Palm Blog: My idea of summer fun

My idea of summer fun? Catching up on a good book, letting my inner muse free herself with some sketching, cooking up a tasty BBQ, or maybe just gazing at the night sky. Here’s how my Palm Pre helps with all of the above -- with free webOS apps.

Plop yourself in a shaded hammock for some summer reading. pReader software works with popular eBook formats. For content, point your phone's browser to The Gutenberg Project (m.gutenberg.org), a huge library of free classics. Or find out if your public library has an eBook lending program for current favorites in Mobipocket or eReader format. pReader software works seamlessly with the DRM on both.

If art is more your thing, try some sketching with Paintr Lite. The Featured Gallery of other users' artwork is amazing. For an entertaining challenge, try your hand at roll-a-doodle.

Never turn up at a backyard BBQ empty-handed again. What's For Dinner Lite frees you from the drudgery of printed cookbooks. It lets you search multiple recipe websites at once, and automatically creates a shopping list with one tap, remembering your chosen recipes in a convenient list. Or you can just use Yelp orGoodFood to find a great take-out place nearby.

Turn a gorgeous summer night into science class. Teach kids (or big people) about lunar cycles using Moon Info, or introduce them to meteorology using the weather maps inAccuWeather. Wear them out before bedtime by having them jump up and down to simulate earthquakes with Seismograph(tip: set preferences for a low amplitude).

Bonnie L., Customer Support

   

RIM Blackberry Torch 9800 launch

Hands On with the BlackBerry Torch 9800

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367025,00.asp

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 for AT&T isn't all-new and all-different, but it's new and different enough.

On Tuesday, Research in Motion (RIM) announced the company's first slider-style BlackBerry, the Torch 9800, which is also the first BlackBerry with both a touch screen and hard keyboard, and the first device to run the new OS 6. We received a bit of hands-on time with the new phone.

The Torch feels and looks very much like a BlackBerry, with the proper BlackBerry Bold-style arrangements of plastic, metal and glass; there are also BlackBerry fonts on the keys and the now-standard BlackBerry trackpad. Like a good BlackBerry, it feels rock-solid and like a premium device in the hand.

But of course it also has that touch screen. The Torch's 3.2-inch, 360-by-480 screen is a standard capacitive LCD touch screen, not that weird "click-screen" from the BlackBerry Storm that RIM seems to have finally given up on. The screen is bright and sharp, but it's obviously behind the competition in terms of resolution.

The phone's sliding mechanism feels tight and solid; RIM says it's been rated for 150,000 slides. The QWERTY keyboard, on the other hand, feels tighter and flatter than previous BlackBerry keyboards.

The new BlackBerry 6 OS adds touch to the interface mix, but you can still navigate with the trackpad or QWERTY if you prefer. Applications now appear in a pop-up drawer - a little like on Android - with swipeable panes that take you to "All," Favorites," "Media" or "Downloads." There's a little bit of a delay when swiping, which I found a bit disconcerting.

I was very happy to see universal search here – just start typing a word and results pop up from contacts, email, programs, and media files. That's quite slick.

According to RIM, the new WebKit-based Web browser speeds up data transfers by compressing data two to three times, while still providing the kind of fidelity you see on the iPhone and Android platforms. That should, in part, help make up for the phone running at HSPA 3.6 speeds rather than HSPA 7.2, and it should let AT&T users get more Web pages out of their $15/month, 200-MB data plans.

I haven't comprehensively tested the speed, but it displayed Expedia.com with great fidelity. Unfortunately, there's no way to change the user agent to pretend to be a desktop browser, which means lots of sites (such as ours) just show dull WAP pages.

RIM appears to have totally rewritten its media apps. There's a new Desktop Manager coming with BlackBerry 6, and a Social Feeds app that combines Twitter, Facebook, and various instant messaging conversations.

More specs: the Torch has a 5-megapixel camera with VGA video recording, Bluetooth 2.1, 512 Mbytes of program memory, 4 Gbytes of built-in storage, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. As is usual for BlackBerrys, these aren't super-duper, top-of-the-line specs. Rather, the BlackBerry experience is about providing solid reliability.

BlackBerry 6 is exclusive to the Torch for now, but it may come to other existing BlackBerries. The Torch has the same 624-MHz Marvell processor and screen resolution as the existing BlackBerry Bold, so there aren't any hardware hurdles to get the new version onto higher-end existing phones.

The BlackBerry Torch is an AT&T exclusive, though RIM execs I spoke to said they would like to turn this form factor into a platform. That means if AT&T's Torch is successful, they may build versions for other carriers.

You can look at the BlackBerry Torch two ways. If you live in BlackBerry World, it's obviously a big step forwards. But on AT&T, it's competing against the Samsung Captivate and iPhone 4, with their gigahertz processors, "retina" screens, and thousands upon thousands of apps. Can the Torch compete with the new round of super-phones? We'll have a full review of the BlackBerry Torch soon.

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HP Channel Chief Talks Channel Program

Image via CrunchBase

Scott Campbell recently caught up with HP's channel chief, Stephen DiFranco to talk HP. Check out DiFranco's update on simplifying the HP channel, plans for health care and the latest news on the Palm acquisition.

HP Plots Smartphone Channel Power Play for Palm webos.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is building a new channel program that will bring its recently acquired Palm smartphone and smart device portfolio to market via solution providers, CRN has learned.

Stephen DiFranco, vice president and general manager, Solution Partners Organization (SPO), Americas, for HP, said in an interview with CRN Wednesday that he has asked Tom LaRocca, HP vice president, marketing and strategy, SPO, to build the new program in support of the computer giant's $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, which was finalized this month. LaRocca oversees HP's PartnerOne channel program.

"Our intention is to bring a fully serviceable set of services to the consumer and commercial markets based on the Palm OS," DiFranco said. "Which apps are chosen and eventually deployed are the result of negotiations and conversations with the Palm team. I’m sure we will have consumer and commercial applications and to work with plug-ins. Palm, even before we acquired them, had a plug-in with Salesforce.com. We will continue down that road."

DiFranco said the Palm deal gives "resellers the opportunity to offer a franchise that includes mobile devices that are secure on the network." That's a powerful sales proposition for solution providers who are anxious to play in the smartphone market.

"To a reseller doing data center, I can have a practice with Palm devices from HP because that device can be managed and secured through the data center," said DiFranco. "One of our competitors in the phone business does a good job selling devices in corporate environments. But they’re not coming from a channel world. Now you have a company from the channel to have a device that has a smart enough OS to shut down if the device is lost or stolen. Now you can start to go out to customers with that."

HP's Enterprise Group also appears to be planning on playing a bigger role in the smartphone and smart device market with its appointment Wednesday of Mark Angelino, a former high-level Sprint and Salesforce.com executive, as senior vice president of global distribution. In the newly created position, he will oversee the computer giant's channel relationships in HP's $54 billion Enterprise Business.



Angelino, a seven year Sprint veteran, was vice president of Sprint's sales and distribution until he was pushed out in a management shakeup in January 2008.

Most recently, Angelino was executive vice president of Customer Success at cloud computing kingpin Salesforce.com. In that position, which he held for 14 months, he was responsible for the support team that handled what Salesforce.com called "after-sale customer success."

HP said in a statement that Angelino will be responsible for managing HP’s relationships with enterprise channel partners including network service providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators, managed services providers, and business advisory firms.

Angelino will report to Thomas Hogan, executive vice president of sales, marketing and strategy for HP Enterprise Business.

HP said Angelino is a 30-year veteran of the IT industry who has held several senior positions at Sprint Nextel, including president of Sales and Distribution as well as president of Sprint Business Solutions.

The Palm unit is a part of HP's Personal Systems Group. But HP is expected to make its Palm technology widely available across its product portfolio. Furthermore, HP has vowed to make its Palm products available to its full partner network.

Angelino was unavailable to discuss his new position, and HP declined to comment.

Rick Chernick, the CEO of Camera Corner Connecting Point, a Green Bay, Wis., said that the executive addition is another sign that HP is willing to add to its management team to break into emerging markets like smartphone.
"The better the people the better the company," said Chernick. "You have to change and be willing to bring in good strong people to continue to grow. We do it on a small scale and HP does it on a big scale. HP is making the company stronger. I admire what (HP CEO) Mr. Hurd and his team of executives are doing." 

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Android OS Beats iPhone iOS With New Subscribers (in the US)

The Nielsen Company Smartphones continue to spread in the United States.

The Nielsen Company Graphics from the Nielsen report show the market share of smartphone operating systems.

By the end of 2011, there could be more smartphones in the United States than the less advanced feature phones, according to a report released Monday by the Nielsen Company, a market trends monitor.

The report also notes that the Google Android platform continues to show rapid growth and over the past six months has edged past the Apple iPhone platform with new subscribers.

But even with the latest spike, the iPhone still remains the smartphone that is most coveted by consumers. The Nielsen report said that “among current subscribers thinking of switching” mobile phones, 90 percent of iPhone owners remain loyal to the handset. The report said that 21 percent of Android owners and 29 percent of BlackBerry users have considered switching to the iPhone.

Dan Frommer of Business Insider said that one thing holding the iPhone back could be the fact that it is available through only one carrier, AT&T. By comparison, Android and BlackBerry phones are available on multiple carriers.

Another report released on Monday by Canalys, an online research firm, said Android smartphone sales grew as much as 886 percent in the second quarter of 2010. The firm also said the entire smartphone market grew by 64 percent during the same period.

Nokia also held onto a substantial lead in the smartphone market worldwide. The report said the company maintained a 38 percent share of the global smartphone market, shipping a record 24 million in the latest quarter.

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Animated launcher in the palm pre

animated launcher in the palm pre with 720 mhz kernel , working like a charm!


 Francisco De Jesús, August 3,2010


It is nice to see new  how some hb guys can get great things on your palm pre . I really hope some day you can get an SMS hologram on your device.


   

Yahoo instant messenger goes social

Image via Wikipedia

Yahoo instant messenger goes social

Pros Video and audio chat. Plugins for games and info. Social updates.

Cons
Spam. No Facebook IM. Social updates limited to your Yahoo confirmed contacts

Bottom Line Yahoo has one of the richest IM clients around, with clear design, video chat, VOIP, and deep plug-in architecture. But its social integration is less functional than some, and it doesn't let you can't chat with the networks of Facebook, Gmail, or AIM.

Yahoo has long trailed AIM (Free, ) and Windows Live Messenger (Free, ) when it comes to the size of its IM user base, but the company nevertheless keeps beefing up its client software with unique features, like plugins and calling to outside phones. Yahoo benefits from its dominant webmail position, as you can chat with Yahoo contacts using Messenger from within the e-mail page. Yahoo! Messenger 10 (free) client is a force to be reckoned with—as long the people you want to chat with are on it.

Installation
When you install Yahoo! Messenger (it's a 22MB download), a large dialog box presents you pre-checked options for setting Yahoo as your browser home page, search engine, and installing Yahoo BrowserPlus, which lets you drag and drop files onto Flickr (Free, ) and Yahoo! Mail (Free, ). The Yahoo Toolbar can't even be deselected unless you click the Custom Install link! I'd prefer a less baggage-laden installer. AIM 7.3 is more up front, giving you the option not to install the junk from the main wizard.

  Next, you get an option that lets you import contacts from AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Orkut, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and others (including cable addresses like Comcast and Optimum). Noticeably missing are Facebook (Free, ) and MySpace (Free, ). Unlike AIM 7.3, Digsby, and soon Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger 10 doesn't work directly with Facebook IM. It doesn't talk with Google Talk either, which mostly lives inside Gmail. It does, however connect with Windows Live Messenger contacts, but you won't get advanced features like audio and video chat.


The Buddy List
Yahoo does a decent job of combining contacts and social updates in a standard narrow buddy window. You can choose a compact or detailed view with buddy images—it's better than AIM 7.3's one-size-fits-all approach but doesn't afford as much control as Windows Live Messenger. But, unlike the buddy list of just about every other IM client on earth, Yahoo by default shows all your contacts whether they're online or offline; others hide the latter. Yahoo! Messenger lets you sign in as invisible, a nice privacy touch not available in third-party clients.

Another difference: Yahoo doesn't pop out a contact card whenever you hover over a contact entry—instead, the buddy icon glows and shows an arrow you can click to pop out the contact card, which is less distracting than other IM software. From the card, you can start audio or video chats with a buddy, send an SMS, and even call his phone.

Like the new AIM 7.3 buddy list, Yahoo! Messenger 10 has a separate tab showing social network updates, though Yahoo gets by with just two tabs rather than AIM's three. While you can link to all the usual social network suspects, you'll only see updates from Yahoo contacts who have mutually agreed to share updates and have accounts with the social networks. I prefer how the other IM clients let you see all your updates from all your Facebook friends.

Yahoo's Stealth Settings offer the most flexibility in terms of letting you choose how you want to appear online. A simple right click lets you permanently hide from a contact or just for the current session. AIM lets you block buddies, but sometimes that's overkill. In another privacy protection, you can't just start chatting with someone simply because you know their username; you have to send an invitation that your target chatter must accept. This is designed to prevent unwanted messages, but I still get more spam chat requests from Yahoo than other services.

Yahoo's buddy list has another unique ability; it can incorporate plug-ins. These add Yahoo services such as Music, Weather, Calendar, Finance, and an eBay watcher. The widgets can collapse at the bottom of the slim buddy window, so they don't take up lots of space. You can also hide them completely. If you really like a plug-in, you can send it to friends. Thirteen plug-in choices were built into my installation, and dozens more are available on the Yahoo Messenger website.

Download: http://messenger.yahoo.com/download/

   

Be on your best behavior with Jasmine; Open source BDD testing framework from Pivotal | Palm Developer Center Blog

Image via Wikipedia

Davis Frank and other awesome mobile pivots have released a new BDD testing framework for webOS. Jasmine webOS builds on the generic Jasmine JavaScript framework that provides the syntax for specs and the environment to execute them. Davis has more:

Jasmine webOS adds platform-specific testing pieces for testing Scene Assistants, the Palm Depot, Ajax calls, etc. and a way to execute specs and view the results on a webOS emulator or phone.

Jasmine webOS defines a convention for plugins into webOS applications, allowing collections of JavaScript code to be included into Palm Mojo applications apart from an application’s code & other resources. This is distinct & unrelated from Palm’s PDK (Plugin Development Kit).

When your application has Jasmine webOS installed, you run your specifications by launching it with a parameter telling Jasmine webOS to execute your Jasmine specs and report the results in webOS UI (emulator or phone).

Read up on the user guide, download the plugin or go to the source!

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Droid Does Froyo: Your Guide to This Week's Android 2.2 Upgrade - PCWorld

 Droid Does Froyo: Your Guide to This Week's Android 2.2 Upgrade - PCWorld

A big week is ahead for those of us in the Android world. In case you haven't heard, both the Motorola Droid and the HTC EVO 4G are now set to receive Froyo over the next several days. Verizon and Motorolaconfirmed plans to upgrade the Droid to Android 2.2 on Friday, just one day after Sprint announced its EVO upgrade schedule.

To be clear, when we say "Motorola Droid," we're talking about the original Droid -- not the Motorola Droid X or the HTC Droid Incredible. While some recent rumors have suggested those phones could see Froyo this coming week as well, no official announcement has been made to that effect so far. (See my Android 2.2 upgrade list for more on the status of those and other Android devices.)
As we all know, it's been a couple of months since we started talking about Android 2.2 reaching the Motorola Droid. Here's a quick refresher on what you can expect once Froyo finally invades your phone.

A Faster Motorola Droid

Your Motorola Droid should run noticeably faster once Froyo graces its system. The latest edition of Android is two to five times as fast as the 2.1 release, particularly when it comes to CPU performance and app switching. The stock system browser runs considerably quicker, too, thanks to a new Javascript engine.

Flash, Baby -- Flash

This ain't no iPhone: Android actually supports Flash, meaning you can view any Web page without getting that little blue box. With Android 2.2, your Motorola Droid gets up-to-speed with full support for both Adobe Flash and Adobe Air.

Five Home Screens

According to Verizon, the Android 2.2 update will expand the Droid from three home screen panels up to five. You'll also gain a new launcher bar at the bottom of your screen that'll provide quick access to your phone and browser functions, regardless of which panel you're on.

Better Droid Security

Froyo will help make your Motorola Droid more secure in several ways: First, you'll have the option of assigning a numeric or alphanumeric password instead of the standard pattern-based password on the phone's lock screen. The Droid will also feature enterprise-oriented security boosts such as remote device wipe and minimum password requirements.

SD Card Support for Apps

Froyo will allow you to install Android applications on your Motorola Droid's SD card, putting an end to the internal storage restrictions of months past. Moving apps from your Droid's internal storage to the SD card -- even after they're installed -- will be easy; a new option in the phone's app settings menu provides one-touch toggling for any supported app's location.

Bluetooth Voice Dialing

Once Froyo's on your phone, you can truly use your Droid hands-free. Android 2.2 includes Bluetooth voice dialing functionality, something that's long been missing from the Android operating system.

A Better Camera Experience

The Motorola Droid's system camera gets a slight makeover with the latest Android upgrade. With Froyo, you'll find new buttons to control the camera's zoom, white balance, focus, exposure, and geo-tagging right from the camera's main screen. The Droid's video camera will also be able to utilize the LED flash for better lighting, and it'll include quick-formatting options to save and upload videos directly to YouTube or MMS messages.

Automatic App Updating

Keeping your Droid's apps up-to-date will be a lot easier with Android 2.2. Froyo adds a new automatic app updating feature that allows you to set apps to automatically download and install updates without any intervention. If auto-updating isn't your thing, the Android Market also gains a new "Update All" function that lets you manually grab multiple app updates in a single swoop.

Upgrading Your Motorola Droid to Android 2.2

So how will you know when your Motorola Droid is ready to upgrade? It couldn't be simpler: A message will pop up on your screen letting you know the update is ready to download and install. You'll have to have at least 40 percent of your battery remaining in order to proceed (unless your phone is plugged in to an external power source, in which case you'll need at least a 20-percent charge).
Once you authorize the process to begin, your phone will start receiving the new software over-the-air. After the download itself is complete, you'll just tap a button to tell your phone to restart and install the upgrade. All of your settings, including your home screen configurations, should remain intact (though it can never hurt to back up your Android home screens from time to time).
It's taken a while for it to arrive, my fellow Droid owners, but our Froyo is finally here. I don't know about you, but I'm this is one dessert I'm more than ready to devour.



    

Alcatel-Lucent/HP Drive ng Connect Program to Redefine Wireless Experience

In this world of changing consumer demands and evolving technologies, those companies who wish to remain competitive must be able to mirror their technology offerings with consumer demands. When this is successfully accomplished, the company is able to create customer loyalty by increasing the quality of the experience.

Such a focus also helps to drive new services revenue through the offering of high-value, sticky services and intelligent applications that can spark the imagination and enhance the end user experience. The ability to provide companies with the tools and open eco-system in which to accomplish this goal is a key focus for the ng Connect Program.

The ng Connect Program is an alliance that is being driven by the next generation of high-bandwidth services that can arrive a lot faster when the strengths and resources of global leaders and innovators are pooled in infrastructure, devices, applications and content.

Two of the innovative companies behind this initiative are Alcatel-Lucent and HP, two companies that understand consumers want services and applications that can seamlessly span wireless and wired networks, that will work across all of their connected devices and that they can access anywhere and at anytime. Consumers are willing to pay for these innovative social, entertainment and business applications, as long as they are easy to use and offer a high quality of service.

A live interview with Steve West, emerging technology and media, Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), and Mikko Uusitalo, vice president of sales, WW Alliances, HP CMS, provided keen insight into the virtues of the ng Connect program.

West described the program as a global initiative, cross-industry ecosystem that facilitates the coming together of key players in the field. This end-to-end ecosystem will foster growth of next generation high bandwidth infrastructures to create new revenue opportunities and deliver the communication solutions customers demand.

As a founding member, HP is focused on leveraging high-speed ultra bandwidth to create a ecosystem that will drive innovation. Ususitalo noted the technology is here, but innovation is needed, as well as an open collaborative environment in which to push this innovation forward.

According to West, this engine for innovation will help to monetize new services to reach into new verticals and will deliver on such promises as to drive innovation and new business models for members; provide real proofs of concept that can help define what the new generation of users will be with the technologies that will be developed.

For Ususitalo, the opportunities moving forward are endless, but a clear focus for the team must be to provider an umbrella to leverage networks in order to create those opportunities and deliver on the demands of the consumer. A complete and open ecosystem is the only way to accomplish this true quality of experience for all.

Related article:
Will HP bring the palm webos software to the 4G LTE ng connect program ?

http://worldwidegadget.blogspot.com/2010/07/will-hp-bring-palm-webos-software-to-4g.html


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