In the latest move that may bode well for HP’s expansion of webOS into the enterprise (we covered its new channel plans last week) the company has hired Mark Angelino as its new senior vice president, Global Distribution, HP Enterprise Business. His job will include managing relationships for the many types of companies (integrators, service providers, consultants and vendors) that help HP get its products into the hands of enterprise customers.

From a Palm perspective, Angelino’s prior positions (including sales and marketing jobs at Sprint Nextel and most recently serving as a senior executive for customer services at Salesforce.com, as well as a “long stint at IBM,”) may bode well for his being able to understand and promote the place of a mobile operating system and multitasking smartphones within the enterprise. We also note that, in making the announcement, HP made a point of highlighting Mr. Angelino’s background in "cloud computing, telecommunications and sales," all very relevant for promoting webOS smartphones and other devices.

We wish Mr. Angelino much success in his new role at HP, and hope to hear great things from him about webOS devices in the near future.

(Source: ITChannelPlanet)

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After a rulemaking process lasting more than a year, the U.S. Copyright Office (which is part of the Library of Congress) has issued new rules about the types of activities, which includes some smartphone-related ones, that it feels do not violate the anti-circumvention rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). 

By way of background, the DMCA, in addition to clarifying how online activities would be treated under U.S. copyright law, created a new prohibition against circumventing (going around) a copyright holder’s protections, whether code-based or otherwise, in addition to any claims of infringement. Not only is it illegal to do this circumvention, but it’s also illegal to "traffic" in technologies for doing so (which is how the people who published the DeCSS Linux DVD decryption algorithm also got into trouble). The problem is that, while the anti-circumvention rules may help to prevent piracy, they can also make it harder to do things that are otherwise legal, such as excerpting a small portion of a copy-protected DVD movie to show as part of a review, or creating tools that work well on locked-down smartphones. As a result, the Copyright Office proposed and has now finalized carveouts for some of these activities.

Among the six exceptions to the DMCA (to be published on Tuesday, July 27 in the Federal Register) are two that are of immediate relevance to our community:

(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

(3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.

How does this affect webOS? Well, there are already plenty of open source components in webOS and beyond that, it’s much more accessible than, say, iOS. While Palm and HP have been substantially more friendly to patchers, there are still elements of the operating system and especially the third-party applications bundled with it whose interoperability and background function is, shall we say, of interest to some. Having this new guidance from the Copyright Office may provide some comfort to our developer community that their exploration might not be as potentially hazardous to their legal health as they’d previously thought.

Still – it’s fun to note that webOS is more open than some open source projects and that the very idea of having to jailbreak or root a webOS is kind of silly – that access is baked in and documented for any and all to use right out of the box.

More coverage: Android Central & What jailbreaking/unlocking DMCA means for end users at TiPb

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HyperDevBox’ ExZeus, currently available for iPhone and Android, has just hit the Palm Pre and webOS. The game, a futuristic shooter, has fast, responsive animation, which (along with its cross-platform nature) shows the power of the PDK. Intriguingly, the video of the game on the HyperDevBox YouTube channel shows "online network" and "worldwide highscore" features. You can also see a video of Lovecatch, another HyperDevBox game reportedly on its way for Pre users.

If you’re wondering why we’ve all been so hot for webOS 1.4.5 to finally land stateside, check out videos of the two games below the break. You can also read descriptions of ExZeus and Lovecatch on the HyperDevBox Web site.
 

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We have covered the issues with the GPS on Verizon Wireless’ Pre Plus in great detail (see here and here for just a few of our stories), and our forums have been filled with complaints, suggestions and patches all working to allow apps other than the VZ Navigator program reliably get correct GPS fixes on the Verizon devices. Yesterday, based on a suggestion I made in the forum, webOS developer James Harris (creator of Flashcards and other great apps) quickly put together GPS Fix, now available via the Palm Beta feed.

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PalmOS veterans fondly remember Graffiti, Palm’s easy and reliable character recognition method that was its first innovation (predating even its own devices, since it launched as a software package for Apple’s Newton), and that paved the way for its phenomenal success in the PDA marketplace. While Palm’s own Graffiti fell victim to a longstanding and expensive Xerox patent dispute and was replaced by the less-useful Graffiti 2, many of us still long for unistroke character entry for our modern webOS devices.

While we wait for some homebrew developer to take this on (hint, hint!), Android users have just gotten Graffiti for their devices, courtesy of (ironically enough) Access, the company to which PalmOS veterans fondly remember Graffiti, Palm’s easy and reliable character recognition method that was its first innovation (predating even its own devices, since it launched as a software package for Apple’s Newton), and that paved the way for its phenomenal success in the PDA marketplace. While Palm’s own Graffiti fell victim to a longstanding and expensive Xerox patent dispute and was replaced by the less-useful Graffiti 2, many of us still long for unistroke character entry for our modern webOS devices. While we wait for some homebrew developer to take this on (hint, hint!), Android users have just gotten Graffiti for their devices, courtesy of (ironically enough) Access, the company to which Palm sold its PalmSource software division back in 2005, and which now has the official rights to Graffiti following the settlement of the Xerox case. We wish our AndroidCentral colleagues fun scribbling on their screens! Source: PalmInfoCenter, via Engadget”>Palm sold its PalmSource software division back in 2005, and which now has the official rights to Graffiti following the settlement of the Xerox case. We wish our AndroidCentral colleagues fun scribbling on their screens!

Source: PalmInfoCenter, via Android Central 

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Comics fans seeking the latest info on their favorite characters and creators now have a new webOS resource available to them in the App Catalog: ComicBookBin, courtesy of the ComicBookBin site. What is it? Well:

The ComicBookBin iPhone app helps comic book collectors plan comic book conventions attendance, locate comic book stores in multiple locations, as well as provide access to over 10,000 articles published about comics, toys, movies and books since 2002

We were encouraged by the discussion by the site’s Hervé St-Louis of the performance of the the new app:

I’m happy to report that ComicBookBin on webOS and my Palm Pre is faster than the Android version and the iPhone version by a long shot. There’s no comparison. It flies.

Happily, the app is available for the opening of the giant San Diego Comic Con. Here’s hoping that webOS users will also soon have applications to actually read comic books on our phones.

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Henk van Ess, who describes himself as a "a Dutch born investigative journalist and accidental entrepreneur" who sells MiFi cellular WiFi access points, recently took an order from Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) himself. After verifying that it was the real Woz, van Ess started an e-mail conversation with Woz about the iPhone 4 and other issues, and received permission to post the conversation on his site.

While Woz is always interesting, of particular importance to our community was his suggestions for how iPhone 4 users can deal with the unreliability of the AT&T data network: 

If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone. I have used this mifi technique to rescue my own, and others’, iPhones on occasion. If you buy a Verizon Palm Pre, you get free mifi on it so that is possible the best ‘compromise’ solution, to carry a Verizon Palm Pre along with your AT&T iPhone 4.

Woz continues that he has a Pre (Plus) with Verizon, and notes that "[a]t first [Verizon] charged but then they made free a built-in mifi ability (Mobile Hotspot)."

It’s great to know that Steve Wozniak is a member of our community, and we encourage him to explore his Pre Plus; it has a lot more to offer than just a free Wi-Fi connection!

Source: Mifieurope.com (via Mobilecrunch)
 

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This morning brings great news for webOS users from both Rod Whitby and his webOS Internals team, and PreCentral’s own Jason Robitaille. The latest version of Preware, 1.2.0 (now in the webOS Internals testing feed), includes a new Install Package feature (accessible via the dropdown menu) which enables users to install a homebrew application or other package from a URL or the USB partition on the phone itself. This capability has been lacking from the Pre since Palm closed an early security hole more than a year ago that allowed users to install packages via an e-mail link. According to Rod Whitby of webOS Internals this morning on Twitter, the Preware implementation addresses potential security issues by displaying the real URL or local file path before asking the user to confirm the install."

Not to be outdone, Jason Robitaille also let the Twitter world know this morning that version 1.2 of his multifaceted file browser Internalz, which is scheduled for release on July 25th, will also include direct package installation along with some other cool new features like text editing. Jason intended to keep package installation "a secret bonus for v1.2 release," but after webOS Internals announced its release, he decided to tell the public.

This type of cooperative competition, continuing expanding the limits (and abilities) of webOS, are one of the best aspects of our community, and no doubt a major reason why HP’s Phil McKinney gave an explicit shoutout to the homebrew community at his MobileBeat 2010 keynote on Monday morning.

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In an interview with The Financial Times, Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel’s CEO, discussed the company’s potential adoption of the LTE (for Long Term Evolution) 4G wireless technology for mobile phones. This technology has already been selected by T-Mobile USA (as well as Verizon Wireless and AT&T), although Sprint’s current 4G technology is based on the competing WiMAX standard.

The move toward LTE by Sprint led the Financial Times to ask Hesse about possible merger opportunities for the third (Sprint) and fourth (T-Mobile) largest US carriers. According to the Financial Times piece, "Mr Hesse accepted there was a ‘logic’ to a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA if they were both using the same 4G technology, but declined to comment about deal activity." The FT also notes that while Sprint has enough radio spectrum to roll out both 4G technologies, T-Mobile USA may not, further encouraging the merger. (This is quite a different situation from that which we reported last September, when T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telecom was considering purchasing Sprint.)

Given that there aren’t any (current) webOS devices using either 4G standard, the implications of this potential technology adoption and merger for the Palm community aren’t clear. Should Sprint switch to LTE, though, it would make the likely 4G hardware path for Palm much clearer, with all four (or three, if the Sprint/T-Mobile merger happens) major US carriers on a single standard, and could even help get webOS devices onto T-Mobile, where they currently don’t yet work officially.

Source: Financial Times; via Engadget and webOSroundup

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HP has published its official press release announcing the completion of the Palm acquisition, and its brief text includes quite a few carrots for the hungry webOS faithful. One is this quote from Todd Bradley, the EVP of HP’s Personal Systems Group (to whom Jon Rubinstein and his Palm global business unit will report):

With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products. This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS.

For those wishing for official confirmation that Palm will remain a smartphone provider, there it is.

Even more exciting is what the release says about how broadly that "footprint" will stretch:

Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.

Forget about the Foleo that was for sale on eBay yesterday: HP has just definitively told the world that slate PCs (aka tablets) and netbooks running webOS are in the works.

Full release after the break!

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