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Last night (and we’re serious when we say night), Palm released webOS 1.4, available as an OTA (over the air) update. Palm expects the update will be available soon on other networks. Palm has provided details on what you can expect from webOS 1.4.
Wake up to webOS 1.4? Let us know how it’s working for you?
via Palm’s Blog
Adobe is using Mobile World Congress to showcase Flash on a variety of mobile platforms, most notably the Palm Pre. We are anticipating the release of webOS 1.4, which will support Flash, but will require a plug-in that will be available for download from the App Catalog. It’s unclear when the required Flash plug-in will be available once Palm webOS 1.4 hits. So, how does Flash perform on the Palm Pre? What can you expect? Sashca Segan of PC Magazine writes,
“The implementation runs both video and games, and once the video or game is running, it runs smoothly - but getting there felt sluggish. The Palm presenter blamed it on a very slow Internet connection. But Flash on the Nexus One definitely loaded more quickly and felt snappier.”
Segan goes on to write that we could be “potentially several months from this Flash implementation going live”. Perhaps our thinking that we’d see Flash on the Palm Pre in February was off base. Stay tuned.
[via Gearlog]
UPDATE: Palm has not halted production. As per Engadget who spoke with Palm representatives, the company suspended production for the Chinese New Year.
There is a report out from OTR Global that three sources have confirmed that Palm has halted production of the Palm Pre, Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi and Palm Pixi Plus. According to BGR, one source was quoted as saying, “The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March.”
Palm Inc. Alert
Palm Orders Production Halt of Pre and Pre+ in February
February 11, 2010
PALM, S, VZ, 2038 HK, 8078 TT
Sources: 3 sources Taiwan handset component supply chain (all repeats)
Key sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain said Palm Inc. has ordered assembler Foxconn International Holdings Co. Ltd. to suspend production of both the Pre and Pre+ in February. “The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March,” said a key source. The source said the CDMA2000 Pre to Sprint and the CDMA2000 Pre+ to Verizon were affected.
Pixi Production Suspended Too?
One source said Palm also told Compal Communications Inc. to suspend shipment of the Pixi and Pixi+ in February, while another source said that production is still going ahead with the Pixi+ to Verizon, but actual delivery in February will amount to less than 5,000 units.
Reporter: Van Tran
Honestly, we’re not sure to what to make of the news. Even if new hardware were on the way, this seems pretty drastic. There were be plenty of speculation, but we’ll do our best to provide any news as it becomes available.
[via BGR]
According to Cellflare News PreCentral, GSM variants of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi Plus have showed up on Industry Canada’s Certfication and Engineering pages. While we are not familiar with Industry Canada, we’re guessing it’s not different than FCC filings here in the US. Either way, it’s a good sign that GSM models are on their way to our northern neighbors. Could AT&T here in the US be for behind?
In addition to the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus devices, a significant announcement today at CES was Palm’s Plug-in Development Kit. Essentially, this opens the doors for robust 3D games on existing Palm Pre devices and of course the new Palm Pre Plus. The new 3D games are available now in the App Catalog. Several high profile game developers were offered early access to the new PDK, including EA Mobile how demonstrated “Need for Speed” on the Palm Pre.
Again, these games are available now via the Palm App Catalog and definitely the most impressive gaming we’ve seen on the Palm webOS platform. Full details of the Palm PDK after the break.
Palm today announced that webOS 1.4 would be available as a free over-the-air update to all Palm webOS device owners sometime in February. webOS 1.4 will offer support for video recording, editing and sharing. Another highlight of webOS 1.4 will be support for Flash content. (Note: Confirmed for Palm Pre, we’re not sure about Palm Pixi).
Palm today introduced two updated devices to the family of webOS phones. The Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus will be available on Verizon Wireless starting on January 25th. Pricing for both phones is not available as of yet. Both Verizon Palm phones will offer a unique Mobile Hotspot application that will allow 5 devices to connect to the Internet using your webOS phone. The HotSpot application will be exclusively for Verizon versions of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi and will be available in the App Catalog. No word on whether this will require an additional plan, though we are betting it will.
Other notable changes include the bump up from 8GB to 16GB on the Palm Pre Plus and the addition of WiFi to the Palm Pixi Plus.
Much of the appeal of the Palm Pre is webOS, but that hasn’t stopped this company from producing a cheap knockoff. It won’t run webOS and in fact we’re not sure what it runs. It does however look like a ringer for the Palm Pre, perhaps with a few old school Palm Treo stylings to boot. If you’re curious the specs line up include: 2.8-inch touchscreen (320 x 240 resolution), a T-Flash card slot, a 2 megapixel camera, inbuilt speaker, MP3 / MP4 player, a blazing fast connection to the web (GPRS, if you must know), Bluetooth, an FM radio tuner, alarm clock, a few games and room for 1,000 contacts.
[via Engadget]
Palm has released webOS update 1.3.5.1, a minor update that is available via ‘Updates’ on the Palm Pixi and Palm Pre. The release notes from Palm indicate webOS update 1.3.5.1 fixes an issue affecting the Calendar app with an Exchange account.
This release fixes an issue in which the Calendar app displayed no events for any account after a user synchronized Calendar with an Exchange account. With this update, Calendar events now appear correctly after an Exchange sync.
Thanks SunYam in our Palm Forums.
According to webOSInternals (via Twitter), there are a few files in webOS 1.3.5 that indicate possible support for OpenGL. What’s this mean? Support for OpenGL would pave the way for rich, graphic rich 3D games and apps. If you listen closely, webOS developers are craving GPU support and apparently this might be in the cards (pun intended).
This would certainly usher in dramatic changes for webOS and worthy of bump in the OS identifier to 2.0. More importantly, this would allow for more robust apps and a snappier user experience. While we certainly applaud Palm for the regular influx of bug fixes and improvements, support for OpenGL could change the entire webOS experience for the better.
Is it too soon to ask for webOS 2.0? CES is next week and we’ll be providing live coverage. Can Palm deliver two years in a row?