CC Photo by {eclaire}
The last week brought some interesting things to folks running webOS: First up, the Hot Apps contest has officially begun. Next, our friend Jason Robitaille has released a new version of WebOS Quick Install. We’ll cover the rest of the tidbits in the Roundup. Fire up your Palm Pre or Pixi and play along.
CC Photo by {eclaire}
It seems like it was only last week that we did our weekly news roundup. Time sure does fly! Since we were last here, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus launched on Verizon. We’ll cover that then we’ll talk about the latest news from WebOS Internals, which will be of special interest to those of you who patch or want to patch your webOS devices. Next, we’ll talk about some of the new 3-D games to hit the App Catalog. Finally, we’ll wrap it up, as we always do, with the Roundup.
Let’s say you’re a customer in the market for a new, shiny smartphone. You’ve never had one before, and you’re able to choose from whichever U.S. carrier you want. You’ve heard some news about a “Google Phone” and you’ve seen commercials for this thing called “Droid” and apparently that has something to do with Google as well. You’re intrigued, but also confused, and I feel your pain.
Continue reading The webOS Advantage Part II – Pre vs. Android Flagships →
Today’s market is getting pretty crowded with superphones. There are currently four major players in the smartphone market (although Windows Mobile is pretty much dead until 7 comes out), and let’s face it, Palm is the smallest of the bunch. Here at webOSroundup, we believe that this is simply because most people don’t know the advantages of webOS and its associated devices. So to fix this, today we are beginning a series that outlines the advantages of webOS when compared to the other devices and platforms that are out there.
The series will be covering the gamut…webOS vs Android, webOS vs. iPhone OS, Pre vs. the Android’s Flagships, and finally Pre vs. the “Jesus” phone itself, the iPhone.
Today we will focus on the differences between webOS and Android as a platform.
Continue reading The webOS Advantage Part I – webOS vs. Android →
When Palm announced at CES that they had a new framework for tapping into the GPU I was excited.
When I played Asphalt 5 and saw the actual power of the little phone I had been carrying around for six months I started to drool.
Now I have played Need for Speed Underground (by EA Mobile for $9.99 on the Catalog) I feel as though I have truly hit phone nirvana.
Never before have I actually looked forward to some time where I could sit and play on my phone. I have a gaming rig PC, an Xbox 360, and a Wii and here I am sitting on my couch playing on my phone. Seriously, the game is that fun.
Continue reading Need for Speed Undercover Review – webOSroundup →
Years ago (around 2001 – 2002) I created and ran a simple, text-based, online game called the Octagon. Originally it was a spreadsheet created by an Excel genius whose name was Charlie (can’t remember his last name at this point). I worked with him and helped him bring it online. Over a few months Charlie no longer had time for the game so I took it over and rewrote everything in PHP and expanded it considerably.
The goal of the game was to create a fighter that you then managed and upgraded, bought items for and talked shmack to the other players. At its peak we had about 300 players or so. It was a lot of fun, but it eventually took too much time to run so I had to shut it down.
I say all of this to give you an idea that I am intimately familiar with games like Mobile War (by MobileWar.net for $1.99 on the Catalog). Also, it gives the foundation for why I feel as though the game has a lot of potential, but is currently not living up to it.
CC Photo by {eclaire}
Welcome to this week’s News Roundup. This week we’ll sort over the recent webOS news to bring you the tastiest tidbits. First up, news of webOS 1.3.5.2 hitting Europe. Then, a bit of news about Verizon and AT&T. Finally, we’ll close up with the Roundup of the smaller stories.
“You have died of dysentery”
These words have been a classic since the 70s (before I was even born). Oregon Trail has been around for what seems like forever. I had never played the previous iterations…not sure why. I have always been intrigued by a game that killed you with the “flux”, but I had never picked it up until the other day on my Pre. This version is made by Gameloft (the same people who made Asphalt 5) and costs $5.99 on the App Catalog. You can see what the classic version looked like below…don’t worry, it looks a lot better now.
So what is Oregon Trail? Well it is basically a simple role-playing/puzzle game that puts you in the role of big pappa who is taking his family WEST to fulfill their destiny in Oregon. Its part of the whole manifest destiny stuff from your American history class (or at least it was in my class). The goal of the game is to keep your family alive as you cross the terrain of the USA. As you cross, you will run into towns and outposts where you can pick up supplies and upgrade your wagon.
Well the Christmas season is finally over…my wife and I actually just took down all the decorations this evening in fact (an interesting task when you do it with a small child let me tell you). However, just because you are done buying Christmas presents doesn’t mean you aren’t shopping. This is America baby! We always find a reason to shop!
So, today we have a new tool that can help you stay organized: Shopping List by Adaptive Code (formerly Mojo Apps). Now I have reviewed several apps like this, and my current favorite has been easyShop because of its simplicity, but I have to say, Shopping List has taken the lead. Why? Actually the two apps are very similar, but Shopping List keeps the simplicity, but adds a few features that really kick it up a notch (or maybe two).
It was one year ago at CES that Palm introduced webOS to the world. This last Thursday, Palm again presented at CES. Expectations were running very high and Palm did not disappoint. Palm announced new networks, new revisions of the Pre and Pixi, new developer tools, new software features and more. We’ll cover the presentation in detail and even give you the opportunity to view a video of the presentation. Keep reading.
Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s Chairman and CEO, took the stage in Las Vegas to recount where Palm’s been and tell us where Palm’s going. Click on the video to watch the entire 50 minute presentation.
The follow are the key points:
Katie Mitic, Palm’s SVP of Product Marketing, announced $1 million in prizes to be awarded to top webOS developers. The prizes are open to both free and paid apps developed using Palm’s existing Mojo SDK. The prizes are tiered as follows: $100,000 each to the top downloaded free and paid app, $10,000 each to the developers of the next two most downloaded free and paid apps and $1000 each to the developers of the next 200 most downloaded free and paid apps. The download period will be between February 1, 2010, and May 31, 2010. Drop by the newly relaunched Developer Center to get started developing your app today.
3D Gaming Comes to the Palm PreThe announcement that got the most reaction was the release of 3D accelerated games, made available by Palm’s new Plugin Development Kit (or PDK). Joining Palm onstage to make the announcement was Travis Boatman, VP Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile, who introduced some of their new titles. In all, twelve PDK titles are available in the App Catalog, including the much hyped Need For Speed Undercover, The Sims 3, X-Plane 9 and Tetris. You can see a video review of Gameloft’s Ashpalt 5 on WebOS Roundup.
More important than the release of these twelve games, though, was the PDK itself. The PDK allows for development of applications that work with webOS but that are developed with C and C++ — in other words, native applications. One of the criticisms from some developers is that Palm’s Mojo SDK, based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, is too slow for some types of applications. The PDK, and the fact that Palm has been testing this with some partners possibly since the release of webOS, indicates that Palm was well aware of this and has a solution.
While we’re excited about the release of the PDK we’re not sure that the capabilities of the Canvas element have been fully realized by game developers. As Frank Zammetti pointed out, there is a tremendous potential for applications developed with existing Web standards. Particularly as we see technologies such as WebGL get included in webOS. Further, battery draw from games that tap the GPU will likely be big issue.
The PDK is scheduled for release in March on the Palm Pre and a later date for the Pixi. In case you missed the significance of the statement, the 3D games available today in the App Catalog are only available for the Pre, not the Pixi. Those missing 80 pixels could be very significant indeed.
Those of you who’ve been following the homebrew announcements knew that video recording is possible on existing webOS devices. It was only a matter of time before Palm incorporated the feature into the OS. Palm demonstrated their upcoming video recording functionality at CES. What they also demonstrated was the integrated video editing and sharing capability. With a few clicks, Paul Cousineau, Director of Product Marketing at Palm, edited a video he shot live at the event then uploaded it to You Tube. After it was uploaded, he used another feature to share the video with his Facebook feed.
Many have criticized Palm for not having the feature available before now. Hopefully, this very slick implementation will go a long way towards smoothing any ruffled feathers. What’s more important is that this feature will be included with webOS 1.4, another free update available to all webOS devices sometime in February. Although it wasn’t discussed, we hope that audio recording will also be included in 1.4.
It was confirmed that Flash 10.1 will be available soon. According to Paul Cousineau Flash 10.1 will be available for download from the App Catalog. This feature will open up the Web even further for webOS devices. Some have pointed out that the recently announced SlingPlayer, being Flash-based, will work on webOS, allowing you to watch and control your TV on your Pre or Pixi.
The Pre Plus and Pixi PlusPalm also showed off the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus smartphones at CES. The Pre Plus sports double the memory and storage (512 MB RAM, 16 GB Flash) of the original Pre and sheds the center button. The Pixi Plus adds WiFi and more storage and memory. Both devices will ship with Touchstone compatible backs. These two phones will be Verizon exclusives (see below). No doubt the increased memory and storage will be important for applications developed with the PDK, as many users have noted that the 3D apps sometimes fail to launch with the dreaded ‘too many cards open’ message.
Another Verizon exclusive will be the ability to use the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus as a MiFi hotspot, allowing up to five devices to share the 3G connection. All you’ll need to get your laptop online is the app and a webOS device on Verizon. What was not disclosed is how much the data plan for that will cost.
Palm announced two new network partners at CES: SFR in France and Verizon Wireless in the US. As mentioned above, Verizon will be getting an exclusive on the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus (at least in the US). Verizon currently has about double the subscriber base of Sprint in the US so this opens up a huge market for Palm and app developers. What remains to be seen is how Verizon will promote the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. If they are half as successful as they were with their Droid Does campaign then the more consumer-focused webOS devices will sell very well.
It seemed that Palm’s announcements were targeted very strongly towards developers. Palm realizes that in order to compete with Apple and Android its important to have apps. The opening of the developer program, the freeing of the app distribution process, the Hot Apps program and the PDK all point to the fact that Palm is deadly serious about expanding its App Catalog. Palm is actively courting developers and is making it clear that they embrace openness, even giving a ’shout out’ to the homebrew community at CES. This is very exciting news and this strategy will very likely bear fruit.
What a strikingly different out-of-box experience awaits those users whose first webOS device runs webOS 1.4 as compared to those of us who started with the first release of webOS. Certainly the underlying OS that we all love hasn’t drastically changed but the power, features and available apps have grown tremendously. Kudos to Palm for the customer focus and rapid updates. This is clearly one area where Palm outshines Apple and Android. Many Android devices are stuck on older versions of the OS and are unlikely to ever see updates and Apple’s releases are slow in coming.
Prior to CES we predicted a number of things. We got most of them right. We missed on seeing a non-Palm branded webOS devices and we didn’t have any clue about the Hot Apps program. However, what was most important about CES is that Palm has again generated buzz. They showed that Palm was not to be ignored in the smartphone wars of 2010. They reinforced that they are committed to extending the functionality of their devices through more updates to the OS. They showed they’re committed to reaching more end users. We think 2010 will be a great year for Palm and a great year for webOS users.
All Things Digital agrees that Palm has shaken things up once again. Slashdot has some coverage of the Hot Apps Program. Ars Technica ha a writeup about CES. PC Magazine has a hands-on with the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. About Palm Pre has some interesting thoughts on Palm’s developer strategy that mirror our own. And, of course, PreCentral has a lot of articles about CES.
