• coca-cola,  web os

    My Coke Rewards for webOS

    My Coke Rewards from Biocandy Labs is my new favorite webOS app.

    My Coke Rewards is a simple app for your Pre or Pixi that allows you to register your My Coke Rewards codes on the Coca-Cola website.

    Coca-Cola and Palm addicts need this free app which is available from the Palm App Catalog.  Hit the Palm Developer website for more details.

  • apple,  ios,  ipad,  iphone,  itunes,  iwork,  mac os x,  pages,  touch

    Apple Updates iWork Pages, Adds Support for ePub Books

    Earlier this week, Apple updated iWork ’09 Pages and added support for creating documents comptible with iBooks on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

    After updating Pages ’09 on your Mac to version 9.0.4, you will be able to export your Pages documents in the ePub format.  Then, drag and drop the ePub document into iTunes’ Books section and sync your iDevice.  Simple.

    iWork ’09 owners, grab your update by clicking the Software Update icon in the System Preferences application.

  • apple,  appletv,  ios,  ipad,  iphone,  itunes,  touch

    Apple Invites Media to a Special September 1 Event

    September is almost upon us and that means it’s time for Apple to send out invitations to the media-only fall event.
    According to the Tech Trader Daily blog, Eric Savitz writes:

    “There’s zero information in the invitation on the nature of the event, and the only hint is the photo of the guitar with the Apple-logo shaped cut out that I’ve included with this post.” 

     My invitation seems to have gotten lost in the mail.

    Apple’s fall events have been the showcase for the new iPod touch and music related products for the holiday season. This year is expected to be no different with rumors flying around of an iPod touch refresh that will feature iOS 4.1, dual cameras and support for FaceTime, and a the same high resolution Retina display that has been used on the iPhone 4.

    There are also near daily rumors that Apple will release a new version of the Apple TV, possible called “iTV”, that runs iOS and replaces the hard drive with a smaller flash drive.  Content would be streamed to the device rather than store it locally on a hard drive as the current Apple TV model does.  The new Apple TV is also rumored to go on sale with pricing as low as $99 and TV show rentals for $0.99.

    [Via Tech Trader Daily blog…]

  • app catalog,  astraware,  pixi,  pre,  web os

    Astraware Releases A Pair of Games for webOS

    Today, Astraware has released their first two games for Palm webOS: Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob.

    Staffordshire, UK – August 24, 2010 – Astraware® is excited to announce the release of its first games for Palm® webOS™. The first two games, Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob, will initially support Pre™ and Pre Plus devices with support for Pixi™ to be added later.

    Astraware Sudoku is a multi-award-winning version of the worldwide smash puzzle game. It is packed with features that avid Sudoku players love, including the unique Puzzle of the Day feature, which sees in excess of 20,000 users regularly downloading the daily puzzles and uploading their times on the global leader board. First released for smartphones earlier this year, OddBlob is a cute puzzle-arcade game entirely created from modeling clay, and featuring online leader boards for players to post their high scores in both Strategy and Panic modes.

    “We’re delighted to be re-establishing our long-term relationship with Palm, and supporting the new platform with a range of great casual games,” said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. “Our experience at supporting well-featured devices in a range of sizes and resolutions has helped us to make our first webOS games a pleasure to play, and we look forward to bringing many more titles to the platform.”

    Astraware intends to bring a number of their own-IP games to the webOS platform as well as working with their premium licensor partners to add to the range of quality casual games available in the Palm App Catalog.

    “Palm has a rich history with Astraware, and we’re excited to see that relationship continue with the webOS platform,” said Ben Galbraith, director of Developer Marketing, Palm, Inc. “Astraware’s popular titles are a welcome addition to the breadth and quality of webOS games in the Palm App Catalog.”

    Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob are available now on the webOS App Catalog, priced $4.99 each. For more information visit http://www.astraware.com/webos.

  • apple,  iphone,  sprint,  t-mobile,  verizon

    Is The Door Still Open for An iPhone on Sprint or T-Mobile?

    There was an interesting article posted out on the Digital Daily blog.  Kaufman Bros. technology analyst Shaw Wu reports that a Verizon Wireless iPhone still isn’t a done deal.

    “From our understanding, the Verizon negotiations are not finalized with important details still being ironed out, including technology and economics,” Wu said in a note to clients this morning. “We think it is premature to rule out T-Mobile or Sprint.”

    “Or both of them, together. As Wu notes, adding T-Mobile and Sprint as additional carriers would almost be like adding Verizon (VZ). Together, Sprint (S) and T-Mobile have about 82 million subscribers. Verizon has 93 million subscribers.”

    You can read the full blog post on the Digital Daily website.

    So who’s up for a Sprint edition Apple iPhone?

  • homebrew,  hp,  pixi,  pre,  web os

    Glass Effect Launcher webOS Patch

    One of the cool things about Palm’s webOS is that they are pretty cool with the third-party developers and home Homebrew applications.

    Having said that, Glass Effect Launcher is my favorite webOS patch to date.  It is also the first patch I’ve ever applied to my Sprint edition Palm Pre.  As the name applies, when you apply the patch, the stock grey background in the webOS app launcher is replaced by a Windows Vista looking smoked glass background. 

    The photos above show what my app launcher and Universal Search screens look like after applying the patch.  I think that patch give webOS a more refined and finished look than that boring grey background.  Hopefully HP and Palm will add some more refinements in webOS 2.0 that will give our favorite little OS that could a more grown up and professional feel to it.

    To learn more about Glass Effect Launcher, check out the patch’s thread over on PreCentral.  If you want to learn more about Homebrew apps and how to get them installed on your Palm webOS smartphone, check out PreCentral’s Homebrew Apps Gallery.

  • android,  apple,  blackberry,  facebook,  google,  hp,  iphone,  rim,  web os

    More on the New Facebook Places Feature

    Last week, Facebook introduced a new feature called “Places” that allows you or your friends geo-tag your location using the GPS in your mobile phone or location aware browser.  Naturally, people either hailed this as a super cool or flipped out and had kittens because “Big Brother” had found a new way to keep tabs on where you go and what you are doing.

    The New York Times, has a good article on the new Places feature in Facebook, which is also available in the latest version of the mobile application for Apple’s iPhone.

    Moments after Facebook introduced a new feature called Facebook Places on Wednesday that allows its users to share their location and find their friends, advocates raised flags over online privacy.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California cited concerns over the new product, saying Facebook neglected to include several crucial privacy features.

    “Places allows your friends to tag you when they check in somewhere, and Facebook makes it very easy to say ‘yes’ to allowing your friends to check in for you,” read the statement, released late Wednesday night. “But when it comes to opting out of that feature, you are only given a ‘not now’ option. ‘No’ isn’t one of the easy options.”

    The A.C.L.U. also expressed concern over the integration of Facebook’s Places feature with third-party Web sites and applications.

    The Facebook Places privacy settings can be configured via custom settings in your privacy controls.  Android Central has a quick set of directions posted which I linked to last week.  iPhone users who want to keep their locations on the down low can tap the Don’t Allow button that pops up any time an iOS app tries to access the GPS on your iPhone.  (You know, I’m really glad that Steve Jobs insisted on that pop up!)  As of this posting, the Google Android, RIM BlackBerry, and HP Palm webOS clients haven’t been updated to use of the Places feature; but it is only a matter of time before they are updated too.

    You can read the full article on The New York Times website.

  • apple,  ipad

    Magazine Subscriptons Coming to Apple’s iPad

    It’s about time, seriously!  I have subscriptions to MacWorld, Time, and Entertainment Weekly and I’m looking forward to reading all of them in print and electronically on my iPad.  I have no idea if/when MacWorld and EW are coming to iPad.  So far, only People and Time are confirmed.  More electronic magazine subscriptions are likely to start showing up soon on the iPad if a report in Fortune is correct.

    AppleInsider.com writes:

    According to Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune, Time Inc. broke the impasse  that has existed for months between publishers and Apple. He said that Time’s other publications are expected to follow the same path as People in the next 30 days, including Fortune, Time, and Sports Illustrated.

    “It’s not clear what took so long,” Elmer-DeWitt wrote. “Publishers who were encouraged to build iPad apps by Steve Jobs himself say they were ready from the start to make them free to subscribers. Until now, however, Apple would neither give them the tools they needed, nor explain what was holding them up.”

    He added: “The publishers still can’t sell subscriptions through the App Store, which is how they would prefer to do it.”

    If you have a subscription to People magazine, you can get the digital subscription goodness right now. [App Store link]