Feeling like you’re spending too much time on PreCentral? We assure you that you’re not. But if you feel like you should be spending more time elsewhere on the internet, we thought you’d be glad to know that PreCentral is elsewhere on the internet as well. Be it on the old standby Twitter or our new Facebook fan page (or in the really old standby of RSS), PreCentral is everywhere that you want to be. Check it all out after the break…
The webOS 1.3.5 update is a gift that just keeps on giving. In addition to a rather lengthy changelog that lists the removal of the app limit and the ability to download updates over a 2G connection amongst other notable improvements, folks are finding a slew of undocumented changes.
The latest discovery, a playable 3D Demo utilizing JavaScript and the HTML5 Canvas tag that hadn’t worked on webOS until after the 1.3.5 update, comes from Zoen22 in our forums. While the framerate isn’t great and you have to turn your phone sideways while navigating with the keyboard, it’s a playable 3D level taking place entirely in the phone’s browser, and that’s pretty slick.
It looks like Palm is brewing a perfect storm (hello, OpenGL) for an announcement on expanded gaming capabilities for webOS at their CES presentation in a little over a week. It’s starting to look like I may very well be eating crow come January 7th.
Thanks to windzilla for the tip!
[ youtube link ]
There are plenty of reviews for the Pre and the Pixi on the web, but few (if any) do any real comparisons on the performance differences between the two handsets. Thankfully, forums member mu7efcer has taken the time to put together a series of videos that pit the two devices against each other in a side-by-side performance showdown. The results are interesting, with the Pixi being nearly as fast (web browsing) and sometimes even faster (boot time, camera performance) than the Pre.
Here’s what the videos compare:
The Pixi is pretty darn snappy, and it’s interesting to see that the sluggishness some reviewers have experienced is all but absent here. With the differences in performance between the two now documented on video, I think it needs to be said: the Pixi is one heck of a phone, especially for that form factor, and doubly so when selling for as little as $25.
The newest version of Preware (version 0.9.8) adds patching support for Palm’s newest handset, the Pixi. Thanks to the work of the webos-internals internals crew, the binary packages that are used to safely install and uninstall patches were re-compiled to support the Pixi’s processor, which is different than that of the Pre. This work is in addition to them porting these 100 plus patches from webOS 1.2.1 to webOS 1.3.1 in short order, and upgrading the server infrastructure and installation technology to support both webOS devices.
For those unfamiliar, patching through Preware can enhance the core functionality of your webOS device in many different ways. You can, for example, add more pages to the launcher, view PDF files in landscape, lower the Swap threshold, add more reminder alarm times, in addition to nearly 100 other augmentations that are currently available.
If you’re interested in learning more, our forums are a bustling place, and are a great resource for those interested in learning more about patching, how to use their device in general, discussion and more. The webos-internals group also maintains a forum here, where someone is sure to answer any Preware and patching questions you may have.
In addition to the slew of enhancements in webOS 1.3.1 that are in the official Palm documentation, enterprising users in the forums have been picking through the newest release of the software, and are finding the minutiae of the changes and enhancements that didn’t make it into Palm’s change log. Here’s some of what they’ve found:
These are the undocumented changes we’ve seen so far, and there are sure to be more that we’ve yet to find. We’ll keep you updated as they come to our attention!
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Longtime Palm fans will remember Ebag333’s investigations into the drama of true standalone, autonomous GPS on Windows Mobile Treos. He’s back at it for the Palm Pre, looking into whether or not the GPS module on the Pre can work without a data connect. Turns out it can, but it takes some doing. Ebag in the forums have been tinkering with the Qualcomm GPS equipment and its associated drivers in the CDMA version of the Pre. They’ve been able to gain access to additional GPS modes that’ll work without that active data connection, including Autonomous, Assisted, and Cached. Read: true, standalone GPS.
The hack isn’t terribly useful at this point outside of an area without data coverage, as webOS currently doesn’t have much in the way of standalone software written for it to take advantage of such a scenario, such as TomTom for the iPhone. Where the hack does come in handy, however, are acquisition times and overall accuracy: currently it can take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to get a lock using aGPS, and the accuracy of the lock can be hit or miss. The changes this hack makes can vastly improve both of those items.
These modifications are certainly not for the faint of heart, as the steps here are rather involved (think proprietary Qualcomm programs, MSL numbers, and Palm SDK’s). Honestly, unless you are a hardcore GPS chip nerd, we suggest you observe rather than act – flashing GPS chips can be risky business.
Thanks Ebag for the tip!
One thing people continually want for the WebOS is an on-screen keyboard. And why not? Sometimes you only need to write a quick message and don’t want to pull down the keyboard. Other times, you’re in landscape and don’t want to have to attempt using the hardware keyboard sideways.
Well, today PreCentral forums member Deesugar was playing around with WebShell, a browser-based SSH client, running in the Pre’s browser, when he discovered an on-screen keyboard. Don’t get too excited though. Contrary to the confusion in the forums thread, it’s not a WebOS on-screen keyboard, it’s actually just a part of WebShell, as you can see from the official screenshots webpage).
So where do that leave us? Well technically we’re back where we started, with no on-screen keyboard. That being said, it could be possible to use the WebShell keyboard as a basis to try and create one for the WebOS. Which is a definite possibility given that the WebOS itself is based on html/css/js.
Even better, it seems the idea of a virtual keyboard has been now added to PreDevWiki’s Development & Tweak Ideas page with people already working on it. Let’s hope it’s not too long before we see an official or unofficial on-screen keyboard solution.
The internet has been bombarded by Palm Pre reviews the past few days. Even though the Pre is only a day from release, they still seemed to take the tech community by storm. And our forums are no exception.
For many people, the focus was on the reviews themselves. There were countless "xxxxxx’s Palm Pre Review" threads and if a particular review seem too biased, people certainly pointed it out. Unforunately this can lead to pointless arguing and resulted in closing the thread, as what happened in the BusinessWeek review thread. A user named Jayhay312 even undertook the lengthy task of listing all the reviews (similar to what Derek did earlier today) in a single thread. Turns out there’s more than I would’ve thought. If you’d like to (peacefully) discuss a particular review, currently there are threads for the following: Associated Press, PCMagazine, PCWorld, MSNBC, USA Today, Gizmodo, SlashGear, CNET, PalmInfocenter, InformationWeek, Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, New York Times, and of course, our very own, PreCentral.
Other people on the forums were talking about their plans for the Pre. Some are talking about different prospective rate plans to choose from while numberous others are simply wondering if Sprint will deliver on their Premier Customer system. Some say they have confirmation from Sprint that they won’t, while others seem optimistics and confident they will. This whole Premier Customer situation certainly has the potential to become a huge PR problem, let’s hope it doesn’t get to that. Meanwhile, other people are making plans on how to improve their Pre smartphones once they get them: forming battery strategies, looking for Pre wallpapers, and trying to determine the best ways to transfer PIM data to the Pre.
It doesn’t end there. Yet other people on our forums seems to be pointing out the Pre’s faults and areas that the WebOS could improve. Whether it be adding Windows Live Messenger to the IM app, enabling tethering, battery concerns, adding a MS Money-compatible app, or even just figuring out how the hack into the WebOS’s linux core to allow greater functionality, the forums seem to never run out of new and interesting ideas, some of which Palm may very well want to listen to.
Feel free to stop on by the PreCentral forums and tell us what’s on your mind about the Pre. We’re open 24/7.
If you’re a follower of our PreCentral Palm Pre forums, you’re probably familiar with PedroTheGoat. The Goat (as his friends refer to him) managed to snag a full hour with the Palm Pre and posted up his thoughts:
]Go on and give The Goat your congratulations!