Image by Breakfast for Dinner via Flickr

Lately I’ve been recording little bits for blog posts and even emailing voice messages to family as holiday greetings. Here’s the quick-and-dirty how-to on using your Pre or Pixi to do stuff like this, despite the fact that Palm has left us without voice memo support as of 1.3.1.

1. You need a Google Voice account. If you don’t have one, you may be able to use YouMail or a similar service, but I’m not sure (and YouMail charges for what Google does better).
2. Now, my settings are such that when I call my GV number from my primary phone, it goes straight to voicemail. Then, I hit * and type in my pin. But, of course, if I don’t enter my pin, I can leave myself a voicemail just like anyone else.
3. From here, you can download mp3s of your voicemails to your pc. But, if you’re impatient or on the road, you can use gDial Pro to get that file with ease. Just open up gDial and go to your voicemails. Refresh the screen if necessary and click on the message you left for yourself. Scroll down through the transcription and click on the “Listen” button. Let the voicemail play through once, and now the mp3 file of that messsage is somewhere on your Pre’s USB partition.
4. Now, this is the tricky part. These files usually have odd names when you download them, they almost look like hashes. But if you’re emailing the message to someone, you can always preview the audio in the attachments scene and confirm that you’re attaching the right one.

This might sound like a lot of work, but I find that I am rarely at a computer when I decide I want to record something and send it to myself or someone else. This gets the job done on the road. You can go from recording to emailing the message in under 5 mins. I would imagine that this would work rather well at concerts, too.

This is a repost of a thread I started at the Precentral.net forums. See the original thread posting here.

I have already mentioned in the past that I am not too fond of my Nokia E71. Practically since I bought it, I’m thinking of selling it and buying something else. These days, being the fool that I am for nice new toys and Christmas presents to myself, I thought of looking at my options. From the beginning, I have written off all types and incarnations of Windows for mobile devices as well as Symbian and anything building on it. I looked at various phones, and here are my conclusions.

The first phone I checked and liked after playing with it a bit, was the Samsung Jet (S8000). I liked using it quite a lot: The interface was prompt and beautiful (although I know others despise the inconsistencies in the TouchWiz 2 UI, for me it wasn’t really a problem). I initially thought it was Android-based, it turns out it is using Samsung’s proprietary OS. Samsung is about to release Bada, an open platform that I presume is basically this currently-proprietary OS opened up. Until that happens though, and until it attracts enough developers, the owners of the Jet are constrained to the applications that Samsung releases for the device with its firmware upgrades (plus J2ME applications). In the times of Apple Store, Android Market, and Palm App Catalog, this is a serious limitation. So I had to move on.

Then I looked at the Palm Pre. I’ve been a loyal fun of Palm devices for more than 10 years now, so I was very excited when it came out. It’s available in Germany, and I could even do with the QUERTZ keyboard, if it supported the Greek language (which, to the best of my understanding, it does not yet). This is an immediate show-stopper, so that’s out of the list too.

The iPhone and Android-based choices are basically the only options by now. I find the former to be terribly expensive, and I am much bothered by the way customers are tied up: No replaceable battery, no memory extensions, device sold only by specific telecom providers. I have been spoiled by option so far, and I have a serious moral problem with getting myself restricted in such a manner. On the other hand, it has the most complete application list by 3rd party developers, it synchronizes seamlessly with Mac OS X which I am currently using, and it offers a beautiful, consistent user experience.

From the various Android devices out there, the HTC Hero is quite nice and complete, and the price is reasonable for what it offers (still not cheap though). I also like how Android is open, but on the same time I am much bothered by its strong ties to Google and things I’ve been reading about how one can’t get rid of this integration. Unfortunately, I had no chance so far to take a close look and see if these phones are actually usable without a Google account. The Android Market also seems to be catching up with the Apple Store as regards applications, although still a different league. One issue about the Hero in specific, is that it’s more than 6 months old and is about to be replaced — typical HTC release cycle…

So at the end, I’m still trying to decide between the two (iPhone and Hero), or maybe just wait. Ideally, I’d like something as complete as the iPhone, and as liberal as the Android-based phones, minus the strong coupling with Google services. It feels like one is going after my money, the other one after my data, and I don’t like any of the two.

Maybe I should just forget about

Flickr Addict, my very cool (if I do say so myself) Dojo powered application for the Palm Pre & Pixi smartphones, has just been given a massive upgrade. Flickr Addict automatically downloads photos from Flickr and sets them as your wallpaper at set intervals.  It is completely configurable, and very easy to use.

Following some very helpful user feedback, I have added the following features:

1. New image gallery, very similar to the Palm Photos app, which makes it very quick and simple to view all your downloaded photos.
2. Full screen preview of all wallpapers.
3. The ability to randomize the selection of photos from a user.
4. The Palm Pre Wallpapers group on Flickr is now selectable, in addition to the iPhone Wallpapers group.

See the video below for a demo.  This version of Flickr Addict and Flickr Addict Lite is currently in review for the App Catalog, and will hopefully make it in soon.  However the previous version is in there now and available for download, and will be updated automatically when the new version is out.

If you’re into building webOS apps, here’s a tool for you.

Palm launches new Web-based mobile development tool

Palm has launched an impressive new integrated development environment for building webOS software directly from your browser. The company is also said to be working on an update of the webOS platform.
By Ryan Paul | Last updated December 21, 2009 6:20 AM

Last week, leaks from the blogsphere revealed that Google released a mobile phone to its employees for testing. The news was confirmed in the Wall Street Journal, which later  indicated that Google intends to sell the mobile device both straight to the consumer on its website and through traditional carrier channels–specifically T-mobile and possibly Verizon Wireless. While there is much coverage about how this is a seismic change in the wireless operator business since Google intends to sell the phone without carrier involvement, it also raises the level of competition in the smartphone market, the fastest growing phone segment. In the end, Google’s recent move ensures the Android will win against the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm’s webOS and Windows platforms.

Even without a Google phone (Google Android software, Google developed applications, Google developed software drivers, and HTC hardware), the Android platform would have won. One need only look to the open model of WinTel platform and several manufactures.

The theory that value can be extracted only to the point where performance is deemed good enough for the consumer. While maybe not good enough right now, the Android platform is improving faster than user requirements. The reason Google needed to integrate more vertically is because it’s ecosystem was not yet developing a platform that was good enough. As the ecosystem develops around the software it develops, it will likely move out of R&D away from developing the platform and again focus on technologies directly related to its core competency in advertising.

Despite the fact that the iPhone has a significant head start, with 5x or more apps in their store than for Android and even more for the other platforms, it will be caught by the Android.

Of course some will argue that the Windows platform can operate on various hardware platforms, and is therefore open, but it still suffers from low market share and little success in mobile devices. However, I believe the lack of adoption is because of other performance issues, such as battery life, etc.

What do you think? Will one mobile platform dominate? And, if so, which one?

Das Palm Entwicklerkit ‘Ares’ für das webOS gibt es jetzt in einer offenen Beta.
Das webbasierte Entwicklerkit für Palms webOS macht es auch Menschen ohne Programmierkenntnisse einfach. weiter via connect

I’ve been using my new Palm Pixi smartphone for the last few weeks, and I really love it. Its thin, compact, had a touch screen and runs the Palm WebOS operating system. Yesterday I picked up my old Motorola-Q phone to check for possible text messages, and I noticed that it felt really heavy…. like a rock! I’m getting so use to my lightweight Palm Pixi other smartphones are now just paperweights in comparison. The Moto-Q now feels like a militarized version of a smartphone — heavy and hardened to take an EMP blast. But, I know from experience that dropping it can cause the glass screen to crack very easily. It’s a good thing the back cover of my Pixi has a rubber surface, since that makes it easier to hang on to it and less prone to dropping it.

Boeing’s has has their new lightweight composite 787 plane, and I’ve got my lightweight Palm Pixi!

In the recent days I had the chance to get my hands on a Palm Pre and sure this device may not be as feature complete as Apples iPhone but the UI is appealing and it brings some new UI concepts into the game. The development environment is really nice since the Palm emulator is not homegrown piece of software but a plain small linux that boots into a browser using VirtualBox as a virtualization solution.

Now the developer can choose between using either his editor of choice and the supplied command line tools or use a plugin for Eclipse that was developed by Palm. From my point of view this gives the developer a real freedom to choose whatever development workflow he likes and does not force him into new IDEs where you have to start learning your work environment from the beginning.

However the command line tools have a little shortcoming as they do not derive information from the appinfo.json that is available in the application directory. For me the first thing I created was a deploy bash script that would allow me to package, build and deploy to the virtual machine in one step. Again the issue was that already available information about the application from config files was not derived.

So I started writing a small command line application called PyPalm in Python that would allow all that what I mentioned above and regroup the Palm tools together.

To install PyPalm just open a terminal and use easy_install or pip to install the package via the command:

sudo easy_install pypalm

As soon as this is completed you can enjoy the full power of PyPalm. Just change to your applications directory and execute

pypalm --help

to get an idea of the supported commands. When you now execute

pypalm deploy

it will automatically determine the current version and ID of the application from the configuration file and package your application plus installing it to the VM or the attached phone.

Neat, isn’t it?

Currently the feature set is kind of small but there can be more (generators,…). If you have any ideas please feel free to leave a comment.

-Martin

Palm’s Project Ares, a browser-based development toolset for Palm webOS applications, has moved to a public beta stage, a Palm representative said on Thursday afternoon.

Applications can be developed for Palm’s Pre and Pixi devices. Ares is “the first complete set of integrated mobile development tools hosted entirely in the browser that makes it even easier and faster to create Palm webOS apps,” a Palm representative said in an email.

[ Developers had to wait for Palm Pre's Mojo SDK, with the device arriving before the kit was generally available. The kit was finally released in July. ]

“Like webOS, Project Ares embodies Palm’s belief that the future of mobile will be built on the Web,” the representative said. “Project Ares aims to enable a next-generation mobile development workflow, in which developers move quickly and seamlessly from editing in a browser, to debugging on a device to selling applications in Palm’s App Catalog or on the Web.”

Ares is available at this Web page, which requires an account registration.

A Palm official had revealed early this month that Ares was in an alpha stage. Ares was demonstrated at the Open Mobile Summit conference in San Francisco last month.  Palm has no set date for general availability of Ares at this point.

Ares features a drag-and-drop interface builder, a code editor, a visual debugger, and source control integration. Other capabilities include drag-and-drop file upload and instant project upload and download for seamless desktop/cloud workflow, the company said.  Applications can be previewed in a browser.

Ares has been tested for use on the following browsers:  Safari 4.0 and higher-numbered releases, Chrome 3 and 4, and Firefox 3.5 and above. Officially, Ares will not work on the Internet Explorer browser.

Source:

http://www.itnews.com/application-development/12157/palm-ares-developer-toolset-moves-beta-stage

Web Design Firms Chicago

This post violates a couple principles I like to keep in mind when blogging. First, it doesn’t have an image, and second, it doesn’t split the main body from the intro, offering a “read more” link.

But, it also has something previous posts on TRW do not have: the the distinction of having been edited and finalized in Post’er, the native WordPress app for webOS and my Palm Pre.

Post’er website: http://poster.nizzoli.net/

Local Bytes

• The Nutter administration announced that the City is buying that municipal wifi network that has been a non-starter from the beginning. They will use it for surveillance and traffic cameras, enabling employees to file reports from the field, and other City purposes. They will invest about $17 million in the next 3 years to improve the network. (Source)
  • Engadget mentioned this story this morning, too. (Source)
• Technically Philly has their always-informative Comcast Roundup. (Source)
• Philadelphia Tech News mentioned the currently-alpha Appify, reported on originally by the New York Times. Basically, Appify is a directory of city-specific applications for Apple, Palm, Android, and Blackberry devices. No access yet to the directory itself, but developers can add their app. Hopefully there will be a strong showing for Philly. (Source)

Everything Else

• DailyTech reports that the Playstation 3 will support the newly-announced Blueray 3D specification. (Source)
• Ars Technica mentioned that the next iteration of Ubuntu Linux will include a panel overhaul and a new social networking component. Always exciting news for nerds like me, who use Ubuntu as their primary OS.  (Source)
• Engadget posted about how Apple stole Johnny Chung Lee’s head-tracking idea, which I first saw him present on TED. (Source)
• The New York Times Bits technology blog mentioned that the Google phone’s name, Nexus One, sounds like a reference to the androids in Phillip K. Dick’s story Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which the kickass 1982 flick Blade Runner was based. (Source)

Edited at 5:30pm, December 17, 2009 to add categories, links and tags.

If you’re writing a webOS application, and want to open the App Catalog to show a particular app, Palm have provided a ‘magic’ URL you can open in a browser which causes the app catalog to show an application.

For example, I have a ‘lite’ version of Flickr Addict, called imaginatively Flickr Addict Lite, that offers the user a choice to go to the full version in the app catalog.  The code for this, given that the app ID for the app is “com.chofter.flickraddict”, is:

new Mojo.Service.Request('palm://com.palm.applicationManager', {
    method: "open",
    parameters:  {
        target: 'http://developer.palm.com/appredirect/?packageid=com.chofter.flickraddict'
    }
});

That’s right! We are starting our Podcast this coming Monday. The Podcasts are going to cover the most relevant information in mobile technology. You can subscribe via iTunes, Zune, Juice, and Winamp or the player of your choice. We’ll put the time up later but expect it sometime Monday evening PDT via our feed.

So if you have something you would like us to cover in our first Podcast, leave a message on this post and we’ll pick out the best questions or topics and cover them on our Podcast. We’ll even give you credit for the question or topic so you can feel special.

All the news about Google Nexus the last couple of days (including us today) have caused quite a stir. Our own post of the forthcoming Nexus coming to T-Mobile in January and this WSJ article which states Google may release the device without a carrier partner, said the WSJ, are “people familiar with the matter”, have taken over the interwebs news feeds.

All the speculations and rumors may be very true, but an interesting tidbit of information was sitting right there in front of our eyes courtesy of some photos posted on Engadget of the Nexus One. The photo 11 of 11 seemed vaguely familiar to us in a strange way. The picture shows the Android OS with some sort of  “card view”, which is eerily similar to Palm’s webOS.

I applaud the additional feature, if that’s what this really is; a “card view” like ability with live applications running in the background. While this was a breakthrough feature from Palm’s webOS to bring life-like, desktop like computing to a handset, it is reasonable to question if this is a legal infringement on the part of Google’s next Android release to “simulate” the card view experience currently enjoyed by many Palm Pre and Pixi owners.

It’s not like there aren’t any patent infringement lawsuits happening between other manufactures, right?

Check out my profile page  ( appboy.com/mochasync ) at AppBoy, the social networking site for mobile application developers and fans.  I have posted some app ideas in hopes some one with more developing knowledge could help me launch one of them!  I’m especially proud of this one!

And if you are a developer, launch your own profile page and app store over on AppBoy.com – for free! TODAY!!

I have been really busy lately with work, twitter and being the general nice guy I am and I have left my faithful readers looking other places for that unique spin on the world that I bring..    For that I am sorry..   So today I am making the commitment to post at least two posts a day for a month..  (this one doesnt count)  Im loading up WP clients on all the major devices I carry and will even throw some Qik action on a couple of posts.. and FLASHBACK friday will support mobile viewing as well!!!

Lets get it!!

Blackmanx

In a world where social network sites out number people on earth (sarcasm found!), one is actually unique!  Introducing AppBoy!  A social site for developers and fans of mobile applications.

The idea is simple, really simple.  Give developers a place to network and promote their ideas while app fans can give feedback and share new app ideas for developers.  You can even sell your apps right on the AppBoy site too!

No silly mafia games, no anti-productive surveys, none of that garbage that comes with every social site in existence.  Just a wonderfully laid out, refreshing site for developers.  Not just iPhone developers too, ALL mobile developers!  WebOS, BlackBerry, and Android developers are welcomed just the same!

Head on over to check out the site.  Signup is free, so start posting your ideas now!  There  is even a chance to win $250 if you submit an app (details available on the AppBoy site)!  What are you waiting for?!

Get more AppBoy:
@AppBoy on Twitter
facebook.com/appboy

Palm Pixi has MT? – Droid Forum – Verizon Droid the Motorola …
… but ive noticed a lot of threads with people talking about how the Droid couldnt come with MT enabled because of an Apple copyright thing or something… but I just noticed that Palm Pixi commercial shows someone using it? …

Pass the Pixi commercial for Palm Pixi in Canada by MODERNISTA!
Palm Pixi: Pass the Pixi. … Palm Pixi: Pass the Pixi. TV-Spots Palm Pixi MODERNISTA! Stills from video click to enlarge. 1; 2; 3; 4. Email this page. Messages successfully sent. Thank you. Sending, please wait. …

Pink Palm Pixi Pushing Out the Pipe Prematurely?… (IntoMobile …
But to get to the heart of the matter, what I really mean here is the Palm Pixi could indeed be coming to us in a Pink variant. An anonymous tipster over at PreCentral has noted that the Pink Pixi is [...] Full story… Tagged: anonymous tipster, heart of the … Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been raking in cash with its iTunes music store over the past several years, in the process forcing the music industry and consumers to get comfortable with paying $1 per downloaded song. …

What That Song in the Palm Pixi Ad? – Spinner
Feeling a little dizzy — or drunk — after catching the new commercial for the Palm Pixi this week? It might be because within a whirlwind 30-second segment, photos are taken, messages are sent, videos are shown and phone chatting is …

The new Palm Pixi commercial: The mystery witch is dead!
The Pixi, Palms Treo-esque addition to the WebOS line-up, is getting new commercials without Miss Crazy Face and her magical Pre. Instead, you get hot people taking pictures of each other and having fun. This is the kind of commercial …

Palm Pixi TV Commercial Music – Adtunes Forums
Palm Pixi TV Commercial Music. … on another palm pre commercial theres a song that plays its called Sleepyhead by Passion Pit thats really good too! check em out! arbehm44 is offline …

Palm New Pixi Ad: First Look! | PreCentral.net
I think the music is alright but lets face it the pre and the pixi are going to sell themselves by word of mouth…. Submitted by Duggleluv on Wed, 11/11/2009 – 22:36. YES! This is the kinda commercial Palm should have started out with …

New Palm Pixi Commercial
Many were critical of the previous campaign might find this commercial to be more appealing. It certainly showcases webOS and the thin-ness that is the Palm Pixi. Give it a view and let us know what you think in the comments. … I know apple set the tone for using new break out artists in a commercial, and many have had great success after the exposure. this music is too far out there for 99% of consumers. I think its super odd and too high pitched. alex says: …

Commercial Madness: Passion Pit Palm Pixi | Stranger Dance
Commercial Madness: Passion Pit Palm Pixi Passion Pit lends their hit song, Sleepyhead, for a new Palm Pixi TV ad. I would also note that Passion Pit Palm Pixi is perfect alliteration …

New Palm, Passion Pit, webOS, Pixi Photo, commercial song, Witch Is Dead, advertising campaign, smartphone, new advertising, The Mystery, Sleepyhead, esque, hit song, Treo, TV ad

Social networking site MySpace has just launched a new version of their mobile website designed for iPhone, Android and Palm WebOS users. The now-improved site at m.myspace.com offers quick access to your profile, including comments, your activity stream, your status, your inbox and more. Also available is a button dedicated to your photos, which makes it easier to browse through your albums. However, the most notable of the new features is the built-in instant-messaging function which makes the new mobile website a communication tool in addition to being just another social-networking app.

New Features

Although the mobile site at m.myspace.com is available from any mobile web browser, the newly updated version only visible to users of select smartphones. That’s because the new site is specifically designed to take advantage of features present in the advanced web browsers present on those devices. Users visiting from other phones will still encounter the older site, which itself was revamped at the beginning of the year, with a new look designed to make it more closely resemble the original, desktop-based website.

In addition to real-time updates from MySpace, the new mobile site introduces a built-in client which displays a web-enabled version of MySpace IM, the company’s own instant messaging service. By tapping on the “IM” button under the “Me” tab, you can instantly go online and chat with friends just as if you were using a standalone instant-messaging software application.

Mobile Website Now Outperforms Native Apps

What’s most interesting about the new web-based IM functionality in the updated site, is the fact that this is (for now) the only official tool provided by the company for IMing from your mobile device. Believe it or not, the dedicated mobile applications built for the iPhone, Android and Palm do not include an IM client at all. This has been a much-requested feature from MySpace users who have had no other choice but to use third-party applications like BeeJive IM, for example. In fact, a quick Google search on the topic leads to multiple MySpace forum posts begging for this feature as well as this user-created YouTube video demonstrating how you can get MySpace IM on your iPhone via other methods.

According to the company, 75% of its user base accesses the mobile web site, which could explain why they’ve focused on updating the site first before updating the native apps. However, it’s likely that the majority of their mobile web visitors are those without expensive smartphones, and so are being redirected to the older site. Without detailed statistics from the company itself, this is only a guess. But outside demographic studies show that MySpace is dominated by younger users, and is the social networking site with users in the lowest income levels. It seems probable that the network’s mobile-website visitors don’t own expensive mobile devices. That makes the smartphone mobile-website update and any forthcoming native app updates somewhat of a nonstarter for many MySpace users.

It will be interesting to see if MySpace soon updates their native applications to include this new functionality as well, or if they’re more sold on the idea that the mobile web is – or at least should be – the app of choice for their users.

If you’re interested in visiting the new site, you can do so via m.myspace.com using your phone’s web browser. The new changes are live for everyone as of now.

By Sarah Perez

http://www.readwriteweb.com

Designing a better mobile website. Read on for tips.

A Guide to Mobile Web Design Tips and Tricks

Having a mobile-optimized web site can really make your site stand apart from the pack. Even though smartphones like the iPhone and Google Android devices can display “the full web,” having a web page formatted for smaller screens and with features that can take advantage of a touch screen, geolocation, or address book functionality can make the mobile web browsing experience that much better.

Even just a few years ago, optimizing websites for mobile browsers was a painful and difficult process, in part because of the limitations of most mobile browsers. Today, thanks to the proliferation of WebKit (which powers the browsers on the iPhone, Android (Android) and webOS devices, with BlackBerry expected to join the mix next year), it’s much easier to decide on a strategy for making your website pop on mobile platforms.

RIMM had a great quarter – a time after which companies usually forget to do the right things. On the contrary this is really the best time for RIMM to react now before it is too late. So here goes my thinking on what they should do and soon…

It is very clear that RIMM’s unique advantage of Blackberry push email is not sufficient for it to retain the market leadership. First Apple’s iPhone, then PALM Pre and now Verizon’s Droid are eating at its market share slowly and RIMM has to respond to stay relevant. One thing is clear that current OS of Blackberry has reached its limit and that is one area RIMM has to find an alternative while retaining its unique advantages. It needs developer community and a great web experience to compete – getting to new customer segments will be a nice bonus.

It has four possible choices

• Build a new OS
• Buy PALM
• Google surrender strategy
• Google enhancement strategy

Build a new OS

Building a new OS will not bring developers easily to Blackberry and so that choice seems impractical. Yes I know Samsung went against the common wisdom and introduced Bada its new OS but got a big yawn from the market so far.

Buy Palm Inc.

Buy PALM which is currently at a market cap of $1.65B and would probably cost close to $2B. What would RIMM gain is WebOS, a great Web experience but not necessarily developers. Yes it will get access to a younger market segment that PALM manage to penetrate but RIMM could put the $2B elsewhere for a better return.

Adopt Google’s Android

RIMM can finally eat its pride and make the right business decision by adopting Google’s Android. There are two ways to adopt this strategy

• Follow Motorola’s Lead or Google surrender strategy wherein the handset vendor just builds the hardware and adopt Android as is  – kind of like what Motorola did with Droid for Verizon Wireless ( In all fairness, Motorola did some work on its Cliq for T-Mobile)
• Follow Apple’s Lead or Google enhancement strategy wherein the handset vendor not only builds hardware but adds its unique values and controls the end to end user experience. This is similar to what Apple did with BSD UNIX and created Mac OS X.

Conclusion

RIMM should adopt Google Android and add its unique push email, sync, security and other goodies while continuing to control end to end user experience.  This will give RIMM a better OS, developers and continue to maintain its unique advantages.

What do you think RIMM should do? Share your opinions here.

R. Paul Singh

Flickr Addict, my second Dojo powered mobile application for the Palm Pre and Pixi has just been released in the Palm App Catalog.  Flickr Addict automatically downloads and displays a rotating set of great wallpapers for your Palm phone.

For users who just want very high quality wallpapers on their phone, auto-downloaded and changed on a regular basis, Flickr Addict gives you all you need.

For Flickr members who want to show their own photos, or the latest images from contacts, Flickr Addict gives you the control to select users and photo sets to download.

There are also a number of other options such as searching for photos that match a particular tag, or photos from the iPhone Wallpapers group.

For those interested in technical matters, Flickr Addict was written using Palm’s SDK and the Dojo Ajax Toolkit.

Сегодня по работе глянул на новый смартфон Palm Pre, это который под WebOS. Если коротко, то это мобильная OS, которая по сути есть браузер, а все приложения – html + спец java script.
Стало интересно, что это за зверь. Качаю эмулятор и СДК с плагином к эклипсу.

Na nemškem Amazonu se je te dni pojavil Palm Pre brez vsakršnih obveznosti do operaterjev. Koliko vidim, gre sicer za prodajo preko resellerjev in ne direktno Amazona. Kakorkoli že, Palm Pre je lahko tvoj že za 388 €. A je že Božič?

Another minor update tonight. Full details here.

Most interesting (in my opinion) is MUCH better support for touch screen devices. I’ve been able to test it on a Motorola Droid and Blackberry Storm, but I’d love to hear some feedback on how it looks on some other mobile browsers… like iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and what about  Nokia, and LG touch screen browsers?

Amazingly enough, Wired, which usually is poorly written (in my humble opinion), has a fantastic new article on guide for looking into Smartphones (Boy Genius Report was close but theirs doesnt talk about the carriers and plans at all). With everyone writing about phones, phones taking over Times Square, $3 mill iPhones and that, phones are apparently the hip thing this year (pssst if you live in Nashville and want Sprint email me). Anyway, point being with all the damn clutter and multiple operating systems, it is nice to have summaries, reviews and what not. Wired’s was impressive enough that I felt it deserved a nod.

FYI, i do work at Sprint now, and I do think the Droid logo on Times Square looks too much like Lord of the Rings.

Also, random note, but I get extremely irritable of people touting the Android has a shitty camera and shitty music player. Don’t get me wrong, it DOES, but that is what an App store is for. Anyone with Android just search music and see what i mean, there’s like 5 upgraded players (i recommend TuneWiki) on the damn thing.

So what’re my recommendations?

Smartphones:Basically, if you are looking for multi-media, internet browsing and email/calander sync, and have google, i recommend Android (Palm is also cool if you are on Sprint). If you need hardcore business email, exchange support Blackberry is still fantastic (although WinMo 6.5 is at least getting updates). Note that Android does support Microsoft Exchange, but honestly if you want the safe, secure thing Blackberry is still the best bet.

Verizon: Moto Droid, Blackberry Tour if you need heavy exchange/business use.

Sprint: HTC Hero or Moment (I finally got to try out a moment, fairly impressive). Palm Pixi for first time smartphone users. Blackberry Tour for Business users.

AT&T- iPhone. Blackberry Bold 2 looks nice so far.

T-Mobile: Anything but a Sidekick. MyTouch 3G is still sweet and Cyanogen makes it even better.

And once you get a smartphone the key is customizing it, and making sure it does what you want it to. I should have postings throughout this blog for tethering and adding nice tidbits for iPhone, Android, Palm WebOS and Blackberry, so feel free to browse, I’ll try and add links and updates here in a day or two, this was just a quick rant in a sleepless night.