We’ve waited, we’ve asked, PreCentral forum members have lobbied, and now we’re officially being rejected: DataViz announced today on its Facebook page that it "made the difficult decision to cancel development for Docs To Go for WebOS":

We regret to announce that we have made the difficult decision to not produce a Web OS version of Documents To Go. We understand that our delay in this area has caused much disappointment to our current and very loyal user base. We would like to explain in more detail the reasoning behind our decisions thus far.

Our intention had been to replace the Palm Viewers, which were based on the Documents To Go technology, with a full editing, aftermarket version of Documents To Go. In order to do this in a way that we felt would be most intuitive to users, we wanted to have the full version seamlessly replace the built in viewers. To do this, we needed some technical help from Palm. Because Palm was focusing on other areas at the time (including their very survival), and there was no official information available allowing developers to help ourselves, i.e., an SDK, there was a delay in getting us this information. Rather than do a substantially larger project that would result in a "sub-optimal" user experience, we decided to wait. This wait was much longer than anyone at DataViz expected. During this wait, we focused our efforts on other smartphone platforms, not because we were not loyal to Palm, but because it made "business sense" to do so. We have now come to the realization that it is not in DataViz’ nor our users’ best interests to continue the wait and produce the full version. We understand that another developer has chosen to create an editing Office product for webOS and we wish them the best. Again, we apologize to our users for taking this long to reach, what is for DataViz and many of our users, a disappointing conclusion.

This decision is both disappointing and irritating for many within the webOS community, especially those who have been loyal Dataviz customers since the original Docs To Go came out for Palm OS. Its rationale is also a bit suspect, given the ready availability of Palm’s PDK for months, as well as the fact that the HP acquisition closed more than two months ago, with many, many PDK-based apps being developed and released, some quite sophisticated, since then.

Here’s hoping that we get an editing solution in short order, possibly from "another developer" with the interest in webOS users’ business that DataViz apparently lacks.

Source: DataViz; Thanks to BruceBradford in our forums for the heads-up!

UPDATE: Oh, well that might explain it. DataViz has been bought by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion for a cool $50 million. So it’s not just webOS that’s about to be left out of the loop; we wouldn’t be surprised to see all non-BlackBerry OS DataViz products discontinued or left to waste away in the land of no updates. Read all about it over at CrackBerry.com.

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It’s a new month, a new day, and we’ve got new apps. Newness all around!

• Tapotron trial version is a unique touch music generator, with pitches laid out how it makes sense for smartphone-holding fingers.
• WTF: What the Fractal lets you create and dig into deeper and deeper fractals.
• Don’t touch! serves and protects your phone from prying hands. Leave it sitting out and it’ll respond angrily to any who dare disturb your phone.
• BeebListen, for UK residents only, bring’s the BBC radio’s iPlayer on-demand content to your phone.

There’s more, as usual, after the break.

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Facebook app is everywhere – iOS, Android, and of course webOS. In fact, Facebook App for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi has been available since the original launch of Palm Pre over a year ago. And now comes the new version that supports webOS 1.3. Everything is improved over 1.1 version that was release in [...]

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Yesterday was kind of a big day at Palm, so we’ll forgive them for not going all gangbusters with the new apps. Even so, the small app drop brought some interesting bits along with it:

• Training Pulse helps you to calculate your exercise heart rates, including everything from aerobic to anaerobic to red zone training. ($1.99, by Ing.Gelbard; free version)
• Game Of Life is a simple evolving life simulator where you create and cultivate single-celled life. (Free, by omoco)
• Thermal Pad turns your Pixi’s screen into a faux-heat-sensitive screen where you can create interesting and sometimes beautiful patterns. (Free, by fabi.me; Pre version).

There’s more (not a lot, but still something) in list for past the break.

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According to the internal screenshot pictured above originating from deep within the bowels of Verizon, it’s looking like Big Red is looking to bring more advanced devices, such as 3G smartphones like the Palm Pre and Pixi and even the Motorola Droid, into the prepaid fold.  There’s no word on what these devices would be priced at, but a $45 monthly voice plan and $30 unlimited data add-on could make this a very attractive option indeed, so long as handset pricing isn’t exorbitant.

So does this put a damper on those rumors that the Palm Pre Plus would be end-of-life’d on on October 21st?

Via: Engadget; Source: Android Does; Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

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Who wants apps? Yes you do, don’t lie. Good thing we’ve got new apps for you.

• Miriel the Magical Merchant brings your into a magical world where you play Miriel, a general store proprietor looking to expand to a kingdom-wide empire.
• One Tap Launcher is ridiculously simple in execution and concept: select the apps you want, and launch them with one tap time and time again.
• Rednecks Vs. Aliens is all about goofy fun tower defense, your goal is to defend your farmhouse from invading aliens. With potato guns. And mayonaisse.

That would be the highlights. Clearly, that’s left you wanting more. Good thing we’ve got more – just head on past the break to check it out.

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Well isn’t this serendipitous? Just as we started a week’s worth of Facebook for webOS Tips, Palm has dropped an update to the FaceBook for webOS Beta, updating it to 1.3.1. As RanGT notes in our forums, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of newness here, but Palm does write that there are "some bugfixes and performance improvements" to be had. We are detecting increased snappiness all around.

If you haven’t upgraded from the regular version of FaceBook to the Beta, we suggest you join us in the future – our own Adam Marks tells you how here.

Source: Facebook Beta for webOS; Thanks, RanGT!

Update: Looks like the official, App Catalog version of Facebook is up to 1.3 now, bringing landscape viewing, filtered news feeds, and more to the masses. If the Beta version scares you (it shouldn’t, but we don’t judge), snap it up. Thanks foggylemon!

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We were pretty jazzed up about neato! for webOS last week and now that it’s here, we thought it might be useful to show you all just how cool it is in video-form. What neato! does is let you a bookmark to any browser that you can use to send ’stuff’ to your Pre or Pixi. Just have neato! running in the background, click the bookmark, and then:

• URLs: If you don’t highlight any text in your browser, the URL for the page you’re visiting gets opened up directly
• YouTube & Google Maps: If you happen to be looking at a YouTube video or a Google Map page, neato! will open those apps up directly
• Text: highlight some text and neato! will send that text to the neato! app on your phone so you can copy it
• Apps: Yep: highlight the URL for an app and you can send that to your phone to open it up either in the App Catalog or in Preware for direct installation

It’s hard to ‘get’ until you’ve tried it, but trust us when we say it’s well worth the $1.43 asking price. Check out a video showing how to do all of the above, after the break!

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We’ve asked you about your favorite apps and your favorite tweaks in previous editions of our ongoing PC Brain Trust series, and the topic this time is music.

There are a number of approaches to listening to music on our webOS devices.  We can sync our music manually by dragging and dropping files from folder to folder, we can use old versions of iTunes or programs like The Missing Sync to automatically sync music to our devices, or we can use cloud based solutions like DropBox and streaming solutions like GrooveShark to pipe music in without going through the hassle of syncing.  

With the myriad of options available, we have to ask:  how do you choose to listen to music on your phone?  Do you stream exclusively, preferring the variety associated with the huge libraries of music companies like Pandora and GrooveShark have access to?  Do you you prefer the fidelity and control offered by having high bitrate MP3’s and WAV files hosted locally on your device?  Or do you pursue an approach that mixes the two?

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It’s time for new apps! Huzzah! What, you want some highlights first? Fine, I’ll give you two:

• neato!, which we profiled just the other day, is $1.43 app from Zhephree designed to allow you to send links from your computer to your phone simply by using a simple bookmarklet in your desktop browser. It’s like Chrome to Phone for webOS and any browser you like.
• Sigma, by BigStack Studios ($1.99), gives you two rotating 3D columns filled with colored tiles you want to match by sending across the gap to tiles on the other column. It’s wacky, mates.

There’s more newness, more updatedness (kinda newness?) after the break waiting for perusal by your eyes. Yes… yeeeessssssssssss…

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