The Official Palm Blog

Are you ready for some football?

If you're a football fan in the U.S., we've got a pretty good idea what your weekend's going to look like: get together with your peeps, make sure you've got a six-pack chilling in the fridge, and -- game time! 

That’s right, it's time for Gameloft’s NFL 2010 on your Palm Pre. 

Meanwhile, a crew from Palm is getting ready for the big game day with a different approach. Palm is taking part in a pre-game bash in Miami's ultra ultra South Beach, where athletes and entertainment VIPs are joining forces to salute the USO’s role in supporting the U.S. Armed Services and honor a select group of service members attending the event. We'll be showing off Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus at the event and are pleased to be providing webOS devices and service to the members of the military attending. And later we'll have some post-party photos on our Facebook page (if you can tear yourself away from NFL 2010). 

Jon Zilber

Valentine’s Day, the Palm webOS Way

Let your Palm webOS phone help you plan a memorable Valentine's Day.

 

First things first: Check your horoscope and make sure your love chart is in order for the big day. Then make it a classic date night -- dinner out and a romantic movie. And if neither of you wants to be the designated driver, make sure you've got a cab to take you home. Better yet, don’t leave home at all. Up the romance factor with a quiet home-cooked dinner for two and a nice bottle of wine.

 

If Cupid’s arrow hasn’t found you yet, you can keep looking for a special someone, or make it a single’s night out. Just let your friends know where you are and split the tab. What happens next? All signs point to YES.

 

Also, catch the great Valentine’s Day sale in the Palm store -- 25% off select accessories for Palm Pixi and Palm Pixi Plus. The promotion runs through Feb. 10, so show a little love to the Palm Pixi user in your life, even if it’s you.

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

 

Music to your ears

My friends must wonder why I take so long to answer their calls. Here’s why: When my phone rings, I get to hear my favorite Depeche Mode song as my ringtone. 

It's easy to customize the ringtone on your Palm webOS phone to play the first 30 seconds of any song on your phone. First, if you haven't already done so, add music to your phone. You can do this by using USB Drive mode or the Palm Music Assistant. 

Now you're ready for the fun part:

1. Open Sounds & Ringtones.
2. Tap the displayed ringtone to open the full list of tones.
3. Tap the Add Song icon in the lower left part of the screen.
4. Tap the Preview icon to the right of a song title to preview it.
5. Tap the song title to add it as your ringtone.
6. Use the back gesture to get to the Ringtone Volume slider, and then tap, hold, and drag the slider to change volume.

You can also set a specific ringtone to ring for a specific contact. Learn how here. 

Parissa M., Customer Support

Hot Phones, Hot Hotspot

Today’s the day. Go to www.verizonwireless.com or your local Verizon Wireless Communications Store to get a Palm Pre Plus for $149.99 or Palm Pixi Plus for just $99.99. Or better yet, get both. Through Feb. 14, buy a Palm Pre Plus or a Palm Pixi Plus and get a Palm Pixi Plus free (after a mail-in rebate).

 

There’s already some great buzz about the phones -- NYT’s David Pogue says “The polish and panache of both phones are phenomenal” -- but there’s one new feature that Pogue calls “a breakthrough”: the Palm mobile hotspot. It’s super-simple to use -- just one tap turns Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus into your own personal Wi-Fi cloud. No need to look for a hotspot when you’re out and about, and no need for a USB connection. For $40 a month (on top of your Verizon Wireless voice and data plans) you can get up to five Wi-Fi-capable devices online at the same time.

 

Take Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus for a test drive at your local Verizon Wireless store and see for yourself why Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky calls Palm webOS “a brilliant platform with huge potential to change the way you work and live with your phone...”

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

 

Hope for Haiti Now: Tune in, help out

Usually when we’re talking about the power of Palm webOS or our new phones and evolving App Catalog, we’ve got something to share about software or hardware. But there’s another part of the Palm platform that we don’t always get a chance to highlight: the people.

Today, we’ve got a small story about a few people jumping in to do their part to help out people in need in the wake of devastation in Haiti. Thanks to some swift action by Palm webOS developer Mediafly, along with the Palm developer relations and App Catalog teams, today there’s a new free app the Palm App Catalog.

With Hope for Haiti Now LIVE!, you’ll be able to watch tonight’s telethon being produced by actor George Clooney from your Palm Pre or Palm Pixi. The app also provides links for making donations to help the international relief efforts. The event (8 PM ET) boasts an impressive line-up of entertainers, so please join that all-star roster by tuning in on Mediafly's Hope for Haiti Now LIVE! app and helping out however you can.

Jon Zilber

Plus Pricing -- Plus a Great Deal

Palm Pre Plus has already been hailed as "a perfect device for the consumer who is looking for a smartphone to balance work and play," and you can get yours on Verizon Wireless on Monday for only $149.99 (after mail-in rebate and two-year contract). Not to be outdone, Palm Pixi Plus at $99.99 "gives customers making the jump from a feature phone to a smartphone even more functionality without breaking the bank."

 

And how’s this for an extra plus: Through February 14, buy a Palm Pre Plus or a Palm Pixi Plus and get a Palm Pixi Plus free (after mail-in rebate). Can Monday come soon enough?

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

 

GR8 shortcuts for bz ppl

R U in a hurry? FYI, Palm webOS makes it easy to hop to the VIPs and apps on your phone, ASAP. 

Universal search on your Palm webOS phone makes it easy to search to find info and make calls. You can also find someone by typing in a person’s first and last initials. And you can search by just a last name, or by entering any word in an application’s name. For example, typing “cat” will display the App Catalog icon as a match. After narrowing down your search, you can tap the selection to launch the application or just press the Return key to launch the highlighted Application.

There are also some special keywords you can use to bring up popular applications on the phone that just make sense -- “sms” finds the Messaging app and “vid” finds both Videos and the YouTube application. 

Here are a few other keywords (some of which can be shortened as indicated in parentheses). And there are a few more -- leave a comment if you’ve found ‘em. 

• store: App Catalog
• pic(ture): Photos
• sms or text: Messaging
• time: Date & Time and Clock
• add(ress): Contacts
• todo: Tasks
• eve(nts): Calendar
• note: Memos
• net: Wi-Fi

Calvin P., Customer Support

Bookmarks for web worms

Like many people, the start of a new year inspires me to get organized, whether it's my closet, cubicle or phone. Recently, I reorganized the bookmarks on my Palm Pre to help me get to my favorite web pages with just a quick tap. (Did you know you can display up to twelve icons on the browser landing page for your Palm Pre?)

Once you’ve opened the Web app, just tap Bookmarks in the application menu. From there, you can do any of the following:

• Rename that page: Tap the Edit Bookmark icon to the right of the bookmark name. Enter the new thumbnail, title, or URL and tap Save Bookmark.
• Make your favoritest favorites easier to find: Tap, hold, and drag the bookmark. (The first twelve bookmarks appear on your browser landing page.)
• Clean out the clutter: Throw the bookmark off the side of the screen and tap Delete.

Learn more about getting more out of your bookmarks here. 

Parissa M., Customer Support

Palm webOS app info now available for…whatever you can come up with

The Palm App Catalog team has made all of the information about Palm webOS apps available as a publicly accessible data feed. This includes the application descriptions, sample screens, ratings, pricing, and number of downloads. This data is available for all third-party applications, whether they’re distributed in the Palm App Catalog, independently distributed over the web, or in a beta test stage.

Already, several community directories of Palm webOS apps have been created for people seeking alternative ways to discover Palm webOS apps beyond the Palm App Catalog on a Palm Pre or Palm Pixi. For example, if you don’t yet have a Palm phone, you can explore the available apps on the web. And even if you have a Palm webOS phone, you can compare and evaluate apps in different ways.

The first sites using the Palm webOS app data include:

• http://catalog.webosschool.com/
• http://www.precentral.net/app-gallery/app-catalog/
• http://houseofpalm.com/

Another site -- Project Appetite -- is an open source project created by Palm's Developer Relations team to demonstrate what's possible with the custom feeds to provide a foundation that other projects can build on.

If you’ve got an idea for using this data stream -- to create a community site for Palm webOS apps, to analyze the evolving market for smartphone apps, or even to create a piece of online conceptual art -- you can find the all the details you need for tapping into the data stream here. 

Jon Zilber