Hasta La Gadget!

Just in time for the Pixi’s grand debut, webOS devices (that’s just Pixi and Pre) now have their first official Facebook app, joining the ranks of iPhone and Android… and we’re sad to report that it’s about as barebones as they can get. It pulls from the raw live stream, seemingly unfiltered — even if you said “no” to Farmville updates on your main feed, they’ll show up here. Clicking a YouTube link brings you to the YouTube app, clicking links go to browser. You can update your status or upload a photo, but that’s about it. You can’t seem to search Facebook for any info, view events, or anything else, and clicking on someone’s name or photo brings up their contact info. And that’s about it — can someone give Joe Hewitt a ring? Still, it’s better than nothing. WebOS 1.3.1 is required, not that you had any reason to hold off upgrading.

Filed under: Cellphones

Facebook finally comes to webOS, not with a bang but a whimper originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The BlackBerry app store may be trailing the iPhone and Android app market but it’s got an exclusive that’s sure to leave other smartphone users envious.

The official Craigslist app will soon be exclusively available to BlackBerry users. The $5 app created by Movela and Pyxis Mobile will allow users to browse and search through Craigslist postings across different categories, reply to them and save searches. The app supports all categories and countries available on the Craigslist website. So if you want to read ‘missed connections’ on the go, the BlackBerry will be the only place for it.

“We took about two days to create an initial version of the app and then took it to Craigslist for their approval,” says Todd Christy, president and CTO at Pyxis Mobile, which helped develop the app. “They liked it because we had a working app and not just a concept.”

It’s a big coup for Pyxis, which has been creating mobile applications for businesses for about nine years.

“A number of mobile app makers have applied to Craigslist for licenses and to date there is one authorized licensee,” says Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist.

BlackBerry launched it app store in April. Currently it has a little more than 2000 apps compared to the 12,000 in the Android Market and 100,000 in the iPhone app store. Craigslist apps exist on the iPhone but without official licensing, they are rather limited in their feature set.

Pyxis says the reason it chose BlackBerry is because it’s mobile technology platform is targeted at business users and a large number of BlackBerry users are business customers.

“Its our core platform and we have done a lot of testing of apps on the BlackBerry,” says Christy. “There was also no competition on the BlackBerry front for a Craigslist type app. ”

In the “distant future,” Christy says, the official Craigslist app could make its way to iPhone and Windows Mobile phones.

Check out a video of the official Craigslist app for the BlackBerry

See Also:

• Research In Motion Woos BlackBerry Developers
• Has Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Lost Its Edge?
• InPulse Blackberry Wristwatch Makes Crackberry Even More Addictive
• Great Geek Debates: iPhone vs. Blackberry

Photo: Screenshot of the Craigslist app

Windows Mobile 6.5 users rejoice, you now have a better marketplace experience your way. Microsoft’s added a couple updates to its mobile app store. On the developers’ side of things there’s a new portal for submission, and “more advanced anti-piracy protection” — no clue if it solves those DRM issues we heard about before, but sounds at least like a step in the right direction. For the consumers, there’s now an online store that you can use from your certainly superior desktop / laptop browser. In the vein of Xbox Live Marketplace’s online portal at Xbox.com, purchased apps from the browser will be sent to the connected phone next time you open up the Windows Marketplace client… what’s that? You want support for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1? Microsoft reassures us it’s coming later this month, so hang tight, okay?

[Via Mobile Tech World]

Read – Announcing new features…
Read – Windows Marketplace for Mobile

Filed under: Cellphones

Windows Marketplace for Mobile updates tackle piracy, adds online store for non-mobile browsers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon has just expanded the potential audience for its ebook format by a few orders of magnitude with the Beta release of its free Kindle for PC application. Doing exactly what it says on the (imaginary) tin, this will allow you to read the locked-down Kindle format on your Windows weapon of choice, though Mac users are left with merely the “coming soon” message you see above. Given that you’ll now be able to consume Amazon’s ebooks on your PC and iPhone, there’s a risk that people might entirely sidestep the Kindle and Kindle DX for more familiar hardware, but clearly the company is willing to undertake it in order to get its wares out to a wider client base. We still think Amazon should do away with the proprietary madness and utilize a common standard like ePUB, but until then we can at least appreciate being given the ability to sync our Robinson Crusoe read across a few more devices than before.

Filed under: Software

Kindle for PC app out now, Mac version to soon follow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Currently, mobile entrepreneurs wishing to hawk their wares on the Pre (or Pixi, or unnamed webOS device of the future) use a software development kit from Palm called Mojo, a stack of Java-based tools that must be installed, studied, understood, loved, and respected before serious development can get underway. Palm sees that as a barrier of entry for web-oriented developers who want to make the leap to mobile apps, though, which is why they’ve crafted a new SDK called Ares that’s based entirely on web technologies — in fact, there’s no install at all, apparently. Much of the interface is said to be drag-and-drop with enough JavaScript exposed to make your local .com designer feel right at home, potentially opening the app landscape to a whole new set of folks — and considering that the App Catalog is tens of thousands of goodies behind the App Store and Android Market, they can use every loyal dev they get.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm demos web-based Ares SDK for webOS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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