Palm Announces Pixi Release Date

Monday, October 26th, just as the Sprint Open Developer Conference was going to get started, Palm announced that their next webOS smart phone, the Pixi, will hit Sprint on November 15th.  For those unfamiliar with the Pixi, it is planned as a replacement for Palm’s Centro smart phone.  It features a ‘candy-bar’ configuration with an exposed keyboard.  It differs from the Pre in that it has a slightly shorter display (with fewer colors), it lacks WiFi and reportedly has less RAM.  As you can see from the image, it’s a thin and stylish device.  However, with the Pre hitting $100 and the Pixi announced at the same price, it’s not a sure thing which phone people will opt for.  For those who dislike the slider in the Pre, though, it will be attractive.  There are some complaints that the Pixi is also a Sprint exclusive.

Australians and Asia Must Wait

Those who were waiting for the Pre and Pixi to appear on the shores of Australia were saddened to learn that Palm will not be targeting that region soon.  According to the e-mail:

At this moment in time, we do not yet have any plans to launch the Palm Pre or any of our new WebOS products in Asia Pacific. Our focus right now is to establish a strong presence in North America and Europe. However, we do not discount the possibility of offering this new range of products at a later date.

Sad news indeed for all those in the affected countries.  What we’ve heard, though, is that many are turning to on-line shops that are selling unlocked German versions of the Pre to get their webOS fix.

iTunes Moves to Block

The latest update to Apple’s media player iTunes has once again turned off syncing with webOS devices.  While many expected that to happen sooner or later I think we were all hoping Apple would give up.  I suspect the folks at Palm haven’t played all their cards on this one yet, though, so perhaps we’ll see a new solution with the forthcoming release of the OS.  In the meantime, there are lots of syncing options other than iTunes, so don’t be shy about investigating them.  Also, don’t forget you can buy tunes from other sources, too.

webOS 1.3.1 Released to Developers

According to many reports webOS 1.3.1 was delivered to developers for testing.  Palm has taken the step of providing developers with an early release in order to ensure a smooth transition.  Given that a few apps were caught flat-footed when 1.2.0 was released we think that’s a good idea.  Not only does Palm’s pool of testers increase but developers can act early to prevent users from having broken apps on release day.   There’s been no news on when the new OS will appear on the Updates app but many are speculating on some time around November 15th — the day the Pixi is released.

Roundup

Those were the major stories.  Some other webOS related musings:  There’s been much speculation about the as-yet unused GPU in the Pre (and Pixi).  Two interesting tidbits turned up:  First, Palm has hired one of AMD’s core engineering managers Matthew Tippet, a person responsible for Linux graphics drivers.  Second, Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith mentioned the GPU at two recent conferences, suggesting that enabling the GPU will speed up webOS.  Some suspect the speedup will occur with webOS 1.3.1.  We suspect that with Matthew just starting at Palm it may be a while before that GPU gets full use.  For those keeping track, the app catalog now has 320 apps.  And while fully 1/3 are tip calculators, it’s still impressive!  Sound off below with your favorite app picks, news stories or just a simple hello.  Also, check out our Twitter feed for up-to-the minute stories.

iTunes Again

This new version of webOS re-enables syncing with iTunes and adds the ability to sync photo albums.  We’ve covered before the cat-and-mouse game that Palm is playing with Apple.  This time, it appears that Palm has decided to more fully mimic an Apple iPod.  On the upside, this update provides more iTunes sync capabilities.  On the downside, it will likely be only a matter of time before Apple block the Pre (and Pixi) again.  The question is whether this is ultimately good for users of the Palm Pre.  This on-again, off-again sync has lead some to consider other syncing options.

Exchange Fixes

The other major part of this release fixed issues with Exchange server syncing introduced with 1.2.0.  This will be welcome news to those who are using the Pre in a corporate environment.

Timing

For those of you who’ve been paying attention you may have noticed that webOS 1.2.0 was released only five days ago.  Why update so soon?  Certainly the Exchange issues were serious and needed quick addressing.  But is that sufficient?  We’re not entirely convinced.  It was originally rumored that 1.2.0 would be released around the time of the iTunes 9.0 announcement but it was pushed off.  The rumor at the time was that it was delayed to include the above iTunes sync fix.  What seems to have happened is that Palm had initially decided to skip 1.2.0 entirely in favor of the version with the iTunes fix.  Delays in releasing or approving 1.2.1 were pushing it beyond the expected release of paid applications so Palm decided to go ahead and release 1.2.0 in hopes of meeting its deadline.  With the Exchange issue, Palm was forced to refocus on 1.2.1.  Of course, this is all just speculation.  It might only have been the Exchange issue that necessitated the quick release schedule.  It’s even possible that Palm plans to do more smaller releases, though we doubt this.

Version Notes

Here are the version release notes from Palm’s knowledgebase:

Version information

• Version: webOS 1.2.1
• Release date: 2 October 2009

New applications

NONE

Feature changes to existing applications

Email

• Resolved an issue where after installing the 1.2.0 webOS update some customers running Exchange 2007 could no longer synchronize with their Exchange account for Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks.

System

• Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (9.0.1).
• Media sync now synchronizes photo albums, maintaining the album structure in the Photos app.
• Media sync now allows for synchronizing photos without requiring the full-resolution originals. This provides faster display of high-quality full-screen images and enables users to store more photos on the phone.

Web

• Resolved an issue where if a user tried to play streaming music or video, the media stream might drop out or have a long delay before starting.

Security

This release implements several security fixes, including the following:

• Addresses a security issue encountered by webkit developers. This issue did not impact end users.

Individuals interested in contacting Palm to report suspected security issues can find more information at palm.com/security .

Of course, you can backup the media on the Pre by putting the phone into USB mode and manually copying the information from the Pre to your computer.  This is not a very elegant solution.  Fortunately, a number of third party synchronization utilities exist that can make moving information from your phone to your computer easier.  We’ll take a look at a few of the solutions available and see how to use them.

The Missing Sync

The Missing Sync for the Palm Pre from Mark/Space is the latest in their long line of smartphone syncing utilities.  The Missing Sync, currently only available for Mac OS X, synchronizes media and files, including iCal events.  With the Fliq Bookmarks app it will even synchronize Safari bookmarks.  It also includes a feature to create ringtones from sound files.  In order to use The Missing Sync you must download the App of the same name from the App Catalog, optionally installing Fliq Bookmarks, as well as installing the software on your desktop.  The first time you start up The Missing Sync a wizard appears that assists you in pairing with the Pre.  By default, the two communicate over Wi-Fi, even synchronizing automatically whenever both are on the same network.

After pairing, you are present with a screen with the current sync options, implemented a plugins.  Double-clicking on a plugin allows for fine-tuning the settings.  My first wireless sync partially failed because the calendar app was not open on the Pre.  After launching the calendar app and resyncing it compled quickly.  Wireless sync only synchronizes contacts and calendar events.  After a wireless sync I saw my new contacts, automatically merged with some matching contacts.  I did not have much success with Calendar events.  I did not have many defined but they would not show up in day view.  More troubling, when ‘all calendars’ view was selected on one day it hid the Palm event on that day as well as the event from the desktop.  I chalk this up to problems with the calendar app.

To sync the media files you must set the Pre to USB Drive mode then start a sync from the desktop program.  I set up the sync to copy my photos to iPhoto.  Photos were downloaded and added without problems and the iTunes playlist I selected downloaded without a hitch.  Annoyingly, the default is to sync ringtones and if there are no ringtones it says that an error occurred after every sync.  In addition to music, ringtones and photos, The Missing Sync also will synchronize directories of files and transfer videos.  To transfer a video to the phone, drag the video onto The Missing Sync.  It will automatically be encoded for the Pre and downloaded at the next wired sync.  One other thing to note about the bookmarks sync:  Safari’s default is to place bookmarks into Top Sites, which does not get synchronized to the Pre, so make sure to organize your bookmarks with that in mind.

The Missing Sync is very full-featured, which you would expect for a commercial package.  It is available from Mark/Space for $39.95.  A 14-day trial is available by downloading the software from their carefully hidden downloads page.  A Windows version is scheduled for release soon.

iTunes

The Palm Pre made some waves when it was announced that it would sync with Apple’s iTunes.  Apple quickly put a stop to that by patching iTunes to block syncing with the Pre.  Palm responded by releasing webOS 1.1.0.  For now, iTunes can be used to synchronize music, movies and pictures with the Palm Pre by putting the Pre into Media Mode when attaching via the USB cable.  iTunes will display the Palm Pre under devices, as pictured at the left.  Click on it for synchronization options.  Syncing is quick and painless.  If you are interested in photo-only imports on the Mac, you can also use iPhoto to sync pictures.

The big question about iTunes is:  How long will it be before Apple blocks the Pre again?  How long with the game of cat and mouse continue?  It seems silly for Apple to drive customers away from the iTunes store.

doubleTwist

doubleTwist, available for PC and Mac, aims to provide a universal media sharing mechanism for all your devices.  You must first create a doubleTwist account with their online service before you can use the software.  doubleTwist provide support for photos, music and videos.  It strikes me that doubleTwist’s aim is to provide a social networking aspect to media file sharing.  The service allows you to add friends, share your media with them, provides mechanisms for you to move your media back and forth among your various devices and has links to quickly e-mail or upload items to other services, such as Facebook.  When moving videos, for example, it will recode them to be compatible with whatever device you are moving it to.

doubleTwist is promising but it really doesn’t provide synchronizing capabilities.  It’s more an organizer that allows you to work with all your media from one place.  If you want to keep things in sync you’ll need to manually copy the files within its interface whenever you connect.

Salling Media Sync

Salling Media Sync, also available for Mac and Windows, provides media syncing services.  When you launch Media Sync, on the Mac at least, you don’t see any user interface.  It runs as an icon in the menu bar.  Clicking on this icon brings up a menu where options can be adjusted.  Unfortunately, perhaps because I had installed so many syncing options, Media Sync did not recognize my Palm Pre.  [Update]  Thanks to Jonas Salling the latest version correctly recognized my Pre.  When plugging in a device, Media Sync opens a syncing window, as seen on the left.  Media Sync quickly downloaded a new playlist to the Pre and copied photos from an iPhoto event.  Media Sync is nice and unobtrusive, staying out of the way until you need it.

Media Sync’s syncing is one-way:  It syncs from the computer to the device.  In order to synchronize photos Salling recommends using your normal photo import mechanism, such as iTunes/iPhoto’s import.  Media Sync comes in two versions, a free, basic version and a paid version, whose primary feature is faster syncing.

Chapura PocketMirror

I did not have the opportunity to review Chapura PocketMirror.  This program provides wireless syncing of your calendar and contacts with Microsoft Outlook on the PC.  It does not provide any media syncing capabilities.  If you have some experience with this application, sound off in the comments below.

Other Applications

Many music players have features that support sending songs to connected devices.  Because the Pre supports acting as a USB drive you can use any of those programs for downloading music (and possibly videos and podcasts) to the phone.  Windows users may want to check out Winamp and Media Monkey.  Linux users, try RhythmBox or SongBird with an add-on, such as FolderSync.  Any other ideas?  Tell us in the comments.

Last Words

All these programs offered options for synchronizing (or copying) media or information to or from the Palm Pre.  Each has taken a different approach.  If you need to copy only video, audio and pictures, most any of these will do the job for you.  If you need more options then The Missing Sync is your only real option.  If you only need to to sync contacts and calendars and use Microsoft Outlook, then PocketMirror will do the job.

[Update 1: Jonas Salling contacted me (on a Sunday, no less) and assisted me with getting Media Sync working.  I commend them for their customer service.  Also, Vara411 pointed me towards two new applications I had not considered: Winamp and Media Monkey, both for Windows.  Added the new section for other applications and added Linux options.]