The Official HP Palm Blog

The lowdown on the latest Palm webOS update

The latest version of Palm webOS is launching initially for Sprint Palm Pre and Palm Pixi customers in the US. Palm webOS 1.3.5 offers improved performance and enhancements for several features, as well as more consistent performance for Palm Pixi. Notable improvements include: 

• Room for more apps: You can now download and store gigabytes of applications, effectively eliminating the limitation on the number of apps that could be installed.
• Better battery management: Users in areas with marginal network coverage may see improved battery life.
• Palm Beta App Catalog improvement: Searching for and downloading apps have been enhanced. 

Additional details about the update can be found here for Palm Pre and here for Palm Pixi. Follow @palm on Twitter to be notified whenever updates are available on your carrier. 

Jon Zilber

Staying sane over the holidays

For some, the holidays are a time to flip the ringer switch to mute or even to power off your phone altogether. But if you’re reading this post, you’re probably not one of those people. So while we hope you make sure to have some quality F2F time with friends and family, here are a few ways your phone can help you stay connected and sane.

• Net2Streams (available in Pro and Lite versions) lets you tune in to your favorite SHOUTcast Radio stations. With 25,000 stations around the globe, you can keep in touch with what’s going on back home or get a leg up on wherever you’re going.
•  The Feeds Google Reader client lets you download your essential reading list (the latest xkcd comic, for example) so you can catch up when you’re on the go. You’ll be notified when you have new articles, and can email or message them to friends.
• The latest version of the Tweed client for Twitter adds support for lists, the latest flavor of retweets, and more. (BTW, are you following @palm yet?)
•  Quick: Can you unscramble “Below B Sword”? Wobble Words is a timed word-search game that will keep the kids (and even the adults) distracted when you’re stuck in line or caught in traffic.  
• For your little private moment of Zen to escape from the holiday mania, download the free WingedCurator app and choose one of the charming illustrations as your seasonal wallpaper.

Jon Zilber

Even quicker Quick Launch icons

Here’s a tip to personalize your Palm webOS phone in just a few seconds: Customize your Quick Launch bar to display icons for the apps you access most often. Say you want the Quick Launch bar to display Phone, Email, Facebook, and Calendar icons. Here's all you do:

1. Swipe up from the gesture area to the screen to open the Launcher.
2. Tap and hold the Contacts icon in the Quick Launch bar and then drag the icon onto the Launcher.
3. Find the Facebook app in the Launcher. Tap and hold the Facebook icon, and drag the icon onto the Quick Launch bar.

You can reorder Quick Launch icons too. Just tap and hold an icon on the Quick Launch bar and drag it to another location.

While you're at it, why not personalize your Launcher pages? For example, move your apps so that all games appear on one page. Just tap and hold any icon and drag it to the left or right edge of the screen to move the icon to another page.

Want more? Click here.

Parissa M., Customer Support

Mobile development: of the web, by the web -- and now on the web

Project Ares, a new development environment for creating Palm webOS applications, is now available to all Palm developers at ares.palm.com. Ares is the first complete set of integrated mobile development tools hosted entirely in the browser (details here), making it even easier and faster to create Palm webOS apps. With its drag-and-drop interface builder, Ares dramatically lowers the barriers for web developers who haven¹t
previously developed mobile apps.
 
All interested developers are invited to try out the public beta of Ares. Just register for a free Palm developer community account and log in at ares.palm.com, where you¹ll find documentation and a getting-started tutorial.

Jon Zilber

 

Ho-ho-holiday specials in the Palm Beta App Catalog

Santa’s making a brief stop at the Palm Beta App Catalog today. For a very limited time, you’ll find special holiday discounts (as much as 50%) on a range of apps, including:

• If you’re a bargain hunter, meet your new BFF, Dealert.  This app keeps a vigilant eye on popular online deal sites for whatever products you’re in the market for. And at 99 cents during this special promotion, it could be the best investment you’ll make this shopping season.
• Blocked in traffic? Mentally blocked about that perfect gift? Blocked is a logic  game -- available for just 99 cents -- that gives you hundreds of puzzles to hone your skill at unblocking yourself out of any situation.
• • T-Money offers a wide range of financial planning tools (for loans, saving, insurance, retirement, and more). And here’s a piece of financial advice: get it now for 50% off the usual price.
• • Bring the power of GPS to your jogging regimen with JogStats (for $2 less than the usual price). Track (and tweet!) your time, distance, speed, altitude, calorie burn rate, and more, with walking, hiking, and biking options as well.
• FlashCards is a study companion to help students of all ages. It can help you learn the alphabet, tackle a new language, become a trivia guru, or calculate just how much you’ll save at 50% off.

Jon Zilber

Holiday helpers

Even if you’ve already hung the stockings by the chimney with care, your holiday to-do list probably could use a helping hand. Here are a few goodies from the Palm Beta App Catalog to check out:

• Keep the kids entertained in the car with "The Adventures of Santa Claus," an unabridged audiobook version of a classic tale by L. Frank Baum (better known as the creator of the Wizard of Oz).

• Lost your car somewhere in the cavernous lot at the mall? Wondering if you have time for  one more errand before the parking meter runs out? Let findMYcar alleviate these automotive aggravations.

• Running behind on your holiday cards? MobiCards Christmas offers 20 designs for MMS and email  greetings you can send at the last minute. If you prefer  a different type of seasonal greetings, try the free Voxofon Call Abroad app. It lets you make international calls and send text messages at surprisingly affordable rates.

• Want a magical winter wonderland on the go? Try Snow Globe -- just add your own photo and shake! 

Jon Zilber

Take the guessing out of gesturing

Using your Palm webOS phone is even easier and more fun when you learn a few simple advanced gestures. Here are a few good ones to get you started:

• Full screen app switching! Go to the Screen & Lock icon, scroll down to Advanced Gestures and turn on Switch Applications. Now you can swap between full screen open apps with a long swipe left or right in the gesture area. No need to go into card view.
• Open top left and right menus with one swipe. Let's say you want to quickly disable Bluetooth on your phone. Instead of tapping the screen to pull down the menu, just swipe down from the top right corner of your screen. To view the menu in an application, swipe down from the top left corner.
• Resize cards and card order. Tap and hold a card while in card view to resize the card. Drag cards to change the order.
• Quickly end a phone call. In card view, throw the Phone app card off the top of the screen to end a call.

Click here to learn more about using gestures.

Parissa M., Customer Support

Win Palm Pixi (as seen on TV)

 Christmas came a bit early for the studio audience attending a taping of today’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. As part of the show’s “12 Days of Giveaways,” each member of the studio audience was told they’d be receiving their own Palm Pixi. 

We can’t quite offer the same gift to every member of our “studio audience” for this blog, but we can give each of you the chance to win one -- just post a comment on our Facebook page telling us who on your gift list deserves their own Palm Pixi or Palm Pre. (And yes, it’s OK if that special someone on your list is actually you.) 

 If you want to find out more about the amazingly slim and powerful phone that Ellen was so enchanted by, click here for a quick tour of the “absolutely gorgeous” Palm Pixi. And be sure to follow @palm on Twitter to hear about upcoming opportunities to win Palm phones. 

Jon Zilber