Author: Derek Kessler

Hoooo nelly, Appible is on a roll. Seemingly running low on single public domain books worth selling, they’re now bundling them together in author packages and selling those at a discount. Which I’m okay with, especially in relation to selling a single book that’s available for free to the entire public. But enough of brow-beating a company that copies Wikipedia entries for their app descriptions, let’s talk about what’s new. What really jogged the old memory wheel for yesterday was the appearance of BugMe!, a classic Palm OS app that has now made its way to webOS. If you’re not familiar, BugMe! lets you jot down a note and set it as a reminder – far more useful than trying to enter a note in a calendar entry with an alarm. BugMe! is just one of several new apps (including another batch of test preps) and the always long list of updated apps – it’s after the break, of course.

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We just finished listening to Palm’s earnings call for Q3 2010 and while there’s nothing that will blow your mind, there were a few tidbits we thought we should point out. First – we’ll just say at the outset that our longstanding concern about passion and knowledge about webOS inside Verizon was confirmed and then some – CEO Jon Rubinstein alluded to the challenges Palm faced launching after Droid a few times. Our favorite was when he expressed his own opinion which is pretty much mirrors ours: 

We had an arrangement with Sprint that when we launched with Sprint that they would invest in marketing and carry the product and for that they would get an exclusive for a period of time. That really determined when we could do our launch at Verizon. I agree with your premise that if we could have launched at Verizon earlier, prior to Droid, that we would have gotten the attention that the Droid got and since I believe that we have a better product, I think we would have even done better.

More analysis of the earnings call – including why the coming quarter is most likely not going to be great for Palm – after the break.

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Palm has announced their fiscal results for Q3 2010, and in short, it’s not pretty.

Revenue was reported at a $349.9 million, though these are GAAP-adjusted numbers (GAAP accounting defers revenue over the expected service life of the device: 2 years). From a non-GAAP perspective, Palm brought in $366 million in the most recent quarter. Profit-wise, Palm netted a gross profit of $47 million (non-GAAP: $63.5 million). Accounting profits aside, Palm still managed to spend more than they brought in, burning through an additional $22 million this past quarter. Non-GAAP losses: $102.8 million, compared to $45.5 million the previous quarter. Palm ended Q3 FY 2010 with $591.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term assets.

The previous quarter Palm brought in $78.1 million (non-GAAP: $302 million) with a gross profit of $5.5 million ($77.3 million). After other expenses, Palm still managed to burn through $85 million cash during the prior quarter. At the very least, Palm has managed to slow the drain rate from their coffers, but as with any company they can only burn cash for so long.

For Q3 FY2010, Palm shipped 960,000 devices, and increase of 23% over the previous quarter, with sell-through numbers of 408,000. In short, selling fewer than half as many units as you ship is not a good position to be in. Also, selling fewer devices the quarter you launch your newest devices onto the biggest network yet is also not a good thing. No breakdown by device or carrier was provided, as is customary for Palm’s quarterly reports. During Q2, Palm shipped 783,000, with sales of 573,000 units.

Obviously, Palm’s expectations for this quarter were higher. As said by CEO Jon Rubinstein:

“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong. The work we’re doing to improve sales is having an impact, we’re making great progress on future products, and we’re looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable – and growing – advantage as we move forward.”

The full Q3 FY2010 report is after the break.

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As the title says, the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are rumored to be headed to European carrier (and current webOS carrier) O2 in April of this year. If true, it would mark the first time that the Pixi or Pixi Plus has been made available outside the United States. The anonymous tip, sent in to the popular UK technology blog Tracy and Matt, indicates that the two phones will be identical to the devices available on Verizon. With the notable exception of having GSM radios instead of CDMA.

In addition to the Pixi coming to Europe, this would also be the first time a “successor” webOS device appeared on the same network as the original, in this case the Pre Plus appearing alongside or replacing the older Pre on O2. The Pre Plus has been certified in Europe for some time, though we had always expected that was for SFR. Additional details such as pricing, exact release date, plans, and unlock status, were not available.

There is one potential wrench in the works here, though – Palm requested that the FCC keep details on the P101UEU confidential until September 11th. So while it’s looking like a GSM Palm Pre Plus is a sure thing, when and where it will land is still murky.

[via: webOS Blog.de]

Attack of the Show might be a bit late to the reviewing the Palm Pre Plus game, but we know there are a lot of people that watch the popular program on G4TV. So we’ll let you know that the Chris Hardwick and Alison Haislip on Attack of the Show checked out the smartphone and with all the newness (Wi-Fi hotspot, double RAM, etc) they levied the first ever 5/5 rating for their Gadget Pr0n segment. Apparently they also got a Pre Plus from the future, as they tout that webOS fully supports Flash (it will, just not yet). A big driver behind the 5/5 rating: Amazon’s and other third-party resellers’ recent ridiculous price-cutting of the Pre Plus.

Thanks to everybody (we mean everybody) that sent this in!

It’s been less than a week since Palm debuted it’s first soon-to-be-on-television commercial for their new ad campaign, and we’ve already got something that looks quite familiar. Above is the first video ad for Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft’s new mobile operating system, and by golly if it doesn’t follow some of the exact same cues as Palm’s latest. Of course, these things do take months to make, so we can’t go around accusing Microsoft of copying Palm here. Unless they have a mole inside Palm’s ad department [cue dramatic reverb]. If you need a refresher, the new Palm ad is after the break.

[via PreCentral sister site and home for all things WP7S: WMExperts]

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Whoa nelly app drop! Sure, a large chunk of it came in the form of public domain books, but we’ll take what we can get (and at least we’re getting packages of books, which is marginally cooler than charging for individual free-to-the-public works). Apart from that, there’s plenty of fun to be had with classic games like Uno from Gameloft and Adlib by Something Neu, or even newer stuff like SkyBox by Tapfish or Baon Productions’ Slalon Skiing. And while there may be a lot of new apps, there’s easily twice as many updated apps available, so head on past the break and check out all that’s new.

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Ah, battery life, it’s the biggest problem afflicting so many modern smartphones, webOS devices included. It’s a lesson that Sarah Braverman (Lauren Graham) learned first hand on Parenthood, when her Palm Pixi ended up giving up the power ghost at what was inevitably an inconvenient time. Strangely, her Pixi threw up a very large and very modal battery warning, but honestly we’re not all that surprised that it was changed (the default pop-up battery warning isn’t exactly urgent enough for on-screen panic). Parenthood isn’t the only place where Palm has popped up this week; Law & Order: SVU got in on the hot smartphone action (after the break, naturally).

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If there’s anything we at PreCentral like rooting for, it’s the underdog. We’re a website dedicated to Palm and webOS news and discussion, what else would we root for? While Palm (and everybody else not named after fruit) may be the underdog in the smartphone game, there’s one unique underdog player in the media player market: Boxee. The upstart little open-source media platform is gaining steam and cred amongst the tech crowd, and with the upcoming Boxee Box threatens to break into the mainstream. But how to control it?

With a remote on your phone, of course. That’s where Boxee Remote comes in. The work-in-progress app by PreCentral forum member richaoj (otherwise known as Alexander) recently found its way onto the Palm beta web distribution feeds and is now making the rounds. Boxee Remote is Alexander’s first webOS app and is already working nicely as an interface between your phone, Boxee, and the media already on your computer (or other Boxee-running device).

The app has already come a long way from the first Homebrew Gallery iteration. Users can now browse their Boxee media library, control playback and volume, view album art, and search for music and videos to play – all over Wi-Fi from their webOS device.

Set-up for Boxee Remote is a cinch. No desktop-side special controller software is needed (with the exception of Boxee itself). All you need is your computer’s IP address, which is easy enough to find – everything else you need to know (which amounts to a single port number and a checkbox) is located on Boxee’s network settings page.

If you’ve been hesitant or skeptical about trying out Boxee, now you’ve got no excuse. Of course, we should note that Boxee Remote is still in beta (v0.9.0 as of this writing) and you might encounter some unexpected bugs or glitches during use (for example, Boxee sometimes hangs when quitting if the app is connected), but nothing that will completely ruin the Boxee experience.

We’ve been working on this one for several days now, but it seems that every time we’ve got it ready, a new bug crops up and we have to do some revising. Enough is enough, we say, it’s time to put this out there. We’ve already covered the confusing, inconvenient, and frustrating Daylight Savings Time bug that many webOS users have run into; now is the time to look at what other new problems have afflicted Pre and Pixi phones across the world. There surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly, a lot of stuff to point out. While not everybody is experiencing any or all of the issues listed after the break, we’ve heard from enough of you (and seen some of these problems ourselves) that we know there are some distinct issues out there. It’s a wordy list, as we are wont to do, so if you’re interested in finding out if you’re not alone in your glitchy nature, head past the break for the scoop.

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We haven’t been hearing much about when webOS will make its way to AT&T, but one analyst believes that the launch (which was never announced or dated) has been delayed and that Ma Bell isn’t so hot on webOS anymore. As noted at Barron’s, Peter Misek of Canadian bank Canaccord Adams has both cut his forecasts for Palm’s impending earnings release (no surprise there) and no claims that AT&T has delayed the launch of the Pre and Pixi (no clarification on Plus variants here, but we have no reason to believe they’re not).

Not only is Misek claiming that AT&T is pushing the date back, possibly to June or July, but he also says that AT&T has slashed order numbers for the handsets. The most obvious headwind to Palm at this point is the lackluster performance on Verizon, but Misek also claims that AT&T trepidation has been amplified by “a long list of technical issues” with the phones. Additionally, he says that AT&T is cutting their planned marketing budget for the Palm devices, which would make sense if there are going to be fewer to go around.

All around, not good news, though we should note that this is all from one analyst, so you should be setting aside some obligatory salt to take with your next meal. Misek did have one ominous statement that we found to be particularly chilling (but not at all surprising): Palm’s weak sales and continuing technical issues “are starting to impact its relationship with carriers.”

[via: Palm InfoCenter]

While some days may be light days, yesterday certainly was not one of them. Twenty new apps and dozens of updates found their way into the App Catalog, and the new stuff ranges from the absurdly funny (Anchorman Soundboard) to the impressively fun (Super KO Boxing! 2) to the uniquely useful (WakeTube and ZumoDrive). Of course, there’s a smattering of stuff that people will find marginally useful (local bus tracking, specific test prep, quotes, public domain books, etc), but all-in-all this was a good app drop. Even the updated apps contain good stuff, with much-needed updates to popular apps like Scoop, Tweed, and Engadget. Check it all out – after the break, of course.

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Palm’s US website has received an update that, while not hugely different from a structural standpoint, shifts the website’s focus to something that we’ve said time and time again is the new standard for judging a mobile platform: apps. First and foremost is the replacement of the tried and true Pre standing on a table image (still visible as of this writing on international versions of Palm.com) with a sweet 3D icon collage putting emphasis on the multitude of social networking/media apps available for webOS. And we’re not just talking official solutions like Palm’s Facebook app – the website features apps like Twee and LJ for WebOS from third party developers.

A scrolling column on the right provides highlights of more apps, special promotions, updates, and bits about webOS. The bottom bar has also seen an overhaul, with links now pointing to the Pixi “family,” Pre “family,” accessories, and apps.

Overall, the update has made Palm.com a much more accessible website for current and prospective Pre or Pixi owners. By highlighting certain apps front and center and giving them prominent placement in both cycled items and permanent navigation, Palm is acknowledging what is important to users and giving much-needed exposure to third-party apps and developers.

Now all we need is an easy way to explain what makes webOS unique and why you should buy a Pre or Pixi. Remember ten years ago and the problem we had explaining why you should want a TiVo over a VCR? Yeah.

After our usual weekend app drought, we were treated to a sprinkling of new and updated apps yesterday. And by sprinkling, we mean dash, if we may be so bold as to mix weather and cooking metaphors. Regardless, new apps are a good thing (we hunger greatly over the weekend), and apart from the smattering of completely new, there’s plenty of kinda new in the form of update apps as well. Did your favorite app get updated? What about that sunrise calculator or gold rangefinder you’ve been waiting for, is it here? Maybe, maybe not, I’m not going to tell you until you hit that Read The Rest of this Entry link.

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If you’re still waiting to jump on the webOS bandwagon, we’ve got good news for Sprint lovers: if you head over to RadioShack in the next two weeks, you can pick up a Palm Pre or Palm Pixi on contract for the low price of nothing. While the Pixi has been free for a while (depending on where you’re looking), it’s rare to see the Pre available for free.

The RadioShack sale runs through March 27th, and is, of course, open only to new Sprint subscribers. If you’re already on Sprint, well, you’ll be paying money upfront for your Pre or Pixi. Of course, these phones require at least a $69.99/month Everything Data plan with a two-year contract, so a free phone is a difference of $50 or $100 on a nearly $1800 commitment.

Thanks to everybody who sent this in and to Derek for the photo!

If you were mourning the loss of Sprint’s NFL contract, fret not, as they’ve signed a new sports entity that’s bound to appeal to more sports fans: ESPN. So while folks on Verizon may soon be enjoying all that the NFL has to offer, Sprint subscribers can now fire up the Sprint TV app and start watching the new ESPN Mobile TV channel. In just the next two months ESPN Mobile TV will be broadcasting 23 men’s NCAA basketball games, 19 women’s NCAA basketball championship games, 9 NBA playoff games, 10 regular season MLB games, and plenty of ESPN-exclusive news and reviews content – all live.

And that’s just through the end of April. 2010 will bring more than 800 sporting events to Sprint TV subscribers (which is anybody with a Pre or Pixi on Sprint), including the 2010 FIFA World Cup, college football, MLB, NBA, Grand Slam tennis, and more.

Thanks to orawas for the tip!

While the relatively short new list from yesterday might be dominated by a new “WordPegs” series that melds the quotation app with the wallpaper app (thankfully even the parts are more than the sum of some others in those maligned categories), there are still some gems in the list. Notably among them, the worshipped travel guide Zagat, in this instance Zagat To Go from Handmark. That’s not all, as homebrew graduate bubek has released a feature-packed version of the popular TimeTracker app, christening it TimeTracker Pro. Of course, two apps and some quotation wallpapers don’t say it all, so head on after the break to see the rest.

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Falling in line with the pricing available for other smartphones on other European networks, you can now get a Palm Pre for free on contract with O2 in the United Kingdom. In fact, so long as you’re willing to sign up for an 18 month contract for at least £30.00 a month, you can get a Palm Pre for free – and that £30.00 a month comes with unlimited data and texts (but just 100 minutes). Amusingly, O2 is also touting that the package comes with 3 free EA games, otherwise known as the games that are being given away for free in Europe anyway.

What is there to say about yesterday’s app drop? There were apps? Yes, that there were. Were there updates? Yes, plenty of those too. Were there exceedingly cool and useful apps? Well… What do you mean “Well…”? You see, we can’t get awesome every day. We can’t? No, we can’t – if we did, then awesome would cease to be awesome. It’s like trying to define a beautiful day in Hawai’i; if every day is beautiful, what makes it beautiful in relation to other days. Why are you talking to yourself in text? I… don’t know. Just look at the apps listing after the break, okay? Fine.

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What defines a good day in the App Catalog? We’re still not entirely sure, but we think that yesterday’s app drop certainly should be in contention for the designation. What all happened? Fun and useful apps of both the PDK and Mojo varieties, plus the requisite slew of updates to boot. That’s right. Why do you doubt me? Head on past the break to see what I’m talking about. That’s where the list is, but you knew that already.

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