December 6th 2010 | Posted by
Derek Kessler
If you’ve ever done any traveling, you’re likely familiar with all of the documents, itineraries, maps, and everything else you need to keep track of. TripIt exists to get everything you need for your trip in one place, pulling in your flight and cruise itineraries, maps, and, well, everything, into one neat and accessible package. The San Francisco-based company has released apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android, along with their desktop and mobile web interfaces, but a webOS app was not in the cards.
webOS developers James Harris and Articus from Synactix would have none of that, and were actually working with TripIt to make an official webOS client. The app was more or less complete when TripIt decided against gracing the app with their name. That left Harris and Articus with a functional and beautiful TripIt app with no name. What good is making an app if you’re not going to release it, right? That’s what they thought, so the app is still going to go public, just minus the official TripIt endorsement.
Thus, it needs a new name. They’re taking suggestions until noon Pacific Time on Wednesday. The winner gets to see their suggested name on an app in the App Catalog, what more could you possibly need? How about a year’s subscription to TripIt Pro, worth $50? Yeah, you’ll get that too, that way you can take full advantage of that app you’ve so named. If you’ve got a name you think fits, post it in the forum thread to throw your hat in the ring. Our suggestion: Triptastic.
Source: Synactix
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>
August 5th 2010 | Posted by
Derek Kessler
Just the other day Palm pushed out a new app in the App Catalog called GPS Fix. The app, which aims to frequently ping the GPS system for fresh coordinates was designed to counteract whatever voodoo magic is preventing the Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus from providing accurate GPS data. The problem with those phones? For whatever reason, GPS is locked down on those phones, leaving VZ Navigator as the only app with unrestricted GPS access. Somehow, launching VZ Navigator (even without a subscription) magically enables other apps to access that GPS data.
Firing up one app to use another is obviously not an optimal solution, so that’s why developer James Harris whipped up GPS Fix. But even continual checking for fresh GPS data only can do so much before the phone craps out again and needs VZ Navigator to be launched again. James, being the awesome developer guy that he is, also whipped up a patch to supplement GPS Fix: GPS Fix for VZ Navigator.
The patch is fairly simple in concept and operation: it periodically launches VZ Navigator and then closes VZ Navigator. Due to the nature of webOS and VZ Navigator, a background session for VZ Navigator continues even after the app has been closed, allowing other GPS apps not authorized access on Verizon devices to piggyback off that service. Periodically pinging can keep the service alive, but even then it can still shut down without warning. Firing up VZ Navigator restarts the session and lets the ping-extending begin all over again.
So what’s the fuss about? James put the instructions for how to install the patch in his app, and Palm approved it as is. With all the caveats of ‘Palm doesn’t support or endorse homebrew,’ we supposed the Developer Relations team looked at that and said, “That’ll do,” and then fired up Preware and installed a few dozen patches. Okay, maybe it didn’t go quite like that, but do we need any more evidence of Palm’s continued acceptance and embrace of the homebrew community?
Source: GPS Fix
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>
