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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.

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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.

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.

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:

Hot Apps Bonus Program

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 Pre

The 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.

Video Recording, Editing and Sharing

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.

Flash 10.1

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 Plus

Palm 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.

New Networks

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.

Analysis

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.

Other Reviews of Palm at CES

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.

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This week could be a very important week for Palm: Las Vegas is hosting CES, the consumer electronics show. Palm has scheduled presentations for tomorrow. Already some news is coming in and we’ll cover that today.  We’ll follow that with news of Palm’s quick update to webOS.  Next, we’ll cover the fantastic work the WebOS Internals folks have been doing on native apps. Then, we’ll dabble in some prognostication about what this year holds for Palm. Finally, we’ll close with our regular roundup. Climb aboard!

Loving Las Vegas

The tech world is a abuzz with rumors and reports from this year’s CES.  Palm has scheduled an announcement for tomorrow (the 7th).  Already, some are speculating on what Palm will announce.  Some news has already been released though:  AT&T announced that they will have two webOS devices deployed in the first half of this year.  This is very welcome news for those waiting for a GSM webOS device.  We have our own predictions of what Palm will discuss:  Their tremendous strides since June (nine updates!), games taking advantage of the GPU, Flash, updated Pre and Pixi specs, video and audio recording, Ares and the developer program.  Many suspect Palm has something special to reveal.  We’ll go out on a limb here with our wild prediction:  Palm will unveil a webOS device running on non-Palm hardware.   We’ll certainly be updating you with news from CES as it comes out on Twitter.

webOS 1.3.5.1

Palm quietly released another update to webOS to fix a problem some users were experiencing with calendar events and Exchange.  The Sprint release notes are pretty bare.  At the same time, Bell users also received their update to 1.3.5.1, so they’re now able to experiment with our next subject:

WebOS Internals Releases Native SDL Apps

One of the big finds in webOS 1.3.5 was the inclusion of the OpenGL and SDL libraries.  What these mean to you is that developers have now created native (non-JavaScript) applications for webOS devices.  The first game that was ported to webOS was Doom.  This was quickly followed by Quake.  Then TetriCrisis, Supertux,  and Classic Invaders.  All of these games, installable with Preware, are launchable from an icon, just like regular webOS apps.  They vary a good bit on how usable they are though.  Coming next according to WebOS Internals is ScummVM, the game engine on which many classic adventure games run.  If you’re interested in helping port applications to the Pre, drop by the WebOS Internals IRC chat.

Palm Predictions for 2010

Bloggers enjoys making predictions for the coming year and we’re no exception.  In our opinion, 2010 will be the year to make or break Palm.  Certainly a lot of the predictions will be validated tomorrow.  Palm is in a tricky spot with several tough smartphone competitors vying for users.  While Palm raised the bar last year we’ve already seen other companies begin to mimic the best features of webOS.  At the same time, webOS is lacking some features that other phones have.  Google’s Android operating system is one key competitor to keep an eye on.  However, with Google having released their own hardware it could be that some of their current partners will be less enthusiastic about Android.

First, as mentioned above, Palm will be providing its users with a number of enhancements, starting tomorrow and continuing throughout the year.  It’s already clear that Flash will be arriving shortly.  It’s almost a lock that native games (and possibly other applications) will be appearing soon in the App Catalog.  Expect to see the much needed video and voice recording apps soon, possibly in a 2.0 release of webOS.  Voice dialing should appear.  The App Catalog itself will expand with paid apps appearing in Europe (as was already announced) and other countries.  Enhanced versions of the Pre and Pixi will be released.  Palm will release its phones to more and more networks, including AT&T and Verizon (and likely T-Mobile as well) in the US.  Also expect to see 4G support.

What remains to be seen is how successful the launch of these phones will be on these other carriers.  It’s safe to say that Palm and Sprint’s post-release marketing of the Pre has been lackluster, particularly when compared with Verizon’s Droid Does campaign.  If the other carriers put some marketing muscle and promotions behind webOS we’ll see more developers and more apps.  If Palm fails to generate good buzz tomorrow, things may not be as rosy for webOS.  It’s tough to ignore how critical public perception of webOS and its devices will be to the future of Palm.

Our wild prediction for 2010 is the release of a non-Palm-branded smartphone running webOS.  Our money is on HTC, though other manufacturers leery of Android may be interested, too.  Some may argue that Palm does not want to lose control of the customer experience and it’s clear that Apple was successful with this gambit.  However, webOS has the internals to work on a broad range of devices and it’s tough to see how Palm can appeal to every market without additional devices they’re unlikely to be able to support internally at this time.  Palm needs market share to encourage developers and consumers alike.  Add to that a strong hardware partner might be able to open up markets Palm is currently not targeting (e.g. Australia, the Pacific Rim (China may be getting the Pre later this year).  If this doesn’t come to pass, and even if it does, we expect to see a new form factor Palm device announced towards the end of this year.

We don’t predict that Palm will be for sale during 2010, unless market share continues to decline.  As to market share, we expect Palm to make modest gains.  Palm does not need to unseat Apple and can carve out a very successful niche in the smartphone market.  The real wildcard is Android.  Despite having an arguably less appealing and less open operating system than webOS they have the backing of Google and several of the major handset manufacturers.  However, the fragmentation of Android, particularly with Google’s own branded hardware, could be its own undoing, something that Palm will have be careful of if it does license out webOS.   A path Palm might consider is to open source webOS, a move that would definitely shake things up in the industry.

Roundup

Since 2009 has drawn to a close a number of sites have weighed in with their ‘best apps of 2009.’  To check out what others think, go to PreCentral for their take or head over to Totally Palmed for Dan’s favorite apps and favorite games.  Speaking of ‘best of’ lists, Palm and the Pre landed on quite a few of them and Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s CEO, was named one of the geeks of the year by Fast Company.  Engadget has confirmation that a pink Palm Pixi is coming out.  Those crazy Engadget folks also brought us word of a new Palm Pre knockoff: the Cool K07.  To keep up-to-date on all the latest webOS happenings be sure to follow us on Twitter.  And, let your friends know about us!

[Updated to clarify locations with no planned webOS device presence, added 4G support to predictions]

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Welcome to the last edition of the News Roundup for 2009.  Some of you have already rung in the New Year and some will shortly.   We’ll take a quick look back at the week and the year.  Certainly, the big news for the week was the release of webOS 1.3.5, which we covered previously.  Read on for the other stories.

Doom

As we reported recently, the webOS 1.3.5 update included the libraries necessary for accelerated graphics on the Pre and Pixi.  The folks at WebOS Internals wasted no time and recompiled Doom for webOS.  Doom, which is freely available for non-commercial use, set the stage for the first-person shooter genre.  While still in a very rough state right now, you can download Doom through Preware.  Be sure to read the instructions here for how to launch the application as they have not yet released the service necessary for it to launch directly from the webOS Launcher.  Still, this hints strongly at the direction Palm will be taking to quell the complaints about non-native access for games.

2009 In Review

Palm began 2009 by electrifying crowds with a preview of the Pre and webOS.  It’s tough to believe that it was only just over six months ago that the Palm Pre.  During that time Palm followed up with another webOS-based smartphone (the Pixi), updated webOS eight times, released nearly as many versions of their SDK and released a beta of their web-based Ares application development platform.  Over 900 applications were included in the App Catalog, this from a developer program that’s still in beta.  A vibrant homebrew community has stepped up with patches, themes, services and applications, all with Palm’s tacit approval.  There were many claims that the Pre (and webOS) would be an iPhone killer.  While that clearly hasn’t happen, Palm has definitely changed the rules of the game:  An open development platform, an open phone and a smooth, multitasking Web-centric operating system.  Even compared with other smartphone operating systems several major revisions ahead webOS shines.  We look forward to what 2010 will bring.

Roundup

This week brought more rumors of the Verizon versions of the Pre and Pixi.  Check out these PreCentral articles for more.  With that, we wish all our readers a joyous and prosperous 2010.  May 2010 exceed all your expectations.

CC Photo by {eclaire}

Welcome again to another Wednesday News Roundup. This week didn’t bring us too many blockbuster stories but we have some rumors and reports to catch up on. Without further ado, let’s get started.

More Verizon News

Despite some misleading reports in the past it seems that Verizon versions of the Palm Pre and Pixi will be coming, perhaps in January.  PhoneArena tips us to some Verizon employee training on Palm and webOS.  The training ends on January 4th, which we’re hoping will be around the release date.  Earlier in the week, Engadget found the FCC filing for the Verizon Palm Pixi.  What we find notable is the Verizon version of the Pixi appears to sport 802.11 b/g WiFi, something that should make the Pixi even more appealing on Verizon.  Having webOS devices on the nation’s largest carrier will be a huge boost for Palm.

Palm to Present at CES

It was nearly a year ago when Palm first announced webOS and the Palm Pre.  The event they announced at was CES (the consumer electronics tradeshow).  Now, we have word that Palm will again be presenting at CES.  What surprises will Palm have in store for us this time?  It would be difficult for them shake up the technology world as much as their announcement last year did, particularly with expectations so high now.  While we would love to see a next generation device from Palm the timing this close to the release of the Pixi makes that seem unlikely.  What we might see, though, is support for Flash, the GPU and video recording.  We may also see an official launch of Ares, Palm’s new Web-based development environment for webOS.

News Roundup

If the Verizon news isn’t the sort to get you excited, we heard a rumor from our friends at PreCentral that an AT&T branded Pixi was spotted in California.  If you follow us on twitter (@Pre101) you probably already know that the Palm Pre was one of the top ten trending topics for technology in 2009.  PreCentral also alerts us to an analyst who thinks that webOS is gaining more traction than Android in Europe.  Hopefully our European friends will be getting a Christmas present of some paid apps soon.  Have something else to share?  Let us know in the comments.

CC Photo by {eclaire}

Welcome to the Wednesday News Roundup. This week marks the first Roundup shared with our new friends over at webOSroundup. This week the big story is Palm’s new legal woes.  After that, we’ll cover some news for webOS developers.  Lastly, we’ll cover the good news in the Roundup.

Troubled Waters for Palm

Legally speaking, it was a rough week for Palm:  Palm received notice of two pending lawsuits.  The first was filed by Artifex Software, a California based company that develops, among other things, muPDF, which Palm used in developing the PDF reader application included with webOS.  Artifex claims that Palm included their muPDF software without either purchasing a commercial license or complying with the terms of the GPL.  There is no indication that Artifex has approached Palm regarding this.  Palm acknowledges using the muPDF and has even made available the changes they have made to that and other Open Source projects.  The crux of the problem seems to be that Palm did not make their entire PDF application source available online.  Depending on how Palm is using the muPDF software Artifex may be correct that Palm has not fully complied with the GPL.  However, it seems like this is likely an oversight on Palm’s part and a strong-arm tactic on Artifex’s part.  Artifex is no doubt hoping to get some headlines and possibly coerce Palm into a commercial license.  Palm will not likely be able publicly to respond given that the suit has been filed.

Perhaps more troubling is the lawsuit seeking class-action status against Palm and Sprint over the recent loss of information stored in users’ Palm Profiles.  If you haven’t heard about it there is some information in this PreCentral article.  In short, Palm does not keep multiple backups of  information backed up to the cloud.  If the data on the phone becomes corrupted or the phone did not back up properly the data may be lost when replacing phones or upgrading the operating system.  For those who are concerned about data loss we recommend looking to third-party solutions for local backup, such as The Missing Sync (PC or Mac) or Chapura PocketMirror (PC only).

Although the data loss has apparently only affected a small number of people it can be devastating to lose any information.  Hopefully this push Palm towards developing a more robust system for protecting data stored on webOS devices.  We also hope it won’t unnecessarily line lawyers’ pockets.

Developers, Developers…  You get the idea

Two stories from the past week bode well for webOS developers.  First, mobile ad company AdMob (recently acquired by Google) has released an open-source SDK for webOS developers who want to use the AdMob network.  AdMob is one of the largest players in the mobile ad space.  This will allow developers to more easily integrate ads, which should translate into more free applications (or, ad-supported trial versions of paid applications) in the App Catalog.  Second, mobile application development tool PhoneGap announced support for webOS.  PhoneGap is a cross-platform tool that leverages Web technologies (much like Mojo development itself) to create native apps for multiple devices.  This should lead even more developers to look at webOS as a platform for distributing applications.

Roundup

PC Magazine (They still print magazines?  Who knew?) selected the Palm Pre as the most innovative new platform in their list of Best Tech Products of 2009.  It’s not surprising then, that Ellen DeGeneres gave away the webOS based Palm Pixi with the tech bundle she gave out on the first day of her 12 Days of Giveaways (see the video below).  Finally, if you’re interested in setting up Google Voice, PreCentral has an excellent article on setting up visual voicemail with webOS using the service.  Did you hear about something we didn’t cover?  Have some comments?  Sound off in the comments below or hop over to our twitter feed.