Palm’s App Catalog appears to have suffered a meltdown of sorts, with users of Palm Pre, Pixi, Pre Plus and Pixi Plus handsets reporting that after having downloaded a new title – whether paid or free – no aftermarket software will run properly. The issue remains even after fully erasing and restarting the phone; in fact, the apps are still installed even after that process is completed. However core functionality – calls, messaging and data – are all unaffected.
At the moment, a workaround appears to involve setting the date of the smartphone back to some point in April, but the official Palm blog is suggesting that an official fix will be appearing in short order. They also say that any purchases you’ve made through the webOS App Catalog have “been properly recorded and as soon as this issue is resolved, you’ll be able to access all apps you’ve purchased” so you shouldn’t have to worry about losing money.
This doesn’t really come as a surprise, but it’s welcome news regardless. Sprint is now offering the Palm Pixi free with a two-year contract on its website. The deal isn’t to be had in retail stores quite yet, but we assume that’s also in the cards as well. The Pixi — which has a slower processor than the Pre and lacks WiFi — is a handset we always thought was destined for the zero dollars on contract scheme, so like we said, we’re not surprised. Regardless, if you’ve been wanting a Pixi but couldn’t stand the idea of laying out any cash for it, well, now’s your chance.
Did you make it through your weekend all right? We certainly hope so, because we’re glad you could make it here tonight for the newest Daily Slash. Tonight, in the Best of R3, we’ve got a Motorola flip phone that runs Android, the iPad’s got two different ways to find out if you dunked it in water, and finally a phone that’s become a reality. And then, in the dredge ‘net, we have a chandelier made of OLED panels, a suspended transit train, and then presumably more bad news for Palm.
The Best of R3 Media
Motorola Gets a Handset Leaked, Too: The leaks just keep on coming, don’t they? This time around, it comes in the guise of a Motorola handset running a version of the Android mobile Operating System. From the looks of it, it’s running MOTOBLUR, that skin that the company created, and that’s about it for the details. Other than that, we know that there’s a plastic flip cover over the screen, which could have some touch-based technology in it. It’s apparently still a prototype, so it might be awhile before we get to see this in an official capacity. [via Android Community]
The iPad’s Got Two LS Indicators: The Liquid Submersion Indicators have been in practice for some time. In fact, they’re pretty much a mainstay when it comes to cell phones. A little dot, that if it turns pink, can pretty much ruin your chances of getting a phone replaced through warranty. Well, Apple deemed it necessary to implant two of the little buggers in their tablet device: one in the 3.5mm audio jack, and one next to the pins in the 30-pin dock connector. So, don’t get your iPad anywhere near moisture, yeah? [via Everything iPad]
Samsung Reality Gets Really Real: Not that it’s been a long time coming, but the next American-based Samsung device is launching on Verizon Wireless on April 22nd. It’s got a pretty cheap price tag, coming in at $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, but it’s definitely a featurephone. It’s got a landscape QWERTY keyboard that slides out, so it’s got that going for it. Also, a 3.2-inch touchscreen for good measure. [via SlashPhone]
The Dredge Net
Chandelier Consists of 9 OLED Panels: You know you’re in the future when something as ridiculous as a chandelier is changing. That’s exactly what German designer Ingo Maurer has done here, as he introduces his Double-C Future OLED Chandelier. There isn’t any other adorning features to this glorious piece of tech: just nine panels of OLED-goodness, that look remarkably like some kind of item from a science fiction picture. And, unfortunately, there’s no price to go along with the image above, but we’ll look forward to find out what it is eventually (we hope). [via DVICE]
Electromagnet Suspended Train: There’s something about going through your urban jungle in a floating train, isn’t there? This time around, it’s a train that runs on electromagnetic rails, and is crafted from transparent polycarbonate. This suspended train has all sorts of features (as a concept render should): wind turbines at the top of the towers to power traffic lights; solar powers on top of the train cars themselves; WiFi inside the cars; OLED panels; and information boards throughout. A perfect combination of technology, if you ask us. Now, let’s make this happen, yes? [via Yanko Design]
RadioShack Pulls the Sprint Pre and Pixi From Shelves: Despite our best wishes, the news about Palm’s devices just doesn’t get any better. However, there might be a glimmer of hope in this one. As it stands right now, it looks like RadioShack’s all across the country have begun pulling the Sprint version of the Palm Pre and Pixi from their shelves. Now, according to RadioShack, this is just part of their natural progression of devices — and, yes, we believe them. However, the bad part is the fact that these are the only two Sprint, webOS devices Palm has. So . . . Well, that’s just one more retailer not providing money to Palm. [via Phone Scoop]
So it looks like Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal have talked to enough store clerks and Sprint reps today to confirm that Radio Shack is definitely dropping the original Palm Pre and Pixi from its in-store lineup. For what it’s worth, Sprint says that “this is in line with Radio Shack’s normal product planning process — there is a designated amount of space in stores for handsets and they work to keep the line up of devices as current as possible,” and we actually tend to believe that story since the phones (the Pre in particular) are getting awfully long in the tooth and we wouldn’t blame the retailer for trying to cycle in some fresh stuff. The bigger question is whether the move indicates that Palm has some hot new gear for Sprint around the corner; if not, this gives Palm one less avenue for sales at a time when it needs all the help it can get, especially since you won’t find these guys hawking Verizon’s versions.
Find yourself talking to Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, and the furore of speculation, leaks and general rumors are bound to come up. “They’ve been incessant since I joined the company” Rubinstein told SlashGear today, as we talked to the chief executive about the possibilities of takeovers, webOS devices of tomorrow and how Palm has learnt from the poorly handled Verizon launch. Media-savvy, confident about his company’s future and bracingly honest about Palm’s shortcomings, the picture Rubinstein paints is one of a plucky little firm with an exciting product roadmap to come.
Unfortunately – and unsurprisingly – Rubinstein wouldn’t be drawn on the contents of that roadmap, nor the sort of timescales it covered. Still, he maintains that Palm are looking to “continue to enhance the family” with a small handful of clearly related devices and a “great webOS experience in every product we do.” Just as Microsoft have targeted their new Kin platform at the mass-market, Rubinstein sees the Pixi – which he uses as his daily phone – as positioned for entry-level smartphone users, while the Pre Plus occupies the flagship spot. We pushed him on whether the company plans to flesh out the top-end next or somewhere else along the line, but he refused to be drawn; what we can expect, however, is a faster, more responsive delivery of new devices. Rubinstein blamed the lengthy delay before the GSM Pre’s launch on the company’s relatively small size and limited resources, paired with the difficulty in prepping the first UMTS device running webOS; now that’s been done, however, relationships with operators cemented and testing gone through, the company can “move more rapidly in future.”
It’s not just hardware that Palm recognises it needs to work on; the sales experience is also a point they’re keen to address. Rubinstein has previously criticised Verizon’s handling of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus launch, and it’s something he reiterated today. Palm ensured there was plenty of Verizon inventory – certainly enough to cover the Chinese New Year shut-down period – and they “would’ve liked [it] to move quicker.” There’s anecdotal evidence that the steps both parties took in the aftermath – bringing in Palm employees to better train Verizon salespeople on the nuances of webOS, preloading devices with tutorial videos and tips – have been working, Rubinstein insists, and that the experience has already helped them in launches with other carriers. He agrees that perhaps the core issue is demonstrating webOS’ strengths better; it’s “a matter of giving people training” on the platform, both those selling it and those considering buying devices based on it.
Part of that is emphasising the potential of the hardware on offer. Rubinstein reckons that the Pre Plus is faster than the iPhone 3GS in terms of raw hardware, and webOS is the only other platform on the market capable of immersive 3D gaming. Now that the App Catalog in Europe finally has paid software support, and together with the recently announced Unreal engine on the platform, Palm are looking to promote the Pre Plus among developers and buyers alike as a gaming device. Part of that is certainly looking at what Apple are doing with Game Center in iPhone OS 4.0, and “watching closely” the movement in iAd too.
Mobile advertising is an “evolving space”, Rubinstein agrees, and one Palm is certainly looking into. Still, the focus now is on the push into Europe, with O2, SFR and Vodafone partnerships to offer the Pixi Plus and Pre Plus in various markets. webOS’ growing App Catalog is definitely a part of that, and Palm are working with developers not only in the US but Europe to make sure the 1,000+ titles in there are soon joined by others. While he wouldn’t comment on the buy-out speculation, Rubinstein did tell us that keeping webOS to itself was “not something we’re religious about.” Palm is chasing objective scale when it comes to platform market share, and if they were approached by a company, could build a good working relationship and business model, licensing webOS “would make sense.”
With the iPad fresh to the market, and talk of a Google-branded rival running Android, we also asked about Rubinstein’s opinion on the burgeoning tablet segment. While Palm are focusing on smartphones right now, he did tell us that webOS was designed to be a “mobile device OS” rather than solely a smartphone platform, suited to a broad scale of devices up to tablets and even larger. Describing larger-scale touch computing as “an exciting area,” Rubinstein said that Palm were watching the tablet market and that “we – or licensees – could look at entering that in future.” Since we reckon webOS’ interface – especially its background notifications system – bests those of iPhone OS 4.0 or Android, that’s a direction we particularly hope somebody chooses to follow.
Is Palm going to turn around and announce a partnership deal, a buy-out or a licensing arrangement in the next days or weeks? You’d better believe that Jon Rubinstein is far too media-polished to let that slip. Still, he describes Palm’s current path as a “transformation story”, suggesting that while commentators love to presume that the smartphone market – and Palm’s place in it – is settled, in actual fact it’s in its infancy. “Everyone wants to go “it’s over”,” Rubinstein says, “there are all kinds of rumors. But we’re at the beginning of the mobile device story.”
Palm’s news activity doesn’t seem like abating any time soon, as the company has just made the Deutsch arrival date for its Plus-ified phones official as April 28. It matches earlier speculation about late April, but also — very importantly — introduces a new carrier options for our Teutonic brethren in the form of Vodafone. Formerly locked in with Telefonica (whose local representative is O2), Palm seems to have finally seen the error of its ways and started offering choice as a side dish to its delectable WebOS main course. So, forget about who’s buying the company, will you be buying its phones?
Having been spotted last month tiptoeing through the GCF in GSM form, the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus have been confirmed for launch on O2 Germany. Announced with a tweet from the carrier’s account, the two webOS smartphones will apparently go up for sale on April 28th. While there’s no word from O2’s other European arms, the assumption is that the two handsets will see similar launches in Spain, Ireland and the UK.
The biggest change between the Plus handsets and their regular predecessors is the increase in internal storage – the Pre Plus gets 16GB, the Pixi Plus 8GB, though neither has a memory card slot – but the Pre Plus also has more RAM. It remains to be seen whether the MiFi-style connection sharing app available on the Verizon CDMA versions makes it through to the European handsets.
Welcome to the Daily Slash. If this is your first time ’round these parts, doubly welcome! We’re happy to bring you the latest and greatest in the tech news every day, but some times we can’t fit it all in the normal flow of the work day. So, here’s our friendly wrap-up, where we even manage to wrap it up in a bow tie (if you wish hard enough). Tonight, we’ve got The Best of R3 Media to start off the night (a brand new feature that we’re adding to the Daily Slash from here on out). And then, as we jump into the meat and bones, we’ll take a look at a website that makes picking your seats for your next Major League Baseball game so much easier. Next, a jacket that’s made for your iPad, a car of the future, and we finally have some good news for the company that brought us webOS. So, let’s get crackin’.
The Best of R3 Media:
Has the LG Aloha (Finally) Been Photographed? The LG Aloha is supposedly LG’s first high-end Android-based device. It’s got a 1GHz Snapdragon processor under the hood, Android 2.1, and a 3.5-inch AMOLED display. LG’s also got a fancy for the slide-out physical QWERTY keyboards, and they’ve included that in the package as well. The only trouble is, the images captured of this device match a model number LU2300, and the Aloha’s is supposedly C710. There’s some confusion abound, but we’ll hopefully get some straight answers soon. Either way, LG definitely needs a high end device rocking Google’s little green ‘droid. [via Android Community]
HTC Hero (Finally) Getting Android 2.1: It seems that with some (maybe most?) of the best Android devices out there, waiting for the update is half the battle. In the case of the HTC Hero, and all of its variations around the globe, faithful owners of the flagship HTC Sense device have been patiently sitting on Android 1.5 since its debut last July. HTC has been pretty tight-lipped over the last few months, but since last December, there’s been plenty of rumors. Now though, it seems that a lucky HTC Club member received an email directly from HTC, saying that roll-outs of the upgraded mobile Operating System will begin April 19th, and then fan out across the world in a progressive way. Good news for Hero owners, that’s for sure. [via SlashPhone]
iPhone the Choice of Owners On the Move: It looks like Apple knew what they were doing when they sent out the iPad on a Saturday. From a recent report, which was taken over the launch weekend and extended into Monday, it seems that people loved to browse the web on their new Apple tablets, but as soon as the work week started up, they left them at home, and took to their fall-back: the iPhone. The door swings both ways on this one: for most, it makes perfect sense to leave the iPad at home, and bring the iPhone with you to work, or whatever it is you’re doing during the day. After all, it’s thin and light, but not able to fit in your pocket. On the other side of the door, you have Steve Jobs who wants you to take it everywhere. Maybe that will all change when the 3G model hits customer’s hands, eh? [via Everything iPad]
The Dredge Net:
Seats 3D Wants You to Look at Your Seats Before You Get There: If you’re a major fan of the MLB, then this service probably won’t do much for you. After all, you’ve probably been to your local stadium a few times, and even have your favorite section. But, for the rest of the people out there, or if you’re visiting a new venue, then this might be just what you’ve always wanted. Even if you didn’t know it. A new site, Seats 3D, wants to make it possible for you to find your seat’s position in a 3D, rotating image. That way, you can see the field from your seat, well before you get into that seat. The only trouble is that only 9 stadiums are compatible with the service right now, but it sounds like they’re planning to add more soon. [via DVICE]
Jacket Made With a Pocket That Carries Your iPad: Sure, there’s plenty of accessories out there that can carry your iPad. Most of them are made specifically for that job. But, what if you’re not a fan of an extra thing to carry, or hang on your shoulder? Then this travel vest, made by Scottevest, which has an in-line pocket perfectly sized for your shiny, new Apple tablet is perfect for you. It will be available July 1st, and will only cost your $100. That’s a steal, right? [via Engadget]
The Land Glider From Nissan Looks Ridiculously Awesome: We’re not going to say that we’d want one of these things (…), but we have to admit, it does look like someone stepped into the future and brought it back with them. The vehicle is pictured above, and as you can see, it’s leaning, and we think that’s just about fantastic. Nissan is designing the electric motor-powered vehicle for people who just want to get across town, and, well, don’t want to walk. It’s got a top speed of 62 miles per hour, but we can guarantee you’re not going to go that fast. Nissan is also touting that the car (or whatever you want to call it) also has zero emissions, too. [via CrunchGear]
Palm Drops Modernista From Developing New Ads: There’s no denying that the early advertisements for the Palm Pre were completely out of this world. Watching as several hundred orange-robed individuals did some strange movements, and some even creepier lady talking about what your phone could do just wasn’t good product placement. Truth be told, it was down-right frightening. Sure, the Palm Pixi commercial was better, and the very latest Palm Pre Plus (for Verizon Wireless) commercial wasn’t that bad at all. But, those early promos were just too much to handle. And, while the advertisement agency said early on that people knew the Palm existed because of the strange commercials, it didn’t do much for the whole buying of the devices. [via Everything Pre]
According to a report from Advertising Age, Palm has mercifully, finally, really parted ways with its ad agency, Modernista — the house responsible for some of our leastfavoriteads ever. If you need a memory jog, here’s them telling the world that they loved creeping people out with Palm ads. The AdAge article says that the company is currently in talks with various other ad shops, though there’s no clear word on who that new team will be, or when we’ll see the fruits of their labor. We don’t have much to add to this in commentary except to say that this is probably the second smartest thing Palm has done in a span of seven days — the first was striking that amazing deal on Verizon for a super-cheap Palm Pre Plus along with free Mobile Hotspot service. Now, we can look forward to a future where our children won’t cower in fear when they see a Palm ad on television, and we can sleep at night without the image of that pale woman burned into our minds. Of course, now that we’ve seen it, we can never un-see it.
Palm’s attempt to turn webOS devices into financial security continues apace, with Verizon slashing prices of the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to $49.99 and $29.99 respectively. In addition, Verizon have also slashed away the subscription fee for Mobile Hotspot functionality, which turns the Pre Plus or the Pixi Plus into a MiFi-style 3G sharing hotspot for up to five WiFi clients.
If owners have already signed up to the Mobile Hotspot package – which used to involve a $40 surcharge – then they’ll see that removed from their next monthly bill. The existing buy-one-get-one-free deals on both Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are also still in place, which adds up to a pretty strong push for the platform.
Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein had previously criticized Verizon for a subpar launch of the two smartphone, and described efforts on the carrier’s part to promote the webOS handsets. These included improved training by Palm “brand ambassadors” so that Verizon sales staff would be in a better position to push the two phones onto potential customers.
