palm webos

This time Palm has given us a nice little handful of apps, three of which are free. Lately we have been seeing a lot more games coming to webOS and it’s about time. While this platform probably will not compare to the iPhone in terms of gaming we are glad to find some more entertainment.

• AccuWeather Premium, $1.89.
• BBQ Timer, $0.99.
• Boise Live, Free.
• Checkbook, $1.99.
• Connect 4, $4.99.
• Dropee, $0.99.
• Fart Man, $0.99.
• Feeds, $3.33.
• Flare, $1.99.
• FlightLog: Aviators Flight Log, Free.
• FreeCadie Pro, $14.95.
• iHate411, $1.99.
• Just Farts for WebOS, $0.99.
• Made Simple for WebOS, $4.99.
• Math Magic, $1.25.
• Media Remote, Free.
• Roll Quest, $0.99.
• Roller Ball, $0.99.
• Snow Globe, $1.99.
• Stickyman, $1.49.
• Tetris Mania, $6.99.
• Thanksgiving, $1.99.
• Words of Wisdom, $1.99.

Palm is totally killin it this week with new app submissions in the App Catalog. This time we are only seeing a handful of submissions that made it. I find it a bit odd that all five of the new apps just happen to be free. See below for the new apps.

• BMI calc, Free.
• Forbes Intelligent Investing, Free.
• Free Klondike Solitaire, Free.
• PostAll Lite, Free.
• WingedCurator, Free.

Palm’s webOS Doctor helps users safely restore their webOS devices to like new condition and with the release of a new version of this operating system so shall a new version of this utility be made available.

If you want to restore your phone to brand new status with the new webOS version 1.3.1 you need to head over and download the new version of webOS Doctor to do so. My experiences with this utility have been much more enjoyable than the restore process for both Windows Mobile devices and the iPhone.

So much for the theory that Palm is going to release just a few every other day. They released 28 with this wave many of which are more useful that the ones we have seen in the past. Among the new releases is even a Christmas app, not too much longer before the big day is upon us.

• Attitude, $0.99.
• Audiobook Classics, $4.99.
• Backgrounds, Free.
• Beerology 101 Lite, Free.
• BlockChalk, Free.
• BusCalc, $0.99.
• Deadman v1, $0.99
• Exch-Calc, $1.79.
• Fit23, $2.50.
• FlickIt!, $0.99.
• jPyramid, $0.99.
• Magic Fortune Ball, $0.99.
• Match ‘Em – Christmas Edition, $0.99.
• Moon Exposure Calculator, $1.99.
• My Feeds, $2.99.
• o’clock, $1.00.
• Peg Solitaire, Free.
• pFart, $1.99.
• Puzzler, $2.99.
• QuickSolve, $0.99.
• QuickSpell, $0.99.
• QuickTrace, $0.99.
• Sailing, $4.99.
• QuickWhack, $0.99.
• Shotgun Santa, $0.99.
• Switcharoo Demo, Free.
• TaskAdder, Free.
• Uber Calc, $0.99.

Third party retails and different online sites are really taking a shining to giving both webOS handsets killer online deals. Wirefly is now offering the Palm Pixi for $24.99 with a two-year agreement and now Amazon has dropped the price of the Palm Pre to $79.99 with a new contract.

Soon enough we will be seeing larger retailers offering the Pixi up for free with the Pre coming in at around $50 or less. Palm had better have a few more handset up their sleeve because these prices are not making them look like a very strong competitor out there among other phones currently being offered. What happened to the days when smartphones cost you a pretty penny and they retained their value for a while?

It appears that Palm has decided to go the route of releasing just a few apps here and there rather than the usual release of a ton of apps. These days we are seeing like 3 to 8 apps released every other day. Here is the latest round of apps released on November 18th.

• Arlen Ness, $0.99.
• Lexi-Comp ON-HAND, Free (Though it has been removed)
• Stopwatch, Free.

With the Palm Pixi being the second device to run the revolutionary new Palm webOS there are bound to be issues here and there. Somehow this time in the port there was a little tidbit forgotten about completely making the Pixi think it’s a Pre.

A bit misleading indeed is the fact that this fresh out of the box Pixi has the default email signature of “Sent from my Palm Pre”. It appears that nobody thought to change this when they ported webOS to the Pixi. While minor is really just comical when you think about it for a second. For those of you who picked up the Pixi recently does yours have the same issue as the above mentioned one?

Palm has had a pretty good backup scheme when it comes to webOS and the way it takes care of your contacts and what not but what about all of the other things that you would like to backup and save? Since we cannot backup things such as call logs, memos or even SMS conversations the solution is being currently being created by a third party.

I cannot explain to you how pissed I have gotten the two times I have had to restore and found that I had lost my 50+ critical memos that I have only on my phone. This new app that is in development will back up your SMS conversations, call logs, tasks, memos, web information and yes even your contacts so that you don’t lose a thing next time something goes wrong with your handset. All of these things are backed up and then thrown into a zip file that is placed into the USB drive partition of your memory.

When released you will have to root your Pre and then run a quick prompt to unzip the file in the correct way but the plan is to put restore functionality into the Palm Pre Backup essentially making it a button rather than a command restore. Beta testing for Palm Pre Backup is set here to begin very soon and you will be able to find it in the Preware app feed.

Just the other day Palm pushed out a few more apps to the App Catalog. Perhapst the most noticeable being Amazon Deals which as the name implies gives you the low down on all the great deals going on at Amazon.com.

• Amazon Deals, Free.
• Calql8 Dates, $2.99.
• Compass, $1.99.
• jBalls, $0.99.
• JM Solitaire, $2.99.
• JM Stopwatch, $1.99.
• JogStats Trial, Free.
• Tire Size Calculator, Free.

The waves of additions to the App Catalog has been getting a bit weak in recent weeks, when will Palm push out  a large handful of apps like they did when the first submissions were made?

Walmart is quite a giant when it comes to their savings and customer count which is why we believe they will be selling quite a few more Palm Pixis than Wirefly even though they are charging more. The savings superstore is offering up the Pixi at just $30 when you sigh a two-year agreement.

Why pay $24.99 for a Palm Pixi and wait for it in the mail when you can go down to Walmart and shell out just $5 more and get it right then and there? With retailers offering the brand spanking new Palm Pixi at such a low cost it won’t be long at all before we see it being offered for free. Palm wasn’t kidding when they decided to create a handset that takes up the lower end price range.

Wirefly is going the distance and offering the Palm Pixi with a two-year agreement for the super low price of just $24.95, no special offers no rebates. If you don’t trust third party retailers Sprint is offering it up for $75 more and rebates to deal with but with the difference being so large we would take the “risk” regardless.

If you are anything like me you will break down and head over to Sprint to pick up the Pixi because you just can’t seem to wait for anything longer than you absolutely have to. The difference though is paying the $200 up from initially which you may or may not even have at this point.

Adobe has released the first public beta version of Flash 10.1 for Mac, Windows and Linux users alike. The mobile version of Adobe Flash 10.1 should be next on the list with a release later this year. How long do they plan to hold out on us? There are only 6 weeks left in this year.

“A prerelease version of Flash Player 10.1 is now available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. A beta is expected to be available for Palm webOS later this year.”

If you have not already you can sign up to receive updates on when this release becomes available or alternately you can just stay tuned here as we will bring you the news as soon as we ourselves receive it. The beta version is ok with me for the time being but we are still dying to check out the full version when it hits sometime in the first half of 2010.

Back in August there was a devices certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance that went by the name Palm P100UNA. This device is not a new device but rather the GSM version of the Palm Pre that is coming to the US. The FCC has just posted that the GSM Pre has passed all of their certification process and is ready to go here in the US.

There really isn’t any additional info to be taken from the submission, only the fact that it exists and is ready and able to be sold in the US by Federal Communication standards. Being a GSM Pre it’s possible to see the handset make its way to either the AT&T or T-Mobile GSM network sometime after Sprint’s exclusive agreement is up. Will we see this release about the same time as the Verizon version or will it wait till later?

The guys over at webos-internals has recompiled Preware for compatibility with the new Palm Pixi and the different processor it holds. This goes right alongside all of the work they have been doing to get all patches compatible with webOS 1.3.1 and assuring everything goes off without a hitch.

It is really quite a lot of work to do all that the team has done so well and in so little time. Managing two different devices and ensuring compatibility not only between different versions of webOS but also across multiple devices is not something to be taken lightly. Things are going to get really crazy when there are more than a handful of webOS devices out and over 10 times the amount of patches.

The Price of the Pre is dropping all over the place. The latest place to slash prices on the first ever webOS device is a reseller by the name of WirelessWave. If you’ve been waiting for a great price on a mobile phone then now is your chance to get the new Palm Pre for only $49.99.

Bell Canada will run you $99.99 with a 3-year agreement so this price is a steal for those of you who are not afraid of a third party retailer. There is also the chance that you can hold out for another few weeks and hope that the Pre goes up for free somewhere, there are not many other prices to be offered that have not yet been offered. We suspect that there will be someone offering it for just $29 before it hits the free zone.

Along with the release of webOS 1.3.1 Palm has released the new Mojo SDK 1.3.1 to developers. This version has better support for the Palm Pixi as well as the addition of new APIs including one to prevent the handset from auto-dimming.

In this version Palm has added numerous framework doc enhancements. As well as auto-generation of app Help / Support scene. Those of you running a 64-bit version of Windows XP are out of luck as that is the only OS that is not supported at this time. If you haven’t already head over to Palm’s developers page and download it now.

Palm snuck up on us a lot recently especially with the release of the new version 1.3.1 of webOS. This update packs a lot of nice new features that make the this platform just that much more desirable. Among some of the new changes is Yahoo support for Synergy, improved text message support including forwarding and custom text message notification tones.

Right now webOS 1.3.1 is only available to Pre owners on the Sprint and Bell Canada networks with forign Pre owners receiving it by the end of the month. See below for a complete list of updates and fixes added with version 1.3.1.

Version information

• Version: webOS 1.3.1
• Release date: 15 November 2009

New applications

• NONE

Feature changes to existing applications

Backup

• Backup now includes browser cookies, so that after a restart, for example, if you stored your username and password on a web-based email site, you can continue to access the site without needing to log in.
• Backup no longer saves online account passwords. If you perform a partial or full erase or buy a replacement phone, after signing in to your Palm profile, you are prompted to enter the password for each of your online accounts. If you choose to skip this step, to continuing synchronizing this account, you must open an app that syncs with the account (Calendar, Contacts, Email) > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > tap the account name > enter your username and password.

Calendar

• Yahoo! now appears as a Calendar synchronization account. You can synchronize Yahoo! calendar events by opening Calendar > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Add An Account > Yahoo!
• An event’s location now appears with the same formatting in Day view and in the event notification.
• Calendar notifications no longer reappear after being dismissed.
• All-day events that span more than one day now appear correctly in all Calendar views.
• If you create a Google calendar event on the phone and the event location contains an apostrophe, the event now correctly synchronizes with Google online.

Camera

• After taking a picture, if you tap the picture thumbnail in the lower-left corner of the camera screen, the picture now opens in full-screen view, not Thumbnails view. Making the back gesture returns you to the camera.

Contacts

• Yahoo! now appears as a Contacts synchronization account. You can download contacts from Yahoo! online to the phone by opening Contacts > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Add An Account > Yahoo!
• Automatic contact linking based on name matches occurs only if the first and last name fields are populated with the same names. If either field is blank, the Contacts app no longer links the contacts. In addition, the Contacts app no longer automatically links contacts with the same name but with different suffixes (such as Jr. and Sr.).
• Contact phone numbers in an Exchange account display the same label that is used for the number in Outlook.
• If you set up Contacts to synchronize with a Google account, the account synchronizes only entries in Google’s My Contacts, not all contacts.
• If a contact entry includes a linked Google instant message that contains a special character (such as an apostrophe or ampersand), the special character now displays correctly.

Device Info

• If you copy a music file to the phone and then delete it, Device Info now shows the correct amount of available memory after the deletion.

Email

• Forwarded and replied-to messages include improved formatting, such as the original sender’s email address in forwarded messages and correct inline image display in replies.
• The list of mail types available in manual setup now includes Google Apps (Hosted Google Domains) and Yahoo! Small Business Domain email accounts. Selecting one of these types automatically enters the correct settings for these accounts.
• If you have multiple Exchange accounts, doing a Global Address List (GAL) contact lookup searches all the accounts.
• When you set up more than one email account from the same provider-for example, two Gmail or two Yahoo! accounts-in Account List view, the account names display the associated email address so that you can distinguish them.
• A new Select All menu item selects message body text so that you can cut or copy it. A new Copy All menu item copies the entire message contents-sender, date, recipient, subject, and body text-so that you can paste it elsewhere. These menu items appear only when a message is open.
• If you turn the All Inboxes preference off, email notifications now show how many new messages are in each of your email accounts.
• Performing a message search in the All Flagged folder returns flagged messages only.
• If an Exchange 2003 implementation requires a password, you can select an alphanumeric (strong) password even if the server does not require a strong password.
• If an Exchange implementation allows use of a simple PIN (numbers only), the phone supports entry of a PIN that is longer than four characters.
• If a notification appears for an incoming email message whose subject line contains an ampersand, the ampersand appears correctly in the notification.

Messaging

• Yahoo! IM is available as an instant messaging account.
• You can select a unique ringtone for new message alerts: Open Messaging > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Sound > Ringtone.
• You can forward a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Forward.
• You can copy the text of a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Copy Text.
• If you receive a message from an email address, the sender’s name (if in Contacts) or email address (if not) shows up correctly on the new message notification and on the open message in Messaging.
• If you copy a conversation using the Copy All menu item and then pastes the conversation text, the pasted text now appears correctly as plain text, without any HTML tags.
• Messaging notifications now show the number of senders and the number of conversations.
• If you enter a message and start it with a standalone letter-for example, “R” or “r” for “are”-when the auto-correct feature expands the letter to a word, the word is correctly capitalized (”Are”).

Music

• While listening to a song with album art displayed, you can tap the screen below the art to display a playback slider. Dragging the slider jumps forward or backward in the song.

Phone

• If the you are on a call, calendar notifications no longer partially cover the End Call icon.

Screen & Lock

• A new Secure Unlock preference allows you to set the time interval the phone is idle before the phone locks, requiring you to enter the PIN/password to unlock the phone. This can be the same as or different from the interval after which the screen turns off. To set the preference: Open Screen & Lock > Lock After.
• If you select the Simple PIN Secure Unlock option, you can now enter a numeric PIN of more than four digits.
• If you press power to turn off the screen, the screen locks at the same time. Previously, there was a gap of a few seconds before the screen locked.

Sounds & Ringtones

• If you select a new ringtone and throw the card off the screen, the phone saves the new ringtone selection.
• If you set the Ringer Switch Off setting to Mute and turn the ringer switch off at any time, the ringer is muted and the phone does not vibrate, regardless of any other Sounds & Ringtones settings.

System

• The application information dialog box (accessed by pressing and holding the orange key/Option and tapping an app icon) displays the total (uncompressed) size of the app, including the amount of storage the app requires. For apps you installed, this number represents the amount of memory you free up on the phone by deleting the app.
• If you change the apps in Quick Launch, after a backup and partial erase, the new apps still appear in Quick Launch. Previously, Quick Launch reverted to the default apps.
• You can access USB Drive mode by pressing and holding the orange key/Option + Sym + U after connecting the phone to the computer. This enables you to access USB drive mode if the screen is broken or stops responding to taps.
• A new option is available for restarting the phone: press and hold power > Power > Restart. The prior restart method (Device Info > Reset Options > Restart) is still available.
• You have two options for shutting down the phone completely: 1) press and hold power > Power > Shut Down/Swap Battery > Shut Down; 2) open Device Info > Reset Options > Shut Down > Shut Down.

Tasks

• If a task notification shows a single task, tapping the notification now opens the details screen for that task, not the task list screen.

Videos

• Widescreen videos now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.

Web

• Backup now includes browser cookies, so that after a restart, for example, if you stored your username and password on a web-based email site, you can continue to access the site without needing to log in.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.

YouTube

• Widescreen videos now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.

Security

This release addresses several security issues with Palm webOS software.

We would like to thank Chris Clark for his help in identifying some of the issues addressed in this release.

Individuals interested in contacting Palm to report suspected security issues can find more information at palm.com/security.

For those of you who are lucky and received a Google Voice invite Sprint has finally finished rolling out their free conditional call forwarding so that you may now start using the amazing Google Voicemail service. This service allows users to keep their Sprint number as their primary number so there is no need to worry about switching.

If you have not yet already checked out how Google Voice handles voicemail we suggest you do because the service surely beats any other type of visual voicemail out there today. There are a few programs out there right now with undoubtedly more on the way. These programs include gDial Pro and dkGoogleVoice.

Note that the *72 method of call forwarding still costs you the $.20 per minute. If you have not yet gotten a Google Voice incite go over right now and sign up, you simply cannot miss this service.

For those of you like myself who need to create and edit Microsoft Word documents on the go there will be at least a few more months of waiting before the Pre has good solid support for it. The webOS version of Documents To Go will not be ready till sometime in “early 2010”.

As Palm’s document solution of choice for over 10 years, DataViz is happy to tell you that we currently plan to release Documents To Go for webOS in early 2010, allowing you to edit and create Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® files on your Pre!

This really ticks off those of us waiting for the late this year release that was promised to us previously. With a smartphone you expect to be able to do things such as edit word documents right off the bat. Fear not there is another way to go about at least editing documents but you’re going to have to go the long route and shell out the money to purchase the Classic Palm OS emulator. If you already have it then good, just open up and use the documents editing software included in that.

Consumer Reports is the one place that any and all people go to for reviews of things from mobile phones and computers to newly released cars. This years annual top product list has just been released and out of 398 different products the Palm Pre was one of the best products currently on the market.

The thing we find most odd is the score of just 67, though you must take into account that all of this information must have been submitted upon the launch of the handset as they are showing the price point of $200. This surely will help any blinded by the iPhone that there are other notable phones out there.

We are certainly interested to see where other webOS handsets hit next year in comparison to the other mobile handsets released over the next 12 months. Will Palm’s new operating system shine out or fade into a sea of phones that are of the mundane.