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
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
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
Editorial: HP running out of second chances with webOS
It’s August 5th, a little over one month since the release of the HP TouchPad. Announced in February, there has been a slow march of hype surrounding the first tablet with webOS. We’ve seen this before with the original Pre launch. This time was going to be different. It was also an opportunity for HP to flex their marketing muscle beyond that of the cash-strapped Palm. Despite their best efforts, it hasn’t translated into an acceptable sales number. In what can be seen only as a last ditch effort, today we have seen a plethora of deep discounts. Woot, normally reserved for products that are on their way out, is one of many including HP themselves offering $100 plus off the HP TouchPad. Surely, this isn’t what HP management meant when they said the TouchPad would be number 1 plus. What’s happened since the February introduction of these new products and where do they take webOS from here?
HP in talks to license webOS
We had heard speculation in the past that HP might consider licensing webOS, but nothing concrete until now. HP CEO Leo Apotheker said in an interview yesterday that the company is in talks to license webOS.
We are talking to a number of companies,” Apotheker said in Beijing, declining to elaborate on details. “I can share with you that a number of companies have expressed interest. We are continuing our conversations.”
When asked when this might happen, Apotheker said “there is no time pressure to do this“.
The suitor is likely Samsung as Bloomberg cites three people with knowledge of the discussions.
Anyone in the market for a Super AMOLED packed Galaxy running webOS?
via Bloomberg
HP TouchPad Demo Video From Digital Experience
Our old friend Jimmie Geddes was at Digital Experience last night and managed to get a video demo of the HP TouchPad.
Manny Pacquiao In First HP TouchPad Commercial
Similar to the very well done Veer commercials, but with the larger TouchPad.
Have you seen this commercial? If yes, let us know where in the comments.
via @TeckieGirl
New HP Veer Commercial Features Miranda Cosgrove
It took some time, but commercials are hitting the airwaves to promote the HP Veer 4G. This time around, Miranda Cosgrove (of iCarly fame), is the spokesperson for the Veer. Like the Manny Pacquiao commercial before it, these are very well done spots. They use celebrity to catch your attention, but the focus remains on the unique features of webOS. The outlook for the HP TouchPad commercials looks real good.
They’ve come a long way from the creepy girl, haven’t they?
Thanks Akitayo!
HP Would Entertain Idea of Licensing webOS
Today at D9, HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker dropped a bombshell, saying the company would consider licensing webOS. Apotheker was asked if the company would consider licensing webOS to companies like HTC. His response:
“It is certainly something we would entertain.”
We suspect there will be some clarification of these comments in the coming days. Of course, if they are serious, that changes things their business model drastically.
Keyboard-less webOS phone gets our hopes up
There are no shortage of black slab phones on the market. From the iPhone to Android to Windows Phone. Even RIM has the Storm. When Palm first announced the Pre, they said to expect a family of webOS devices. The family has been limited to the Pre and Pixi, both featuring physical keyboards. For the most part, the market appears to show a preference to slab devices. HTC EVO, Nexus One, iPhone and so on. Prior to HP’s big product unveiling, we outlined our hopes for Palm’s new hero phone. The Pre 3 looks to be a very attractive phone, but it’s not a major departure from the current form factor. If your target market are folks interested in vertical sliders, then it’s a grand slam due to the limited number of devices that share this design (Torch, ?). A tipster has sent PreCentral a photo of what appears to be an HP webOS phone in a slab format. Could it be? Is HP finally realizing that a large portion of users are demanding larger displays, without a cumbersome physical keyboard?
Not much is known about this mysterious new device, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled. This could be a start of the webOS family of products promised back in 2009.
Source: PreCentral