Welcome to "Homebrew Week" for PreCentral’s Tip of the day. We will be focusing on some simple Homebrew apps, patches or hacks that will help you add some key functionality to your phone. No advanced knowledge is necessary, as long as you know how to use webOS Quick Install and Preware. 

While the touchstone is an amazing and convenient accessory for your webOS device, you may have noticed that there is no way to actually turn off the lock screen with the clock when your phone is on the touchstone.  This may be a nice feature during the day, it also acts as an often unwanted night-light. Or on the flip side, what if you want to keep your screen always on and not go to the lock screen, such as in situations where you are following directions on Google Maps.  Luckily, Homebrew has some simple solutions for you.  Keep reading after the break to learn how

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In two independent tests conducted by CNET and MOTO Development Group (not to be confused with Motorola) pitted the screen of the Palm Pre against several competitors, and we ended up with a mixed bag of results for the flagship webOS handset.

We’ll start with the good, and that’s CNET’s test of color accuracy. CNET tested maximum brightness, black level, and contrast ratio electronically, displayed test pattern screens to check for errors and 24-bit compatibility, and then tooled around with games, photos, and the sun for some anecdotal evidence. The top-ranked screen came from the Motorola Droid, which had great colors, an impressive contrast ratio, and sharp text. Number two was the Palm Pre Plus (the Pre and Pre Plus have identical screens), which came in right behind the Droid. Color-wise, the Pre was spot on, with fuller tones than the iPhone 3GS, but not oversaturated like the Nexus One. While the Pre’s extra-bright backlight to produce some clouding, the Pre’s screen was hands-down the best outdoor sunlight performer.

MOTO Development Group took a different aspect of screen testing: touch accuracy. Previously, they had a tester trace a diagonal grid across a number of smartphone screens to test their tracking accuracy. The results for most, with the exception of the iPhone, were disappointing. But we like consistency, and consistency goes hand-in-hand with robots. So MOTO rigged up a robot with a false capacitive finger and went about tracing a test pattern on the same phones again, this time with uniform speed and pressure. While the Palm Pre performed quite well under medium pressure (with the exception of the bottom and bottom right corner), once the robot eased up to the “light” level (narrowing pseudo-finger), things started to fall apart. Granted, tracking was nearly as bad as the Motorola Droid or the BlackBerry Storm 2, but to call the light results good would be quite the stretch. General rule: More finger contact = better tracking accuracy.

[via: Engadget]

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Now that the Pixi has been announced to fit 320×400px (80 pixels shorter than the Pre), there have been a fair bit of questions raised, in regards to application compatibility.  You can all breath a sigh of release. Most will be unaffected.

As the WebOS is based off HTML, CSS and javascript, it is one of the most size-flexible operating systems out there.  Considering the only screen size difference is in its height, you can already see how a shorter screen functions by how the Pre’s screen resizes when you get a notification; the extra content is just a scroll away.

Not all applications will be immune to issues in the resolution change, however. As it was pointed out on the Palm Developer Network blog, applications that take up the whole screen of the Pre, like games, will encounter issues and will need to be updated.

To aid developers, kesne on our forums has put together a list of tips on how to prepare applications to be compatible with the Pixi’s shorter screen. Practical advice, like enabling the scene scroller, and keeping headers, images, and buttons at reasonable sizes, will help keep apps Pixi-ready.

Sure all this may sound good in theory, but how could one test applications when the Palm Pixi isn’t due out for a few months? Easy! The emulator can be easily altered to work in 320×400px resolution. For Windows computers, go to C:/Users/<Your Username>/.VirtualBox/Machines/Palm Emulator (1.1.0.19)/ and open up "Palm Emulator (1.1.0.19).xml". Change the line:

<ExtraDataItem name="CustomVideoMode1" value="320×480x32"/>

to:

<ExtraDataItem name="CustomVideoMode1" value="320×400x32"/>

And then launch the emulator. It’ll now show what you’d roughly see on the Pixi. Chances are Palm will update some CSS files for the Pixi to get things looking slightly better on the smaller screen, but this Pixi-esque emulator will definitely help developers with updating compatibility.  And in all honestly, this shorter WebOS emulator doesn’t look half bad. Certainly bodes well for the Palm Pixi.

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It didn’t take long for the first cracked screen report to surface, with our first confirmed crack being photographed and posted on our forums at 7:52pm on 6/7/09 (that’s the day after launch).

It first appeared to be an isolated incident, but it quickly became apparent that this is not a unique problem. A fair number of individuals are reporting screen cracks originating from the center button, and then spider-webbing up the device. Thankfully, Sprint seems to be on the ball with the problem, and most folks are reporting replacement devices being handed out without having to go through the TEP or paying any deductible.

This is certainly not a good sign, with devices barely out of the box already showing some pretty severe durability issues. These are also not devices that are being dropped, and most folks are reporting just pulling the device out of their pocket only to see the massive crack. If you’ve encountered a cracked screen of your own, or know someone who has, please let us know in the comments! If this turns out to be a widespread problem, it could spell very serious trouble for Palm and Sprint alike.

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Yeah, we’re jealous. There’s no use hiding it. Boy Genius Report broke just yesterday that they had a Palm Pre and now they’ve come out with the review: they like it.

Unfortunately, it looks as if the ROM on the device isn’t complete — the music app wasn’t working for them, among other things.

Still, overall the story here is a good one, BGR concludes:

“The OS is great. There’s no ifs ands or buts; it’s really refreshing to see something that’s brand new with a UI unlike anything else out there. [...] their hardware has always been second rate at best and it doesn’t seem to be changing now. Couple that with the nation’s underdog carrier at a $299 price-point (before rebate), and we’re not sure how many people are going to be lined up overnight, yet we’re pretty confident once people are able to play a real unit themselves, there will be more than a lot of happy Palm Pre customers.”

On top of all that, we learned that the screen is awesome, second only to the iPhone (which has the advantage of a glass overlay).  The keyboard, not so awesome.  Neither is the build or material quality of the phone itself. The feeling is described as “a little cheap” and apparently the slider mechanism occasionally would catch on itself when closing.

More or less, Boy Genius Report likes their (not quite fully baked) Palm Pre. It’s not a perfect device – no single phone is, but it is a worthy contender in the increasingly crowded smartphone market. And you can have your own in just over a week!

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

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AUGH! We all know that they’re out there, floating in the hands of users who must feel so blessed that they’re beyond words. Boy Genius Report is not beyond words, though, they’re not even beyond pictures. They have their hands on a brand new Palm Pre and they’ve posted some initial thoughts on their new precious.

“The Pre feels really good in your hand in terms of size and shape, but there’s a real plasticky aura about it. Additionally, things aren’t looking good for that QWERTY either. And hey, you know we take them keyboards seriously! When you try and type on the top row of keys, your finger hits the bottom part of the front piece and on top of that, you often hit multiple keys at the same time while typing. It’s actually really frustrating and doesn’t bode well for such a fantastic social communication/personal/business tool.

The screen is really responsive and blends right in with the casing — awesomely executed and the capacitive touch is so damn beautiful. We’d rate it just behind the iPhone but in front of the T-Mobile G1 as far as screens go.”

Now all we need is to get our own… *grumble*

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

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