It was a brief scare, but we always like it when it wraps up with a happy ending. Palm and O2 have whipped up a fix and brought paid apps back to the European App Catalog. If you can think back all the way back to yesterday, you may recall that a second phantom webOS 1.4.1 update was pushed out in Europe, with the intention of helping move users with issues to the newer operating system. Unfortunately, it also hid all paid apps from European users, thought at least any installed apps were still there on affected phones. Thankfully, well within the promised 48-hour time frame, Pre owners on O2 can get back to the downloading of paid applications. Hugs all around.

Thanks to Martin for the tip!

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The Global Certification Forum, a mash-up of networks, manufacturers, and testing agencies has given its stamp to the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. As noticed by the:unwired, the two devices passed through the GCF’s all-knowing hands with model numbers we’ve seen and deciphered before: P101UEU and P121UEU. If you require a refresher, P101 is the Pre Plus, P121 is the Pixi Plus, and UEU means UMTS Europe (their American GSM equivalents were appended with UNA).

The certification was sparse on details, though we do have confirmation that the phones will be quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA at 900/2100 MHz, otherwise known as not compatible with AT&T.

[via: Engadget]

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Europe, Canada, and Mexico, hold on to your hats, because in one week you’ll be able to buy apps from the Palm App Catalog. Palm has informed developers that March 31st is the go-live date for the international App Catalog e-commerce program. Developers wishing to distribute their apps in other countries are encouraged to resubmit their apps with an update that will provide localized content and/or meta-data. But if you don’t want to do that, Palm’s cool with that too.

In order to get as many paid apps in the various international App Catalog incarnations as possible, Palm’s Developer Relations Team will expedite the review process for apps tagged for international distribution (so expect plenty of updates in the coming week with no version change for the app). Apps submitted for sale in the United States, Canada, and Mexico will receive payment in US dollars, while apps submitted for Germany, Spain, the UK, and Ireland will receive payment in Euros (and from Palm subsidiary Palm Global Operations Ltd). Additionally, Palm is now accepting applications submissions for the upcoming launch of the webOS on SFR.

Developers: start your submission engines. International webOS users: start chilling the bubbly, for next Wednesday we celebrate.

Thanks to anonymous tipsters!

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App availability on webOS outside the United States has been a long and arduous saga – one we’re hoping is coming to an end soon. Over at Palm’s developer forums, we have some clear evidence from psartini that Palm is well on their way to laying the groundwork for offering paid apps internationally – they’ve begun adding code to their developer backend to support VAT. ‘VAT’ as in ‘Value added tax,’ as in ‘necessary for processing payments internationally.

In addition to the above, an anonymous source expresses confidence that Palm is targeting March for offering paid apps to all countries. One more tidbit – right now Palm and EA have partnered to offer EA’s webOS offerings for free to webOS users outside the US – but the free program ends …March 31st.So for all you folks outside the US: Get your EA games for free while the getting’s good and take heart at this glimmer of hope that your long international nightmare of not having paid apps on webOS may soon be over.

Oh, one last hopeful note: Palm has also promised to bring the new and improved Facebook app to international users "soon."

Thanks, anonymous!

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Spanish Pre users needn’t worry about when they’re going to get 3D gaming, as Electronic Arts has come to the rescue. Available now in the App Catalog on Movistar in Spain is a new app: Need For Speed Undercover (GRATIS), for the price of gratis. Gratis being free. And as best as we can tell, it’s the full version that will run you $9.99 in the States.

Yep, that’s right, NFSU is available to Spanish Pre owners for zero dollars down and zero dollars a month. The in-game content has even been translated into Spanish. Amusingly, due to the size of the game, the App Catalog description carries a request to download it over Wi-Fi instead of the HSDPA network.

Oh, and Spanish Pre owners aren’t the only ones that can get in on the hot PDK action in Europe. Those in merry old England (as well as the rest of the United Kingdom and our friends in Ireland) can download the English-language version of Need For Speed Undercover (FREE) for, well, free.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see more PDK demo apps like Need For Speed coming to the European App Catalog in the near future. With paid apps due to launch across the pond next month, developers will want to get a taste of their apps in the mouths of webOS users starving for more application action.

Thanks to pitsop for the tip!

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While it’s an issue for a few CDMA Pre owners, the problem is a major complaint for GSM webOS users: network time sync just doesn’t work the way it should. In the US most Pre and Pixi owners can roam across the country and their phone will pick up and sync the time with local cell towers – useful for when crossing into different time zones. What’s not so awesome is how this sometimes just doesn’t work in Europe, but as always we can count on an enterprising developer to come up with a solution.

To the rescue here is content754 and the new Clock Sync app. This app is a simple utility that instead of trying to sync the phone’s internal clock with the network time connects to online time servers and gets an accurate read on the current hour. It can even run in the background and sync your time every few hours to prevent temporal shift. Judging by the near unanimous 50+ five-star reviews (many in languages this blogger can’t read), it’s a godsend for those with this problem.

Clock Sync is available now in the App Catalog for the low low price of absolutely free. Depending on when webOS 1.4 (which should fix the issue) arrives for GSM Pre users, it could be a godsend.

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In the AdMob mobile internet traffic report from the 3rd quarter of 2009, Palm’s two operating systems were lumped together in the “not that significant” category. With 2009 behind us, the last quarter has shown growth in webOS traffic [pdf] (and decline in Palm OS) significant enough that the operating system now gets a color all to itself. While the iPhone still dominates internet traffic reports pretty much everywhere but Africa and Asia (both owned by Symbian), webOS uptake has been significant enough to warrant note in both the North American and Western Europe smartphone OS share breakdowns. Palm even logs a spot in the top worldwide manufacturers list, grabbing a depressing 1.0% of the global share of requests.

What’s more fun, however, is how the Pre itself stacks up against the competition. In North America, Palm’s little smartphone accounted for 2.9% of AdMob ad requests from smartphones in the last quarter of 2009, while in Western Europe the Pre clocked in at 0.9%. While those numbers are low, they are placing the Pre as the #8 smartphone in North America and #7 in Western Europe.

As before, Palm devices account for a large share of the traffic on Sprint’s network, though that share has been halved since the last quarter. Don’t panic, it’s not a defection away from Palm, but more of an explosion of traffic from new smartphones (such as the Samsung Moment) on Sprint’s network that has driven down Palm’s share.

And as always, it is worth noting that AdMob’s mobile advertising business flourished on the iPhone and that their statistics are based entirely upon requests for their ads. While AdMob is indeed the dominate mobile ad distributor, they are geared heavily towards iPhone advertisement and thus their numbers show a substantial skew towards iPhone traffic. That said, their numbers are good for quarter-to-quarter comparisons.

[via: TamsPalm]

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Not that long after the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus launched on Verizon here in the states, the folks over at WinFuture.de have uncovered certifications for the handset in Europe. TÜV Rheinland, a German firm that handles wireless certifications in Europe, had in its hands a product from Palm that may ring some bells: the P101EWW. Otherwise known as the Palm Pre Plus. According to TÜV Rheinland’s certification page, the P101EWW (or in GSM parlance, the P101UNA), cleared their standards back on 12 November, 2009. As WinFuture noted, O2 recently reduced the price of the Palm Pre on their network. Whether this is a move to clear stock in anticipation of the arrival of the Pre Plus on their network, to attract more customers before the newer phone arrives on a competitor’s network (FYI, O2 does not operate in France where SFR will be getting the Pre), or simply a natural progression of dropping technology costs and slackened demand is unclear.

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While owners of the Palm Pre in Europe are still languishing with a few hundred apps (if that many) of the free variety, they can at least take heart that their carrier hasn’t abandoned them. As noted by teltarif.de, O2 is actually behind the creation of at least four German-language webOS apps: Mobile eBay, Xing, N24, and FriendScout24. Xing is a business social networking site similar to LinkedIn and popular in Germany, FriendScout24 is Germany’s top dating website, and N24 is a German news channel (News 24, eh). Mobile eBay, as you’ve likely deduced from its clever title, is eBay Germany formatted for your webOS phone. While Europe won’t be getting paid applications until March, webOS users in Germany can at least take heart that their carrier is still looking out for them.

Thanks to Hans for the tip!

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The night is well underway in Europe, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get a webOS update. As it would turn out, mere weeks after hitting Palm Pre and Pixi phones in the United States and Canada, Pre owners on O2 in Europe can now pull down their latest webOS updated in the form of webOS 1.3.5.2. What’s different about this version from webOS 1.3.5.1 in the United States is currently an unknown, we’re waiting for the changelog to land right now. In the meantime, welcome to the land of space for apps, Europe!

UPDATE: We have a changelog after the break for you, but what’s important may not be in there. According to German-language tech site Heise Mobil, Palm has baked and enabled bluetooth tethering into webOS 1.3.5.2. Users in our forum have tested this out and wonder of wonders, it works.

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