Author: Ryan Kairer

SPB Software has announced their first release for Palm’s new platform. SPB TV for webOS brings a mobile optimized IPTV viewer designed for tuning into publicly available digital television channels from all over the world.

SPB TV gives mobile users easy access to over a hundred of international TV channels and the application includes a TV browser with quick channel previews, an instantly accessible TV guide for all offered channels, quick channel switching, adaptive bandwidth control and more.

SPB TV for webOS is compatible with Palm Pre and Palm Pre Plus devices with firmware version 1.4 and above. Pixi support is planned for an upcoming release. The application can be downloaded from Palm’s on-device AppCatalog for free, while the application is ad-supported.

Palm Inc. has announced that the company will be hosting a Developer Day on April 23-24 at its Sunnyvale, CA headquarters. The two day session will include developer focused presentations and tutorials around webOS. A $25 preregistration fee includes all sessions, meals, and a commemorative gift. Registration for the event will begin April 5th.

Join us for the first in a series of Palm Developer Days and get world-class training on developing applications for the Palm webOS platform.

This is your chance to learn from and exchange ideas with the Palm developer team, including engineering, marketing, and management. Sessions will cover everything from the basics of webOS architecture to creating 3D games.

Verizon is running yet another promotional price drop on its line of webOS devices. Surf on over to vzw.com for a freshly discounted $49 Palm Pre Plus or a $29 Pixi Plus. In addition to this sale, the devices still qualify for Verizon’s buy one, get one free offer.

At this point it is unclear if this promotion represents the new permanent price points or is a temporary sale. This also marks the third price drop for the devices in less than two months of availability on Verizon. The Pre and Pixi Pluses originally debuted at $149 and $99 after mail-in rebates, which have also been dropped along the way.

Verizon has apparently dropped the service fee’s for its webOS 3G Mobile Hotspot service. The service is now a free download for new and existing Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus users. Prior to today, Verizon billed customers an extra $40 a month for the mobile hotspot capability.

Engadget was able to get a statement from Verizon to confirm the service change:

“Customers who purchase or upgrade to a Palm Pre and Palm Pixi will get the Mobile Hotspot for free. Existing customers who already have the service will find charges on their next bill will be $0.00.”

The FCC has given its regulatory stamp of approval to the P101UNA aka the AT&T version of the Palm Pre Plus. Interested users can check out the related OET Exhibits List doc’s over here, but most of the goodies (i.e. pictures, manuals, test reports etc) are on a confidential hold for 180 days.

In another sign of progress on the domestic GSM front, Engadget has received word that AT&T store managers are now receiving their “practice” Pre Plus units. These demo models are likely intended for employee familiarization and training ahead of the launch. Still no update or even credible rumors on a real release date other than Palm’s previous “in the coming months” statement.

Palm has begun to push out a new webOS build to European Palm Pre users today. webOS 1.4.1 most significant contribution brings support for paid applications in the Palm App Catalog outside of the US. European users should now be able to access and purchase a wider variety of applications.

The update also includes a number of minor changes (posted after the break), which are detailed in the release notes at Palm support. Also with this update, users on O2 Germany (and possibly other carriers) can now download and use the Palm mobile hotspot application.

Update: The update (listed as webOS 1.4.1.1) is now available for Sprint devices via the on device updates application as well.

Palm has begun to push out a new webOS build to European Palm Pre users today. webOS 1.4.1 most significant contribution brings support for paid applications in the Palm App Catalog outside of the US. European users should now be able to access and purchase a wider variety of applications.

The update also includes a number of minor changes (posted after the break), which are detailed in the release notes at Palm support. Also with this update, users on O2 Germany (and possibly other carriers) can now download and use the Palm mobile hotspot application.

A group of webOS hackers has publicly released tools and details for overclocking webOS devices. The group has released a set of specially modified webOS 1.4 kernels (GSM and CDMA versions) with clock speeds of 720 MHz and 800 MHz, a significant bump from the factory set 600 MHz. For now, the files are specifically designed for use with the Palm Pre and come with detailed installation instructions.

A video demo of the new overclock patches in action is posted after the break. The video shows a dramatically faster webOS experience on the current Pre hardware with little noticeable side effects. While the group has done some limited testing on the overall effects of the mod, and they claim the initial data “shows good safety”, there are still a number of risks involved with the process. Palm itself has issued a statement on the matter, discouraging its use and stating it will “likely result” in a voided warranty.

StyleTap has released a version of its StyleTap Platform for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices. StyleTap is a Palm OS emulator that allows users to run original Palm OS applications on a “jailbroken” iPhone OS device.

StyleTap Platform for iPhone supports standard features that include TCP/IP networking, audio recording and playback, the ability to use the multi-gigabyte storage as a virtual memory card, and cut/copy/paste of text between native and Palm OS applications. It also provides innovative capabilities such as giving Palm OS applications access to the iPhone GPS by providing location information in standard GPS NMEA format.

StyleTap will run most Palm OS apps in a 320 x 320 display mode and should be compatible with most apps written for Palm OS 5.2. StyleTap also supports Palm OS programs that use native ARM code (PNOs, often called “ARMlets”). For button functionality a series of four virtual function buttons are provided as well as an onscreen virtual keyboard and directional pad.

Despite the recent cavalcade of dreary Palm news, Palm’s favorite private equity partners continue to stand behind the company. Contacted by Reuters for an article the firm has released another statement of support for the crew in Sunnyvale.

“Jon and his team have built the best mobile operating system available today and they are now working through short-term execution challenges with Elevation’s complete support,” Elevation said through a spokesman.

Shares in Palm Inc. took a hard hit following last Thursday’s Earnings announcement. The subsequent investor conference call did little to settle wary investors either as shares of Palm Inc hit a new 52 week low. Shares of PALM closed at $4.0045 on Friday, down over a point and a half, more than 30% single day decline.

The sell off was also fueled by some new analyst predictions and pessimistic financial reports. Peter Misek of Canaccord Adams, dropped his price target on the stock to zero. Quoted at MarketWatch he reports…

“We believe Palm’s troubles will only accelerate as carriers and suppliers increasingly question the company’s solvency and withdraw their support, […] With what appears to be roughly 12 months of cash on hand, an accelerating burn rate, a complete lack of earnings visibility, and substantial debt and preferred equity, we no longer see any value in the company’s common equity.”

Palm, Inc. today reported that total revenues on a GAAP basis in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended Feb. 26, 2010, were $349.9 million. Gross profit and gross margin on a GAAP basis were $47.0 million and 13.4 percent, respectively. In accordance with two recently released accounting standards related to revenue recognition, these results include the effects of accounting for multiple-element arrangements, including ratable revenue recognition for the future deliverables for Palm webOS products as required by GAAP.

“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “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.”

A recently distributed AP article about the latest sales woes at Palm Inc. reaches into the timelines of Palm Inc’s not too distant past and pulls out some interesting disclosures and quotes. While the article focuses on the present situation Palm Inc. finds itself in, the author peppers up his piece with a few choice quotes from former Palm/HandSpring CEO Donna Dubinsky. Mrs. Dubinsky was one of the founding members of Palm Inc. and until last year retained a seat on Palm’s board of directors.

In the midst of explaining the series of spin offs and corporate restructuring shenanigans that seem to have plagued Palm Inc. throughout its lifetime, Dubinsky admits that in hindsight the decision to create PalmSource and spin off the Palm OS was a “huge strategic error.”

Dubinsky said all the shuffling took “critical resources and attention from product development.” And even though it happened years ago, she called the decision to spin off PalmOS a “huge strategic error.”

“As RIM, Apple and Palm all have demonstrated, these devices need to be highly integrated hardware and software developments in order to optimize the user experience,” Dubinsky wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “When Palm no longer could advance the OS, and had to create a new one, it lost several years.”

A couple of webOS hackers have released some preliminary details about a new processor overclocking method for the Palm Pre. The modification boosts the Palm Pre’s processor up to 800 Mhz (from the default 600 Mhz), which results in a dramatic difference in overall performance. The developers have posted a video demo showing the over-clocked device in action. (Embeed after the break.)

This method utilizes a customized kernel and various patches to max out the megahertz. Currently the method works with webOS 1.3.5.1, but work on a more stable 1.4 release is promised. The video demonstrates a preview the utility and its impact on system performance on a GSM Palm Pre running webOS 1.4

Palm’s developer center has posted a nice tutorial on developing a game for webOS. The detailed tutorial focuses on using the HTML5 Canvas element for most of the graphics and animation.

The tutorial walks through all the steps in planning and developing a webOS game from scratch. The author builds out a game called Far Out Fowl, which is something of a Atari era Kaboom! clone. The game includes accelerometer based controls, sound effects and exploding alien chickens. The author Frank Zammetti also include the full source code (on GitHub) and does a good deal of explaining the basics of developing a game using Canvas.

Palm Inc. has reintroduced its developer purchase program. The program offers developers a small discount on certain webOS phones when purchased directly from Palm.

The developer purchase program gives registered Palm developers in the U.S. and Canada a 20% discount on the current array of webOS devices. The prices are based on the full retail price, so don’t expect to see any post rebate/subsidy price tags. The models currently offers are also all CDMA and still come locked to each particular carrier.

The site currently lists the Verizon Pre Plus for $479, Sprint Pre for $439, and the Pixi and Pixi Plus for $319.

Walmart has dramatically lowered its price on a new Palm Pre Plus this week. Online bargain hunters can now find the updated version of the Palm Pre on Verizon for $29.99 after the usual rebates and contract commitments.

Walmart.com started offering the Pre Plus for only $29 after rebates yesterday. The site also offers a free Pixi Plus (after rebates) as well. Amazon.com has also lowered its intro prices on Palm devices as well, where a Pre Plus can currently be found for $39.99 with a new 2-year service plan.

comScore, Inc. has released its latest data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between October 2009 and January 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, as well as popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone.

The January report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.9 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 43.0 percent market share. During the period Palm Inc. dropped 2.1 percentage points to settle down at 5.7% of the US mobile market.

Wallmart has dramatically lowered its price on a new Palm Pre Plus this week. Online bargain hunters can now find the updated version of the Palm Pre on Verizon for $29.99 after the usual rebates and contract commitments.

Wallmart.com started offering the Pre Plus for only $29 after rebates yesterday. The site also offers a free Pixi Plus (after rebates) as well. Amazon.com has also lowered its intro prices on Palm devices as well, where a Pre Plus can currently be found for $39.99 with a new 2-year service plan.

Palm, Inc. has announced that a public beta version of the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center. Palm is demonstrating new games from early PDK developers in its booth at GDC (No. 2016).

The PDK complements the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK), letting developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app. The PDK enables new functionality, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform. Developers can download the beta PDK and start developing today, but distribution of games built with the beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update.