The last Palm-branded holdout on Verizon’s inventory — the CDMA Pixi Plus — is now gone from the company’s online store, once again leaving the country’s largest carrier without a webOS option to be had. Of course, the Pre 2 has been lined up for release on Verizon for some time, but in light of the lukewarm reception the phone’s received so far, the coming webOS 2.0 upgrades for the older models, and the big news presumably coming out of HP’s early February event, we’d say they’re now dangerously close to releasing an obsolete device. For what it’s worth, Palm’s site insists that the new model’s still “coming soon,” but that had better happen on the double if they want to sell any of these things.
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!
We’re hoping he wasn’t speaking out of turn here, but for what it’s worth, Palm developer advocate Josh Marinacci has said on stage at webOS Developer Days today in New York that webOS 2.0 will be coming to “all” Palm devices in “the coming months.” Now, we’re going to go ahead and assume he’s not talking about your Treo 650, your Palm III, or your LifeDrive, but we’re taking that to mean that Pre, Pixi, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus owners on all carriers around the globe can expect official upgrades for their phones — and hey, considering how mild of an upgrade the Pre 2 is (and the fact you can’t get it on some of the older devices’ launch carriers), that’s fantastic news. Follow the break for Marinacci’s full presentation from the event.
Back in March, we told you about the PDK Hot Apps competition that Palm was holding, hoping to get some of the best mobile applications shown off for their webOS-based devices. In the process, application developers had the opportunity to win upwards of $100,000 in prize money. And, finally, while the competition ended a couple of weeks ago, Palm has finally unveiled who the winners were, and in which category.
If you’ve ever played Angry Birds from developer Rovio, then you probably won’t be surprised to find out that the ridiculously addictive application took first place in the Paid Apps category. That means that the developers have officially won the $100,000 in prize money, along with plenty of bragging rights. As for the top spot in the Free Apps category, that goes to an application called Glow Hockey Free, by Natenai Ariyatrakool. Ariyatrakool also wins $100,000 for the effort.
The rest of the contest is pretty robust, as Palm expanded the amount of winners that were able to receive the $50,000 prize money, giving that to eight winners (four for Paid Apps and four for Free Apps). Palm chose another 30 applications, split down the middle for paid and free, that won a total of $10,000 for their winners, respectively. And finally, 100 additional applications were chosen to win either $1,000, or a free HP Envy 17 laptop.
The results show that Palm’s webOS mobile platform still has some legs in the development company. While major video game developers, like EA and Gameloft took plenty of slots in the Paid and Free Apps categories, there were still plenty of spaces for smaller developers. And, considering Angry Birds took the top spot, it’s obvious that as long as you create a fun game, or an interesting application, you’ll get the recognition you deserve. You can check out the results from the competition through the source link below.
Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have mobile phones in our sights — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month.
Back in our day, the only “mobile phone” at school was the one that broke off the dorm wall after our roommates got a little too rowdy, but nowadays, a capable, high-power handset is quickly becoming a must-have for students of all ages. Regardless of your budget, your parent’s budget, or your little one’s budget, we’ve got options that should help with studying, gaming, music, and maybe even the occasional call home.
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.
Wow, that didn’t take long! A couple days ago, you were paying $50 to take this thing home, but AT&T has moved perhaps quicker than any carrier in memory to adjust pricing on the Pixi Plus down to a more reasonable $0 — on contract after rebates, of course. The only catch appears to be that you’ll have to sign up for a data plan of at least $15, which corresponds to the carrier’s recently-introduced DataPlus package that includes 200MB per month with overage of $15 per additional 200MB. That might seem low for your average power user on your average smartphone — but this is a Pixi Plus we’re talking about here.
You might recall that Verizon recently touted expanded device compatibility for its DVR Manager app, a boon for anyone looking to nab the latest episode of Income Property while hundreds of miles away from the homestead (we know, it happens all the time) — but what Big Red didn’t really highlight in its press release was that webOS was one of the platforms now being supported. As with the app’s counterparts on other mobile operating systems, the Palm-flavored build lets customers “set parental controls, set bookmarks, browse and search TV programming, view the DVR status to see how much space is left for recording, browse and search VOD listings, and see their lists of scheduled and recorded programs” — and so far, it’s getting well over four stars on a five-star scale since going live in the App Catalog, a good sign for usability. We don’t mean to get too hopelessly optimistic, but heck, who knows — this might even be a good sign for Verizon’s continued interest in Palm’s (or make that HP’s) platform in the long term.
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.
