So you nabbed a webOS device over the holidays? Maybe you got yourself a Pixi or Pre Plus, or if you were really lucky, someone dropped a Pre 2 in your stocking. We know that Palm isn’t exactly ruling the roost when it comes to smartphones, but that doesn’t mean that your new device isn’t plenty powerful given the right apps and proper tweaks. In fact, webOS can stand toe-to-toe with the iOS and Android devices of the world, even if the selection of apps and hardware leaves something to be desired. So how do you turn your holiday cheer into a year-round workhorse? Read on after the break for the must-have apps, accessories, and more!
Photoshop goof or pre-CES 2011 leak blunder; either way, Sprint has some explaining to do about its Palm Pixi listing. According to the photo the carrier has used on the Pixi landing page, the webOS smartphone has a front-facing camera; that’s not something we’ve seen on the handset before.
Now, the rest of the photos in the Pixi gallery on the Sprint site still show the regular handset we’re familiar with, and only the main page has the camera-blessed version. There’s no telling whether it’s a mistake by Sprint’s artwork team – though we can’t really think of a reason why they might be modifying the smartphone like that – or an accidentally posted image from an imminent Pixi refresh.
HP-owned Palm has told us to expect a new range of handsets in 2011 though is yet to suggest what sort of hardware we can look forward to. Meanwhile, the underlying webOS is due for a significant update too, and video calling might well be part of that. For the moment, though, we’ll have to wait to see what arrives at CES 2011.
Possibly. After having been promised HP webOS 2.0 by the end of 2010, Palm users are still having a little bit of a cry circle. If they’d like to have it, they certainly can, but going to the story to purchase a Palm Pre 2 wasn’t exactly what most Palm users were looking for. That’s bush league, man! According to Germany’s O2 Twitter account, webOS 2.0 wont be loaded to Palm devices now until the first quarter of 2011. WHYYY? I WANT IT NOW!
According to our friends over at Pre Central, Germany’s O2 timeline has always been “remarkably frank”, thusly they trust them – we’re inclined to as well. On the other hand, the people working at webOS en Castellano heard “from private forums” that current devices might never get webOS 2.0, instead simply getting an update straight to 2.1. Uh… alright! Whatever works, man!
There already is a 2.0.1 out there for Palm Pre 2 that fixes some bugs, but it appears that this 2.1 is more advances than that. This 2.1 rumor has no timeline however, and is of course less credible having come third or fourth hand. Here’s hoping, though! Nothing like an update to a Palm!
ALSO note that as we get pumped up about the rise of Palm and WebOS to prominence, we’re rolling out some chats about the subject over at webOS Forums – come and have a cup of tea and talk it out a bit. Maybe bring your pals, bring your pixies and your pres, bring it all.
What with all the “battery optimization” excitement, we nearly forgot that Sprint’s new webOS 1.4.5 update doesn’t just empower the Pre; it also finally brings PDK’d OpenGL and SDL support to the Palm Pixi. On the off chance you don’t speak developer lingo, that’s short for 3D apps and games, and as it turns out the pint-sized Pixi doesn’t play the latter half-badly. PreCentral fired up a copy of Need For Speed: Undercover on the freshly-upgraded handset immediately above, and found the game perfectly playable with “decent” framerates and only slightly sub-par load times. Watch their spiffy Nissan turn tricks right after the break, and pray companies get cracking on some Unreal Engine 3 apps soon.
A few iterations beyond the last time we checked in, the Palm webOS Facebook app is now up to beta version 1.2.30. New features this time around include landscape viewing, improved photo tagging, and the ability to clear all notifications by selecting view all, then using a back gesture to exit the menu. Other changes that are more immediately noticeable are the news feed dropdown menu option (before & after picture after the break) which should be quite useful for those following our tips on managing your Facebook friends, plus the ability to see comments directly in the news feed, instead of just a number indicating how many there are. Check Preware or hit link below to download the latest version, if you’re stuck on 1.2.5, just use the update feature on your phone and it should find the latest version.
We can’t say it’s the most practical of hacks, but it looks like Sprint Palm Pixi users eager to add some much-needed WiFi to their device do have at least one option. As demonstrated by PreCentral forum member gitit20, all you have to do is find a Verizon Pixi Plus somewhere, pull out its radio board, swap it with the one in your Sprint Pixi, and run the Sprint webOS Doctor application to get everything back in working order. As you can see above, the two radio boards are identical apart from the missing WiFi chip, and there’s apparently no extra fiddling with serial numbers or anything required. Head on past the break for the whole thing on video.
The absence of WiFi from Sprint’s Palm Pixi was all the more galling when Verizon’s version, the Pixi Plus, went on sale with its extra shot of wireless. One owner, PreCentral forum member gitit20, decided that the original Pixi was ripe for a shot of DIY modding, and so he’s transplanted the wireless card from a Verizon Palm Pre Plus into his Pixi and got the whole thing running.
Video demo after the cut
That’s because the two handsets are virtually identical, beyond the absence of WiFi in the Pixi, and so after a quick backup (since all the user data is stored on the wireless card’s memory chip) and running the Sprint webOS doctor the handset is up and running as if it had WiFi all along. The only omission is Sprint Navigation, with Verizon’s version replacing it (and not working on the Sprint network, obviously), but we reckon most Pixi owners would rather have WiFi than the app.
What we really want from HP is a brand new webOS smartphone, but it’d be unfair to say we’d “settle” for a Palm Pre — especially at prices like these. To commemorate the opening of the new HP Wireless store, the company’s offering both Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, on AT&T or Verizon, free of charge for a limited time. Not only that, but these handsets feature free shipping, and the Pre comes with free accessories (including a Bluetooth headset, car charger and leather case) to boot. Meanwhile, Sprint’s still sitting in the corner all alone, expecting folks to slap down cash money (up to $100) for these handsets’ original incarnations. If you’ve been considering these devices already, it seems that now’s the time to choose… but before you sign your life away, why not read our full review?
We knew it was coming, and here it is: you can now grab up a Palm Pixi Plus on AT&T. The tiny QWERTY webOS device will run you $49.99 with a new two year contract after rebates. Overall, it’s pretty much the same beast as the classic Pixi, but check out our hands-on of the Plus, and our full review of the little dear if you need a refresher.
Just a day before the Pre Plus launches on AT&T, current Palm owners are experiencing all kinds of problems related to the App Store and their Palm Profiles. Reports indicate the problems started last night, since then users haven’t been able to download new apps or update existing ones from the catalog, while those unlucky enough to have tried a reset have had trouble signing back into their Palm profile in the cloud, and have lost some information like call logs and had to resync their various accounts in webOS. The Palm Developer Website is also down, tossing a “back in a few hours” sign in the window and going out for a few afternoon mimosas. For now, PreCentral posters recommend taking the device off of network time and resetting it to any day prior to today which will allow apps to install and update without issue. A post on the official Palm blog indicates things should be back to normal “soon” so AT&T customers can hopefully avoid any date/time trickery just to get their Foursquare checkins going.
