Palm webOS system upgrades mandatory; hacking scene forbidden from tethering

We’ve seen a tremendous explosion in the webOS hacking scene ever since the Pre’s firmware image leaked out — between the easily-accessible restore more, Linux foundations and the directly-accessible HTML / CSS / Javascript application code, we’ve already seen everything from minor tweaks to full on NES emulation to Sprint activation hacks. In short, things are wide open at the moment, and people (including us) are excited by the possibilities — but that doesn’t mean Palm has to play along. In fact, two recent developments have us worried for the future of this happy little scene — first, Palm’s apparently forbidding the Pre Dev Wiki from posting any information about data tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period, and apparently threatening to have the site shut down if it happens:

We have been politely cautioned by Palm that any discussion of tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period (and perhaps beyond-we don’t know yet) will probably cause Sprint to complain to Palm, and if that happened then Palm would be forced to react against the people running the IRC channel and this wiki.

Yeah, that’s pretty aggro for a company that needs to court all the developer support it can. We’re not sure what’ll happen after Sprint’s exclusivity runs out, but we can’t imagine any other carriers are going to be thrilled about hacked tethering options either, so we’d say Palm’s going to keep the pressure on until unlocked GSM webOS devices hit the scene — and we can almost guarantee that tethering hacks are going to make it into the wild regardless of Palm’s actions.

Even worse for hackers, Palm’s taking an unusually aggressive approach to webOS system updates — they’re mandatory. According to the support docs, webOS updates are automatically downloaded in the background within two days of being available, and they’re required to be installed within a week of the download — after seven days and four install prompts, the phone will give you a ten-minute countdown and then automatically begin installing the update. Sure, we can understand why Palm would want all of its devices to be updated, and we know that a lot of webOS system foundations are in flux while the Mojo SDK is being finalized, but forced updates seem extremely heavy-handed to us — it’s one thing to try and maintain control over a platform, it’s another to keep it with an iron fist. Of course, it’s probable that we’ll see a hack to bypass all of this extremely soon, so maybe it’ll all work itself out, but we’d really like to see Palm develop an official policy friendly towards hacking and homebrew and stick to it — the Pre and webOS have attracted a lot of talent in the past two weeks, and it’d be a shame to lose it.

[Via PreThinking; thanks, Justin]

Read – Pre Dev Wiki tethering policy
Read – Palm webOS updates support doc

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Palm webOS system upgrades mandatory; hacking scene forbidden from tethering originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Homebrew Pre firmware just a button, cable away?

If you were to put the Pre on a scale of hacker friendliness from 1 to 10, where 1 is the iPhone (remember how long it took for the first jailbreaks back in the day?) and 10 is, say, OpenMoko, we’re starting to get the impression that Palm’s latest effort falls somewhere way past the 5 mark. We got out first hint that they’re being good sports about letting developers play with the Konami code access to developer mode, and now we’ve got news that it’s easy — nay, trivial — to run whatever firmware you’d like on the phone. It seems all you’ve got to do is hold down the volume up key when connecting the Pre to your computer via USB, then you can flash the phone ’til you’re blue in the face; even better, the enterprising dev who found the trick says that it’s mega simple to modify the stock build and he’d wiped out the activation check with minimal effort. This can only be good news for tweakers and anyone wanting to walk off the App Catalog’s beaten path, and if this ultimately means we’re a few solid steps closer to a Pre running WinMo 6.1, sign us up. Way up.

[Via Daring Fireball]

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Homebrew Pre firmware just a button, cable away? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pre goes on sale nationwide, line forms on the right

Oh, hey, look at that: you can buy a Pre now! As of 8:00AM on the East Coast, the phone went on sale at Sprint stores, with Best Buy, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart also retailing the phone today as Saturday dawns across the country. After Sprint’s invite only pre-Pre launch event last night, we still saw plenty of folks lined up outside Sprint’s “flagship” New York store in the Flatiron Building before the doors opened. Apparently people started queuing around 5:00AM, with Chris Lee and Randy Williams the first through the door — replacing a Treo Pro and a HTC Mogul, respectively. Like last night, the process took about 40 minutes, but a lot of that is spent waiting for a small pit crew of Sprint employees to swap over your address book, so if you forgo that we’d say you can be in and out in 30, which should still be plenty of time to savor the moment. Word is that the Flatiron store has about 100 units, but it’s clear that inventory varies widely between locations and retailers — Touchstones seem to be a much rarer commodity.

We’ll be checking out some other launches across the country, so stay tuned, and be sure to send in your own pictures and impressions!

Some word from the wilds:
Tipster Brad says that his Best Buy store in Orlando has only 9 Pres available, and they’re giving them out one by one on an appointment basis — he was fourth in line, so he’ll be going back at 12:15PM to pick his up. Unfortunately, their Touchstone stock is zero.

Kevin C. Tofel was fourth in line at his local Sprint store, which purportedly had 30 phones in stock, but he picked up the last of the Touchstones.

We just checked in at the Bryant Park Sprint store in New York City, and while Pre inventory is cool, they are all out of Touchstones. We’re starting to think the supply of those is quite limited. We also hear that at least one tenacious gentleman got in line at 6:00PM yesterday, and spent the night outside the store in order to get his first.

Continue reading Palm Pre goes on sale nationwide, line forms on the right

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Palm Pre goes on sale nationwide, line forms on the right originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pre Hits Sprint Stores

Pre_Launch

There were no long lines or excited campers but a few early birds still rushed in to snag a Palm Pre as the much-anticipated device went on sale at select Sprint stores Friday night.

“It’s awesome, dude,” said Ken Fitzgerald, a mobile phone developer, proudly holding one of the first Pre phones sold at Sprint’s Palo Alto, California store. Fitzgerald broke his contract with Verizon to get the Pre. Sprint has an exclusive deal with Palm for the Pre at least till the end of the year.

“I have been reading everything on the internet about the Pre for the last few months and I knew it was going to be a revolutionary device,” said Fitzgerald.

About ten Sprint stores nationwide opened their doors, a day early, to offer the Pre to buyers. The $200 phone, after a $100 mail-in rebate, will be available at all Sprint, Best Buy and RadioShack stores starting June 6.

Despite a few visibly excited buyers, Sprint’s Palo Alto location lacked the long lines that the Apple store, just a few blocks away, had seen before the launch of the first generation iPhone or the iPhone 3G.

“What we have here is the pre-Pre launch,” said Steve Elfman, president of network and wholesale at Sprint. “We invited a select few customers to get the Pre. Tomorrow, when the stores open to all we expect to see some lines.”

One of the select few customers to get in early was Scott Hutton, an engineer for Cisco. Hutton said he’s not a Palm fanboy but other phones such as the T-Mobile HTC G1 or even the iPhone have left him unimpressed.

“The iPhone, um, is missing that little thing called the keyboard,” said Hutton who bought two Pres and a wireless Touchstone charger.

Drawbacks such as the device’s ostensibly poor battery life, the lack of apps and even the cramped keyboard pointed out in reviews of the Palm Pre did not faze him or Fitzgerald. Both say they have had Palm devices in the past and have been happy. After a brief fling with other devices, they are back into the Palm fold.

With the launch of the Pre, Palm is reeling its old loyalists in.

More photos from the Pre launch at the Sprint Palo Alto store

Pre2

Pre3

Pre4


Desperate for a Pre, woman uses car to create Sprint’s first drive-thru store

NBC Chicago is reporting that an elderly woman who “apparently couldn’t wait to get her Palm Pre” from a local Sprint store — and yeah, we’re pretty sure that’s not the case — decided to plow her car right through the entrance. Best of all, a security camera captured the whole incident. No one was hurt and the store will apparently be fixed in time for tomorrow’s big day, so if that puts your mind at ease, head on over after the break to witness, and possibly enjoy, all the mayhem.

[Via PalmPre.org]

Continue reading Desperate for a Pre, woman uses car to create Sprint’s first drive-thru store

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Desperate for a Pre, woman uses car to create Sprint’s first drive-thru store originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pre: takeaways from Premier night

  • Tethering is not supported and Sprint has no plans to offer a tethering add-on. The company says it just isn’t a very good user experience and would prefer folks added on a data card line instead.
  • About 1,000 invitations were sent out to randomly-selected Premier customers for this evening’s events at ten locations across the country. We’ve heard intermittent reports of folks getting in with no invite, but the Chicago store was staying firm.
  • We were told that no store selling Pres this evening would be out of stock for tomorrow, but all bets are off once the floodgates open on Saturday. Company-owned stores got the lion’s share of stock while Best Buys and Radio Shacks were held to lower levels, so your best bet over the weekend is likely a Sprint store.
  • We played with our keyboard and then a Sprint employee’s immediately after that had been in use for two weeks; the keys had lost some of their “stickiness,” which we take as a good sign. Fresh Pres have a slightly odd feel across the key surfaces.

Got any other interesting tidbits from your adventures this evening? Throw ’em in comments!

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Palm Pre: takeaways from Premier night originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pre goes on sale to a select, drenched few

We just got to witness history, folks: Alfredo Rodriguez waited an hour in the miserable New York rain for the privilege of snapping up his Sprint store’s very first retail Pre at this evening’s invite-only Premier customers event. The man paid in cold hard cash, and after a tedious 40 minute purchase process that involved a bit of activation, some nice tutorials, a quick address book sideload from his old Touch Diamond and whole lot of peripheral upsell, Alfredo was one of the world’s first satisfied Pre customers. The last time we saw him Alfredo was still playing with his new phone, and gives the device two thumbs up. He’s particularly digging the keyboard — what Touch Diamond user wouldn’t? — and the flip-up mirror. Word on the street was that there were about 80 units available at the store, but while we couldn’t squeeze an official number out of Sprint, they did confirm that they’ll have units available for the launch tomorrow as well. Be sure to let us know how your own local launch treats you!

Update: We’ve swung by the Chicago launch on LaSalle Street to scope out the scene — follow the break for the eye candy!

Update 2:
There’s now also a video from the New York store after the break.

Continue reading Palm Pre goes on sale to a select, drenched few

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Palm Pre goes on sale to a select, drenched few originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are you getting in line for a Palm Pre?

It’s getting close, people — the Palm Pre officially goes on sale for Sprint Premiere customers tonight at invite-only launch parties around the country, while the rest of us can get in on the action bright and early tomorrow morning at 8AM. Of course, Palm and Sprint have been trying to spin the launch as a bit more low-key than the usual Apple hysteria, and so far it looks like things are pretty quiet — actually, we haven’t heard a peep about lines anywhere so far, which seems a little strange to us. So what’s going on out there? Anyone camping out tonight? Setting multiple alarms? Drinking all night and getting to Best Buy with no pants on? Or is everyone waiting for Monday? Sound off!

View Poll

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Are you getting in line for a Palm Pre? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Attention Sprint Treo 600 owners: you’re owed $27.50

Sure, Sprint and Palm are hoping the Pre turns the page on their relatively dark recent past, but karma’s a bitch sometimes — the other Palm news this week is that Sprint and Palm have settled a class-action lawsuit alleging the two companies misled customers into thinking there’d be WiFi and Bluetooth accessories for the Treo 600. Remember how crushed we all were when nothing ever hit the market? The pain was almost immeasurable — unless you’re a class-action settlement attorney, in which case you instinctively know anyone who bought a Sprint Treo 600 before October 27, 2004 is owed either a $20 Sprint service credit or a $27.50 credit to be used in Palm’s online store. So, anyone still have their Treo 600 receipts from 2004? Yeah, we didn’t think so.

[Via TamsPalm]

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Attention Sprint Treo 600 owners: you’re owed $27.50 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pres available tonight to invited Premier customers at launch events

This won’t apply to many of you, but just a little public service announcement to members of Sprint’s elite Premier corps: you can get your Pre tonight if you’ve received an invitation to do so and you’re willing to make the trek to one of ten stores around the country where launch parties are being held. Our understanding is that this is strictly an invite-only event and that non-Premier riff raff (and non-Sprint customers) will be turned away, but honestly, if we were in the market for a Pre, we’d probably loiter for a bit just to see what’s up and get a gauge on whether they’re willing to bend the rules — particularly if the Pres end up not selling out by the time the night’s over. Either way, if you want a Pre this weekend you’ll need to leave your basement at some point because the phone won’t be sold online initially — so let us know how it goes out there in the trenches, folks, and we’ll do the same. Stay tuned!

[Image via PreCentral]

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Palm Pres available tonight to invited Premier customers at launch events originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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