Austrian governmental carrier faces usury charge over bill shock

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Mar 292011

Bill shock is not a new issue – in the past, German and Austrian attorneys have reached all kinds of settlements for their clients.

The Austrian governmental TV station ORF1 now reports that our governmental carrier, A1, could face criminal usury charges over an extreme case of bill shock. A client was charged 25k€ for 1GB of data downloaded inside of Austria due to a malicious application – even though A1 waived the fee after media coverage, a consumer protection body decided to try and press charges (in Austria, loosing a penal lawsuit is usually free for the accusing party):
Austrian governmental carrier faces usury charge over bill shock

Of course, the Austrian court system is famous for “timing out” cases it does not want to process (e.g. the Strasser case) – I consider it highly unlikely that a verdict will be reached after A1 offered to waive all fees without accepting guilt.

Nevertheless, an interesting move which could very well work out when applied against non-governmental carriers.

Disclaimer: Tamoggemon Limited is not a legal counsel. The statements above are solely our opinion. PLEASE consult with a lawyer before going after A1!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:34 pm

MobiHand: 30% rate is network-wide

Development No Responses »
Mar 282011

We covered MobiHand’s new contract yesterday – a 30% commission is not too bad. However, there is more to report than what meets the eye at first.

David Schoenbach just caught me on Skype, and wants to add that the 40% fee which used to be paid in venues like the TamsShop is now also 30%:

The large majority of sales through MobiHand-powered stores has been at lower rates paid to developers, with only one of our in-house properties (www.mobihand.com) at a higher rate. We’re lining up all rates to the industry-standard 70%, which is a net improvement for almost all developers. We’d been wanting to do this for a while, and now, along with other changes to Content Provider Agreement to support Optional Channels (carriers and other large volume distribution partners which developers can choose to opt into, though typically at lower rates), we’re finally doing it; and I think these are positive changes for our developer partners. We’re about to send out, real soon, the Optional Channels information.

Also, on the Android side, some greatly expanded distribution opportunities (news to come shortly), and these implementations that should help a lot:
- MobiHand In-App Purchase SDK: For developers planning to implement in-app purchase or links for trial conversion within apps for sale in sites in the MobiHand Network: http://www.mobireach.com/sdks/MobiHand_In-App_Purchase_SDK.zip
- MobiHand In-App Licensing SDK: For those seeking a single convenient DRM solution independent of any one marketplace: http://www.mobireach.com/sdks/MobiHand_In-App_Licensing_SDK.zip

Thanks for noticing the changes. I hope this info helps.

Given that our royalty rates have not been reduced so far, it looks like the folks have indeed become more efficient with increasing order numbers…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:01 am

MobiHand increases commission to 30%

Development No Responses »
Mar 272011

The folks at MobiHand’s have traditionally seen themselves as a low-fare ESD with excellent customer service – their low commission rates were famous all across the industry.

Unfortunately, the ever-falling price of mobile apps has now forced them to increase their commission for all of us as following:

The Agreement under which we provide content distribution services to you will be modified effective May 1, 2011. This email message is our notice to you under the contract change procedure described in the existing Agreement.

These changes will position MobiHand to increase sales of your products and to continue providing efficient and responsive services. We hope you will find the new Agreement to be easily understandable and acceptable. Some highlights are mentioned below:

70% Revenue Share: Beginning May 1, 2011, our standard revenue share rate will be 70%. This rate has become an industry standard and we are pleased to offer this standard rate across all of our “Standard Channels”, which include all the MobiHand-powered stores through which you currently sell your products. Rates at shopping carts in your website or within your product will continue to be based on the current tiered fee schedule.

New Optional Channels: Another important change is the addition of “Optional Channels” that will provide another way to sell your products. Optional Channel partners will generally be carriers or other high volume store owners. Each Optional Channel will require you to conform to a number of requirements that are unique to that channel. Participation in each Optional Channel will be optional – you may “opt-in” to participate, or not. Requirements applicable to these Optional Channels may include price guidelines, narrowly defined product needs, prohibited materials and specialized payment terms. We expect Optional Channels to greatly expand sales volumes to customers who are otherwise difficult to reach. Many of the changes to the Agreement are made to allow for these Optional Channels. Rates paid to you for Optional Channel sales will be specific to each channel. We expect most of these rates to be less than the standard 70% rate, but the net result should be favorable because these companies have the ability to generate substantial sales volumes. More information about Optional Channels will be provided soon.

Not much to add here…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 12:44 am

Qt on Android @ DroidCon 2011/Berlin – slides

Events No Responses »
Mar 262011

This is a little service for all those of you who attended, slept through or missed Damien Buhl’s (and yours truly’s) talk at the DroidCon 2011 in Berlin.

Find the 12MB PowerPoint slide deck at this URL:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/content/2011/March/thadroidcontalk/QtPresentation-5reduxmini.ppt

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 2:10 pm

Pixi survives 45 Minutes in a 450 degrees oven

Funny Stuff 2 Responses »
Mar 252011

Palms were not knows as the toughest phones on the block. But that was the past. There is news of a Pixi surviving a 450 degrees oven for 45minutes, only on batteries and cookies…!!

The Consumerist writes story about one Mr. Jim, whose wife, while baking cookies, accidentally dropped her phone on the tray and into the oven for 45 minutes.

Your post about the iPhone that fell 1000 feet and lived prompted me to share this story.

My wife was cooking last month. She set the oven to 450 degrees. When that temperature was reached, she inserted a baking sheet with the food she had prepared. After 45 minutes, she opened the oven and found her Palm Pixi phone in the oven just inside the door. It had apparently fallen out of her pocket as she bent down to insert the food into the oven.

She immediately grabbed the phone and when it had cooled enough, she removed the battery, which was distorted by the heat. Figuring she had nothing to lose, she placed a spare battery into the phone. It immediately came to life and has not given her a problem since.

Sincerely yours,

Jim

Phew…!! That is one tough Pixi…!!
Posted by Jatinder Singh at 10:09 pm

Learning ActionScript 3.0 – the review

Book reviews No Responses »
Mar 192011

Before the PlayBook tablet by Research in Motion, ActionScript was a language mainly used by Flash designers for adding a bit of “brains” to their animations. Unfortunately, the BlackBerry tablet changed that – ActionScript now is interesting for classic programmers, too. Can O’Reilly’s classic satisfy the needs of this clientele?
front Learning ActionScript 3.0 the review back Learning ActionScript 3.0 the review

The first chapters are best described as Programming for Dummies – not only do they show the syntax of AS, they also explain the concepts behind the idioms in painstaking detail. Seasoned IT vets will have issues not falling asleep here…

Part 2 focuses onh all things graphics: topics like pixel graphics, vector graphics and motion are explained in considerable detail. This treatise is very interesting, and contains many examples. However, it suffers from two weaknesses: first of all, it is focused on people programming games or graphic demos. The second and more significant weakness is the dependency on Flash CS – if you use Flash Builder, many of the examples can not be used.

Text, Sound and video get one chapter each. The same is valid for file IO and XML processing.

Our review is based on the second edition of the book. As usual for O’Reilly, it is well-written and contains loads of images. This time, the book is printed in color:
in Learning ActionScript 3.0 the review

All in all, the book provides a great overview of the possibilities of ActionScript. Unfortunately, it is not perfectly suited for PlayBook developers – it does not explain the QNX controls or the Flash Builder IDE. However, developers who need to create a PlayBook app ASAP should invest the 32$ the book costs at Amazon’s – there is no better way to get up to speed with ActionScript quickly…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 10:17 pm

WebOS 2.1 SDK now available for download

Development No Responses »
Mar 192011

Finally, the WebOS 2.1 SDK has completed its early access program and is now available for download. The new SDK allows developers to:

  • Take advantage of unique webOS features like Just Type, Exhibition and Synergy.
  • Build and distribute hybrid apps, combining HTML, JavaScript and CSS with C/C++.
  • Develop webOS services in JavaScript with node.js.

What should be noted here is that HP is also on the verge of releasing the SDK for WebOS3.0, giving access to more exciting features.

The new SDK can be downloaded here.

Happy developing…!!!!

(via)

Posted by Jatinder Singh at 9:28 pm

HP Veer coming to O2 Germany in May

Palm News 1 Response »
Mar 162011

A tweet by “DevAndFriends” gave us an interesting news: Veer to come to Germany via O2.

veer o2 300x153 HP Veer coming to O2 Germany in MayThe expected launch dates are suspected by “Nostradamus (:P)” to be 2th (tooth…??) or 9th May 2011.

Stay tuned for more…!!

Posted by Jatinder Singh at 8:11 pm

Australian app certification proposals garner controversy

Palm News No Responses »
Mar 142011

The most sad truth about the humans is that we can not, however hard we try, keep things simple. We think that by adding more levels to things, we simplify them. But what happens in reality is exactly opposite.

The same thing is being proved by the Australian authorities. First they wanted all the content provided to be “classified” according to the Australian rating standards (that surely requires an army of classifiers). An alternative to this would be to only classify the apps against which some kind of complaint is registered.

The Sydney Herald quoted here that if the Government refuses to introduce the “R18+ (=adults only)” category, all the apps rated higher than the existing “MA15+ (=mature audience)” category will be refused classification altogether. What a shame…!!

Additionally, the app stores (not to be confused with the Apple trademarked) need to rate their apps before selling them in the Australian market. They need to make it compliant to the Australian market. And if there is a complain upheld against an app, it would be refused to be classified and hence illegal to be sold on Australian soil (or airspace or water territory).

What is really shameful here is that though we are connected to each other with the WWW (world wide web), we do not have uniform standards conforming to apps and games purchase. Government agencies should look into this that the consumer as well as the provider should not be “frustrated” due to the “incapable actions” of the governments.

We await the day when the mobile world (at-least) would have uniform distribution standards worldwide.

Do let us know what you feel about this story..!!

Posted by Jatinder Singh at 8:00 pm

Self-healing screen protectors

Hardware News No Responses »
Mar 132011

Screen protectors tend to be all scratched up within a few weeks – once this has occurred, its time to buy another one.

At CeBit 2011, a Taiwanese company called Sewha had a small booth with a very interesting innovation:
0a Self healing screen protectors

A self-healing screen protector – it should be able to mend scratches on its own:
1a Self healing screen protectors

According to them, a release is planned for the second quarter of 2011…let’s see when the technology will hit the road for real.

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 12:06 am

Bluetooth Keyboard finally supported for WebOS

Palm News 2 Responses »
Mar 102011

Palm, in it’s pre HP days (as fans like to call it), had acknowledged a very valid point, Bluetooth keyboard for their touchscreen phones. Due to some cryptic reason, Palm thought that this idea was not too great (read as very funny) and dropped external keyboard support from the WebOS.

Now the Homebrew Hacking Heroes (HHH) have released a firmware that enables users to hook up their bluetooth keyboard to their Pre and do the moolah…!!

The Old Palm users are too happy to talk about it. You can read the full story here.

Posted by Jatinder Singh at 9:59 pm

HP vows to regain lost soul, every HP PC to run WebOS

WebOS News 4 Responses »
Mar 092011

A new chef brings a new recipe, and no, HP is no exception to this old-as-time saying (i dunno if it is for real, i just invented it..i think so). Addressing HP employees in Bangaluru, India, he vowed to regain “HP’s lost soul”.

hp webos logo 300x100 HP vows to regain lost soul, every HP PC to run WebOS

How does he plan to do it…?? Well the first and foremost thing that needs to be done (according to him) is to listen to his people, because

“The first thing I wanted to do when I joined HP was listen to the people. The rank and file usually know about all the shortcomings.”

The next is “WebOS” on every PC. HP PCs shipped frm 2012 onwards would have the genetic capability to run WebOS as well as MS Windows. This might have two effects, according to me:

  1. In the short run, the WebOS would see more apps. With a few thousand apps for the WebOS as compared to whooping millions for Android and iOS, it’s hitting two birds with one stone. Apps for the “PC version” of WebOS must have a counterpart for the smaller, mobile cousins running WebOS. Every developer would definitely want to see his/her app running on both PC and the mobiles.
  2. Challenge to MS and Apple: HP might be planning to be  direct competitor of both the companies. While it might want it’s users to give an Apple like desktop service experience, it might evolve to be a serious competitor of MS Windows in the looong run (two extra Os are intentional here, readers know why…!!).

Though I am not too sure of if what I hypothesize would ever happen, but I am pretty sure that users worldwide would welcome the decision of WebOS on PCs.

HP is the undisputed king of hardware in many parts of the world (at least here in India), so making inroads via software should not be tough, especially in developing countries where cost of original software is too high and people have to resort to piracy of some sort or other. A “free” OS should be welcome by one and all.

Stay tuned for more…!!

Posted by Jatinder Singh at 11:01 pm

WebOS 2.1 gets vintage PalmOS emulator, Homebrew folks hailed as heroes

Emulation, Palm News 3 Responses »
Mar 092011

With everything that gets old, there is a cult following which cherishes not only the old thing, but the memories associated during that period when that thing was at their disposal. Just ask a Palm fan and he will have at least 3 hours of non-stop commentary on PalmOS (with that obvious gleam in his eyes).

HP had decided to drop the files in the ROM necessary to run PalmOS on the WebOS 2.0. Reason simply being that Palm was old and outdated, it had to be disposed off. This didn’t go well with the “classic” fans, and homebrew gang felt it was time to do something about it. They couldn’t just let “it” go like this.

Precentral.net reports the following:

So has it been with Classic. Beginning in late November, forum member/webOS developer ArthurThornton began a discussion about getting Classic running on webOS 2, and then 2.1. Early this morning, he posted a detailed set of steps, including the files needed (and webOS Doctor versions from which they come), to get Classic working again; Arthur verified it on his newly-OTA-updated Pre 2, and other users are beginning to test as well (as will we).

thumb tall pre 2 classic WebOS 2.1 gets vintage PalmOS emulator, Homebrew folks hailed as heroes

This is the day of the classic palm lovers. Well since you know this now, you would like to know how to do it, so head over to Precentral.net and have a look for yourselves…!!

(Image source)

Posted by Jatinder Singh at 8:07 pm

LG Optimus 2X – release on March 25th

Hardware News No Responses »
Mar 082011

If there is one company which has taken leak management to the max in the last few months, it most definitely is LG. Their dual-core Optimus 2X has been all over the media – but with no release dates.
lg optimus 2x benchmarks LG Optimus 2X release on March 25th

Hutchison Austria has now confirmed that it plans to ship the device on the 25th of March in an exclusive fashion.

In the highest plan, the device will go for 0 Euros on contract.

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:29 pm
Older Entries
© 2012 TamsPalm - the Palm OS / web OS Blog Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha