Tag Archives: Verizon Wireless

[e-Biz] Palm’s Presentation on the CES 2010

I. Summary

Quite a bunch of news for the Palm community has been presented by Palm’s CEO John Podfather Prefather Rubinstein. Find the whole video presentation at the end of the summary.

II. WebOS Update 1.4

WebOS 1.4 will be released in February, 2010 (in the US at least, we Europeans are still waiting for 1.3.5). WebOS 1.4 will feature:

Video Recording
Adobe Flash 10.1
better Battery Life and
improved performance

III. WebOS Plug In Development Kit

For developing native 3D games Palm secretely extended their development tools with a plug in kit, that allows to write code in C or C++.

IV. Native 3D Games

Moreover Palm showed they are in the know what their customers will like and how to explore more markets besides the Linux community. As of today some 3D games have been released to the U.S. American AppCatalog:

Need for Speed Undercover
The Sims 3
Monopoly
Asphalt 5: Elite Racing
Let’s Golf!
Glyder 2, and
X-Plane

IV. Palm Pre Plus coming to Verizon

A special version of the Palm Pre is coming to Verizon Wireless, only 7 months after the initial release of the Palm Pre to the Spring network. Verizon’s Palm Pre Plus is coming with 16GB Ram, a reworked slider mechanics and a tethering plan. Verizon is said to have one of the best 3G coverage in North America. We suspect the Palm Pre Plus to be SIM locked.

V. The whole video presentation on the CES 2010

Enjoy Mr. ~~Podfather~~ Prefather John Rubinstein…

[Pre] webOS 1.3.5, webOS 1.3.5.1 and the CES 2010

European customers are still waiting for webOS 1.3.5 update. The European carrier Telefonica (o2 and MoviStar) seems not to have approved it yet.

Meanwhile it seems versions 1.3.5 had issues. According to PreCentral.net, Palm Pre customers on Sprint (USA) and Bell (Canada) are able to update to version 1.3.5.1 since Januar 5th, 2010. Version 1.3.5 has been released in the US and Canada on December 29th, 2009.

Issues with homebrew apps on 1.3.5 and 1.3.5.1

It is known, that webOS 1.3.5 breaks homebrew installer PreWare. Known workaround is using WebOS Quick Install to remove and then reinstall PreWare. It should be working well again.

There are also issues with homebrew apps that don’t contain an appinfo.json file. Apps not properly prepared would not be getting moved from /var to /media/cryptofs/apps. Package Manager Service 0.9.24.3 has fixes for this problem.

And the latest 1.3.5.1 also breaks myTether. This seems not resolved yet.

Amazing news

In the meantime people from the WebOS Internal forums have discovered, that webOS 1.3.5 includes Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL). SDL allows hardware accelerated graphics and sound and is available on different platforms for free and open source. Via homebrew installer PreWare a playable alpha version of Doom using SDL has already been released.

Europeans still waiting

Although Palm is said to be unveiling something big on the CES 2010 tomorrow, we don’t expect Telefonica to approve 1.3.5 until then for Europe.

It is rumored, on the CES Verizon Wireless will be officially named the new partner for a device called Palm Pre Plus (Palm Pre 3).

Links

» PreCentral: webOS 1.3.5.1 Available for OTA Download…
» PreCentral: webOS 1.3.5.1 goes live for Pre users on Bell…
» PreCentral Forums: Status of Preware and 1.3.5…
» PreCentral Forums: Preware + mytether unavailable after 1.3.5.1…
» WebOS Internals Wiki: Doom on Palm Pre…
» Wikipedia: Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)…
» WebOS Blog: Was kommt zur CES 2010 von Palm? (Google translated link)…
» PhoneArea: Verizon to get Palm Pre Plus…

Video

[iPhone] iPhone Lite exclusively on Verizon Wireless?

Businessweek.com reports that there are rumors about an iPhone Lite and an Apple Media Pad. Both could be distributed exclusively by Verizon Wireless. One or both of the devices could be introduced in this summer. Businessweek writes they were talking to someone who got his hands on a prototype of the iPhone Lite already. Moreover Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam confirmed that he has been talking to Steve Jobs during the last six months.Verizon Wireless is a U.S. american joint venture of Verizon Communications and the british Vodafone.

Businessweek writes as there is no deal done yet, from Apple’s point of view the Verizon talks may be helpful on certain levels. Verizon is also a potential Palm Pre distributer aswell as Sprint Nextel. Talks between Apple and Verizon could delay the introduction of Palm’s Pre. In contrast to Sprint who got 35 million customers a Palm Pre on Verizon could be a much harder competitor as they got 86 million customers. Moreover Apple can also use these talks to put pressure on AT&T to incur more expenses of the iPhone manufacturing.

Our comment

Remember this is rumors. We feel it is quite unlikely that Apple will no prolong their partnership with AT&T.

»Businessweek.com: New Gear from Apple and Verizon Wireless