News » TamsPalm - the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Localized apps key for China downloads in 2012

Nov 182011

Localized apps are the future when it comes to China.

ABI research has published it’s findings, the excerpts of which are as follows

Providing localized features for apps will drive 5.5 billion downloads in China in 2012. An example of a successful localized app is Halfbrick Studios’ Fruit Ninja for China, which includes Chinese zodiac animal images.

Working with local developers and social networks is another way in which foreign developers can localize their apps.

Research analyst Fei-Feng Seet quoted

Regardless of device type, successful apps in the Chinese market are those with a local look and feel and incorporate local content.

China has the most cellphone subscribers in the world, and it is adopting smartphones at an exponential rate. With this adoption rate and the emergence of different app stores, developers who add a local touch to their apps are at a chance of earning higher than the others.

Busted–Don’t fall for the recovering American Soldier hoax

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Nov 162011

After many users of Facebook (including my own friends) were left baffled and utterly infuriated at the news feeds showing highly objectionable content, a new hoax is apparently doing it’s annual rounds on Facebook.

According to the hoax,

When filling out your Christmas cards this year, take ONE CARD and SEND it to this address:

A Recovering American Soldier, c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20307-5001.

If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these soldiers could get to bring up their spirits! Feel free to repost. This is a wonderful thing to do !!

According to Snopes.com

The U.S. Postal Service will not accept mail addressed to "Any Soldier," "Any Wounded Soldier," or the like because if it did, it could be providing a conduit for those who might do harm to armed services members. Such offerings are either returned to sender (if a return address has been provided or if one is found within the package) or donated to charities (if no address for the sender is found). Similarly, military hospitals will not accept letters, cards, or packages addressed in such manner for the same reason. Such beneficences, no matter how kindly meant, are not permitted to reach the soldiers they were intended for.

But there is a legit way to send your greetings to unknown soldiers. It’s called "Holiday Mail for Heroes" and is sponsored through the Red Cross and Pitney Bowes.

You can be a vigilante and spread this message across to fight the hoax.

HP taking feedback of Touchpad customers, we suspect something fishy

News 3 Responses »

Nov 162011

If the blogosphere is to be believed, HP is indeed sending out feedback mails to the Touchpad customers asking them about their user experience with the Touchpad.

While it is fairly odd to collect feedback data for a canceled product, what is more odd is the fact that HP is going into the nitty gritty by asking the customers questions ranging from

ease of setup, overall performance, and the webOS user interface to the ability to personalize the device, the quality of manufacturing, and the durability of the TouchPad.

This might hint at the resurrection of the almost dead webOS. We do remember Meg Whitman needs more time to arrive at a meaningful decision concerning webOS’ fate. Maybe this survey is a tool to gauge the customers’ interest and make sure that they “do it right” this time. who knows…except for HP??

Stay tuned for more..!!!

White Pre3, New Touchstone Appear on eBay

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Nov 152011

The dying just got better. Now a white Pre3, along with a new Touchstone charging dock had appeared on eBay for a whopping $700.

According to Webos roundup

On eBay right now is a white Verizon Pre3 and a new Touchstone charging dock, the catch: it’ll cost you $700. If you’re a Verizon customer and you were planning to purchase one of the previously-available $700 Verizon Pre3s, then you should snag this up ASAP…there’s only one available now and like those previous listings we can’t be sure there will be more of them. We do hope we’ll see more of these along with some independent listings of those new Touchstones, they do look amazing.

Update: The listing has now been removed from eBay and the item is no longer for sale.

Adobe kills Flash player for mobile, we run the obituary

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Nov 102011

It’s confirmed ladies and gentlemen. Adobe has put an end to all the rumor mill by stamping the death certificate of Flash Player for mobiles.

This move comes from Adobe after it has decided to focus more on the ailing HTML5, a platform which is “more capable” than Flash. As per Engadget

Adobe will of course also be pushing developers to work in its AIR platform for a more native experience, and the company will continue to work on Flash Player for desktop operating systems, but one can’t help but see the platform as a whole standing on fairly shaky footing at this point.

RIP Flash, you were the sole weakness of Apple, an area where you kicked Apple right in the Hemorrhoids and showed it the finger. The scores now stand Apple – 1, Adobe – 0.

Whitman needs more time to decide webOS fate

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Nov 102011

While everyone was skeptical that HP might soon announce a plan for it’s ill fated webOS, Meg Whitman surprised everyone (well, not everyone) by saying

It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision.

Well said Meg. This decision is a wise decision as per me. Unlike Leo Apotheker, who just went madly destroying everything, Meg thinks she can arrive at a worthy decision within three to four weeks.

While it was highly speculated that the brilliant webOS would be sold off to the highest bidder from an array of heavyweights, Meg responded by saying

If HP decides [to keep webOS], we’re going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period

…it’s a very expensive proposition, but HP can make that bet.

Well, good going Meg, is all we have to say. Hope that you take a decision that is as much in favor of HP as it is in favor of the developers who word pretty hard to keep the platform alive.

Source

RIM wins accolades and award as BlackBerries helps International Medical Corps save lives

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Nov 102011

Consider a situation wherein you are in an awful natural disaster and you are not able to help people just because your cellphone wont let you.

This is a true story that has led The International Medical Corps to award RIM a recognition in light of the countless lives it helped to save.

Nancy A Aossey, International Medical Corps president and CEO, quoted

We are recognising Research In Motion with the Global Impact Award for the role of BlackBerry smartphones in our operations on the front lines, I can tell you that our use of BlackBerry smartphones literally saves lives.

As a first people to arrive at the earthquake site in Haiti, International Medical Corps was on the ground within 22 hours treating patients and co-ordinating medical personnel, supplies and providing other relief. But their cellphones gave up.

Enter RIM.

Dr Neil Joyce, who has worked with International Medical Corps in Angola, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, among many others, and helped lead its Emergency Response Team in Haiti said

You just don’t know what kind of a setting you’re going to arrive in…

…As we arrived in Port-au-Prince, the cellphones were not working, but I was able to send messages with my BlackBerry smartphone.

Using his BlackBerry, Dr Joyce was able to coordinate the setting up of medical camps and send help where it was needed the most. Not only this, the team used their BlackBerries to coordinate with the pilots who were flying in the relief supplies and help them to land and take off from airstrips.

Dr Joyce added

BlackBerry puts you in contact with the people on the ground and the people on the outside who can help. We really could not have done aid work in the modern setting without a BlackBerry smartphone. It made a huge difference.

Margaret Aguirre, director of global communications for International Medical Corps, also had a BlackBerry with her. She said

It is not only the device of choice, but the device of need.

Doctors and nurses treating patients amid rubble and under trees were able to communicate with each other about patients needing immediate surgery and to co-ordinate the urgent transport of blood supplies. BlackBerry helps us communicate to get the materials to where they’re needed and to find out where things are in the moment of an emergency.

Not only this, the team also helped raise awareness about the disaster by taking photos and uploading them on social networking sites so that the world could have a true picture of the disaster and the military personnel could direct relief efforts in the correct way.

A truly amazing story is all I want to add here…!!

Source

RIM wins accolades and award as BlackBerries helps International Medical Corps save lives

News No Responses »

Nov 102011

Consider a situation wherein you are in an awful natural disaster and you are not able to help people just because your cellphone wont let you.

This is a true story that has led The International Medical Corps to award RIM a recognition in light of the countless lives it helped to save.

Nancy A Aossey, International Medical Corps president and CEO, quoted

We are recognising Research In Motion with the Global Impact Award for the role of BlackBerry smartphones in our operations on the front lines, I can tell you that our use of BlackBerry smartphones literally saves lives.

Enter RIM.

Dr Neil Joyce, who has worked with International Medical Corps in Angola, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, among many others, and helped lead its Emergency Response Team in Haiti said

You just don’t know what kind of a setting you’re going to arrive in…

…As we arrived in Port-au-Prince, the cellphones were not working, but I was able to send messages with my BlackBerry smartphone.

Dr Joyce added

BlackBerry puts you in contact with the people on the ground and the people on the outside who can help. We really could not have done aid work in the modern setting without a BlackBerry smartphone. It made a huge difference.

Margaret Aguirre, director of global communications for International Medical Corps, also had a BlackBerry with her. She said

It is not only the device of choice, but the device of need.

Doctors and nurses treating patients amid rubble and under trees were able to communicate with each other about patients needing immediate surgery and to co-ordinate the urgent transport of blood supplies. BlackBerry helps us communicate to get the materials to where they’re needed and to find out where things are in the moment of an emergency.

A truly amazing story is all I want to add here…!!

Source

London 2012 Olympics: chaos for mobile phones

Funny Stuff, News No Responses »

Nov 082011

Yes you read it correct sirs and madams. Chaos will prevail at the 2012 London Olympics.

According to the Telegraph

A deal struck between the London 2012 Organizing Committee (LOCOG), BT and O2 currently means that some 40,000 executives and guests in its corporate entertainment areas will only be able to use mobiles with an O2 contract – forcing them to adopt a new mobile number, or face a communications blackout.

Such attendees can, as the news says, use Vodafone, Three, Orange and T-Mobile networks in the shared public areas of the Olympic Park. They can now use any other networks other than O2 in their respective shared public areas of the Olympic Park.

Who knew LOCOG and O2 gang can stoop so low. While making money is a good thing, forcing people to port their mobile phone numbers to O2 or adopt a similar mechanism is totally outrageous.

It could turn into a "communications nightmare", said a source. "There will be thousands of chief executives and business people unable to use their normal phone numbers because LOCOG isn’t dealing with the situation.

"They think the operators can just turn their receivers round but it doesn’t work like that. They need to be allowed in the buildings."

Nothing to add here except that this buffoonery only makes the taxpayer more pissed off, as their tax money is being used up by dacoit gangs like LOCOG and O2 to bring a bad name to their nation.

Aceeca looking for Beta Testers for MEZ1500 Win CE with Wi-Fi

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Nov 032011

Since we published sometime ago that the Meazura MEZ1000 is to be phased out and that it would be replaced by a more robust MEZ1500, Aceeca has gone ahead with it and is inviting beta testers for it’s Wi-Fi MEZ1500 with Win CE.

It is also inviting Win CE 5 applications that can “benefitted” with the Wi-Fi. According to an email we received

MEZ1500 Win CE with Wi-Fi

Beta Testers Wanted

As mentioned in our previous newsletter we are now ready to begin beta testing of the Wi-Fi feature on the MEZ1500. If you have a Win CE 5 application that will benefit from Wi-Fi connectivity and would like to assist us with field trials can you please contact us.

We are also ready to begin beta testing of the Bluetooth feature on the MEZ1500 with Win CE 5, so if you have an application that would benefit from Bluetooth please contact us.

In appreciation of your assistance with our beta testing and feedback you will receive an extra 5% discount for any purchases made prior to 31 July 2012.

We have had a number of questions re the End of Life (EOL) notification we sent you for the MEZ1000, so I thought I would take the opportunity to clarify the situation.

The EOL is a direct result of several semiconductors going EOL, ones that we cannot substitute.

Please be assured that we are very conscious of the potential costs that changing hardware can impose on your business. To that end we are doing everything possible to extend the EOL notification period to ensure minimal disruption to your business. We have already secured substantial quantities of the vital semiconductors that we have been advised are EOL. These will be sold on a first come first served basis. I don’t believe there is any reason to panic as we can potentially continue to supply MEZ1000’s for several years. Please be sure to talk with us and let us know what you require as you will find us to be pretty flexible in looking at ways to accommodate you.
Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking to personally contact all of our customers to ensure everyone’s requirements are catered for.

Please keep in mind that the MEZ1500 is a replacement for the MEZ1000 in that it offers great compatibility with Palm OS 4 applications while at the same time offering a number of new features, not the least of which is the Wi-Fi comms option. We expect the MEZ1500 to have the same long life cycle as the MEZ1000. Another significant advantage of the MEZ1500 is the ability to load different OS’s, Garnet, Win CE or Linux.

So if you feel you can be a part of this Beta Test Drive, contact Aceeca.

HP ceases Touchpad production

News No Responses »

Nov 022011

HP has finally hit the kill switch. Touchpads are no more in production. After the grand fire sale, most of HP’s Touchpads were bought by junta at inhumanly low prices.

The remainder lot is currently in possession of BestBuy and it is selling it to people who buy HP PCs only.

According to an email sent out by HP

Dear Valued Customer,

Making sure customers have a positive experience when they purchase our products is a priority for us. In some cases, limited inventory makes it challenging to fulfill all customer orders. As you signed up for updates on the HP TouchPad, we wanted you to know that we are officially out of stock. Some retailers will have some stock available, but our online inventory is depleted.

Thank you for your interest in this product and the feedback you provided. Your input plays a critical role in defining our product roadmap and will help us continue to bring innovative products to market.

Sincerely,

HP

This email is an indirect proof that HP has stopped producing the TouchPads. But XDA developers have another point of view. According to them, there would be an Android version of the Touchpads, that is, if what they think is correct. Head over to XDA and read yourself.

HTC and AccuWeather facing app lawsuit

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Nov 012011

A class action lawsuit has been files against HTC and the proclaimed AccuWeather on the grounds that AccuWeather tracks user location to within a few feet, and then transmits the information across the internet in an unencrypted form, to be used to deliver targeted advertising.

It was also asserted that there is no way to turn off the app – and therefore no way to stop the location information being made available.

Business Briefing reports

The complaint said that the information transmitted is “unnecessarily precise” for a weather forecast, and was being used “for the defendants’ own purposes unrelated to weather information.” The devices are capable of supplying “coarse” location data, which is less accurate.

It was also said that the transmission of data in unencrypted form is “substandard,” especially since the device is capable of sending data over the Internet using SSL encryption.

The case is calling for refunds, a replacement smartphone, or the premium paid for the devices “above the amount charged for similar, adequately labeled products.”

HTC is involved in this lawsuit is because AccuWeather is shipped pre-installed on many HTC handsets. So that makes HTC, knowingly or unknowingly, a co-culprit in the crime.

Also, as per the document related to the lawsuit

39. Another unreasonable security defect in HTC smartphone is the HtcLoggers service feature on the smartphones. This is not a feature available for Plaintiffs and Class Members to use; it is, however, available to the providers of third-party apps installed on Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ smartphones.

40. The HtcLoggers feature allows any Internet-connected app, regardless of its purpose, to access Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ email addresses; phone numbers for calls dialed and received; fine and coarse location and location history; text messages; and activity logs for all apps running on the smartphone—essentially, all information regarding all activity
on the smartphone.

41. HTC Corporation reportedly has acknowledged the HtcLogger defect3 but has failed to alert purchasers, rectify the defect, investigate AccuWeather’s use and/or onward transfer of purchasers’ detailed geographic location data, or remediate AccuWeather’s retention of such data.

So now HTC is in some serious trouble.

Document Source

HP loses another one, Phil McKinney decides to retire

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Nov 012011

Well, HP just lost it’s CTO. Phil McKinney has announced via his blog that he will be serving HP until 31 December 2011.

As per his blog

Earlier today, I announced that I will be retiring from HP.

This is not the traditional retirement. I’m not planning on spending my days playing golf or sitting around the house driving my wife crazy. I have far too much passion, energy and ideas to sit on the sidelines.

My definition of retirement is the freedom to write, speak, mentor, advise and teach without the restrictions of the traditional employee/corporate structure.

My passion is to help innovators get better at innovating and I’ve spent the better part of the last dozen years fulfilling that mission. My time at HP started out as an advisor on innovation that turned into a request to join for a year or so to “help grow the innovation culture at HP”. That was 9 years ago. I can honestly say that I’ve done everything that is within my power to fulfill that objective.

Phil was the person behind the teams that delivered Blackbird, Firebird, Envy 133, Gabble, Twynergy, Pluribus, Vantage TouchWall and DreamScreen.

After the retirement, he aspires to be the motivational speaker, author, mentor and innovator that the world has known him to be.

We wish him all the best…!!

Best Buy offering $150 TouchPad PC bundles

News No Responses »

Nov 012011

Retails giant Best Buy is supposedly offering Touchpad for $150 with purchase of select HP or Compaq Desktop, Laptop, or all-in-one PCs at Best Buy.

This offer begins today and will be applicable on BestBuy.com and all other brick and mortar stores. Though there is no mention on how long the offer will stay, we suspect that the offer would not last long as the Touchpads that are being offered are from the last batch in the production.

Anyways, $150 is way better than $50. Winking smile

Older Entries Newer Entries

TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Localized apps key for China downloads in 2012

Busted–Don’t fall for the recovering American Soldier hoax

HP taking feedback of Touchpad customers, we suspect something fishy

White Pre3, New Touchstone Appear on eBay

Adobe kills Flash player for mobile, we run the obituary

Whitman needs more time to decide webOS fate

RIM wins accolades and award as BlackBerries helps International Medical Corps save lives

RIM wins accolades and award as BlackBerries helps International Medical Corps save lives

London 2012 Olympics: chaos for mobile phones

Aceeca looking for Beta Testers for MEZ1500 Win CE with Wi-Fi

HP ceases Touchpad production

HTC and AccuWeather facing app lawsuit

HP loses another one, Phil McKinney decides to retire

Best Buy offering $150 TouchPad PC bundles

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