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
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
Palm’s PDK To Allow Porting of iPhone Apps?
Next week brings the Game Developer’s Conference and Palm is expected to chat about their PDK (Plug-in Developer Kit). In an interesting twist, word comes from John Paczkowski (via Dieter Bohn) that Palm’s PDK will allow easy porting of iPhone apps to Palm’s webOS.
Perhaps more importantly, the PDK will allow devs to rewrite mobile apps that they’ve built for other platforms to run on webOS with minimal modifications. iPhone apps can be ported over in a matter of days, sources close to the company tell me, and they don’t really suffer any degradation in performance.
When we spoke with Palm reps at CES 2010, they indicated to us that the PDK was mainly a tool used for developing games. So we’re not sure what to expect next week and if this will actually impact apps for webOS. Palm’s mantra has been quality and not necessarily quantity. Trailing in the Apps Numbers race, that’s a convenient argument. The PDK developed games are certainly on par with other platforms, so perhaps this news will bring ports of better apps for the platform. We’re all for the quality over quantity, but outside of PDK developed games, the current crop of webOS apps does not best apps available on the iPhone. If the PDK can be used to port actual apps over to webOS, this would be great news for the webOS community and for developers. If it only takes days, we’re hoping Atebits will jump in and give us Tweetie 2 for webOS.
Google Voice App Among 10 New Apps in Palm App Catalog
Palm yesterday introduced ten new applications to the official Palm App Catalog, the most notable being gDial Pro, an application that works with Google Voice. Google Voice apps for the iPhone were the subject of major controversy after they were removed from Apple’s App Store. The incident even prompted an inquiry from the FCC. In addition to gDial Pro, you’ve got eight other applications that are available as a free download direct from the App Catalog.
- AccuRadio: Offers hundreds of radio stations allowing you to stream from a selection of genres.
- Local Concerts: Provides you with personalized concert updates from your favorite artists based upon your location
- Simple Bible: Includes the full text of the Bible with a range of ebook features
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Currency Converter: Provides conversion rates for popular international currencies.
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420 Wallpaper: Brings you a selection of San Francisco poster art that allows you to utilize as wallpaper on your Pre.
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Forbes: Provides financial data and stock quotes.
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Video Poker: Ad supported game of poker that is sure to be a great time killer for poker fans.
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Checkers: The classic boardgame, on your webOS device.
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Lights Out: A puzzle game where the goal is to turn off all the lights.
With these new apps, the total of Palm App Catalog apps stands at 67. We like the momentum and of course the new apps. Have a favorite? Let us know in the comments or in our Palm Pre and Pixi Forums.
Rumor: O2 Palm Pre Release Date Set for October 30th
According to an O2 employee, the Palm Pre will release in the UK on October 30th. Our tipster says that management informed staff of the date today. Tariffs will be the same as the iPhone. The next official release date we have is August 27th, when the Palm Pre will release on Bell in Canada. Of course, the O2 Palm Pre will be the first Palm Pre of the GSM variety. It will also mark the first head to head competition for the minds and hearts of consumers who will have a choice between the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre, both on the same carrier.
Thanks anonymous!
New Palm phone rumored to be “iPhone-like”
Details regarding Palm’s new smartphone are starting to emerge in advance of Thursday’s Palm event at CES. Crunchgear is reporting that the latest Palm smartphone running the Nova operating system will in fact debut on Thursday. The new phone will feature a full QWERTY keyboard that slides down from a portrait touchscreen. The mockup (courtesy of Crunchgear) is their rendition of what sources have told them.
Sources say the new OS is "amazing" and the phone is being described as "iPhone-like". EverythingTreo will be live blogging the event on Thursday at 2:00 p.m EST at everythingtreo.com/live You can sign up for a reminder below.
New Family of Palm Smartphones “Unlike Anything”
Palm is once again creating buzz, only this time it surrounds what every Palm user has been waiting for and that’s Palm new-ness. With Apple’s iPhone dominating the consumer market and RIM leading the US smartphone market overall, Palm’s announcement is seen by many as the last stand from the company that started the entire smartphone craze years ago.
The announcement on January 8th will not be a new color for the Centro or even a Sprint Treo Pro. No, this event is much bigger. Private equity firm Elevation Partners has invested over $325 million into Palm and has also brought in new talent, plenty of which has come from Apple. As someone who remembers the dark days of Apple, the similarities between the two companies are striking. They are even modeling their plan of a comeback on Apple, where marquee products led to financial success. Roger McNamee, one of the chief financeirs and founders of Elevation Partners, says the products will be different than anything on the market. iPhones excel at entertainment, while RIM is best at email. McNamee says Palm will create devices that will "help consumers meld work and play".
Palm has generated buzz once again, but can they deliver? As a Palm user, what are you hoping for come January 8th? Let us know what you think in our comments section. Be sure to check out Everything Treo on January 8th for live coverage of the event.
via Business Week