Palm advertises Pre apps on its blog

Funny Stuff 1 Response »
Sep 092009

Years ago, Merrill Chapman stated that vendors who advertise app catalogs tend to have issues with third-party developers – his words have just been confirmed by the boys with the Orange orb.

It is an open secret that the Pre platform lacks applications. Thus, John Zilber has just posted a “list of new apps” to the official Palm blog. It aims to build a perception of “app wealth”, and begins as follows:

Today’s apps are brought to you by the letter T

Some new apps in the Palm Beta App Catalog will help you do just about anything you need to do — as long as it begins with the letter T:

…

This is posted while most developers wait for a thing which begins with a C – a way to CHARGE for their apps. What about doing something about this problem, Palm?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 10:00 am

Sprint’s 100$ credit – whac a mole, reloaded

Palm News No Responses »
Sep 092009

We know why we were skeptic about the recent rumors of a rebate for the Pre – it turned out to be yet another instance of Palmary whac-a-mole.

Reuters reports the following:

Sprint Nextel Corp on Tuesday withdrew an offer on its Web site of a $100 service credit for new subscribers that buy a Palm Inc Pre smartphone, saying it was published in error.

…

“The offer of a port-in service credit of $100 to new customers who buy the Palm Pre has been pulled, because it was put into the system in error,” Fisher said.

For us, this translates into a 200$ Pre and no interesting changes. Palm and Sprint, on the other hand, most definitely got a nice bit of free press…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:55 am

O’Reilly – WebOS webcast registration closes soon

Palm News No Responses »
Sep 082009

O’Reilly has just sent out another invitation for its webOS application basics webcast – this free webcast covers all kinds of interesting information re the webOS:
webos2 lead OReilly WebOS webcast registration closes soon

It will be held on the 9th of September from 10am PT, and will take approximately one hour.

Registration can be done at the URL below:
http://post.oreilly.com/rd/9z1z0a0k6ftcl5b1g3hmgh6su6g8782nhiekl9706r8

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:14 pm

Sprint lowers Palm Pre by 50$

Palm News No Responses »
Sep 072009

At Tamoggemon’s, we’re somewhat weary when it comes to Pre price cuts – we’ve already burnt our hands here in the past. Thus, please take this with a LARGE grain of salt.

PreCentral claims the following:

…

Thanks to a generous tipster working at a Sprint “indirect partner retail dealer” (something like Best Buy Mobile or non-corporate Sprint stores), we can say that does appear as though it will be the case.

From September 8 to October 31, 2009, “indirect partners” will be able to sell the Pre for $149.99 after mail-in rebate. This information applies only to these indirect Sprint retail channels, though it seems reasonable that identical price cuts will take place via Sprint’s own channels (retail stores, telesales, and Sprint.com). And as usual, the price of admission comes with an Everything Data or Simply Everything plan attached.

…

As of now, Sprint has not stated anything official about the matter – which means that staying tuned is the best option for now.

P.S. Should their prediction become true, we can furthermore look forward to 30$ Centros and 100$ Treo 755p’s – with contract, that is…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:59 pm

NTT DoCoMo plans US network – upcoming culture clash

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Sep 072009

ntt docomo us mvno NTT DoCoMo plans US network upcoming culture clashThe Japanese cell phone market has always been completely different from the US/European one: handsets which perform well in Japan are extremely unlikely to do well anywhere else and vice versa. Nokia tried to gain a foothold there for some years, and eventually gave up…which should bring my point across clearly.

Unfortunately, the Japanese cell phone market is shrinking. This has forced carriers and device makers alike to look at other markets – NTT DOCoMo, the largest carrier of the region, hatched the outrageous plan outlined below:

…

DoCoMo may start the mobile phone service as a mobile virtual network operator leasing network capacity from a major U.S. cell phone service provider, the sources said. If DoCoMo opts to start the service as an MVNO, it is likely to lease infrastructure from AT&T Inc or T-Mobile USA Inc, with which DoCoMo’s U.S. unit has business ties, the sources said.

…

Even though I am all for more competition in the US cell phone market, I am pretty sure that this won’t be the thing US cell phone users have been waiting for. Japanese and US cell phone culture is completely different – at best, the boys could end up binding the Japanese expat population along with a few gadget heads…

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Marus

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 6:03 pm

webOS 1.2 in motion

Palm News No Responses »
Sep 062009

In case anyone of you still has doubts regarding webOS 1.2 – take a look at the video below:

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:54 am

webOS 1.2 allows for remote app removal

Development No Responses »
Sep 052009

Palm has not shown too much intelligence when it comes to building a software ecosystem around webOS – a few months after the device’s original release, applications can still not be purchased.

While webOS 1.2 adds this feature, it will also add something which will make some of you uncomfortable. According to Ryan Kairer’s PalmInfoCenter, the orange boys can yank apps off your handset:

…

apparently webOS 1.2 will give Palm the ability to remotely remove apps from your device, and you won’t have much of a say in the matter. In the file “usrliblunasystemluna-systemuiappcontrollersapprevokedalert_scene.html”, we can see this info-text: “Palm had to delete this application from the App Catalog and your device. If you paid for this app, your money will be refunded.”

…

As of this writing, not much further is known…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 10:59 pm

webOS 1.2 leaked

Palm News No Responses »
Sep 052009

webos 1 2 webOS 1.2 leakedVarious PreCentral users ran webOS Doctor on their Pre in order to restore its firmware – and ended up with the (currently unreleased) version 1.2 of Palm’s webOS (pictured on the left).

So far, the following new features have been discovered:

* Find-as-you-type search support in Email
* App Catalog updated to support purchasing apps
* Web browser enhanced
* auto zooms to forms
* download in browser enabled (including opening pdfs)
* better rendering of mobile pages
* Orange+click context menu on links
* save images
* “Real” copy and paste
* shift tap to select areas of text
* Select All option in Edit menu
* Sort by Priority or Date Due in Tasks
* Other minor tweaks and changes

As of now, no ETA is available. However, it most likely won’t take much longer if they have already leaked the OS via their own repair portal…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:24 pm

BrightHand releases mind share stats for August 2009

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Sep 032009

BrightHand has just released its mindshare stats for the month of August.

The current list looks as follows:

  1. Samsung Solstice (new)
  2. Nokia E71 and E71x (#4)
  3. Nokia E63 (#1)
  4. Nokia N97 (#9)
  5. RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (#2)
  6. RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 (new)
  7. RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 (#7)
  8. RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000 (Previously #8)
  9. HTC Snap (new)
  10. Samsung Impression (Returning)

It is surprising in multiple ways: first of all, Apple has – for the first time ever – disappeared from the mindshare list. Furthermore, Windows Mobile is handled by but one WMS…and dumbphones are now the third-largest group of handsets in the top 10.

As these figures are generated by monitoring search queries, they tend to show a somewhat accurate representation of user interest. Purchases are a different story, of course…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:16 am

Palm Pre: Classic’s HotSync demoed

Palm News 3 Responses »
Sep 032009

Classic, the Pre’s MotionApps PalmOS emulator, has suffered from one core weakness: it didn’t support HotSync, which made data exchange somewhat difficult.

MotionApps have promised to add the feature for some time, and have now released the video below showing the process in action:

As of now, no ETA is available for the release – stay tuned for further info as we get it.

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 2:15 am

Sunno S880 – clone with Windows Mobile and Android

Hardware News No Responses »
Sep 022009

Chinese handset “cloners” have been able to create physically excellent copies of handsets for some time: unfortunately, their operating systems tended to be extremely lackluster. THis is said to have changed now, as a clone has just been announced which has both Windows Mobile and Android.

In particular, we are looking at a rip-off of Sony Ericsson’s recently-launched Satio handset which goes by the name S880 and looks as follows:
sunno s880 Sunno S880 clone with Windows Mobile and Android

The device’s specifications are not too shabby, either:

As a powerful smart phone works Schanno S880 configuration than Schanno Q880 has shown marked improvement. Schanno S880 will be equipped with 806MHZ CPU, 8-megapixel camera, memory size 256/128MB, and with 3.6-inch WVGA screen, GPS, and WIFI function, of course not absent.

The machine’s launch date is expected around October 15, we will continue to follow-up reports Schanno S800 you more detailed information.

As of now, nobody has handled the handset and thus no definite information can be given. However, we will likely know a lot more in the near future…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 7:14 am

NaNplayer for webOS – first third-party media player for Palm Pre

Palm News No Responses »
Sep 012009

Palm’s problems with getting a payment system up and running for the Palm Pre start to have a comical aspect to it: instead of partnering with one of their existing and experienced ESD partners, they absolutely want to do it themselves…

As usual with the Oranges, developers get to foot the bill: their apps are ready, but can not be sold due to – well – you get the idea. This has led to loads and loads of “vaporware” announcements; the latest one of which concerns a media player called NaNplayer.

A video of the app in action can be seen here:

As of now, no ETA is available for payment processing. When it does, expect to hear from us – and keep 3 to 5$ ready…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:47 pm

Microsoft Austria: new netbooks coming soon

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Sep 012009

Microsoft Austria has just gone into all-in mode regarding Windows 7. A social press event was held, and Microsoft Austria’s OEM manager declared the following:

Many vendors are waiting for Windows 7 to release new hardware. In particular, expect loads of touch devices similar to HP’s.

Furthermore, MSI and other manufacturers (including the lunatic crapsellers known as A$$us) are working on new “slim” notebooks.

You can expect all of these devices being announced during October.

Even though I would take this with a grain of salt, the theory is sounds pretty plausible. Yes, A$$us launches so much crap that their own press morons can no longer follow suit – but the folks at MSI’s have indeed been conspicuously silent for some time.

Either way: I would wait for a few weeks before buying any further hardware…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:05 am
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