Palm Pre phones home

So far, the habit of phoning home was most commonly associated with Windows Mobile and its error reporting feature – but it looks like the Palm Pre is no better (or, actually, even worse). A website dubbed kitenet claims that every Pre sends data similar to the one below to Palm at regular intervals:

{ “errorCode”: 0, “timestamp”: 1249855555954.000000, “latitude”: 36.594108, “longitude”: -82.183260, “horizAccuracy”: 2523, “heading”: 0, “velocity”: 0, “altitude”: 0, “vertAccuracy”: 0 }

…

{ “appid”: “com.palm.app.phone”, “event”: “close”, “timestamp”: 1250006362 }
{ “appid”: “com.palm.app.messaging”, “event”: “launch”, “timestamp”: 1250006422 }
{ “appid”: “com.palm.app.messaging”, “event”: “close”, “timestamp”: 1250006446 }

Translating this to clear text means the following: the Pre does inform Palm about your location and application usage habits. These reports are not only used for detecting crashes (like on WM), but are also used to determine which apps get used the most (which could be used for the App catalog).

As of now, no further information is available – stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Related posts:

1. 40% of Americans do web surfing, e-mail or IM on their phones
2. HP: we prefer webOS to Microsoft home server
3. Palm Centro Simulator – version numbers
4. Funky translation error – leave the goddamn fruit at home
5. Naming the Pre