The Official Palm Blog

Oh, snap... and upload to Facebook

Halloween is a great excuse to take embarrassing pictures of yourself, your family and friends in crazy costumes. The camera built into your Centro or Treo comes in handy in times like this--it makes it easy to take pictures on the spot and immediately share them with others. (It's up to you whether you want to share them with the people in those silly pictures!)

For Facebook users, Facebook for Palm lets you send pictures straight from your phone to an online album--no need to wait until you're home in front of a computer. You can add to an existing album or create a new one altogether, right from your phone. You can even write captions and comments on the pictures.

One place to share your costume pictures is the Fan Photos album on the Palm Facebook page -- we'd love to see yours there.

Karen C.
Edelman for Palm

Whirled Series

Sure, your smartphone can help feed your World Series addiction (checking scores and stats, or watching video on the go). But cartoonist Shane Johnson thinks that when you’re actually at the ballpark, you might want to stop and smell the hot dogs, and pay more attention to the real world.
 

Get InStyle with a free Vibrant rose Centro

Starting today, you have the chance to win one of ten Vibrant rose Centro smartphones, courtesy of our friends at InStyle.com. You have until November 30 to submit your entry. (But hey, it's Friday, you probably don't have anything urgent to do in the next 90 seconds, and you know you want one, so why not click on over right now?)

Jon Zilber

It's for you

Choosing the perfect ringtone for your phone can be a challenge. For some, the trick is finding a delicate balance between something you like and something socially acceptable so that when your phone rings in public, you get minimal weird looks. For others, it's about choosing something unique so you don't grab your phone every time you hear Beethoven's Fur Elise (which happens more often than you'd think).

Here are a few ways to help you find a ringtone that works for you. You can use your phone to record pretty much anything and save that as a ringtone. For example, you could record a friend yelling "Pick up the phone!" and set that as your ringtone so you'll hear that every time they call. If you're feeling a little more conventional, Myxer lets you search and send music straight to your phone. You can also try MiniTones if you want to use your own song. Both make it easy to customize songs so your personal ringtone can be anything from a chorus to the whole song.

What's the funniest, strangest or most effective ringtone you've come across? Share them over on the Facebook discussion board.

Karen C.
Edelman for Palm

"Can your phone do this?"

Over at Dilbert.com, cartoonist Scott Adams pokes a little fun at the never-ending quest for the phone that does everything. The Dilbert site also has a neat little mashup feature that lets you match wits with Scott, by substituting your own dialog. (If you come up with a zinger, post a comment with a link to your masterpiece.)

Jon Zilber

Palm and pedicures (and one man-icure) to celebrate new Sprint Centros

To celebrate the unveiling of the new Sprint Centro holiday colors Vibrant rose and Olive green, Palm invited 20 editors from fashion and lifestyle magazines, websites, and TV (including InStyle, Lucky, the Today show, Conde Nast Traveler, Real Simple, and more) to a pedicure party at the Townhouse Spa in New York City. Our guests selected nail colors to complement the new Centro hues, and got a quick tour of the Centro from Rob K., Senior Product Manager, Consumer Smartphones. (More photos of the festivities at www.facebook.com/palm.)

Jon Zilber

Centro for Sprint spruces up for the holidays

Starting next week, the Sprint Centro will come in two new soft-touch colors to help you kick off your holiday season in style: Olive green and Vibrant rose. The new editions also feature twice the storage, Facebook for Palm, and Google Maps with the My Location feature, at a special price for the holidays -- as low as $79.99. (Click here for details about pricing, service plan requirements, and the new features.)

How hot are these new colors? The executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Leatrice Eiseman, says that not only do they offer a "sense of sophistication and elegance," but they have "the longevity to translate from season to season."

You want more? How about a new case or two to wrap up your new Centro, along with other accessories. You can find the new colors in select retail locations as early as Oct. 19, and beginning Nov. 2 in Sprint Stores, consumer and business sales channels, and online at www.sprint.com/Centro and the Palm Store (http://store.palm.com).

Jon Zilber

Is your smartphone your next computer?

That’s the question raised by a current InformationWeek story. And over a third of the business technology professionals they surveyed say that they already find they can either occasionally or frequently leave their laptops behind, relying on their smartphone to stay connected to their workplace.

For example, the story notes that “at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, the Palm Treo 750 is being used by some 50 field sales representatives to access the company’s back-end CRM database,” noting that laptops and tablet PCs were too bulky, short on battery life, needed rebooting too often, and were too visible as targets of theft.

What about you? We’d love to hear your thoughts via comments, or on the discussion boards on our Facebook page. 

Jon Zilber

New video @ mobilizethevote.com

Palm has helped to produce a couple of videos to encourage people to enage in the political process. Check out http://www.mobilizethevote2008.com  to see the latest video and get some pointers on how to use your smartphone to get even more involved.

Jon Zilber

Texting and driving don't mix

When the California hands-free law went into effect in July, some were quick to point out its limitations: technically, the law still allowed you to text and type while driving. So whether you are sending off a quick e-mail to the office, or texting dinner plans to friends, your attention is diverted for long enough to potentially lead to an accident.

At Palm, we believe that drivers should focus on driving -- by minimizing phone calls while driving and always using hands-free technology. Texting while driving may be a common practice, but it's a dangerous one. We supported the previous regulation, and also support recent measures to strengthen the law. We are pleased to report that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed into law a measure banning motorists from text-messaging and e-mailing while operating a vehicle. The bill received overwhelming support in the state legislature and takes effect January 1, 2009.

Mary Doyle, Senior Vice President and General Counsel