Several Canadian readers have let us know that Canadians are finally able to download and install webOS 1.4 on the Bell network. Y’all may have had to wait to record video for a few days longer, but you did beat us at hockey, so we guess we’ll call it even?
Thanks to everybody who sent this in!
Eagle-eyed PreCentral reader mafia sent us a link to Dion Alamer’s blog post from February 24th discussing various issues relating to touch interfaces, native interfaces, and the like. What caught mafia’s eye, however, was the above screenshot comparing the Gmail web client and the native webOS mail client. New to us: those little circles to the left of each email in the main list. Call us crazy, but that looks to use like we may see a future update to the mail client that will allow multiple selection of emails on the list for deletion, archiving, etc.
Having accidentally deleted more than one email via swipe, I can say that I would definitely love to have this option for triaging email. Actually, while I’m on the subject, here’s a quick tip for Gmail users: go into your preferences and change your default deleted messages folder from "Trash" to something else (I use "Deleted Messages"). It makes it a bit easier to find messages you may have accidentally deleted on the full web client (though you do have to clean them up inside Gmail when you use this method).
Update: Just head from Dion and the screenshot above is actually quite old, pulled from Mitch Allen’s webOS Development book. So while it may still yet be a sign of things to come, that’s looking a little less likely now.
Thanks, mafia!
We’re assuming you’ve heard about the newly updated Facebook App. Let’s let not allow that to keep us from seeing what else is new.
…What’s new is a lot of public domain books packaged up in a convenient book app, plus a few more utilities that appeal to the cook, the traveler, and perhaps to a Republican or two.
Get your pithy literary analysis and a list o’ the apps that came out yesterday, after the break!
Palm’s official Facebook app for webOS was just updated – slimjim1219 in our forums let us know that you just need to check your updates app to get it installed. We saw it leaked in an advertisement last week and sure enough, it’s here.
The new version of the app radically improves on the previous version, which we’ve described as a "Facebook as Twitter" kind of client. It now allows users to fully search and view Facebook profiles, look at photo galleries, use Facebook mail, view events and upcoming birthdays, and look at your own Facebook wall and photos.
More on features, a video showing the app, and a gallery of screenshots is after the break!
Data not working on your Palm Pre Plus? It’s not just you: Verizon appears to be suffering from a nationwide data outage (though it’s working sporadically for some folks). Engadget has confirmed it with Verizon, twitter is fairly lit up, and naturally Verizon being a BlackBerry-heavy network our friends at CrackBerry.com are all over it. We’re not seeing a gigantic outcry in our own forums yet – but perhaps y’all are on WiFi?
We know there’s a healthy Sprint vs. Verizon debate here at PreCentral, but set that aside for a moment. Verizon users: Got Data? Sprint Users: Have Pity.
Update: Data should be working again, via Engadget.
PalmCast Live is tonight and it’ll be webOS 1.4-riffic! Dieter and Derek wait on pins and needles to find out whether Keith will be able to find a connection to the interwebs to join us..
As always, tweet your questions in with the #palmcast hashtag for our lightning round. We’re also giving away a BodyGuardz Skin for the Palm Pre, to protect it from daily dings and scratches.
8pm Eastern tonight. We’ll see you there.
Over at Android Central, we hear that Apple is suing HTC for infringing on 20 iPhone patents. If you thought you heard fightin’ words from Apple with regard to Palm, you ain’t heard nothing yet:
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
Apple has previously said "We are ready to suit up and go against anyone," and we figured that "anyone" had a healthy chance to be Palm. Instead, however, Apple has been locked in a patent war with Nokia and have apparently decided to open up a front with HTC. Both Nokia and HTC surely have formidable patent portfolios, so it’s no longer safe to assume Palm’s own extensive portfolio is a guarantee that they won’t see a brief from Apple someday.
The story’s developing as we hunt down the filing and see what exactly Apple is crying foul over. Meanwhile we’re imagining Palm execs whistling, walking, hands-in-pockets, looking at the birds, and doing their best to not appear conspicuous …and maybe checking to see that they lawyers are on speed dial.
Update: Gizmodo has a list of the patents and they’re pretty broad – many of them could definitely be said to apply to webOS. Luckily(?) patent wars like this take time, so it’s going to take quite awhile to see how this all shakes out.
Developers! Hie thee to the Palm Developer Center to download the SDK for webOS 1.4. What’s new? We’re so glad you asked:
You can hit up the full set of webOS 1.4 SDK release notes for the nitty gritty details. We’re pleased to see that "Audio playback latency has been significantly reduced," and also glad that any app can "initiate video capture" – in fact it looks like there are enough changed in the Media API that any developers who use media should take a look at the transition notes. (Now if only that Media API included access to the Microphone….)
via the Palm Developer Center Blog, thanks to slp15 for the tip!
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Keep your eyes peeled on CrackBerry.com this week as they unleash a slew of contests for their third birthday – they’ll all be listed here!
Just about 24 hours after it landed on Sprint, webOS 1.4 is now available for Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Get your update on, Verizon users, then check back and let us know how it goes. Verizon changelog after the break…
Thanks to everybody who sent this in!
While Sprint, O2, and Movistar customers download and while Verizon and Bell customers grumble, Palm has posted a comprehensive changelog of all the features and fixed they’ve added to webOS 1.4. We still suspect that there may be other small enhancements to be found – this is the thread to post what you find!
Full changelog after the break, thanks HelloNNNewman!
Following up on webOS 1.4 appearing on a handful of GSM devices and following an early sneak peek at the webOS 1.4 changelog and now, friends, it has finally arrived. Hit up your update app to download and install the app. Want to talk it up? Of course you do: hero forum moderator Milominderbinder has helpfully set the stage for you:
We already know the big stuff: Video recording, improved Universal Search / Exchange support, ‘performance enhancements within phone and calendar,’ the groundwork for flash, and the gesture area notifications. There are plenty of hidden gems to find, though (check out the call log). What else do you see?
Update: Palm confirms the networks it’s available for:
Sprint network in the US and on the O2 UK, O2 DE, O2 Ireland, and Movistar networks in Europe. The update is expected to be available for Palm webOS phones on other networks soon
Verizon, Bell, and Telcel users: tough cookies, you’ll just have to hope that ‘soon’ means ‘by the time Palm promised – in February.’
Patchers: Remember to make sure you’re on the latest version of Preware – here’s the details on how AUPT means you don’t have to uninstall patches.
After all the consternation over whether (or at this point, how badly) Verizon and Palm stumbled launching the Palm Pre Plus, we and a few of our readers were reminded that Palm is also trying to launch themselves in Europe. Palm hasn’t traditionally been strong in the old countries, so how have they been doing?
A few articles back up a general feeling: pretty good in Germany, pretty poorly in the UK. Heise online (Google Translation) reports that André Krause, CFO for O2 Germany, called the Pre "The most successful smartphone at O2." Credit for O2 Germany’s generally good results is their progressive contract (or, actually non-contract) system. We suspect that the fact that O2 Germany’s QWERTZ Pre is the only unlocked Pre on the market may also have something to do with it – not to mention a compelling ad campaign.
Things may not be as rosy in the UK. Mike S over at Wirefresh broke down how the UK launch broke down, from the Pre not appearing on O2 UK’s homepage early enough, to the well-documented fast that the App Catalog in the UK was (and is) seriously behind its US counterpart, to persistent hardware issues. We might add that the Palm Pre is directly up against the iPhone on O2 in the UK, while in Germany that’s not the case
Thanks to Pete, Wiski, and gizmo21!
Brandon sent us a heads-up to this on-fire PreCentral.net forum thread where one lucky user, tomi666, has received and is installing the webOS 1.4 update as we post this. tomi666 happens to be on vacation in Vietnam. He writes "I’m on a German unlocked QWERTZ in Vietnam, roaming on a Dutch T-Mobile SIM."
This bodes quite well for the update hitting not just Sprint and Verizon, but unlocked GSM Palm Pre Phones as well on Feb 26th. Let’s hope that what we have waiting in store for us today is a worldwide rollout of webOS 1.4 on all carriers in all countries!
Thanks tomi666 and Brandon!
(Update: a few more screenshots here)
The Wall Street Journal has published an email written by CEO Jon Rubinstein to all Palm employees. In it, Rubinstein details Palm’s earlier guidance today, then he explains what steps are being taken to improve sales moving forward:
Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations—all getting the word out about Palm
It’s interesting (and gratifying?) to see that Verizon has taken a share of the blame for the Palm Pre Plus’ and Pixi Plus’ poor showing thus far on Verizon. Having spoken with several Verizon employees throughout the day today, I can say that internally at Verizon there isn’t as much enthusiasm for webOS as one would hope – Verizon employees in general are better educated on, more familiar and more comfortable with the Droid by a wide margin. Hopefully this "Project JumpStart" will help to close that gap.
Rubinstein closes the email by planning an all-hands company meeting and also by saying:
Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.
It’s odd to think it, but it’s still early rounds in the smartphone fight – knowing the team at Palm, they’re in it for a few more rounds.
Dieter and Derek talk webOS 1.4, troubling webOS news, and tussle over the source of said trouble. Listen! Listen now!
Thanks to everybody for writing and calling in!
The Palm Pixi on Sprint is officially down to $50 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a $200 instant rebate. Weren’t we just asking how Palm could juice webOS sales? This is probably a good way – we’re pleased by it because it’s appropriately low compared to the WiFi-touting Palm Pixi Plus on Verizon, because they’re dropping the point-of-sale price instead of making the mail-in rebate larger, and because, well, Palm needs to move inventory.
Thanks to cudooza for the tip!
After several days of crazy stock swings, Palm has issued a press release updating their investor guidance for for Q3 FY2010. In essence, it appears to be an admission that sales are slower than hoped:
[…] revenues for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 will be in the range of $285 million to $310 million on a GAAP basis and in the range of $300 million to $320 million on a non-GAAP basis.1 Revenues for the quarter and full year are being impacted by slower than expected consumer adoption of the company’s products that has resulted in lower than expected order volumes from carriers and the deferral of orders to future periods. Accordingly, Palm expects fiscal year 2010 revenues to be well below its previously forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. The company will provide more detail on its financial results during Palm’s third-quarter financial results conference call currently scheduled for Thursday, March 18.
In a quote in the release, CEO Jon Rubinstein added "However, driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated. Our carrier partners remain committed, and we are working closely with them to increase awareness and drive sales of our differentiated Palm products." The release closes with Palm debunking a recent rumor that they had little cash on hand, claiming that they expect to end the quarter with cash and cash-equivalents totaling over $500 million.
The release comes a day after the Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) on an analyst claim that Verizon "was ‘evaluating the potential for destocking.’" It appears that article may have been a bit overblown as in the same piece Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney dismissed the report. Reached for comment, Raney told PreCentral "Palm devices are an important part of our portfolio as more and more people enjoy both the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus on the nation’s most reliable network."
As we briefly discussed in PalmCast Live on Tuesday (podcast coming soon), in recent weeks it seems as if any errant rumor has the potential to affect Palm’s stock lately. We’ve long held here at PreCentral that Palm’s single most important challenge right now is simply selling as many webOS devices as possible to help establish the platform as viable for both users and developers. Given Palm’s statement today, that challenge isn’t being met yet.
With luck, Palm’s recent advertising push will help with that – although we’re starting to think Palm is going to need new, high-end hardware to act as a ‘halo device’ for the platform. What do you think Palm needs to do to juice sales?
We’ve heard through the grapevine that Epocrates is coming to webOS and apparently it won’t be too long until it lands. The company has a sign-up form where you can get notified when it’s available – "early 2010" they say.
The app is actually out in a beta to a small group of testers. Some have publicly commented in our forums that the app is "FAST," while anonymously we hear that the app will include the standard Epocrates features plus Med Math, Interactions, their pill finder, and plenty of tables. The app, as you can see at right, also follows the webOS ethic of "just start typing" to search everything.
Since webOS can, you know, fully multitask, medical professionals will be able to leave the app open in the background (where we’re told it doesn’t appear to consume much in the way of resources) to give it faster access than what is available on the iPhone platform.
Mullrat in our forums says that an Epocrates rep said the app was submitted to Palm for approval – so all we need do now is wait. Luckily webOS users have plenty of practice in that regard.
Thanks anonymous!
Update: Wahey! It’s in the App Catalog, listed for free, and it’s nearly 33 megs of medical goodness. Get downloading! Thanks @elbaso!
Gartner has released their latest numbers for smartphone marketshare worldwide and it paints a fairly grim picture for the current state of webOS. Worldwide, webOS accounted for only 0.7% of smartphone OS marketshare at the end of 2009. The good news is that Palm hadn’t had much time in the European market at that point and also that the Verizon launch hadn’t occurred yet, but nevertheless that’s not exactly a confidence-inducing number.
2009 did see Android grow from a blip at 0.5% to a respectable 3.9% by end of year. Given Palm’s current financial state, they better be hoping similar growth is in the cards for 2010.
via Engadget. Thanks to everybody who sent this in!
