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It's week 23 of this week in mobile history, and this week we look back to webOS's release and some unusual stories from early last decade.
This week in mobile history saw some predictions coming true and a lot of things just emerging that we take for granted today.
For the latest in mobile device news, tips, tricks and other fun stuff, subscribe to our YouTube channel!
In the smartphone world, not everything can be a hit - and even hot devices have their low points. Here's 5 missteps ranging from the serious to the inane.
Yes, there's more to today's Pocketnow Weekly podcast than Galaxy S 5 rumors. Also inside: iOS 7, Galaxy S 4 Zoom, & Nokia EOS salivating! Give it a listen!
From nostalgic looks at webOS to the latest Nokia EOS rumors, we talk a ton of tech on this episode of the Pocketnow Weekly Podcast. Join us!
It's been 4 years since webOS launched, and nearly 2 years since its summary execution. Join us for a Palm Pre unboxing to honor this late, great platform.
HP has shocked the world by buying webOS. Again. They re-enter the smartphone arena having learned form their past mistakes and are ready to take on iOS and Android in about 3 years or so.
From new topics like the HTC One and rumored Amazon smartphone, to nostalgia trips into webOS-memory land, this week's Pocketnow Weekly podcast has it all. Give it a listen for all the mobile-tech talk your ears can handle.
Today’s news from HP marks what looks like the end of an era, with the company deciding to throw in the towel on webOS-based smartphones. The platform has only been around for about a couple years, starting with rumors of something called “Nova” that Palm was working on. We got a proper name for the project with Palm announcing webOS and the Palm Pre at CES 2009.
By summer, Palm had launched the original Pre QWERTY slider. The Pixi gave users an option with a non-slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Early 2010 brought news of upgrades to the Palm and Pixi, both [...]
We’re a sucker for seeing phones run operating systems they were never intended to, whether that’s an HTC HD7 that appears to be running Android, or an HD2 running… well, pretty much anything. The latest device to get the frankenphone treatment is an unlikely candidate, but sure enough, it looks like the Palm Pre has been configured for dual-boot with Android.
After copying over the necessary Android files to your Pre (consisting of a no-frills stock build of Android), and running the install script, your Palm Pre will be ready to start playing around with [...]
A hardware hack brought to us by the WebOS Internals team brings the Palm Pre 2 and Pre Plus to Sprint complete with webOS 2.0.1. A comm board is required from a Palm Pre device, and at the completion of the hack you have a fully functioning Sprint Palm Pre 2.
The hack requires dismantling of the Palm Pre via removing 6 Torx T5 screws, a series of plastic clips, detaching some ribbon cables, and separating the device into several pieces. The comm board is removed from the donor device (the Palm Pre) and placed into the recipient device (Palm Pre 2 or Pre Plus), which must also [...]
Palm recently made it’s webOS kernel source code available for public consumption. Within a few hours the webOS internals team released a custom kernel capable of overclocking the Palm Pre/Pre Plus to 1GHz.
unixpsycho, one of the members of the webOS internals team states in a recent Twitter post that webOS 1.4.5 kernels will now be deprecated in favor of the new 2.1 kernel tree. They will remain available but not be actively maintained. Running the 2.1 kernel requires upgrading your Palm Pre or Pre Plus to webOS 2.1 as part of the process.
The custom kernel release [...]
The new direction HP is taking in regards to webOS 2.0 upgrades for existing webOS devices surely has lots of Palm users feeling confused and a bit betrayed. Yesterday, the potential for getting these updates suddenly changed from “all devices will get them sometime this year” to “don’t expect an easy OTA update, if we even come out with an update for your phone at all“. While HP said that it would work on some sort of plan to bring existing users along to a current webOS release, it still left a lot of ambiguities hanging. Now the company has put up a [...]
HP had plenty of news for its users today about upcoming hardware and expanded availability of recently-released devices, but what of the the original Pres, Pre Pluses, Pixies, and all? Users have been waiting patiently for a webOS upgrade to version 2.0 for these devices, with an early 2011 release seeming probable. That possibility is looking very unlikely now, as upgrades have clearly taken a back seat to the current roster of HP’s smartphones. The company revealed at today’s event that those phones will never get webOS 2.0 over-the-air, though tethered upgrades remain a [...]
PreCentral has released a handful of documentation about the upcoming Topaz WebOS-powered tablet device from HP. What’s interesting is talk of a new version of the inductive-charging system we’ve seen with Palm’s WebOS smartphones, dubbed Touchstone v2. The new functionality is described as such:
…functionality looks to include both Bluetooth for wireless streaming of content and speakers for music.
The tap to share functionality comes via “communication coils” that enable “tap to share” use cases. Here’s what HP has [...]
WiFi tethering isn’t necessarily new on WebOS, if you want to pay for it with the optional program included on devices like the Palm Pre Plus, which requires an added monthly fee to work. At long last, WebOS users can install a homebrew application to grant free WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB tethering for getting internet on the go. The developer, WebOS Internals, intends to have the app ready for release within a week.
Source: WebOS Internals Twitter Via: PreCentral
After the similar Windows Phone 7 update which recently brought Places to the Microsoft platform, the new Facebook application brings the same functionality to webOS devices.
The update will bounce the application’s version number to 1.5.0 and the main feature that has been added is the ability to use Facebook’s Places. Now webOS device users will be able to check into their favorite Places together with their friends on Facebook. The application is free and requires webOS version 1.3.1.
Source: Twitter, Palm
An alleged Pre issue was keeping the popular iOS and Android game – Angry Birds – from being updated and pushed to the App Catalog last week. According to a Rovio tweet, Palm has solved the issue and the game developer announced the arrival of the update to the Pixi and Pre soon.
Furthermore, Angry Birds Seasons is “almost there” for your webOS device according to Rovio as the festive version recently hit iOS and Android. There’s the picture to prove it in case you were skeptical or maybe even afraid you might be left out. In these circumstances, we [...]
The Palm Pre 2 is nearly here, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the original Palm Pre is rather unceremoniously on its way out. Even though this time it’s Verizon, not Sprint, that will be getting first dibs on the Pre 2 in the US, Sprint has removed the Pre from its website, marking the beginning of the end for the handset.
Considering it’s been available since last June, and has seen an upgrade in the form of the Pre Plus, chances are that if you had your heart set on a Pre, you picked one up long ago. Even with the phone no longer an option for [...]
HP hasn’t yet revealed when its webOS 2.0 will be widely available, but news of a forthcoming Palm Pre 2 release in the UK, along with a software upgrade for existing phones, is now suggesting that the move to webOS 2.0 will be in full-swing by the end of the year.
While France already has access to the Pre 2 with its pre-installed copy of webOS 2.0, the rest of the world hasn’t been so lucky. Now Pocket-lint reports that HP has confirmed a UK release for the Pre 2 this Friday, November 12. Existing webOS devices may get the chance to upgrade the following month, as [...]
A Nokia N900 has been hacked to run games written specifically for the webOS platform. A video posted on YouTube shows The Sims3 running perfectly on the device.
It is not that much of a surprise when you consider the Nokia N900 shares quite a few hardware similarities with the Palm Pre. They both have an OMAP3430 processor, PowerVR SGX GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and both operating systems are based on Linux. Native webOS applications are written with SDL 1.2 which the N900 also supports.
Members of a Maemo forum also report success with Need for Speed [...]
Sporting a 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and running the just released webOS version 2.0, the Palm Pre 2, supposed to launch in France yesterday, according to HP, is scheduled to hit Verizon “in the coming months” but rumors and unpublished source code place it on AT&T’s network as well.
Carrier talk aside, the Palm Pre 2 is starring in a 30 second video teaser which might as well be a TV ad even though the clip is regarded as being unofficial. It shows the Palm Pre 2 running the brand new HP webOS 2.0, advertised to be the fastest Palm smartphone yet, [...]
HP has officially unveiled the successor to the original Palm Pre, the Palm Pre 2. Billed as the first Palm phone with a gigahertz processor, the Pre 2 also doubles the internal storage of its predecessor — to 16GB, matching that of the Pre Plus — and bumps the camera up to a five-megapixel sensor. However, just as had been rumored, the rest of the specs remain mostly unchanged in this third hardware generation, from the 3.1-inch capacitive HVGA display to the two-flavor WiFi (b/g) to the body style (admittedly, the Pre 2 is a reported 6.5 grams heavier than the Pre Plus, [...]
