Hasta La Gadget!

Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life — and now it’s just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access — like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You’ve got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Exciting stuff for webOS users hungry for a little more horsepower… now let’s see if Palm puts this into play come CES.

Update: PreCentral has a video of the app in action — check it out after the break!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre

Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint has pushed out the 1.3.5 update for the webOS which runs on the Palm Pre. Along with this are Palm’s release notes, which are thankfully a lot more detailed than the single paragraph that Sprint teased us with yesterday.

There’s a lot going on in the update, from the merely aesthetic (a new font for the screensaver clock) to the welcome (better battery life in areas with poor signals) to the downright scary (“A user can perform a full erase by pressing and holding Sym + the orange/Option key + power for 10 seconds”). There’s even support for ancient technology, in the form of properly displayed animated gifs in the browser.

Most of the big changes, though, are in the app store. You can now download multiple applications at once, and they continue in the background if you want to do something else. There’s an “update all” button, auto-resume for interrupted connections and best of all, you can fill up the whole of the Pre’s memory with applications if you want to.

Once you have installed this update, future updates will be downloadable over a 2G connection, not just 3G.

But the best change is the silliest. You know that little line over the ē in “Prē”, the one everybody ignores? Palm has finally removed it from the default email signature, as apparently it wasn’t showing up properly on some receivers’ phones.

The update is free, and available now.

Software update information for Palm Pre Sprint [Palm]

See Also:

• Faster, Stronger, Longer: Palm Pre OS Update Today

While Palm’s Pre is many things to many people it still can’t game. Oh sure, it’ll play Magic Fortune Ball like a champ but when it comes to intensive 3D action the Pre is as helpless as a would-be terrorist trying to ignite his underwear. See, webOS and the Mojo SDK currently can’t exploit the GPU the way other smartphone platforms can. Rewind a few weeks, however, and we’re reminded of a video showing EA’s Need for Speed Undercover running impossibly smooth on a Pre. At the time, the video and claims of the device running Flash were shot down as fake largely due to the accompanying screen caps of the purportedly new App Catalog. Well guess what? Those screen caps were vindicated today with the webOS 1.3.5 update that just so happened to launch a new App Catalog matching the leaked images, exactly. That lends credence to the video then doesn’t it, while hinting at future apps and games with full OpenGL graphics support. Is that the big reveal at CES alongside enhanced Pre+ and Pixi+ handsets headed to Big Red? We’ll find out shortly enough — until then check the gameplay after the break.

[Thanks, Brian K.]

Continue reading Palm Pre plays Need for Speed, undercover (video)

Palm Pre plays Need for Speed, undercover (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there’s anything better than a holiday gift, it’s a late holiday gift, one that you can thank the FedEx guy for, open up and play happily with, away from the derisive stares and interruptions of family members (“Huh! Aren’t you a bit old for __?”).

So today brings extra joy for Palm Pre owners, wherever you may be, in the form of a wireless update to your phone’s firmware. V1.3.5 is somewhat sparsely detailed on Sprint’s support pages, and will bring the following goodies:

• Improvement in battery life optimization when in marginal coverage areas.
• QCELP capability fix to allow play and audio of video sent via MMS.
• Launch Google Maps or Sprint Nav when tapping an address from contacts.
• Minimized package of MR size through binary difference. Customers can now download over 2G connections if necessary.

Right now, there are no details on Palm’s support pages or blog, but Sprint lists the release date as today, December 28th. When Palm’s release notes go live, we should have more information (Palm puts a lot more detail into these things). We are, though, expecting an altogether faster experience, and a removal (or at least an increase) of the arbitrary limit on storage space for applications.

Palm support [Sprint]

Palm Pre Support [Palm]

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Here’s something to glean from Palm’s recent quarterly call, besides the still less-than-profitable fiscal number, of course. CEO Jon Rubinstein divulged that yes, we will indeed be seeing webOS 1.3.5 during CES early next month. Even better, we got some insight into what we’ll be expecting from the update: more application storage (hooray!), better WiFi / app performance, improved battery life, and “increase Pixi speed and responsiveness” — interesting that Pixi is called out solo for that last one, but we’re not about to read too much into that just yet. Good news all around, but let’s hope there’s still a surprise or two left in store come January 7th.

WebOS 1.3.5 coming to CES: better performance and more app storage, says Palm CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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