The Official Palm Blog

What’s new in webOS 1.2?

We’re glad you asked, because we’ve got lots of new features and enhancements to tell you about in this new webOS update. (And we’re also glad you gave us lots of feedback, which helped to prioritize some of the features in this update.) 

For starters, we’ve beefed up Palm Synergy to include LinkedIn contact syncing. Info from LinkedIn profiles (like job titles) will now appear in your Palm Pre contacts. The new update also facilitates links across more different flavors of IM contacts. Business-oriented webOS 1.2 customers will also appreciate support for heterogeneous EAS policies (for workplaces with a mix of end-users in which some accounts support EAS policies and others don’t). 

And we heard your feedback on a number of topics loud and clear: 

• We know you love email -- and you’ll really love the ability to filter the emails in the current folder just by typing a search term. 
• You asked for the ability to download files in the browser -- and now you’ve got it. 
• Music fans will be glad to hear that the Amazon MP3 Store can now download songs from either WiFi or WAN. 
• You can now tap a phone number in a calendar note to dial it (so you can get to the joy of music-on-hold for your conference calls even faster!). 
• Pause a podcast and, by default, you’ll pick up where you left off when you unpause. 
• Web pages and emails are now cut-and-paste-able. 

You can expect an automatic over-the-air update to webOS 1.2 over the next few days, and you can find more info on the update in the release notes on the Palm website. Oh -- and if you’d like to leave us feedback or feature requests for our next update, we’re all ears: Post your comments at www.palm.com/feedback. 

Jon Zilber

An app you can't refuse..

...and one you can really sink your teeth into. 

Among the 14 apps making their debut today in the Palm Beta App Catalog are a pair of fantasy role playing games from Moblyng. Prepare to channel your inner Corleone and unleash your virtual Soprano in m:Mafia. In this game, you'll learn to lie, fight, and steal your way to the top. 

And if that sounds too much like your daily 9-to-5 grind, check out m:Vampire -- the perfect escape for Twilight or Lestat wannabes.

Both games let you challenge your friends, whether they're playing on their own Palm Pre or on Facebook. So whether you're more the true crime or the True Blood type, you'll find a new way to have a...um...bloody good time. You'll also find new apps for everything from golf to guitar -- enjoy! 

Jon Zilber

New ways to engage with Palm

You might be able to make a good product in a vacuum, but creating a great platform is something that requires the efforts of a community with diverse perspectives and interests. At Palm, we have a number of channels for engaging with different communities – this blog, @palm on Twitter, our Facebook page, our customer support forums, and the webOSdev community.

And we’ve recently bolstered our commitment to engaging with the developer community with the addition of an incredible dynamic duo that will share the role of Directors of the Palm Developer Relations team. Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith are both co-founders of the popular Ajaxian.com site, have led a team creating developer tools for Mozilla, and are widely recognized as experts in Java and other Web technologies. If you’re interested in developing for webOS, they’re interested in connecting with you -- get introduced to them here.  

Jon Zilber

Europe says “Willkommen, failte, and welcome!” to Palm Pre

Today, O2 announced details about pricing and availability for Palm Pre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany. The webOS phone will be available on 13 October in Germany and on 16 October in the U.K. and Ireland.

Details on tariffs for the phone and service plans will be available here for the UK, here for Ireland, and here for Germany. As with our network partners in the U.S. and Canada, O2 will be the exclusive carrier for Palm Pre for its launch in these countries.

David Contreras

Prime time for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi

Over the weekend, Palm had the chance to showcase our newest phones -- Palm Pre and Palm Pixi -- to some of the brightest stars from TV and film in the Lipton Green Tea Gift Lounge at The Nokia Theater in celebration of The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.

If you're following @palm on Twitter, you got live updates on what Michael J. Fox, Sigourney Weaver, Blake Lively, Mary-Louise Parker, Jimmy Fallon, Cobie Smulders, Sarah McLachlan, Dana Delany, Alyson Hannigan and Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris (among others) thought about the new phones, the Touchstone Charging Dock and which design in the Pixi Artist Series is their favorite. William Shatner and his wife told us they were already Pre users, prompting @ickthegeek to tweet that "Captain Kirk's communicator is a Pre."

You can also check out an album from the event with lots more photos over on our Facebook page.

Lynn Fox

The tribe has spoken: Survivor joins the Palm Beta App Catalog

If you’ve been watching the App Catalog on your Palm Pre and asking (in your best Oliver Twist voice) “Please, sir…can I have some Samoa?” then today’s your lucky day. Just in time for tonight’s season premiere of Survivor: Samoa on CBS, Survivor (exclusively on Palm Pre by Sprint from CBS Interactive) is debuting today in the Palm Beta App Catalog. The app brings you full episodes, cast bios and videos, weekly sweepstakes and even a Survivor Fantasy team to help you keep up with the competition and contestants who are bringing their own A-game.

Other apps that can help you survive whatever obstacles might come your way include:

• P2GoogleVoice (P2Labs), joining gDialPro as another alternative for managing your Google Voice number for phone calls and text messages from your Palm Pre
• Send My Location for webOS (by Software for Mobile Phones LLC), which lets you send your exact whereabouts via email or text
• P2SnippetS (P2Labs), to copy and store frequently used bits of text to paste into any Palm application
• TipCalc for webOS (JamWam), handy for figuring out how much to tip or splitting the bill
• MediPDA (Alan Teh and Janni Kovacs), a modular medical calculator made up of commonly used calculations and algorithms in medicine
• Hebrew Calendar (Avner Arbel), keeping your calendar up to date on major Jewish holidays.

And if you do find yourself stranded on a remote island with your Palm Pre, you can always kick back with some new game apps, including Junk Software’s Dot Game, three versions of EpicTilt’s PicHunt (with themes for pets, vintage cars, and space exploration), Tom King’s memory- and speed-tester Ditto, Reversi from Rick Boatright, and Chess for webOS and Deadman (a more “explosive” version of Hangman), both by Fusion Creative Studios.

Jon Zilber

Palm Pixi in the spotlight

It was a big day in the Gotham limelight on Sunday for the just-announced Palm Pixi. In Bryant Park, Pixi continued to turn heads inside the tent at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (receiving compliments from fashion-setters ranging from Russell Simmons to the reigning Miss Universe). And down at Parsons The New School for Design, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein showed off Palm Pixi as Josh Topolsky’s first guest on The Engadget Show (available for viewing soon on Engadget).

Jon shared some candid thoughts about Palm’s phones and the future of mobile technology (no spoilers here – you’ll just have to watch!), traded zingers with Josh, and thanked the packed auditorium for sticking with Palm. As an extra thank you to the audience, Jon surprised everyone at the taping with a free Palm Touchstone Charging Dock.

You’ll find a few more photos from the taping (all taken on a Palm Pre, btw) in an album on Palm’s Facebook page (where you can also join in on round two of the Runway Wars battle of the fashionistas).

Jon Zilber

Palm Pixi turns heads at Bryant Park

Trendsetters, paparazzi, and the juiciest of couture all come together in New York’s Bryant Park this time of year for the extravaganza that is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Joining in this week is the new Palm Pixi, the just-announced sleek and stylish webOS phone. Invited guests will get a preview of Palm Pixi in a unique setting -- a larger-than-life space inspired by one of the limited-edition Artist Series back covers.

Even if you don’t plan on strutting around Bryant Park, you can still get your fill of fashionistas with Runway Wars, new on Palm's Facebook page. In this application, you can decide which celebs rock a frock -- and which ones wind up a fashion fail. Starting from a line-up of sixteen contenders, your votes will narrow the field until we’ve crowned the ruler of the red carpets by the end of next week. (You’ll also find photos and the latest dish from on and off the catwalks.)

Jon Zilber

A few new goodies in the Palm Beta App Catalog

One of the most powerful aspects of webOS is Palm Synergy, which brings together your online accounts in one simple, logical view, and keeps them synced up automatically. Google Voice applies a  similar philosophy to your phone number and phone services, offering you a range of options for everything from forwarding calls among your phone phones to transcribing voicemail messages into text. With gDial Pro, a webOS app from Mobile Entertainment Group, your Palm Pre can now use and manage your Google Voice account. 

Other goodies making their debut today in the Palm Pre App Catalog include: 

- AccuRadio (from AccuRadio), offering streaming radio for the U.S. and Canada

- Local Concerts (iLike), giving you personalized concert updates from your favorite artists 

- Simple Bible (Jev Vandegrift), providing the full text of the Bible with a range of ebook features 

- Currency Converter (Janni Kovacs), simplifying those inevitable “duh” moments when making international transactions 

- 420 Wallpaper (A Minor Label), with a selection of artwork to give your Palm Pre a new look 

- Forbes (Forbes), for essential business news 

- A trio of new games: Video Poker (bytesequencing.com), Checkers (Keen Studios), and Lights Out (Vasudeva Damarasingu). 

Jon Zilber

Introducing Palm Pixi, the newest member of the Palm webOS family

All the power of Palm webOS -- including multitasking activity cards, Palm Synergy, intuitive notifications, and universal search -- will soon be available in a striking new form factor. Palm Pixi -- due on the Sprint network in time for the holidays -- is Palm’s thinnest phone ever. With a visible full keyboard and rubberized back cover, Palm Pixi is especially handy for extensive messaging and social networking. 

Want to add a touch of extra style? The Palm Pixi Artist Series offers you a selection of limited-edition back covers in a range of eye-catching designs. You can find all the designs in the first Artist Series here, and you can find more details about Palm Pixi here. And here’s some good news about the older sibling in the family: You can now purchase a Palm Pre from Sprint for as low as $149.99 with contract. 

Jon Zilber