JavaScript is a versatile language, but unfortunately isn’t too suitable for all things Game. The recently-introduced PDK did just that: it allows developers to create plug-ins in C++.
Palm now exhibits at the GDC:
Even though I personally see the main advantage of the PDK in the recycling of existing engine code from other non-Java platforms (think TouchCalc for Symbian, gone Pre), I am always happy to see Palm do more for its developers.
The folks at Engadget’s traditionally aren’t too soft with Palm – their editorial on the state of the company is quoted as the reason for the cancellation of the Foleo. Thus, seeing them handle a new device always is interesting.
Palm now sent them a Pre Plus and a Pixi Plus – their final verdict was not bad:
…
So why choose the Pre Plus on Verizon? To answer that question, you have to figure out if you believe in the potential of webOS devices; Palm doesn’t have the fastest phone, or the phone with the highest resolution, certainly not the biggest app selection, and it doesn’t have a massive community behind it. What it does have, however, is a brilliant platform with huge potential to change the way you work and live with your phone (provided they tap that potential soon… as in now). If you’re as hopeful as we are that that potential will be fulfilled, your decision should be a simple one.
…
Further information can be had at the URL below:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/20/palm-pre-plus-and-pixi-plus-review/
P.S. Tamoggemon will participate in this “future” – but I guess I just said too much…
So far, people who wanted to use their PalmOS applications on a Pre were well advised to be fluent in English – the emulator was not available ‘internationally’. However, this is set to change soon.
Danijela Tomazovic from MotionApps recently told us the following:
…
As for the interview, we are currently addressing Classic availability in different geographies, and once we have the application available in all the countries with Pre, sure, we can organize for an interview. I’ll follow up once the time is good for this.
Have a good day,
Danijela
As of now, not much information is available on when translated versions of Classic will become available. But there’s hope – ah, and developers better prepare for internationalization as well…
The folks at Aceeca’s have just informed us that the long-awaited MEZ1500 will not only drop soon – it will also be accompanied by a consumer device and a PalmOS version.
Even though the information has not been confirmed officially as of this writing, consider the list below your official information on the upcoming devices:
1. MEZ1500 CE
This device has been “coming soon” for almost 2 years, but is finally coming to market, scheduled for release the first week of March. This unit runs the Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 operating system. The MEZ1500 looks very similar to the MEZ1000, but features a QVGA colour screen, larger battery, side buttons, and additional wireless options compared to the MEZ1000. Of course, it features the trademark MZIO expansion port on the top of the device, for connecting barcode scanner modules, RFID readers, GPS receiver modules, and so on. It will support SD memory expansion also.We should have a MEZ1500 CE unit here for testing with Satellite Forms in a few weeks.
List price on the MEZ1500 CE is expected to be $499, plus wireless options.
2. MEZ1500 Garnet
Aceeca is working with ACCESS (formerly PalmSource) to load the GarnetOS
on the MEZ1500, which will be the first PalmOS 5.x device from Aceeca.
Running on the same hardware as the MEZ1500 CE version, the MEZ1500 garnet
version offers a big speed increase from the MEZ1000, as well as the QVGA
colour screen, twice the battery capacity, WLAN and Bluetooth options, SD
memory expansion, and more. Aceeca expects to have beta units ready for
testing at about the same time that the MEZ1500 CE version ships.Both the CE and Garnet versions of the MEZ1500 are built ultra-tough like
their older brother the PalmOS 4.x powered MEZ1000.List price on the MEZ1500 Garnet is expected to be $499, plus wireless
options.3. PDA32 CE
This is a brand new handheld that is smaller and less rugged than the
MEZ1000 or MEZ1500 models. It is just slightly taller than a Palm TX, and
about twice as thick. It has an ARM CPU, colour QVGA screen, but does NOT
have the MZIO expansion bus, so it will not support add-on modules. It
will have SD memory expansion, as well as wireless options. The first
version of this device will run the Windows CE 5.0 OS.List price on the PDA32 CE is expected to be $199, plus wireless options.
That is not a typo!!4. PDA32 Garnet
The same hardware as the PDA32 CE version, with the GarnetOS operating
system! This will be the first new non-smartphone, non-barcode-scanner
GarnetOS powered handheld released within the past couple years, with
multiple wireless options and SD memory expansion.List price on the PDA32 CE is expected to be $199, plus wireless options.
Amazing!!The PDA32 models are expected to start shipping in April.
As of now, we have no images – stay tuned for further images as we get them!
Dear Readers,
this can happen even in the best houses. I know it shouldn’t, but it does.
MotionApps seems to run both stores in parallel, rotating banners on its web site on a daily basis. This means that the MobiHand store still is alive and kicking – you just have to refresh their web site a few times to see it.
Please accept my apologies…
Tam Hanna
As some of you make checking your bank accounts every day a pseudo-religious habit, I felt that sharing the message from Handango below will definitely save some of you a lot of grief and anger:
With recent changes in resources and corresponding process changes here at Handango, last month’s royalty payments were not made until the end of the month. As you know, prior to last month Handango has typically paid royalties on or near the 15th of the month following the previous month’s close.
The reason for my note today is that due to a number of factors, including ongoing process adjustments, effective this month you can expect to receive your royalty payments on or near the 25th of the month following the previous month’s close. This timeframe for payment would still fall within the allowed month long pay period from previous month’s close.
I understand the importance of timing relative to receiving payment and I wanted to get this information of change to you as soon as I was able to confirm the necessary schedule of the new processes. To the extent that this change in our policy causes an inconvenience, I apologize.
P.S. Don’t forget to forward this to your accountant – these folks can also go bonkers 
!
Newspapers all over Austria have gone bonkers about Google’s decision to pull out of China. The company got loads of good press for one reason: they care about human rights.
Even though human rights are not per se something bad, they most definitely are not the real reason for Google’s retreat plans. Instead, they are IMHO used as a cover-up for the real reason, which has but five letters: Baidu.
While the rest of the world is still firmly in the hands of the boys with the G, the Chinese market is all but out of control: recent numbers state that Baidu has a market share of about 60%, with Google struggling to stay around the 35% margin. And the situation is getting worse for Google every day.
So, why risk “getting run out of the country” wearing the donkey hat if you can also “call it quits” and get loads of good press in the west. As the downward trend is clearly visible, Google most probably doesn’t have much to loose in terms of revenue.
On the other hand, getting run out of a country would have intolerable and unfixable effects on Google’s reputation as “search giant”.
What do you think?
Editor’s note: please consider yourself made aware of our “no political comments” policy!
India’s Tata DOCOMO has always had a faible for all kinds of weird – and potentially ground-breaking – business models. Their latest stunt involves tackling data usage: they offer a data flatrate which has two pools: one for “rush-hour” and one for “night time” traffic.
Their idea sounds as follows:
Priced at affordable rates, the TATA DOCOMO GPRS Packs include an attractive Daily Pack for Rs. 5/ with a 10 MB download limit and validity till midnight on the day of recharge and a unique Monthly Pack for Rs. 48/- with a 30 day validity along with Free 100MB Data limit during the Day and free 2GB Data limit during the Night.
In a ‘first of its kind’ step, TAT DOCOMO is offering value by way of the quantum of data bundled via Day and Night data usage combined with a never before rate of just 1 paisa/20 Kb post the consumption of the free usage, within the validity period.
The effect of this regulation will most probably lead to uncluttered highspeed access during the day (aka in business times), while night-time transfers will be slowed down significantly.
Nevertheless, it seems workable – what do you guys think?
Unlike Apple, Palm seems to be hell-bent on closing the “feature gap” between traditional and new-age smartphones. For traditional smartphones, Bluetooth tethering is a must-have – and German Pres can now do it too.
The official German O2 change log describes the feature as follows:
Bluetooth
* Users can now create a PAN network connection between their Pre and the PC. This allows the PC to connect to the internet, using the Pre as a wireless modem.
As of now, nobody knows when the feature will become available outside of Germany. However, I am pretty sure that it will be rolled out eventually – stay tuned!
Mobile data has always been an – um – difficult market. Initially, it was insanely expensive. Now, its oversold in some areas, creating network congestion.
According to a large US carrier, the times of “all you can eat” data plans will be over soon. WashingtonPost.com quotes Verizon’s CTO as follows:
… the company will probably charge a base rate for its users and allow multiple authenticated devices to be attached to its network. Then it will charge by how much bandwidth is used by a provider – a business model known as usage-based pricing.
…
Even though I don’t think that volume deals will go, I personally do expect to see some kind of “price hike”. Industry insiders in Austria’s most modern network claim that a end customer price of 10 Euros per 3GB is “hardly profitable”…which should put a natural barrier to the way prices run.
This will IMHO come along with a bit of a “cutback” on mobile broadband – stationary users will always be served better by a latency-free and faster landline. Removing Windows PCs and their permanent updates from the networks would alone lead to a significant improvement in data loads…
Image (c): abc texte/Dr. Kohrs – no reproduction permitted
Folks all over Europe can rejoice – their Pres are likely to receive webOS 1.3.5.2 in the next few hours / days.
As this update does not support Palm’s new incremental update feature yet (further updates will), expect to download a few 100 megabytes worth of data.
As quite a few of you are visiting the Tamoggemon Content network via notebooks, I felt that the announcement below could be important – Mozilla has just released a new release candidate of FireFox 3.6, which promises to be even faster than the current beta or 3.5 editions.
According to the official announcement, the following improvements can be expected:
Firefox 3.6 (built on the Gecko 1.9.2 platform) introduces several new features for users and developers:
* Users can change the browser’s appearance with a single click using Personas.
* Firefox 3.6 alerts users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
* Changes to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
* Improved automatic form fill provides better options from your form history.
* Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
* Support for the WOFF font format.
* Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
* The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
* Support for the HTML5 File API
* Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.
In case you still use an outdated version of FireFox (or, even worse, IE) – hit the link below ASAP. The improved speed (and increased battery life) definitely is worth it:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html
MotionApps has asked me to add the following to the article. As I am a content partner myself, I know pretty well how much they get – but this is not at discussion here. So, Danijela, your statement is here:
I tried to reach you yesterday regarding the article I came across at http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2010/01/11/news-from-classic-pixi-support-coming-now-with-handango/ but it seems that I had the wrong email address
However, please note that we still have Classic Store at MobiHand, and that Handango is just another channel through which we feature Classic and Palm OS apps on Pre.
Also, revenue share as you stated there are not correct. I am obviously not able to talk about our contracts with app distributors, but just letting you know that you might indicate that data are not confirmed.
Given that I don’t own a Pre, staying on top of the webOS market is – um – a bit difficult at times. Nevertheless, Classic seems to work just fine. The latest nitty-gritty is below:
First screenshots of Classic for Pixi
Palm’s decision to reduce the screen resolution on the Pixi might have made sense from a technology point of view – but it makes life difficult for developers. The folks at MotionApps have adjusted their program as follows:
Looks sensible – unless you want to get into gaming…
MotionApps now cooperates with Handango
When MotionApps first launched, they used MobiHand as backend for their applications. This was a good choice for all involved: developers got 60%, and MotionApps likely netted 18 or 22% of every sale.
Unfortunately, they seem to have switched to the less affordable Handango silently – I stumbled across the image below on their web site:
I have to apologize for my delay in catching up with the news on this matter, but business stress – you know how it goes. Either way, the folks at Palm’s have announced quite a few interesting things at the CES:
Pre / Pixi will get WiFi routing
The first, and IMHO most important statement: your Pre or Pixi will soon be able to connect up to five laptops, iPods, etc to the internet by acting as a WiFi router.
Video recording
Another must-have feature is on its way: our Pres will soon be able to record videos officially.
Beta Flash 10 support
Nothing to say here. Nothing.
In the end, there is little to say here except cool. The idea with the Mobile Hotspot is nothing short of a strike of genius – even though the folks at JoikuSpot’s might just have a few issues with it…
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