• adobe,  pixi,  pre,  web os

    Rumor: Flash Support Coming to webOS in February

    February 11, 2010 /

    PreCentral.net is reporting that having native Adobe Flash support on Palm webOS devices like the Pre could become a reality later this month.

    “Palm and SFR held their French launch event last night and reports on the ground bring good news: Palm employees specifically said that Flash would be available in February. Previously we had been a little unsure of that, what we knew for sure was that webOS 1.4 would lay the underpinning for it, but the actual release (which is coming in the App Catalog) was less clear.”

    Sounds cool if it’s true and would be a cool trick since the iPhone can’t handle embedded Flash content in web pages.

    You can read the full article over on PreCentral.net.

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  • pixi,  pre,  verizon,  web os

    Palm Pre Plus, Pixi Plus Go On Sale Today

    January 25, 2010 /

    The new Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, introduced during this month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vega goes on sale today for the Verizon Wireless cellular network.

    Verizon Wireless, the company with the largest and most reliable wireless voice and 3G data network, announced today that Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus will be on store shelves and ready for purchase. The Palm Pre Plus will cost $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and the Palm Pixi Plus will cost $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, each with a new two-year customer agreement. Buy a Palm Pre Plus or a Palm Pixi Plus and get a Palm Pixi Plus free after a mail-in rebate through Feb. 14.

    Both Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus come travel-ready with a built-in 3G Mobile Hotspot – a Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared among five Wi-Fi-capable devices. The 3G Mobile Hotspot is the perfect family vacation companion, and at $40 for 5 GB and 5 cents per megabyte overage, it provides an allowance big enough for sharing with the entire family for downloading games, Internet access and more.

    Paired with Verizon Wireless’ new Nationwide Talk or Nationwide Talk & Text plans and a $29.99 monthly data plan, Palm Pre Plus is the perfect tool for the busy family manager, while Palm Pixi Plus is the perfect complement to a youngster as part of a Family SharePlan. Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access and Nationwide Talk & Text Plans begin at $59.99 monthly access. Nationwide Unlimited Talk Plans and Nationwide Unlimited Talk & Text Plans are available at $69.99 and $89.99 monthly access, respectively. Nationwide Unlimited Talk Family SharePlans start at $119.99 monthly access for the first two lines, while the Nationwide Unlimited Talk & Text Family SharePlans are $149.99 monthly access for the first two lines of service.

    In addition, Palm Pixi Plus customers have more options for personalizing their phones with the new color Pixi Touchstone Back Covers. The covers will be available in pink, blue, green, orange and black for only $29.99 each at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores.

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  • pixi,  pre,  web os

    Palm webOS Tip: webOS Shortcuts Revealed

    January 21, 2010 /

    Over on the Palm company blog today, Calvin P has posted a list of Palm webOS shortcuts that use Universal Search to help you quickly get to applications on your phone.

    Kudos for Palm for sharing their list with us! Double Kudos points for readers of Smartphone Fanatics because we posted our list of shortcuts first! (Here and Here.)

    Palm webOS shortcut list:

    • store or cat: App Catalog
    • pic(ture): Photos
    • sms or text: Messaging
    • time: Date & Time and Clock
    • add(ress): Contacts
    • todo: Tasks
    • eve(nts): Calendar
    • note: Memos
    • net: Wi-Fi

    In addition to those listed by Palm, you can also use:

    • peo(ple): Contacts
    • pref: Palm webOS preference applications
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  • o2,  pre,  web os

    Palm webOS 1.3.5.2 Lands in Europe

    January 12, 2010 /

    Following a few short weeks after the introduction of Palm webOS 1.3.5 and 1.3.5.1 here in the US, O2 Pre customers in Europe where treated today to the Palm webOS 1.3.5.2 update.

    By and large, Palm webOS 1.3.5.1 and 1.3.5.2 appear to be identical as there doesn’t seem to be anything in the release notes that jumps out at you as being different.

    Just like the US edition, Palm webOS 1.3.5.2 includes the fix for the pesky Calendar and Exchange ActiveSync sync issue and effectively removes the application install limit that some customers who loaded their Pres up on App Catalog and homebrew apps ran into.

    For the complete list of updates included in the European Palm webOS 1.3.5.2 update, visit the Palm webOS European updates page.

    The update is available now and can be installed on your Pre smartphone by running the Updates application.

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  • pre,  sprint

    CPR for the Palm Pre

    January 9, 2010 /

    I just had a problematic 30 minutes to deal with. My Pre, my every day cell phone, for whatever reason, stopped responding to input. The last two pieces of software I added to the phone was the Palm webOS 1.3.5.1 update (to address the Calendar and Exchange ActiveSync issue) and the new 3D game, Monopoly by Electronic Arts mobile.

    So what gives? The phone just stopped working. I wanted to shut the Pre down correctly so I held the Power button down for 2 seconds, but then I couldn’t tap the on screen Power button to reboot the phone. So I pulled the battery out. Not exactly the graceful shutdown of webOS that I was hoping for.
    I waited a few seconds, popped the battery in and the Pre seemed to just hang at the Palm logo screen. Ugh! Out comes the battery again.
    I really didn’t want to have to re-flash my phone to reload a fresh copy of Palm webOS and then have to reload my data from a back. (Make sure you are using the Backup application to back your data up to your Palm profile!!)
    To resolve the issue, I pulled the battery out, let the phone sit for about 30 minutes, and then popped the battery back into the phone. I then waited another 5 minutes or so (it felt like 3 hours) for webOS to boot itself up and get itself going. Another 5 minutes later, everything was back to normal.
    Talk about a wild ride. I’m not sure what I would have done all weekend without my cell phone. If the Pre had really died, I wouldn’t have been able to swap it out until Monday afternoon with my BlackBerry Curve 8330. What a hassle that would have been! At this point, I’m glad I’m ok.
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  • ces,  pixi,  pre,  sprint,  verizon,  web os

    Palm CES Coverage

    January 8, 2010 /

    The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show is under way in Las Vegas this week and Palm has used the event to make a big splash with the media and their customers. Here’s a run down of what Palm has been up to!

    Palm 2010 CES Presentation Video and Highlights

    PreCentral has posted Palm chairman and chief executive officer Jon Rubinstein’s CES presentation for your viewing pleasure if you are like me and somehow managed to not make it out to Las Vegas this year. The highlights of the presentation include:

    • Palm makes the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus official, Verizon only, and with tethering
    • Pre coming to SFR in France
    • webOS 1.4 coming in February with built-in Flash 10.1, Video recording
    • Palm reveals open web distribution of webOS apps

    To check the video, head over to the PreCentral website.

    New Phones, Wireless Carriers Announced

    Many people will be happy to hear that Palm and Verizon Wireless will finally be bringing Palm webOS phones to market. Starting on January 25, Big Red customers will have their choice of the newly reformulated Palm Pre and Pixi smartphones known as the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. Why “Plus?” The Plus refers to the refinements over the older versions of the Pre and Pixi smartphones already available on the Sprint network.

    The Palm Pre Plus will sport 16GB of RAM and a more streamlined form factor. As far as I can tell at this point, that simply means that the center has been removed from the front fo the Palm Pre Plus. Rather than use the Center button to zoom in/out from card view, you can simply flick up from the gesture area to zoom out of a card and then tap on the card you want to zoom back into full screen. The removal of the Center button is just one less thing that can break on the Pre form factor body and I welcome the change. And unlike the Sprint edition, the Verizon Wireless Palm Pre Plus ditches the glossy back plate battery door for the slick matte finished Touchstone charging battery door. Even if you don’t plan on getting the super cool Touchstone charging dock, in my opinion, the matte finish of the Touchstone battery door is much easier to hold than the slippery gloss finish door.

    The new Palm Pixi Plus uses the same body form factor as the older Sprint edition, however, the Verizon Pixi Plus will include an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi radio. (Shame on you Sprint for not allowing Wi-Fi in your Pixi!)

    Verizon customers will also have access to a new App Catalog application called Mobile Hotspot that will allow the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus to act as a cellular Wi-Fi router allowing other near by Wi-Fi enabled device, like a netbook, to gain access to the Internet over the Pre or Pixi’s EVDO cellular connection. Up until now, this was a trick reserved for devices like the Verizon Mi-Fi card. Kudos for Verizon for allowing their customers to share their data connections this way.

    Palm will also continue to grow their presence overseas in the second quarter of the year when they bring Palm webOS phones to France on the SFR wireless network.

    The last remaining question for US customers is when will Palm webOS devices be launched on AT&T? For right now, there is no official word from Palm on when webOS phones will appear on AT&T, however, Engadget has posted an article stating that AT&T’s President and CEO, Ralph de la Vega, has gone on the record claiming that by the middle of the year, they will be carrying two unnamed Palm webOS devices. You’ll have to stay tuned for the next few months until more details emerge on the AT&T front.

    For more details on Palm’s newest smartphones, visit the Palm blog.

    Here Come the 3D Games!

    Today Palm also unveiled 7 3D games specifically written to take advantage of the special graphics processor, called a GPU, inside the Palm Pre and Pre Plus smartphones. Combining the GPU, the new software development kit, released in beta form, and the software under pinning that are in the recently released Palm webOS 3.5.1 update, Pre customers can now play games on their smartphones that look just and play just as good as the games on Apple’s iPhone.

    Starting today, and via the Palm App Catalog, you can purchase and download the following 3D games:

    • “Need for Speed Undercover” (EA Mobile)
    • “The Sims 3” (EA Mobile)
    • “MONOPOLY” (EA Mobile)
    • “Asphalt 5: Elite Racing” (Gameloft)
    • “Let’s Golf!” (Gameloft)
    • “Glyder 2” (Glu Mobile)
    • “X-Plane” (Laminar Research)

    I’m excited about Palm’s enabling of the GPU found in the Palm Pre and Pre Plus as it means that Pre customers no longer have to feel like second class citizens in the world of mobile gaming. While I looking forward to playing some of these games (I already purchased a copy of Monopoly this evening), I am still looking forward to playing games like Bejeweled and all of the great card and board games from Astraware, the games division of Handmark.

    To learn more about today’s announcement of the new 3D games for the Palm Pre and Pre Plus smartphones, visit the Palm website.

    Ready! Set! Develop!

    Lastly, Palm announced that the Palm Developer Center is now out of beta status and open to any application developer who wishes to write applications for the Palm webOS platform. Palm also announced that developers will have a choice of selling their applications through the Palm App Catalog or promote their applications by themselves, yet, they can still leverage the Palm over the air (OTA) distribution and installation service.

    This is great news for the legions of web developers out there who know how to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code because, as I’m told, those three languages make up the bulk of the application development foundation for webOS applications.

    For developers who are looking to write games and other applications that take advantage of the 3D rendering hardware and software found in webOS devices, like the Pre and Pre Plus, Palm is making the Palm webOS Plug-In Development Kit (PDK) available for use with the standard webOS Software Development Kit (SDK). According to Palm’s press release, “[w]ith the PDK, developers can seamlessly integrate C and C++ code into their webOS apps, enabling new functionality such as 3D games.”

    Developers who wish to further explore the possibilities of the Palm webOS platform should visit the Palm Developer Center website.

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  • pixi,  pre,  sprint,  web os

    Palm webOS 1.3.5.1 Update Released

    January 5, 2010 /

    Following just 7 days behind the webOS 1.3.5 update, Palm has released the Palm webOS 1.3.5.1 update. This update, according to Palm, is attended to address a very specific bug in the Calendar application when data is synchronized with a Microsoft Exchange Server.

    The release notes for the latest webOS update states:
    “This release fixes an issue in which the Calendar app displayed no events for any account after a user synchronized Calendar with an Exchange account. With this update, Calendar events now appear correctly after an Exchange sync.”

    According to a KB article published by Palm on Jan. 3, the nature of the problem is “that the turn of the year [to] 2010 has surfaced an issue that affects customers who use Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) to synchronize their calendars. Data remains intact on the device; however, this issue prevents the data from being displayed correctly in the Calendar application. It impacts all versions of webOS.”

    The Palm webOS 1.3.5.1 update is available for immediate download by using the Updates application on Sprint branded Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones and will take about 10-15 minutes to install. Aside from resolving the issue with the Calendar application, there are no new changes between 1.3.5.1 and Palm webOS 1.3.5 which was released on December 28, 2009.

    You can read the Palm webOS 1.3.5.1 release notes on the Palm webOS updates page. You can read the full Palm KB article on the Palm support website.

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  • pixi,  pre,  web os

    Palm Unleashes webOS 1.3.5 Update

    December 29, 2009 /

    Late in the day yesterday, Palm released the Palm webOS 1.3.5 update for Sprint branded Palm Pre and Pixi smartphones.

    Late in the evening reports where coming in that it was slow going downloading the 13MB update. I for one found myself waiting quite a while for the update to be downloaded and processed on my Pre. Once the update was downloaded, my Pre took the usual 15 minutes to install the update.

    This update is important for a number of reasons. The Palm App Catalog app received no less than 9 updates, one of which includes the ability to download apps in the background rather than forcing you to wait until the current app is downloaded. The Calendar app also received a performance update that allows you to swipe between days much faster than in previous releases of Palm webOS. This one is important to me since I use my Pre to help schedule my meetings and daily work. You can also now launch the Sprint Navigation application directly from a Contact record. (I haven’t figured out how this feature works yet. When I tap on an address in Contacts, Google Maps is launched, just as it always has. I’ll post an update later on reporting on whether or not I got this feature workings and what, if anything I had to do to make it work.)

    Probably the biggest updates for Palm enthusiests in this release is the ability to use the Pre’s and Pixi’s USB storage space for applications, freeing many folks from the dreaded “too many applications installed” error that was popping up. Kudos to Palm for coming up with an elegant solution for addressing this problem. The Palm webOS 1.3.5 update also lays the ground work for some exciting possibilities for some new applications; games in particular. According to the folks over at WebOS Internals, Palm has delivered two package files that will make it possible for developers to access and use the Pre’s and Pixi’s Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU. This update should make it possible for high-quality games, the likes of which have been available on the iPhone for some time now, to be released for the Palm webOS platform. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the Handmark/Astraware games to show up on webOS. I miss playing Bejeweled 2.

    This update does not repair the iTunes Media Sync feature. At this time it is unclear as to whether or not Palm will attempt to reactivate this feature or if they can come to some kind of an agreement with Apple to allow the iTunes sync feature to work. If you want to sync iTunes content with your Palm webOS device, it is recommended that you use DoubleTwist.

    Some of the highlights from the Palm webOS 1.3.5 update include:

    • App Catalog significantly improves the application download experience.
    • Users can now take advantage of the full storage capacity of the phone for downloading applications.
    • In Day view, switching between days happens more quickly.
    • A user can perform a full erase by pressing and holding Sym + the orange/Option key + power for 10 seconds.
    • A user can now edit forwarded text for all email account types.
    • When the user sets up more than one Yahoo! email account, the account names displayed in Account List view include the associated email address so that the user can distinguish them.
    • A user can launch Sprint Navigation from an address in an open contact entry in Contacts.
    • This update improves battery life in areas of poor wireless network coverage.

    The complete list of software enhancements and bug fixes can be found on the Palm webOS software updates website. You can download the Palm webOS 1.3.5 update by launching the Updates application on your Sprint branded Palm Pre or Pixi.

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  • apple,  iphone,  pre

    PC Magazine: Palm Pre Most Innovative New Platform of 2009

    December 10, 2009 /

    It must be that time of year again…where everyone feels compelled to pick Top 10 lists for everything. Following up on Time’s declaration that the Motorola Droid is the top dog for their Top 10 Gadgets of 2009 list, PC Magazine has come up with their own list of top picks.
    This year, PC Magazine has selected the Palm Pre as the Most Innovative New Platform of the year, writing:

    “Palm has returned with the coolest handheld device we’ve seen in a long time. The Palm Pre has the same exhilarating sense of possibility as the iPhone—and it’s even worth switching to Sprint for. The Pre is the start of something genuinely new: Palm’s webOS, an innovative operating system that’s benefited a lot by what the company has learned from Apple’s smartphone successes.”

    The iPhone 3GS did take the top spot for Best Consumer Smartphone.
    You can check out PC Magazine’s top smartphone picks on the PC Magazine website.
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  • pixi,  pre,  web os

    Palm webOS Tip: Pref Shortcut

    December 8, 2009 /

    Over the weekend I stumbled across a new shortcut for Palm webOS. Using the Universal Search feature, you can type “pref” to see all of the preferences applications that Palm preinstalled on your Pre or Pixi smartphone.

    This is especially handy if you have added a ton of the great Palm App Catalog or homebrew applications to your phone and don’t feel like flipping through pages of application launcher pages.

    Disclaimer: I’m using a Sprint branded Palm Pre running Palm webOS 1.3.1. I don’t have access to any other versions of the Pre or the Sprint Palm Pixi. Mileage may vary.

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