Author: Robert Werlinger

We didn’t find it under the Christmas Tree on Friday like a certain PreCentral editor and the rest of us webOS fiends were hoping for, but this is close enough to count: the Sprint support website is saying that webOS 1.3.5 is to be released today, and that 1.3.5 is indeed the current version. 

Rubinstein mentioned during Palm’s Q2FY2010 earnings call that we’d be seeing the update around CES next month, so if the Sprint support website is to be believed, they’re free to announce something a little more exciting during their presentation… like announcing that Unreal Engine 3 has been ported over to webOS or some new hardware.

Here’s Sprint’s minimal changelog:

WebOS – 1.3.5
Build 194
Sprint Config – 2.0

12/28/2009

This update includes enhancements to the following:

• Improvement in battery life optimization when in marginal coverage areas.
• QCELP capability fix to allow play and audio of video sent via MMS.
• Launch Google Maps or Sprint Nav when tapping an address from contacts.
• Minimized package of MR size through binary difference. Customers can now download over 2G connections if necessary.

[via Engadget]

AnandTech is reporting that Epic Games have ported their Unreal Engine 3 game engine that powers games like Gears of Wars 2 over to the iPhone 3GS and the third generation iPod Touch.  The demonstration given to AnandTech consisted of a rather impressive fly through and playable Unreal Tournament level, and in practice "works well". 

This is great news for mobile gaming in general, and it looks like the iPhone isn’t going to be the only platform rocking UE3 next year: Epic will be announcing support for "another platform" at CES in January.  There are a number of mobile platforms that are likely candidates for a port of the engine, and while we’d love to see webOS on that list, as of right now it doesn’t look likely.

The engine requires that devices have an Open GL ES 2.0 equipped GPU, which both the Pre and the Pixi have, but lacking in webOS is an officially sanctioned way to write programs in anything other than JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

Unless Palm announces a major shift in how folks can develop for webOS at their CES 2010 presentation, webOS is out.

[Engadget via The iPhone Blog] Thanks to DJ for the tip!

Earlier this month we reported that those who had imported the SIM-lock free German Pre for use on a non-O2 network were unable to access the App Catalog after updating to webOS 1.3.1. We hypothesized that Palm wouldn’t provide a remedy to the issue other than a rather convoluted work-around involving multiple Palm profiles and SIM cards, but it appears that Palm has been addressing the issue on their side, as a number of importers have been reporting that they once again have access to the Catalog.

The issue has to do with the way the GSM Pre is activated, and the way in which applications are certified for certain countries.  If you were to activate your imported Pre with a SIM card from a Swedish network for example, you wouldn’t be unable to access the App Catalog.

Having access to the Catalog is important for all webOS users, and hopefully bringing paid applications to markets outside of the US is a top priority for Palm in 2010 as they expand the number of countries and carriers selling itsproduct.

Importers: can you access the App Catalog again?

[via Palminfocenter]

Application spam is a very real issue that’s been plaguing online application stores (Apple’s in particular) for some time now. Some development houses resort to seeding these virtual shelves with hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of the same application with a slight twist or variation in hopes of  improving the chances of getting their applications seen.  This approach works for a handful of developers, but it is endemic to one of the more unpleasant aspects of Apple’s App Store, causing the overall user experience to suffer.

This issue has been discussed and acknowledged by Palm’s own Co-Directors of Developer Relations in various presentations and interviews in the past (including a recent keynote presentation delivered at Sprint’s 2009 Open Developers Conference), and it appears that Palm’s own App Catalog is beginning to see this phenomenon. Anyone who has been monitoring the recent growth of the beta App Catalog are starting to get a better feel for how this works.  The business model at issue: build a rudimentary application, make x number variants for it, where x is as large a number as possible.

These developments have lead to some interesting discussion over at the Palm Developer Network forums.  Some have been suggesting an outright ban for some of these applications, suggesting that Palm expand its role as the gatekeeper to deem which wares (beyond the already established guidelines of usability and performance) are acceptable for sale and which ones aren’t.  Others, such as Palm’s very own Chuq Von Rospach, have a much more practical outlook.

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