Please click on the link above to head on over and check it out. I’m confident you will be happy with what you find there.

CC Photo by {eclaire}

The big news from the last week was quite obviously the release of webOS 1.4.  First, we’ll bring you up-to-date on the story we mentioned last week about the roller coaster Palm’s shares have been on.  Next, we’ll talk about Palm’s Facebook app, which received a major update today.  Then, we’ll talk about a little discovery that makes free apps available without geographic restrictions.  We’ll follow that with news of the release of the webOS 1.4 SDK.  Finally, we’ll catch up the bits and bobs in the Roundup.

Palm Takes Stock

This last week saw a continuation of the rough times for Palm’s stock.  Last Thursday, the Wall Street Journal Digits blog published an e-mail from Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein in which he outlined the lower than expected earnings.  What’s interesting to take from the letter is that, according to Rubinstein, Verizon is taking some of the blame for lackluster sales of the Palm Pre.  Verizon did seem to drop the ball, not advertising the Pre at all when it launched on their network and there continue to be reports of Verizon sales people pushing other devices over the Pre.  Palm’s plans include something called Project JumpStart, an initiative to get more training for Verizon personnel, and increased advertising, as reflected by more ad sightings.  For our part, we think that Palm is in a good position to grow, particularly with webOS 1.4 generating excitement.  Others aren’t so sure.

Facebook App Update

Dion Almaer posted today about the latest update to the Palm-supplied Facebook app.  Some of the new features include support for viewing upcoming events, an enhanced inbox and a quick navigation grid.  The fine folks at PreCentral have even provided a video of the new version in action (see below).  As of this writing it had not appeared in the App Catalog but does show up as an update if you have installed the previous version.  If you have not yet downloaded the Facebook app you can still do so, then check for updates.

Free Apps Freed from Geographic Restrictions

When developers submit apps to Palm for inclusion in the App Catalog they can choose the region their apps will be available in.  Currently, paid apps are restricted to the US.  However, free apps can target more countries.  Some authors, however, have not selected all countries so some apps are not available everywhere.  Some people discovered that it is possible to directly download the apps from the app catalog, even going so far as to develop a desktop application to download free apps.

There are several thorny issues with this, though.  First and foremost, developers of geographically limited applications have the right to choose where their apps are distributed and this mechanism bypasses that.  Second, some speculate that downloading these apps directly may prevent the downloads from counting towards a developer’s download count for the Hot Apps program.  Thirdly, some paid apps available in the US have been made available for free download in Europe.  As usual, there’s been no official response from Palm regarding this but we strongly urge our readers to respect the copyrights of the developers.

webOS 1.4 SDK Available

It wasn’t too long after the release of webOS 1.4 that Palm officially released the corresponding SDK.  The latest version of the SDK makes available a number of new features for developers, including an updated audio API and support for the new video capabilities.  The biggest change for developers is the move to WebKit 4 and the updated V8 JavaScript engine.  The upshot is faster applications and a more compliant browser.  There are a number of tool changes as well so developers should check out the change list. Palm has indicated that this is, structurally, one of the biggest changes to webOS and there may be rough edges for developers. In particular, there may be issues with apps that use the Canvas element.

Roundup

An enterprising Pre owner created his own commercial for the Pre, taking the opportunity to show off the best features and apps for webOS. Check it out below. A new version of Preware is available for download now.  There were some issues with users attempting to update their patches while the server was overloaded which led to some ‘too many cards’ errors while attempting to launch Preware.  Know someone who’s on Sprint or looking to switch and get a Pre or Pixi?  Sprint recently announced a buy-back program that allows you to trade in old phones for credit.  Read Sprint’s announcement for details.  Got something we didn’t cover?  Drop a note into the comments below or shoot us a message on Twitter.

Update: Check out another commercial from the same author.

I am a huge history buff…especially Roman and Greek history. This probably comes from the fact that my mother is a high school Latin teacher (this is her 40th year teaching by the way). As such, I have always been enthralled by the Spartans. Those kind of warriors just don’t exist today…and probably for good reason. However, the whole concept of a warrior from birth taps straight into the hero complex that I have.

So any form of media that has to do with Greek/Roman mythology, Spartans, gladiatorial combat, etc and you can usually count me in as a customer (as you might have guessed 300 and Gladiator are some of my favorite movies). So when I see a game called Hero of Sparta (by Gameloft, $6.99 on App Catalog) I pretty much have to get it.

So I got it, what do I think of it? It’s frustrating fun…

There are a lot of games now that utilize a touch based D pad to let you control your character. This was the first one I have played and, I have to say, I wasn’t all that impressed. I don’t know if it is the nature of the touchscreen or what, but I had a difficult time moving just the way I wanted to move. Sometimes I would move my thumb too far…sometimes it didn’t seem to register my touch…overall the experience leaves a bit to be desired.

Is the game unplayable? No, not at all…just not as responsive as I would like.

The game itself is actually pretty well done. You take the role of a “Super Spartan” that would make Ah-nold blush. Seriously, this guy is a beast. Not a lot of story here…just enough to send you off to kill hundreds of beasties based on Greek Mythology. Minotaurs, weird crabby things, lizard people, and scorpions all wait for you to smite them.

To do the smiting you tap on one of two virtual buttons. Your sword button can be held down some to get some combo action, and as you collect super items (like the Sword of Damocles, or Axe of Ajax!!) you unlock board sweeping skills that take up your magic.

Aside from the regular baddies, you also run into mini-bosses all over the place. These add a bit of variety in that you get little quick-time-events that make it so you have to click the screen in a certain place a few times to kill them off. It is a nice mechanic overall, but I feel it is overused. Once you get on in the later levels you can have 3 mini-bosses against you at one time. Also, the pattern you have to touch doesn’t change except between monster types, so if you have to kill 3 minotaurs, you will do the same tapping 3 times.

The boss battles feel nice and epic. Most of them are hugemongous and have some form of trick to beat them (often another QTE). This isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but they are fun nonetheless.

Graphics wise I am gonna give it a meh. Most of the textures are blocky…looks like something on the old PS1 perhaps. However, I did dig the animation. Mr. Spartan may look a bit pixelly, but he moves nicely and transitions between attacks well. Good job Mr. (or Ms.) Animatordude (or dudette)!!

Level design is also nicely done…lots of variety and a surprising amount of verticalness. The one downside to the levels are the traps. The control issues make these much more difficult than they should be.

The game will last you a good few hours if you are digging it. I, for one, plan on seeing it through to the end. I want to see if the Axe of Ajax will speed up my httpxmlrequest objects (a little web developer humor for ya).

Key Features

As mentioned, the big feature that had been missing from webOS was video recording.  Palm has delivered with not only video recording but on-device editing and sharing of videos.  Check out the video below for a hands-on demo of video recording.  The other big feature we were told to expect is Flash 10.1.  While Flash 10.1 is not included with the software update you can visit the App Catalog to download a Beta version of Flash soon.

Here’s the official Palm blog announcement as well as the Palm webOS update feature page.

Enhancements

The most visible enhancement to webOS 1.4 is the new launcher animation:  When apps launch now a window with the App’s icon is shown until the app is loaded.  The next enhancement has been expected every update since it first appeared in the code: LED blink notifications.  Indeed, the patch to enable the notifications has been one of the most popular patches.  This feature causes the center button on the Pre (and the LED behind the gesture area in the Pre Plus) to flash periodically when the phone is off and there are pending notifications.

One area of improvement touted in the release notes is performance and battery life.  Specifically, the performance of the phone, mail and calendar apps has been enhanced.  Further, several of the apps have been enhanced to make it easier to e-mail or dial embedded contacts and phone numbers.  Additionally, you can now choose whether Wi-Fi turns off or not when the screen turns off.

Another enhancement is that the old POP e-mail behavior is back as an optional setting:  You can choose to have e-mail that is deleted off the POP server deleted from the phone.  A welcome change for those who only use their phone to check e-mail when away from a desktop.

Fixes

Several bugs were reported fixed with this version.  These fixes included mail attachment issues, contact synchronization issues  See below for the link to the version notes.

Under the Hood

As always, a number of enhancements did not make it into the official change log.  In particular, developers will likely have access to new features, though the official SDK has not yet been released.  What is visible is that the browser has been updated to a more recent WebKit release.  It now scores a 92 out of 100 on the Acid3 test.  Over the course of the next few days we’ll gather some of the other changes that didn’t make it into the release notes and update you with them here.  Please use the comments below to add new features you’ve found.

Version Notes

Here are links to the version notes:

• Sprint Palm Pre
• Sprint Palm Pixi
• Verizon Palm Pre
• Verizon Palm Pixi (Link please?)
• O2 Palm Pre (updated)
• O2 Palm Pixi (Link please?)
• Movistar Palm Pre (Not updated as of 1:28 AM EST, 2/28/10)
• Movistar Palm Pixi (Link please?)

CC Photo by {eclaire}

February is drawing to a close and the big question on everyone’s mind is: Where is webOS 1.4? Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer for you. But, we do have a rundown of the news from the last week. The news this week is all about apps. We’ll cover them in quick succession and clean up any leftovers in the Roundup. Let’s get going…

gDial Pro Halted

The developer of gDial has stopped all work on the popular Google Voice client for webOS.  According to a blog posting the underlying mechanisms for accessing Google Voice are not open and available for developers of 3rd party clients.  Faced with providing a service that wasn’t as reliable as a phone app should be the developer decided it would be better to halt development until such time as the APIs are published and accessible.  Users who paid for a subscription should already have been refunded their money.  PreCentral has a bit more information on the API situation here.

Epocrates Arrives

Medical app maker Epocrates just released their first webOS application.  The self-titled Epocrates app (which the description calls Epocrates Rx) provides drug dosing, interaction and pricing information.  Epocrates is an essential application for many in health care so it is good to see this appearing on Palm’s newest phones.  For those interested a review may be coming soon.  The app is free to try and in the App Catalog now.

ScummVM Available for Download

A ScummVM interpreter is now available for download from the Homebrew feed on PreCentral.  Users of Preware and WOSQI can download the interpreter though they will have to acquire the games separately.  As pointed out in this PreCentral post, ScummVM is not, itself, a game.  There are a number of freely available games so feel free to check it out.

Grooveshark Attack

Streaming radio service Grooveshark is now available as a native webOS app.  Available as a free download in the App Catalog, Grooveshark is just the latest streaming radio app to hit webOS.  What sets Grooveshark apart is its comprehensive playlist features, including the ability to search others users’ playlists.  Check out the video below for shots of the app in action (courtesy of PreCentral).

Roundup

Zsoc, who originally brought us the homebrew video recorder, has been working on bringing extra codecs to webOS.  According to the PreCentral article GSM WAV support is available as a download through Preware.  They also have a good article about AUPT, which we discussed a bit last week, and what will happen when the webOS 1.4 update comes out.  In more somber news, Palm stock has taken a beating lately as related in this Engadget piece.  Palm’s certainly been on a rollercoaster with the analysts.  Got some other news to share?  Use the comments below or tweet to us on Twitter.

Let’s face it, from an economic perspective, we are living in some crazy times. In the last 18 months or so we have had the most volatile stock market in about 80 years or so. If you are like a lot of people and sold every position you had, well, you probably don’t have much use for Top Stocks by VIT Software. However, if you held strong, then you may find this app to be pretty darn handy.

The goal of this app is to help you keep track of your stock positions in an “on the go” format. To do this it shows you some nice graphs, charts, and info about the markets in general, or specific stocks that you choose. Now, it it is impossible to review this app without talking about another app that is very similar called MoreStocks (reviewed here). I really liked MoreStocks, so the real question is whether or not this one is better or worse. The answer is, as you might expect…it depends.

If you are someone who is in the market for an app like this, then you probably think to yourself several times a day…”I wonder how the markets are doing today”. Fire up Top Stocks and the first thing you see will answer that in a really nice format. They have a graph of all the major indexes right from the get go. If you want to know about foreign markets, that info is right there as well. Very nicely done.

If you are the sort who cares more about specific stocks than the markets in general, then you can get your fix with a watchlist. Basically the watchlist allows you to select stocks that you care about and see how they are doing in an easy to read format. Adding a new stock is simply a matter of entering in the ticker symbol. If you are a stock guru, then this isn’t a big deal; however, one thing I did miss from MoreStocks is the ability to enter the stock by company name or even selecting it from a list. Again, if you are pro, you won’t care about this, but it isn’t very noob friendly. On the plus side, I love the little graph that is next to each stock. A quick way to see how your favorite stock is doing. Nice touch.

When you click on a watched stock you go to the detail view. From a layout perspective, this is definitely a win compared to MoreStocks. They both basically show the same information (including after hours trading), but Top Stocks just seems a bit more organized and clean. Both applications have nice graphs and function the same way, although, again Top Stocks has it all laid out a better. I guess the real difference is simply that Top Stocks puts everything on a single screen, while MoreStock breaks it up. There are pluses to both approaches, but I preferred the single page view.

From the single stock view you can also create alerts to let you know if your pick has gone up or down to a specific point. This basically lets you log into your favorite trading application (E-Trade for example) and perform a buy or sell. This is one area where I think Top Stocks falls short. The alert is only a notification on the phone…no email or SMS options (like MoreStocks does). If I am really watching a stock, I don’t want to risk missing an alert. I want that thing to annoy me in every way possible. Sometimes a notification just isn’t enough.

The “big” difference between the two apps is how they handle portfolios. MoreStocks lets you insert them directly while Top Stock hooks into Google Finance. Which is better is a matter of preference, of course. If you are drinking the Google kool-aid, then this a great feature. If you prefer another tool, then this would be a deal breaker because there is no way to set positions in the app itself. The integration with Google is nice, but only one way. Would be really cool if it could communicate both ways. It is worth noting that if you need to add a new portfolio item, the app will let you get into Google Finance with a single click…so at least it has that.

The last section of goodies is news. If you are a stock watcher there really is no such thing as too much info. Top Stocks brings in news feeds of virtually every type of financial instrument (stocks, bonds, commodities) and news (earnings, IPOs). With each news story there is a little blurb to let you know if it is something that interests you. If it does, then you can click on it to visit the source of the article. Nice, clean implementation.

Gallery

CC Photo by {eclaire}

For those of you who were looking forward to webOS 1.4 making its appearance on Monday we have some bad news: It didn’t arrive. No doubt you already noticed, though. However, the week wasn’t a complete disappointment! Read on for the highlights:

Auto Update Patch Technology Updates

The WebOS Internals folks have been busy again, updating patches so they will be more compatible with webOS updates.  Check out this forum thread for more information.  In short, if you’ve applied patches to your smartphone be sure to update to the latest versions.  To help you out, Preware has also been updated recently, adding French, Italian, German and Spanish translations, so be sure to run Preware and apply all the updates.

Roundup

In addition to webOS 1.4 a lot of folks are expecting Flash to appear this month.  The Pre Central folks have two stories about Adobe to check out:  Flash 10.1 may not be out this month but Adobe is planning on releasing AIR for webOS.  AIR is a technology developed by Adobe that allows for the distribution of Web-like applications to the desktop (and now, mobile devices).  WebOS Internals will have a booth at the upcoming Southern California Linux Expo and may have some Palm giveaways.  (Have you noticed all the really cool stuff is happening in California?  How about some love for the East Coast?)  Also, check out the App Catalog, a number of new apps have arrived, including Earthworm Jim and Avatar.  Back on the disappointing side, PreCentral also noted that DataViz, maker of Documents To Go, didn’t have very positive news about a full version for webOS.  If you need this capability be sure to drop by their web site and sign up to receive notification or send them a tweet to let them know you’re interested.

CC Photo by {eclaire}

Most of the US has been focused on the snow storms to hit the east coast (at least, it seems that way to us). And, there was a little sports thing that went on over the weekend (Sprint subscribers, did you use the NFL app?). However, there were a few things of interest to those who focus on the Pre and Pixi.  First up we talk about the rumors of an upcoming webOS 1.4 release.  Secondly, we’ll talk a little about a Mozilla Weave client that’s in the works.  Finally, we’ll cover the flotsam and jetsam in the Roundup.

webOS 1.4 Late for Valentine’s?

PreCentral recently provided some information that points to a February 15th release date for webOS 1.4.  This much-anticipated version of the Pre and Pixi operating system is slated to include, among other things, video recording and editing.  If so, it will be a nice belated Valentine’s Day gift.  We’ve often speculated that the lack of video recording may be one of the reasons we haven’t seen as strong a marketing push for the Pre and Pixi.  webOS 1.4 should go a long way towards making the platform feature complete.

Mozilla Weave Sync Coming to webOS?

Although the Pre does not (yet!) support Mobile Firefox we’ve heard that Mozilla Labs is working on a webOS Weave Sync client.  For those who don’t know, Weave Sync is a a tool for securely sharing bookmarks, passwords, browsing history and even open browser tabs between desktop Firefox and mobile clients.  The webOS client, which is in a very early state, supports full read capability, meaning you can’t share your browsing on the Pre back to your desktop.  The webOS client was developed by L. M. Orchard.

Roundup

Jason Robitaille has found some placeholders for voice dailing in webOS, which would be a welcome addition to webOS.  French developers can get excited about an apps contest announced by SFR:  Jeunes Talents Developpeurs.  Even better, they can also take part in the Hot Apps contest.  Also announced at the SFR event was confirmation of Flash coming in February.  Have something else to tell us about?  Drop us a comment or send a tweet.

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.

Hot Apps Launches

We’ve previously mentioned the Hot Apps Program, where Palm will be giving away $1,000,000 to developers who create the most popular paid and free apps.  The period for which apps will be judged began on Monday.  Be sure to check out all the new apps that are appearing in the App Catalog daily.  If you’re a developer looking to get in on the gold rush, check out the Palm developer site and our sister site webOS 101.

WebOS Quick Install 3.0 Available

Those of you who install a lot of patches, themes or homebrew on your phone are probably already familiar with WebOS Quick Install.  For those of you who don’t, you can read a bit about it and the author in our interview with Jason Robitaille.  Jason has recently released version 3.0.  Among the new features with this version is support for Auto-Update Patch Technology (which we discussed last week) and the ability to automatically download the webOS Doctor for your device.  WebOS Quick Install is a good place to get started with homebrew and patching and is one of the ways to install the on-device installer Preware.

Roundup

Our good friends over at Totally Palmed have started a very good tutorial for new users.  If you’re just getting started with your Pre or Pixi or you feel like you could be getting more out of it you owe it to yourself to take a look at the series.  Start with the first:  Tips and Tricks every webOS user should know! (Part 1 of 5).  Our other friends over at Pre Central have an article about Palm’s recent stock movement, check it out if you’re interested in the company behind your smartphone.  Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals is calling for open source developers to assist with Preware.  Contact him if interested (finding his e-mail is the first test you must pass).  Jay Freeman (of Cydia fame) is developing a single-source Web site called Cyrket for checking out the various smartphone app stores.  The Palm feed can be found here.

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.

Verizon Joins the Party

On Monday, Verizon began selling the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus smartphones.  So far, Verizon has had little to say about the new phones.  However, according to a tweet, we should be seeing print and TV ads soon.  It may be that their agreement with Motorola kept them from promoting the Palm phones at launch time.  Hopefully Verizon will wow us all soon with some high-quality ads that feature the best aspects of webOS.

webOS Internals Adds Auto-Update Patch Technology

A recent announcement from Eric Gaudet revealed that patches installed using Preware will no longer require removal before a webOS update.  What this means is that those of you who’ve been a little leery of trying out patches for fear that it might interfere with phone updates will now be able to rest easy.  The bottom line is, if you update your patches to the latest version, or, if you install patches now, you will be covered when webOS 1.4 comes out:

Auto-Update Patch Technology is a major upgrade to the existing patching technology found in all homebrew patches in the webos-patches feed. AUPT is a smarter version of the existing scripts that can better detect when files are already modified by a patch and/or already removed. This will help to allow patches to be installed/removed even after faulty installs, partial or full erases, webos doctors and even OTA updates to new WebOS versions!

Look for a post about how to take advantage of webOS patches soon!

3D Games Aplenty

Developers haven’t been idle since Palm announced the Plugin Development Kit at CES (see our Palm at CES coverage for more information).  Some recent titles added to the App Catalog (at least here in the States) include Assassin’s Creed – Altaïr’s Chronicles, Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes, Giant Fighting Robots and X-Plane Carrier.  There are others as well, including a free demo version of Asphalt 5.  Hit up the app catalog and check them out.  Gameloft, makers of several of the games, has a video preview (embedded below).  You can also see videos of Assassin’s Creed or Brothers in Arms (iPhone version).

One thing to keep in mind while playing these games is that they take up a lot of RAM so you may need to reboot your phone to play, unless you happen to be sporting the Plus phones.

Roundup

Our friends out Pre Central have a little article about what to expect in webOS 1.4.  The voting for the 2009 Engadget awards is underway.  Unsurprisingly, several Palm products appear on the list of best gadgets of 2009.  Feel free to head over there and vote for your favorite Palm devices (they appear in several categories so be sure to scroll down).  Have something else you’ve discovered?  Drop us a comment or send us a tweet.