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 webOS app?” or something a bit more complicated, like “what do you want from the next Palm device?” Or maybe we’ll just end up chatting about our favorite sandwiches, you never know. This time around we’re looking back at six months of life with the Palm Pre and webOS.

Check it all out after the break: What was the most important event for Palm in the last six months, and what will be the most important in the next six months?

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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. 

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The chaps over at PalmInfocenter have heard from O2 that webOS 1.3 (we assume that O2 meant 1.3.1) will be coming to GSM Palm Pre phones by the end of November, presumably alongside the same update for the CDMA Pre you can get on Sprint and Bell. Currently the CDMA version of the phone sports a 1.2.1 operating system. 

We don’t have any confirmation, but it’s also been rumored/wished that the App Catalog will be rolled out in force to the whole world instead of having paid apps limited to just the United States. But if wishes were horse then we’d, well, we’d have a lot of horses. So take heart, our European friends languishing in the strange and unfamiliar land of webOS 1.1.3, soon your troubles will be ended and some of those horses will be taken off of your hands. Three cheers for parity!

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By now it should be clear that the Palm Pixi will be shipping with a new version of webOS. It includes a new Palm-sourced Facebook app and Synergy integration with Yahoo, why wouldn’t it be new? What we were unsure of was what version of webOS we were going to be looking for, and it turns out that it may be the 1.2.9 version that we saw when Dieter got his hands on a Pixi.

The evidence? The internet. DSL Reports logs what devices access their system for speed and other tests, and sharp-eyed reader taharka spotted something interesting: a device called the Pixi, running webOS 1.2.9 (Note that the link in this paragraph is the general report, you’ll have to page through to find the Pixi.).

Now, we’ve finally heard some reliable rumblings that webOS 1.3 proper is in the works, but what the featureset it will gain (and whether it deserves a full point-update) remains to be seen. 

All we know is that the last thing we want is three different versions of webOS out there on November 15: webOS 1.2.1 on the Pre on Sprint and Bell, webOS 1.1.3 on the Pre on O2, and webOS 1.2.9 on the Pixi. That’s got to be a technical support nightmare. Instead, Palm promised ‘parity’ between the CDMA and GSM versions of the Pre, so hopefully they’ll be able to pull off an update here in the next week or two that brings all three devices up to the same level.

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Before you panic, we’re not saying that the Palm’s cloud services are in as much Danger (pun intended) as what Sidekick owners experienced, but we do have a couple oddities to report — patchers especially should take note.

We’re well past time to write about this given the number of tips we’ve received, so here it is: it looks like a lot of users have had their Pre phones offer them the webOS 1.2.1 update (and the webOS 1.2 update before it) multiple times – despite having the update already applied.

There’s a big old thread in our forums discussing the issue and as near as we can tell the bug only seems to be affecting users who have applied patches to their phone.  We haven’t been able to pin down the culprit yet, but if a diligent Pre patcher who is experiencing the issue has managed to stop it, please do let us know in the comments.

More disconcertingly, we have plenty of reports of users whose Pre phones haven’t been automatically backing up despite having that setting set to ‘on.’ If you haven’t recently, we recommend you take a quick look at your backup app to see if its most recent backup date is yesterday. This issue seems to pop up sporadically and has happened to at least one non-patcher.

We’ll also note that a couple of users have had Palm’s profile lose some of their data, but right now it looks like a two isolated cases. Our advice: your key data should always be in a minimum of three places:

1. Your Pre (where it’s persistent as long as you don’t erase anything)
2. A cloud service (Palm, Google, Exchange, etc)
3. Someplace ‘else.’ For most of us that will be your desktop, where hopefully you’re pulling down your data from Google or Exchange. If you’re using Palm’s profile exclusively, we suggest you take a look at one of the several desktop sync apps that are available now.

So there you go, a small set of strange bugs for a Thursday afternoon. Any of them bugging you?

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Canadian Pre owners rejoice:  webOS 1.2.1 is now available to you for download. Get your Exchange 2007 issues fixed if you were having them, and get your iTunes sync on once more.

If you need a refresher on what the update brings, you can find it here.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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In this ongoing battle between Palm and Apple over Media Sync, both sides have played coy with their public statements on the matter. Palm updates Media Sync to "resolve an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes," while Apple warns that "newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players." Apple reiterated that warning after Palm’s latest update to webOS re-hacked and expanded iTunes sync support, and that warning comes as little surprise. The question is how long can Apple and Palm keep up the game before it becomes too difficult for one party or the other to hack or break support. Bring on iTunes 9.0.2!

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Palm re-enabled iTunes sync with webOS 1.2.1 by continuing their trend of making the Pre look like an iPod.  Palm’s webOS 1.0 hack had the Pre mimic an iPod Nano. webOS 1.1 re-enabled it by setting its USB Vendor ID to Apple’s. webOS 1.2.1 re-enables it by settings its Manufacturer to Apple and also perhaps by changing the USB Product ID to the iPod Video’s (they’re even changing the serial number that appears when you plug it in with Media Sync). You can see the entire timeline in our post on the USB-IF response to Apple.

Here’s what your computer sees when you set your Pre to Media Sync Mode (changes from webOS 1.2.0 and previous in bold)

USB Product ID: 0×1209
USB Vendor ID: 0×05ac (Apple, Inc)
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.

If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now – Palm is committed to making iTunes sync work, USB-IF be damned. At least they are until it becomes too difficult.

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As rumored, this morning’s webOS 1.2.1 update did indeed bring a fix to Media Sync, allowing the Pre to yet again sync more-or-less seemlessly with iTunes 9.0.1. The update brought another tongue-in-cheek changelog note from Palm: "Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (9.0.1)."

Resolves the issue of Apple now wanting you in, eh? Now it’s time to figure out what Palm did this time that took less than 40 hours of work, and how long it will take Apple to put out an iTunes update to break it again. Eventually we’re going to reach a point where either Apple will have to radically overhaul the iTunes sync structure to block the Pre, or one of the two parties relents and stops hacking/patching their software. Given the enormous number of iPods on the market right now, it’d be a daunting task for Apple to completely reprogram iTunes to block the Pre, and at this point they’re starting to run out of ways to tell if an iPod is really an iPod, short of asking for serial number authentication.

Clearly, Palm has decided to ignore the protestations of the USB Implementers Forum, and considering that there’s not much the USB-IF can do in this matter, that’s little surprise. Of course, there are other avenues that Apple and Palm could pursue over Media Sync, and while many of us would prefer that Palm stop applying their limited resource to fixing something that Apple will actively try to break, one does have to admit that their gumption in the face of a media monolith like Apple is impressive. If not a little misguided.

The new update to Media Sync also allows for the synchronization of full photo albums via iTunes (from iPhoto on a Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements on Mac or PC). The photo sync has also been updated so that it no longer tries to send full size images to your Pre, instead it sends a smaller version to your phone. In Palm’s words: "Media sync now allows for synchronizing photos without requiring the full-resolution originals. This provides faster display of high-quality full-screen images and enables users to store more photos on the phone."

So, any bets on how long it takes Apple to rebreak Media Sync, or are you just so fed up with this saga that you don’t even care?

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Less than a week after webOS 1.2.0 landed, Palm has started pushing out webOS 1.2.1 to Palm Pre owners nationwide. As rumored, webOS 1.2.1 fixes iTunes sync support, as well as fixing the seriously borked Exchange support that webOS 1.2 brought. The whole update weighs in at 38 MB and is available for download now through the Updates app on your phone. Palm’s official (and brief) changelog is posted after the break.

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

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