Just because you can install the Verizon Mobile HotSpot app on a non-Verizon Palm webOS device doesn’t exactly mean you can use it.
Mobile Hot-NOT
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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.
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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.
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HP Palm webOS 1.4.5 Update Available For Sprint Customers
A short while ago, Sprint Palm Pre and Pixi customers started receiving notifications that the Palm webOS 1.4.5 software update was available for download and installation on their phones.
During my frantic game of “Keep Tapping the Refresh Button In The Updates Application,” I finally received my upgrade notice. Reports are also coming in, and I have seen it first hand, that there is some trouble downloading the update from Palm HQ. In the Palm webOSdev Twitter feed, Palm writes:
“we are aware of the problems downloading 1.4.5 for sprint customers. It’s being investigated.”
Update:
As of 1:00am Eastern time, the download issue has been resolved and Sprint Palm Pre and Pixi customers can download and install the new webOS update. If you tried to download the update earlier this evening and couldn’t and you still can’t, try rebooting your Pre or Pixi. Once I did, I was able to download the update successfully.It’s after midnight here on the East Coast, so I’m sure that by the time we all get out of bed in a few hours, the update will be ready for download and installation during our morning commute. In the mean time, here are the official details on webOS 1.4.5.
Palm webOS 1.4.5 weighs in at 8MB and includes “minor software improvements.” Palm has also updated their Palm webOS support site to list the changes in webOS 1.4.5.
Palm webOS 1.4.5 Change Log
New applications
NONE
Feature changes to existing applications System
- This release includes minor fixes and enhancements to support the public release of the webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK).
- This release may require you to update certain apps to their latest version to properly support the launch of the webOS PDK. If you have a game that is not saving your game information correctly (high scores, stages, settings) check the App Catalog for updates. For more information on updating apps, see Using App Catalog
Web
- If a user enters text in a field on certain websites, the screen focus now remains on the text being entered.
- This release fixes a rare problem so that podcasts now download correctly.
Security
- This release addresses several security issues with the Palm webOS software.
You can review the change log for each of the webOS updates on the Palm support website. Just in case you are keeping score, this is software update 12 since Palm released the original Palm Pre on Sprint a little over a year ago. Not too bad Palm. While 1.4.5 will bring some new enhancements for 3D gaming on the Pre and Pixi, I’m really looking forward to webOS 2.0 which is scheduled for release late this year if all goes well.
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Yes, No, or Maybe? Will HP webOS 1.4.5 Show Up This Week In the US?
Despite the fact that Sprint may have posted the change log for HP’s Palm webOS 1.4.5, US customers of the Palm Pre and Pixi still don’t appear to have access to the update yet.
Running the Updates application on my Sprint Pre gives me the “Your phone is up to date. Palm webOS 1.4.1.1” message and the official Palm webOS change log does not show any release notes for webOS 1.4.5.
While the software update is not currently available today, as suggested by Sprint’s release notes, it will likely be released in the next few days to a week if past history is any indication.
So who wants to join me in a frantic game of Tap the Refresh button?
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webOS Battery Performance – Day 1 Results
After yesterday’s post about testing battery performance on my Sprint edition Palm Pre, I left my settings alone, with the exception of turning on Wi-Fi as suggested in the PreCentral article.After fully charging my Pre, the battery died at around 2pm today, 21 hours after the test started. That is a far cry from the 2.5 days that the BlackBerry Storm2 is getting. I’m going to charge the phone up again, and will re-run the test starting at 5pm this evening with W-Fi turned off and see how things go.
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webOS Battery Performance
I’ve been a fan of Palm’s PDAs and smartphones for some 11 years now. I have a love/hate relationship with my Sprint edition Palm Pre. webOS is an amazing little OS that works well. The one feature that I love the most is Synergy. The ability for webOS to sync all of my cloud (aka Internet) accounts and present that information in a single unified spot is niffy indeed.But I hate the battery performance of my phone. I can barely get 24 hours on a single charge with minimal calls and surfing. I have my Pre with me all the time, but I use is sparingly to make sure that I can make it through my day on a full charge. Conversely, my Verizon BlackBerry Storm2, which gets used about the same as my Pre, can easily go 2.5 days without me having to worry about recharging the device.
On the Pre, I keep features that I don’t need that drain the battery turned off. This includes the GPS and Wi-Fi radios. I even keep the screen brightness down around 25-30%.
Earlier this week, I read an interesting data point on PreCentral that reads:
“Turn Wi-Fi on and leave it on. Seriously. Unless you’re someplace where there’s positively not a Wi-Fi network to which you can connect, leave Wi-Fi on. The Wi-Fi radio in all webOS phones (with the exception of the Wi-Fi-less Sprint Pixi) is notably more power efficient than the cellular radio, so whenever possible use Wi-Fi instead. Plus, if you’re on a metered data plan, you can save your bytes for later.”
That statement runs counter to what I’ve always practiced with my Treo smartphones. For more than a year, I’ve left Wi-Fi off on my Pre, and only configured one of many email and social media account to sync at an interval of less than 1 hour. There is something to consider about the PreCentral article and that is that if you have apps that poll the Internet for information, the Wi-Fi radio really might be more efficient than the cellular radio.
I want to test this notion out, so all this week, I’m going to leave Bluetooth on as I always do (for handsfree driving), and turning Wi-Fi on. I also have GPS enabled so that when I take a photo, it is “geotagged” for use in iPhoto. (That is a really cool feature, if you have iPhoto ’09 and a GPS enabled smartphone or camera.)
I’ll post my results over the coming days. If I find that the battery life is good, then I may start turning on more frequent email and social media updates so I can get information more timely.
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Palm: A New Day Begins
Today is the first day that Palm operates as a division of Hewlett-Packard. The HP/Palm merger has been completed and Palm is now a division of computer giant, HP.On the Palm blog, Jon Zilber writes:
“Today, Palm becomes part of the largest technology company in the world, HP.
It’s our first day together, but it’s already abundantly clear to everyone who’s been involved in bringing the two companies together that great things are in store. The combination of Palm’s trailblazing webOS and HP’s strength as the leading provider of everything from PCs, laptops, and printers to home electronics and enterprise systems promises an amazing roadmap of new tools for your mobile and web-connected future.”
You can read the full post on the Palm blog.
Alongside the blog post, a press release was posted on the Palm website.
“With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS.”
Under Jon Rubinstein, former Palm chairman and chief executive officer, the Palm global business unit will report to Bradley. Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.
“With HP’s full backing and global strengths, I’m confident that webOS will be able to reach its full potential,” said Rubinstein. ”This agreement will accelerate the development of this incredible platform with new resources, scale and support from a world-respected brand.”
You can read the full press release on the Palm website.
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Palm CIO Magazine Ad
Admit it, you had no idea that Palm was trying to market their webOS phones the to enterprise. I didn’t. So I was kind of surprised to be flipping through my back log of IT magazines and saw an ad for the Palm Pre and Pixi (no distinction between the “standard” and “plus” variety) in CIO Magazine.The ad reads, in part:
“Palm Simplicity.
It’s good business.Mobile doesn’t have to mean complicated. Palm webOS phones integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange, so here’s no need for additional servers or middleware.”
The ad ends with the line, “Learn more about how Palm can simplify your infrastructure at palm.com/simplify.”
Let’s hope that HP’s marketing department can get the word out about webOS in a more meaningful way than Palm’s could. The HP acquisition of Palm is expected to be finalized in the next few business days.
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Palm App Catalog Titles 50% Off
Palm is running a special 50% off promotion for most titles in their software store, App Catalog. Announced yesterday on their company Facebook Page, the sales runs until July 9th.Now is a great time to stock up on apps for your favorite webOS smartphone without having to pay full price. To get in on the 50% off action, just launch App Catalog on your Pre or Pixi and go to town!
