As previously speculated, AT&T has revealed that June 6th (a date that launch-day Sprint Pre owners should recognize) as the launch date for the WiFi-equipped, blue-backed Palm Pixi Plus on its website. It will be selling for the previously announced price of $49.95 with a new two-year contract. While you eagerly wait to get your hands on the svelte phone, go ahead and read our Verizon Pixi Plus review to get a good idea about what you’re getting into.
Thanks to arthurthorton for the tip!
Here’s an exciting thought: now that HP will be the driving force behind webOS, the world’s largest technology company will soon become one of the biggest and most innovative drivers in the Web space. Palm, as you know, has been no slouch when it comes to driving the adoption of next-gen web technology, with the company pushing the edge of what’s possible with web technology by making it a keystone technology in the "prized possession" that is webOS. Sure, the details of the buyout are still up in the air, but if HP brings Palm in as a semi-autonomous business unit and allows the existing engineering corps to do what they do best, then the future of mobile computing just got a whole lot brighter.
As @bgalbs wisely pointed out, HP’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm isn’t just an investment in the company’s smartphone efforts going forward; it’s a huge bet on the web itself.
Yes, folks, it’s that time again: time to get some great 3D gaming titles for a fraction of what they normally sell for. This time around, Glu Mobile has put a few of its titles on sale:
I don’t know about you all, but if these games keep going on sale like this, I’m going to quickly run out of storage space on my Pre!
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Palm has released the second installment of its developer podcast series featuring Directors of Developer Relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. You caught the first installment of the podcast series last month, which gave you a high-level look at Palm’s vision going forward, and why Ben and Dion decided to leave Mozilla to work at Palm. Episode Two gets a little bit more into the nitty gritty, offering a crash course geared towards beginner developers on the platform, showing how to install the necessary tools (such as the SDK and the emulator) to build an application, how to develop an application from scratch and tweak it, and how to deploy that application to the emulator or device for testing. It’s the perfect primer for folks that have been pondering making the jump into developing for the platform, as all of the basics to get up and running are covered here. Video is after the break!
Additionally, Palm has started to post the slides from their Developer Day online – there are currently three sessions available. We expect more to come – and we also hope that video of the presentations will become available online as well.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
The webOS promotional video from AT&T’s Palm Pre product page we linked to last Thursday has hit "The YouTube" and the blogosphere has weighed in: they like it! They really like it!
Imagine: an advertisement for a product that actually shows some actual features of said product. We don’t know if Palm or AT&T actually intend to release what we’re seeing in the above on television (naturally AT&T can’t comment), but we’d be happy if they did.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Since joining Palm back in September, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer have really been accomplishing a lot (dare I say kicking ass?) in roles as Directors of Developer Relations. In addition to the Developer Day (where at, of course, and will be keeping you up to date on the latest happenings) and the on-going podcast series, the two have been giving a 10 week crash course on the future of the web and mobile at a little college in Palo Alto called Stanford University. The school, along with Palm, are making the videos available online for your learning pleasure. Currently on week two class, the first class gives a higher-level overview of mobile and the mobile Web, and the latest video covers some HTML/CSS/JavaScript fundementals (you know, the technologies you need to build applications using Palm’s SDK.)
So while you’re kicking yourself for not heading to Sunnyvale this past weekend, cue up the Stanford videos (which are about 50 minutes in length) and get your learn on.
Another day, another chance to snag a great 3D gaming title for a great price. This time around, the popular (and highly-rated) Glyder 2 from Glu Mobile can now be had for just under a buck, on sale from the regular (and still reasonable) $4.99 asking price.
Thanks to H2O for the tip!
Yes, ladies and gentleman, my wish has finally come true: a proper Tower Defense type of game has hit the App Catalog. Defensive Warfare ($2.49 in the App Catalog) is a full on place upgradeable towers (guns, AA-rocket launchers and slow- ‘em-down emp weapons) and prevent different classes of vehicles, both air and ground, slow and fast, from reaching the other end of the map.
Gameplay is enjoyable for the most part, but the game does get rather frustrating in the more advanced levels as the AI has a tendency to stop concentrated fire on passing units and aim at whatever units come into range, diluting the effectiveness of my towers and preventing me from advancing through the last few levels. Still, it’s an exciting (and very welcome) entrant into the App Catalog, will most certainly get better as time goes on, and is a great sign of things to come.
Here’s some of the latest talk in the forums:
We look forward to seeing you in the forums! Not already a member? Remember: registration is free, and the benefits are numerous indeed.
It was only a matter of time before the WiFi-less, Sprint bound Pixi dropped to "free with a 2-year contract" pricing on the America’s 3rd largest network, and you can now hit Sprint’s online portal to get the diminutive smartphone for the sweet sweet price of zero dollars with a new contract. As is generally the case with Sprint, brick and mortar corporate stores can’t match the web pricing on these kinds of deals, so if you want your free Pixi through Sprint proper you’ll have to wait a few days after ordering, or wait until in-store pricing inevitably follows suit.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Oh, unboxing photos: how you whet our appetite for the devices we covet. We caught a glimpse of the AT&T destined Pre Plus being unboxed from the Boy Genius Report earlier this month, and this time around a slew of unboxing photos can be found by way of Engadget. There’s nothing earth shattering here – just some pictures of what appears to be a "practice" Pre Plus and its always attractive packaging – but these photos should stir some more excitement for those of us in the states that have been holding out for the GSM version of the Pre to hit our shores.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
There’s a real vacuum when it comes to document editing software in the App Catalog (we’re looking at you, Dataviz). Sure, Google Docs allows you to do some basic editing to spreadsheet documents via the Web using Google Docs, and there are some rudimentary text editing programs available to webOS users, but until Scratch ($5.00 in the App Catalog) came along, there hasn’t been a way to edit text documents with rich markup while also smartly utilizing the cloud.
Scratch is a word editing program that offers full document editing with a wide array of text formatting options. In addition to supporting true paragraphs, Scratch allows you to bold, italicize and underline text as you’d expect, and you can format blocks of text with bulleted lists, numbered lists, and heading sizes. Enhancing this feature set, nearly every formatting option has a keyboard shortcut associated with it (gesture area + L will, for example, create a bullet list from selected text), allowing for surprisingly efficient document editing. There’s no question that the $5 asking price is a tad steep for those features alone, and the program sweetens the pot by adding the ability to import and export text documents directly from Google Docs.
This program is solid enough in its own right, but what would make this blogger especially giddy? If the folks behind Scratch and the folks behind the WordPress oriented app Poster combined forces and, with a little bit of PDK magic, created one of the more robust cloud oriented pieces of content creation software available to any mobile platform. Think about it, guys.
As I browse through the App Catalog on a day to day basis, I’m sometimes drawn to the applications that endeavor to improve on the ease of use and functionality offered by webOS. Call it a morbid fascination really, as none of the applications I’ve come across in this space so far have actually improved much of anything, and end up being little more than just the waste of a few dollars. We visited the ActiveCard (2.99 in the App Catalog) application a few months ago, and found it to fit the status quo in this regard quite well.
You may be familiar with TealPoint Software, the company that got itself into hot water with Palm early last year when they mimicked the webOS interface on Palm OS devices with TealOS . Since then, the company has stocked the virtual shelves of the App Catalog with a number of apps, ranging from shopping list managers to world time clocks. The app we’re looking at today, TealSpeed ($4.99 in the App Catalog), a speed dial and launcher, is one of those applications that aims to enhance the functionality of the UI employed by webOS. Does it make the grade?
Those of you who are attending (or thinking of attending) Palm’s Developer Day in Sunnyvale this weekend now have access to the full agenda for the two day event. On the docket for the weekend are hacking sessions, off-site mixers, and speeches from high-level engineering folk such as Graphics Frameworks Engineer Andy Weir, VP of Platform and Tools Joe Hayashi, and of course Directors of Developer Relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer.
Looking over the agenda, it looks like developers are getting more than their $25 worth, as both days are packed solid with presentations. The first day gives a higher level overview of webOS with presentations starting at 10:00am and ending around 5:00pm. The second day gets down into the nitty gritty with presentations starting at 9:00am with the keynote speech (delivered by Ben and Dion), being followed up with multiple presentations during each time slot, with everything wrapping up with an off-site mixer around 5:30.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Through all of the recent talk and rumor surrounding what might come next for Palm, one constant theme has been the value of the company’s intellectual property, holdings that are by themselves worth between $8 to $9 per share according to MDB Capital Group.
There has been talk that perhaps the market has been undervaluing Palm’s massive patent holdings, but if the company’s IP portfolio is as potent as some of these analysts think is, a recent article posted on ars technica poses an interesting question: why hasn’t Palm done everything in its power to leverage that IP though lawsuits and licensing agreements to keep cash flowing into its coffers? The answer could, of course, be a simple matter of business practice, in which case Palm has been carelessly leaving money sitting on the table for quite a while now. The answer could also be that the company’s massive war chest of patents has less relevance than we’d like to think.
Thanks to govotsos for the tip!
Creative types of applications in the App Catalog have tended towards the anemic side of functionality and usefulness, but as time progresses, that trend is beginning to change. We took a quick look at Paintbox ($0.99 in the App Catalog) not too long ago, and if you were excited about the prospects of that app and what it had to offer, you’re in for a real treat here.
Paintr Lite (Free in the App Catalog) offers a 16 color paint pallet, 3 types of brushes (hard, soft, and dry) with selectable brush size, opacity, speed sensitivity, with the brush textures created being very lifelike. The color options are nearly limitless, as the user selectable opacity allows for the mixing of hues to create colors that aren’t available in the color picker. Like many of application’s contemporaries in the Catalog, there’s no way to export your canvas other than taking a screenshot of your work (option key + symbol + P).
The program, as basic as it may seem, has allowed people to create some rather striking images considering that they were done on a 3.1” touchscreen using an app that utilizes nothing more than web technologies . To show off what the app is capable of, there’s an integrated gallery (where the above screenshot of the Marylin "painting" came from) allowing users to showcase their work.
The developer is said to be working on a “Paintr Pro”, but the webOS development framework currently lacks the features needed make to make a paid version worthwhile to the end user. That will all change, hopefully, when the masses can release PDK enabled apps into the Catalog.
Engadget has spotted the European variant of the Pixi Plus in the depths of the FCC’s website sporting the model number P121UEU, allowing users to safely use the handset in the US without the FCC sending a massive squad of goons in to take you down. That, or the AT&T version (the P121UNA) was just feeling lonely.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Palm has let us know via its Facebook Page that the next version of the Facebook app, which is being developed by the Developer Relations team, should be available in the App Catalog sometime next week. Facebook for webOS 1.2 will bring enhancements such as notifications(!), the ability to play Facebook video, keyboard shortcuts, speed enhancements and more. As usual, those looking to stay on the bleeding edge can get in on the action before the updated app hits the Catalog by downloading the beta version.
Thanks to KBLOM for the tip!
Here’s some of the latest talk in the forums:
We look forward to seeing you in the forums! Not a member? Remember – registration is free, and the benefits are numerous indeed.
German blog webOS-Blog (Google translate link for those of you who don’t read German) has it on good word from Vodafone employees that the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be priced at € 579.90 and € 399.90 respectively without contract and for as little as € 149.90 and € 49.90 respectively when purchased on contract . There’s still no official word from either Palm or Vodafone on pricing or release dates, but based what the non-plussed devices are selling for on other networks, those numbers make sense to us.
Thanks to Julian for the tip!