likely paid. Personally, I'd like to know how much money Subway is giving Chuck, as the show is basically a walkin ad for Subway...
Too bad the phone gets blown up right after this scene. ;)
One thing to note is the angle of the shot. If they just wanted to let viewers know that Castle was calling, they could have done a full face-on shot. Instead, they took a nice profile shot of the Pre on its Touchstone. Honestly when I was watching the show, there was no way I couldn't have noticed the phone on its perch. Good one!
One of the good guys on Heroes was using a Pre all last season! Anyone remember that?