Since 2002, Smart Phone Resource has been the company behind so many great forum communities for smartphone owners. Many of you might now us from the early Palm Treo days over at Everything Treo. Since then, we’ve launched a number of mobile focused communities, including the world’s first iPhone forum at everythingiCafe. Our communities are known for being well moderated, easy to use, ad-free and most importantly, filled with friendly, knowledgable people. With HP no longer making webOS devices, that leaves folks switching platforms, leaving for Windows Phone, Android or iOS. For this growing segment of our community, we are incredibly proud to introduce Forum One Pass – the all access forum pass. Using One, you can login to any of our communities using one username and password. So if you were a member of everythingpre, then you can turn on access to any of our communities by using your existing username and password when you first started your account with us. With Forum One Pass, you can easily jump from one forum to another, without the hassle of having to create new accounts.
Forum One Pass, Providing Fast Single Sign On Access To Our Family of Smartphone Forums
Jon Rubinstein Leaves HP
It’s been an incredibly bumpy ride for Jon Rubinstein since joining Palm and helped launch webOS. Today marks the end of the line, as it’s been announced the Jon Rubinstein has left HP. According to Ruby via AllThingsD, his plans to leave HP were apparently under way well before the launch the HP TouchPad. With HP’s roadmap for open sourcing webOS complete, he’s moved on. His destination is still yet unknown, but retirement is not something he’s considering just yet. AllThingsD and The Verge have exclusive interviews regarding his departure.
Phone he’s using while calling from Mexico? An HP Veer.
HP Announces Plans for webOS Open Source, Sets Completion Date For September
Last month, HP announced that webOS would be open sourced. Today comes news on the transition to open source webOS, which the company hopes to complete for fall of 2012. First up, will be the open source release of Enyo version 2.0. The tool enables developers to write a single application that works across mobile devices and browsers including webOS, iOS and Android. This move provides developers with “immediate access to the acclaimed framework for webOS”.
HP has also outlined the roadmap for webOS
| Timing | Milestone/Code published | |
| January | Enyo 2.0 and Enyo source code Apache License, Version 2.0 |
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| February | Intended project governance model QT WebKit extensions JavaScript core UI Enyo widgets |
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| March | Linux standard kernel Graphics extensions EGL LevelDB USB extensions |
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| April | Ares 2.0 Enyo 2.1 Node services |
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| July | System manager (“Luna”) System manager bus Core applications Enyo 2.2 |
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| August | Build release model Open webOS Beta |
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| September | Open webOS 1.0 |
“HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community,” said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, HP. “This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform’s development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications.”
Source: BusinessWire
Review: Unlocking the HP Veer
With HP no longer making hardware, their last released phone will be the HP Veer. Unfortunately, the HP Veer only made to a few carriers. In the US, that’s limited to AT&T. Those looking to use the HP Veer on T-Mobile or any carrier for that matter, do have options. Software solutions are available to unlock the HP Veer. PalmUnlocker has furnished us with an AT&T branded HP Veer 4G to test out their service.
Continue Reading …
Amazon Considering Purchase of Palm, webOS
Fresh off the announcement of the Amazon Kindle Fire, there comes word from Venture Beat that HP is looking to sell-off Palm. Sources within HP say that Amazon is close to finalizing the deal. Amazon’s Kindle Fire uses a heavily customized version of Android. By purchasing Palm, perhaps they would migrate to webOS and possibly remove themselves from the legal tangles being experienced by other Android manufacturers.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire is largely a media consumption device, so there is no reason why webOS wouldn’t work nicely as the default OS. It would represent a major shift, considering the Android based Kindle Fire lands in mid-November. Will Amazon dump Android and move to webOS for the second generation Kindle Fire? That would render purchased apps rendered useless and make for a tough transition for early adopters.
Perhaps Amazon is willing to endure some short term pain, with the hopes that owning their own OS would be the best move for their future in the mobile space.
Never count out Palm. The company has a thousand lives.
Source: Venture Beat
HP Names Meg Whitman President and CEO
Rumors circulating that HP was planning on replacing Leo Apotheker with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman became official today. The company announced that its board of directors have appointed Meg Whitman as president and chief executive officer.
“We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman’s caliber and experience step up to lead HP,” said Lane. “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Meg is a technology visionary with a proven track record of execution. She is a strong communicator who is customer focused with deep leadership capabilities. Furthermore, as a member of HP’s board of directors for the past eight months, Meg has a solid understanding of our products and markets.”
Whitman said, “I am honored and excited to lead HP. I believe HP matters – it matters to Silicon Valley, California, the country and the world.”
Speaking on behalf of the board, Lane said, “We very much appreciate Léo’s efforts and his service to HP since his appointment last year. The board believes that the job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes to successfully execute on the company’s strategy. Meg Whitman has the right operational and communication skills and leadership abilities to deliver improved execution and financial performance.”
iOS To Get webOS Style Multitasking Thanks To Cydia Developer
Let’s face it, webOS multitasking completely rocks. It’s one of those features that separates webOS from the other mobile operating systems. Companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google cannot simply pilfer ideas, although it didn’t bother RIM when designing the OS for the PlayBook. Anyway, there are less restrictions when you have independent developers. One such developer has found a way to implement the familiar webOS card view within iOS devices. It’s unclear if those apps are not paused in the background, but this certainly does bring some of the card switching goodness to iOS. This does require jailbreaking the iPhone in order to work, but these sort of features might help lessen the blow for those considering a switch to a non-webOS device. If that day should occur, we certainly invite you to check out our iPhone/iPad sibling site everythingiCafe.
Source: everythingiCafe / @mikecane
HP To Clear Out Supply Inventory With 100,00 to 200,000 TouchPad Run
We had heard that HP was going to make one last run of TouchPads and that appears to be in the tune of 100,000 to 200,000 units. Digitimes reports that HP will look to smooth over relations with part suppliers by ordering up one final round. If you missed one in the first firesale, the latest production should mean more TouchPads sometime in October.
At $99 and $149 price points, these will sell out faster than the original batch. The 16GB TouchPad costs HP $297 to build. Anytime you sell a product at one third the cost, chances are that it will sell quite well.
If you are looking to score one of these, do yourself a favor and follow @everythingpre for notifications on stock. We’ll pass along the information on availability as soon as possible.
Source: PreCentral
Samsung Would Never Purchase webOS
HP’s sudden decision to cease manufacturing of webOS hardware, outside of a small run of TouchPads, has left them with little to no room to negotiate with interested parties. That assumes there are interested parties, outside of those looking for Palm’s patent portfolio. HP’s decision to drop webOS devices doesn’t exactly stir up demand for webOS. While the firesale resurgence has given some a glimmer of hope for the struggling operating system, it’s doesn’t seem likely that a manufacturer will be willing to make the necessary investment to breathe life into webOS. Further evidence of this today, when Samsung’s CEO said his company would “never” pursue the purchase of webOS.
“It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” Choi said. Samsung, which has its own mobile operating system called Bada, is working to boost its software capability “harder than people outside think.”
As we mentioned when news first broke of HP’s decision, don’t get your hopes up that webOS will be saved by licensing. If HP does sell off webOS, it will likely be part of a Palm patents deal or it will be sold to a company like Huwaei, who could use the OS for phones in China.
Source: Bloomberg
HP Offering Up Free Six Pack of Apps
HP is offering free six pack abs. Not really, but they are offering up six free apps, including the highly touted Glimpse for TouchPad. The following apps are available to TouchPad users, all for the price of free. Just enter the code listed next to each app.
- Glimpse (Inglorious Apps, $5, injoj55410gavxv): Amp up your TouchPad multitasking to 11 using this customizable and addictive split-screen interface.
- Kung Fu Panda 2 Storybook (zuuka, $2.99, eotss76676jjzqr): Enjoy images and voices from Kung Fu Panda 2 right on your TouchPad.
- Big Boss (Fair Play Labs, $1.99, vfimk09918lngoz): Design your “
Boss” – a gigantic monster – and attempt to defeat the brave heroes and powerful wizards of WackyLands.
- Sparkle HD (10tons Ltd., $4.99, pweuq32135vrbhx): Save Crowberry Woods in this TouchPad version of the popular desktop game.
- Camera for TouchPad (Keen Studios, $0.99, rijon62171nhvtu): Start snapping away, with options for managing your photos and using them with other TouchPad apps.
- Audubon Birds (Green Mountain Digital, $14.99, jjiox66488ddnik): This searchable digital field guide to North American birds offers stunning photography and thrilling (trilling?) bird songs.
$99 TouchPads, free apps. The craziness continues and that’s a good thing for webOS users.
Source: HP Palm Blog