In this edition of our Tip Roundup, we thought it would be a good idea to present the top tips as rated by you, the users. In case you haven’t noticed, every tip includes a rating area on the bottom that allows you to give anywhere from 1 to 5 stars for that tip. So, please be sure to always rate the usefulness of the tips you read, so we can find the best ones to share in the future. Continue reading after the break to find out which tips took the top honors
Welcome to Round Table, which is in fact not a table at all. Round Table is a continuing series on PreCentral where we pose a question to the staff and they provide their thoughts and insights. The question could be something simple like “what’s your favorite use for the Pre’s mirror?” or something a bit more complicated, like “why are you sticking with webOS (or are you)?” Or maybe we’ll just end up discussing our sandwich workflow. Today, however, we’re diving into the latest version of webOS. While few have been able to handle webOS 2.0, the veritable cornucopia of videos, screenshots, and reviews have made it easy to draw some preliminary conclusions. After the break, see what the crew has to say about HP webOS 2.0.
So, with the disclosure of FCC documents on the upcoming Palm P102UEU, it’s becoming clear that the next Palm device is going to be a spec-bumped Pre. The phone even uses the exact same Touchstone back as the current Pre phones and is confirmed to be a slider device, so it can’t be that different physically than what we already have. The only specs we’ve been able to confirm are a quad-band GSM radio (this one of the European variety, not AT&T), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 1150 mAh battery (again, same as the current phones), and a 1 GHz processor that may or may not be the TI OMAP 3630. Apart from that, there’s not a whole lot we can deduce about the device, except to assume that it may come with increased storage space. We wouldn’t count on a bump in RAM, as the 512MB in the Pre Plus has been proven more than capable.
With the same form factor there’s only so much that can be shoehorned into a Pre-shaped package. The camera may receive a bump in megapixels, but we wouldn’t count on auto-focus or zoom or any fanciness like that. Additionally, we wouldn’t expect to see any significant additions that wouldn’t be plug-and-play with the current hardware (e.g. the software- and pinset-compatible OMAP 3630 processor), so forget about front-facing cameras, compasses, gyroscopes, 4G radios, a larger and/or higher-resolution screen (320×480 is still fairly dense for the size), or anything like that.
So the question stands asking: with only so much upgrade available to be packed into the P102-series (Pre 2?), how much incentive is there for you to make the jump with (hopefully) more impressive hardware down the road? It’s a question that’s going to be especially of interest to Sprint (plus Bell and Telcel) subscribers, who are stuck with the original Palm Pre with no option to upgrade to a more capable Pre Plus without any hardware hackery. So, here’s the question: do you want a spec-bumped P102UEU now, a tricked-out webOS super phone later, or both?
Do you want a spec-bumped P102UEU now (Q4 2010) or a webOS super phone later (Q1 2011)?online surveys
After you take a picture or video, you can quickly access your Photo Roll (for last photo) or Video Roll (for last video) directly from within the camera/camcorder app. After you snap your picture/video, you will see a thumbnail of it on the bottom left of the screen. All you need to do is tap on that thumbnail and your picture/video will be loaded up. At that point, you can swipe back to return to the camera/camcorder, or if you are looking at a picture, you can swipe left or right on the picture to browse through the pictures in your Photo Roll.
Using the touchscreen controls while operating the Camera or Camcorder can be a bit awkward at times or make it tough to take a self-photo. Good thing that there are a few keyboard shortcuts that you can use:
Camera:
Camcorder:
Developing for webOS has its pros and cons. On the one hand, you have the easiest mobile platform for web developers to target. On the other hand, the application-programming interfaces (APIs) for natively accessing important features aren’t all fully baked yet. To wit: the microphone and camera.
Now that Palm’s Plugin Developer Kit (PDK) is out in public beta, there is renewed hope for getting these API’s and therefore a new breed of applications. Ben Combee (@unwiredben) of Palm’s Developer Relations team is posting a series of FAQ’s on his livejournal page and his has shared that the latest PDK will not include those API’s for the mic or camera.
We still hold out hope that access will come soon and apps like Shazam or true barcode scanners will become possible – but it looks like we’ll be waiting a bit longer.
You’ll also find within the FAQ a tidbit on Pixi support for the PDK. It’s there, but in a VERY limited way. Ben says you can try testing apps out for Pixi but we should keep in mind 3D gaming isn’t intended for the initial build.
In general, we have a lot of hope for the PDK. The ability to mix and match traditional webOS formatting elements with native code could be a Big Deal for faster and more advanced apps.
Thanks to Gene for the tip! via PalmNewsDaily
Update: Ben Combee rightly posts an clarification that we neglected to mention with regard to camera access:
Added small clarification to FAQ on PDK camera support — you can capture images from Mojo and then load them into a native PDK component.
We’ve been working on this one for several days now, but it seems that every time we’ve got it ready, a new bug crops up and we have to do some revising. Enough is enough, we say, it’s time to put this out there. We’ve already covered the confusing, inconvenient, and frustrating Daylight Savings Time bug that many webOS users have run into; now is the time to look at what other new problems have afflicted Pre and Pixi phones across the world. There surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly, a lot of stuff to point out. While not everybody is experiencing any or all of the issues listed after the break, we’ve heard from enough of you (and seen some of these problems ourselves) that we know there are some distinct issues out there. It’s a wordy list, as we are wont to do, so if you’re interested in finding out if you’re not alone in your glitchy nature, head past the break for the scoop.
EDIT: As the commenters have so astutely pointed out, I apparently need to get my eyes checked again. That’s an HTC Touch Dual. Mea culpa.
While more and more TV shows are learning that its simply easier to use the apps that come on smartphones, there are still some that insist on making a custom interface to accomplish simple tasks, like taking a picture. Leverage happens to be one of those shows, making fancy with the taking of pictures instead of just using the camera app that comes on the Palm Pre. But hey, making the phone look fancier than it is? Sure, that’s cool too.
Thanks to Mvsscooby for the tip!
Ask just about any Pre owner and they’ll tell you that the phone’s camera is among the best smartphone cameras out there. But they may also lament the camera’s inability to take good macro (close-up) shots, though that is a limitation that afflicts the vast majority of phone cameras, let alone most consumer-grade point-and-shoot cameras. So when you find yourself in need of a good close-up shot and all you’ve got is your Pre, what should you do?
Look for an old DVD player you can disassemble. PreCentral Forum member jasonrw found instructions on how extracting the laser lens from a DVD player and holding it in front of the Pre’s camera can yield some surprisingly decent macro shots. Jason turned his Pre onto nearby flowers, and got to within one inch to get sharp focused pictures of their centers. The pictures are so close and sharp that you can even see the pollen collected on the petals, as you can see above. We’ve got a few more shots after the break.
So that got us thinking, which is a mighty dangerous thing. A good many Pre owners have bought Touchstone chargers and consequently a replacement back to gain inductive charging capabilities. But now they have a shiny black original back lying around doing nothing. Why not mount the DVD laser lens over the camera hole on your old back and have a quick macro lens available when you most need one?
We all knew it was just a matter of time before video recording came to the Pre. The camera and other hardware are easily strong enough to support it. It’s just the software that needs to be upgraded.
Over last few weeks there’s been some interesting unofficial developments in this area. Way back on August 6th, the user cpcrook first reported getting video recording working from commandline. Since then, the WebOS-Internals wiki page on video recording has grown and video recording is looking like a realistic possibility in the future.
A same video from the Pre’s camera from zonyl can be found here and it looks pretty darn good; 30fps at 320×480px with pretty good clarity and color. In addition, an open source video camera service and test application have been posted, with using reporting varying levels of success.
There are a few caveats, of course. Video is limited to 320×480, doesn’t have sound, and comes out by default badly formatted. And by badly formatted, I mean most video players won’t be able read the file. If you are brave enough to test out this stuff, one player that does seem to be able to show the videos is SMPlayer.
Considering the Pre’s hardware can reportedly handle up to 720×480@30fps, hopefully we’ll one day see a high quality official software solution from Palm. Until then, long live homebrew!