All Articles Tagged palm pre

While the re-hacking of iTunes sync hogged a lot of attention yesterday, the bigger story is Palm updating the Pre to webOS 1.1.

And what were the major updates?

• IT-initiated remote wipe
• Required PIN with complexity
• Device wipe after a certain number of failed PIN attempts
• Auto-lock
• Improved digital certificates

Our sibling site, PreCentral.net is also keeping an updated list of webOS 1.1: Tons of Undocumented Features

May not sound like much compared to some iPhone updates, but here’s the key thing we’re taking away — Palm is doing the update over the air (OTA). Unlike the iPhone, where 250ish MB firmware files need to be downloaded via iTunes and installed over USB tether, webOS sticks to its cloud-centric focus and calmly sips down 85MB or so during down time then installs when it’s ready to go. If memory serves, Android did this as well with their 1.5 Cupcake release. Sounds like the future to us.

Palm Pre got webOS 1.1 today and the surprise feature was that it re-hacks iTunes sync, once and for all proving Palm’s new management — in this area — cares more about thumbing their nose at Apple and strutting in front of the press than they do about Palm and the Pre user base.

Yeah, this will be an editorial of the scathing variety. You’ve been warned…

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Kudos to Palm for getting a webOS SDK out to Pre developers so quickly, and for the sheer genius of making web 2.0 standards like CSS, HTML, and Javascript, ubiquitous all, the major toolset.

There’s a long road ahead to catch up with the iPhone’s 56,000 apps, 100,000 registered developers, and 1.5 billion downloads, but that road would have been infinitely has Palm gone with more complicated development model.

Sure, hardcore gamers may have to wait for native access to write their racers to the metal, but anyone familiar with the 80/20 rule knows that for this market, at this time, webOS and web standards development was smart play.

Bring on the fart apps — I have dibs on flashlight!

background: #fff

There. Done!

iPhone vs. Palm Pre combat and comparison is nothing new, but is the latest rivalry in smartphones ready to take to the skies? Ars Technica certainly thinks so:

Ultimately, traveling with the Pre made me want my iPhone back

Though user-changeable, battery life on the Palm Pre was cited as one of the biggest disadvantages, draining rapidly under the onslaught of the famed Synergy and Card systems, and an estimated death in just 30 min. of Sprint TV viewing(?!). Lack of Apps was another.

Far from negative, however, the article gives Palm lots of suggestions to help the troubled Pre traveller out. (Ours, of course, would be actually getting that iPhone back…)

If you have any travel tips of your own to share, drop them in the comments!

[Thanks to Icebike for the tip!]

Join Dieter, Matthew, Rene, and Kevin as they discuss all of the insanely great new smartphones that have been announced and released in the past month. On the docket:

• Palm Pre Review
• iPhone 3GS Review
• Nokia N97 Review
• BlackBerry Tour Review
• HTC Hero
• and a bit more about Windows Mobile to boot. It’s all here!

(Update: links and player fixed.)

• Download it directly with this link
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe directly to the Podcast feed with your favorite Podcatcher here
• Listen to it here with the player above

Show notes after the break.

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We’re going to kick off the Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3G S excitement with a simple browser smackdown.  The short version: the iPhone 3G S is faster in our video above, but the Pre is close and actually is edging out the iPhone after the just-applied 1.03 webOS update.  The part you actually should pay attention to is "time to content," i.e. how long it takes to load up the stuff you actually want to read as opposed to the javascripty-bits. Bottom line: speed-wise there’s a hair’s-breadth between the two browsers, it’s so close that you really ought not be making your purchase decision based on it — or bragging about it either way.

Feature-wise, we give the edge to the iPhone 3G S — they are on version 3.0 while the Pre is just getting started at 1.02 / 1.03.  The ability to pop up a link in a new browser window is quite nice — not to mention Autofill.  I myself prefer the Pre’s Card metaphor to the in-app tabs of Safari, but that ’s a matter of taste.

Stay tuned for more as we pit these devices against each other!

[cross-posted at PreCentral.net]

Update: As noted in the comments and in a raft of emails, you can open links in a new card on the Pre with Opt + Space + Tap.  It works, but Palm, really, Opt + Tap isn’t really doing anything here.  Just saying. Thanks everybody!

UPDATED: Icebike makes and interesting and opposite argument in the comments:

If you ask me that wording amounts to tacit approval to use third party devices, without Apple assuming any liability for their continued operation.

ORIGINAL: Not quite “get off our lawn”, yet clearly a sign post warning that the lawn might on day get a tad hostile if you choose to linger there without leave. Here it is, via Daring Fireball, Apple’s latest Knowledge Base Article: iTunes: About unsupported third-party digital media players, aka the Palm Pre syncing saga:

This article is about iTunes and unsupported third-party digital media players.

Products Affected iTunes

Apple designs the hardware and software to provide seamless integration of the iPhone and iPod with iTunes, the iTunes Store, and tens of thousands of apps on the App Store. Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.

So, if/when iTunes breaks compatibility with the Palm Pre — intentionally, incidentally, or otherwise, does this cover Apple?

In a write up nonchalantly titled “Lies, damn lies, statistics, and Apple…“, our good friend Phil Nickinson over at sister-site WMExperts rightly points out that Apple gave Windows Mobile a full on shunning during the WWDC 2009 keynote:

Windows Mobile isn’t even mentioned. Sure, Microsoft hasn’t yet launched its dedicated app store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t stores from which to buy apps – ahem, here’s one – and it’s an insult to all of the developers of the 20,000 Windows Mobile applications available.

Windows 7 did get a mention (and a ribbing, as usual, from OS X head Bertrand Serlet), but in the smartphone space…?

Nothing.

That might seem callous from Apple’s part — but here’s the worse problem for Microsoft: Windows Mobile was missing from a lot of post-WWDC analyst and media commentary as well.

Apple still owns significant smartphone mind-share and the Palm Pre has captured the attention of the blogsphere and, since RIM is holding fast, that’s coming at the expense of Microsoft (and maybe Android, which was last year’s next big thing).

Realistically, with so many platforms now, when someone writes “Apple iPhone and…” “BlackBerry and…” and now “Palm Pre and…” there’s only room for so many others in the sentence, and those places are becoming increasingly competitive.

With Windows Mobile 7 pushed out until 2010, and 6.5 not in consumer hands yet either, and with iPhone 3G S about to hit, things might not be changing any time soon either…

Attack of the Show co-host, Olivia Munn, offered her professional opinion on the Palm Pre with regards to the iPhone today, via Twitter.

• yeah, if you pre-switched to pre from iphone, you’ll be upset on monday. [Link]
• you got the pre? does it suck to know you should’ve just got the iphone? it’s okay. we all make mistakes. [Link]
• **** the Palm Pre. If you have an iPhone, stick with it. If you have a Blackberry, like me, omg dontyoujustlove it? [Link]

What. Up. Indeed.

[via @philnickinson]

Remember that brouhaha over the Palm Pre syncing with iTunes? (Check out PreCentral.net’s massive Palm Pre review for more on it from a functional perspective.)

Well, DVD Jon’s nanocr.eu site (via Engadget Mobile) says he’s confirmed that:

the way [Palm Pre] hooks to iTunes is very shady indeed. Turns out that the Pre identifies itself as an iPod when it’s in Media Sync mode, but only on the system’s mass storage interface; the root USB node still comes through as a Palm Pre.

This leads them to believe it might be something Apple could more easily block, if Apple so chooses to. We’ve already gone over the reasons why we think Palm’s decision to sync directly with iTunes (as opposed to with the iTunes library XML file like RIM and Nokia do) is ballsy but ultimately bad for Apple (since they’ll get blamed for problems by consumers who don’t understand the hacky nature and limitations), Palm (since they will have to work at maintaining unlicensed compatibility), but most importantly consumers (because the experience is flawed and unreliable).

Here’s hoping Palm finishes their strut around the launch-day press lines and the next update contains something closer akin to a non-shady, yet still iTunes and user friendly solution for everyone…